001okay we'd like to call this uh meeting to order july 19 2021 business meeting the first order of business is to say the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all at this time i'd like to read the district mission statement little falls community schools promotes personal and academic excellence in a collaborative safe and engaging environment next order of business is the approval of the agenda also move to approve as printed we have a uh a motion by sharon do i have a second i'll second it okay second with doug all those in favor signify by saying hi those opposed same sign motion carry do we have any public
002comments there are none there are no okay uh the next order on the agenda is a consent agenda which is an action item do i have a motion to approve the consent agenda as shown to you so moved so moved uh mr derby uh do i have a second no second okay kelsey with a second all those uh any discussion at all okay all those in favor of approval of the consent agenda signify by saying uh same sign hearing none the motion carries i have person oh that's uh personnel approval of prior man okay so the next thing that we have on the agenda is for mark to read the resolution for acceptance of gifts remember mark kirby introduced the following resolution and moved his adoption whereas the following have generously offered to donate to
003little falls community schools therefore be it resolved by the little falls community school board of education to gratefully accept the gifts sobieski lions club incorporated donation 500 to the flyer media productions catherine adamic donation of five thousand seven hundred and fifty four dollars to the randall area scholarship fund can i get a second i'll second all right doug uh yes uh brad yes sharon yes kelsey yes and julie and myself yes okay thank you mr gerby uh next we have uh reports from the board members i'll just start it off really quickly i would uh with the drought that we've had this year i'd really like to give accolades to our grounds crew for the especially out at belle prairie keeping it green and and mowed and boy have we seen a uptick in the
004number of baseball games and soccer matches and and everything so i with all of the heat and stuff we've had i just want to give them an accolade for the great job they've done with the grounds crew okay other board members uh start with doug do you have any report not at this time jules kate sharon no kelsey mr gerby nothing to report okay so then we go to our superintendent thank you mr chair members of the board um just a few things to talk about this week and uh you know as we've talked in the past a good place for schools to be is never to be in the middle of a political argument or situation or debate and uh you know it's one thing if you put yourself into those positions but it's
005another when you are thrust into them and kind of feel like a ping pong match back and forth as as schools are really being used by by both both sides all sides of the political spectrum as kind of a ping pong ball um and tossing us back and forth and and really making um our lives a continual disruption um and doing so inflaming people on one side or the other um with issues that generally are not uh even true or reflective of what we are doing here in little falls and and i i preface that because um you know one of the one of the great buzzwords in the last 45 days has been critical race theory um and uh you know i'm not here to debate about critical race theory because as far as
006we take it to approach our new school year it's a non-entity um i mean i can assure you that um despite what is being said publicly um we have done nothing to implement or or or include that in anything that we're doing what i'll tell you is what we've done in the nine years since i've been here and that is teach flyer pride so we teach about respect and responsibility and positive attitude and safety and how that responds to your definition of what you believe critical race theory is um versus what what we as as as the implementers of flyer pride decide um we take a look at people as people uh and we move forward with looking at people as people and that's the way that we will continue to do that that doesn't
007necessarily play well for people who want to turn this into an argument about what schools are or aren't doing or should or shouldn't be doing but what i can tell you is that nothing has changed here at little falls community schools despite what you may hear um either locally or regionally and and i hope that's all i have to say about critical race theory and the way that we approach it here at little falls community schools so i guess i just wanted to talk about that um to start because um we are really as we sit here on july 19th hoping that normalcy is is on our way back uh you know we are planning at at this point and again we're still probably seven weeks away um from the start of the school year
008we are we are planning for for a normal start as i say that we're roughly five weeks away from welcoming our new teachers officially into the school um so you know seven weeks seems a lot farther away than five weeks five weeks seems like oh my god i gotta start doing some stuff because i have been enjoying summer vacation but uh as we plan for what we hope is normal that means we're we're coming back and really excited about registration week you know we're going to bring that back after a one-year hiatus uh on august 10th 11th and 12th and with that is really the onset of all the other things that that occur around us as we really prepare kids for for uh for for coming back to school full-time and it and it
009does i'll be honest with you as i lay in bed at night um i start worrying about um things like the delta variant you know is it going to impact us um like uh the coronavirus did uh before when the cdc came out with their with their uh their mandate uh a week and a half ago um mde did what i thought was a a good thing a prudent thing they said we're going to take a look at this we're not rushing into any kind of of a decision with this we're going to assess where we're at before we come back with with any kind of a kind of a decision on this and and i like that um and and again you know what we see in morrison county is kind of reflective nationwide
010and that right now people are a lot more accepting of the fact that this is in the general population i don't say that as a judgment statement i just say that as kind of a fact um and so with that uh you know we in the school business uh and again given to the lead of mde uh and the department of health uh we have to decide what's best for us and and for our clientele and for our stakeholders i think we all know that having our kids in school at home is not best for the vast majority of our kids for some yes but for the vast majority know and so i think our decisions have to be made with that information at heart that it is far better for our kids to be
011in school than not to be in school and how we proceed i think really has to be used with that premise at the lead uh and and as a superintendent of this district that's how i intend to really approach how we go forward um which which i sure hope is is uh is about as normal as we can possibly be it was fun today i uh um gave a tour to a to a family of uh six kids um five of them school age um and uh this this ties in with with um the groundbreaking tomorrow at fair pet food with their with their new north freeze-dried facility um which is at 10 o'clock and if you're able to attend i hope you i hope you can but uh the gentleman had a barrett shirt
012on and i asked him i said so you're working for barrett he goes i do work there a year and a half and i love it i said so is what they tell me true about the way that they treat their employees oh my gosh he said it's amazing they've had another family weekend this weekend not just for me but for my whole family for all the families um he said we love working there um and so i said i feel really good about that and i'll share that at the board tonight because you know the board has has made the decision twice now to sell land to them with the hope that that business would grow and that our school enrollment would grow well maybe this um would be the first step to that
013being a reality uh coming forth if we could pick up some some children from a new barrett employee moving forward so uh i'm i'm really excited for that and and again as as we talk about the reality of what we what we face in terms of the of the health of our nation uh with with the coronavirus and the variants i'm buoyed by the by the um by the optimism um that that we as a people are pretty resilient and we continue to move forward and hopefully good things continue to happen for us uh please let me know within the next day or two if you're interested in the mbra conference um whether it's just to uh to stop in to uh to to to come from one day or two days um whatever best
014works for you uh i just want to get when julie gets back from vacation we want to get everybody registered so we'll get that done as soon as we as we possibly can so thank you that uh that's my report tonight thank you mr jones appreciate that uh do we have any uh old or unfinished business that i'm i'm seeing none of nothing there okay uh under new business uh number one is approval of a new policy and form and this normally this is not an action item but until we've discussed it but this seems to be an immediate need that we have to put in um so that we're ready when the first day of school everybody knows exactly where we're at uh mr jones would you ask for a motion first okay do
015i have a motion uh for the approval of new policy 719 in form so moved we have uh doug with the movement second by sharing uh and discussion mr jones uh mr chair members of the board thank you for uh the opportunity to visit about this um you know policies at their heart are meant to protect um and and to allow for um a seamless uh operation of the the school during the during the day um and and it's with that at heart that i come with you um to ask you to waive your normal procedure of a first reading and a second reading i just really would i would sleep better at night and i think some others may if we just had this in place sooner rather than later i'm certainly willing to
016go over it i know you've i you've got that and you've had it for a few days now and you've been able to read through it are there any questions or concerns about about the policy as it's written do we have that situation coming up that we know of or there there's the possibility okay and i just want to be ready afford if it happens okay so i'll just bring up i emailed steve today sorry it was so late but um the only two things that i had thought about that maybe we'd want to discuss adding and you can give your response to but uh you know should the employee or the student be responsible for picking up the poop and then also should we also be having language in there that says the the
017student and the employee because this could hit both types of people um when relieving that service animal should they be doing that during a time that wouldn't be disruptive to student learning those were my only two comments but i'll let you just and so i think i thought it was a great question and so what i related it to was um the medicine piece right so if you look at our medicine policy we don't have in there that there's set times that that children take their medicine it's based off when the doctor suggests it when it works best for the child you know we don't want to take them out of the middle of a chemistry test or a class but we'll take them in between a class and they work that out and so
018in a sense with this with a service animal that's trained potty trained which is obviously one of the things we have to do what we would ask and what two school administrators recommended to me was to make sure that that's part of the conversation with the family that that is decided upon to to allow that to happen as it's best for for the animal and for the for the student again we don't want to take the student out you know and say it's going to happen at 11 o'clock well that might be not the best time for that student to be out of a class or whatever it might be and so um i didn't really want to put that into the policy but have it as an understanding but i'm i'm certainly willing to
019amend this however you guys decide so yes and that's um of the training for these types of animals will our personnel be given any training or instructions at all on how to handle the situation because of the rest of the classroom so my previous district i did have some experience with this there is some training that just goes on with staff there's also just a lot of communication with family so if you're at a point where it becomes clear that the animal isn't properly trained or isn't quite ready so the biggest difference here is it's service dog versus support exactly this does not support animals i understand so these are service dogs there's generally service dogs that have gone through a very strenuous two maybe even a three-year training course and so as you talk
020about what we're going to train our staff to do i mean service dogs generally you know are not dogs that you approach and sit down and ask them i guess i was thinking more of the in the classroom the other students on there that the teachers know how to direct the other students not to approach the dog and how to be around the dog and that student because everybody's going to want to pet the dog or bring the dog a treat or something and they have to be told and instructed not to do this absolutely so if we have a teacher who's not comfortable with the dog in his classroom or her classroom how do we work with that you end up looking at placement though okay as a former lions member i know that
021our leader dogs were 20 25 000 worth of training than that we used to raise and very very specific training you know but you know just as a comfort animal we can't have that because we got something that could be bitten i mean just isn't so any other uh discussion are you okay with what we've discussed kelsey anybody else well we have a motion on the floor uh in a second for the approval of new policy 719 and form all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed same sign hearing none motion passes the second item that we have is a resolution for long-term facility maintenance 10-year plan um do i have a emotional resolution oh it's a resolution oh okay got you mark whereas to qualify for long-term facilities manage maintenance revenue minnesota
022statute subdivision 4 states a school district or intermediate district must adopt annually adopt and approve a 10-year facility plan by july 31st for the commissioner approval whereas the little falls school district has developed a 10-year long-term facility maintenance plan consistent with this law i'm mark gerby moved for the resolution adoption and motion was duly seconded by i'll second it second bite doug all right any discussions okay you want to call for the doug yes julie yes brad yes sharon yes kelsey yes and myself yes okay brings us to number three under new business uh certified and non-certified employee substitute rates um do i have a motion on the floor to bring this forward so moved so moved by mr gerby seconded by sharon um any discussion is there anybody that would care to share with
023us with this or sure i can uh just explain you see the first page reference and these are actually the is rates remember last year during the school year we adjusted the rates these are the same amounts you get some of our non-certified staff and those were last adjusted in july of 2019. any questions can you just explain that one more time aaron so you guys took like the lowest in that that pay schedule is that what you did yes okay so it's not like a percent increase from one year right okay okay any other questions okay i'll call for the vote then um all those in favor of the certified and non-certified employee substitute rates signify by saying hi those opposed same sign hearing none motion passes um the next number four is a
024revised fees for community services i need a motion to bring this forward so moved move motion by doug second second seconded by mark um any questions um anybody want to comment mr jones yeah mr chair members of the board so the the the adjusted fees are on the at the bottom of that page um basically with kids out the kid's corner so it's just to really adjust to what our staffing needs are i was over there today at lindbergh and they do a great job with the kids hideout they really do they do a fantastic job and kids are having so much fun and i talked to some parents who were just really happy to have their kids back because they it's not just the child care it's an activity day exactly and everything else
025it's just really good stuff so that's that's all the the changes that are important this time any other questions or discussions okay i'll call for the vote all those in favor of the revised fees for community services uh signified by saying hi hi those opposed same sign hearing none uh motion passes um the next uh one that we have is i need a motion for the approval to sell surplus technology equipment um do i have a motion okay uh doug and uh sharon uh with the second uh discussion uh mr chair members of the board what we're looking at is approximately 1400 um outdated ipads and ipad minis from anywhere from six to nine years old just to uh dispose of and and get a few dollars for them where will they be sold at
026mark ideas on where they get sold at so we sell them as a lot not individually okay so whoever buys them buys the homeworks like a school different school district or we know well we can make them available to other school districts but typically they'll they don't want them so we sell them to a electronics recycler is that done by bid or is that done by how it's done by bid so i have a list of about a dozen different recyclers that get contacted and they'll be given a list of all the equipment that we have they make their bid and then we open those at a certain time and go from there thank you money go back into the technology fund where does the or is there a special fund for that no there's
027no special fund it just basically goes back into the general fund okay any other questions uh mr jones or or mark anybody have any questions okay hearing none uh call for the vote uh we have a motion on the floor for the approval to sell surplus technology equipment all those in favor signify by saying hi all right those opposed same sign hearing none uh motion passes uh the next thing that we have is a non-action item which should be the draft of the 2021 2022 handbook so this is a non-action item so who is going to explain what we've got yep so uh mr chair members report what you have is what you normally get at the july meeting and then i will make our principles available for the august 16th school board meeting to
028have them come and explain any questions that you may have as as we get ready for the school year so this is something that we do every year and the handbook is updated and of course as soon as it gets printed it's outdated because i generally hire somebody that whose name isn't in the handbook um but uh it uh just allows us to start planning for the new school year everybody have some questions if you have questions between now and then um just email us um call me you can certainly connect with the principal specifically at that school however whatever works best for you okay and just as a reminder each school is a unique situation what may be unique to randall may not be unique to lindbergh or or to lincoln so any other
029questions then is there one to update for like preschool oh i don't see that one yeah um we don't i don't think we have a preschool handbook i've never heard of one i feel like you do on the website maybe we do off that i'll look and see okay and then we'll have that ready or if there is yeah i'm gonna have to add it yeah we've only ever updated the elementary middle school in high school so um yeah let me i think there is one but i thought when i looked it up last year i thought it was outdated let me visit this thing yeah okay okay thank you good question kels nosy parents but look for that brings us to number 12 uh adjournment of the meeting uh do i have a motion
030for adjournment i will make that motion kelsey uh do i have a second second second by mr gerby any discussion all those in favor of a journey signify by saying aye aye uh pose same sign motion carry this meeting is adjourned oh you