001all right six o'clock called me in order all members are present including our St representative um there was no additions to the agenda corre moving on to the approval of the agenda make a motion to approve the agenda is printed a second second by comment all in favor I all oppos signify by saying no motion passes um no public comment um moving on to the consent agenda uh Cheryl would you like to review the bills um I went in review the bills everything was business as usual nothing really stood out it looked pretty clear and common uh Personnel uh things just to notice you'll uh we're finalizing some of our coaching hires um we have our resignation um I'll just acknowledge Carrie she's uh finishing her tenure as a business manager with us at the
002end of June uh so thank you to Carrie um as she kind of wraps up her time um and we have a a retirement from Phil Carlson and I will also just acknowledge a a thanks for his service and um so those our person our consent agenda items for personnel are relatively straightforward when it comes to donations I do want to call out um a couple of different things and I'm going to uh get the right tab before I cast it here so that um show a couple of items um one thing I do want to actually I I'm gonna go back to February real quickly um there was an error this was identified as Paynesville VFW um we don't have a BFW in Painesville so I wanted to acknowledge that it was it was
003um the it was a donation from the Painesville Legion for the Costa Rica Spanish trip so I wanted to clarify that and make sure that that was acknowledged appropriately and correctly because uh we do appreciate that and it was cly an error so thank you for for that um donation when we come into March uh a couple of things that I'll call out you'll notice our Bulldog booster club met and they've made some donations to the school um baseball there are uh purchase of some bats uh you're going to notice a large donation to gymnastics um we had some board member question about equity and and donations and so there you'll see some uh women's activities so um gymnastics is going to be purchasing a vault um you'll also notice that uh the uh Paynesville
004FFA uh donations are officially acknowledged at this board meeting after we received them at the work session on March 10th um also I do want to um just add in for um the playground we are um we are so excited about the progress that's been happening for the Early Childhood playground and um when uh Chris O'Brien and I sat down and we just wanted to make sure that nobody was missed so we wanted to make sure that we either recognized twice or just didn't miss somebody and so you're going to notice I mean there's a lot of donations that have come in to support this um this project and um and I'm excited to say that we also have have um we have a a pledged donation for a large amount that is going to
005get us really close to um the end game goal so we're super excited and I'm I'm when we have that in hand I'll be really excited to share um to share that uh with the board and the community um I I've heard Rumblings that there might be some uh matching grants out there so hopefully that really pushes us over the top so that's super exciting and there's been a lot of hard work and a lot of push to make that happen so um very excited for that um let's see um then um other than that those are the the consent agenda items for uh for today any questions I make I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented second second by R um all in favor I any oppos saying no motion
006passes moving on to communication items um administrative report so I will cast this as well um we had some conversation uh in some previous board meetings about some uh just kind of budget implications and federal dollars and so I want to share some of that information with you uh the governor did release um his budget revision on Friday um and unfortunately the budget for the state of Minnesota is not optimistic um and it does contain some reductions that could impact education um which would could impact our district as well now again these are are um proposals and so remember from a process perspective the house makes the proposal the Senate makes the proposal it comes to the um it kind of rectifies with the governor's budget that's make sure it's in line and then um
007all those things have to happen before it comes to fruition however I think it's important uh for us to pay attention to what these things look like so um within uh probably the most shocking uh that I saw within um the governor's proposed budget reductions is an elimination of Q comp uh for us in our district that would be a big deal um that would be a loss of about $154,000 um I'm really I I'm optimistic that we are able to maintain that because we have some uh I'm I'm just I'm hopeful that that does not go away uh you'll see education eliminated or um eliminate non-public pupil education Aid so this would typically not be on our radar but um we um in the very Southern point of our uh district there is a
008uh private school a private Christian School in uh Grove City that we thought was actually in acgc school district because of the address that was used for um for the school and the director uh we received Clarity from the Minnesota Department of Education about six months ago that they are actually in our district and so then our awareness of um nonpublic education Aid become became much more prominent so um technically we should receive ,16 so if that elimination goes away we would not receive that funding okay um you'll also notice that there's elimination of non-public Pupil Transportation Aid proposed uh what that would mean that is if we are obligated to provide uh transportation to any of the students in our non-public schools uh we would not receive any aid for that Transportation uh we
009also would not be obligated to provide that Transportation um but it it historically has been um an agreement and an acknowledgement that the public school will help with Transportation because there's Aid to reimburse so that PES the storyline um some of these other areas that I don't have um read behind are not necessarily an impact for us but those are other areas within his budget that he has proposed eliminate or uh reductions you're also going to see um uh a reduction in Community Education Equalization Aid so what that means is that when we Levy for uh Community Education funds uh the state provides $1,831 183 it would go purely on the levy okay so that would that would be Aid that would be lost the school district um we two years ago we started receiving
010School library Aid which was to help offset the requirement to have a um a media spe a licensed media specialist uh and for our school district that was $40,000 um there is a reduction a proposed reduction in that program so um you'll see that the possible impact at the legislative level if the governor's proposals come to fruition would be about 26,7 192 okay so then the question becomes okay what are some of the other things because we've talked a lot about unemployment and we've talked a lot about compensatory Revenue those are two areas within the governor's proposal that um and I will suggest there in the house conversation and the Senate conversation to make sure that there's not such large winners and losers for compensatory Revenue okay so just as a reminder compensatory revenue is
011the money that's received from the completion um it's the eligibility of used to be the free and reduced forms um that's what drove our compensatory Revenue um when the forms were no longer required there was a process which which is called direct certification that's led to some winners and losers within the state of Minnesota so part of the governor's proposal and the house and the Senate are working hard to try to make that uh a little less bumpy um there's also a commitment to try to uh fund the summer unemployment insurance so there is about $30 million left in the fund to fund summer un employment uh for our summer workers that cannot go on our current Levy um and the the anticipated bill is closer to 60 to 65 million so it's about $30
012million short so there's conversation about making that whole for this summer um but then there's not an ongoing conversation for future years Beyond putting it on allowing districts to put it on your Levy so the the quandry and the conversation that the board will have to have at that point in time is do you um absorb that in your general fund or do you Levy that on your taxpayers so those are those are the two conversations to be had if that funding does not continue um so then we had a conversation about um just the state aid um state aid has Inc guaranteed an increased rate of 2.74% for 2526 so that uh brings the per pupil formula to 7,480 per student and then we talked about what happens um if the uh at the
013federal level if um special education or title money like what happens if that goes away now I can sit here safely and say that that money is not going to go away um we do know that that is going to continue to flow through um however I thought it was still advantageous to just help the board understand what those dollars are and what that looks like right so our federal special education funding that is allocated to our district is approximately $252,700 in there but we still need that program so I'm going to make this a little bit bigger um and actually I'm going to stop sharing and share this tab so that anybody that's watching uh can see this as well so uh this is so this is a five-year historical analysis of enrollment child
014col and federal entitlement so this is purely our special education money so the First Column is the TW is from December 1st 2024 okay so that is our total District's total enrollment and then you have our child count and then you have um Federal Federal finance code 419 and 420 so for Paynesville our allocation for 419 which is you have either your your Early Childhood Services and your general um your general K12 Services is kind of the most basic way to explain that um so Paynesville receives $232,000 and 419 and uh $ 5,967 in 420 but like I said that money doesn't come directly to our district and here's why because when you look at the services that are paid for through um through special education you're going to see let me get this one
015casted so that um I can share that too my m is going weird on me okay so you're going to see so as a for instance wherever it says Federal allocation federal aid allocation so instead of all the money coming to us and then us turning around and paying a bill that money flows through the West Central education district and then they cover the special education supervisor they cover a portion of a behavior analyst the director program administrators so you see what I'm how I'm walking through each of those things those are services that are provided to all of our to students in um our district and this is specific um to like how all districts across the Ed District are built so when there's more usage it's a higher Bill When there's less usage
016there's a lower bill when you are when you have more students you pay more when you have less students you less right so it's all kind of it's there's a formula put in place for this determination so um so I thought it was important for you to kind of know how that works and if that if that Federal flowthrough money would have been disrupted and they and and it was no longer allocated this would be a problem right um so then I wanted to also share um what the other um so our title funding so title uh um our only building that receives title funds is the elementary building and we have $1 14854 that comes in for our Title Services uh we receive a Carl Perkins Grant um in the amount of 9,798 then
017our other Federal Food Service funds equate to uh $290,000 okay why is it that we only qualified for title funding at the elementary school and nothing at the middle and school um it has to do with um the free it's the there's a a correlation and and uh determination of our our uh free and reduced population um at the site um and our elementary was at the time of designation that was our only only eligible site what do we got to do to be eligible on the other one they'd have to make us eligible the federal government would have to make us eligible so in I guess in straight talk here is it safe to say that we have more younger kids in the elementary school that are on the that qualifi for the uh
018reunion stuff that's why nope nope um well back in the I suppose back when our initial qualification that's that's one of the criteria yes that's one of the criter are we working on to be able to qualify for I mean I'm sorry but if there's something on the table I want to make sure we get a piece of the PIP yep yep we can't we could ask but it's the and and Ron the the formula is really extensive I'll send it your way and you can but I know how it works the poorer the poorer you are in the loss the more funny you're going to get just the way it is yeah and so we don't get to we don't get to apply per se to be designated a title um that that designation
019comes to our district I would get to like anathan County and they're they're going to qualify for more of this stuff they have quite a a big number yes kind of what I figure um I know you're jumping ahead here I guess I had another question I don't know if you want to finish this page but that's you go back to that 419 and 420 sure uh this one y I guess I'm curious to know what the difference is between 419 what that what that entails and the difference between 420 so 419 420 yep 419 is going to be your school AED or uh your school aged Services um and your 420 uh is going to be your Early Childhood eligible Services because I'm guess I'm kind of trying to grasp the rationale as far
020as the percentages that they're somewhat different on on the other schools okay so the percentages on the other schools are are of how much they're getting yeah okay so I'll go into that but but proportionately while I mean I'm not sitting here with a calculator but y proportionately um some of them are different but I guess I'm not going to draw straws I I just wanted to know the difference between the 419 and the 420 and the answer that so yep so 419 and 420 so this is going the 419 which is the larger allocation and that serves the larger population of our student body which is our school age I'll just use that in general terms school age um students and our early childhood students are served through that 420 the way that that
021um it's it's all based on child count so when you come up to um the child count in here um our uh we have to report students by on December 1st if they are eligible and there's a set of criteria to determine if they're eligible um and you have based on disability you have age wise so all of that comes into the factor okay so in the entire education District 100% of the students that are counted in the child count we have 1,60 Paynesville accounts for 200 of those students in child count okay um but we don't this child count does not break out your um Early Childhood Services and your SE your school age Services that's how that different pot of money is going to be distributed okay and then one last question um
022you showed what the proposed cuts the government Governor has as far as for for our school and stuff do you know are there any some jobs eliminated in MSB um the people in the cities that kind of dictate the kind of the up on some of this was there anybody at the Minnesota Department of Education at MD yeah um I don't believe so wouldn't surprise me yeah but I'm I'm not yeah because when we go down for a training we've got people to boost morale and they're kind of in charge of that and there's some to be a better school board member and or but so the the school so the Minnesota School Board Association is different from the Minnesota Department of Education oh so the Minnesota Department of Education is going to be the
023the state's governing body that's going to determine um uh for example what you can spend your money on what you can't because they're going to take what's passes in statute and they're charged with making sure that school districts follow that law the School Board Association the Minnesota School Board Association msba is a a a private entity that provides support and service to school boards they're not effected by the from the from the uh Department of Education the Minnesota Schoolboard Association yeah no but they Lobby on behalf of school boards and superintendents so they've they've been telling the story of how these numbers impact at the state at the local level yep that's brought up a good point yep and employed by the government Miss state government may just have a signal on people getting away
024that's M at the Minnesota level okay um so as you can see there's a lot of factors uh we are going to start talking about um enrollment projections and budget considerations there's a lot of moving parts and you can see that uh some of these determinations they could impact our budget pretty significantly so we're going to we're going to watch these pieces as they go forward um I'm really hopeful that um they can uh I'm I'm hopeful that they can adjourn at the legislative timeline but there's also a lot of conversation that that may not happen so we'll see roughly what is um 2.72 isn't that the annual thing we're supposed to get 2.74 that amount to 7,480 oh for our actual stud oh I'll have Carrie can you do that for me while um
025while I'm going on can you look at B your students please 900 students we have 900 or 950 900 so if we use if we use 900 and we were at I have to look at what our po pupil was last year I'll let Carri do this while we're talking and then I'll bring it back okay okay okay so I'll I'll let car do it 672 probably right 672 th000 6 and they're just going to take away half of it and that's money from them that's the concern is that um with with some of the increased money that we've had in years past um that's a way to get some of the guaranteed increase back is by reductions when you're guaranteed the uh the the inflationary index so and I'll carry the number for me
026and I'll share that out okay someday I have to dig out the um constitution of Minnesota supposedly it's the responsibility is roads and schools and the schools are always taking the short end on this thing I remember two years ago when I was down there it looked like we should have got a 7% and a 7% to get the schools on track of where they're supposed to be and they tried for a five and a five we ended up with all this other stuff at what maybe a four and a one or whatever it is now we just lose $300,000 more of it if that if it goes true right and so we're going to keep an eye to see if it as a and again I I would be a little bit surprised if
027qm does that and that's $154,000 I really would I'm I I don't know maybe it's because I we're a qm district and I'm ping the sky thinking but I I also realize that um that not all districts are eligible for Q comp which is part of what makes it probably um appealing because it doesn't impact everybody it impacts few but our impact is real but over the years it's been useful to us 100% yeah so that's kind of a serious thing it is yeah um so um and number five I'll just let you read it there was I I did have the opportunity to go to the mace uh Masa masasa mace conference um two different uh keynote speakers um I think you know one of the things that I do really value is the
028opportunity to network with superintendant um because it does give me really a a point of reference that that gosh you know we there are there are districts who are in a much much tougher financial position than we are and so I'm grateful for that you know it's it's good for me to hear gosh you know it could be way worse but at the same time it's also good to have conversation about how we're being um how we're advocating how we're telling our stories and and who those key people are to tell our stories to so um the district advisory committee is coming up on April 6th and then uh we are going to start the strategic planning process soon um and I'm just putting out just a a generic request for proposals to see who
029would be willing to help us navigate that process um and I'll bring that to you to the board in the future okay so now yep do they want to know the formul allowance times the apus is that what you're looking for so what what did we this year's use just um use our let's just use our opening day or like our our per pupil from this year and then apply next year's uh same to the same number of students The increased in in Formula so what do we have 8.97 was that our starting opening day so and I can I can put together a a a chart for the next when I look at 29,000 or whatever that add up to be it's a big number off of what they're giving us which tells me
030that in this Grand scale of all this money we got and the things they made us pay for that we didn't us to have to plus now a reduction we basically are are not coming out very well if we play We to see it and and the one the one piece to remember when we look at the at the the increase in the formula we have to remember that that that's one part of our funding mechanism um you're GNA we have we have our Levy dollars that are another part we have our um compensatory Revenue which is another part so when we look at our whole per pupil funding we're just talking about the straight um department or the legislative allocation for pupil is what we're talking about that's in increasing to 7 7,480 yeah
031um okay so that's what I have for my administrative report um I will go in and just I I want to call out um on the uh uh expenditures um there was a an error in the calculation and thank you for catching it and uh bringing that for our attention and we were able to get that fixed so uh if you if you didn't see the error I'll just tell you we had uh two cells linked together and we had been overspending our budget by about 125% that is not truthfully the case so um just wanted to let you know that uh it has been fixed and corrected so thank you for bringing that to my attention uh with that I will um turn it back and walk through Rachel say any more discussion questions
032okay next up student from last year 892 you do you want to just email it to me thank you so for student council uh the last two weeks we were working on our food drive and so student council had raffle tickets so you could pay $5 for a raffle ticket and put it in to win airpods jump start Subway all that kinds of stuff we also had caned Goods that you could donate along with fake sale items you could buy NHS is having an oh my gosh is having an induction ceremony on April 26th where we'll induct 18 sophomores uh we had the blood drive last Wednesday and it was a success and then we also brought back the spelling be the week prior to that and then for sad we're just continuing activities at
033the elementary school okay thank you um next up Community organizational reports uh West Central I did District uh we had our uh committee meeting March 18th uh as Janelle had uh talk about as far as our school board and then how we tie in uh with that uh there is that concern with f Central District also as far as funding uh jelle mentioned you know the title uh funding uh right now is is secured uh as far as what we know but uh we don't know going further if there's going to be any t on that side of it so word to follow and uh one last thing uh there was a donation that came from the painel Lutheran Church to the sale program which is uh when I say not impressive is not the
034right word I gu very thankful that uh the sale program is here that it is being the people are starting to see it uh have utilized uh know that the help of those students that are going through uh this so the the 18 to 22 year olds and that uh through that recognition there are Community organizations that are helping with h with this program so it will be a success big thanks to the pville church with their donation any other Janelle and I went down to the cities on the 10 I think was for Ms MSB D at the capital um and uh got to meet with a few of our Representatives including speaker de and um just kind of bring up our concerns show us some data show some you know concepts of where
035we're at as a district along with other districts uh um through msba and so that was a really good day um Governor wall been a surprise visit to us right the end of the day and got to say a few words so we want to take those that was see walk in the room kind of relatively unexpected before we got there anyway so um yeah was overall that always nice to meet with the representatives and just let them know you know what's going on in our district and then as you mentioned there's you hear from other districts that are in a lot wor place um I think in the cities who talking employment lay off of couple hundred staff across the districts so you know it's a large number uh I know you know they
036probably staff in the 1,500,000 2,000 whatever but it's still big numbers big numbers and we started hearing other districts what they're doing so sounds like a real breathtaking experience that day yeah it always is you know this is my second time I missed last year you know I and I I recognize that there might be a a perception that it's kind of does anything happen um our legislators when you live in their in when you are a constituent in their Community they want to know what's happening and they want to know what it means for us and so um representative dth or speaker dth has has met with me multiple times every time I go and she has not not this year um but last session she'll reach out and she'll ask me questions about
037what does this mean for Painesville area schools and I think that that's um that's really important to have our story told so and have a relationship St they don't they can ask those questions with you it's not you have to show up in front of them all the time but when we are consistent about being there they're consistent about knowing that they can reach out so yeah any others um no old business on to new business the 2526 budget section information yeah uh so this is the time of year where um where we start looking at um sections okay uh so you'll see uh this chart is goes all the way back from to 21 2021 um when you look at 2425 and 25 26 so just remember this is one day in time this
038is not an average this is it as we look at it um and the day that I put this together for today's board meeting this is how many students we had enrolled okay so um you will see that my recommendation as we look to move forward is going to be to have instead of having four sections in first grade move that fourth section back to kindergarten and have four sections in kindergarten um we sent out 89 packets okay so remember um I said early on we had slightly over a 100 students that were eligible so we had about uh 15 uh addresses that were returned to Sender which means either they moved or they aren't forwarding okay um so we we sent out 89 packets on the day that I set uh created this document
039we had 66 registered well if you look back in previous years uh we had on the day of the meeting we had 55 registered 59 and we went up to 75 62 so I really am expecting growth in that kindergarten enrollment um so um in conversation with our leadership teams we thought it was most appropriate to have that that fourth section in that kindergarten level you'll also see um that I am not recommending moving forward a uh fourth fourth grade teacher so when we uh in about August we were sitting at 80 81 fourth graders we have some um very distinct uh service needs within that population so uh we're looking at a different solution um but we are recommending to not carry that fourth fourth grade that fourth fourth grade teacher into fifth grade
040so you're going to see that the the section recommendation to consider um and it will not doesn't require board approval today but um we'll be to have four 40 sections across across the district any questions on that okay uh so that that was just informational moving on to budget updates okay uh so I'm going to uh share uh part that we've been looking over the last couple of years uh so when you look at our uh our student enrollment you see a slight decline from where we've been um but and you're also going to see that our fund balance and we've talked a lot about this chart we've talked a lot about this line how historically uh we build up our fund balance and then uh when we get to a point of decline it
041goes quite a bit quicker right and then we are working to build it up again so this is just a visual and if you want to see the the dollars and the percentages it all comes from this chart right up here um but this is our our longitudinal fund balance data okay and why I think that's important is because as and we've talked a lot about um being fiscally responsible so we can maintain that uh positive trajectory as long as possible before we have to start dipping in um into those fund balances so also uh on that one I just like that I look at self analysis and I look at students enrollment unfortunately that period of time is about as long as we've been on the school board it doesn't say we've maintained the
042students yeah that's just a general so if I take a thousand kids down to where we're at times $7,000 right now yeah in essence I was here while we locked that funding to our school that didn't just I know it's a real General that just hasn't set with me very good another solution we we're trying our best but it's frustrating to me well and you're going to see in and as we walk into the budget considerations there's a a short little video and one of the factors is we have just a declining census you know we we have less kids just across not just in Paynesville not just in Minnesota but we have a declining census so um it is something that we certainly have to be mindful of I guess I have a question
043I just to add on what brce said there I guess I don't there really is no solution is there I mean you've been battling that for so long I mean only solution I ever saw was when Eden Valley had a real aggressive person over there and they were rolling NP all over the place and they got their student population of but then I don't know where one of the districts on Southeast of here is at they have a whole bunch of open enrollment that comes in but as near as I know they haven't been able to expand their buildings because the Open Enrollment isn't taxpayers for buildings it's only funding for the school so it's a really fine line um and everybody's in my mind we're all responsible we need kids moving home hopefully get
044jobs here we need to create jobs in the local community we need to have housing for people we have to have our all of our ducks in a row and because that wasn't jelling in my opinion that's what happens here but in my analysis of myself I sat here and watched this lose $700,000 and that $700,000 today would make us be hiring teachers instead of wondering how many we have to have not so intense maybe on um having to shift everything around the larger we are the better it helps us out yeah but it's just a personal analysis um so as we come into um the budget considerations that these are the things that uh we administratively are are thinking about and talking about um I'm going to uh I asked uh Rachel if she
045thought it would be appropriate for me to share and this I just want to kind of we've heard a lot about the historic funding that schools received and board members I know that you're aware um that that came with a number of strings um but I I I do want to share uh this video real uh real quickly and um it's just a couple of minutes so not very long after headlines across Minnesota declared record school funding in 2023 you may be asking yourself why are so many school districts making budget cuts and going to voters for more funding here are the top reasons Minnesota schools are struggling to B balance budgets number one inflation families aren't the only ones feeling the impact of rising costs for school districts the costs of Labor health insurance
046property insurance and school bus transportation continue to rise the 2023 inflationary increase to the general education formula is a step forward but it doesn't make up for decades of underfunding and failing to keep up with Rising inflationary costs number two unfunded and underfunded mandates from the state when it comes to some of the most costly things schools have to pay for it's the state legislature not the local school board who makes these decisions from implementing new instructional strategies to increasing curricular requirements to providing unemployment benefits there are decisions made at the state level that local districts must follow while the state may offer one-time funds to help pay for some new requirements the ongoing costs are often the school district's responsibility in number three the changing role of schools in our communities the needs of
047students are different than they were 10 20 or 30 plus years ago from mental health support for students specialized learning assistance family resources and career programs to help meet Workforce needs schools have taken on additional responsibilities to meet the needs of their students and Community when you add Rising safety needs aging buildings and technology and declining birth rates it's clear why Minnesota districts struggle to balance their budgets school funding is complex with the majority of funding coming through the state in the form of general education Aid schools also receive funds for specific categories that can only be spent on certain items additional needs are then covered by property taxes in other words just because the state is providing us with more dollars doesn't mean we can use those dollars wherever we like each year we
048tackle the challenge of balancing these funding sources with our increasing expenses to build an effective budget that meets student needs when our student needs exceed state and local funding we may seek additional support through a referendum as you can see there's more to the story Beyond headlines of schools receiving record funding inflation unfunded mandates and a changing role for schools funding schools is an investment in our students community and future please reach out to your elected officials and share your story so they can help do their part to make sure our students and our schools are receiving the resources they need for Success visit our website to learn more so that's just kind of a a snapshot of all of the factors right that come into play um we go too much further Circle back
049so I just use um I'll answer your question Ron and kind of put it in perspective um so using 892 students just as a baseline number uh in 2425 the per people allocation was 7,281 so using that same 800 192 students increasing it to 7,480 our increase in Revenue would be $177,500 okay just no increase in those added students declined students just using a pure um straight number okay so that gives you a point of reference if we lose $250,000 we we haven't gone anywhere but back exactly so just something to I think that's maybe what you were asking and that's really rough right like take into account I mean okay so just know like that's not like the weighted per pupil and all that that's just okay sounds good so um again so there's
050our our 2.74% increase over 2425 um some staffing considerations I've already talked through um projecting uh four sections of kindergarten and three sections through the rest of the district um so that does me mean reducing one section of fourth grade um that would be uh I know conversations have been had at that level um but that would be formally coming to the board in April um uh because there are some higher needs of um special education students at the elementary uh we have had some um not only uh High needs in our um fourth grade fifth grade area up upper uh Upper Grade levels at the elementary we have um growing needs in our preschool and early childhood special education programs uh a while back I had shared with the board about um trying to
051bring in some support through the West Central Ed District on a halftime hire to support our Early Childhood Program because they have a need to support their birth to three services and so our Hope was that we could hire because it's really hard hiring halftime individuals um that position we weren't able to fill and gratefully our um our current Early Childhood special education provider has been putting in extra and we've been compensating her via just an agreement but it's um we need a longer term solution and so what you're going to see in this is where I had talked about having a different solution for that fourth grade bubble um so we're looking at adding a special education staff member at the elementary uh to meet those Early Childhood needs and then support some of
052those upper uh Elementary or the fourth and fifth grade uh special education needs uh we're also taking a look at um um the uh and we've talked about if if our adsys program is approved um looking at pulling in that support for math um again I have not heard yet if our alternative um alternative delivery for intervening Services application has been approved or not but uh when that when I hear I'll Circle that back to the board so that's a variable that we're taking in consideration uh we are watching our preschool um uh our preschool enrollments to determine the number of SE of sections we have received one retirement this year um uh that position will be posted after the board meeting um I'm hearing um about a lot of retirements uh in the next
053year or two like the numbers of six and eight now I we don't ask that um but I hear and and when I hear I think that from a budget perspective we need to be mindful of that um only because of the financial obligations that go with for severance right um that we don't aren't required to be notified until March 1st but it is something as we're looking at budgets over the next couple of years we need to be uh paying attention to okay um we also are looking at adding a technology assistant again that would be paid for through our um our Tech Levy where we've had staff that we have not filled um so we can we can support that tech department um upcoming soft uh building projects we continue to stay focused
054on the softball field Renovations um something I think the board should take a look at and consider from a fee schedule analysis um meal reimbursements have not been looked at for a very long time um and I did Link in the fee schedule so people can kind of take a look at it if they would like to but as a for instance um our uh if if we have um a student athlete that goes to a state event uh they um their meal reimbursements are um $12 for l $16 for dinner and $7 for breakfast um it's really hard to might have worked in 2000 or something 2000 it was probably fine but and I I we've had a little conversation about this but I I do think that this is something that the board's
055going to want to consider and so I um as I build forward recommendations for the budget we're going to take a look at that uh we're also going to take a look at some of our activity um our activity fees um for all activities including hockey I think it's a a really uh prudent time to compare to all of our surrounding areas and make sure that we're on par with every where everybody else is right so that'll be um if there's recommended changes there I'll bring those forward to the board as well um I also think we should take a look at substitute rates for our food service par professionals and custodial staff uh we did some work with our certified staff um last year for to try to increase um with some stagered um
056tiered uh increases for Subs who are here more throughout the year and I think that's been uh received positively um and it's it was a creative way to try to get some additional support but so those are a few of the um budgetary considerations that we're thinking about and anticipating as we move forward and i' stand for any questions on that before I I close out hearing no same uh moving on to policy first reading so the policy committee met on March 5th um committee members would you like me to watch rubies or would you like me to do you want to read a highlight or how would you like me to navigate that kind of read through kind of okay uh as you walk through the the different policies uh policy 401 is the
057Equal Employment Opportunity um there are no edits since 2022 um policy 402 also has no edits and there are no recommended changes policy 403 dis uh discipline suspension and dismissal of School District employees uh there are no edits or changes since 2022 employment background checks there are also no changes or edits since 2022 um when you're saying no changes or edits that also means that msba is not recommending anything different correct yep so so from a process perspective um because we are a member of um the Minnesota School Board Association and they do have their set of attorneys that that p uh pair forward what happened in statute and in the legislature and they cross reference it with policy um they will make recommended changes for us to make sure that we stay up to
058date in um sometimes you'll see some pretty menial changes like it it literally is a statutory reference change those things are noted as changes right so um so that is exactly the process as we've been walking through these okay um so here's a good example um policy 406 public and private Personnel data um the recommended changes to policy 406 are minor changes to punctuation and an added paragraph okay so uh so we can do a real quick perusal um and you'll see where the recommended changes came in that the board took a look at okay so code of federal regulations Section it was spelled out instead of having the um right I know I know okay um and then there was there was was an added um component of um what can be disseminated to
059uh bargaining units and and Labor Management okay so that was the added paragraph uh policy 407 um again there were no edits since 2012 uh policy 408 subpoena of a school district employee there are no uh no edits um I do think in in the the policy committee we had some conversation around this just to understand um that there are times where um School District employees um are subpoena to uh testify um and and there is a very strict process that we have to follow to make sure that that School District employees are adhering with the um the Minnesota Governor government data Practices Act and protecting the the um the private the private data of students and so um it is a there's a very prescriptive process and then uh when we've had employees that
060that have to testify we just walk them through how to do that and what that looks like uh policy 410 employee Family and Medical Leave Act um there were the changes are to remove some information um and again you can click on the the link and see the information that was removed the policy committee is recommending adopting the change uh as presented you'll see the strikethroughs in there okay there's there's St okay um and then um employee expense reimbursement um there's been no edits since 2008 this is about um uh whoops I forgot let me get back to that uh this is about uh board travel um across the country last time I checked I don't know that we've had any board members traveling out of state but or on board business um policy 412
061uh oops that's one I was just looking at chemical use and abuse uh 417 uh there are no edits since 2020 uh we did have a conversation about uh vaping and making sure that that was um and that's actually covered in a different different policy so we had some conversation uh student attendance um uh there are no changes recommended changes uh the last time this policy was reviewed by the policy committee there was good conversation around um making sure that we maintained at the district level some of the the things that uh Administration and the board felt was important in regards to family vacations and absences so policy 524 and 5245 so um you're going to see that the policy committee recommends tabling this item until the next policy committee meeting to evaluate the effectiveness
062of our current practices so I'm going to just kind of give you a summary of these two um so you'll notice what happened here if the um and part of this is coming because of not not only the the national conversation but the state conversation around requiring cell phone policies um our if you remember throughout the legislative session last year um the legislature said that school boards must determine your policy and procedure if you recall our handbook has a very spelled out procedure that really guides what happens at our elementary and our secondary so these policies really would change that 524 would be your internet and Tech internet and Technology acceptable use 54.5 would be your cell phone okay or your personal electronic communications your cell phones your watches your things like that um uh
063the policy committee and and committee members you know feel free to type in here if you'd like to but we have good conversation about balancing kind of balancing the the teaching responsibility and um the distraction right so um the the committee felt that it was worthy to just hold on for a little while and table it um but that's so when you see the recommendations come forward um hearing no other conversation in policy committee would remove 24 and 24.5 from approval it's something I was mention fact that we do have what we considered pretty robust uh student handbook so um moving on 2425 calendar um excuse me that I'm gonna fix that 526 let's try that again can't believe all of us looked at that and did not notice that okay I think I did
064and I didn't say anything oh rats okay well we don't need to approve this year's calendar um I have not had any com comments from the uh calendar that was discussed at at the March 10th meeting I make a motion to approve the calendar a second uh all in favor I opposed motion passes okay um review of upcoming meetings I will not be here April 8 first meeting all right yeah warmer weather it's nice here I'll look for a motion to adjourn well I guess say you're going over these committees um I guess last board meeting I guess I made an announcement that I'm going to be doing some substitute bus driveing and I'm on the I guess the only committee I'm on is the uh busing uh negotiations so I'm going to have to
065step down from that know Cheryl I think you're on all of them you want to take that one too I guess I'm not gonna be on any committee well we can um I think Rachel I know paid you know do have chery um Rachel do you want to revisit the Committees at the next board meeting I don't want to get in trouble I no I I agree yeah I just think we maybe a little bit of rearranging a little bit so we'll have some talk yeah just want you be want any hard feelings so okay sounds good okay okay so did somebody make motion for the so I make a motion to j meeting second by comments all in favor