Northfield School District Board of Education Regular Meeting 5 13 2024

001I call this meeting to order this is a regular meeting of the Northfield Public School Board today is Monday May 13 2024 on the time is 6m 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 Hillman we have some items in the table file will you update us yes we have several items in this evening's table file uh we have an overnight field trip request we have some agenda agenda to the district youth council members for 2425 we have a number of personel items including appointments increase decrease change in assignment we have a leave of absence we have

002uh a a person who declined a position and then we also have a corrected head custodians agreement um as well so those are the items in the table file tonight okay thank you very much if there are no objections we will add these items to the agenda as we move forward can I make one more comment so I just want to point out to board members that there was a a little pagination issue in the consent agenda you'll see there's a couple of uh Arabic numerals that are skipped and so it doesn't affect the part of the but we want you know we'll correct those that numbering in the minutes okay thank you very much if there are no objections We'll add these items to the agenda as we move forward any objections no okay

003is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented okay moved by Jeff second by Amie thank you all those in favor say I I oppos motion passes we now move on to the public comment portion of our meeting and I do have a um uh some comments that I will read before I call up the first person we have one person signed up this is an opportunity for residents business and or Property Owners parents Guardians caregivers students and employees of the Northfield 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 to debate an issue but only for the board to hear your comments you are prohibited from making comments about specific students

004staff and administrators this board respects and values input but when it relates to a specific individual or a specific matter this input must be heard by the appropriate personnel in including the building principal or superintendent and not during an open meeting of the school board you will be gabbled out of order if your comments are not in compliance with these guidelines 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 are not allowed to yield your time to another person it is expected that members of the public will address the remarks with Civility and respect personal attacks by anyone addressing the board are unacceptable the board has a lotted up to a

005total of 30 minutes for public comment at a regular school board meeting I will now begin to call those who have signed up to speak in the order in which they signed in Vice chair Corey 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 10sec intervals again please make your comments as brief as possible but no more than 3 minutes I will not call the first person and it is Chris Kennelly welcome Chris hello uh board and uh chair thank you very much uh my name is Chris canelli I'm a Northfield school resident I'm a proud parent of two Northfield school children and also a proud member of Northfield Hockey Association here and speaking on their behalf so mainly just

006here to say thank you uh thank you for beginning to address this very challenging issue we have in front of us uh we're in full support of the letter that's been drafted and moving this forward really this is a true public private partnership that's come forward together with the city of Northfield city of dundis and School District as well as the nun users all participating in this initiative and we think we've got the best possibility of moving this forward time is really not on our side anymore with the age of the current facility and we've got a great economic driver with a buyer of the current Arena that's really pushing this forward and the time is now to keep it moving so we greatly appreciate you addressing it and thanks you for your support thus

007far and we look forward to trying to move this forward thanks a lot he thank you very much that is all the um individuals we have signed up so we will now move on to our announcements and recognitions do you want to start us off yeah yes I can start off I turn my microphone on yes I just have two this evening um so the Northfield Community Education Center is holding its second annual carnival on Friday May 17th from 5: to 7:30 p.m. uh the car Carnival will be held at the NCC with Greenville Park Elementary School as the r sight uh the carnival is planned by The Early Childhood team at the ncec as a fundraiser for the Early Childhood programs all families with children's uh ages three to five and siblings are invited

008there will be bounce houses games food and other activities prices for those activities begin at0 50 cents I'm really grateful to not see the dunk tank on that list because last year at this event um I was uh asked if I would commit to being in the dunk tank next year which I did I require a 300 65 day advance notice to be in a dunk tank but they chose not to do it this year so I guess that I'm off the hook so no dunk tank but the rest of the stuff is great uh also want to congratulate the Northfield High School Environ teams they are headed to State uh Environ Environ is a Hands-On environmental and natural resources problemsolving competition that builds leadership skills for high school students and grades 9 through 12

009uh advanced placement environmental science teacher Mark o brought two teams to the southeast Minnesota Reg Regional competition recently norfield High School Advanced to the state competition by winning the regional so we want to congratulate ray music account Zack hosterman McKenzie Perkins Grace Van vorce Savannah Melly Gabriel fiser Navaro Jennifer Selenas Liam O'Neal Ellie capatina Bella rushing and Coach O who will be representing the Raiders at the state and viron uh competition so those are our announcements and recognitions for this evening very good okay and then now we will do a special presentation um to the senior members of our district youth Council so if you served on the district youth Council I'll have you come up all of you as a group and then what we're going to do is have you stand behind the

010podium and then I'm going to call each one of you by name alphabetical by last name you can come around to the front of the podium I'll read what committee you uh served on and then you can come forward I'll shake your hand and Ben Miller who served on that committee will hand you your certificate well students it is my honor to recognize you tonight on behalf of the school board your um service on these committees in the district and the community have been important to us and I know they've been important to your personal growth and I am absolutely positive that this is just the beginning of your Civic engagement and so I just commend you alongside all of the board members tonight um and now I will follow you up by name and

011state what committee you served on and I would like to note also that we asked the students to fill out a small um Google form to indicate some of the highlights of their service and if there was anybody they wanted to recognize and um they very often recognize Malia Fen for her help on the the committee okay so we will now honor um Maddie buman you come up here to the front and we'll hand your certificate um Maddie served on equity and inclusion student relations policy and safety thank you all right McKenna Carlson McKenna served on Equity District facilities Wellness committee as part as also of equity communication subcommittee and is as the um as a current chair or co-chair I'm sorry and served as Secretary last year congratulations and you for all your service

012and is Samantha here all right Samantha s um Bermudez also served and we will give her her certificate another another time he Brady uh not here right Brady was on District Safety Committee equity subcommittee and board relations we'll get the certificate out at another time he Mariana estada and Mariana served on student relations thank you so much for your service luck and then we have Charlotte Flory and Charlotte served on Equity subcommittee um and northv forward thank you and then Mari Hansen has been serving for two years Financial Advisory Board and School Board relations thank you he then we have Ina Johnson School Board relations school relations and board relations thank youa and Connor Percy on equity and North Field forward so much all right thank you students and I know we'll hear from you

013shortly as well we can all right we are on to items for discussion and reports and our first item is McKenna Carlson and Connor Percy providing the end of the year recap for the district youth Council 2324 school year welcome Connor and McKenna hi everyone um I'm Connor Percy I'm AA Carlson and we were your co-chairs this year for the district youth Council um it's been a pleasure working with with you all um so we're just kind of go through going to go through kind of our summary of this year and our goals for next year for the district youth Council the district youth Council Works to facilitate connections between the school board and student body uh we had three subcommittees this year Equity worked to promote inclusion and equality within our school and they

014work towards projects involving representation of all students from all walks of life um Communications or school relations Works to share our message and goals with the student body they manage the Instagram account as well and work towards sending updates out to the student population the connection subcommittee Works to facilitate connections between the district youth Council and the school board they organize team building events and make sure that all information is translated between our groups next year we plan on having two subcommittees connections and Equity Communications will be reduced down to a single position in charge of running the social media page um here's kind of a summary of everything we got done this year uh we had District youth members sat on 10 District level committees uh we had period product restock in all women

015and gender neutal bathrooms in the high school from September to December um kind of transitioning into the um state grants that we're getting for that now um CCR School satisfaction survey was sent out in November by our Communications committee I believe um and the dyc members also particip ipated in Community Education events and assisted with tours of the high school um there was a presentation to the school board on our CCR survey results which was sent out in November um we had a significant social media presence this year probably our best yet um and we really alerted and educated students and community members on school board and District happenings um including the updates with our school facilities and stuff like that um we also collaborated with mayor's youth Council and the FFA to attend youth

016day at the capital and promote that within our school um we met with representative Christy Purcell to discuss Educational Funding and affordable housing Solutions at the state and local level there um we also had a Schoolboard brunch as always with you guys which is great and um we had a facilities Forum in March with the school body to kind of discuss um possible um this was before the um the reimagine plan was adopted so that was kind of just giving everyone an overview of our options moving forward um this we've started brainstorming plans and ideas for next year and again we're going to do our school board brunch along with Schoolboard candidate forums we're hoping to look into a Heritage Festival and do something with that and as well as continuing to promote upcoming ballots

017and assisting in facility tours as we have been and we're going to continuing to supply the period products in the winter break and many other projects and you can see some of our leaders next year up there all right is there any questions for you guys okay thank you so much for your presentation board members any questions or comments hey Corey thank you both for presenting tonight and for your contributions to the D with dyc over the years when you reflect on your high school career and specifically with this committee what do you reflect on what stands up mostly is the most meaningful project or time you spent um I'd say having like our voices having such a big impact on like the decisions that happened like with the snoo reimagine stuff like being able

018to help with all that was really cool I'd say my favorite part was probably um last year making the um name change guide for gender queer youth in our community because that was something that was a problem that I kind of had been thinking of for a while and I presented it to the district youth Council and we were actually able to carry out a project that was completed and made a change in our school so it was really cool to see that kind of from start to end um so any other questions or comments okay Ben mic Conor thanks thanks for allowing me to attend some of your meetings during the year those were always good and informative and we'll miss you uh next year to be sure and thanks to and congrats to

019all the graduating seniors just had a question on the Heritage Festival idea what is what is that can you talk a little bit more about what that would look like yeah so it's pretty um basic right now we were talking about a little bit this year but um we didn't really have a chance to actually carry it out we were talking about getting like a bunch of student organizations within the school or Community organizations to kind of get together and um show off like their culture their unique culture and their food and all that kind of stuff maybe during Flex or some other time anyone else question or comment um I had one question for you and that is besides the Instagram account what other ways or what other tools to use to communicate with

020the whole student body like we said earlier in our presentation we also sent out um that survey to the student body um which we plan to do more stuff like that um but it's definitely worth looking into more ways that we can reach out to the community over different platforms for sure yeah I'm thinking about informational like how do they hear about the different events that you have or the different opportunities that you're bringing to the student body yeah so the Instagram is kind of the main one right now but we could definitely look into expanding that yeah sure all right thanks to both of you thanks so much okay we have Item B the proposed 202 2425 general fund budget director murru will present the proposed general fund budget no action is required at

021this meeting welcome back thank you for for having me all right so I'm going to present the 2425 proposed general fund budget so as we've talked about in the past enrollment is a very large driver uh in our Revenue calculation so about 70% of our revenue is based on some type of enrollment calculation um for those formulas so 2223 was our fourth year in a row of declining enrollment this year as you can see we are actually um up very slightly we're calling that stable um but we're anticipating to begin declining again um in 2425 and then uh for the next several years after that is what the projection is showing so we have had um we're projecting for next year to have about a 48 student decline now this year is a little bit

022higher than our projection so we're hopeful that that will carry over um and I would always love to be wrong that my enrollment was low we'll always take that but right now it looks like about a uh 48 student decline or a 58 student weighted pupil so the Apu is what the formulas are typically calculated on so um k6 is weighted at 1.0 and 712 is at 1.2 the prek column just um as a reminder is um solely for our early childhood special ed students um there's a very specific calculation based on the hours they're served in our program so that is not representative of all the students that are served at the Northfield Community Education Center um one of the things that we get asked quite a bit is why are we declining um

023in enrollment it's the common uh denominator is that it's a destination district and um they assume people are going elsewhere which is not always the case um the main reason we have declining enrollment is that there's just a lower birth rate so that is um not special to Northfield or Rice County um or the state it's a nationwide Trend um and so that is one of the main reasons that we are seeing declining enrollment um and the second reason is really the housing crisis um in my narrative that I included in the packet um I said that our last update had about 30 homes available in our 174 square mile School District boundaries uh for single family homes that is actually um well overstated at this point because we got an update between Thursday and

024today uh there are currently 12 homes available um over half of which are $500,000 or more and there's current Curr L 16 under construction but obviously not available currently so that's another really significant reason um that we are seeing declining enrollment not that students are just choosing elsewhere so in terms of the revenue assumptions um the state sources is our largest um bucket of money so it's typically 70% of our budget so we are assuming a 2% increase um in the basic per pupil formula um so it's going from 7,138 to 7,281 per the Apu which is that weighted calculation um again declining enrollment is the most significant impact to that um I included a chart in your narrative to help kind of visualize how impactful declining enrollment is the basic formula makes up 48%

025of our total Revenue um which is obviously a very significant portion and so with even with the 2% increase um we are only going to realize about a0 59% increase because of the declining enrollment for special education um we are paid based on our prior expenditures and so we typically see an increase for that we also were made aware um of an opportunity to re recode some things in the system that we're already paying for that will um ultimately generate about an extra $400,000 for the district and so we're taking advantage of that um and I'll talk a little bit later about one of the opportunities we're using that for um summer unemployment so um as you may recall last legislative session um all of our hourly paid staff who do not work in a

026year round capacity are eligible for unemployment during the summer there um was specific language in the statute that said we could not Levy for any of those dollars um we do have an unemployment Levy but it is only um it's very minimal um historically and so the legislature did allocate onetime money um so we got fully funded for last summer which was about $120,000 I'm anticipating that to increase as more people are aware of it um can understand that they can apply for it and those sorts of things um and so there is money remaining and so I'm hopeful that we'll have it all covered but it'll be pro-rated based on the total State expenditures to make sure that everybody's getting the same percentage of what's remaining in that allocation um but at this point

027there's no further funding after that pot runs out so again I budget bued 125,000 in both revenue and expenditures for that um but just anticipate that starting in fiscal 26 there's no other Associated Revenue to help absorb that cost at this point compensatory um we have seen a pretty substantial increase in compensatory With The Changes they've allowed um in terms of how that funding is calculated and who qualifies for free and reduced status um behind the scenes at the state level so that's about what .6 million um we I would say we averaged pre pandemic a little bit under a million and so that's been a pretty good increase um they are however becoming more particular about how you spend it um and tracking those things so we're keeping an eye on that and making

028sure that we're compliant with the additional requirements property taxes um is our local Levy and so that is probably my favorite part of the budget because it's already done we know all the numbers um so I know that I'll be accurate on it because we certified that in December um and so just because of the timing of the County's um fiscal year and our fiscal year being offset is just a slightly different calculation for us so that amount is already locked in um and if you recall from December we talked about the capital projects referendum um that voter improved increase was the most significant portion of that was about 1.2 million so you'll see on the um the next slide where that increase shows up we do have the inflationary Factor on our operating referendum

029um our voter approved operating referendum but again that's some of that's offset by uh declining enrollment but still a positive amount and then Federal sources um in this adopted budget I have just our standard Federal programs that we had um consistently so Esa is our title programming and idea is all of the special ad funding and so that's about 1.3 million I think um that's on the next slide we will have um a small amount of our Esser funding left but it is all to be expended by September 30th and so once we have it finalized and we know how much that is we'll include that in the revised budget but it should be pretty pretty minimal um so we'll make sure all of that all of the large pots of money we already spent

030completely it's just our summer programming allocation and then local sources is basically everything else so um we're assuming the same rates and participation levels for activity fees and admissions to events there is a slight increase to the U Medicaid Revenue that we receive um just based on historical what we've been receiving uh there was an increase in our interest Revenue calculation and then um an offsetting decrease because we won't be selling devices next year so that's an every other year impact on that local Source um allocation so here's what it looks like when you pull that all together so you'll see the levy has a pretty significant jump again primarily related to the capital projects Levy um so we're anticipating about 67 million 7 44818 as a total revenue for our adopted budget all right

031expenditures um I was glad I got this on like three slides or five slides but there's a lot that goes into um all of these assumptions and what's um kind of going on behind the scenes so I'll do my best to go through it at a high enough detailed level that everybody feels comfortable so salaries and benefits uh we've talked about this as well um 80% of our budget is salary and benefits we are a people business and so every school district in the state has a similar budget um in terms of that percentage we are currently negotiating um with 16 contracts we negotiate with the teachers union in one year and then all the others in the other year so we're working through that process um I mentioned earlier about the change in the

032special blood funding and one of the new positions included is the um special education inclusion coach is I think the actual title I put specialist on here so my apologies for that so that is a a new position that we're going to try out with this additional funding um to see if that works and if it does what we want it to we can maintain it but um if we decide to discontinue it we can actually gain some additional Revenue in that special ed formula so there's kind of um some opportunity there as well in addition um one other new thing we're going to try this year a typo on that one nobody caught it English learner um so similar to the contingency FTE that we have built in the general fund we're having a

033smaller contingency with English learner you saw um hope come several times this year uh with the need that we're seeing in that program and so now we have 1.0 FTE built in if we need it if we don't we won't spend it um but in terms of timing and responding uh particularly to some of the new to Country students that we've seen come in getting them support as quickly as possible is really important um and so just making sure we can respond to that if we need to benefits um so FICA Pera and TR are all statutorily required and a percentage of salary so that increases based on the salary increase um that we have across the board we're anticipating a 5% increase in our health contribution we did see a pretty substantial uh continued

034increase in our work comp premium that's probably been the third or fourth year in a row now that we've seen a pretty substantial increase um again and primarily due just to the activity we've seen with that program in terms of non-salary and other operational um transportation is a pretty significant portion of our non-salary and that had 4% increase that's a I think a three-year contract with an option to renew twice um and so that was already built in uh when we approved it last time the utility expenditures I have flat right now um this year was great for weather and utility costs so hopefully that will continue um but overall that's looking very stable compared to some of the things we've seen in the last couple of years we did have a substantial increase in

035our property liability Insurance again there's some Market pressures there that are making things challenging um I believe it was about an 8% increase um and then a lot of the increase in expenditure not a lot a significant part is um the capital projects Levy so we got an additional 1.2 million um and then we're putting that into different projects as we um as we told the voters we would so all of the technology services staff are now included in that um so that's kind of just shifting an increase in our um curriculum and instructional review cycle um opportunity for materials and things like that so that is part of the additional expenditures as well uh the fund balance goal as you are aware is 14% And again with that calculation change that we did of

036that is the total expenditures excluding operating Capital long-term facility maintenance scholarships and Student Activities which are all self-contained um so we're comparing that against just kind of the actual true general fund operating and so this is what it looks like by program so um I like to say this is where we're spending the money um and the next slide is by object and so that's what we're actually spending it on um like people things that sort of thing so this is the this is the wear and so you can see kind of the last three years of audit results where we're projecting for this year and then for 2425 I will say um vocational instruction is one I always want to call out um you'll see that that's kind of increased over time and that's

037been a pretty intentional effort as you're aware we now have four different programs that are considered CTE approved by mde and so I actually expect that to probably increase um so we'll be transferring expenditures from regular instruction down to vocational because we now have the program approval and the teachers with the appropriate lers so that we can recode some of those things so not that we haven't been always doing that type of programming just that the lure and the qualifying for the levy portion of it wasn't um wasn't what we had in place at the time so we've made made some intentional efforts there and anticipate to continue seeing our most recent was obviously the agriculture program that came through a couple weeks ago so we're excited to see what we can do with that

038additional funding um so 66.8 million um again Capital outlay just as a reminder is the equipment type things that are pulled out so that it doesn't skew from year to year because sometimes those can get pretty big if we have big projects going on um so to provide some more consistency across years when you're looking at the program level so this is the same 66.8 million just in some different categories so again salaries and benefits 80% um and so you can see how that Trends year-over-year um purchase Services is things um like Consulting fees transportation that sort of thing um the rest is pretty self-explanatory no major changes um I will say the dues and membership you'll notice kind of a pretty significant decline across that row and it is not necessarily that we're spending

039less there um part of that includes the um we call it the 899 code which is basically miscellaneous and there were all of our Student Activity expenditures were coded to that um and the state has come back and said we have to code them where appropriate so if it's purchase service or supplies and so they're just distributed within the other object codes now so not that we're spending less necessarily just a different way of um accounting for it and so this is what the summary looks like um when everything's pulled together um so we're looking at about an $889,000 Surplus um adding fund balance of about 14.9 million in total restricted of 5.8 million and unassigned of 9.1 and again that's about 14.35% um we're anticipating ending at about 14.26 for the revised budget again

040that might come in different since enrollments trending a little high um I always hope it'll come in a little better than that but um as you know I like to be a little conservative um and so I've been we've been doing budget presentations and I've been joking that my job is to tell you what I think is going to happen and then tell you why I was wrong and so I'll be conservative so so that it can be a positive um at the end hopefully so that is where we're at um and I just want to say uh we're super fortunate in norfield um our community is incredibly supportive of education and our budget reflects significant support that not every district has access to um and we take that very seriously and so I just

041want to publicly make sure that people are aware that we're grateful for that and do take that stewardship seriously it's one of our strategic commitments um but the the fund balance also really allows us to be proactive we're in a strong financial position um even if it looks like things might be tight in the future but again I think we're able to be thoughtful and proactive with the support of the community and um our stewardship practices so with that I will gladly answer any questions you might have on the general fund thanks ma great job with that and I know that the community feels good um with you leading Us in that financial side of things so thank you members do you have any questions or comments Jenny thanks Claudia um Val the um you

042mentioned the inclusion Specialist or coach is that going to be um that salary would be paid with a $400,000 extra in special education yes okay and but then it's mentioned that that's going to be ending in possibly summer of 2025 is that the funding that NOP the summer on employment um I think is the one that I mentioned was discontinuing okay okay so the four the extra 400,000 that's an ongoing yep every year and so we we and so we can anticipate having that specialist position every year or is it we we can if it's doing what we want it to do right we'll evaluate it and make sure because it's new um and they obviously have goals for that position and then if it does not do you know if we decide at some

043point to discontinue it or we met um the goals of the you know for that position we we put it we're putting it into our federal funding so that there's not a maintenance of effort um concerned with the special education funding and so then we can effectively get more than 400,000 in return if that makes sense yes and are there stipulations that it can only be used for salaries then since it's a separate from special education um nope the the federal special it just has to be special education related and so the the position is meant to um be a coach throughout the district to help support um kind of the gened special ed um overlap I'm not that's not the word but maybe you have a better description I do so I think the

044important piece to think about here is that these are expenditures that we were already making because of some changes to statute there's an advantage by recoding some things that had been Federal funded to the state budget it generates more Revenue so as valet uh brings up $400,000 it could be used in a variety of different ways the special education inclusion coach keeps that amount of money in the special education fund one of the things that we have been hearing from our teaching staff uh over the last couple of years is the challenges of making sure that our special education students who are when they are included in the general education classroom that we can keep them there as long as we can and try to avoid having them to have specialized Services outside of the

045classroom we're doing a lot on tier one work which we is really General good old classroom instruction and if I'm getting Services outside of the classroom I'm not getting necessarily that grade level instruction so the idea is how do we coach general education teachers to have more inclusive practices to be able to serve those special education students along with everyone else in the general education classroom and it's one of the things that uh can be challenging and so supporting our teachers being able to do that is important we are also using some of these dollars to reduce class size in certain areas as well we've got a few hot spots throughout the district so we are using some of that to support some uh classroom reductions specifically at Spring Creek Elementary the reason that we

046can look at the special education funding next year and if we say it the inclusion coach didn't do if let's say that that it does not do what we hope it would do I think it will we've got a really good person identified for the position but if it were not we still have the ability to to um transfer if you will those funds back back into the general fund non-s special education related without an impact on maintenance of effort so that's the big thing is that I think the biggest thing in this is that there's additional Revenue that is generated by the state special education formula that in a one-time way is not subject to the maintenance of effort which means the state will look at the expenditures on special education um in one

047fiscal year compare it to the next fiscal year and make sure you're spending about the same amount of money on special education so it is an unusual thing we don't see this very often and it's going to really benefit a number of different programs as we move forward without adding to the budget right it's a adding of Revenue and adding of expenditures okay and this so this position will essentially be a offering support to special education teachers the general education teachers so it's a speci it's a person who's trained in special education and inclusive practices which means in our our general education classrooms that the teachers in those general education classrooms are better able to serve the special the students who have received special education services okay okay um and that will just be one

048one position for K through 12 or do you have a specific are do you have a a um specific set of grades in mind that you want it to focus it will be a K12 position okay and then Val I had another question about workers compensation sure um are do all staff members um qualify for workers compensation and do we pay on all workers or just are there some categories of workers that are excluded and not required um the vast majority are included um there's some that do not get included in the calculation um like substitutes learn considered part of our regular premium and that sort of thing but um that's I that's the only group I can think of um that's been a typical um ongoing increase year toe yeah we've just had some

049really significant um a variety of things actually um that are they are playing into that so it's not just the rates that have been going up there's other factors yep so the the rate that we get charged is based on our our historical experience um and the number of events we've had has has been more significant than I would say probably the last 5 years and so we've seen pretty steady increases in that so that's are you talking about the EMR rating um they call it the mod rate okay and that rate has gone up okay which then the premium goes up accordingly okay yep all right and then I just have a question for Dr hman too but I can wait um until yeah there's anybody else who wants to make a comment or

050has a question otherwise we'll get back to Jenny oh Ben go ahead thank you thank than you Jenny thanks D yeah informative presentation as always I had one question in terms of so for the uh special education cross Subs that was passed last year have we fully realized the revenue from that or is that at this point yep that's all included um in the budget what's in here right now is the rate it'll be through 26 um and then there's another increase in the statute beginning in fiscal 27 um but right now it was about a I want to say 1.9 million um that we realize for this this current budget and then for the next two years and do we how much does it go up in 27 do we know oh I just

051looked at it um it's at 44% right now and I want to say it goes up to like 50 so it won't be as significant as the 6% to the 44 but it'll probably be a couple hundred thousand would be my guess yep anyone else question or comment go ahead thank you so yeah this is for Dr Helman um I just had a question so Val brought up um kind of the reasons for the declining enrollment or the the main um reasons but I had a question um just over looking through the enrollment options history noticing that the total out um District students out has um been increasing steadily uh from 20 or I should say for the last eight years so every year that number has gone up even though um we've our enrollment

052or we've been under declining enrollment that number continues to rise and so it really started concerning me when you compare um you know it doesn't correlate and so that raises a red flag for me and my question is have um have our Administration experimented at all with um reaching out to those who are who are transferring out and finding out if there's any reasons that that stand out so I would like to just discuss to make sure we're talking about the same data um because the data that I have the enrollment options history which is what Val it's a spreadsheet Val puts uh together for us I see the total students out declining for four consecutive years so I see that in 2020 21 we had 875 students going out um in the next year

053853 the next year 839 the next year 817 so I'm seeing it decline for four years in terms of the number and am I understanding your question correctly yes so I'm just looking at the enrollment options history okay because and you're saying that you think that the it is going the number of students going out each year has been increasing um Northfield students out um so for 2023 24 it says 287 okay so you are talking about so this is an important piece because we're talking about a variety of different things so if we look at the overall number of students going out we are seeing a decline so if we think about all of it we are seeing in the high Watermark most recently was in 20221 when 870 total students 875 total students

054chose something else that declined to 8117 this year that's if you include everything you include private school you include home school you include Charter Schools um if you look at the traditional Northfield students out you are seeing you're right you're seeing in that number you're seeing a four-year increase while at the same time we are also seeing a four-year increase on the non-resident students coming in so you are right in terms of we have more students who are going going out uh since 2020 21 in traditional public school open enrollment um increasing by about 50 students over that same time we've also increased in the non-residents coming in over that period of time and when we look at the bottom line the total students between all of those things going out is less than what

055it's been but if we focus in on the specific Parts about the Northfield students going out to traditional um other school districts you're seeing the large increase right now in the other and quite a bit in the other is going to be my I have to look at the very specific details my perception is it's those students who are going online full-time of which we no longer offer um a complete North we offer a program but it is through oana online right so there are some people who might choose a different all the time online program we offer an online program you can stay as a district resident you can participate in athletics things like that but I would have to dig into that large that largest uh year-over-year piece from last year to this

056year was other and I would just need to look into more of that okay yes you're right I was speaking about the um traditional schools and the numbers going out and the the biggest concern being Randolph and um that that has been a steady increase and also too um one thing to note is that although you know they're very close by and so they're operating under the same you know birth rate and housing crisis and issues as we are yet they um enrollment has increased for the past six years every year um and so it's that's something I think to note and that and that's just another reason I guess that I think um it's just raises another red flag to you know pursue looking into seeing you know is there something going on is

057there something wrong can we offer you know other programming or anything like that I know I think that one of the um reasons you know I had thought maybe because the FFA and the a program was kind of maybe a big indicator but um so since we brought that back the number was 112 going out to Randol previous year and then this year it stayed at 112 so I'm kind of thinking maybe it's not the a program like I had thought and so I really I mean I'm very very concerned about that because they're um enrollment is increasing and and ours is you know decreasing so I just feel like it's time to um address that issue thank you yeah and I I can offer you see the large you saw larger chunks in 2020

058in 2021 and what we know is that that was when you saw a lot of open enrollment um in Minnesota based upon um how families wanted the pandemic um restrictions for their family so I I know for a fact that in 2020 21 and 2021 22 the difference in school district's approach to the pandemic which thankfully is now in our rearview mirror that was the major driver uh I do think that the a program was also a major driver for some time before that and I think the stabilization of that this year says something and I think we'll be very interested to see what we look at next year we know that we just chartered our FFA for the first time in 33 years and we're hearing a lot of positive feedback from Northfield um

059a program families about the level of programming that they're seeing in Northfield so we will certainly see some of that Randolph is also a unique District right it's a very small District in Dakota County and you will see open enrollment from other larger districts it's not just us right and in fact there's um they have quite a bit of open enrollment from a lot of districts around them so we could certainly talk in more detail about that I think next year's numbers will really tell us because once people transfer that open enrollment in 2021 2020 21 and 2122 I think people stayed right after if they made a change they had their kids stay I think the fact that it stabilized this year says something and then I think as we see for next year

060I think that that will really be a Telltale sign for a long time what we would hear from people who chose Randolph was they preferred the small the much smaller environment than what we are able to offer some of it was the EG program some some of it frankly was people who lived in that side of the school district they were close enough to the Border in some cases it was just as convenient for them to get there as to here so we'll certainly do a deeper dive my perception is that next year's numbers will also tell us a pretty significant story okay thank you any other questions or comments thank you very much Val thank you item C is our policy commit recommendations and Dr Helman will present on the policy committee's recommendations for

061policies 533 and 89.1 the board will be asked to approve these at the May 28th board meeting yes we have two policies that we're asking you to consider updating uh at the next meeting the first is the wellness policy and this wellness policy is something that we're required to have and the major driver for the change in this policy is that uh the required policy really is focus on student wellness but for many years we have also had a separate standing staff uh Wellness committee and as we have been working on um streamlining and making things more efficient and understand that all of the people that we serve students and staff that Wellness is important to all of our stakeholders who are here every day uh the proposal had come forward to be able to

062merge this policy so that it's both staff and students uh being addressed as part of the wellness committee that's the essential real driver you'll see um for example in 2B you'll see that it says should promote student and staff health so we're going to combine those two uh committees into one and have the policy oversee all of it the other piece that I'll show you that the policy committee made a a change on is because of the universal meals or the Minnesota free meals for all program um we're just adding under the physical activity portion remember that a students national school lunch program free or reduced lunch status um allows them to access scholarships so even though there are free meals for all students they students can still qualify for scholarship or other funding based

063upon where they would qualify um for the national school lunch program and of course we want to make sure that there's no Stigma associated with that so this just really focuses on making sure before it was in the lunch line area right will reduce um stigma when students are getting lunch like in the days when people would have tickets you know different color tickets things like that this is really just moving this segment or this sentiment if you will to the physical activity category just to make sure that we want people who would qualify for free or reduced lunch if we were in another state to be able to get those scholarships and that we reduce any uh social stigma that might be associated with that so that's really the major updates to that particular

064policy um also added something about publishing a process to accommodate dietary restrictions related to allergies and other intolerances just so families know where to look how do I get information about how I can get accommodations for my student should they have an allergy or an intolerance to some other kind of um food if that makes sense so those are the changes to that particular policy 89.1 is our sponsorships policy and we have been last year we started this this year we're starting to see some traction with sponsorships so I'm going to give you an example and we are in the policy we're asking that you modify it so that the Director of Finance and the superintendent of schools are able to negotiate any sponsorship agreements that are less than $25,000 anything more than $25,000 would

065be approved by the board the reason we're asking to have that level in which the B and I can do the negotiations is we are starting to see um traction on smaller kinds of projects by way of example we have a local business that is willing to help sponsor the replacement of the scorers table on the gym so that is something that would have typically cost us money we would not have recouped any kind of revenue for it and because we have a the sponsorships policy and we are able to allow for um advertising on that scores table this uh local um business is willing to agree to a multi-year payment of $44,000 per year to be the sponsor if you will of that scores table now clearly that will pay for the table itself

066and then we would be able to resell that space after that agreement area would be up that's a fairly small thing and in the course of how sponsorships work it would be good for us to be able to seize on that opportunity and continue through with the process um our board meetings our business meetings are twice a month it just does it's just not conducive to that kind of quick work and we think that actually the engine of the sponsorships are going to be what I would refer to as a bunch of singles as opposed to one GR slam right we hope to get a few grand slams over time but if we can do some of these smaller things the amalgamation of all of those things are going to make a pretty big difference

067for us it's going to allow us to accelerate replacement of things that we might not have been able to do before because of the sponsorships so we are asking you to Simply give uh Val and I the opportunity be to the direct negotiators for anything under $25,000 those are the two policies okay thank you so much board members do you have any questions for Dr Helman yep question D yes um or maybe this would be for Val how many sponsorships um have been greater than 25,000 in our history well um this is a pretty new policy so to date we've only done one and it was $20,000 for the um Middle School pool scoreboard so we have probably um I would say four different things that we're actively working on two of which would be

068over um and two of which would be under so um there's not a lot of history to go on okay I was hoping for more but yeah all right thank you yep anyone else questions or comments very we'll move on to the next item which is our fall 2024 PL referendum referendum and Dr Helman will update the board on the informational campaign and the highlights and highlight some upcoming of it yes so uh we continue to provide tours and do virtual sessions um and other presentations as requested so uh over the last couple of weeks since I last reported to you we've offered another virtual session the virtual sessions are not as popular as we thought they might be we try to keep them to 30 minutes a piece we have are trying we've had

069a couple uh during the day right now we've had from 12 to 12 12:30 trying to hit that lunch time we've had one on a Sunday night so far and uh so far through those three we've had a grand total of one attendee so um we've got another one coming up and uh as we said after the first few months of the informational campaign we'll reassess you know what are the best ways uh to do that so uh this week what we have coming up and and actually last week just to share um we did uh move our rotary presentation so we were originally scheduled to present to Rotary in late June they had a cancellation in their speaker uh schedule so we're able to move up to um May 2nd and that's a quite

070a significant group uh I would assess there's probably was probably a hundred people there and uh really great interaction great engagement we continue to do a variety of different pieces including a quarter sheet or postcard size um um they postcard size documents that we hand out at certain events so by way of example these were on the tables at the Singo Deo event which was really well attended uh at norfield middle school if you attended the fall play or excuse me the spring play uh there was an insert in each of the programs so these are the kinds of different ways that we're trying to help make sure that people are aware of what's going on we have two tours this week so again please make sure that we encourage people to come on the

071tours we have a tour tomorrow from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. again you're gather uh in the media center you enter at door number 10 you come into the media Center we have a short presentation we give the tour Q&A at the end so there's a tour tomorrow afternoon there's also a tour this Saturday um 9:00 am. to 11: a.m. uh again entering at door 10 come to the media center uh we also have something that we have not done before we are working to schedule presentations for Township boards in a variety of different ways so I'm really excited to share that uh we will be my understandings will be first on the agenda for Wednesday night's inter intergovernmental Township meeting my understanding is this is a uh meeting of several different District townships including the

072county I think even the city of Northfield is part of that and so that's at Northfield Town Hall 7 o'clock on Wednesday next week we've got our first one at uh 50 North the first I believe three presentations that we have at 50 North between now and November we'll be at Arcadia charter school next week uh as well um we'll have some of these quarter uh postcard size sheets at the um nce Carnival this week so lots of different events um also this Thursday uh we'll be doing uh we'll be tabling at the third Thursday event in downtown Northfield so if you know the third Thursday is a downtown um event where there's a lot of discounts and in the summer months in May June July and August uh they actually close down the streets

073and it's more if you think of crazy days that kind of crazy day scale so we'll have a table there and again um I know that it's beginning to work that people are paying attention because at the play on Thursday night someone pulled out the thing and that says by you're everywhere are you going to be everywhere between now and election day and we said absolutely because we want to make sure people are aware of what we're asking for and that they have the information that they need uh to make an informed uh decision so those are the events that we have coming up tonight uh later on we'll ask you to approve the submission of the review and comment and then I just want to uh comment that we'll actually be bringing the official

074ballot language to the next board meeting and so that that is uh we're ready to do that we'll bring that to the May 28th meeting and then ask for your formal approv of the actual language that will go on the ballot at the June 10th meeting so that's the update um we are super happy to have some great engagement there are people who are very thankful for the information there are people with lots of questions which is good many of the questions are things that we've heard before so it's always good when you're able to hear and see that we're seeing some similar questions that helps us polish our presentation and additional information so we're being proactive so uh so far uh the engagement has just been excellent um people with a lot of curiosity

075and uh we will be nearly everywhere between now and election day so the informational campaign is in full swing terrific thanks for that update for members you have any questions or comments okay thank you so much item six is our consent agenda and as a reminder there were some Personnel items in the table file added to the consent grouping is there anything anyone would like to to pull from the consent grouping for separate consideration okay is there a motion to approve the consent grouping move by Ben second by am thank you all right all those in favor say I I post motion passes right item seven is our items for individual action we have four items for individual action and a resolution board members uh please be sure to turn your mics on and speak

076into your mic at the time of the vote it's important that Anita hear your voice during the vote whether it's a resolution or not so she can record it in the minutes item a is the revised 2023 24 Child Nutrition fund budget this budget revision was presented at the April 22nd board meeting by director stormmy and director Mur storf the revised 2324 budget reflects revenues of 2 million um 2.6 million and expenditures of 2.6 is there motion to approve the revised 2324 Child Nutrition budget as presented okay move by Cory second by Ben thank you is there any discussion at this point about the um Child Nutrition fund budget okay all those in favor say I I I are you able to capture all of the votes Anita okay opposed motion passes Item B is

077the revised 2324 Community Education fund budget and this budget revision was also presented at the I'm sorry this budget pres was presented at the April 22nd 2024 board meeting by director Bailey and director murer um is there a motion to approve the revised 20232 24 Community Education budget as presented details in the packet okay moved by Amy second by Jenny thank you is there any any discussion any questions or comments seeing none we'll vote all those in favor say I hi opposed were able to capture all the okay um I would like if you will facilitate a roll call vote please Butler I gerwitz hi Miller hi Nelson hi Pell hi statmon Gonzalez George I okay thank you item C is the ice arena letter of support to the Northfield city council um Dr hman

078and myself drafted a letter on behalf of the Board of Education and Northfield Public Schools affirming our commitment to leasing the city of northfield's ice arena up to a maximum of $250,000 annually for an estimated 20 years including ice time the district would use its lease Levy authority to fund the annual payment as it does for the current ice arena the gymnastics center and the dundis Dome ERS has provided an estimated tax impact analysis of the increased lease the district would be part of a public private partnership that includes the district the city of dundis the city of Northfield and the Northfield Hockey Association I'll take a motion first and then we can discuss is there a motion to to approve the ice arena letter of support to the Northfield city council affirming the district's

079intent to lease the city's Ice Arena as presented move by any okay by cor is there any discussion questions or comments yeah I've got a lot sorry I'll call on you in just a minute all right any comments or questions okay Chad um yeah I'm to understand uh what is the total cost proposed for this project anybody the total cost is still being determined by the city council I think that they are looking at a couple of options ranging from 20 it sounds like they're going to land on the $21 million new single sheet option and and am I to understand that this is not going for a vote for the Northfield people is is that true so I wonder too um if these are questions that we can answer or these are questions for

080the city council why why would I give a letter of recommendation if I don't actually know what's on there I think to spend that kind of money and and I mean I'm all for I'm Pro Hockey that's all great or whatever it is but if you're gonna have that kind of money and you're not going to bring that to a public vote you know let the city of Northfield people decide if they want to have that expenditure but I'm not I mean I'm for sure going to be a no at this point I just think that there are other options that need to be expressed and discussed and explored and I don't I mean if the if the Northfield people um are going to have that on their taxes and they're not able to vote

081for it to me that sounds a lot like taxation without representation so uh based on I think what you're looking at tonight I'm probably sure that I'm going to be a no on your letter I can address a couple of those I just wanted to make a quick comment on that for myself um that this is our you know we already lease um with the current Arena and so this letter is just to say that we will continue that practice that's the way that I'm reading it and definitely if the city doesn't go through with it obviously we can't participate but should they go through with it the way I understand it is that this is just our continued practice but that's what I was I agree with you y and then there's anything else

082you wanted to add Dr Helman no I would I would simply say the the way that the council determines to move forward with this is the council's business what we are saying is that we are affirming our desire to continue leasing the arena and understating that if they choose to move to something new that obviously our lease would increase so the city does have several options of how they could choose to move ahead city councils and county governments do have the ability to what is called a batement so that they are able to move forward on a lot of projects similar to this many cities and counties do this on a fairly regular basis so that there are several financing options that the city of North held would have but that would be their determination

083we are simply saying regardless of how you get there we would be committing um or affirming our intent to continue to uh lease the facility for the foreseeable future thank you very much are there any other comment or questions from any of the other board members Jenny I just have a few questions for Dr hman um could you give a brief overview of if there were any other Alterna AES um considered prior to kind of starting talks with the city on this particular project okay before so that this discussion goes back since I've been in this round of discussions I've been involved in them for probably about 10 years there have been a number of different thoughts over time a number of different approaches uh most recently I would say this latest round probably began

084two years ago I was just estimate it started about two years ago ideating how would we move forward as the facility continues to age continue to not serve its purpose there have been a number of things in fact what the council has considered right now is they have looked at a potential um remodeling of the arena and interestingly enough remodeling of the Arena comes fairly close to New um so it's an interesting piece just of how much work has to be done there there's been a number of different concepts of what would new look like I I think if you look at the city council packet from last week you saw options uh between 21 and $28 million for a brand new facility my understanding is that the appetite seems to be for the lower

085end of that project so I know there are a number of things I I know that there's some existing facilities in town that had been looked at I know there was uh some discussion about are there other potential entities that you could share that uh share with there's been some requests from some other communities would we want to share their FA facility that's not necessarily an option for a town of 20,000 with a vibrant ice community so a number of different things including what I think is for us the most troubling option which is no ice and the school district has been very clear the reason that we are willing to look at our letter of affirmation is that if we do not have ice in this community we know that students will leave right

086we talked about the declining we talked about some open enrollment options and it is it just is fact that we know that um a number of students in their families would choose something else because of their passion for this particular sport how many is Up For Debate right there are some estimates it would be as much as 200 students who might leave we are a little more conservative and if a 100 students left the district with no ice in the community we'd be losing a million dollars and or we would have a million dollars Less in Revenue each year so the options range from no ice to brand new $28 million facility interestingly just because of the condition of the existing facility my understanding is that even a a renovation or remodel the existing facility

087would be closer to a brand new one than what a lot of people would think would be reasonable to say let's renovate the existing one that might have been an option five years ago 10 years ago it seems less of an option now okay and then I just had one other question um you and I had actually talked about the St Louis Park um ice arena a while back and um that they use it for non- hockey um related activities throughout the entire year and so my question is do you know um if that would be the case with this particular project if it it if it happens um would there be some non hockey school activities that would take be able to take place uh absolutely so the Northfield skating school which is not

088an official school we not officially ail with them but we do help with the registration through Northfield Community Education it's been a while since I've seen the number of students that participated in but that is more of a learning to skate figure skating kind of group uh I know that the city because again the school district does not run the ice facility but there is an open skate so the two real school programs would be hockey and then through Community Education the Northfield skating school and again if you have a updated facility that might lend itself to a number number of other potential options as well so then it would be um essentially um the hockey would run year round then in that facility that is my understanding I don't have control over whether or

089not they uh you know put the ice in in the summer um and our school programs don't necessarily run in the summer but my understanding is that the ice would be used throughout the year they may um not have ice in it for a period of time they might use you know for example the existing Arena has been used for things like the Northfield Hospital book fundraiser and at one time it held the Home and Garden Show so there might be times where the city were to strategically remove the ice for an event like that right now the current facility struggles for events like that it's it's we all know the challenges of the existing facility so there are other things uh that could be used and you know when you have a modern facility

090it is um always amazing to me when you're painting a vision and you're looking at what could be um there are a lot of things that people come up with that they couldn't have done before um because of a of a different facility and a different layout I'm not going to pretend that it's hockey will be the vast majority of the time there right I don't think we should say but are there other things that are there absolutely skating school you know potential sales like the Northfield I think it's the hospital book fundraiser right I imagine things like that so it would be more than hockey I am just always very careful because we know that an ice arena is predominantly for hockey use and we we just want to be straightforward that that will

091use the vast majority of the time but there is a value add with those other items as well and the skating School clearly has a number of participants been very successful over the years I don't have the exact numbers in front of me but those would be the two primary programs we would use it for you you had mentioned the summer ice so in the past it's it that has never been included in our in our lease yeah because our our remember that we lease it for our school programs now the Hockey Association May in the summer they may um do those kinds of things but my understanding is that we have not leased ice time in the summer okay so that so this lease that we're talking about in the in the letter today

092would not include summer yeah likely not um typically the summer kinds of the State High School league governs how things happen in the summer it I just don't see how students would actually participate in Scholastic hockey in the summer so I doubt it would be least now those students might play in some kind of uh league if you will very common for our sports that there is a summer league that is not necessarily specifically associated with the school but it's other kinds of AA is the term I would use I know that's not the appropriate one in this case but those are the kinds of things you sometimes see thank you right any other questions or comments yeah it seems to me a little bit of the cart before the horse of why you know

093I mean again I think this is a outrageous that uh that this doesn't go to a public vote are you telling me that they're not going to ask for 25 million from the the Northfield taxpayers they're just going to go ahead and move this through I mean it's city council business yeah that that's why it doesn't make any sense to go if I understand it correctly we paid about $50,000 a year to uh rent ice from the ice aren is that about approximately right about 45,000 45,000 so now you're saying you're willing you know we're willing you're signing a letter of intent basically that you're willing to to lease an ice Arena that you don't know what it looks like you don't know uh you know if it'll be passed you don't know who's really

094paying for it because you you it's not in a public vote and you want to have a letter of intent for that before you even know what the ice arena is that just doesn't make any sense to me and and I think that the strategy that we're using Jeff doesn't you know if the city does not choose to move forward with it let's say that they um there's a variety of ways they could choose to move forward let's say they there's no harm and there's a little bit of chicken or egg here too what comes first I know that the partner agencies the city of dundis is also taking up this uh similar approach I believe they'll take it up at their May 28th meeting and the an effort to give the city council who

095will be the largest contributor to this the confidence in this public private partnership and I think when you think about a public private partnership like that I think the city could have a similar uh question about if they were to approve it without knowing that the other partners are ready to move forward so I I understand where you're coming from um I hear you saying that there's a little bit of a leap of faith here that I'm not going to dispute uh your perspective you're entitled to that perspective but as we've worked with these Partners as we try to look forward to how do we address this major Community infrastructure problem numerous things have been tried over the years the Partnerships have fallen apart at various levels we are the closest that I have seen

096uh to replacing this facility or even updating it since I've been talking about it for the last decade and all this letter is doing is uh signaling our intent to continue using the facility and acknowledging if there's a new facility that our rent or our lease is going to go up it does include ice time what we are committing to uh also includes ice time and we've also said in the letter that while we're sharing our intent we still have to approve that expenditure every single year through the least Levy process so I I think it's an intent to give people confidence to solve this community problem that frankly we have known about and the reason that we are here is we have avoided as a community the hard decisions in the past this could

097have been taken care of at a rate much less than what we are looking at today but we have continued to pass this on and we are at a point that we are literally at a point where we could be without ice in this community this is a town of 20,000 people in Minnesota um how many other towns of 20,000 people don't have an amenity like this we will not own it we've been very clear it is not appropriate for the school district to own it this is typically a city function we're just simply trying to give the city the confidence to be able to move forward in whatever way they determine appropriate thank you Jeff do you have any more yeah I just think I mean I'd like to see the city step up

098and say even if you wanted to say something with their language in there like real estate deal if they want to move forward you know a contingent upon settling a leaste I talked to very very high public official uh and I won't name the name uh uh that when we were going through all of this with the uh the YMCA and I said what do you think of public private um relationships and he basically said said well you know they typically start out really good but they don't end that well so I mean I think whatever goes on here that I hope whatever the partnership is that it it works well and goes well but I I just have a hard time saying if you're going to put big money on the tax roles of

099the Northfield people or whoever people is that they get to vote on it yes or no so with that I'm done thank you Jeff he no I'm struggling to figure out how to say this it seems to me Jeff that your your concerns should be addressed to the city council yeah probably but I mean it to me it seems the cart before the horse and and uh yeah I mean you can vote however you want on that but I mean I I just yeah well that's I'm not here to argue with you no I'm just telling you that I I would like to see more more facts on that before um you know move forward I I just think that there's a lot of other options to discuss and explore and you know I I

100just don't see that leadership necessarily from the city council that that hey we're GNA here's the proposal we're going to put this on the ballot and here's what we're going to do to me it seems a little wishy-washy and again that's you're right it's it's a city council issue and not a Schoolboard issue thank you Jeff no do you have a question or comment for Dr hman yeah I gotta put my thoughts together here okay it seems that we have a significant number of hockey families in this District a large number and I can speak from my my son's experiences when they moved to Brooking South Dakota what's significant hockey was to them um I think this is the case where we're supporting kids that want to play hockey and if we don't support the

101kids that want to play hockey with part of our program they'll play hockey somewhere else and if we do we'll lose a significant number of re amount of revenue for the district thank you no anybody else have comment or question Ben thanks yeah and I would I would agree it's important not to confuse or complate you know the responsibilities of different units of government you know the the arena I view it follows the city's perview I think we have an interest and as we've been discussing this evening and as we've heard from public comment you know that there's there's ideas of foot and ways to solve this and I would agree Dr hman in the sense that the ideal time to solve this was 10 years ago and you know we weren't facing the construction

102cost that we do today but but here we are so can you just remind us from a technical standpoint how we got to the 250 in terms of the lease Aid that we would look at annually so that discussion was Val and I taking a look at our lease Levy Authority making sure that we would be able to make a substantial enough contribution that would be able to assist in moving it Forward while maintaining enough lease Levy Authority for other items if we go forward with this and it all works out um as people have identified um we still would only be using around total um right now we use just under 20% of our leas Levy Authority we'd rise to about 46 47% of our least Levy Authority so still plenty of room uh

103we don't do we don't use this for a ton of things right so we have room uh within the law to be able to do this of what we're allowed to do every year we looked at the various uh governmental and private entities looked at what each were able to support we felt that this was a substantial enough um investment over the period of time not a one-time cost right but uh an installment plan if you will over 20 years so it was really looking at what could all of the partners potentially support what seemed reasonable from our perspective so there were a variety of different at one time $300,000 doll were was discussed we've been asked could we do more than this at this time we've said no this is what we have deemed

104we think to be reasonable to help move this project forward um over the next 20 years so I wish I could tell you there was a specific it was really when you're in a partnership you look at what are the negotiated factors of how we can move a project forward keeping our interests in mind as well and I feel that we've landed about as good of a place as we could Amy so uh in general I support the letter but I really um thought Jenny had an interesting point and maybe I'm extrapolating from your point um which is we say just generally that our lease cost would increase up to$ 250,00 but we aren't very specific about what that could mean for us I mean we say ice time but once you had the conversation

105back and forth I mean is it ice time just for hockey is it ice time for our um continuing ed class could we could we have our own book fair or something for you know where we would use the arena for something else um Does it include the locker rooms and the showers and so um and I'm I don't think that's enough to stop me from voting yes today but I think it's an important conversation to have to say we want to be a priority user of this facility and we want to have flexibility in when and how we can use it Beyond Just Hockey so I'm just throwing that out there that I think we still have some leverage to negotiate even more because as you said if we get new facility in town

106all of a sudden there'll be a lot of new ideas of how to use it and I don't want to be seen as a Cash Cow by the city where they start nickel and diing us well if you want to have this event it's going to be another $1 thousand and if you want to do this it's another thousand I would like to have them say this amount that we're leasing it for up to the $250,000 is all inclusive and we'll let you do all of wonderful things in this facility that's what I would like to see so I do feel the ice time term covers the ice events that we do so even if we did addition what we've said is we're going to do a maximum of $250,000 year not a penny more

107right and so that is what we would be doing for the ice related activities in terms of if there is a reason that we would want to lease that space for some other item uh then I think we'd have to talk about that at that time I would argue I don't see a pathway where the district would need to use that facility for one of our own events we have uh plenty of space for non ice kinds of things and gymnasiums we have a Fieldhouse or excuse me an expanded gymnasium on the ballot in November those are the kinds of things my belief would be that we have enough of those kinds of spaces where we would not need to lease something else for the the concept you say about a book event for the

108ice pieces I this covers the skating School uh and our uh hockey programs for sure and does it cover the locker rooms and the showers the facility AB y they wouldn't build the lock rooms and Facilities if they didn't make us a priority user so as a priority user we are able to get the after school ice time right things like that so all of those things are part of that Emy there's no question in my mind about that as we' as we've talked about it so in this letter we're simply trying to affirm the desire to continue we get to use the locker rooms the locker rooms now if you've seen them they're not quite locker rooms so but I would extrapolate as you said that we're using the locker rooms now those are

109included in our ice time it would be the same moving forward Amy that good you have yeah I guess it's good I'd still as we go forward I'd still like to see something more specific in writing but I think this is a really good start to say we want to partner with you and we can provide some resources for you because we think this is a good idea you anyone else comment or question then we will move on to a vote we have a motion on the floor I suggest a roll call vote okay we can do a roll call vote very well Anita will you facilitate that Butler I Hertz hi Miller hi Nelson hi Pell statmon Gonzalez George I he motion passes item D is the review and comment submission to the Minnesota

110Department of Education the district must submit a review and comment document to the Minnesota department of education related to the fall 2024 Bond referendum and we have collaborated with W Architects and Engineers to finalize that review and comment document that um will be submitted to mde for approval and the board reviewed this document at the April 22nd board meeting I move that we approve submitting the review and comment to the Minnesota Department of Education and preparation for the November 5th 2024 Bond referendum election is there a second good my Cory thank you are there any uh comments or questions from the board members I just want to point out we have S baggley from old Architects and Jeff sely from Ellers here as well very good should people have questions for them sure anyone have

111question or comment at this point okay then um all those in favor say I I opposed any did you capture all the votes did not okay will you facilitate a roll call vote Butler hi Gertz hi Miller hi Nelson hi Pell hi statmon Gonzalez George I okay motion passes okay finally we have a resolution in our items for action and this is the discontinuing and reducing educational program the resolution is approved by the Board of Education annually as part of the legal process for reducing or discontinuing the contracts of licensed staff details are in this meeting's packet which is posted on the district website is there a motion to approve the resolution discontinuing and reducing educational program okay moved by Jenny second right is there any discussion question comment from any of the board members

112okay um Ania will you facilitate a roll call Vote for This resolution Butler hi gerwitz hi Miller hi Nelson hi quell hi statmon Gonzales George I motion passes thank you Anita okay item nine is our items for information and first up we have the enrollment report Dr Helman will review the May 2024 enrollment report so as you'll see um the May 1st enrollment report the um grand total excluding early childhood and the uh ALC independent students is at 3,783 that's nine students ahead of the projected 3774 down a little bit from last month and it is not uncommon at this time of the year um as things are sorting out with some students that we're seeing this time of year some students moving online some students moving you'll see there's just a handful of students

113from a number of Bill buildings you'll see more so at the high school that could be a student shift to the alc the alc numbers can change as students qualify for graduation at various points so not uncommon to see those things at this time of the year but still above the annual projection by nine students and then I want to point out as you'll look at the class sizes not U much different from last month in terms of the elementary school class sizes so that is the enrollment report for this evening board members do you have any questions or comments Dr Helman none at this point okay thank you so much for that item B is our graduation information and the alc graduation is scheduled for 6: pm on Friday May 31st in the Middle

114School auditorium and our Northfield High School graduation is scheduled for 2 pm on Sunday June 9th at the memorial at Memorial Field board members should meet at the high school office 30 minutes prior at 1:30 p.m on Sunday June 9th looking forward to that our future meetings are Tuesday May 28th as Monday the 27th is Memorial Day that's 6 PM in this same boardroom it's a regular meeting another regular meeting Monday June 10th 6 PM in this boardroom and Monday July 8th 6 PM another regular board meeting here in this boardroom this is all the business that we have for tonight's regular board meeting we're going to move into a closed session and when we return we will close the regular meeting um and adourn at that point and I can I just read the

115statute and the I'm getting ready to do that making sure double check I'm G to invite members of the public to exit so that we can conduct a closed session for the sale of property as Allowed by Minnesota statute 13d do5 sub3 C this meeting will be closed as permitted by Minnesota statute to discuss the sale of District property partial number 17. or. 111.3 75. 021 land area of 13,642 square ft so if we can have members of the public please exit we will move into our Clos session okay can I have a motion to I'm sorry I'm not I'm sorry I'm not able to engage with you at this point we're going to be um moving into a close session can I have a um move who will move to move into the Clos

116session move by 4y second by Amy okay all those in favor say I I opposed all right we are moving into a Clos session thank you