001Good evening everyone and welcome or the Otana School Board. This is Monday. It's the 16th of June 5:30. We're going to call this meeting to order. Tim is going to give us the update on our attendance. Dismissing AU. Uh let's start with the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. First step tonight would be to approve the agenda as presented. So move second. There's a motion and a second. Is there any further conversation? Hearing none. All in favor with an I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Item four tonight is an item called schoolhouse closing public hearing. U. Mr. Stad is going to give us a quick overview on all of that.
002Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the board. This is a law that has been on the book for books for about 150 years. Um, it's rather archaic in my opinion, but it is a um it's a it's a piece of um it's it's in law that you as a board need to formally close a school um if you don't intend to provide instruction and or teacher instruction or other sorts of pieces. And so what you are being asked tonight in the approvals or in the action needed is to um approve the release of 515 West Bridge Street, the former district office that we now have for sale, as well as 111 East Rose Street, which we formerly call our Rose Street Center. So those are the two pieces of property uh that we are looking
003for you to um looking as a district to close. And again, in concordance with the law, we are looking to and the quick clarification is that Sarah has put out all of the necessary That's correct. Yep. All the legal requirements have been met for this. Uh there had to be a a two-eek notice that was put out in a local in our identified newspaper and that was followed. Uh there have been no comments that have come to me via email andor questions to the district office and this time in the meeting would serve as that opportunity for the public if to the extent that anybody wanted to say something about it this is their that is correct. Okay. Well hearing none we will move on to item five which is the mission moment. Once again
004Mr. Elsad is going to give us a little back background. Thank you Mr. Chair members of the board. Tonight, it is my honor to lift up some of our most recent retirees from the district, uh, colleagues and friends of mine. I believe we have two of them here tonight. So, I'm going to ask Dr. Maher and Mary William or Mary Mary Hawkins to come forward, please. Uh, come on up. Come on up. I'm going to announce the names tonight and I'll certainly leave these two to for any commentary or questions. But tonight we're recognizing Kim Allen who is a speech language pathologist that is retiring. Carrie Buck a custodian at Lincoln, Mary Hawkins, former principal of Lincoln Elementary. Brian Keane, art teacher at the high school. Sue Mark, achievement intervention teacher at Wilson. Dr. Tom
005Maher, STEM coordinator for the district, Paty Wall, an accounts payable specialist at the district office, and Denise Duffy, a fax teacher at Owatana High School. I'm very proud to have served with both of these individuals and certainly others that are on our list of retirees tonight. And I would u open it up for any questions you have of the board, but again, it's my honor to have served as your superintendent. Um, but also more than anything, just a friend and colleague. So import board members. Well, I've been able to go on a field trip with Dr. Maher or two with my own children. And while I know you've impacted many, my daughter is definitely one of them. And she will say readily that she wants to be Dr. Maher when she grows up. So, thank
006you. That might be tough with the hair. for all of your just, you know, exciting ways that you impart knowledge because she has has loved all of her time with you. Thank you very much for that. Yeah, I'll just say congratulations to both of you. I mean, uh I too, you know, my children have been affected by both of you um over the course of your years and that's been a few years ago now. Um I would say Dr. Dr. Maher, I think one of the things that I loved the most being a language major back in my uh college days um your interest in foreign cultures um and the east in particular. I just thought it was an awesome um introjection of that along with all the STEM stuff. So, thank you. And Mary,
007thank you so much for all your work in all the buildings you've served. What are you going to do? What's first on the agenda? Um well, we're both going to continue working for universities, so that um will keep us a little bit in the education realm. I'm going to be with Mano State Minnesota, University of Minnesota, Mano, supervising student teachers. So, I get to do that. That's the fun part of of my job over the last number of years. So, I get to continue doing that. And then I have family and grandkids and hobbies. So I am not going to be bored. What are you going to do? Uh I'm teaching at the university. So I have uh two sections of urban ecology for non- majors. So it's an undergraduate um biology class which I'm
008really excited about because I get to teach about the plants, the trees, the birds and animals of Minneapolis. right on campus. I also teach methods courses for both elementary and secondary science methods. So, um it's going to be uh difficult to to not be here, but as my wife reminds me is that you're not stopping being a teacher. You're just changing who your audience is. So, it's going to be difficult to to leave and have just a ton of kids, but it's uh it's going to be exciting taking on a new a whole new gig with with a lot of college students. So I love and I just want to take the opportunity to thank you as board members because throughout my career here and I started in 1990 um the board members have been
009supportive um have been encouraging have uplifted us as staff and just celebrated the good things we're doing. So, thank you for that and I I know that that will continue with um the work that you do. And thank you to Jeff Alstead who's been a fabulous person to work with and um and all the other board um cabinet members also have been fantastic on the leadership committee. So, thank you. I want to greet I I want to thank the Otana public schools and the school board, Mr. H. Um there was many years ago part of our mission was that we were worldclass education. Um and I know being motans some people were like h I don't know about that but I agreed it I agreed with it wholeheartedly and I believe that after I got
010into this position seeing the quality of education that was happening K12 and knowing that it wasn't just our faculty it was the support of our school board our district and building administrators that I believe we really are class having been to schools now all over the state, all over the nation, and and to many countries around the world. Um it's it's an honor to work here because I believe we really are world class. Um just one quick story because you can't get away without this chance. Yeah. Um working with the University of Minnesota STEM Education Center. Dr. Rooric came to me and she said, "I got to tell you this." And and I said, "What?" She was she was presenting at a conference in Djibouti, Africa. You're welcome. and and she said that um she
011can't get away from Owaton because she's presenting and in Djibouti Africa and um some faculty from the university and I can't remember the name of the their um main city their capital in Djibouti were wearing Oatana Husky t-shirts when they walked up and they heard someone from Minnesota was presenting because they have uh relatives that live here and they have heard about Otana schools and they've been trying to spread the idea of STEM education um and it's been a model wow for STEM education in the world and she said in Djibouti so congratulations but I believe it stems from our entire system from our preschools all the way up to yourselves so thank you very much thank you thank you thanks to both of you I also wanted to make sure that I think it
012was well known, but also uh lift up the Owatana Education Association teacher of the year, uh Lisa Thorson, who was a PE teacher at Wilson Elementary. She's out of town, unable to attend, but I just wanted to lift her up tonight, too, as part of our mission that uh she truly inspires excellence for every learner every day. So, thank you to her. Excellent. Round of applause. Appreciate. All right. Thank you. Uh item six tonight is public forum. We do in fact have a card for public forum. Uh so Mr. Meyer, as you're making your way up, uh it's a good opportunity for me to remind everyone of the importance of meeting to quorum. We do not allow slander, defamation, profanity, personal attacks, or revelations of private data. And as chair, I respectfully request that the
013public refrain from interrupting the speakers during public forum. You're provided three minutes. Ask to state your name and the subject you wish to address. If you'd like to sit down and make it easier to speak into that microphone, that'd be great. Be happy to, Mr. Meyer. Thank you and welcome. Well, hello. Thank you, school board. Thanks for, uh, allowing me a few minutes today. I really appreciate it. And, uh, here to speak about our outgoing superintendent, and he can't get away that easily. So, uh, if you'll if you'll bear with me for a few minutes this evening, uh, again, Brad Meyer, I'm president of the Owatana Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism. And just, uh, here to extend sincere gratitude on behalf of the business community for the work of Superintendent Jeffstead as he ends
014his time in this role. As you know, as a leader, Jeff has shown great ability to see how a strong school district impacts a strong community. And those words seem pretty straightforward and obvious, but then when you try to put them into action, uh sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Jeff has uh has definitely put things into practice. He's active with the United Way of Steel County as a board member and is a campaign leader. He's part of the Rotary Club. He's visible at church and at almost every school activity. In fact, uh, I chuckled when I saw the photos in the paper of him at the elementary schools because elementary school kids wouldn't get that excited about somebody they didn't know. So, they see him, they know him, and they're uh excited about about
015Jeff. He invested time into the Owatana Partners for Economic Development. put a lot of time into that group uh as a participant understanding the need for workforce related programming, strong partnership with the local community college and how important that was to attracting development to our community here. It must have been thrilling and horrifying at the same time to start your job with the edict of building a new high school and getting the community to support that. Jeff took on two back-to-back campaigns, as you're well aware, listening to the public, adjusting, and finally getting the approval needed. The efforts to get that bond passed were done by so many people, but I would argue no one stood out in front of the detractors more often than Superintendent, and he did it with respect and patience. No
016sooner did the bond pass and then co hit. exciting times for all of us but most difficult I would say for schools and educators um probably um you know I think where your communication most came into play consistent clear communication uh again with the help of many school board included on all these things got to deal with strong opinions unhappy parents frustrated students all to get through an unprecedented time and Jeff was at the front line of all that just a couple more things. Jeff understands that business and schools make good partners providing students with unique opportunities to explore in real life scenarios expanding the learning outside of the school walls. Jeff always spoke at signing day, a day to celebrate students entering the workforce, which made it an extra special day for those students.
017Under his leadership, career pathways has elevated to state leading heights. Jeff never thought that education needed to happen in a silo. He always welcomed ideas and partnerships, respects opinions, and goes out of his way to make sure people of all backgrounds have a voice. Superintendent Stad, thank you for your leadership, your honesty, your caring, your friendship. And we wish you nothing but the best as you move into your new working life in the private sector. Congratulations. Thank you for a job well done. Thank you. [Applause] [Music] Uh Mr. Meyer, thank you uh so much for your words. Uh we'll move on tonight. Now, item seven would be the general information that includes the enrollment report. Do anybody does anybody have a question for Mr. Stad with regard to the information that you found? Okay. Hearing
018none, we'll move on. Um item seven tonight, these are discussion items and no action required by the board. Um I'm going to move the board forum. Uh I'm just going to bring items one and two, which would be the committee reports and the work session report first. Um this is a good opportunity for us to follow up on some nice comments and the board forum is a perfectly appropriate place for us to share some of our thoughts um about Jeff. So with that, um, item one would be the school board committee meeting reports. Those included both facilities and the finance. They were part of your packet. Any questions relative to what you found in those committee reports? All of them were pretty straightforward. And I think that we'd spent a fair amount of time actually
019talking through them during our work session as well. So I think we're a okay with that. Anybody any comments, thoughts? Okay. And then how about with um regard to the work session report? No, everybody. Okay. Excellent. Um, you know, I'm going to follow up. I'll start board forum tonight. Um, I want to thank Brad for being here and sharing your thoughts. Um, tough night. It's tough night. The thoughts that I'd like to share with the community about Jeff is that he is all about building relationships. Um, I think a lot of people know, but he started his career as an early childhood special education educator and to this day I think he does his best work when he's walking the halls of our schools and he's interacting with the students and the staff. He's visible.
020He's accessible throughout the district. And I'm a firm believer, just as Mr. Meyer had said that faith in a local school district is built on a foundation of trust doesn't come easy needs to be carefully cultivated and Jeff you have done a tremendous level um you have you have a tremendous level of respect and admiration from our local business community as well as state legislators all of whom you engage with regularly. Um Jeff also believes in the importance of equity and it's one of our foundational beliefs. His first instinct is to listen to the voices of all parties. He is self- aacing to a fault. He validates individual perspective by providing an opportunity to be heard. And by the same token, I think you are magnificent at seeing a person's potential and helping them see
021it in themselves. Jeff came to our district in the summer of 2017, and in this time, his accomplishments are formidable. He surrounded himself with highly capable staff and encourages them to fail forward. Owana has built a new high school to serve the needs of our 21st century learners. I believe Jeff is a key leader in our community and his legacy will be recognized well into the future. Best wishes. Thank you. Want the horn? Okay. Um, I uh chose to run for the school board in uh the summer of 2016. Lori, when you and Mark showed up to ask me that mean. Anyway, I you know I I I I ran I I I I won a spot here and shortly before or after I actually was seated found out that Jeff had been hired. So,
022I had a short opportunity to be part of another uh superintendent's leadership and see how Pete Grant did things and then Jeff came along and this has been uh all that I know and I have been thrilled with how it's gone. I think we've accomplished fantastic things and I'm happy to have a friend here and um yeah, it's uh it's going to be hard to see it go. Um, I I have no doubt, Jeff, that you how much you care about this community and about our schools, teachers, staff, students, everybody. I mean, that is so um incredibly obvious in everything that you do. And I just thank you so much for that. and the fact that we've gotten to know you professionally and personally and um and and I've only been on the board for
023a few years and I just have um treasured that opportunity. So, thank you. Um, yeah, I'd just like to say I mean I've had the opportunity to know you as a sports parent, you know, as a community member, you know, as a parent of kids in the district, you know, came to you with concerns and now and as a board member as well and just really want to just hold up your example of leadership. I learned a lot from you and um it's going to help me going forward. I'm sad I only had, you know, this many months on the board with you. um just your um charismatic leadership, the the way people are drawn to you um is is obvious and that was part of my excitement for running for the board. So to
024sit here in my first night and just be like, "Ah, darn it." Um but I'm so excited for whatever you have ahead of you. I know it will be great. Um, and I'm grateful that, you know, my kids right now are benefiting from all of the work that you and the board have done. Um, and I keep reminding my high schoolers, soon to be two high schoolers, like, do you know how beautiful this place is? Do you know how great um, you know, this new high school is and the opportunities that you're going to have because of it. So, thank you for your work. Thank you for inspiring um me to run to be on this board and um for the ways that you've contributed deeply to the community. I don't know if I can
025make eye contact and so if it looks awkward, I just want to thank you. This has been a joy to serve um to have you at the helm. I worried less on a lot of things. And your impact is generational. Do not forget that. Thank you. I'm going to take a playbook from Jerine. I can't look at you either. So, um I just wrote down a few thoughts. I'll be really brief because folks have shared so much. And thank you again um for your comments. Um, it's just really hard for me to believe this is the last meeting for Mr. Stad. Um, I knew this was coming. I still remember the first time I I saw him in action as a superintendent. Jolene, I don't know if you remember this, Jolene and I attended, it
026was early in our career, my career, I was attending a schoolboard educational event um southeast Minnesota somewhere and Jeff was working for Byron and we sat down in this room and of course I kind of knew who he was because he was part of the Otana community but hadn't really interacted with him much and I watched this superintendent shepherd and surround and host his board members. And I watched this unfold and I'm like, "Wow, he he knows how to take care of his board members." And it reminded me of a teacher in the district, former teacher who I would paraphrase him and say, um, you know, every day is an interview. And when I look back on that moment, I realized, and little did I know it, I don't think Jeff knew it, but he
027was interviewing that day because it was just a short time later that we in fact were interviewing candidates. And I'll never forget what I observed when nobody was really looking, right? Um so I was just thinking about that story. Um Jeff has demonstrated for us um over the years, you know, his ability to communicate vision. I think that's the thing I've appreciated most. Um and his passion for public education. He creates an energy and I think of it as a lift, right? He creates lift in his work that supports everybody around him, whether it's staff or teachers or students or board members. And I've appreciated that so much as a community. This lift, I think, translated into one of um the accomplishments that we've spoken of, which is the flagship high school. You know, that
028lift that you brought, that energy and passion you brought to the community um helped to bring about a goal that this community had been working on for decades. So, thank you. Thank you for that leadership. I just couldn't be more pleased to have the opportunity to watch him and to learn from you. You know me, I have lots of questions. I'm always asking for things. Um he he and his family have devoted a tremendous amount um to public service and I and the Otana district will be forever indebted but wish you the very best. And then finally, as a board, we have just a small token. Um, but maybe you'll maybe you'll open the one item because I think it's rather um appropriate given the comments. Thank you for your assistance. Okay, I will do
029that. I will do that. Oh, right. Show them the picture. I have my own comments. I'm going to collect myself before I do that, though. Oh, wait. During administrative report, give me a minute. Yeah, sure. How about if we just wait till the end? Okay, sounds good. And uh that gives us Thanks board. Thanks everybody for your your nice words. Um let's move on to the administrative report. Everything was included in our packet. Um, any questions for Mr. Alstad or members of his cabinet on that? There are none. We will move on. Um, tonight item nine would be the consent agenda. The quick reminder is we are we are approving the minutes from May 27th as well as the personnel report. Both were included in our packet. Anybody have any questions with regard to what
030was presented? One of you be kind enough to introduce the motion for this. I move that the board approve the consent agenda. Second. We have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Tim, if you would, please. Ron, I. Andrea, I. Jolene, I. Lori, I. Mark, I. Elizabeth, I. And I am an I. 70 pass. Motion carries. Thank you very much. We're going to move on to uh board action items. Item 10. And the first of which would be the schoolhouse closing. Um there were two components to your your packet. one of which is the resolution and the second is uh the findings and conclusions and both of them are substantiating documentation for the the background behind um this formality of the schoolhouse closing. Anybody have any questions relative to what was in your packet?
031No. Um if one of you Lori, do you? Yep. I move that the board approve the resolution to close the former Oatana public schools district office and Rose Street Center. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Tim, if you would. Ron, I. Andrea, I. Julene, I. Lori, I Mark I. Elizabeth. I. And I am an I. 70 pass. Motion carries. Um, item B tonight would be policy revisions. And uh let's uh open it. If one of if somebody from policy would please introduce the motion, that would be great. I move that the board approve the revisions to the policies as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Um and it in the area of discussion on this there were two in particular that I thought wow um
032there was there was some big change there was a lot of sweeping change and the first one was um early admission to kindergarten was there was it can you give us some background on that? Um, sure. And I don't know if Julie's here. Um, I would say actually that I think there was less uh substantive change and more um information pulled out and placed in a procedural document as opposed to significant changes. Would that be that's one thing I would echo is that we've we've worked really hard to keep policy policy and not have so much procedure within the policy in the event that you have to change procedures. it requires you just to kind of keep reiterating the policy. And so this particular policy had paragraph upon paragraph of process and one of the
033things that could continue to change for us is the process indeed for early admission. In fact, we have reiterated that uh practice uh to be a little bit more flexible. However, uh we also have some requirements by the Department of Education and the state of Minnesota to meet age requirements and so on with some level of flexibility. The policy that you're being asked to approve simply just goes through what the what is required or what we're requiring as a local district in accordance with state policy or uh Department of Ed policy. the procedural pieces. We did walk through all of those and certainly the Department of Teaching and Learning leads that effort so that we can have a very clear process that we've laid out within our website. So, thank you. And the other um
034fairly sweeping changes, visitors to buildings, there's a lot of striking and yes, speak to that. Well, and I don't want to be a broken record, but it really is um a similar kind of answer, which is a tremendous amount of what we thought was procedure within that policy. Um and as a practical matter, a lot of that is contained in our handbooks anyway, the building handbooks. So, you took it out of so we migrated. I don't know if others would comment or I would agree with that. Yep. Exactly. I would make one further comment in that um there were pieces we believe that were in the former policy that would could be detrimental at times to the safety and security of our buildings around visitors to the building um and how we secure our buildings.
035And so another measure with in addition to what was stated here was simply to protect the security of our buildings too. And there was one quick question I had under the section 4 responsibility letter A. It says upon approval by the school board such procedures and requirements shall be an addendum to this policy. Does that mean an addendum is coming or Yeah. Right. We Well, we do. And the other part is is that we have all of those procedures in each of the sort of building cuz each building might have a bit of a different procedure based upon their entry and so on. Sure. Okay. We did have some discussion on that and if I recall um as you'll notice in other policies there are you know there are forms that are relevant or other
036additional supporting documents. Um so I do expect that we'll be seeing that at some point. Sure. Okay. Any other questions? Is there any further discussion? Uh hearing none. All in favor with an I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Uh item C would be the casual worker pay schedule. This is an update happens every summer right up at this time. Um everything looked fairly appropriate, very appropriate um in there. Any questions from anybody on the schedule? Maybe just one clarification. Um I had an opportunity to visit with Chris briefly. Um the title will be updated obviously it's effective 71 and then the speech judge that is also a per event um rate. It's not an hourly rate just to just to be clear. Some of them indicated that they were per event and that's also
037one of those. Yeah. Yeah. Some of them were listed as a that whatever the length of the event was. And did that one need clarification? Does it look like it's an hourly? It could be interpreted that way. Okay. But Chris clarified for me that it is per event or per the meet. Uh does somebody have this one queued up, please? Mhm. I move that the board approve the 2025 2026 casual worker pay schedule as presented. Second. We have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? All in favor with an I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Item D tonight would be the amended 2024 2025 budget. Um, we had the benefit of Mark Sts at our work session last week. We had a good deep dive on all of this. Um, and Mark is
038here. Anybody have any questions relative? Go ahead. Yeah, if it would be okay, I'd like to invite Mark table for any questions that the board might have, not only on this item, but also the next item as well. Good evening. Hi. So, the biggest change to the 2425 budget is in interest earnings. we are running quite a bit ahead of what was included in the budget and so that's a majority of the change you see in the budget there actually it improves our position so that's a good thing any further questions anybody we we've discussed it extensively at finance committee so thank you for your work and uh would one of you on the finance committee would you please be um kind enough to introduce this motion I I move that the board approve the
039amended 2024 2025 budget as presented. Second motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor with an I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. And item E would be the 25 2025 2026 preliminary budget. Same thing. We had a nice uh long conversation about this last week at our work session. Just a little legislative update that occurred after we looked at the preliminary budget. Um it appears that we're going to be receiving um additional compensatory revenue. Um in fact, it is going to make us whole with the current year and it goes beyond that. Um so that will be included in a future amended budget. Again, this is a preliminary budget. We'll come back with a couple amended budgets. The other big change um was in special education transportation and we're actually seeing a
040decrease there. Um but it's not I mean it's significant but it's not in relation to the overall budget. So those were the two big biggest changes coming out of this legislative session. Otherwise there were some other minor decreases. I think net out we're we're going to be ahead and it's going to look better than what we're forecasting in the preliminary budget. So good. Any questions? Can can you remind us the timing like an amended budget? When will we likely see that or what what's We'll probably come in January February time time frame. Good. Uh, Ron, being a finance person, would you be willing to introduce this motion for us? I move that the board approve the 2025 2026 preliminary budget as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in
041favor with an I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Item F tonight would be Thank you very much, Mark. Appreciate it. Um, item F would be the Minnesota School Board Association. This would be our ongoing uh membership and participation. Um, Mr. else. Ted could give us a quick overview, but we're all very familiar with MSBA has been a longstanding sort of u membership for us as a board. Certainly, they provide board development for you. Um, not only in their conference, but ongoing trainings and so on. Um, I think it's a great investment and I'm I'm proud of the work that MSBA does. So, yeah, completely agree. Comments, questions? I I would just say I wouldn't want to do this work without him. Okay. So, right, it's a dollars well spent. Uh, Andrew, do you happen
042to have that one? I move that the board approve membership to the Minnesota School Board Association for the 2025 2026 school year. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor with an I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Item G would be schools advocating for fair funding. Mr. Stad can give us a quick update on that. I would love to. Thank you. So, I want to just bring you back for those of you that have been on the board a while. This is formerly Schools for Equity and Education and um the the organization rebranded with some different um efforts moving forward. SAFF continues to be one of the only advocates for equalization and funding. And I don't need to talk about it again because I've talked about it many,
043many times. Um there are three um organizations that are four including the superintendent association that are active education lobbyists at the capital. Um SAFF happens to be um there was a lobbyist and now we've hired a group called Capitol Hill and Associates to be our chief lobbyists. I believe they're some of the finest lobbyists I've seen. Um, in fact, they worked really hard for some of the pieces that benefited the district, including compensatory revenue to hold that harmless, recognizing the impact it would have on our district, among other things, but certainly continuing the conversation around equalization. I learned over my time as a superintendent and certainly spending a lot of time at the capital that because you didn't get something passed in one year doesn't mean that the next year it's not fair game for
044conversation because in many cases the prime has been pumped quote unquote the pump has been primed pardon my my phrasing but I believe that uh this is a great organization within those there's another couple that would be potential but one of them is the Association of Metropolitan School Districts We are not a metropolitan district. We are a greater Minnesota school district. The other one is the Minnesota Rural Education Association and again they're a very formidable organization. However, they really service smaller districts across the state. We happen to be in something called a donut hole where we don't really fit in the small school. We don't certainly fit in the large metro districts, but districts like Northfield, Farbo, um Austin, Elbert Lee, a lot of schools in the Big Nine Conference minus Mano and Rochester are
045part of this organization because they advocate on behalf of our greater Minnesota districts that are outside that still have a population of about 20,000 or more residents. So, I would entertain any questions or clarifications the board needs about this membership. money well spent. Um, Jim, do you have a minute? I move that the board approved membership for the 2025 2026 school year to schools advocating for fair funding. Second. Motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor with an I. I. Any opposed? A motion carries. Item H tonight. Identified official with authority to authorize user access to MDE secure websites. Historically, it has always been the superintendent. Tonight, obviously, with this transition, Dr. Tammy Champa, Dr. Tamara Champa would be the new person that we would identify as that official. Anything else that we
046would No, that's exactly right. As of July 1st, um she takes the reigns here and would need that permission to serve as the individual identified with authority. So, any questions? Anybody have this one? I move that the board authorize Superintendent Tamara Champa to act as the identified official with authority for Owatana Public School District ISD 761 as of July 1st, 2025. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor with an I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Couple of resolutions to ident to work our way through on the uh tail end of this. Item I would be a resolution certifying the population estimate for the 2025 payable 2026 levy of ISD 761. Mr. Stad can give us a brief overview on that. So as we think about the levy
047that's coming forward on an annual basis, we do need to recognize any increases or changes in census. And so what this is recognizing that indeed the community um and those that qualify for taxes payable through levy uh moved from 30,167 to 30,351 within our district. And so again, as a board, you're simply just recognizing and certifying that there is a new population estimate for those taxes payable in 2026. Do you have any questions? Yeah. When does the city change the signage? Well, this this is just district residents. So, okay. I was like, you need to up that number. Okay. But we will make 40,000 by 2040. So, wow. Okay. Thank you. I'm excited there for a minute. Any other questions? Elizabeth, do you happen to have this one ready to go? I move that the
048board approve the resolution certifying the population estimate for the 2025 payable 2026 levy of Oh, is that the Am I on the wrong one? No, you're right. That's okay. Sorry. Levy confused me. 2026 levy of Independent School District number 761. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? If you would. Ron I. Andrea. I. Julene. I. Lori. I. Mark. I. Elizabeth. I. I am an I. Also 70. Motion carries as well. Item J tonight. All of this leads up to item J. And item J is a resolution relating to determining the necessity of approving a new referendum revenue authorization and calling a special election thereon. Relat as was stated in the work session last week and we had quite a bit of discussion around this topic. Um we indeed um as been
049has been laid out very well by Mr. dots through all of his financial reporting. We will be coming upon ani financial shortfall that was predicted long ago, particularly when these uh federal esser funds uh went away. Um we were able to manage through some pretty difficult and challenging times with what we had. And so what we're asking you to consider approving tonight is indeed an increase for per $700 per pupil as was discussed by the board last week. certainly not voted on but discussed as meeting the financial needs particularly for the next 5 years. Um what I would also add is that out anything beyond 5 years is really crystal balling and so again that's the one thing that uh we had talked with and the finance committee had discussed with Mr. Sts was really
050looking at what does that per pupil increase look like so that we have that financial sustainability. I would add one other piece with that and that this call for election is not that we're going to be adding a lot of anything new. This is simply to provide maintenance and sustain financial sustainability for our school district moving forward to continue to find reward from the programs we currently have in place uh that have put as been has been highlighted tonight Oatana on the map. So, and I would certainly if there's other questions financially for Mr. Stats, he's certainly available to answer those questions as well. But I did see though that so we do have to incur some of the costs. That is correct. For the election we do part of the Clinton Falls like everybody
051that's not in the city will vote at Clinton Falls and we have that cost. Yep. So we did a combined bowling polling place and that was decided uh a number of years back. We we made Clinton Falls our combined polling place for rural voters based upon and we looked at simply the largest township population. Uh so that's and and the the uh site that they have is can accommodate that level of of voting. Yeah. I think it was also more affordable. I mean instead it's just more efficient. Correct. Yep. And they have a better bevy of judges and so on that we can pick from. Again, there are there are election costs that go into it. Every time there's an election with a school district, we have to incur some of the costs. Yeah. Thank
052you. Any other comments? Uh, and before we would introduce this motion, I would be quick to thank uh, you know, Mark Stats arrived not terribly long ago and his ability to immerse himself and really help the board understand this in a comprehensive way is exemplary. I want to thank Ron, Lori, Elizabeth for serving on the finance committee and and really doing the deep dive on this before you brought it forward to the board. It's super easy as a board member to ratify what you have done, the heavy lifting that you have done to really kind of take a look at everything. And then I think for the public, it's really important to know just how well-run this district is. For years and years, decades, this district has been recognized for its financial acumen. We do
053a this district does an incredibly good job of managing its resources. And when you compare the Otana School District to peer groups, those that we would think of as the Big Nine Conference, as an example, our taxpayers essentially pay less and we deliver a very, very good educational outcome for the kids in our district. I think we can be very, very proud of this. And ultimately, and and I'm borrowing Ron's words, we're asking for what we need. We're not asking for what we want. This levy request is going to be an ask simply for what we need. It's not extravagant and and it simply, as Mr. Stad has said, it simply keeps what we have going going. There's nothing new or additional in this levy. I feel very strongly, I feel very confident that um
054we're asking um the at the right time the community to help and to support us with that. So with that, one of you that is on um um finance, could you please introduce this motion? I move that the board approve the resolution relating to determining the necessity of approving a new referendum revenue authorization and calling a special election thereon as presented. Second a motion and a second. Any other discussion? Wood. Ron I. Andrea I. Jolene I. Lorie I Mark I Elizabeth I and I'm also an I 70 pass. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Lastly, item K tonight would be gifts to the district. All of that was included as part of your board packet. Um Otana continues to amaze us with its generosity. Um anything else to add there, Mr.? You know, in 8
055years time, there has never been a meeting where we haven't accepted a donation from some community group here. And that's amazing to me. That says a lot about this community for sure. Um, would one of you happen to have this queued up and ready? I move that the board approve the resolution for acceptance of gifts as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Tim, if you would. Ron I, Andrea, I, Jolene, I. Lori, I, Mark, I, Elizabeth, I, and I am an I. 70. Motion carries. Uh, before we adjourn, I'm going to look down. Okay, tonight marks my final school board meeting as a superintendent for the Owatana public schools. It's been an honor and privilege to serve as your superintendent. And I want to begin by thanking the school
056board, staff, community, and students for their support and for allowing me the opportunity to serve this great school district. I also want to publicly thank my wife Gina and my family for supporting me through some very difficult and and joyful times and always standing by my side to support me. I'm also thankful that you have selected an excellent superintendent in Dr. Champa as I believe she will lead this district even higher and further in the future. As I reflect upon the last eight years that I have served in this role, there have certainly been challenges and many celebrations. I will tell you that the joyful moments and days have far outweighed the difficult times. In closing, my father used to tell me to used to tell me to make sure that I leave a place
057that I found it. Pardon me. And it's my hope that I've accomplished that. I'm an ugly crier, so just hang on. It is my sincere hope that this school district continues to put the students first. and take care of the people that work with our most precious resource, our students. I will forever be a ton of [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] dead. Good leadership makes sure that the next generation is well prepared and ready for the days ahead and you have done exactly that. Great job. Thank you. With that, I'm going to make the motion that we adjourn. Second. Motion in a second. All in favor with an I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Good meeting.