001Everybody's here. Stacy will be zooming in. Let's stand for the pledge of allegiance. 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. Everybody sign up to approve the meeting agenda. >> Nothing. Okay. >> I'll make a move. Okay. >> Motion by Brenda. Motion by Brenda. Second by Greg. Any discussion on the agenda? Hearing no discussion. All in favor of approving the agenda signify by saying I. This will be a roll call. But it'll be loud by I if you approve it. So Andrew >> I. >> Brenda. >> I Stacy. >> Hi. >> Molly. >> Hi. >> Greg. >> Hi. >> Agenda carries. Opportunity for visitors to address the board. Address the board. Okay.
002Not hearing anybody, so we'll move on. Uh we have some acknowledgements. We have the fall adviserss, coaches, and athletes and participants. All state fall athletes to include boys soccer, all state. How do you pronounce first name? >> Sadik. >> Sahed. >> Sadik. Okay. Farah, girls soccer, all state. Hilly Carlson, boys cross country team, all state academic gold award, girls cross country team, all state academic silver award, varsity volleyball team, all state academic gold award, all state academic awards, Morgan Corf. Varsity football team, all state academic gold award and all state academic award awards, MLAN Havland, honorable mention. So it's impressive. Anything to add, Mr. Cor? I want to thank all our adviserss and coaches this past fall and all our student athletes um for all their work representing Pelican Rapids and congratulations to all the
003student athletes that earn state awards and teams. Congratulations to all of them. So we will move on. We have presentations. So we have uh coordinating Redmond with ID Bailey to give us uh the audit presentation for 2425. >> Perfect. Can you guys hear me? Okay. >> Yes. >> All right. I'll get my screen shared here. >> Okay. Can you see my presentation? >> There we go. Now again, >> wonderful. All right. Well, good evening everyone. Uh my name is Courtney Richmond, audit partner with I Daily based out of our Fargo, North Dakota office. And this evening we're going to go through the district's executive summary, which is really just a highle summary of the fiscal year 2025 audit results. Um one thing to caveat, this is still in draft format. It's not completely finalized yet.
004Um, but don't expect the numbers to change at this point. Okay. So, to start off, we're first going to talk about the audit results and any findings. Um, so our first slide here talks about the audit opinion. So, the district received a clean audit opinion for fiscal year 25. Um the technical term for this is an unmodified opinion which essentially means the financial statements are prepared in accordance with standards and do not contain any material misstatements. Um the second bullet point towards the bottom there um just brings to your attention that this is merely our professional opinion. Um we're not testing 100% of the transactions of the district throughout the audit process. Instead we do a riskbased approach to really drive the test work that we complete. Um but based on everything that we tested
005um once again your financial statements are in accordance with standards and do not contain any material misstatements. The next slide here is to talk about the audit of federal funds and this year this is just a preliminary presentation on the federal funds. Um so with the federal shutdown um and some delays with OM in Washington DC um the federal government has not yet released the 2025 compliance supplement and that's really the document that drives our federal audit testing. So we are unable to finalize the federal audit until that compliance supplement is released. Uh but I still will present uh kind of the preliminary information on the federal audit for 2025. Um and really any entity, school district, or any organization that spends more than $750,000 of federal expenditures uh triggers a separate compliance federal audit.
006Um and so really we're looking at the types of expenses, making sure that you're spending them appropriately. Um, and so for 2025, you can see off in right in blue there, the district spent just over $822,000 of federal awards. Um, and we anticipate that the district will also receive an unmodified opinion specific to the federal audit. Next, we'll jump to the findings. So, even though you received a clean audit opinion overall, that doesn't mean that there aren't other significant um deficiencies or other control deficiencies that we identify throughout the audit process. And so, that's what we're going to bring to your attention here today. So, there's three main areas we focus on. First being the financial statements, second being the federal awards, and then lastly looking at state compliance. So for the financial statements um
007there were five findings which will be uh we'll go through here. The first being the preparation of the financial statements including the schedule of expenditures of federal awards or the sea. Really this just has to do with the fact that I Bailey prepared the full financial statements of the district at your end including all of the required footnote disclosures. Um, so this is a very common finding not only for school districts but a lot of the clients that we audit. Um, and this is something that you've had in the past as well. So nothing new to report there. The next finding relates to material journal entries. So as we come in and do the audit and do the testing, um, we do end up proposing some adjustments um, to kind of true up balances at
008the end of the year. Um, so that's what that finding relates to. Again, common for school districts and something you've had in the past. The third one is segregation of duties. Um, this just really has to do with the fact that the district has a smaller office size when it comes to the finance function. So, you're not able to completely segregate all of the different financial duties of the district. Um, again, very common for smaller schools. Um, something you've had in the past. The fourth one here is lack of supporting time cards for hourly employee pay. So with this one, um, as we're doing our testing, there's instances where there's not time cards to support the hours that are being worked by your hourly specific employees. So I know the district is making an effort
009to um really promote the clocking in and clocking out every day. Um, and that's just important from an audit perspective just to ensure that you have kind of that supporting documentation for what those hourly individuals are being paid for. Um, the last one to bring to your attention is just failure to maintain credit card receipt support. So, there were just two transactions that we tested um where the receipt uh related to the credit card purchase wasn't maintained. So, that's what that one relates to. Um the next area we look at is the federal awards. Again, this is not finalized. It's preliminary as we wait for that compliance supplement. But um at this stage, we have identified one finding related to activities allowed or unallowed um and allowable costs and cost principles. So this one kind
010of correlates back to that supporting time card finding in the financial statement section. Um there were just instances noted of specific child nutrition um related wages where um there weren't the time cards to support what they got paid. Um the last area here is Minnesota legal compliance. And so there were two findings identified. The first being inactive student activity accounts. Um and so with the student activity groups, uh basically the state says if if an activity group is inactive for 12 months, so if they don't have any fundraising or any expenses during the school year, um really either the group should be closed or there just needs to be a formal written plan in place as to why that activity group is staying open. So uh you had instances where there were some activity groups
011that didn't have activity during fiscal year 25. there just wasn't that approved plan in place for keeping them open. And then the last one relates to approval of student activity fund dispersements. So for every student activity expense, there's kind of a a requisition form that goes along with it. And really that form requires three signatures. The student, the advisor, and then the principal. And so there were instances during our testing where one or more of those required signatures was missing from the student requisition form. Our next slide here is a new slide this year um for Gatsby 101 implementation. So Gatsby 101 is a new standard that relates specifically to compensated absences. So when we think of this, it has to do with sick leave, any personal time, vacation, things like that. Um, so this
012new standard was effective for the June 30, 2025 audit. It's effective for all governmental entities. So every government has to implement this standard. Um, and so really it just brought on additional uh liabilities onto your governmentwide financial statements related to um those different types of leave. Now we'll dive more into some of the numbers of the district. So our first slide here is on the cash and investments. So this slide is showing you your cash and investments in thousands for the past 10 years. So you can kind of see how you've been trending over time overall for 2025. Just a slight dip from the previous year, but uh relatively consistent um with the past few years. Next, we'll dive into more general fund specific information. So, the first slide I'm going to show you here
013is the ADM served. So, this is essentially your student counts. And we like to show this um because the number of students you have is really what drives the aid that you get from the state. Um so, overall there in 2025, you can see a decrease in the number of students enrolled. Um, and so that kind of correlates with some of the revenue that you get from the state of Minnesota. Our next slide here is the main numbers page we'll go through. This is the district's budget to actual results for 2025. Uh, the first two columns there you can see are the approved budget. The the third column is the actual results and then on the far right you can see any variance between the final budget and the actual results. So, on the revenue
014side of things, the district um brought in less re revenue than you budgeted for, mainly due to those decreased student accounts. Um so, you didn't get quite as much revenue from the state as you had budgeted for. Um but overall, you were within 3% of the revenue budget. On the expense side of things, you spent slightly more than you budgeted for by $226,000. Um, but that's overall within 1.7% of the budget. And then kind of the key takeaway on this slide towards the bottom is that net change in fund balance. So in that third column, you can see overall the district did spend more than you brought in in revenue, which decreased your general fund fund balance by 239,000 during fiscal year 25, leaving you with an ending fund balance of just over $3 million.
015So, what does this positive $3 million fund balance mean? Uh, ultimately, it can contribute to favorable bond ratings should you need to issue additional debt. Uh, it gives the district opportunity to produce some investment income. Um, but lastly, it really just offers you kind of a cushion in case you have any revenue shortfalls or any expenses that come about that maybe you hadn't planned for. Uh, our next slide here is showing the five different fund balance categories. So, I'm not going to go in depth on what each of these is, but our next series of slides is going to break down the district's $3 million of general fund fund balance by these different types. So, this next slide here is showing you the fund balance at the beginning of the year, uh, the change for
016the year, and then on the far right, you can see kind of that ending $3 million that we previously talked about. Um, and this is broken down by the different types of fund balance. So that non-spendable at the top is anything that's considered inventory or prepaid expenses of the district. Anything that is designated as restricted is restricted by the state of Minnesota. So you have to use that for a designated purpose. Uh, anything that's assigned is set aside by the district for something that you're choosing to use the funding for. Um, and then lastly, you're left over with that unassigned portion. And that's really that cushion that you can use um, in case you have any expenses that pop up that maybe you weren't planning for. The next slide shows the fund balance by category
017over the last 10 years. So, you can kind of see how you've been trending. um overall relatively consistent um between 24 and 25 there with the darker blue portion being that unassigned portion and then the green being that restricted piece by the state. Um so the state as they come out with more and more types of different aid. Uh typically there's restrictions associated with that revenue that you're getting from the state. Next is some recommendations regarding your fund balance. So in the top here we have the district's approved fund balance policy. Um so your district has uh set aside this policy to maintain some assigned general fund fund balance between 22 and 25% of the annual budget. Um so the target range for fiscal year 2025 was between 2.9 million and 3.3 million. Um we
018do also just include kind of a third party recommendation on this slide from the government finance officers association. They recommend having at least 2 months worth of expenses in your unassigned fund balance, which equates to 16.67%. Um, and the target amount with that recommendation would be having over $2.2 million. So, the next slide really shows you where you're at in comparison to your approved district policy. So those two green lines in the slide is that uh that range of 22 to 20 25% that you as a district have um wanted to keep that fund balance between. So you can see there in 2025 you are slightly below uh but relatively consistent there with the previous year. Next we'll dive into a couple of the other funds of the district. The first being the community service
019fund. Um, so this slide is showing you the ending fund balance over the last 10 years. Um, so you can see just a slight increase there in 2025 in your community service fund. Um, but relatively consistent over the past few years. And lastly, um, this slide, next slide shows you the same information for the food service fund. Now, the green line that's in the middle of this page is actually showing you the maximum fund balance that you um can have in this fund. Uh you can see over the last four years you have exceeded that maximum. Um and really a lot of that has to do with the additional COVID free meals that were were given and then the last two years the the free meals that have kicked in from the state. So you
020are receiving you know overall free meals. Um, so that's increased the revenue in the related fund balance. There's no finding or anything associated with having in excess of that maximum. However, the state may just ask how the district plans to spend down um that fund balance. So, that's all I have for you this evening. Does anybody have any questions on anything that I went through? Anybody Anybody have any questions? I'm not hearing anything. So, >> sounds good. Well, I do just want to take a minute and say thank you to Rudy and everybody who helped with the audit. We definitely appreciate it. Um, and if anybody does have questions, feel free to reach out. So, thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Rudy. >> Anybody have any questions there? Okay. We'll move on. We
021have a community education presentation for Mrs. Two months in a row. >> Yes. One more one more time here. So this is our annual report for 2425. Um this program Mr. Howid and I work together on. So he is the one that arranges all the classes, works with all the people that are coming in and I do the numbers and and the advertising for it. So um our contents are just going to we're just going to go through our goals, our programs, the annual reports for last year, and then just talk a little bit about some things that we're doing for this year. Our goals remain the same. We have four primary goals. providing quality prek to 12 and adult programs, promoting activities, events, and classes in the Pelican Rapids community, maintaining a balanced budget,
022and collaborating with the district to share the seven habits. The programs that are part of the community ed budget include summer wreck, youth enrichment, adult classes, adult basic ed, driver's education, school age, child care, early childhood education. So the next page just talks about the participants that we had last year by category. So, the largest by far was recreation and that included um some of our winter open gym, open pickle ball, some of our uh summer wreck activities, speed and strength. You can just kind of see the the listing that we had. Uh enrichment was 172 people. That was some of our summer camps, summer steam, theatrical, and then some things that we did throughout the year. learning includes our homework help at the high school. We do a babysitter class. We've done the estate
023planning class that's been well attended. And then adult basic ed and our driver's education fall in this category as well. And then the last is our club likes child care. Um on the next page I just kind of highlighted the different summer wreck activities just so you could see um how that broke down. We had 197 kids that participated in 285 different activities. So you can see next to each activity how many you know the breakdown of that how many kids were in each of the activities. Um it's those numbers are about the same that we've had across the years. That's uh as far as the total number of kids and the number of activities that they signed up for. Speed and Strength did add a grade four to six last summer and their attendance
024was um 100 for all of the grades with that and then the open gym and walking track averaged about 26 people a day. Any questions so far? Participants just kind of by age category. We had a total of 1,57 participants. And so you can just kind of see the age category breakdown on that chart. A lot of kids, a lot of activities for kids and and a lot of recreation kind of seem to be the themes here. The next page is talking about our adult basic education. So for last year there was about 59 students served. They had um classes four days a week and this has been at the public library still. This coming year they started a new schedule. So they're going to be Monday through Friday. They also have a new instructor
025named Shirley um Janu. She was a science teacher in Sartell and um as of October 7th they had 24 participants. I think I listed 30 there but it was actually 24. that was just starting the new schedule July 1st and they also were closed for about a month just trying to get some things done with transition. So they were really excited that they were had that many students signing up. Uh early childhood education is on our next page and this is just talking about our Viking preschool breakdown by age. So age three which is two days a week there were 26 students and the VPK 5 days a week there were 45. In 2024 25 we also have our ECF program. The main class that she's been running the last few years is the magical
026Mondays. That's every Monday from 5:30 to 7. That's a parent child class ages 0 to 5. Uh last year there was 384 times that people attended. So there's 26 sessions and total number of kids that came were 25. And obviously they had a parent sometimes two parents with on each of those. Um there's also been family field trips. They're almost monthly. They've done the family pumpkin patch outing um a few times. They went through Peyville last year. There's also some winter open gym. Um she started one this year or last year I think too called uh Friendsgiving just kind of a Thanksgiving fall one. So that's our early childhood. Just a reminder we're still doing the same things as far as how we're sharing these events and classes and area resources. So we do share
027things on our website. We have different web pages with our community education. We also have a summer program Facebook page. We have a community Facebook page. And then we also have information in our district newsletter. So those are the primary ways that we're getting information out. Just very quick updates. Uh these are just a few numbers so far and this would be starting this next year which is July into the next June. So, uh, flag football, um, was new this year. That was for grades, uh, 1 and two. They had about 16 kids. Viking event club had 63. Our summer steam camp, um, there were four kids. Summer theater was 29. And then, uh, Deb Kohler is hosting some monthly paint classes now. So, each month there's a different theme. And so, she's had six
028people so far in the last few months. And then we did start our homework help at the high school. Uh looking ahead, we're we're doing a few things. Um we're reviving our kind of we're putting together a digital catalog. So basically, this will just be something that can go on the website. This is something that will be able to be updated ongoing and we can just use it across all platforms. So, it's just a way that we can keep everything uh in one place. So, this one we're really going to focus this year on connecting school and community. So, what we really want is a place that people can go to see all of the activities that are happening for our kids out in our community classes we're offering. And so, I'm going to start
029with fall and winter and then we'll do a spring and summer. Um, our first page is just going to is just welcoming people to our district, different ways they can register. So, they can register online, they can call, there'll also be a registration form that I'll put together. Most of it we do online through our school pay and that's really our preference, but we want to be really flexible with whatever works out well for people. um people that have um questions about classes, programs, if they want to teach a class, share an idea, they can contact Mr. Hoggrude. And we also have some different um these are the different ways that we stay in touch with Facebook pages that we have through the school, community ed, and again our summer programs. So this catalog is
030going to have information. Some are districts, some are community ed, some are things in the community. Again, our goal is just everything in one place. Um, the next page is just going to be our contents. I don't have those pages done yet. This is still a in draft form. The next one is our youth activities for the school year. So, what we want to do is just have again a place that parents can go. They can see what do we have in the fall, the winter, and the spring and the school year. So, I still need to fill details in here. The QR code will lead to um a page on our website where there will be registration forms that they can fill out. Many of the programs we have a paper form so they
031could download a PDF, but most of them we do on our school pay online. Um there's also information in here about our walk to school days. So we have three of those a year. We do offer the babysitting course once a year. So, we will have that again in the spring. And then just some information about family connections. So, some of the family um game nights that are held at the elementary school. And then just putting some parent teacher conference information in here. Questions so far? The next page is just showing our youth activities grades 7 through 12. And again, that'll just have the details filled in with the QR code where they can go to get the information. Also, our student groups and activities, grade 7 through 12. So, we've got the different student
032groups here. We have some student learning, including driver's education. We have our after school homework help, and we have our credit recovery program. Youth activities in the summer. This is just a highlight of what we have. Again, in the summer when we do the the catalog, we'll have all the details, but again, the goal was just kind of one snapshot, one place parents can look and just see, okay, what do we have for kids? Um, also, we'll be able to highlight some of the community activities and events. And right now, we do that on the school website. We have links that go out. So, we want to really continue to do that. We really want to share what's happening here so that we're all enjoying the different programs and events that we have in this
033community. Club Vikes is the next page. So, we have school year hours and we have summer hours. And this is something that we really want to highlight that we have this program available um 11 hours a day basically all year round. It's pretty exciting. uh recreation. Um we have our open skating. Um that was really well attended last year. We'll do that again this year. Chanty Martin, we've got the warming house, the year- round restrooms. So, we want to also make sure we're highlighting this facility that we have, getting that information out to the public. And we'll have open gym. Again, last year that ran from January into mid-March. We are also going to do open pickle ball again. I think this is our third year of doing that. Um that'll be Monday nights. That's
034starting December 1st and that will run through the end of February questions. Anybody? Uh some of the activities and classes that we have right now again we're going to have the monthly painting. We also have uh some music classes that'll be through Zoom. And when I did look at some of the other districts and what they're offering through community ed, that is a pretty common thing now is having some online classes or some Zoom classes. These two will actually be group classes that they could attend um one night either if they want to do piano or guitar. Um Mr. Johnson's going to do a drawing class again, intro to life drawing. So, that was a really popular one. And then we're also going to do our estate planning class again. And that one, I think
035this is our third or fourth year. That one is always well attended. I've left some space in here because again, what I want to do is be able to keep adding and updating this and just kind of moving and flowing with some things as we go. But one of the things we'll do is just make sure we have places that people can submit information if they want classes, you know, if they want to teach a class, whatever that might be. So QR codes, different things that we're um soliciting that information. And also we can share some district information in here about our district, which is great. Our CDL class we're still offering. Again, these will the size of these some of these will shift and flow as as we add more classes. Music and theater.
036Um we're really excited about Lori Line coming. So that's coming up a week from Wednesday and Mr. Hog has worked really hard on that. So thank you. Um also we'll list all of our band and choir concerts here. So again, it's just that idea of one place we can look, community can look and see what's happening. We'll have our um theater performances listed there as well. Just a district ad for now that we have in there. Um our Lakes Area adult education hours and information, early childhood education. This will just have our information about our preschool. Got a an ad in here. We also want to get some photos. So, those are the pieces that I want to make sure that we can add to this. And we have our little Viking guy, which everybody
037likes. So, we'll keep him going. >> Uh Viking preschool. Again, we'll add some more photos here. And the things that we really want to highlight are the that it's free preschool that we have the midday transportation. So, those are pieces that we're putting into our ads as well as information we can put in here. ECF. then our magical Mondays for this year and then we'll just keep listing the different field trips that are coming up and staying in touch. So there's also the Facebook page that information is posted on as well for that. Um the next page just just information about the importance of reading and our um Head Start preschool program. And then community. And this one again we really want to keep building on. These are just a few things so far but
038our Chanty Martin building talking about our trail head heart of the lakes you know the bike trail um Maplewood State Park DNR Pelican Rapids events. So um have the links to the chamber. So we just get people in that habit of looking. So here's where you can look to see what's happening and we'll just keep sharing as much as we can. The public library has a lot of really amazing things uh from programs to items that you can check out. So things like life jackets, snowshoes, ebikes, Maplewood State Park entrance sticker. So that's kind of information we want to be able to share as well. And then we'll have our PDville. That's just an important piece of our community as well. And then again, just a little extra space here so we can keep adding
039as we go along. So, I'm hoping to have this done in the next few weeks and then post it up on the website and do a post out on Facebook just saying, "Hey, come here, take a look." Um, so that's that's where that stands. So, any questions? >> Any questions? >> I have a quick question. um wondering how would a community organizations um like how would you like them to reach out to you with with things that they would like maybe added to the community page >> um email that's something I could put in the catalog as well is yeah they can email they can um call I have my information in the front under registration but um yeah we can just make sure that we stress that as well because we do want to
040get information. We do want to share that and I could also get in touch with the chamber and some other groups too and just reach out and share this with them and let them know if there's things that they want to add. >> Yeah, thank you. I think this is fantastic because it's something that community needs. >> Well, thank you. >> Anything else? >> This was a good review. Thank you. You're >> welcome. Thanks. >> Hey, Mr. Nelson, you have a report for us. K through six enrollment. We're at 459. Uh BPK stays 42. 3-year-olds 28 and heads start at 32. We had about 80 people at uh title one bingo night and even Mr. Green was a winner that night. I think the girls walked out with uh several books each and it was
041a good turnout, good time and um thanks for all the people, parents and students that came to our title one and thanks to the teachers for all their organization of getting it organized and ready. Uh we had 95% of parents show up for conferences. That's uh student had either one or both. Uh so 95% of them had someone come to conferences. So again great attendance and thank you to the parents for making that a priority to come in and have a conference with their teachers. So the big thank goes to them and the teachers for their time preparing and um having the conferences on that day instructional leadership team. Uh we've been this year is looking at language arts. Last year we've been working on math, got a new curriculum and decided our last meeting
042to go with UFly. EUFly is a phonics curriculum and so each teacher will get a book like this and is very well laid out where all the lessons are laid out for the teachers to follow. uh they will give a test and then figure out where the starting point is for their class and then what lesson that goes to to where they start. And with this they also get free access to slides for their Prometheium boards. So nothing they have to create. Everything will be there for them. Um and these books the cost is fairly cheap at $70 per teacher. So for a curriculum there's no other costs, no other materials needed. Uh, one of the big things we found is we're lacking in phonics. So, this will help get our phonics caught up and
043uh, it'll be a very good curriculum. It's ordered. So, hopefully I was told it should be your middle of December. So, hopefully in January all our teachers are kicked off with the apply phonics um, helping all students being able to decode words um, better and more effectively. Um, couple other things. Uh, accept the resignation of Lisa Cap. Um, super professional and then hire Emily Evansson. Not bad, Emily. Um, the one that formerly worked at Southtown and then also Lucas Feder as a par professional at Viking Elementary. Any questions? >> Any questions? They do have different emails. So, I'm interested how many ones will maybe get the wrong email here, but thank you. >> Thanks. >> All right. I have two different uh reports. I'll start off with uh Dina students. Um you know my goal
044right away was to build relationships with uh student staff and community members. So um I've been busy doing that all uh further on. So um staff has been very uh supportive and really enjoyed my my time um thus far. Uh others tracking uh referrals and tracking attendance. Um roughly out of our 375 students we've had a average of 2.3 uh absesses. I believe that's only ours. Um so that's including acceptable um excused or unexcused all quarter one. So our students are in school um unexcused uh 576 for the total um a lot of our uh if we move on to fall activity participation. You can see uh over half of our students are uh involved football, volleyball, cross country, soccer, musical, FFA, math team, and knowledge bowl. >> Uh our seventh grade we had 78%
045involvement, 8th grade 71, 9th grade 66, 10th 60, 11th 63%, and our seniors 49%. our awards and achievements. Um at the start of the meeting we kind of went through all the cross country um soccer, volleyball and football. Do want to add FFA. We had freshman attended the regional leadership conference. Uh best informed Greenhand took sixth out of the 10 spots. Our forestry team advances to the spring state convention. Ian Bachan advanced in poultry to spring state convention. Dylan Hoodley won prepared public speaking and he'll compete December 15th at the state convention and our knowledgeable season has been underway. Our math team, we had uh one meet so far. Kinsley McKe, she earned first place. Zayn Schulty and Graham Tallwood tied for fourth and our Vikings team took first place um in that in the
046region. Our senior high math team uh competed in AMC 12 and AMC 10 competitions. some of our things that we've just uh kind of kicked off. Our dance started October 20th. Junior high girls um just got underway not long ago. Uh girls basketball started last week and our fall band concert was um not long ago as well. Today, boys basketball and wrestling started. Uh tomorrow we have our choir concert. December 6th and 7th is our Wonka or Charlie in the Chocolate Factory. So, that will be Saturday and Sunday for for that. I've been busy working on uh our fall uh scheduling already. Um I want to continue building relationships with students, families, and staff members. And um as Mr. Cor said earlier, thank you to all of our coaches, our adviserss, all of the fall
047workers at all of our events. Um, you know, volunteering and and helping out at at those events have been very thankful. School board items, uh, hire Yan Eric Lindberg as our junior high girls basketball coach. And, uh, we also just did the resolution of our form A application on the Minnesota State High School League. Um, so that is uh money that is used to assist schools in recognizing, promoting, and funding extracurricular participation in our activities. And lastly, I'm a busy man. I uh I appreciate everybody um in in their support and everything uh this fall and just enjoyed my time. So, any questions? Questions? >> I don't hear any. >> Thank you. Shesy. Um, high school enrollment is at 369. October 30th was already the end of quarter 1 and I learned from my girls
048today that we're already 50 days into the school year. So, we're almost a third of the way. Parent teacher conferences were last Monday. We had um we had pretty good attendance. When I walked through the gym, it was pretty steady. So, I think teachers were pretty happy um with that. Mrs. Lege um sent out letters to students that we felt like were at risk students. Um and then she also really focused on juniors and seniors who are at risk of not graduating um on time. She does a great job with that. October 31st and November 1st, staff development days. This was some really good work time in the afternoon for our staff, but in the morning um on the 31st we had a staff meeting, recapped quarter 1, went over um ANI district um ANI
049and district goals. Um that was kind of review for me to give to staff after our October schoolboard meeting and thought it was nice for them just to kind of hear some of those words. We also talked about um advisory time. This is new this year with um students. Just want to get some feedback from staff on how they're using that. We had a wellness check-in with Monica Schneider. Um our wellness committee met and started planning some events for the holiday season here for staff PLC BLT meetings. Um staff met in the afternoon in their departments, went over MCA scores, reviewed their five ins and outs. So the ins would be what they'd like them to know when they are coming into that class or grade. and then out is what they expect them to
050know as they leave the class. And then did some standards review after they looked at the MCA test scores. And then our English department did their first part of CAPY read basics training. I want to say we have one or two more with that and that'll be after we test students with CAPY and she will go over results with us um after we test. Minnesota Honor Society hosted their blood drive. It was pretty well attended and it was good weather, which sometimes is um not the case for blood drives. So, thanks to Mrs. Lech and her Minnesota Honor Soc Honor Society students for hosting that. We had 85 veterans and their families here um for our Veterans Day program. Um it was a really nice event. I always am looking forward now to the Quilts
051of Valor presentation for our veterans. I just think it's a really great way to get veterans on stage and for students um to hear a little bit of their story. So, it's been a really good partnership with um the BFW, specifically um Jim Clemenson and um Pastor Eric Spirian. Our global foods class hosted Holly students. Um this was a collaboration of Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Le. It's one of our um first ANI visits. I know the elementary went to a powo with second grade, but we have to bring some students here from Holly. Um, Mrs. Hall planned some um cooking. Um, one of our students made a homemade sambusa for students to try from Holly. They watched a 100 foot journey and then they had a design contest where they um had some white koozies
052that they had to create a logo for based on what they watched in that documentary. So really cool activity for them to end with. And then the Holly students also got to eat lunch with us. Was kind of a fun way for them to end their time. Um I attended the um school law seminar in October. We had Micah Kavit here last week. He did um one part of his video shoot. The chamber is working on a commercial to highlight different parts of Pelican Rapids. So stay tuned for that. He always does some really um fun things. And then um Mrs. Lege and I were part of a early childhood um advisory committee meeting that was um last week and it was just a chance for um Chrissy Fryard to kind of ask a little
053bit about introduce kind of what their class is doing um and then just get some feedback from us on the industry um trends. Um this is a class that our students take through the West Central Initiative. That's where they can earn 18 credits if they complete all of the classes. Um, and we do that in collaboration with Battle Lake and PUM. So, it's been a really good class. We are in the second year of that. Upcoming, um, next Wednesday, if you're in, we will be playing turkey bingo. Um, so if you are students gobbling through the hallway at the end of the day, we are playing bingo. Um, no school next Thursday and Friday. Um just a few items for staff meeting PLC's BLT and then December 23rd we are planning some afternoon activities again
054for our students to head them off into winter break. Couple of agenda items. I have hire Stephanie Erbano. She will replace replace um Sharice GML um as our ELLL pair professional. Um and then hire Sarah Lindberg as our adviser for celebration of cultures. She has done this for the last year and now will be officially the advisor. Any questions? >> Thank you about Mr. Mark's finance report. >> Sounds great. All right. Um 31 first uh financial statement. Yeah. Uh here's why. Um we are uh just finished the month of October. Um as you can see that uh year to date uh comparison against our budget. Uh so far we have collected $4.2 million in revenue. Uh driving the big jump from last last month to this month was a part of our levy was uh
055deposited. So that's why you see that jump in revenue and then I'll highlight it in our cash flow statement. Uh right now we are sitting at about 25% of our uh budget to actual um revenue that we approved in our budget. Uh in terms of expenditures, we're right at about $3.8 8 uh million out of the 16 million that we budgeted for. So we're at about 24%. Uh this is the first month uh that I saw that we were actually at uh more revenue generated uh than expenditures. Normally we're playing catchup because of the crude uh concept of uh revenue in the state, but uh it's pretty cool to see that. So uh here is our budget to actual report. uh we're gonna uh um start focusing more on our efficiency. So uh one of
056the things that I proposed to Mr. Corv is uh we're going to change the concept of the board report just a little bit better to give you guys a little bit more uh high level um insight into where these numbers come from and uh just a road map so it's easier to understand for you guys. Uh but overall budget to actual we're on track so that's pretty good. Uh we'll move on to the second page which is our cash flow statement. Uh cash flow statement. We started our uh investment account with 4 uh 5 $5.4 million. uh we receive uh $1.5 million in revenue that consisted of some federal dollars that we're starting to uh uh draw down and a uh um and then I did a transfer from our checking account to our investment
057account of a million dollars to capitalize on our investments just so we can gain some more dividends. And I'll point out where that is. Um throughout the month we drew down uh from our investments $936,000 to cover all of our liabilities. So at the end of the month we had just a little over $6 million in our um in our uh investment account. Um we started our cash on hand in our checking account with just a little over $4,000. Uh we received $2.5 million in revenue. Uh part of that was that levy. Um, our levy was worth about $1.4 million. Uh, what you see in accounts payable. Uh, truly the total amount of bills was $868,000. The $1 million that you see in here is the million that we took from our uh, checking account
058and then we brought over to our investment account. So, that's where you see that money reflected. That's why accounts payable seems significantly inflated, but it really it's a transfer from our checking to our investment account. Uh total payroll for the month was $432,000. Uh included in that month uh um it's actually not included. That was just last week. So uh overall uh standard payroll uh total cash on hand at the end of the month uh 222,000 for total cash on hand of investment plus checking account um just under $6.3 million. Uh the last pages of the report is just all of the um all of the payables that run through our checking account. Uh so I'm not going to spend any time on that. Uh what I will spend a little bit of time on
059is just kind of going through some key highlights of the audit just to kind of give you guys a couple of things in terms of uh uh the key findings and uh key findings and also um uh where we truly sit in terms of the fund then. And so uh the findings, right? So, it's some of the things that the auditors find and essentially what they're telling us, say, you need to do things here a little bit better. And when it comes to auditors, there is no gray area. It's either all or none, right? So, um the first one was uh preparation of the financial statements. We're going to get that one every single year. Reason four is because we're hiring them and then they write you out for it, which is right for me.
060Um then material journal entries, they will always write you out for it, which is also somewhat funny because at the end of the year, they give you the adjusted journal entries based on their interpretation of our financials. So they give us the they give us the journal entries and when they give them to us, they write us up for it. Just funny concept. Uh and then segregation of duties. We're a small district. Uh we will always have this one as well. all small districts have, right? Normally when you go into an enterprise uh in a corporate office, you have somebody that's accounts payable, someone who does accounts receivables, someone who does taxes, someone's who does assets. So everything is very separated where here it's our office is two people, Emily and I. So we're always
061going to be written up for that. Uh the fourth finding was a lack of supporting time cards for hourly employees. This is the year two of our project that we started doing. So public education or just public schools in general general we do what it's called annualize pay. So in terms of annualized pay, what it does is when we hire a support staff member, um this concept was very popular and it's because it's to add efficiencies, but essentially you true up their hours based off their number of duty days and then you equate what their uh what their uh uh annual salary is going to be and then you monitor when they clock in, they clock out and things like that and then you do a true up at the end of the year, right?
062Uh about three years ago, a Gatsby senator came in where they said, "No, if you're a truly an hourly employee, you have to clock in, you have to clock out." So, we're in transition. This is uh um this is the first year where we told employees that that shift is going to change and it's going to come and we're no longer going to do annualized pay. So, um that's going to go away starting next summer is all hourly employees are going to have to clock in and they're going to have to clock out. and the hours that you put in in your time card, that is what you're going to be compensated for. So, versus what we do in terms of annualized pay, right? And essentially that big thing for that is wage theft, right?
063They don't want anybody abusing public uh public dollars. So, they're really cracking down in public entities. So, that is something that we're going to start to really uh um emphasize with a lot of our support staff to say if you're not used to um if you're not used to uh uh clocking in and clocking out, just know that come next July, it's going to be a requirement. A lot of the times we have to we beat up our supervisors and we say, "Hey, you you need to remind this employee they got to clock in. You need to remind this employee they got to clock out." Um and uh luckily it's our the system that we've been using with our uh service provider. It's very user friendly where as long as you are connected with our
064within our network you can clock in and clock out. So we've added some of those efficiencies. We're just waiting for it to catch up. But starting next fiscal year that's going to be a requirement. So we're using this year as transition to train staff to really move into that that second stage. Uh then the last finding was really uh a credit card receipt. So they tested the entire year of credit card transactions and they pulled 20 transactions and they said everybody give us supporting documentation and I had everything. Bob won from when we went to state in basketball and Mr. Bugamman decided to stop to eat at Clear Water and I and he didn't get a receipt for when he stopped to eat at Clear Water and I was like a not going to bother
065him in his retirement. So uh for that we got written off for that. So uh overall uh very clean audit, very pleased with some of the work uh that a Bailey does. Uh so today um in your business items you're going to see the uh the approval to accept the audit. Um a Bailey has been a wonderful partner. Uh the only thing that we have pending in our audit is our single audit that has to deal directly with federal dollars. And there's nothing that a daily did wrong, nothing that the school district did wrong. It simply is uh uh the lack of support from uh the federal government opening up the clearing house and giving us guidelines on what they need to test on. So, we're just kind of holding until the federal government says,
066"All right, here's everything you need to test this year on and then we're going to start." So, most likely I'm going to be busy again doing the federal audit in January, February time. But state audit is complete. Okay. Any questions regarding the audit that you guys want to ask that you didn't feel comfortable asking? Courtney, >> Rudy, you might have mentioned this, but there was, and I I apologize if I missed it just just now. The one of the findings was the inactive activity accounts. Did you go over that part? >> Nope. I um I didn't. So, um and I will go over that. So, uh that's with the Minnesota legal compliance. So, that has to do with chapter 14. in chapter 14 is what governs our student activity accounts and there is a small
067fine print that says if there's no activity then you have to retire them and then you take those funds and then you disperse them against all of them. We challenge that particular concept and when we and we challenge it for one thing because a lot of the dormant activity accounts is because there's a a transition in advisory and eventually we'll come back on. So we wrote a district memo saying we want to keep them open even though they're inactive because we know that eventually it will pick up again. So um that's what uh uh what they had to do in terms of that. So um again um I don't think it would be fair. So say for example uh it happened with our preschool activity account. So back in the early 2000s we used to
068charge tuition and then uh parents started donating money for helping with supplies and things like that. So over the last 20ome years, we've carried over forward a balance on a student activity account called BPK, right? And then last year, they just didn't have any activity. But I'm not going to take that money and then disperse it against all of them because Tara already communicated with me that she wants to order magazines this year for the BPK program. Had we had done that in July, I would have told Terara, "Sorry, your money is gone." So that's where we disagree with the auditors and the funding came forward. Great question. Great question. >> Anything else? Stacy, did you have a question? >> I did. Sorry. Um, what about the uh food service excess? Like do we have
069a plan for for those funds? Uh yes we do miss Almirez. So um the governance for the food service funds is by federal regulations. We can only have three operating months of revenue in our food service fund balance and we're way above over that. And the the reason why we have such a high fund balance in our food service fund is because when CO hit, not only did we get additional monies for the meals that we were giving, but then the USDA was taking care of all the cost. So we practically made double the money on a meal that we gave. We have this surplus. And what we've done over over time is uh um we've updated equipment uh when Jess or Trudy let us know that they need something. So for example, this year
070and last year both kitchens informed us that it gets extremely hot in there and they needed some type of ventilation system. So, we uh um we wrote to the state and we said, "Hey, over the excess funds that we have in the food service fund, we're going to add some type of uh a standalone HVAC system to bring the temperature down because it gets really hot in there." So, some of those things what we use it for. Um, another piece that we're looking into is with the community survey that we got in terms of providing healthier options in terms of uh giving a better uh a better menu of less package, more protein, less sugar. We can use this surplus to help improve some of those student meals that we can provide. So, um, that's
071what it's there for. That's what it's use should be used for. When we think about equipment, we just have to get approved by the state before we purchase anything over $5,000. But other than that, yeah, that's that's our intent is to make our meals better for that surplus. Yeah, great question. Thank you for that. >> Anything else? >> All right. Thank you. >> Yep. Thank you, Mr. Score. Okay, just looking at our district priorities. Uh, first one is community engagement. Uh, quite a few community engagements here throughout the school year that our staff have been involved in, our administration have been involved in. So, um, if you scroll down, Mrs. Evansson, if you kind of look at September, if you look at September, look at all the activities that we're engaged with our local community
072with businesses, if it's going out and in our community, doing different things. Um, you got like visiting Pelican Valley. Um, you got the homecoming activities, the Viking gala, um, the food backpacks, working with United Way to help our families out, and then our local businesses that we worked with either visiting them or bringing them into our school. If you look at October, um, kind of the same thing. U Bash was in October. A lot of kids, uh, did uh, some games and face painting there. So, we're work with our organizations there. Um, career fair, just so you know, at Rotary, working with Mrs. Jay and Mrs. Lege on um getting different um representatives of different workforce to come in and talk to our students and uh so we're working with our area businesses there. Um
073and then again local businesses that uh came in. If you go to November um it was stated here a little bit about our veterans breakfast and program. If you look, you know, if we looked at community engagement with phase uh four training with MSBA, they talked about community engagement. How do you bring in people? One of the questions is how do you bring in people that no longer have kids or grandkids and the veterans breakfast and program was a great way to bring in a lot of those people into our building. So, um got the lighted parade um different parades got the lighted parade here in November. Uh the blood drive is a great bringing people in. Um and then the PEL campus community video that we're working on uh with the chamber. So and
074then um community ed talked about how her and Mr. Hog are bringing in Lauren Line. Great way to bring in people into our our building. So um going back up increased student enrollment. Um in November for K12 we're at 828 students and then preK12 we're at 930. So, if you compare it to last May, we're up from last May. Um, other priorities, sound and transparent financial practices. Tonight, you heard the audit. Um, and I want to thank Mr. Martinez and Mrs. Evansson for all their work um with the audit. District goals. Uh, one of our goals is MCA reading and math proficiency rates for free and reduced students will increase by 3%. Um, you've heard our principles talk about different things they've been doing. Just a couple reminders. I'll be implementing new math curriculum at
075the elementary and at the high school and aligning standards uh language arts standards uh K12. Our goals by next spring is that language art standards are aligned K through 12 elementary align them this summer. Um and then interventions and interventions that are being offered to at the elementary at the high school to help kids improve in math and reading. MSBA phase 4 training. Mr. Sman and I attended part A of phase 4 and we'll complete part B here Wednesday evening. MSBA conference is January 15th and 16th. Just a reminder, if you've not communicated with Mrs. Eson, please do that for hotel rooms. And then uh schoolboard agenda items. There's one item that under business and that's approve the EAP contract with Lakeland Mental Health Center and that's a contract for all our staff and their
076families. That's three free sessions um for uh during one year. So that's the contract with Lakeland Mental Health to offer those services. So, um I think that's about it. Fall break that was talked about coming up here and then the next school board meeting is December 15th. That's all I have. Truth and taxation also. Yep. >> Any questions for Mr. Cor? Okay. So, let's move on to consent items. Item may approve board meeting minutes from the October 27th, 2025 special school board meeting. B. Financial claims October bills. C. Treasures report. D. Personnel. Acknowledge the resignation of Lisa Cap Cape. >> Cape, a special education pair professional at the elementary. Acknowledge the resignation of Caris >> Germo Shares Germo as ELLL par profofessional at the high school. >> Approve the hire of Emily Evenson as special
077education pair professional at the elementary. Approve the hire of Stephanie Yerbano as ELLL paraprofessional at the high school. Approve the hire as hire of Lucas Verdorne as special education par profofessional at the elementary. approve the hire of Yan Eric Lindberg as junior high girls basketball coach at the high school and approve the hire of Sarah Lindberg as celebration of cultures advisor at the high school. So, do we have a motion and a second? >> I'll make the motion to approve the consent items. >> Motion by Andrew. We have a second. >> Second by Molly. Discussion. No discussion in the consent items. All those in favor of the motion signify by saying I and this will be roll call. Andrew >> I >> Brenda >> hi. >> Stacy >> I Molly >> I >> Greg >>
078I said items carry. So just a few business items here. We have approved the resolution accepting donations. Do we have a motion and a second to approve the donations by Brandon? We have a second here by Greg. So this is a resolution. First of all, any discussion for the resolution? Okay. Resolution accepting donations whereas every such acceptance shall be by resolution of the governing body adopted by a twoth3 majority of its members expressing such terms in full. Therefore be a resolve that the school board of public RA public schools ISD 548 gratefully accepts following donations as identified below. So we have Laura Clem. She gave $80 for student accounts. Laura Clem $80. Viking boutique. Joanne Berg $20 Samtastic scholarship road Lake Lutheran Church $150 by Dun Township Villa Lions $680 to student accounts J and
079Jim Hoblin $50 for prom G and Pete Beach $20 FFA memory of Rick Evansson multiple donors $115 PRS scholarship fund in memory of Rick Evansson and Faith Lutheran Church WVL LCA $200 by. So this is a resolution. So Greg, are you resolved? >> Yes. >> Molly? >> Yes. Molly. >> Excuse me. Stacy. >> Sorry. >> Yes. >> Andrew. >> Yes. >> Resolution carries. Next one is to approve the resolution of resolution of form A application to the Minnesota State High School League Foundation. We have a motion and a second to approve that resolution. >> Motion by Greg. We have a second discussion before I read the resolution. Okay. Resolution the governing board supporting form a application of the Minnesota State High School League Foundation. Whereas the Minnesota State High School League Foundation was formed to
080provide support for Minnesota High School youth that participate in athletics and fine arts. Whereas the governing board of Helen Rapids Public Schools, ISD 548, recognized the value of student participation in extracurricular activities. And whereas the Minnesota State High School League Foundation is offering grants and funding to assist schools in recognizing, promoting, and funding extracurricular participation by high school students in athletics and fine arts programs. Therefore, be it resolved that the governing board of Rapus Public Schools, ISB 548, supports the school application to the Minnesota State High School Foundation for a 4 A grant to offset student activity fees. So, this is a resolution. So, Andrew, >> yes. >> Brenda, >> yes. >> Stacy, >> yes. >> Emma, yes. Molly, >> yes. >> Great. >> Yes. >> Okay. Carries. This one is uh item C is
081approved the 26 27 EAP contract with Lakeland Mental Health Center. And the contract copy is on the website if we wanted to take a look at it. But so entertain a motion and a second. >> Make a motion to approve the contract. >> Motion by Andrew. Do we have a second? >> Second by Greg. Any discussion on that motion? Hearing no discussion. All those in favor of approving the contract motion signify by saying I and this will be by resolution again. So Greg >> I. >> Molly >> I'm an I. Stacy >> I. >> Brenda >> I. >> Andrew >> I. >> Motion carries. Item D is to approve and accept the 2024 2025 audit. I'm going to make the motion to approve and accept the 2024 to 2025 audit. Second, second by Andrew. Any
082discussion on the audit? Hearing no discussion on approving my motions. Sign signify by saying I. And we roll call again. Andrew. Hi. >> Brenda. Hi. >> Stacey. I >> I'm an I Molly. >> Hi, >> Greg. >> I motion carries. >> So 10 upcoming meetings December 15th, 2025 regular meeting and truth of taxation be at 6 p.m. January 5th will be our reorganization and regular meeting 6 p.m. And then MSBA conference January 15th and 16th of next year. So we have a motion to adjourn. Motion. Motion by Andrew. You have a second. >> Second by Molly. Any discussion? All those in favor of adjourning signify by saying I. We'll do a roll call again. Greg. >> Hi. >> Molly. >> Hi. >> I Stacy. >> Hi. >> Andrew. Hi. >> We're thanks everybody.