001I call this meeting to order. This is the regular meeting of the North Pill Public School Board. Today is Tuesday, May 27th, 2025, and the time is 6 p.m. This meeting is being livereamed and recorded. The recording of this meeting will be posted to the district website as soon as possible. Welcome members of the community here tonight to observe the important work being done on behalf of all school district stakeholders. Dr. Hillman, we have some items in the table file. Will you update us? We do we have uh some agenda items in under personnel items. We have some appointments, some increase, decrease, change in assignment. We have a leave of absence. Um and we have some resignations. We also have an overnight field trip request. And we have some financial reports that were included as
002well. Okay. Thank you very much. If there are no objections, we will add these items to the agenda as we move forward. Okay. Is there a motion to accept the agenda as presented? Moved by Jeff. Second. Second. All right. Thank you. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Okay. Motion passes. Next, we're at our public comment section of the evening. And it looks like we have three individuals who signed up. So, I will read our policy and then call you up one by one. This is an opportunity for residents, business, and property owners, parents, guardians, caregivers, students, and employees of the North Hill School District to address the board. All comments to the board must adhere to the guidelines set in place by district policy 206 regarding public comment. This is not a time
003to debate an issue, but only for the board to hear your comments. You are prohibited from making comments about specific students, staff, and administrators. The board respects and values input, but when it comes to specific individuals or a specific matter, this input must be heard by the appropriate personnel, including the building principal or superintendent and not during an open meeting of the school board. You will be gled out of order if your comments are not in compliance with this guideline. Please address the board from the podium after being recognized by the board chair. Identify yourself and if you represent a group, we require that you limit your remarks to 3 minutes. You're not allowed to yield your time to another person. It is expected that members of the public will address their remarks with civility
004and respect. Personal attacks by anyone addressing the board are unacceptable. The board has allotted up to a total of 30 minutes for public comment at this regular schoolboard meeting. I will now begin to call those who have signed up to speak in order in which they signed in. Vice Chair Cory Butler will be monitoring the speaker's time. He will signal each speaker with the time they have remaining at 1 minute, 30 second, and 10-second intervals. Again, please make your comments as brief as possible, but no more than 3 minutes. First, we have Julia Brilland. You're welcome, Julia. Good evening. I stand before you with a heavy heart to address the ongoing crisis of bullying in our school district. A crisis that earns us an F. Our schools are legally trusted to protect our children and
005have failed them through a shameful lack of leadership, accountability, and duty. My daughter has been bullied and beaten. Yet no charges were filed, no disciplinary action was taken despite a zero tolerance policies policy for aggravated assault which demands expulsion. Five more students are suffering and I have been warning you repeatedly. Yet nothing changes. Over 40% of schools fail document bullying incidences and only 20% of reported cases in our state lead to meaningful discipline. This is just this isn't just a policy failure. It's a leadership failure. Administrators prioritize optics over justice, leaving victims like my daughter to live in fear. We cannot ignore the betrayal of trust. A teacher accused of pedophilia remained on the roster for months. And a police officer who covered it up was not firm and was not fired promptly. How many
006more children must suffer is what I keep asking you. To fix this, we need leadership with a backbone. Enforce zero tolerance policies through investigations. Demand public bullying data reports as required by federal law. Ensure consistent discipline, counseling for bullies, and a safety plan for victims. Empowering students and parents with anonymous reporting systems to prevent retaliation. Parents, talk to your kids about kindness. My daughter has been harassed, assaulted, and choked in front of teachers who did nothing. She contemplated suicide like 30% of female high school students in the 2001 youth risk behavior survey. We must engage with the school board, demand transparency, push for educator training. Inaction is our problem. Let's make it our mission to protect every child before another one is hurt. Parents and school board members, it's time to put your listening ears
007on. The thing is is we need to change our school motto instead of just the building from pride to ethics, economics, technology, independence, community, and science because pride got in the way. And it's time to be ethical. With all these allegations, I'm surprised that we got superintendent of the year for national Our next person who signed up to speak is Hannah Breland. I don't know what she can. Hi, my name is Hannah Brelin and I am in 11th grade and I do not like how this school treats me. I sleep during the whole school day because I'm so sick and tired of people picking on me that I can't even face people. I sleep the entire day. You can even ask my teachers at school. I'm terrified and scared to even look at anybody. I
008I just can't do this anymore. I And my mom's right. I have tried to kill myself multiple times. I I'm so tired of it. I mean, can you not see that we are suffering? We do not want to live through this. I know I know people that killed themselves because they couldn't live through what they have gone through. I have been physically and mentally hurt out and in of school back a few years. I've gotten hurt by a man that I thought I could trust from school in middle school harassed and it was on my grandfather's funeral that happened. I mean, do you not see that I and other students do not want to live like this? It is so it's it's terrible and we don't want this to happen to us. I mean, we
009do not want to live in fear. I just found out that there was a pedophile in my school. I'm even scared to even hug teachers anymore. I love my teachers. Now I'm afraid to even look at them. I don't want to be touched again like that. I am scared for my life and I don't want to have to end it. I have people at home that I need who need me at school. They don't want me. They have nothing to do with me. I don't know what you can do about it, but I do advise you that you stand up for people and do something about it. It hurts me. Yeah. Our third speaker is Emmy Torres. Hi, my name is Emmy Torres. Back into 2024, my daughter was physical assault not just once, twice.
010I t with um the principal, assistant principal and even with some other people. Nobody did anything. The SRO took her statement, but when we got the report, only one charge was made. We keep asking why and we didn't get any answer. My daughter was in front of many students, staff and cameras but nothing was done. Nothing. This has to be done. And the only time that she physically assault nobody was to do anything until something this serious happened like this what happened with Crumbi. Something have to change. The system need to change. We have to to keep these kids safe and even my daughter. Thank you. Thank you to our public speakers. We um will now move on to the next item in our agenda and that is our announcements and recognition. Dr. Helman, do
011you have anything before I present? Yes, we have a few before we start with the district youth council recognition. So, we want to congratulate Greenbell Park. They had a successful environmental education day last Friday. Uh presenters from Carlton, St. Olaf, the Minnesota Zoo, Riverbend Nature Center, and Clean River Partners provided engaging activities for students. The theme was creature features and all at the school were able to enjoy it. great weather and so we're really appreciative of all the hard work that the Greenville staff does uh to put together that environmental education day. I think it was their third uh that they've done. Uh we also want to share that the elementary school has welcomed the Northfield High School class of 2025 uh last week for a parade of graduates through the schools. So graduates were
012able to see many of their former teachers and receive congratulations from the students at the elementary schools. This is the third year that we've had that uh tradition. We want to thank Benjamin Bus. Uh they've continued to donate the transportation uh for that event. Northfield High School students Aki Gupta and Tristan Westerren earned top place finishes at the Minnesota or for Minnesota at the Business Professionals of America National Leadership Conference and competition in Orlando. Uh Gupta competed in the fundamentals of accounting and finished sixth in the nation. uh Wester Grin and Gupta competed in or excuse me competed in the financial analyst team event and finished 12th nationwide. So congratulations to those students for their success through BPA. And uh we're really proud of the Bridgewater Booster Club. They just completed their booster thon and
013they raised $74,000. So parents, grandparents, relatives, families, friends, and businesses from 37 states contributed to Bridgewwater successful fundraising. A huge thank you to everyone who contributed, shared, shared, and supported our students. So, those are the announcements that I have this evening. Board members, do you have any announcements or recognitions? We we will be recognizing our DYC members tonight. Okay. Right. Well, welcome DYC members and Martha Lind. Tonight, we're pleased to honor our district youth council seniors for their remarkable work. The district youth council works to translate youth voice into action by providing connections between the school board uh the school board administration and the student body. They gather and provide youth input on school district related issues to the Northfield School Board of Education administration and other school related entities. DYC members also serve on
014various committees throughout the district. All right. Well, welcome members. if you'd like to um stand up here in front of the screen. I will read a little bio about you and then present you with a certificate and then Martha, would you like to come up and um share a little bit about DYC? Not the report, but Yes, I would like to do that. Just while the students maybe are gathering in front of the screen. Great. Yeah, let's do that. Come on, gang. There you are. Go. Um, so Martha, do you want to let us know how students become members? Oh, come in front of the screen. Oh, I guess after Martha speaks. Oh, sure. Um, and how many students are involved? Yes. Um, those kinds of details and then we'll Yeah. Everyone. Um, the Northfield
015District Youth Council um is comprised currently of 17 high school students, grades 10 through 12, um, in the Northfield School District. Um, and this next year we'll have 19 members. So very excited about a growing group. Um these students come from various um demographics from our um racial gender across runs the gamut. and their work um spans from um input into the um budget discussions, the reimagine plan um and then they have been integral to ensure that students across um the high school and across the district have the informations they have the information they need to not only understand how their district runs but also pass that information along to their parents. We want to ensure that our young people in this district understand how school districts run, how a high school runs um and
016that they can translate that information to their peers and to their family members. Thank you so much for putting that in. All right, students. So, I will um if you'll come in front of the TV monitor here, then you will be on screen and just yeah, just kind of maybe a little semicircle there. go ahead and block the TV and we will recognize each senior individually. Please hold your applause until the end. Um I will um hand you your certificate and I have a little um a little description to read as well. Okay. So they're in alphabetical order. Wendy, you'll be first and then Lena. So we have Wendy Bravo. Wendy has served on the district youth council for one year. She served on the communication subcommittee. She'll be attending Augsburg University and continue to
017play lacrosse. Wendy's highlights from DC include being more involved in the school and being able to inform others of important topics. The school leader Wendy would like to recognize is coming. Oh, she is. Uh, of course she is. Very good. I was able to catch their home game the other night. So, good. Okay. Next is Lena Brown. Lena has served on the District Youth Council for two years. She has served on the student relations committee. Her future plans include going to college to hopefully become a pediatrician. The school leader Lena would like to recognize is Mr. Ga. Hello. We appreciate you. All right. And then Eden. Eden has served on the district youth council for three years. They have served on the equity student relations committee, the finance committee, Northfield forward, and the district equity
018committee. Eden's future plans include obtaining a bachelor's degree, likely majoring in environmental or chemical engineering, and trying to implement their sustainable living project. Their highlights from DYC include being able to see more of the behindthe-scenes aspect of the district, which has helped them to better understand how decisions actually happen. Eden has also appreciated having regular updates from the schoolboard meetings and Dr. Hillman's district updates as well as seeing the reimagined project from the voting process to the design phase of the of port planning. Thank you Eden. Congratulations and thank you for your service. And then um we have Jenny Dicker. Jenny has served on the district youth council for two years. She has served on the facilities committee, the board relations subcommittee, and served as chair of the board relations subcommittee this past year. Jenny
019will be attending the University of Minnesota next year. Her highlights from DYC include presenting the student survey results to the board. The um the school leader Jenny would like to recognize is Mrs. Lindsay. Jenny, congratulations. Appreciate you. Next we have Lucy Graham. Lucy has served on the district district youth council for two years. She has served on the student relations subcommittee and the finance committee. Lucy will be attending Mallister College next year. Highlights from DC include preparing for and attending the city council candidate forums. The school leaders Lucy would like to recognize are Mrs. Lundine and Miss Johnson. Thank you. Alli Matthews. Ally has served on the District Youth Council for three years. She has served as the DYC co-chair, the student relations subcommittee leader, and has served on the communications committee. Ally will be
020attending Purdue University's honors college next year. Alli's highlights from DYC include using Canva and hosting forums this year. The school leaders who she would like to recognize are Mrs. and Maddie Busmanulations. [Music] Junior Martinez Jr. has served on the district youth council for two years. He has served on the school relations committee and Northfield Ford. Junior will be attending St. John's University next year. His highlights from DYC include getting to see the inside scoop of everything going on on our in our school district, attending the DYC brunch, and getting to interact with the school board. The school leader, Junior, would like to recognize is Dr. Helman. Junior, Anaka Ryster. Anakah has served on the school district council for three years. She served as a DYC co-chair this year, served as both the chair and as
021a member of the equity subcommittee and has served on the district equity committee and the district finance committee. She plans to attend Anakah plans to attend St. Olaf next year and double major in German and biology on a prevet track. Her highlights from DYC include attending the data summit with the collection of students from other schools. The school leader she would like to recognize is Mr. Byer. Congratulations. All right, let's give him a hand. Then Anukica and Ellie, do you want to stay up here since you're next? These BYC members will be giving us a recap of the 2425 school year. Sure. Okay. Um, so the purpose of DYC is to serve as a bridge between the student body and the school board. And this year we've tried to do that in a different number
022of ways. Uh, one of the main things we focused on this year was doing more forums which are the chairs giving inerson presentations and then facilitating conversations between the students and sometimes schoolboard representatives. And it we found it's one of the most effective ways to spread information to the student body. Um the first one we did was actually the candidate forum. They're a little bit out of order, but um that was during election season. We got representatives or the actual school members running for candidacy to come and answer questions so that the students got to know the candidates in the election better. And for that we also printed pamphlets with bios of all the candidates and also did um little bios on Instagram for them too. Uh and then we did the reimagine referendum forum
023which was one of the main focuses of this year which was just to provide information to students and again we did pamphlets for them to bring back to adults in their lives to make sure that everyone was informed about the process of the passing the referendum and more of the election cycle. Um and then the last one we did was really recent was about the budget reductions. So we had representatives from the budget prioritiz prioritization teams from DYC and we helped facilitate forums with district leadership for students to understand the process of how the budget reductions were drafted and how they will impact um the district and they were also able to give their feedback there on those. Um this year we've really tried to focus as well on outreach and connection. Um so we
024really try to seek we really seek to strengthen the relationships with both the students and the board members. Um so one way we did this was through our use of menstrual products like distribution. Um we supplied the menstrual products in the bathrooms at the high school since 2018. Um thanks to financial support from Northfield Youth Bank. Um but with the change in legislation um we noticed and like the period products being supplied by the school we noticed that there's been inconsistencies in the restocking of these products. So, we've continued to supply some bags for students during longer breaks and made those available throughout places in the high school as well. Um, and then we also fostered more connection at the school board brunch, which many of you were at, which was great. Um, so that
025helped us kind of create stronger bonds with the board members in order to get the information from them back to the students. And then the last thing we focused on this year was community collaboration. So these were events that we were represented on that weren't exactly designed by DYC, but that we participated in and that we brought information back to the school and to our group to inform future projects. Um, a lot of that was the reimagine brainstorming. Again, a big thing this year. Um, we facilitated a lot of conversations with peers around the school and kind of got a sense of people's hopes for the new building to bring back here. Um, we had a couple of our DYC members on the core planning team for the reimagine project and on the budget prioritization
026teams for the budget reductions. Uh, we also participated in a schoolboard association day on the hill uh where we went to the capital and the data summit that we've done the past few years which is just like a meeting where a few different districts get together and review data regarding like cell phone policies and similar policies. I know it was more when I went there, but um and then we've also helped recently on the principal selection process with the student members there. So, next year, as Martha mentioned, DYC will have 19 members with two co-chairs, which will be Attekus Lincoln and Delphine Hawkins. Adakus Meyer. My god. Um uh and then two subcommittees with the student in the board relations. And then we're hoping next year to have upcoming events such as the continued menstrual
027product support. We hope to gather feedback as needed for the reimagine plan and the construction project as it goes along. And we'll do our yearly uh schoolboard brunch as well. Any questions? Excellent. Well done. Thank you all for your important work. U board members, do you have any questions at this time or comments you would like to share? Ben, just wanted to say thank you. I started off the year as the the DYC rep and then Claudia took over midway through through the year. It was always a pleasure this spring or sorry, this fall. You know, I would say that um Anak and Ally, great job co-chairing this year. I thought the presentation that you did on the reimagine proposal earlier, I think it was in September or October was perhaps the most concise, clear,
028no dig on you, Dr. Hilt, but but I thought that presentation was was excellent and really kind of helped inform that conversation, especially from a student standpoint. So, thank you and good luck to you in your future endeavors. Good. Amy, I just wanted to to also say thank you. It's always nice to be able to have the feedback and the input from our students as we go forward and also just getting to know you all and staying connected into the student body. and I really do appreciate the work you do on the district youth council and thank all of you for everything and thanks to Martha for leading it. Anyone else comment or question this time? Okay, thank you so much. Thank you. Item B and items for discussion and reports is our proposed 202425
029and 202526 construction budgets. Welcome, Bill. The construction fund is a separate fund used to record all operations of a district's building construction funded by the sale of bonds. This will be an item for individual action at the June 9th regular board meeting. Good evening. Um, so I'm going to present the building construction fund. I am not expecting applause at the end because it's not as exciting, but here we go. Um, so this is obviously a result of our successful um, bond referendum in November. We sold our first bond um, in February. And so this fund is really a completely separate um fund that tracks all of the bond funding that comes in and all the construction and related expenditures for the reimagine Northfield High School projects. Um this presentation includes a budget for 2425 because
030it just happened in in November and so we've incurred some expenditures and then also what the budget will be for next year. This is obviously going to be a ongoing five-year presentation or something, but we'll we'll talk through what we're looking at right now. And so, I will say I'm a little excited to only track one project instead of five all at the same time or nearly at the same time. So, um again, just a reminder, there were three questions. Um question one is the multi-story classroom addition, uh some demolition and renovation of the remainder of the building. total um project cost was 95.8 million. Um question two is the addition um of an expanded gymnasium 18.7 million and then question three is the geothermal system at 7 million. So the total overall projected cost
031is about 121.6 million if you're rounding up and this is going to take place over several years. Um, so this chart really just shows um our our 2025A bond sale is the one that we just completed. So these are solid numbers that we know. Uh the 2027A, so we're anticipating um selling the remaining amount of the bonds in probably May of 27. Obviously dependent on how the project proceeds and the the timing of the construction payments, but that's our current plan. Um we have received um a pledge of $2 million from Carlton. We've received that first million dollars uh which helped offset our first bond would have been 40 million but we bonded 39 instead. And then um it includes the the total estimated funding including interest earnings. So, I'm super excited to share that
032the pre-election estimate for our total interest earnings was like 1,966200 and our current projection is just over four. Um, and that's a pretty solid number at this point. The 2027A is still a pretty conservative interest estimate. So, that means we have nearly an extra $4 million um of interest to that can go towards the project. So that's an exciting um opportunity for us especially given some current unknowns and uncertainty with the market. So that is a great place to be for right now. Um so this is a a draw schedule. So we work with both W um architects and Kusen Construction is the construction management firm and so they pull together and estimate a draw schedule for the entire project. So each month, how much um do we think we're going to have to pay
033to keep the project on track? Um obviously right now it's mostly just architect fees and um planning fees and permits and that sort of thing. So the the amounts are relatively small, but as we get into construction in 26, we'll that'll look a little different. Um, so gross billing retention, we're required to retain 5% of the work completed until the end of the project until everything is finally certified. So in the event that a um contractor didn't meet their specifications, we have some of the cash retained to to help offset that. That's a legal requirement that we have to do. So for 2526, we're looking at about $12.8 million of net billing expected. Again, it could change, but that's our current best estimate for 2425. You'll see the bond proceeds is the the large portion
034of the the revenue making up that budget. We did get the million-doll donation from Carlton. And then there was also an individual donation of $10,000 um from a generous couple in the community that wanted to support the project. We're estimating the earnings this year at about 150,000 and then projected expenditures of about 1.7 um just as we're getting rolling. And then next year really the only for 2526 the only revenue we're going to have is that interest earnings. We're not selling bonds next year. Um but anticipating about 13.5 million of um total project expenditures including construction and um other fees as the project goes on. So our ending fund balance ending 26 is probably about 27.4 million and that will carry us into the 27 school year. Then ideally in May we'll sell the remaining
035bond funds and finish out the project. So that one's pretty straightforward. Um it's very new and exciting and we're super grateful to the community um for the opportunity to do this project. So I will take any questions you have. Thank you. Okay. Board members, do you have any questions for Val at this time? Hey Amy. Thanks Mal for putting this together. I have a question on the draw schedule. Sure. Uh so when you um draw money out, are you drawing out the gross billing amount or the net billing amount? Um just wondering what happens to the retain the the retained money? So actually we do the net. I just realized I put the the wrong number in there. I used the 13. Um we the actual amount that gets paid is the net. Um, and
036the 5% kind of just sits in limbo on a construction document until the end of the project and then we do a final payment after everything's been certified. So, it gets pulled out of the investments and it goes off into another account that's like an escrow account or something like that that's being held there or how does that work? Uh, nope. It actually just stays invested. Um, so each month we go through and say here's what our actual expenditures were and then um we we take that money out of the investment and put it into our liquid cash, pay the bills each month and it kind of just zeros itself out each month. So because we're only um this draw schedule is shared with our um where we have our funds invested. So they have
037a an idea of how much liquid cash we need each month. And so they have things coming to term at increments where we can make maximize the interest. But the net is is really all we're going to be drawing. So I did use the wrong number on that one. I can clean that up for the approval. Um but then the other amount just stays in our is continued to be invested until we make that final payment. Thank you. Yeah. Anyone else question or comment? None at this time. Thank you, Val. And so then, do you want to move into item C, the proposed 202526 general fund budget? This item will be an action item on June 9th. My pleasure. So, we are going to do the 2526 proposed general fund. Um, significantly more complex than
038the last one. So enrollment, as you know, is the biggest driver um of our funding. And so I have um a little bit of history so you can see the declining enrollment trend that we've had and and what that means in actual student totals. The APU, just to be very clear, is the weighted student unit. Um and that is what's used for all of our revenue calculations. Um so basically preK through 6th grade is 1.0. 0 and 7 through 12 is 1.2. So that's what that calculation is. Uh for 2526, we're estimating 4,120.24 students. Um again, there's some complex calculations that go into that, but historically we've had a pretty good track record of using um cohort level data and rolling it forward. Um kindergarten is obviously the most difficult to predict because they're not
039students that are here yet. Um, and so that's a little bit trickier. And so I'll talk a little bit more about kindergarten as we get into the expenditures, but looking at about 37 um, weighted students less for next year. So in terms of revenue, we have four major categories that we look at. Um, state sources being the largest. um our state sources are roughly 70% of our total revenue. We know that the basic formula uh which is just that one formula is about 48% of our total revenue. So that's a pretty significant formula um is increasing 2.74 I cut off the decimal. It's 2.74% um to $7,481 per adjusted pupil unit. So that weighted calculation we know we have declining enrollment. So the pupil units that you saw on the previous slide are what go
040into all the formulas calculating the revenue throughout. special education um is primarily funded by the state and um there's some talk at the legislature of changing some of the formulas um and so that in this particular model has been held flat. Um so we're assuming the same revenue as this year. Um we're hopeful that that will actually not be the case, that it will increase like it has historically, but we're waiting to see how the legislature shakes out and that will get cleaned up in our um revised budgets when we know what we're actually anticipating to receive. The summer unemployment, we are expecting money for that. So, we have about $225,000 budgeted for both revenue and expenditures. And compensatory um we are one of the few districts that the um compensatory formula for those who
041don't know has been heavily scrutinized at the state level. Um they've been changing it um dramatically and both the calculations they have used have put us in almost exactly the same spot. So I'm grateful for that. So that is planning to be basically the same um as it was in the current year. Property taxes um so our local levy is um slightly less than last year. Again we have that operating referendum inflationary increase again partially offset by the fact that we're experiencing declining enrollment. The capital projects levy again is a um percentage of our tax base. So that increases and this is a known number. So this is easily the fastest part of the budget because I already know all the numbers. So I just have to plug them in because we certified that in
042December. And then federal sources we have um the ESA which is the elementary something education act elementary and secondary. Yeah. So those are all of our title programmings. We have title one, two, three and four. Um, and then IDEIDA is our special education funding. There's three separate formulas within that. And I'll talk a little bit more about um why that looks a little different from year to year as well. And then local sources, there were quite a few impacts from our priority based budget reduction process included in this um in this revenue category. So, we're assuming a 10% increase in um the rates for activities assuming stable participation. It also included um some increases for gate fees and things like that. There's also a new fee for transportation for anyone who's being transported between our
043current um transportation policy. So, elementary is at 75 miles from their school um up to two 1.99 miles and for secondary it's 1.0 to 1.99. So, um the statute only requires us to transport if they're more than 2 miles from school. Um but we obviously want kids to come to school and safely and so we are transporting at lesser levels than that, but we will be charging a $250 fee per student. So that's about $100,000 estimated in the budget. MA is our Medicaid revenue. At this time, we haven't heard anything concrete that that's changing. And so that's um basically staying flat. We've had pretty consistent revenue in that category for a while. And then again, interest earnings is uh hard to predict, but that has been pretty solid for the last couple of years. So,
044continuing to keep that conservative, but um a pretty decent amount of revenue to support the general fund. So, overall, um there's a a slight decline in the property taxes and you'll see a pretty um substantial jump in the state sources. So, a couple things playing into that. There was a shift in the legislative calculation for long-term facilities maintenance that basically shifted about $400,000 from being property tax funded to state funded. So that's what the pime primary shift is there. Um in addition to the state sources, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there is statute language to increase our state aid to support the increase in TRA. TR is increasing the district contribution by about 8%. In addition to it being a salary based percentage calculation. So that was a a substantial dollar amount
045for the district and there is some additional revenue to help offset that. So that was a pleasant surprise. Um that was apparently in statute quite a while ago when they originally started increasing that federal sources. Um, I just want to call out that pretty substantial decline over the last four years. So, 2223 was um, basically almost all of our ESSER funding was spent out in 2223. 2324 was mostly back to normal. We had probably 300,000 150,000 of of federal dollars from the ESSER money there that we were just finishing out. and then 2425 um you'll see it's it took a another drop. And so if you crawl recall last year we talked about the shift in special education funding where we're using our federal dollars to offset some of our tuition billing cost. And really
046all that's doing is shifting from federal to state um because it's reducing our um tuition billing for the state special ed formula is a reduction of our revenue and we're just reducing that. So really our state revenue is increasing while our federal's decreasing but it's just a shift in how we're funding it if that makes sense. And so that's carrying across again conservatively budgeting for federal sources. We have not heard about our title allocations. Um, and so we're just waiting to hear if there's any impacts to that that we're unaware of. Um, but planning for everything as is, just at a slightly lesser level, if that makes sense. And then local sources, you can see that increased again, several increases to fees across a variety of areas. Um there's also about $500,000 that is included
047for we have some carryover funds um for accounts that get lots of donations and they aren't going to spend it in the current year. They can kind of carry that over from year to year. Um so we're not just use it or lose it. They can actually be thoughtful about how they spend it. Um and some of our other student activity funds. Again, all of that's really in and out um for the most part, but that's included in the the adopted budget. Um it's about 500,000. So overall, the total revenue um we're planning for just over 69 million expenditures. Um as you know, I've probably said ad nauseium, 80% of our budget is salary and benefits. Uh we are here to do good things for kids and that requires people. So we are currently negotiating
048with the Northfield Education Association. So our teachers union and so that is all an estimate in the budget of where we will settle with them. And there were obviously several impacts from the priority based budget reductions um throughout a variety of those categories. And then for benefits again FICA, PAR and TRA so the public employee retirement, teacher retirement all are percentage of salary. So those are increasing based on how our salary budget increases. In addition, TRA was increasing 8% on top of that. Um but also had some offsetting revenue to help that. And then we're also assuming a 5% increase in health contribution which has been pretty standard for us um over the last couple of years. Non salary and other operational again that 20% of the budget. Transportation contract increase is an item for
049information. Um a couple after this presentation I believe we're looking at a 2% contract increase. utility expenditures are um holding flat. The current budget looks solid and so we're anticipating that to continue, but again we always assess that with our revised budget. We know the property liability insurance increased and then again there were several priority based budget impacts uh which you guys are very familiar with and so I won't go into every single line item there. And then again, this is assuming the fund balance goal of 14% which excludes operating capital, long-term facility maintenance, scholarship, and student activities. Um the expenditures I I'm providing them in two different kind of snapshots. So 67.8 million is the anticipated expenditure. This shows by program. So where are we spending it? um administration, district support, regular instruction. So,
050you can kind of see um I think you'll see decreases basically across the board, which makes sense. We just went through a a significant process to reduce 6 million. Um I mathematically like it doesn't make sense that it's not $6 million less maybe, but that's because of the inflation of the salaries. all of that stuff is increasing and so had we not reduced that would have been a very very different number. Um, so it just shows the power of inflation um over time, but overall nothing um outside the norm. All of the expenditures you would expect. Um I don't think there was anything exceptional that I needed to note on this slide. And then expenditures by object is what are we spending the money on instead of where. Um so the same 67.8 8 million
051just in terms of salaries and benefits. You can see those are the two largest totals. But again, most categories decreasing um benefits not uh there's lots of components that go into that. Uh we talked about the TRA increase um as well as the FICA and the PAR as well. Otherwise, I think most other things supplies went up a little bit um but across the board pretty pretty consistent. Again, not surprising that salaries was the biggest impact because we 80% of our budget is people. At the end of the day, um when we pull that all together, total revenue anticipated of just over 69 million and expenditures 67.8. So, we're looking at a surplus of about 1.3 million. Um, so growing the fund balance to about 16.2 million and really the the number that we're looking
052at on the bottom is that unassigned fund balance. So 15.92 which is above our goal of 14 again a testament to all the work that 80 plus people in the community and our school district um supported to work through prioritizing our expenditures to make sure we could support students but still have a balanced budget. I can't really stress enough that we are in a strong financial position to respond um and be proactive and thoughtful about how we manage the budget and what we're going to do moving forward. I will also say that the both the state legislative and federal outlooks are not rosy. And so we want to be in a position that we can respond if there are things funding streams that are um shut off that we weren't planning. We want to be
053able to respond and not just shut off pro programming for students. That's important. Um so we are in a good place um to respond and hopefully grow the fund balance and be able to to maintain the strong stewardship. Um again that stewardship really is one of the reasons that the construction fund budget looked great. That interest revenue is is driven off that. Um but we didn't get here alone. Our community stepped up um and really helped us work through that. And so I'm grateful for that engagement um and all of the feedback that the community gave to make sure we're offering what they're looking for. So that's a lot of information. Um if you have any questions, I will gladly answer them. Thank you. Val board members, do you have any questions or comments at
054this time? Okay. Corey. Hi Val. Thanks for being here. Nice presentation. Question concerning a couple questions concerning the summer employment insurance. Make sure I'm following where that conversation has evolved maybe in the last couple weeks. You'd mentioned I think $225,000 for revenue and expenditures. I would think maybe when we went through the budget process it was zero for revenue. Is that 225 new money from the state from the recent legislation? Yes. Okay. And that's for two years, correct? Um they added 100 million. Um I would So I think they had 130 million the first time that made it 2 years plus maybe a little. Um, so I would like to say that it would go two years. I'm not confident in that based on the amount of increase we've seen just as in our own
055district. The first year was 130,000 and now we're at 225. So the the rate at people at which people are aware of it and accessing it is is growing. Um, and it's obviously a percentage of their salary, so that increases. So, I'm not confident it'll get a full two years, but I would say there'll be some revenue in the second year. Is it the belief that it was distributed in year one in hopes that there'd be year two was doled out? Yes. Um, everything everything that was incurred in year one got paid. And so, if they wouldn't have had enough funds in year two, I'm talking about the future money. Oh, the future money. They'll prorrate it based on what's available. It's not like first come first-s serve or anything like that. They do a
056survey of what your total expenditures were and then they look at what that total is versus what they have and they say everyone gets 75% of what they spent or whatever that calculation will be. But good news being that's $225,000 we didn't anticipate. I know we have some additional expenses we're going to discuss probably tonight and maybe the next meeting, but helps offset some of the changes at least for one year. Yes. Thank you. Yep. Ben, did you have a question? I did. Obviously session's not well it's over but there's not the special session yet. So how much of the budget that we're you know we're talking about still is sort of less than certain based on what comes out of the legislature. Um in terms of revenue I would say maybe 25% of the
057revenue is uncertain. Special ed's a like 10 10.5 million. So, that's a pretty significant chunk. And I'm sure there's other ones that I'm not thinking of. The other concern that I always have is are they going to implement more mandates on the expenditure side that we just don't know about yet. Um, so I I would say 25% roughly, but we probably can't I'm not sure. It's been a while since we've had a special session that went, you know, past July 1, but just hypothetically if we ended up there, we how do we manage our budget and what we pass? Yeah. So, this has happened having a shutdown going this the legislative session dragging beyond July 1st of the first year of the banium has happened twice in the last 20 years. And so, as we've
058talked with you before, that's why we work to have a solid fund balance. So there are districts that will have to go out to borrow money to make payroll etc. Um one of the goals that we've had behind our fund balances that we would have about we have about six weeks of expenditures uh in reserves. So we would be able to handle and and um you know respond to that. Both of those special sessions did or excuse me both of those shutdowns did not last long. If you remember they were I think less than a month. Um they start shutting down the rest stops and things like that. you know, that does motivate um you know, some legislators to come together. So, we've had it happen twice in the last 20 years and it's one
059of the reasons that we've said we want to make sure we have a solid fund balances so we are able to address those kinds of things. Thanks. And then just another question, I think you said the transportation fee would raise about 100,000. Did I hear your correct the revenue? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Is that that's a little bit lower than I think we were maybe I don't remember the number exactly off the top of my head. Um I feel like we had 100,000 on the priority based budget. Was it 110? Okay. There I will I will say there's some um as we got into the detail there's some addresses that were on the original list that um while within the range do not have a safe way to get to school and so those were excluded
060from our original estimate. Um but yeah and and so if I do 100 divided by 250 that's 400. So is that 100,000 um is that families or students that we're anticipating there? Students. Yep. And then if it's uh we did um cap it at 500 per family. So if they have Yep. If they have three, they're only paying for two. Okay. Gotcha. So is that would be Yep. is completely waved. Okay, gotcha. So that we're estimating about 400 paying students then to get there. Anyone else question or comment? You want to say something? Could you just talk about the kindergarten? Sorry, I even brought my notes up. So in the staffing um we obviously kindergarten is difficult to estimate and so we do have included in the budget um the the priority based budget reduction
061was nine FTE at the elementary level. We are we have uh kindergarten at both Bridgewater and Greenville Park that are um requiring an additional section to maintain our uh class size targets. And so one of those will use the contingency FTE that's already included in the budget, but we do have an additional FTE um added to cover the additional section at the other building. Um just to make sure that we're providing getting close to that 20 um range for kindergarten. Again, very difficult to predict. Certainly, we want the the extra students to come in and that's that's good for us, but again, that's different than what was um approved on the 28th. There's it's seven now basically for the elementary, but we will use that contingency FTE for the one. So, thank you for calling
062that out. Any additional comments or questions at this time? Okay, thank you. Thank you. Item D is the sale of district property contract extension. And will you be presenting on that, Dr. H? Yep. So, the board has approved in the past the sale of a very small piece of property that we own uh near the Dunda shop. So, it's a as you've seen in the past, I've shown it to you before, it's a triangular piece of property around 15,000 square feet. It's between Ruth on Stafford and the Dunda shop. There's a developer who has purchased the property behind the Dundas shop and what they're seeking is to get access, road access to that um development. They are working through that development process with the city of Dundus and there's a lot that goes into that.
063And so it's just taking longer than had been expected to be able to complete that. Um so we're asking the board not tonight but at the next meeting to extend uh that purchase agreement for all the way through next u May of 2026 just to give them plenty of time to be able to work out all of the um items that they need to work out with the city of Dundus permitting all those kinds of things. Uh they have agreed uh the purchaser has agreed as part of um that extension to complete another appraisal uh to make sure that the property is still similarly valued to what we had agreed to on that price. uh when we originally did the purchase agreement. So, not for action tonight, but just bringing it forward and then asking
064you to consider that at the next meeting. Thank you. Board members, do you have any questions on this item? Any comment? Um Dr. Hman, is there anybody else that we know of interested in that property? We do not. It's a very specialized because the the developer owns the property behind Rousan Stafford shop. There has not there it's a piece of the it's really essentially part of the thoroughfare and so there's there's no one else would have that kind of interest in it. Thank you. And then item E will go on if there aren't any other questions. Okay. The item E is Benjamin bus contract and extension for one year. The district transportation contract with Benjamin Bus allows for the negotiation of a one-year contract extension for the 2526 school year. And this item will be
065an action item at the June 9th regular board meeting. Will you be presenting on the item as well? Not bad. Okay. Yep. I can provide you some context on that. Um so we are um in the process of working through um I would say three or four kind of structural things with Benjamin Bust about how we operate together. and we did not want to rush um a request for proposal, which is what we typically would have done this year um for a new four-year contract. And so they agreed to a one-year extension status quo. Um everything in the contract is exactly the same except a 2% increase on the rates. And then that allows us um basically the next six months to kind of um come to agreement about what we think we want to
066do operating moving forward. Um some of the things that we're talking about are how we route um our special education routes, um who staffs um having aids on the buses for students who need extra support. So, we're just working through some of those things um to make sure we're in alignment with other districts and other transportation providers um and that it works for both of our organizations. So, that we're just going to work through in the coming months. Uh we just didn't want to pressure and rush that process. And so, um, I will say a 2% increase is, um, excellent compared to what I've heard from my counterparts across the state. Um, so I'm grateful for that and their continued partnership. Thank you, Val. Board members, do you have any questions for Belle on this
067item? Okay, thank you. Thank you. We're on to item six, our committee reports. Um, Kelly, were there any committee reports made? Okay. And then item seven is our consent agenda. As a reminder, there were some personnel items in the table file added to the consent grouping. Is there anything anyone would like to pull from the consent grouping for separate consideration? Okay. Is there a motion to approve the consent grouping? Moved by Ben, second by Amy. Thank you. All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Okay, motion passes. On to our items for individual action. Number eight, we have first the revised 2425 child nutrition fund budget. This presentation happened May 12th at our board meeting. I'll move first, then we can discuss. I'll take a motion first, then we can discuss. Is there a
068motion to approve the revised 2425 child nutrition fund budget as presented? I move. Okay. Moved by Corey. Can get a second. Thank you, Amy. Is there any discussion on the child nutrition fund budget? Questions at this time comment? Okay, seeing none, then we will move to a vote. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Okay. Motion passes. Item B is the community education fund budget 2425. that was also presented at the May 12th meeting. I'll take a motion first. Is there a motion to approve the revised 202425 community education budget as presented? So moved. Amy, there second. Thank you, Ben. Is there any discussion on this um community education fund and budget at this time? Okay. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. And our last item for action is our
069policy committee recommendations. Is there a motion to approve the policy committee's recommended changes to the following policies 413, 421, 422, 427, 512, 704, and 9006 as presented? Motion. Thank you, Jeff. There a second. Second. Thank you, Corey. There any discussion on any of the policies before we move to a vote? Any comments or questions? There should be I'm sorry I you cannot speak from the floor, ma'am. You are you're interrupting our meeting. No, I'm not here. You are interrupting our meeting and we're going to have to ask you to leave if you do not let us conduct our business. I have first member right to speak. I just have and you are welcome to our meeting. You are not welcome to speak from the floor. Okay, board members, if there's any discussion, you're interrupting our
070meeting, please. Is there any discussion at this time? All right, we'll move to a vote. All those in favor say I. I posted. Motion passes. Thank you. Item number nine is items for information and the first item is our construction update. It is number 10. Dr. Helman, will you provide us with an update on the construction? Yes, I I think that I'll let the report stand tonight. It just talks about user groups and it talks about the retained interest that we discussed the last time. Okay. Thank you very much. But Val discussed in her report before. Yep. Very good. Board members, do you have any questions or comments on the provided update in your packet? None at this time. Okay. The next item for information is our graduation reminder. The Area Learning Center, ALC, is
071scheduled for 6 PM on Friday, May 30th. That will be at the middle school auditorium. And of course, our Northfield High School graduation is this Sunday at Memorial Field. Board member board members should gather at the high school office at 1:30. That is Oh, not yet. Those are our future meetings are Thursday, May 29th. That will be a closed board se board session at 5:00 pm in this boardroom. This meeting will be closed as permitted by the Minnesota statute 13D.03 to discuss labor negotiations. We will have a regular school board meetings in this boardroom 6 p.m. on June 9th, July 14th, and August 11th. Those are all Mondays. That is all the business that we have tonight. Is there a motion to adjurnn? Motion. Thank you, Jet. Second. Second. Thank you. All those in favor
072say I. I. I. Opposed. Okay, we are