001Good evening everyone and welcome. We are the Otana School Board. It's Monday. It's the 28th of April. 5:30. I'm going to call this meeting to order. Tim is going to give us an update on our attendance. All present. Great. 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 up tonight would be to approve our agenda as presented. So moved. Second. Any conversation? Any discussion? All in favor with an I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. I'm going to have a quick, very, very quick um just a quick announcement here. Uh in the event that there is severe weather tonight, uh we're going to take cover. We'll pause
002the meeting and we're going to exit the room. We're going to follow Mr. Stad. We're going to use those south doors. We're going to proceed down the stairs and Mr. Alstad is going to direct us to the location that would be safe down there. And um as soon as things are clear, we will resume our meeting. Let's hope we make it through. That's a train. Yep. Right on you, Mr. Chair. My goodness. A room full of meteorologists and train afficionados. Okay. Um the first thing of tonight would be our mission moment. Mr. Elstad, if you would please. Yeah. Thank you, Chair Sebring and members of the board. Tonight is my sincere honor to shine a light on an extraordinary group of individuals, our district cabinet. These leaders provide the vision, oversight, and dedication that guide
003our schools every single day. The success of our district has experienced our district has experienced is not by chance. It is a direct result of the innovative, compassionate, and intelligent leadership of this remarkable team. Throughout my tenure as superintendent, I've had the privilege of working alongside this group. Many have been with me from the very beginning and I am incredibly grateful for their steadfast partnership and deep commitment to our mission. They are not they are not only among the most talented professionals I've ever worked with, they have also become trusted colleagues and dear friends. Tonight, I'm proud to recognize each of them. I have you stand please as I call your name. Julie Sullivan, our director of teaching and learning. Chris PA, who is absent, not very often, but she's absent tonight. Chris Pica, our
004director of human resources, Mark Stz, our director of finance and operations. Sarah Canudson, director of special services. Deb Mcderma Johnson, director of community education, and Bob Olsen, director of facilities, safety, and infrastructure. Please join me in thanking this exceptional team for their leadership and excellence they bring for every learner every day. [Applause] Thanks. I got through it. You did, Mr. Alstead. Thank you. And it's uh it's really easy to um you know sort of put our heads down and we forget uh sometimes just how high quality uh of staff you have and that you've surrounded yourself with and they make me look really good. Yeah. Um you do a pretty good job from the get-go, but yeah, you're right. It's a it's a high quality team that you have surrounded yourself and our district is
005is in a much it's in a really fabulous place thanks to the hard work of you folks. Thank you. Uh let's move on. Item five tonight is public forum. Sir, do we have any cards? No cards. We're going to keep right on moving. Item six is just general information. Do any of you have any questions for Mr. Stad or members of his staff as it relates to the enrollment report that was part of your packet? We will move on. Um item seven tonight, again, no action required, but we will have board forum. Uh Ron, if you don't mind, I'll start down on your side if we could. And as as we're going around, anything that you have in the way of um uh committee reports, let's take care of that while we're at it. Um
006yeah, from committee wise, just we'll have a finance meeting, I think, on the 12th to hopefully hear the results from the survey. So, we'll be able to move forward more with that. Um, I had the opportunity to work at after prom on uh Saturday night. So, that was a interesting experience. Your first time? But it went well. Yes. Was it your first time? First time working there. Yes. Wow. And last first. I'll probably have to do it again. I don't know. Yeah, we'll see. Good. Thank you, Andrea. Yeah, we had a facilities meeting earlier this afternoon and just a couple things to update from that. We were informed about various OPU rebates that we've received um regarding the um maintenance and upgrades done at the district office and those come to the tune of $81,000.
007Um and in general there's a $49,000 annual savings because of those upgrades and annual savings. Um, the other things to report are regarding Bridge Street property. There's really been no significant activity, no offers. So, we're just holding on that. And um the third is just that the pool, you've heard about the pool um project and it the tile is out. They're working on the decking. The demo started and they're currently on time on budget. Thank you, Julian. Um, I was at facilities today and last week the policy committee met and we continue just to chunk away and chip away at the list of policies that are up for revision and review. Um, yeah, aside from those two committees, I guess we we have another one coming up. Um, you'll see in your policy um packet
008today, there are a couple of policies that we I wouldn't say they jumped the line, but they did um bypass the first reading and it's simply because there were absolutely no changes and it was just up for a kind of a routine review. So, you'll see those there. Um, I'm assuming AUB will have an announcement or someone will announce on his behalf. Otherwise, I would love to. Well, I happened to notice I was on Facebook and I'm not there very often, let me tell you. However, I did see a lovely post um from Miss Swanson about our own AUB who took the championship spot in is it discussion at state? Yeah, I was I get chills. So, congratulations to you. Woo. Yeah, that was awesome. So, I'd love to hear hear more about that. Congratulations
009to you. That's it. But I have nothing tonight. Nothing for me. Yeah, nothing for me. I guess that moves to me. Uh on Saturday there was prom of course and that was lovely. Uh the dance was props to the prom committee. It was so well put together. The march was super organized. I mean, I can't imagine all the amount of work that goes in behind that. Uh, the language seal test started today, uh, which is super cool. So, they offer Swahili, Spanish, Mandarin, Russian. Um, and it's it's kind of a interesting scoring system, but takes about an hour and 20 minutes. Um, but it's not timed, per se. Uh, you can take as much time as you want on it. Uh, and I was taking that today. So, that was pretty cool. It's a cool
010opportunity the high school offers because typically you would have to pay to take a test like that. Um, and we don't have to at OS. So, super awesome. Yep. Um, this past week we had AC testing for juniors and seniors on Tuesday and Thursday. Um, AP testing I believe starts next week and that's for the 15 subjects that OHS offers. Um and yeah, speech state was on Saturday. So we had we brought four four people. Um everyone did amazing. It was successful day. Nice. I have a quick question. I So going forward, are you just going to wear a shirt around your house that says I was the discussion champion? And so like your parents and siblings just don't even try to argue because you're just It's a discussion, not an argument. Really? It's an
011argument. [Laughter] very cool event. Um, and next week I do I I got the opportunity to go to the Minnesota State Capital and be a House Page for a week. So, that's that's something I'm looking forward to as well. There you go. And it's an interesting time at the legislature. So, that will be great. Perfect time. That's all I had for tonight. Excellent. Erin, you thank you very much. That's um that's so great to to hear that news. Um I'm reminded Tim and I were at the district committee advisory um committee and um do you want to touch just on some of those new classes? So every year um they bring new classes to the curriculum advisory committee. Um last year of all the they probably presented four or five classes. I can't remember all
012the details but um of all of them they ran everything but one class I think uh at least one section of them. Some of them as much as three sections. So they're able to get new kind of fresh material into the to the curriculum at the OS on. So for next year they have again um a proposed list. We had seen the list before but um they're they believe they're going to be able to offer again nearly all of them at least one section and so they need to have someone who's qualified to teach it and students who are interested. So, it's just neat to see kind of the dynamic nature of the curriculum there and how they're kind of continuing to offer things that are of interest to students. Some of them were, you
013know, nursing field related, but there's one that was um like true crime podcast type stuff from a language arts perspective. So, just really cool. That cover it. It did. And even in the room and it's a room of educators that the number of people that said why couldn't these things have been offered when I went to high school. It it was really neat. Uh thanks Tim. Uh that takes care of item one which would be the committee reports as far as um you know what we've shared with board forum. Um anybody have any issues with number two the work session report? Any questions with regard to that? How about number three? Uh the policy revisions? This is a good opportunity. It's first reading on these. Lori addressed uh sort of the cursory nature of some
014of them. Any questions with regard to policy. Okay, let's move on. Um letter B, administrative report. Mr. Stad. Yeah, I'm going to be really brief tonight. Um just so that you're aware, we have 28 school days remaining. I was told that by a student uh today, an elementary student while I was serving lunch in Lincoln told me we had 20 days of school, 28 days of school left. And I went, "Oh, great." Um just to as as Mr. Kubichek had indicated um Morrison Leatherman survey launched there that we'll complete that next week. There'll be a presentation of the excuse me finance committee on May Monday May May 12th and then if you remember we moved the 15th back so that Peter Leman could indeed join us at the work session to work through those uh
015survey results with the entire board. Uh the finance committee however will get the first blush at that on Monday uh to see what that entails. Um I had IUB's uh state champion uh status on mine. Also I wanted to announce and again I want to thank uh Chair Sebring and Vice Chair um Weisenberger as well as Sarah Hoffman and Corey Cath for taking part in our student school board representative interviews. Um the the students selected uh will be Lel Schultz and uh Lel Schultz will be seated. Um there we go. There we are. Okay. Pause the meeting. Yep. It is morning, folks. Mhm. 5:42. We'll pause the meeting. 5:42 will pause the meeting. Okay. All right. We've done in the past at the August meeting, that would be his first uh time seated with the
016board. And again, you'll be asked to take up resolution at the meeting on May 27th to bring LOL on board. And at that time, we'll also be um wishing Aaron good luck as that will be her last board meeting with us. So anyway, um time is uh going fast. Yes, it is. And um I know that Lori is here and can attest to this. Sarah is here and can attest to this as well. These candidates were spectacular. These were great great candidates that um put their name in and it was it was awesome. Okay. And that was it. Yeah. Can I just add one more thing? So um you know the legislature has to u be done by about two weeks from today. um three weeks from today, pardon me. Um we're still seeing that
017they're uh they're they do have a commitment that they want to finish on time, but they're still a ways away uh between the Senate and the House and the Governor. Um they're already starting those meetings though to come together and kind of plow through it. I think the big thing is um you know, they're looking at uh bumping up a little bit of the special ed cross subsidy, English learner cross subsidy. And then lastly would be hoping to keep compensatory revenue in a hold harmless state. So what they would do is take the the year FY24 for us was the year that we probably uh were getting more than we would have now, but they would hold us harmless with that. Uh those are probably the big ones. And again, um the other one that
018would come into play is it would require districts to prohibit cell phones and smartwatches. And um I believe and I'm going to instruct Corey Cath to start taking some steps at the high school to make cell phones not available to students from bell to bell. I'm sure that will be widely accepted by the student body. You might be surprised how many might be relieved. Yeah. Uh good. Thank you very much. Um item eight tonight would be the consent agenda. The quick reminder, we are approving the minutes for March 24, March 26, April 3, the dispersement and personnel reports. Anybody have any reason that we would pull any of these out? No, I just want to make note on the personnel report of how many current students andor recent grads are coming back to coach our
019kids both that are working in the district and have jobs outside of the district but are choosing to come back and be coaches. It's pretty amazing. Yeah. Excellent. Um motion to approve. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? This is roll call. Right. Yes. Ron I. Andrea. I. Jolane. I. Lori. I. Mark. I. Elizabeth. I. And I'm an I. 70. Carries. Thank you very much. Uh item uh 10, I'm sorry, item nine tonight. These are the items that require board action. The first would be policy revisions. Um those all made a part of your packet. This is the second reading. Anybody have any questions as it relates to these policies that we are approving tonight? Looking intently, I'll take that for a no. We'll entertain a motion to approve.
020So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is this a roll call? This is not. Uh we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor with an I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Item B, this is the identified official with authority to authorize user access to MDE secure websites. And that person is Mr. Stad. Yes. Uh for about uh 60 days. Uh it will be me. I'm unsure why the Department of Education doesn't run this on a July 1st to June 30th sort of thing, but Sarah and I lamented that for a while today and then we decided that probably wasn't something we were going to fix. So, um when Dr. Dr. Champa comes on board on July 1st, you will see the same action item come before
021the board in July to allow her to be that uh identified individual with authority. Want to give us the quick bird's eye view? Yeah. So, what this does is it allows me to submit reports on behalf of the board. Um things like when we're doing our um compensatory or title budgets, when we're doing special education that goes between Dr. Kenson and myself all of the reports that are generated and they are numerous reports and grants come through the superintendent and because I have that board designated authority I can uh sign on behalf so that those applications are submitted in a timely way. Any questions? Uh would one of you happen to have this motion queued up and ready to go? I move that the board authorize authorize Superintendent Jeff Elstead to act as the identified
022official with authority for Owatana Public School District 761 through June 30th, 2025. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor with an I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. And as you were reading that motion, I'm reminded that I um I breezed right past the policy revisions. We should probably Who introduced that motion? added. I think it was Jolene seconded and Tim seconded it. Jolene, would you reread the entire motion to approve the policy revisions, please? Okay. I move that the board approve the policies as presented. That's what it says. That's exactly what it says. Word for word. We're okay. Um, item C tonight would be a farm lease agreement. We have property on Rose Street. Mr. Elstad is going to give us an update on this. If I
023may, I'm going to ask Mark Statts come up and answer questions. you might have as he worked with the parties involved with the farm lease agreement and additionally for the next item that would be uh for consideration of approval as well. So good evening Mr. members of the board superintendent. You want to hit the button there? It turns green. Yeah, there we go. You know, he keeps me on my toes. Um, so after the first board meeting I attended last month, uh, I noticed that Jeff was given a majority of the reports and I asked him, I said, um, are we expected to give reports at the full board meeting? So, nah, nah, don't worry about it. I'll take care of it. So this morning I'm getting dressed and my wife says, "Aren't you wearing
024a suit tonight? Don't you have a board meeting?" I said, "Yeah, but Jeff told me, don't worry about it. You know, you didn't." I said, "I'm just going to be out in the crowd." Well, I get to work this morning, and the first thing he says is, "Would you mind presenting these two items at the board meeting this evening?" So, here I am. And the first item, and Jeff knows I like to poke fun at superintendent, so Tammy has that to look forward to. Um, first item tonight is the farm lease. This is an agreement that we enter into annually with the FFA to lease them the 35 acres off of Rose Street. um they have a contract farmer that does all the work for them, but the students are very involved in uh the
025agriculture and the farming of this property. So, um the total rental amount is $35 per year, which approximates to $1 per acre. Um and they're really good partners. Obviously, it's a great benefit to to the kids that are in this program. So with that, I'd recommend approval and I'm willing to answer any questions you might have. And the bird's eye view is the students, the FFA students are active in not only the selection that from the, you know, planting all the way through harvest. They have a really active role in this. That's correct. That's correct. It's a wonderful learning opportunity. I don't know if I've been in a district where kids have this type of opportunity in the egg program. So kudos to to the district and FFA and everyone involved. So excellent. So really
026it's like an outdoor classroom. I mean really I mean it's Yeah. Yeah. Terrific. Any questions? I just have one thing I did. So somebody that was involved with the group just spoke very favorably of Mark and the district and the process and said that they were pleased with how it went. Well, it was one of my first meetings when I came to work here and I found out I had a connection with a couple of the people in the room. So, that helps, too. Uh, would one of you please introduce this motion for us? I move that the board approve the farm lease agreement with FFA as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Are there any further conversations? Hearing none. All in favor with an I? I. Any opposed? That motion carries.
027stay where you are. Item D tonight would be the insurance renewal. An update here. If you would go ahead, why don't you go right ahead and Okay. Um, so the insurance committee met and Aaron Casper with NIS, who's our insurance rep, uh, went through basically all the numbers and I will say this past year, the year that we're currently in, our experience has not been as good as in previous years. So, usage was up. Um, usage is up more than what premiums will cover. Thankfully, we've got about a $2.1 million fund balance in this self-insured plan. Um, we'll be able to cover that without any issues. Uh, but we do feel the need to raise the premium for next year um by 9% on health insurance and 3% on dental insurance. Again, it's all about
028money in, money out. And if premiums coming in aren't enough to cover uh the usage of the plan, then we end up with an imbalance and we have to raise rates. Even at 9%, this is um still pretty good in comparison to a lot of self-insured plans and fully covered plans. Um I would say if we can keep it under double digits, we're good. We've gotten spoiled the last few years when it's been about a 3% increase. Um, trend alone is more than that. And so even if our claims were exactly equal to what our premiums are, we'd still see an increase. Um, so with that, I'd entertain any questions you might have and recommend approval of these insurance rates. Maybe maybe just one clarification. I was thinking too about the rates we've paid since
029we became self-insured. And I don't know if I realize you haven't been here and I don't expect you to know. Do you happen to know or did they discuss that at your did the um consultant mention it or not that I recall? Yeah. I I'm just thinking to myself that if we were to even average out the last year since we've done this plan, I mean, again, we're going to be I'm just wagering between four and five. We've had some really good years. Yeah. I'm not I'm not sure exactly what it would average out to. I do know last year was only 3%. Um I saw that a few years. I think that's as far back as I went, you know, and I told the committee, um you know, in the good years, we get
030to build that reserve to cover ourselves in years like this. Um the rate increase could have been higher. Um, so we are fortunate that we do have those reserves and the plan has been working as intended. So, and then I just noted a 91 renewal. So, it doesn't coincide with our fiscal year. Yeah. Nope. Yeah. Typically, um, you know, in education things are July 1st to June 30th. Um, health insurance is the exception. Good. Any further cut questions I should say? You know what? I don't have a question, but I just want to recognize just that how um especially being a patient in the medical world as we all have, but then also working in the medical world, it's so challenging and insurance is never a fun or easy topic and it's so expensive all
031around. And so I hate to see that we have to raise things, but I think it's expected. Um, but I just want to recognize that it's hard for everybody and I I think we all recognize that with the increased cost of things, right? Yeah. All right. With that, would one of you please introduce this motion for us? I move that the board accept the self-insured health insurance renewal with Blue Cross Blue Shield. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor with an I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Sts. Item E tonight would be an extended trip request. This is somewhat unique, Mr. Elstad, if you would. Yeah, this is the first request we've had for this uh very trip, but uh our science department, one
032of our staff members at the in OHS science department has requested uh extended trip request that would travel to Iceland. Uh this is part of science and geology. Obviously, Iceland is uniquely situated with a lot of geological sort of um things you wouldn't see anywhere else on the planet and there was uh after my discussion with Mr. Kath, there is quite an interest in this topic. Uh in fact, I believe he said there were over 50 students and families at the initial meeting. Um and he had nine or 10 that had already committed to uh being on this trip. So, it's an interesting trip. Um we've seen before trips to Europe and so on for mostly world languages, but this was an interesting trip that really ties in some of those earth science pieces. So
033offline we were talking about this and you addressed one of the concerns that we raised which is it's an expensive trip and what measures are being taken to help uh families where that would be a challenge. Yeah. So there I mean it's the trip is scheduled for a ways off as you can see. I mean, it's it's almost a year and a half or better away. And so, they're going to be having up many opportunities for students to do their own fundraising as well as some group fundraising along the way to defay the cost. You know, I I often pause at trips that are going to cost individual students nearly $5,000 to go. Um, but again, there are also some donors within our community that have stepped up to identify that if students need assistance
034that they'd be willing to help with that as well. So, it's a unique trip. Um, and again, I if there wouldn't have been the student interest, I don't believe I would have brought this forward for your consideration of approval. Um, but I do uh want to recognize that there's quite a showing of support for this right now. And again, um it is incumbent of course upon the students raising the money. So, uh there could be an update later that it's just not feasible to do so. Um but again, um I want to embrace that student interest. You know, the the other thing I would just point out in reviewing the uh application, I appreciated item 10 where it talks about whether students a portion of their fee will be supporting the chaperones costs and the
035answer was no. So chaperones presumably will foot their own bill, which again given the cost and the fact that it is student focused. Y I appreciated that. That's correct. Mhm. Further discussion. Ron, do you have this one? Cute. I move that the board approve the trip request to Iceland as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor with an I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Last item tonight, gifts to the district item F. Mr. Oh. Oh, I'm using um an outdated um Thanks. extend uh extend a trip request. There's this is for the band. Yep. Thank you, Mr. Lad. I apologize. I had an old band has before traveled uh to different places. Happens to be requested for a trip to Colorado. Uh that would
036occur this summer with our marching band. And so again, uh fairly similar to those they've done in the past as far as how their travel arrangements are. Uh Mr. Gentther always finds a good group of people to chaperon and go with on these important opportunities for our students to perform uh and take kind of hone their crafts. So discussion any questions? Andrea, it seems appropriate to have you introduce this motion for us, please. Sure. All right. I move that the board approve the trip request to Colorado as presented. Second. Have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor with an I. I. Any opposed? That motion carries. Now item G, gifts to the district. Mr. Alstad. Yeah, there's a few gifts I'll mention tonight. Uh, I do want to thank because I
037know we have a representative here tonight from Lindberg Productions that they uh sponsored some activities. So, $250. I'm looking at you like maybe you don't even know, but there was a sponsorship from Lindberg. And I also want to appreciate the fact that uh Scott and his team do come and do our video for meetings. So, thank you for being here even on this stormy night. So, um we are also the benefactors in our district with our students and community when we have a Winger Corporation step forward to sponsor a very very talented brass group that was here this past month. The Dallas um brass group was here. outstanding uh musical performance and uh just one of those opportunities for our students to participate with the Dallas Brass Group as well as to uh make sure
038that they're watching that cuz I was at the jazz band uh concert here a little a couple weeks ago and to see one of our very own perform with his jazz band that's now probably I'll call it amateur and or professional jazz band. Um, that's where these little sparks of inspiration start is watching someone else. So, anyway, those are things I'd lift up tonight. Thank you. Terrific. Thank you. Any questions? Elizabeth, do you have this one? I move that the board approve the resolution for the acceptance of gifts as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Tim, if you would, please. Ron, I. Andrea, I. Delane, I. Lori, I Mark I. Elizabeth I and I am an I 70 passion carries. Thank you very much. With that item 10 would
039be to an adjourn. I will make the motion that we adjurnn. Second. Have a motion and a second. All in favor with an I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Good. Interesting meeting tonight folks. Thank you very much. Set.