001let's call this meeting to order this is a regular meeting of the Northfield Public School Board today is Monday February 24th 2025 and the time is 6 pm. this meeting is being live streamed and recorded the recording of this meeting will be posted on 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 Helman we have some items in the table file will you update us yes we have several items in the table file um under the consent agenda we have some appointments increase decrease change in assignment and a couple of leaves of absences and then under items for individual action we have the details uh related to the General Obligations School building bonds series 2025a
002uh issuance and we're very pleased to share some good news with that uh as part of that report so that's a very large file you had received the template before the bond sale the bond sale happened today and now you have all of the other detailed information that accompanies that good thank you if there are no objections we will add these items to the agenda as we move forward board members make sure your mic is on so that we can record your votes is there a motion to accept the agenda as presented move by Jeff second second by Cory all those in favor say I I I opposed motion passes we're at the public comment portion of our agenda do we have anybody signed up okay then we will move on to announcements and recognitions
003Dr Helman yes I have several this evening first we want to congratulate the amazing work that our Northfield FFA chapter continues to do for the first time in over 35 years since bring uh FFA back to Northfield we have two FFA State degree participants uh or excuse me recipients Keith Harner and Macy Mueller Macy earned first place in the entrepreneurship proficiency poultry production program um we also have Hector villan AA who was named the 2526 region 7 Sentinel and Josh Keenan who was named the Northfield FFA chapter Regional delegate and uh these distinctions were asked after a robust application process and interviews during the region uh leadership day on February 7th so you know the FFA program has been back for a short time and really um is flourishing even in its early stages so
004we're so grateful to uh TJ Austin their director and the students who are leading that program uh we are incredibly proud to announce that Northfield High School senior saurin Powers uh was Advanced to finalist standing in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship program this is a a a very small percentage of people nationally who are involved in that program who reach National Merit finalist status so congratulations to saurin and we look forward to uh hearing about the scholarship board that will accompany that in March our wrestlers uh had an excellent section uh CH individual section championships so we'd like to congratulate Ella Pagel and Cali Graber who will advance who have advanced to the state wrestling competition after earning first place in the sectional girls wrestling meet and then we want to congratulate Charlie Johnson Keith
005Harner Kaden stab Sam Harner Zayn Engles Owen Murphy and Ryan Kyper all who advaned to the state boys wrestling meet and we want to congratulate all of these wrestlers on taking uh their talents to the next level here in just a week or so finally uh this week February 24th through the 28th is public schools week and public schools week celebrates the role that public education plays in shaping the future of our children our community and our future this week is dedicated to honoring the incredible teachers and staff who work tirelessly to ensure every student has the academic social and emotional support they need to thrive so we hope that the entire Community if you know an educator would you please make sure that you thank them for the work that they're doing doing um
006to prepare every student for lifelong success and so we celebrate Public Schools um not only this week but all of the time here in norfield but a little bit more this week so those are your announcements for tonight thank you board members do you have any announcements or recognitions okay item five is our items for discussion and reports and we have one item priority based budget reduction process updates superintendent Hillman and Director of Finance Val murder stf will update the board about about the priority based budget reduction process so we won't spend a tremendous amount of time this evening on this but we do uh want to recognize that people come to our budget reduction uh discussion at different times so we just want to highlight a couple of things um our priority based budget
007uh committee met for the second time last Tuesday there's a total of 85 people involved in that that includes around 65 staff members community members without children parents and students we have a number of students from the district youth Council on our teams and so they have um gone through two meetings where they became grounded in the budget last week they really dug into the hard work uh uncomfortable work of discussing what potential reductions would be part of their preliminary proposal tomorrow night is their final meeting they've been meeting for two and a half hours a piece uh tomorrow night they will gather in their uh budget reduction teams to come to consensus on what are the preliminary proposals that they're going to put forward then the teams will all come together to be able
008to hear a report from each of the other teams about the things that they um are proposing so of course after that what will happen is the administration will take those ideas and we will formalize them into what would be budget reductions the teams aren't charged with that they're charged with the ideas and then Administration will formalize um those proposed reductions we will share those with the community ahead of the March 11th community meeting where people will have a chance to hear a presentation about the proposed reductions they'll have some breakout rooms where they'll be with board members and administrators so that they are able to share their perspectives we'll come back to the auditorium in a public style com a public comment style um session people will have three minutes a piece if they
009would like to speak in front of the entire assembly and of course then the board um will hear the recommendations formally at the April 14th meeting and we'll ask that you approve uh the reductions at the April 28th meeting and I do think it's important uh just to make sure that we ground people in the some of the reasons that we're bringing these pieces forward so I just have a couple of slides I want to show uh just for people who are new to this conversation so the first piece that I want to share is around the per pupil basic formula so you've seen this chart before but I think it's important for people to see uh these operational charts and so this is the uh basic formula the blue is what the formula would
010have been had the legislature approved increases just to match inflation over the last 20 years the red line the red dotted line is what the legislature actually approved and so for the formula today to have the same buying power that it did in 2003 the legislature would have to improve an increase to of 1,364 per pupil and so for the Northfield school district if they had just kept up with inflation for the last 20 years that means we'd have an additional $5.7 million in Revenue which is not so coincidentally nearly what we are talking about reducing so a key part of this has been State funding lagging inflation over the years also want to just remind folks that there's the power of that formula because just under 70% of our revenue is from the state
011and 70% of that revenue is based on enrollment based formulas so uh for example you know we are see probably above technically a little bit more than 4% increase from the state this coming year but because of declining enrollment we're only realizing 8% in new Revenue so that we have the double whammy of that the state has not kept up with inflation as it relates to the formula and having fewer students just erodes the power of any increase that the legislature does um we also want to just remind folks that when we talk about our budget most schools in Minnesota you have around 80% of your budget as Personnel salary and benefits in this slide which you've seen before it's the blue and the orange and so when we talk about reducing the budget it
012is very difficult to make the kinds of reductions that we're talking about by reducing copy paper and other supplies we hire good uh people to do good things for kids and when 80% of your budget is Personnel uh the only way that you're going to be able to really reduce the budget in kind is going to be through those Personnel reductions so we've just been very transparent about that that when we talk about reducing the budget it does mean positions um also want to to show this slide about our ongoing uh incremental declining enrollment so the you'll see the chart here it is not a mass of people leaving in any one year it is an average of 93% uh fewer students each year over the next six years and then the final slide that
013I want to show is is this one that we're going to relates to some things we're going to talk about tonight so you've heard us talk before about Minnesota school Finance being amongst most highly regulated in the country and sometimes we really get genuine genuine um heartwarming and good ideas about ways that we could work on the budget but because of the rules and regulations that we uh face they're not always doable and so for example tonight we are going to talk about the first Bond sale related to the 2024 reimagine Northfield high school bond referendum and there will be some people who will say well you know why can't we use that money to backfill the operational budget we just aren't allowed to as remember bonds are for building and levies are for Learning
014and you see the column here that is Debt Service when we pass a bond reference the property uh owners are taxed that money comes to the school district and it turns right around and it pays what is our equivalent of a morgage it's an in and and out and never shall the two meet you are not allowed to use Debt Service money for anything but paying our equivalent of a morgage you know we've also heard people ask about some of the other facilities that we lease you know the D St or the gymnastics center or the ice arena and wondering how that plays into this and that is in the general fund restricted category so again we determine what those leases are going to cost us the board approves that as part of the annual
015Levy um preliminary Levy in September and then the levy in December and that money comes into the district and then we turn right around and use it to pay um for those lease costs and so it's important for folks to understand we've had even had a few people to say you know you've got some really great kitchen staff work maybe they could be more efficient maybe we could do all of the cooking in one kitchen you know and save some of those dollars but again that's all food service costs which we can't use to support the unrestricted general fund so I think it's just important to keep grounding Us in what we I call it the walled Gardens of Minnesota school Finance so we're very pleased to have so many people having stepped forward people
016really are genuinely engaged in these meetings trying to find ideas that will help um it is it is actually quite heartwarming as as difficult as the discussions are people are coming forward in a very genuine way wanting to help and I think that is really representative of what this process has been over the past 20 years and how North fielders just show up and try to help solve the problems that are ahead of us so that is the report that I have on the priority based budget reduction process tonight Val has done excellent work giving people lots of answers to questions about data and what things cost Etc do you want to add anything tonight so that is we just want to give that brief report we'd be happy to answer any questions that board
017members have about the priority based budget reduction committee it is there's nothing good about it right we wish we did not have to do that everything that we offer has value to people and so the things that we're talking about are very difficult okay Corey Dr hman with that initial proposal be shared with the board at the March 11th meeting or will we see it beforehand uh you will see it beforehand we will obviously do our typical cascading Communications so once the uh Administration has taken those ideas and we have formalized them we will make sure that the board sees it first and then after the board and our leadership team see it then we'll make sure that staff see it and then uh we will release it to the larger Community as well just
018within a within a day of of everyone will receive it within a day or so of each other but we want people to have that information ahead of the March 11th community meeting so do you anticipate that might be this week or next week since I'm not going to give you a date because I've learned in the past about giving people dates but what I would anticipate is at least you know around six or seven days ahead of time anyone else question or comment Maggie um for people who are learning about um kind of the impact that the state has on our funding situation is there a way that they might be able to get involved and kind of take a role and more active role in asking for more funding from the state I'm
019happy that you asked that uh we have a an a really strong legislative action committee that meets via Zoom every other Saturday we we just had a meeting this last Saturday I think Claudia is the board rep on that I think we probably had a dozen people there on Saturday and so if people are interested uh they could certainly join the legislative action committee they can do so just by emailing myself or Kelly spilman Kramer in our office we will put them on the list um it is really a low entry point you get the you'll be emailed the agenda and the zoom link and there are people who show up every week there are people who show up every other week or just a few times each week we teach a little bit about
020where the legislature is at in the process right now and then we have a call to action so for example this week the call to action was for them to actually call um our legislators and some of the legislators on the education Finance committees asking for an additional 3% on the per pupil basic formula and to continue working on closing the special education cross subsidy anyone else question or comment thank you very much item six is our committee reports we have a report from on board member Corey Butler the report is for csec and it's in the packet Corey would you like to speak on the report or let it stand I will let stand item seven is our consent agenda as a reminder there were some Personnel items in the table file added to
021this consent grouping is there anything anyone would like to pull from the consent grouping for separate consideration thank you Claudia um I would like to remove move item 7B for separate consideration let me find that first he that uh number again 7B okay we can remove that item and so okay is there a motion to approve the consent grouping um once we've removed this item 7B policy 522 moved by Jenny second second by Jeff okay all those in favor say I I I I opposed okay motion passes we will add 7B see okay we will add that to our items for individual action is that am I doing that right y okay okay that will be our items for individual action item F okay we have several items tonight one of them is a resolution
022and again board members make sure your mic is on I'm sorry we approved the consent agenda minus item so we can remove the item and then we approve the consent agenda without the item but do we need to vote on removing the item NOP because any board member can choose to remove something from the consent agenda and then once the rest of the consent is consent agenda is approved we just move that item to the items for individual action okay thank you and Kelly you got what you need for the great all right our first item is 2025 2026 operating capital and long-term facilities maintenance budget revenues and expenditures are detailed in the memorandum and the board heard a detailed presentation at our last meeting this memorandum and supporting documents are published as part of
023the board packet and are accessible to the public from our district website I move to approve the 20125 2026 operating capital and long-term facilities maintenance budgets as detailed in the memorandum can I get a second second second by Maggie is there any discussion on this item 8A NOP all right all those in favor say I I I opposed right motion passes next we have long-term facilities maintenance 10-year and indoor air quality management plan is there a motion to approve the long-term facilities maintenance 10-year plan and indoor quality management plan moved move by wor okay second by Jenny thank you is there any discussion on Item B none all right all those in paper say I I I opposed motion passes next we have a resolution and so Kelly will help take a roll call vote
024on that the resolution is relating to the $39 million General obligation School building bonds series 2025 by the a the bond sale took place today February 24th the sale um the sale day report and final resolution and the supporting documents are in the table file is there a motion to approve the resolution relating to $ 39 million General obligation School building bonds series 2025a authorizing issuance awarding sale prescribing the form and details and providing for the payment thereof so moved by cour second I didn't I had a question so we're g to take a motion first and then we can have discussion can I have a second on this motion okay bye Jeff thank you okay Jeff you have a comment yeah I was wondering did you get it I mean I didn't see that
025in F was interest rate yeah well we're thrilled to share the interest rate so um in fact I might ask may I ask Shelby mcque from Ellers to come forward it's quite thrilling good evening Madam chair members of the board uh yeah we sold bonds this morning for Northfield and uh great results so uh you have in your packets probably the um the SEL day report so pre-election we were anticipating 5% so we ensured that you know we went to the voters and we were characterizing the tax impact at sort of that upper limit and the results of the sale today were 3.97 so pre-sale report that Jeff presented last month um was a little like 4.38 and so we were anticipating a better um better interest rate than we anticipated at the time of
026the pre-election and then of course the results come in better than that which is great news so just kind of a little bit you know a little more comprehension um of the of the sale today so we just sold a portion your full Authority it was approximately $120 million we sold $39 million uh today and that will'll get you started and um move along the the construction so that you'll have funds available for the first portion of the construction and then you'll be able to have some flexibility when we sell the remainder of the 80 million of course taking into account the $2 million donation that the district is receiving by borrowing less than the full Authority given by the voters because that came in as part of the process um of the election so
027you'll have those funds available on March 20th um and overall what that lower interest rate means on this portion of the bond is about $8 million in savings relative to where we anticipated and of course we're spreading out the entire payback period over 25 years and we have one more Bond sale to go so we're taking all of this in stride making sure that we're setting up the taxpayers for the long term and not you know not capturing all those savings on a lower tax impact right now we want to make sure over the life of the bond we're paying off that principle that we need to get paid off and lowering the overall borrowing amount or the overall principal and interest costs so the winning bidder was bared we anticipated um we opened up
028the bid this morning with seven biders and you um you received more than that at about 13 um 13 bids the winning bidder was bared out of Wisconsin but national attention on Northfield New York um Milwaukee Chicago Florida and Dallas were um among the biders including North Carolina um that's where Wells Fargo is based and then um JP Morgan and jeffes were the the final biders um on the sale so um you do have more than anticipated going to your project fund as well um the way we're starting off so you'll be able to be able to invest those funds uh right away as well and start to earn interest and all the interest earnings will be able to go towards the the project cost as well so um I have a series of materials
029in the the sale day and one of those is the um the rating report so Dr hman and Val participated in the rating call and the that was really really helpful to be able to go into S&P especially given their new methodology to be able to talk suly about where the district is at where the budget cuts are coming in what the anticipated path forward is for Northfield as you take on this additional debt so they with the new methodology you're at that double a rating so a nice solid rating to stay in in those categories so all of that material is detailed out in the sale day report and I'm happy to answer anything on that um the resolution itself or um any other questions you have going forward with this this is the
030starting point of the plan so fantastic thank you for members do you have any questions or comments at this time if I can just you know when we were um sharing the information uh about the referendum during the informational campaign all of the documents we were showing was at a 5% estimated interest so coming in at 3.97 % on this first issuance is a really big deal for our taxpayers and I think it continues to go that you know we continue to try to be as sharp as we can so that we are coming delivering on our promises to our community so I'm really pleased with the sale that we had today we hope for another positive sale in uh when we bring that back in a couple of years but this is a really
031great start to this Bond referendum thank you so much okay seeing no more discussion we will take a vote Kelly will you um facilitate that Butler I Epstein I Nelson hi quel I Gonzalez George I okay motion passes item D is our change order procedures for the Northfield high school reimagine project the board is requested to adopt the change order limits initially presented at the February 10th 2025 board meeting for the uh project associated with the November 5th 2024 Bond referendum and also detailed in this packet's memorandum I'll take a motion first and then we can discuss there are lots of details in the memo and we can take questions and comments on those is there a motion to adopt change order limits for the reimagine Northfield high school project associated with the November 5th
0322024 Bond referendum as presented Move by Jenny can I get a second by Maggie thank you is there any discussion for this item questions or comments Jeff I think you just you call that tearing a little bit of tearing on that I think we kind talk about that yeah I think that's exactly uh the way to put it Jeff so uh administrative Authority that would be Val murdorf Justin Roby and myself so Director of Finance director of buildings and ground superintendent could approve if we all agree on a change order if it's less than $100,000 anything that would be between 100 And1 175 ,000 the project oversight Committee of which you're represented by Claudia Corey and Ben could approve that and then anything above $175,000 the full board would approve and anytime that the administration
033or the project oversight team um approves a change order we would report it to you at the next board meeting good anyone else question or comment moving right along okay item e policy committee recommendations is there a motion to approve the policy committee's recommended updates to policies 406 407 408 519 614 and 71.9 oh yes I'm sorry yes we did the resolution and then I didn't vote didn't have you vote on item D apologies for that okay we do have a motion U moved by Jenny and seconded by Maggie all those in favor say I I opposed okay motion passes thank you for that okay now we're on to item e policy committee recommendations is there a motion to approve the policy committee's recommended updates to the policies detailed in the memorandum so moved by
034Cory second second by Jeff thank you is there any discussion questions on any of the policies right see no more discussion then we will go to a vote all those in favor say I I opposed okay motion passes next we have item F which is an item pulled from the consent agenda it is policy 522 Title 9 sex non-discrimination policy grievance procedure and process Administration recommends reverting policy 5 22 to the 2022 version this action will align the district's policy with the 2020 Title 9 rules to comply with the January 2025 Federal Court ruling that vacated the 2024 Title 9 rules okay so we'll open that up for discussion and Jenny do you want to proceed thank you I have just two kind of technical questions um most likely for Dr Helman um or I
035guess anyone else that is able to answer um first question is will the same policy statement found in the title 9 discrimination report form that accompanies that policy um be revised also so any accompanying documents to the uh policy would revert back to a similar document that would be with the previous policy so um we approved the policy if there's any Associated documents like a Complaint Form I think is what you're talking about yes that would revert back to whatever the Complaint Form had been as part of the previous policy as well and Jenny I have to tell you I'm not even sure we had a complaint form before so I'll just go back and double check that it is one form um that serves both policy 522 and 413 sure that makes sense y
036okay so there is a form there is there is a form that we use for that now I don't recall we'll go back and double check that typically as a procedural piece but my recollection would have been that that form would have not changed a tremendous amount because I don't think it it it I have to go back and look at the form but we will make sure it aligns with the rever reverting to the policy that we're asking to revert to tonight okay because I I don't want to approve a policy if it's going to directly contradict you know with the same statement um and and the set and the list you know on the report form right and so what we do with any procedural piece like a complaint form when the policy
037has changed we will update it to align with the new policy and then will that be the same process for the areas in the student citizen Citizenship um handbook that that um will refer to policy 522 because there you're going to see the same contradictions unless those are also revised yes so this would be the beginning of that and we'll have to check in terms of I don't recall are did you see a difference between the previous student citizenship handbook and the current one yes you did okay there's direct contradictions then to this this um proposed policy once we approve the policy then that takes the next steps of approving any other um correlating documents and then will those approvals come to us for a discussion um as a board or would they automatically just
038revert the Complaint Form would not because that's a procedural document so procedural documents tend Administration has the ability to just update those the student citizenship handbook likely will have to come back for an update back to the board yes okay I I'm going to take a look at that language I appreciate your bringing that up and if if the language is matching the 2024 version versus the 2022 version um then we would ask you to update the um documentation in that student C student citizenship handbook I didn't recall the the title n part getting updated because I think it just I thought that it just referenced the policy itself that's typically what we've done in the student citizenship there is language um in the handbook itself that um is taken directly from that paragraph that
039General policy statement you got it and so if that's if there's if there's a difference that would make the student citizenship handbook enforcement different then we would bring that back okay thank you very much okay Jeff so as long as Jenny from what you're seeing um that because it was pointed out that some a couple looks like they were contradicting themselves so based on what the discussion is here Jenny are you kind of okay with checking into that make sure they they they don't contradict each other I mean they shouldn't contradict each other if Dr if what Dr hman says is right that then you know they'll go back and bring um those changes to us you know then then I don't see a problem right then I don't see a problem okay and remember
040I think the other part this is a great example of talking about how different parts of the district's governance align with each other so the policy is really what governs the entire component of this right the student citizenship handbook references the policy so once the policy changes that's what supersedes the rest of the items in the district now the student citizenship handbook does have the weight of policy but the student citizenship handbook could not override adopted board policy so it when we look at that change we'll update that and bring that back to you because we do have the board update or you know approve the student citizenship handbook but anything in between it's been very clear the federal court said that the 2020 4 rules are vacated and that any further investigations under that
041policy would need to go through the 2020 uh rules and our and in this case will be the 2022 policy thank you okay anyone else comments on this item all right then I move to approve policy 522 recommending reverting this policy to the 2022 version version um with all the forms in handbook language being updated is there um going to get a second on that second second by Maggie okay we've um had some discussion and so we'll move to a vote all those in favor say I I I post okay 7B um motion passes okay we're on to item nine our items for information then we have a construction update construction update number six yeah in the packet I've just included the latest update um for the construction process and there really is not a
042lot to report we're committed to giving you a document each time but when there's less to report on we're just going to let that report stand we have Item B is our American Indian parent advisory committee vote of concurrence um Dr heon do you want to share about that yes so uh director of instructional Services hope Langston and one of our family engagement Navigators or our indig excuse me our indigenous culture Le on Cil betsinger reported to you uh in the last six weeks or so talking about the activities of the indigenous parent advisory committee one of the requirements that the state has is for that committee to complete an annual vote on compliance or it's an annual compliance vote on concurrence or non-c concurrence and we are required to uh share this at a
043public meeting and so that committee has uh voted uh a vote of concurrence which means they believe that the school district's programming is meeting the needs of their students and so this is a state requirement and we just have it in the packet um as an item for information very good any questions or comments at this time okay item 10 is our future meetings those are Monday March 10th 6 PM in this boardroom Tuesday March 11th also 6 PM in the Northfield High School auditorium our priority based budget process public input meeting Monday April 14th is a regular board meeting in the boardroom here and then Monday April 28th 6 PM another regular board meeting that is all the business that we have tonight can I get a motion to adjourn motion okay move by
044jff second second by Jenny very good all those in favor say I I I then we are adjourned