001All right, it is six o'clock. We'll call this meeting to order. All members are present um with the exception of Thomas and Bruce um including our student representative Nicole. So, we will get started. I'm going to start with the communication items. All right. Um I think I'm going to go a little bit out of order and uh invite up Jesse Rasmmanson to find our secondary principal update because I think Jesse is also supervising volleyball tonight. So, uh, Jesse, if you want to come on up and give us the secondary principle, and then we'll, uh, get you back to work for your supervision. Sounds good. Well, thanks everybody. Uh, I just wanted to say that the, uh, it's fun that the 2526 school year's off to a off to a great start here. It's so fun
002having all the energy back in the building and so, um, we spend a lot of time the first part of the year talking about expectations. And so Mike and I spend time meeting with each student group individually. And we go through all of our PBIS expectations, the live engaged, embrace integrity, act respectfully, and display resilience. And so we talk about what it means to be a bulldog and what that looks like here at Payneesville Schools. Um so that's a big big thing that we do here uh uh at the start of the year. Um looking ahead, I got um pretty excited making the list. I was like, "Oh, look at some of the things that are happening." And then I realized it's a long list. There's a lot of things happening in the next couple
003weeks. So, we'll go over that. So, uh so people are informed here. Uh we are we are in the midst of our fall benchmarking window. I know Maria and her uh her team have nearly completed the elementary already. And so I think that's a record time for benchmarking. And so they're actually going to bring the whole team over here to finish this up. I think tomorrow is the day. So, the whole district might be pretty close to done benchmarking by uh tomorrow. So, uh we're pretty excited about that. Uh we have bus safety coming up tomorrow. Uh Dom and the bus garage come out and they bring buses and our sixth through 10th graders get to go through bus safety. Uh plot day. Natalie and the FFA have plot day um once a year. Uh
004if you haven't been out to Plat yet, I encourage you to go. Uh they have uh BRZ and some of the best homemade cookies I've ever had and just a really cool opportunity to walk around and uh learn some things and see a lot of the cool things that our uh FFA group in our egg um classes do. Uh picture day on Friday. Uh coming up is IT professional day. I just wanted to say a special thanks to Leah and Caleb. uh it is they really have a behind thescenes job that I don't think we would function as a school without and so I am thankful for them every day uh for what they do to help the school run smoothly. And then we have homecoming week come up here uh September 15th through the
00523rd. Uh the first event we're doing puff under the lights. This is something we started having it as an evening event. We're going to do that on Sunday September 14th at 7 o'clock. Uh then we have volleyball home games on Monday and Thursday, coronation in the auditorium. Uh Tuesday, September 16th, we have our homecoming and then Friday we have the big pepfest. We have the the tailgate. Uh the uh middle school dance, a whole bunch of stuff going on on Friday, September 19th. Then the high school dance on Saturday, September 20th. And then next week, we have our cross country meet. Tuesday, September 23rd, our big homecoming uh cross country meet. And then uh we're going to do something new this year. We um we're going to take our student leadership teams. We're going to
006get on a bus on Monday and we're going to go to downtown Payville and we're going to do a homecoming cleanup this year. So, we're going to have some of our our student leaders here uh work to clean up some of the stuff that happens over homecoming weekend. Just a way that we can give back to our community and say thanks for supporting us. So, um I also put at the bottom uh our goals, my goals for this school year. And I'll just um I won't go through them again, but I put them up there so people can see them and read them and and know what we're focused on here at the secondary building. So >> any questions for Jesse? >> Thank you. >> Have a great night, everybody. >> Enjoy your supervision. >>
007All right, and I'll backtrack and invite up uh Cassie uh for our elementary principal update, and then we'll hear what's happening at the elementary. Vickerson, what do you got for us? >> Good evening. A lot of similarities um at the elementary level to the secondary with picture day um bus safety and uh benchmarking. So, I'm kind of jumping all over um those bullet bullets that are listed there. Um like Mr. harasses and said our MTSS team has done a a great job um getting in and meeting with students uh to find out where our students are at coming back to school this fall so that way we can plan accordingly um to meet their needs in the area of in of reading um very soon um and then we'll start up our grade level team
008meetings as well to review that data and respond to the data. Um Mr. Matias and I have also um started our grade level connection meetings, meeting with all grade levels to talk about our big three uh being mindful, connected and respectful. Um so those are um well underway. We started our club's choice fundraiser and I put an image at the bottom um here that um gives the dates for our fundraiser and um really that helps support our students um to go on field trips, special projects, activities, um classroom projects, um you name it. And so this has always been a big a big piece of the elementary. This year, um, our dates are a little bit shorter than years past. So, we are really honing in on those dates as it does end September 22nd
009already. So, we've got 11 strong days uh to hit it hard and just want to say thank you to our families for making that a priority. Uh we had our Paynesville um area elementary meet and greet and um still waiting on a couple attendance pieces, but we are over that 95% again of families participating and so that's always good to see um families in in the door and at school meeting our teachers and seeing their learning spaces. I think I covered the bullets on the top there. Um and then just looking at some um big highlights for the school year for us. Um we were recently um announced that we Area Elementary School is a recipient of the Minnesota School of Excellence for the 2025 2026 school year. Uh so that work um is what
010um our team did last year going through the process really honing in on what are our strengths as an elementary and what are areas for growth and really focusing on um that continuous improvement and that excellence is not a destination but it is a journey and so that's the journey we are on um at the elementary level and really um we've had a strong foundation and when I joined the team, we had a very strong foundation that has been great to build upon. Um, and so I just want to recognize the work that um, the staff have done before I joined and that's been great. And I just want to say thank you to the board and to um, Janelle for their support as we went through this process. Um, because it was a big
011process and a big team pulling together and community members taking our surveys and and whatnot. So, uh, congratulations to Payneesville Area Elementary School for being recognized as a Minnesota school of excellence. Um, also, um, last year, Mr. Matias did some work around our, um, PBIS, and if you remember, that stands for positive behavior intervention and supports. Um, looking at how do we promote positive behavior amongst our students. And so um his background is in PBIS and he was able to come in and see some of the things that we've been doing at the elementary level and um you know looking at how are we doing with implementation and so he submitted um and his team submitted um an application if you will um demonstrating our implementation. And so we were also awarded uh PBIS exemplar
012school status for Payneesville Area Elementary School which is another honor. Um again doing the work um that has been started in the past and we continue to carry that forward. And so it's been exciting to have conversation with Mr. Rasmmanson and Mr. Matias to how do we translate that over to the secondary because our next step is we can go PBIS exemplar district. how do we make this a district um piece? And so we're excited to have those conversations. So, I wanted to share um those two very exciting exciting pieces with you tonight. Um then lastly, just at the bottom, um couple items on homecoming. We have our dress up days next week. Very similar to the secondary school. We tried to mirror what we could um for our ages at the elementary school. And
013then certainly our homecoming button sale that if you wear your homecoming button to the football game on Friday, it is free admission. So, lots of things happening. Um, it's been a whirlwind and we are just moving and grooving uh for the start of the school year. Um, before Cassie goes and sits back down, I just want to take a second and say and acknowledge your leadership because that Minnesota School of Excellence and the PBIS exemplar um that wouldn't happen without you leading and working with your teams and and supporting them through that hard work. And so I just want to take a second and and it is a team. It absolutely is a team, but Cassie, you're leading that building and and I I don't I don't want to downplay that and and I want
014to take a second to say thank you for your leadership um at that elementary. So, congratulations. >> Very good. >> It was exciting to hear. >> It was great. >> And so, um MESPA has some special things planned, uh for the schools that are receiving the award, uh later on in the year. So you'll hear some more from me about that. >> It's always good to have something positive. >> Very good. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. We're going to find out from Chris and what's happening communitywise. >> Come on up. All right. Well, the first day of school is always exciting in preschool. And I will say it went it went quite smoothly. There was a lot less crying and and uh you know that that's part of preschool for parents and
015kids. It's a it's a big step for that age group. So, it went went smoothly. We we have the two sections of three-year-olds and the three sections of four-year-olds that that we are offering this year. We're a little bit down on the on numbers as as compared to previous years, but um we are excited for the school year. We're fully staffed and we're um you know ready to go with that with that age group. Um our ECF, our early childhood family education classes uh actually start tonight. So we have um uh seven families in our 2 to three year olds and then five in the um zero to two year olds. So I'm excited about that because fall is typically people are just not ready to sign up for classes. So the fact that we're
016running two sections is is uh is a good thing for our fall. And we ha I'm excited to um have uh Mary Mcadence. uh she is a longtime ru uh early education uh person. She's done a lot of things in early ed from parent ed early childhood coordinator. She ran Head Start. She lives in our community and she is going to be our parent educator for for um for the fall I'm hoping for the you know for the year. So we'll see how that goes. Um and then we are um excited. We are exploring an additional um section of early childhood family ed that would begin at the end of October and that would be in partnership with the recovery center. So we're excited to have some opportunities in that early education program. Um community
017ed classes where we we've offered 47 classes. Our rec sports have started football, soccer, taekwond do gymnastics there. So our fields and our gyms are getting busy just right along with uh you know athletics. So parents and kids are are excited about the the sports beginning. So it just is the start of everything getting busier and and uh crowded in our spaces. Pause program we have we have 90 students registered. We are average about 50 in the morning anywhere from 65 to 70. We have a very Thursday's our busy day and it hits in that 80 to 90 kids. So, Thursday is a busy day. Um, we are a job job postings. We'd like to add one to two more uh adults to our team just to make sure that we have enough people especially
018during cold and flu season and things like that. So, so we have some job postings available and hopefully we'll get some applicants. um the rural child care initiative program. I reported last month that we are having two events. So I linked the actual posters to um we have to the to this um agenda, but on the 22nd will be um a daycare provider or childcare provider appreciation. So, all of our childcare providers that are in our area have been invited to this event and um it's to celebrate them and um also to provide some uh continual learning opportunities and there'll be food and prizes and um also to get their um input about you know how how we could increase childcare opportunities. And then the second um event is the town hall meeting that is
019Oh, shoot. Sorry. I'll have to relink that for you. Yeah, go ahead. >> Um that is uh open to the public. We if you if you have a strong you you have a passion for um building child care, this is the place to come. That's the QR code that you can register to be at our um town hall event. We'll be taking that survey data and um looking at it and then trying to create some ideas, some plans, some goals. So, those are that's what's coming. >> And they're providing dinner. Yes. >> Yeah. Um and then the other link is link is the actual survey. Um we want to hear from people. Aha, nice work. Wrong link. I will fix that one when I'm Oh, no, that is No, this one's the right one. >>
020That's the correct one. Okay, the right one. Yep, they all the posters look similar. But anyway, that is the um child care uh QR code, the link that um people can connect and uh fill out the survey because we need to hear from people. Uh let's see. And the pack right now it's it's a little quiet, but as we as the weather you know, turns, we will get busier and busier. So, um, we have the, as I mentioned before, our wreck programs and then soon we have some adult leagues, adult volleyball, soccer, basketball, and those will fill up our gyms. Uh, there's um, one event that will take place that's coming up on September 20th. Our local law law enforcement, fire, and rescue, ambulance, they will be participating in a training. So, they'll be working
021on crisis and um um emergency training in our building. So, um we're happy to have them to uh come in and learn and practice. Um so, that is going to be coming up and we'll close the building off to the public so that they can have opportunity to to um be in our buildings. So, you'll on the on the 20th you'll see lots of emergency vehicles out. Don't don't worry. It's just practice. So, um what's coming up? We have the tailgate party. Uh the American Legion has sponsored or has co-sponsored with us. So, this is our um tailgate event. It'll be on uh 5:30 on the 19th in the back parking lot. Uh there'll be hot dogs and chips and water and prizes, games. So just a fun community uh opportunity before the football game.
022So uh the public is invited and it's a free event. >> Yeah. Questions questions for Chris. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right. And as she heads out, can up and let's hear what's happening buildings and grounds. So, >> very nice to have the kids back in the building. >> That last week with them all was a mad rush, but we got we got it pretty much figured out and everything running kind of smoothly. So, um and then with fall sports in here too, a lot of prep work outside on the football fields, practice fields, so on and so forth. Um and uh at the elementary we had to replace the poles on our hot water storage tank for the domestic. They were scary. So uh actually Spaner came in did a really nice
023job on that that got done. They were they look just like the posts out here on the out thing and they were holding >> thousand gallons of water in the air and I'm like yeah that's not so good. So, uh, finally the playground at the elementary school. We're going to get a little hopefully Thursday. I'm hearing now. They've been pushing that back. So, they will be hauling some class 5 in there. Uh, maybe tonight have boss doing that and so on. So, then that VIP can get completed and we can finish that whole project up. That'd be so nice to get that plants done. Um, in this building again and actually the other building this morning, we had a water leak over there, a pinhole and a copper line spraying water against the wall. So
024that baso that was a new pipe in there and done. And then we've got same thing here with the these are over here. They're all them boductal unions. They all just start leaking. Gaskets go out. And so we got tomorrow morning. I got boss coming too to help because I can't even get them loose. They're crudded so tight I can't pipe wrenches and I'm scared I'm going to break the pipes off. >> Let's not do that. So, and then on the science room project, uh I did pull the trigger on the cabinets. So, they will be getting made and here. So, that's moving forward slowly. And my plan is to have uh my staff do the floor. We're going to do polished concrete on that floor. So, we got to get that at least in
025front of the cabinets done before they get here. So, >> so yeah, and and the countertops are eight weeks lead time just on the tops for that. So, it's we've got some time, but it's moving forward. >> So, that's what I've got. Any questions? >> Where do you get the cabinets? >> Martinson's in the building. He was the cheapest bit. So, and we went and looked at Belgrade, me and him, because I was a little worried about the quality. And when he seen because the other company that put a bid in is where Belgrade had it when they did they redo their school five years ago I think. >> Yeah. >> And that was the same company and Martinson was like this is bottom of the line material. So he's like you'll be real happy
026with mine. So how are we sitting on like snow removal? Is that a forbids or >> that that'll be announced at the end of the at the business meeting in September? >> The end of the month. >> Yeah. 23rd. Y. >> So, >> yeah. Yeah. We should have a I think we got somebody lined up. I mean, >> we got to make decisions. >> Made it official, but and it'll come to the board for a decision on the 23rd 3rd. >> Yeah. >> But everything is always bid, I assume. So, >> Yeah. Okay. Anything else? >> Thank you. >> Moving on to the 256. >> Um, she presents at the business meeting. >> Oh, sorry. >> All right. The 2526 enrollment update. >> All right. So um attached you will find uh the student enrollment
027as of today. Um this is not linked in prior to the board meeting because um we had students enrolling as of yesterday and today. So we do not you know it is it is really fluid. Thus the the asterisk of enrollment is fluid and there's a lot of changes. So but that is our snapshot as of today. So we have um 882 kids uh 412 in the elementary, 470 in the secondary. Um so students that enrolled elsewhere that left us uh 16 left from the elementary, 10 left from the secondary which is total of 26 kids. Where were they going? Um so 15 of them uh moved to another district enroll or enrolled in a district of their residence. uh three chose to be uh either homeschooled or an online provider. Um if they open
028enrolled into a different district, there were three of them. Uh we have not had any enroll at the West Central Area Learning Center. Uh we had one move out of state. Uh two are enrolled in the Beacon program and then two are enrolled in a care and treatment elsewhere. Uh so it and both of um the uh care and treatment elsewhere are often outside of our sphere of control. So those are those are family placements. So that's that's those where those 26 kids went. Um but you will also see that we at the elementary had 22 new students and the secondary had 16 for a cumulative addition of 38. So we had a net gain of 12 which is kind of nice. >> Um so I wanted to just uh show you kind of a
029visual so you can see now you'll see this document goes back from to 2020. So, it's a 5-year longitudinal uh snapshot. And you can see um I don't know why that one doesn't pop on the the high enrollment of 914, but um 914 was our highest enrollment in 2023. Um so, you'll see that little peak in there. Otherwise, we we are fairly stable. So, um I think this is just a nice kind of snapshot to see where we are today. Um and uh and where where our kids are going. So any questions about the enrollment. >> This is nice to see that general line. >> Yeah, >> that's staying steady. >> Yeah, that's nice to see. >> Great. That's fine. And we'll keep that going and um you know that's over five years so we
030can see in the future. >> Okay. Um moving on to the strategic plan review. >> Yeah. So, I really don't I don't I put this on here um just to have highlevel conversation and ask the board to start thinking about our strategic planning process. So, I had a a conversation with Wade Mckitrich from um BetterU Solutions who the board authorized for our strategic planning process. And I think what I'd like to do is if the board is comfortable have our first work session with him um on November 10th. And the reason for that is so that um it would be a that's actually our our board meeting that's in the um >> a Monday, right? >> It's a Monday and that's when our students come and do their presentation. So we could have our student
031presentation and then I just wouldn't have anything else for the working session. but that would be his first opportunity to engage with you and so that board meeting would go maybe a little bit longer. We do have a West Central Ed board meeting that evening um but I'm not concerned about, you know, timing wise. Um and leading up to that, some of the things that I would like the board to do is to spend a little bit of time reviewing our existing strategic plan. So, just as a reminder, the original strategic plan is linked in that tracker and it's on that first page of the document. and you'll see kind of the um the overarching process and the conversation that uh took place to really come up with the three goal areas for Payneesville area
032schools. And what we've been talking about in the past has been about growth, um communication, and fiscal stewardship. So um as you take a look through there there are some things that we have continued to we've we've really um we've done so they are have been achieved and then we've moved forward on and we've just maintained them. Um, but what I would like the board to do is just spend some time reflecting and reviewing that um to see, you know, what kind of things you would like to um you'd like to bring forward as conversation. Um when we meet and do our initial strategic planning process, um uh part of what we are going to be doing that first time we get together is to think about who are the stakeholders in our community. um
033who are the people that we really need to make sure that we hear from and then um uh and then how are we going to engage them? Uh so um I'm excited for the conversation to take place, but this really was here um to just be a reminder for you to take a look at and then um see if the board is comfortable with using that November 10th uh work session. Um and then the plan would be that uh we would start we would not start um engagement with with stakeholders until after the holiday season and the first of the year. But coming together in November, we'd be able to kind of know who we need to get in contact with, how we're going to work with our student body, get them engaged, um how
034we're going to connect with parents and so on and so forth. So, um that's kind of the plan for uh November 10th, unless I would hear a strong opposition and then we could look to maybe the um the business meeting on the 20 on at the end of November. >> I I would recommend that we go with the the >> That would make the most sense. >> Early enough. Yeah, exactly. Especially for if as we discuss who those stakeholders are and you start taking a look at the the holidays coming up. Uh it's going to be crunch time really to try to get information out to them that we would like for you to come in feed. >> Y the earlier the better. I agree with you. >> Okay. And I I think your point
035that you just made is getting information out to them for save the dates is really important and that's um I think that's going to be really valuable. So >> yeah. So, that's that's really what I had for the strategic planning. I didn't plan to go back into it and dig and do a lot of updates because we are we're moving and we're we're having additional conversation and um so this is just please take a look at it and community members take a look at it and um because we will be asking from them for their feedback. So, okay. >> Um Oh, and then you were going to talk about picture day. >> Yep. Um, I was going to move on to the request for information roundt, but just as a reminder, Friday is picture day.
036Um, board members are supposed to go in from 7:30 to 8:15 at either dis either school, excuse me, to get their picture taken. >> They'll be expecting you. So, your name will be and then then you'll get the same badge that everybody gets. So, that your badges match everybody else's. >> Great. Anything else? Uh yes. Uh real quick, uh last night Janelle and I were at the West Central uh ed district uh school board meeting, one up at Melrose and uh so the uh the district is doing very well. So of the four PS will be one of them districts that are involved uh with that school district, the uh the director up there is doing a great job as far putting things together. their strong numbers are strong uh as far as enrollment and
037the uh the activities that they have or at least the learning that they have. One of the things that we talked uh briefly about and I say briefly a little maybe a little bit longer than briefly was the single house here. >> Okay. And uh so they are at uh when I say max capacity that the number of students that they can have in the program right now just based on um the the building that they have the the house uh there is uh other folks that would like to get into it but uh we just can't afford can't bring them in right now but uh there was lessons learned from that last year. um a lot of uh what they did last year as far as the the teaching methods that they use, they're
038going to continue at that. But there is going to be a little some changes to it uh which is to me a great sign of uh you know that check and adjust what what worked, what didn't uh to help those uh uh those young adults out. So the 18 to 22 year olds. But uh very positive things coming from the west central education district and how they support the schools and then how we support them. So >> hearing nothing else then we're we're adjourned.