001All [Music] right. 6:30 we'll call the meeting to work. We have everyone in attendance and start standing 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. Welcome everybody. First item on the agenda will be to approve the meeting agenda. Um, Mr. Chair, I had when I visited with you earlier asked on the consent um of moving one item to the business items. Okay. So, is this the time I would ask to do that? Sure. And are you looking at the um the dean of students and activities director, please? Okay. Thank you. So, with that being said, do we need to move the resting coach commission to business items
002also or correct? Cuz they're both together. Both together. Is that okay? The rest of coach. Yeah. So, C will be approved the hire of David Kosen as Dina students and activities director. D will be approved the hire of David Chosen as heading coach. Anything else? Okay. So, do we have a motion or is that a motion? Stacy motion. Motion by Stacy. We got a second. I'll second that. Second by Greg. Any discussion? Hearing no discussion. All those in favor of approving the agenda and the changes signify by saying I. I I those oppos same. Motion carries. Opportunity for visitors to address the board. Have anybody like to address the board? I'd like to address the board. My name is Charlie. I don't hear anybody else. So that we'll move on. We have some acknowledgements. We
003have Mr. Sean Fitz Simmons and the bank band trip chaperones. All state winter student athletes. So we have the dance team all state academic silver award dance team senior academic all state Mariah Wisher boys basketball team AAA team academic champions boys basketball team senior academic all state Charlie Larson girls basketball all state academic silver award girls basketball academic all state Grace Backrom Sarah Hogrude and Anna Royce and girls basketball academic all state honorable mention Morgan Corp. So congratulations and Mr. Corp, do you have anything to add? I just want to reiterate thanking Mr. Fitz Simmons for his all his time, his hard work. Uh it's a lot of stress and I appreciate everything he did to provide a great learning experience for our students. And also thank you to our chaperones for all their work
004while they're on the on the trip. Congratulations to all the student athletes and the teams and on their achievements and representing Pelican Rapids. Can can I add one thing? This has been on my mind. Um being grateful for the opportunity to go on the band trip and just but just accolades to our young people and how they were awesome. Um I know there were stories I heard from years and years ago and students weren't always so awesome. Um but they were really awesome. And it was just a great experience. Um and um with the winter activities too. Uh I think you know on that last game of the state tournament for the boys having our band there um was uh it was a it was great for the for the energy of the space. And
005um thirdly I have heard in a few spaces how um great Pelican teachers are um when it comes to sitting in professional development. So I wanted to share that out here too. That good. Thanks. Yeah. Anything else? And next month will be a presentation of the banter. Hopefully. Yeah. Okay. All right. We'll move on to elementary report with Mr. Nelson. Uh enrollment still at 429 strong. Uh BPK 46, 3-year-olds 28, and head start is at 33. Our perfect attendance again for March, we had 172 students in preschool through 6th grade have their every day in March. Um, we have a bunch of field trips coming up. I'm not going to mention all the field trips, but these are programs, things that are going on at the elementary. On Thursday, there's an art show at the
006public library, uh, demonstrating, showing off a whole bunch of art from the year from elementary students. Friday, there's a kindergarten program over here at the fine arts. Next Tuesday, the 29th, is our second Title One family night. Uh, weather permitting, it will be outside on the playground. So hopefully it's nice uh for the evening. Uh May 9th we have a third and fourth grade program again here at the fine arts. Uh May 14th is our numbers with neighbors Viking Elementary and each one of you got a letter and invitation from the leadership team um excuse me the lighthouse team uh inviting they want to personally invite the board members to this. There's different times and what each grade level is going to be doing is different activities and games that they've done this year with
007our new math program. So, first grade is going to look way different than fifth grade, then second grade. It's all going to be things that they've done this year, all the games, and there'll be different stations set up in each room. And um we just wanted to welcome all of you if you could stop sometime. Um, great to see the kids in action and and the teachers with all their hard work for the year. So, again, that'll be going on different rooms during the day. We knew we couldn't do it at one time because of space and have everybody show up at once parking. So, we staggered it and it's actually during their math time um when each room or each grade level is having their uh numbers with neighbors and a creative name they
008came up with. The same day at 1:30 will be your sixth grade dare graduation. That'll be in the elementary gym. Uh May 15th, we have third K through third track and field. The next day the 16th, 4th through six track and field. And May 5th through the 9th, we will be celebrating our staff appreciation week at the elementary. And one thing I forgot is to hire Jaden Benson as a long-term sub as a pair position um for this spring. Any questions? Do we have any uh perfect enrollment for the entire year? That's a good question. Um I will get that for the next meeting and find out. I know there's kids though that with the bag tags they really I mean they I got I got several and but good question if we have any
009that have perfect tenants for the whole year. So interesting cuz some kids were I was here every day. was just gone there one one time and it's not quite perfect, but we always say next month starts over, starts today. So, that's a cool I like that. You know, we we've been looking at how do you how do you reward attendance? And we thought, you know, it's these bag tag. It's something little. It's not like a little sucker that you have and it's gone. And this way, a lot of them put them on their backpacks and and they're there. they can see. And uh I go around the first day of every month and we hand them out and they're pretty excited when they get them. So it's it's been a I think a reward for
010the kids that are there. And it's not for the whole year, it's for each month. So each month they can start over if they were sick or they had family trip or something the one month, the next month they get to clean state slate and start over. So, okay. Any other questions? I don't hear any. Thank you. Thank you. Student enrollment. We are at 371. I want to echo um what Mr. Corf mentioned about Grand Trip and what Stacy mentioned. Um, our kids had a great time in New York City. Maybe I'll highlight that in your um, reports, but Mr. Fitzman spends a lot of time and effort putting this trip on and it was a great experience for students and our chaperones. MCA testing, we just wrapped up this past week. Big thank you
011to Mrs. Corf. Um, she puts a lot of time and effort. I am as deck coordinator and this is our second year of doing an adjusted schedule and I do think it has turned out um really nice. Seventh and eighth graders test MCA reading and math during those times. Our 9th graders do not test so they have four different activities. Um on Tuesday of the first week they watched a documentary. The second day they went out and cleaned up garbage around our community. Um last Tuesday they did a butterfly activity with our kindergarteners and then um on Wednesday we took them to Maplewood State Park. It was interesting to know how many kids have not been to Maplewood State Park. So it was a great trip or trip. They hiked up Holloway Hill and just
012kind of had some fun outside with their classmates. 10th graders tested. 11th graders tested that second week. And then our 12th graders, it's their time to either have a late start or serve some obligations. MCA science 8 will be completed um this week during their science 8 class time. So we are back to a normal schedule this week. Mrs. Hall has done a great job with driver's ed and continues. Um she worked really hard to get this going. we can now proctor the permit test at the high school for students and then they can also um get their blue cards electronically with her time and effort as well as well as their white cards. So all great things for our kids as they become drivers. FFA will leave on Sunday for the state convention. You'll
013see there that we have quite a few that have qualified group in dairy judging, horse judging, forestry, poultry, and then we have two delegates, Hannah Nelson and Addison Walters, going to represent our school. It's held on April 28th and 29th across the University of Minnesota and the fairgrounds and some different spots here in the Twin Cities. But it's a great group that is going and led by Mr. Larson. Schoolboard items. I would like to um have you approve the hire of Dave Cosen as dean of students, activities director, and wrestling coach. Our committee spent a lot of time getting this um this hire. And it was a group of seven of us across all different areas of our school. And we truly believe that he will do a great job in our school and with
014our wrestling program. upcoming April 17. We just had um midway through quarter 4, which is kind of hard to believe. Couple weeks here is junior senior prom and then we have all of the senior type things coming up. Scholarship night, balorate, last day of school and graduation. Couple things all highlights for grow and then leave the rest to our schoolboard representatives. Celebration of cultures. I want to thank the people that put this on. Um Mrs. Lege, Mrs. Green and Mrs. Lindberg um really led this and it's just a great event for our young females. MHS students volunteered at the Shrine Circus and then our speech team wrapped up their season at the section meet. One more thing I wanted to add. We did also complete the M student Minnesota student survey for our grades 8,
0159, and 11 over these past couple weeks as well. So those reports will come out once they're ready. questions [Applause] questions. Thanks. Sanchez or you got any for us? All right. Uh recent student activities, spring sports are in action. Uh the FFA, there was a petting zoo in Mr. Larson's class and a shop. And like Miss Jay said, there's a state convent con convention through April 27th through the 29th at the Groers Arena. MCA testing had happened. Students who didn't take MCA's engaged in community service. The Great Gatsby had a full house on opening night and um interesting part about Great Gatsby cast, there was two of them and there hadn't been two casts of one show in over 30 years in Pelican. So that was really interesting. Uh, midquarter ended April 17th. Spanish students
016joined Underwood and Ferg Fergus to compete in a cultural trivia contest and break out the box. This event teaches kids about the language and culture of Spanish-sp speakaking countries and there was an 8th annual celebration of cultures. Band students went on the New York trip to visit Trump Tower and performed there. cosmetology students toured the salon profession professional academy in Fargo. Um this upcoming week, girls golf, varsity golf had a meet today in Staples and they also have a meet in Holly on Thursday. The boys are at Boyd D Sue on Wednesday. Baseball has two double headers this week. The first is on Tuesday versus Park Rapids at home. The second double header is against Breck at Breenidge. Track has three meets this week. The first is on Tuesday in Barnesville. The second is on
017Friday at Hamlin University. And the third is on Saturday at NDSU. Softball has five games this week. A double header at Park Rapids on Tuesday. A double header at home versus Breenidge on Thursday, as well as a game at OTC versus OTC at Battle Lake. um in the not so near future but closing in is the junior senior prom as well as graduation. And then to reiterate what's been said about the band trip, it was very enjoyable. Um as a student, um all the Broadway shows were very fun and entertaining and fits kept us all very very involved in all the activities we participated in. That's a live job. Thank you. Any questions from the board? Thank you. Mr. Martinez still here. All right. Uh treasures report for month end of March. Um this is
018month uh uh 10 of our fiscal budget. We got just a couple more months and we're wrapping it up. Um overall um as I mentioned in the previous uh uh in the previous uh board meeting uh we're uh on target in terms of our budget actual uh revenues are accounting for about 60%. uh big revenues that will come here in the next month or so is the second half of our levy which will bring our revenue uh closer to actual um and and just uh kind of recap know that uh the state always pays us 90% of the actual aid entitlements. They always keep 10% in reserves and then we carry that over as receivables to the next year. So a very common practice that's been going on for over 20 years at the state
019level. So know that a lot of times the last marker that I present is at about a 90% uh uh budget to actual on revenue. Uh expenses are at about 72%. Uh we have three more operating months. Like I said we are um on target. Uh big ticket items for expenditures coming up other than our payouts at the end of the month or at the end of the fiscal year. That's all that there is. Um and practically pay us is recognizing the entire 12 month uh payroll calendar um into our fiscal budget. We do that because our payroll carries over um up until um August 31st. So account accounting records then we carry carry it backwards um just so we can assume that cost. Um and that we do at the end of the fiscal
020year. Um but like I said, we're right on target. uh um which is is is a very good com comforting uh feeling to be on. Uh things that we're looking at very closely is obviously legislative sessions. Uh May 19th is the big day. That's when hopefully hopefully we'll have a fiscal budget u for the next bianium. But uh May 19th again is the big day where we look at all the uh bills that become um statue and all the different funding aspects. So between now and then is a lot of anticipation crossing our fingers. Hopefully all the legislators feel that public education is the best investment. Um budget to actual. Um any questions regarding the report you guys see in front? Um otherwise I'll move on to second page. Yes sir. Has there been any
021talk about the funding shifts that we used to do several years ago or has that been eliminated through statute legislation? Yep. So what Mr. Carter's talking about is in the past you can still do it is that if you see a fund balance going into deficit, you can transfer funds between fund balances to help cover that deficit. That's still allowable. You have to write a plan to the state. Um and once they approve it, they allow it. Um um um and you can go ahead and do it. Uh the bill that is currently as legislation is giving the districts more flexibility to do that without state approval. Um if we happen to do that, I think that'll be great. It'll free up a lot of restricted dollars that come to the school for with red
022tape. What I mean by that is the student formula accounts for about 60% of our funding where the state says here's this money teach young minds. Um the rest of it we called aid entitlements or restricted revenue which they come and they said here's a little bit additional revenue but you can only spend it on this you can only spend it on this. So, the new bill that's a legislation will eliminate that and essentially free up all the dollars and give a local administration and schoolboard members um the power to to um um allocate those dollars more efficiently based on district needs and not on statutes. So, if that passes potentially yearbyear, correct? Y how about funding shifts when they pass in 9010? I remember years when it was what 7030 or something like that.
023Yep. Yep. Um was that eliminated with prior legislation? It was eliminated with prior legislation. the latest uh MEI report uh that I saw this morning practically urge all anybody that has a over overlapping path with public education to contact your local legislators uh because there are rumors at the state capital that they might potentially push a zero and zero funding year. We do not want that. So if you have free time, call your local legislators, fill their gear to continue to support public education. A zero and zero year, which is practically a freezing state, will destroy a lot of rural Minnesota public schools. We do not want that. We do not want that. So you got free time, email, call your legislators, please. Okay, we'll move on to the second page. Uh here's our cash
024flow. Um, I'll just briefly go over it. We started uh the month with $4 million in our fund balance. We received $1.5 million in state and federal aid uh of which we withdrew $1 million to meet our obligation. Final uh investment at uh $4.4 million total deposits into our checking accounting for $1.2 million. uh total payroll or I'm sorry, total uh bills pay were 842,000. Total payroll was 483. Um payroll was a little bit elevated this particular uh month and that has to do with spring coaches being paid. So that's why you see that jump in in our payroll numbers. Um at the end of the month, we uh uh in theory had a uh negative balance of $33,000, but again uh we get alerts and then our um account replenishes very quickly. So that's
025what we have. Total cash on hand at the end of the month, $4.4 million. Um again I I stress the point that in this uncertain times uh we want to make sure that we have a very good fund balance to help cover um any uncertainties at the capital. So with that being said we're within our marker of the 20 uh 225 fund balance which is great to be in in that uh within that policy threshold. Um and we'll just continue and give the board updates on what legislation is supposed to do, what bills are in favor, and continue to carry along. Um we have a upcoming finance committee which we're going to unpack all of that, what the impact will be fiscally depending on different bills. We'll take a look into uh different costing models,
026different negotiation models. Um and we'll really get into more components on uh planning for 2425 or 2526 school year. I'm sorry. Any questions regarding the cash flow? Other than that, all the remaining pages is practically just all the payables that go through the uh schools districts check. But thank you for your time. Any questions? Okay. Mr. Okay, first item is uh K12 enrollment and at April 1st we're at 800. So which is kind of right in same area we've been last couple months. So which is good. Finance committee will be May 5th. That will be at 6:00 p.m. And Miss Martinez talked a little bit about that. So, finance committee, um, it'll be on May 5th at 6:00 and we'll meet right here. Special ed co-op update. There's a few things here with special ed
027co-op. Um, first item, I was on a committee that worked on PAR contracts, updating them after Fergus Falls left the co-op, so we removed contract language that was no longer needed. Uh, the new director, Ally Brockman, will be attending the end of the year staff meeting. So, she'll be meeting all all the staff. So that will be good for staff to meet the new director before summertime. Uh we had quite a few uh personnel hires and then we had a contract reduction. So in the co-op there there's a director that will be full-time and then two coordinators and one coordinator is8 and then one coordinator went from 1.0 to 7 on their request. So um two coordinators still they're just not fulltime. And then we're still working on the agreement uh financial agreement with Fergus
028Falls regarding them Fergus Falls withdrawing from the co-op. So we're still um in that process. Schoolboard agenda items. Um just a couple items here under consent items. Um just want to acknowledge the resignation of Nace Borg and thank Mrs. Borgan for her years of service as the head speech coach. Um, also acknowledge the resignation of Dialin Evenson Evansson as co-head wrestling coach and Aaron Companga as co- head wrestling coach. So, we want to thank both coaches for their years of service and working with our wrestling program and hopefully maybe over the next few years we can keep them engaged and and helping out. Um, thank the rest of them. I believe Mr. Nelson and Mr. Jesus have touched on under business items. Uh resolution accepting donations. That's our new process now. Um we used to
029do it at the beginning of the meeting and um had those approved but now they're going to be under resolution. So they'll be under business items. Um the education identity and access management board resolution that resolution that's a yearly approval. So big rocks coming up. Finance committee meeting May 5th. Uh school board meeting is on May 19th and then graduation is May 23rd and the correction it says 6:30 under the big rocks at 6:00. Should be 6:00. That's all I have. Okay. Any questions? Uh question. I know you sent a note out to staff following the enrollment analysis. Um do you is do you have recommendations for our next steps um following following that for enrollment? Yeah. After that like discussing the Yeah. So the email to them is to give them an update how
030the work session went and we're going to continue to monitor like we do every month is our enrollment and staffing and we'll continue to watch that every month like we've done over the last few years. Yeah. Vote for the board. What um what should we do with that information? You talking in the moment? Yeah, I mean I just because we got the presentation but we haven't Yeah, good question. So the next step is we talked about Mr. Martinez and I talked about is educating the board what the marketing team is doing. So he talked about marketing items right for enrollment I think and I'll meet with the marketing team here next week and we're going to talk about um all the things that we do and then give you guys a presentation start with that
031and then go from there and then that gives the board see what we're doing and then come up with ideas other ideas that we want to do. Did Paul share those slides? Can those be shared to he shared he shared the slideshow with me and then I'm waiting for a few things from him. Okay, I'll give them to you. The answers to the questions that the board had. Y any other questions? Okay, we'll move on. Next up is consent items. We have uh item A, approve board meeting minutes from March 17, 2025, the regular schoolboard meeting. Item B, financial claims and March bills. C, treasures report. D, personnel. Acknowledge the resignation of Denise Borggan as head speech coach. Acknowledge the resignation of Dylan Eden as co-head wrestling coach. Acknowledge the resignation of Aaron Copinga as
032co-head wrestling coach. And approve the hire of Jaden Benson as long-term special education pair professional substitute at Viking Elementary. Do we have a motion? That motion motion by Andrew. We have a second. A second. By Molly. Discussion on consent items. Hearing no discussion. All in favor approving the consent item signify by saying I. I. I. Those opposed? Same. Consent items carried. Business items. I'm looking ahead and I've got two resolutions I need to read. So, okay. Kind of highlighted on your document there. Okay. All right. So, I don't have to read the whole thing. Okay. All right. So, item A will be approved the resolution accepting donations. We have a motion for that. Somebody like to make a motion. I'll move for that. by Greg. We have a second to Andrew. Okay. So, this is
033a resolution and I'll read the resolution resolution accepting donations and then uh whereas every every such acceptance shall be by resolution of the governing body adopted by a twoth3s majority of its members expressing such terms in full. Therefore, be it resolved that the school board of Pelican Rapids public schools ISD 548 gratefully accepts the following donations as identified below. We have Laura Clem and she has two donations each for $100 student accounts and Viking Boutique. Lisa Pesnik's $20 for the high school scholarship fund in memory of Al Colligan. Colligan Culligan Colligan. Okay. We have anonymous $20 uh same scholarship fund in memory of Al Colligan. 1967 alumni $3,000 for the class of 1967 scholarship fund. 1967 alumni $2,000 to the backpack program. Daniel Ditch, $1,000 Pelican Dental Health Professional Scholarship Fund. Lisa Peznik $20 high
034school scholarship fund in memory of Alexa. So this is a resolution. So ask how you resolve. Andrew, yes. Brenda, yes. Yes. Molly, yes. Stacy, yes. Yes. Resolution carries. Next item up is to approve the education identity and access management board resolution. Do we have a motion? Okay. Motion by Greg. A second. Second by Stacy. Okay. Education Identity and Access Management Board Resolution which I'm going to read. Minnesota Department of Education, MDE, Professional Educator Licensing Standard Board, Pelby, and the Office of Higher Education, OE OE, require annual designations of an identified official with authority, the IOWA, for each local educational agency that uses the educational identity and access management system. The director recommends that the board authorize the below named individuals to act the identified official with authority for this organization. That'll be Brian Corf, superintendent.
035This is a resolution. Andrew, what are your resolve? Yes. Brenda, yes. Yes. Molly, yes. Stacy, yes. Greg, yes. Resolution carries. C. approve the hire of David Kosen as dean of students and athletic director or activities director. Do we have a motion? So move motion by Greg. We have a second. Second by Molly. Any discussion? Yes. Just want to thank thank you Mr. Carter is the chair of our board to be the air traffic controller. You know, this metaphorically speaking um um with regard to um a lot of things that come up monthto month. Appreciate you being available including but not limited to this month uh with regard to the to the recommended new hire. And um just want to really recognize and appreciate you your willingness to be available to connect me with the individuals
036I was able to connect with to get my answers uh that I was looking for. So thank you for doing that. Thank you Greg. Any discussion? And I just want to say back to the discussion of the work session that um we all come with different perspectives and um back to our roles and this is not about like a doubts on the qualifications of the candidate or doubts on the on the hiring committee. Um, where I'm just coming from is feeling um, responsible for the enrollment analysis and the fiscal impacts that we have potentially coming up and um, having that holding that strategic um, plan and vision in place and not taking this opportunity to really unpack that with this position. So, anything else? Anybody discuss okay hearing? No more discussion. All those in favor
037of approving the motion signify by saying I. I. I. Those opposed same. I. Motion carries. Item D, approve the hire of David Kosen as head wrestling coach. Do we have a motion for that? Okay. Motion by Andrew. Second. Second by Stacy. Any discussion on on that motion? Okay. Hearing no discussion. All those in favor of approving the motion signify by saying I. I. I. Those opposed same. Motion carries. Okay. Upcoming meetings May 5th, uh, as mentioned a few times, finance committee meeting 6 p.m., May 19th, 2025, regular meeting 6 p.m. And June 18th, regular meeting. That's at 7:00 a.m. So, picking up a little bit earlier. All right. I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. I'll move to adjourn. We have a second by Andrew. Any discussion? Hearing no discussion. All in favor of journey by
038saying I opposing. We are journ. Thanks.