001It's just following the order and start with the pledge. 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. >> All right. and uh like to reflect that all members are present with uh Ellie being online and we will uh roll right into the truth and taxation public hearing. >> All right, so we have the truth and taxation public meeting um taxes 2026 payable 2027. We'll start out talking a little bit about the truth and taxation law. Um, the truth and taxation law requires a mailed notice that is sent to each property owner in the county describing the city, county, and school district property tax levies and resulting percentage change in dollars on their tax
002levy. Um, a public meeting must take must take place, which we're doing this evening, and a presentation must include uh discussion on the fiscal year 26 budget for the school and the pay 26 property tax levy. And we must allow time for public comments at the end of the meeting. So looking at Minnesota school funding um points to remember revenue formulas that drive the levies are set by the state legislature except for voter approved referendums and uh the local optional revenue. Um there's local levy and state aid mix and many of the revenue categories um meaning it's equalized. Some of the revenue flows to us as state aids, some flows to us as taxes. And depending on the wealth of the district, um, highly wealthy district receives less aid and less wealthy district receives more
003aid. Um, also an increase in local taxes does not necessarily mean an increase in revenues for the school district. All right, let's take a look at our school district budget. It's a quick overview on the fund accounting that that we work with. The general fund is where the majority of our activities, expenditures, and revenues take place in. Um we also have fund two which is our food service fund. Uh community service fund providing early childhood programming, early childhood family ed and so on. And then the debt service fund which is where um we make the payment for our principal and interest on any bonds outstanding. All right. Looking at the 2526 school budget. Um we also have actuals in here for fiscal year 25. Um so looking at 25 versus 26 the general fund is
004increasing 93% in revenues. The food service fund is set u budgeted to increase 3.42%. Community service relatively flat at.14%. And the debt service fund is decreasing by 88.55% and that's just due to a bond refunding uh falling off there. Um in terms of where do our revenues come from, this is for the general fund only. Uh 88% of our general fund revenue is state aid. So that's driven by our student population, ADMs, and 7% is local property taxes, 1% federal and 3% other local. Looking at the 2526 budget, um general fund is increasing 41% over the prior year. Food service is budgeted to go up 3.4 42%. Community service um again flat at.14% and the debt service fund uh decreasing at 88%. Um looking at where do our dollars go, how are they spent? So
005this is looking at by program or cost center if you will. 6% of our budget is expended on district and school admin. uh 3.5% is spent on the district support services. That's essentially the business office, payroll, um HR support and so on. Regular instruction 39.1%. Extracurriculars 4.9%. Vocational instruction or career tech 2.8%. Special education 15.2%. instructional support which includes staff development, media services and technology 6.2%. Uh pupil services is at 9.5%. The biggest uh cost happening there is in the transportation area and then we have sites, buildings and equipment at 11.4%. Fiscal and other at 1.4% of the budget and that's primarily property taxes or I mean property insurance, sorry. Okay, looking at our general fund expenditure by um object series we call it. Um so salaries makes up the the biggest piece of our
006expenditures, 59%. Benefits is another 17%. So 76% of our general fund budget goes towards staffing. 15% purchase services. Again within here we would have transportation, electricity and all our utilities things like that. Contracted services um supplies 6% equipment 2% and a small percentage in other. All right looking at our fiscal year 25 how we ended from a fund balance standpoint. Um you can see the unassigned fund balance there is the largest balance at 1,ion857,380. Uh student activity accounts have a fund balance of 245,04 assigned fund balance of 200,116 and then you can see other restricted there um up to library as the smallest at 6826. All right. Um, so the school district levy the board is considering for approval tonight as the 25 payable 26 levy. That means this is going to be revenue actually
007for fiscal year 27. Um, the authority for school levies is set by state formula. Um, voter approved referendums if any are in place and the board is allowed to approve up to $724 per adjusted pupil unit. It's called our local optional revenue. Um factors impacting tax changes um include but are not limited to inflationary pressure on the real estate market um abatements uh in the in the district, property improvements not previously taxed, change in individual assessed market value and possible change in property classification um such as homestead to rental etc. All right. So, looking um how our tax levy will be spent. 34% of the taxes collected for the school will go to the general fund. Um for all those expenses we talked about earlier, capital expenses, staffing, building, land lease, and so on. Um
0081% of the levy goes to the community services fund. And the majority of our property tax levy is going to go to the debt service fund to pay off uh bonds, principal, and interest on debt outstanding. All right, looking at our uh payable 26 levy versus the prior year pay 25 levy. Um our general fund levy is increasing 81,789.37. That's a 9.9% increase over the prior year. Community services is decreasing 5,57 and40 or a decrease of 13.14%. The debt service levy is increasing 15,623.6. That's a.9% increase. And overall the levy is increasing 92,355.57 or 3.5 54% over the prior year. looking at the general fund levy in a little more detail. These are kind of the primary uh revenue streams in terms of taxes that that flow through to us. We have the local optional
009levy again the $724 per pupil unit. It's actually decreasing slightly by $2,438.14. Equity and transitional levy is decreasing by 4262. Um operating capital down slightly 1431. Um we have a new levy um proposed at 49,191 for the building land lease um with our special ed uh partner co-op and safe schools relatively flat going down slightly $29. Uh OPE is also a new levy $8,823. Career Tech up 15,397. Long-term facility maintenance up 3,043. And then we have prior year adjustments summarized here. On the pay 25 levy, they actually um resulted in a decrease in the levy of just about $3,000. Pay 26, it's an increase of 10,724 resulting in a 13,676 increase. So, um, looking at that, we have our change in the, uh, uh, general fund levy. We have community services going down 5,5740 and
010debt service increase in 1562360. Again, a total change of 92,3557. And the final two slides, we have the max levy that we could propose or we could certify tonight of 2,71,35230. And the last slide, um, previous discussions we discussed under levying the OPE and the building lease levy. Um, the sum of those two levies is 58,14. Um, if the board was to approve under levying those two, the sum certain to be levied tonight would be 2 million 643,33830. And I do have a little bit information on what the tax impact is if we were to levy the max we're allowed to levy versus underleving those two. So I'll just jump to those real quick. So, this is if we levied at the max. Um, looking at a residential property, call it a $300,000 home, the
011impact on a taxpayer for the over the year would be $28. A $28 increase on a $300,000 residential property. and see if I can get too much stuff in the way here. Not sure how to get to it. I know the increase though for the under levy is actually $4. So by under levying we would decrease the impact on the $300,000 property owner by $24 for the year. Any questions or would you like to see any other information? >> Can I ask a question, Todd? >> Yeah. >> Um, when we say we are doing max levy without these increases, we're already maxing taxpayers at 100%. Correct? This would add on the 3.54%. >> Yeah. So it's an increase of 3.54% over the prior year. >> Yeah. >> Um >> yeah. So it's it's basically Go
012ahead. >> Those increases do not affect like if we would not accept those increases that does not affect our state aid on the building and land and the OPED, right? >> Yeah. There's no equalization aid on the building land lease or the OPED. >> Okay. So, we're not losing out on any aid by underleving those. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Any other questions? Sounds like we're good, D. And is this your only presentation? >> Yep. That's what I thought. All right. Um then we'll go to uh And you guys don't have any other questions? Just making sure. >> All right. Uh any public comment? All right. Um, so just remind me while Ellie's on, we all have we have to do everything roll call vote. So in case I miss one and >>
013everything everything >> Yep. Um, so I will I can entertain a motion to adjourn our uh public hearing. Mr. Chair, >> thank you. >> Director Hackets. >> All right. >> Director Trout. >> Hi. >> Director Holm. >> Hi. >> Director Hackett. >> Hi. >> Director Andre. I >> Director Boyd. >> Hi. >> Director Host. >> Hi. >> All right. Um, so that one is closed. >> That was a very thorough explanation. So >> I agree. >> Yeah. >> All right. Um so I will uh call to order our regular meeting at 6:15. We have already done the pledge and our uh roll call. I will start with the board chair comments. Uh two comments. one is uh at the end of the last meeting um we had a closed meeting in accordance with 13D.05 for
014a superintendent evaluation and we we talked through the the first few months of how it went here and uh and going working into the future. So in attendance was Mandy uh Director Boyd director Andre Director Trout and myself and then uh Superintendent Leard. Um, so that was that. Uh, second thing, I know I talk about it every time, but uh um, thank you to the community uh, and the businesses around here for donations. So, we're just over $75,000 on this one, which is includes, uh, some from the Royaltton Fire Relief, LBT Concrete, East Design, Tanner Lamser, Brownsman, and Neoth Orthodontics. So, thank you to those uh to those businesses um for your help with our school. That's uh that's awesome. Uh and with that, uh I will take a does anybody have any changes for
015the agenda? >> Yeah, >> I will take a motion to approve our agenda. >> Motion to approve, >> director Trout. Thank you. All >> second. >> Director Andrews. Thank you. Um caller roll. >> Oh, director Trump. >> Hi. >> Director Holm. >> Hi, >> Director Hackett. Hi. Director Andre. Hi. >> Director Boyd. >> Hi. >> Director. >> Hi. All right. Uh, next one is uh appreciation, recognition, and presentations. Chair offstead at home, members of the board, superintendent the park. My name is Joel Swson, high school principal. Um, I have the privilege of introducing our fall students of the month. Um, the fall students of the month are nominated and voted upon by teachers and staff uh for outstanding academic performance, character, leadership, service to the school, any of those attributes. Um, the students we're recognizing
016tonight check all of those boxes. Uh, they are outstanding uh representatives of these uh traits uh that we're looking for. in our students. Uh we will nominate and approve uh nominate nine students throughout the year and then they are qualified for a scholarship at the end of the school year as students of the year. Um but uh we have really three very good students here uh for the fall. So with that, the September student of the month, if you go to basketball games, you will most often hear her playing her saxophone on the national anthem, and that is Kimberly Rant. You haven't been to a band concert, she's an awesome saxophone player, too. So cool. >> Congratulations. Thank you. >> October student of the month, Abigail Roaring. And the November student of the month is
017Cody Beck. Awesome students. Great work. Uh they uh just do a tremendous job. They're tremendous leaders, good students, better people, about as good as you can ask for. So, uh congratulations to those three students. I think you guys got to get your picture taken with the school board. >> This is their favorite thing to do, I'm sure. >> Yeah. Oh, they dumped everybody. >> We're in the middle of sale. I'm sure I should >> I know. >> All right. Say cheese. >> Cheese. >> Thanks, Wayne. >> I got it. >> One, two, three. Thank you. >> All right. Um, next is uh the superintendent report. Okay. >> Uh, I've got just a few short things here, but u just an update on SRO. Um, city council approved that at the last meeting. Uh, Chief McDonald
018shared with me a contract and we reviewed that and he's still got to hire an officer yet for that. Um, ADMs are at 9:14 today. Uh, when we started the year, we budgeted at 9:15. So trying to recruit a little bit. Um so business services officially end with SMS today and then create a plan tomorrow and our uh business manager lead person will be uh Bridget Merryill Meyer. And then we also have a person with the company that oversees grants. um uh special ed dollars and title one dollars, those things. Uh that's Melissa Christensen. Um on Wednesday, December 17th, I'm going to go to Sourcewell that day in the morning anyway and attend a freshwater legislative forum. And it's just a place where administrators can share some thoughts and questions with legislators on educational issues
019and or concerns. I guess that's all I have. Any questions for Wayne? >> Did we ever get the letter finalized? >> I want to go signed. We were going to get signatures. >> Which one? >> Our letter one. >> Yeah, it's done. And I Ellie has it. >> Okay. >> I'll take care of that Thursday when I get back. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Cher. I think we forgot to recognize citizens for input before we jumped into reports and those or is that good? >> No. Um, we can do it at at both meetings or either one. So, >> um, thank you for that though. >> Yeah, you bet. >> I happen to jump around once a while. >> So, I do appreciate that. >> Um, do we want to do the business manager report
020or do you want to wait? Oh, thanks. >> Um, I don't think it's going to happen. He's not gonna have preport. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Well, you talked about the the other >> they'll start tomorrow. >> No, the uh >> Oh, I know. The audit report. >> The audit report. >> He's supposed to click in about 6:40, I think. >> Okay. So, we'll just pop him in as we go. >> Um All right. So, we will go to the principal report. I got you on time this time. >> Uh principal report. We are looking at I just have a few things here. Uh the holiday concerts coming up. Choir is on Monday, December 15th, and then the band concert uh will be Monday, December 22nd. And so uh you'll have those concerts starting at 6
021in the south gym. Um choir is in the cafeterium. So next Monday, choir concert in the cafeterium at 6. The following Monday, the band concert starting at six o'clock in the South Gym. That's all I had. All right. Any questions for Joel? >> All right. Okay. We've had an eventful month past month. Uh Veterans Day on the 11th was a was a big big hit again. a lot of people. Um, and that's Cold City Kids did an awesome awesome job. Uh, our staff did a great job of of preparing the kids and uh, we got a lot of pride in that. So, that's pretty awesome. Um, we were able to do turkey bingo uh, PBIS, put on some churchy bingo and poke us into it. So, that was fun to to hear the gobblers come
022down the come down the hallway and um, so that was neat. Uh last Thursday we had our grades one through three concert, 1:30 show and six six o'clock show and those are well attended and again the kids did awesome um awesome as well for that. Uh coming up here we've got um uh our rift program for our reading is fundamental where kids get to take home two books. Uh we're having that program bring a kinder over. We're going to have that at 9:00 a.m. on on the 18th of December. And then um the crazy day of December 23rd going to be a fun time caroling and and uh it's going be a great day. So that's all. >> All right. Any questions for Tony? >> I just want to make a comment on the um
023veterans program. I was able to attend for the first time with some family this year and they um were from out of town and they've never heard of anything like this event. So, I hope it continues to grow because they felt very honored the veterans that we were able to invite. So, I just thought it was a really nice event that we're doing. Um, not a lot of schools are doing something of this nature. So, I think it makes us shine above the neighbors. >> Absolutely. >> And so, I hope it continues to grow and that we stay the course because it was excellent. My only constructive critic criticism would be the sound system in the elementary gym. I think some of our veterans peers are done as Christmas once. Um, so if we could
024improve that quality, that would be awesome. >> But I thought it was a great day. >> Yeah. At both venues, you know, I I participated as well. And the food like, oh man, there was six different types of egg bakes. I seriously wow. They did they did a phenomenal job. >> Yes. Uh they might be worth recognizing sometimes. Um all right. Uh activity director. Thank you. >> Um winter sports are off. Um our boys and girls basketball are actually in Malaca doing a double header right there. Half have updated on girls. We're currently up by two points. Um numbers are pretty consistent with what they have in the last year and the year before. for girls are maybe up just a little bit than girls basketball numbers. Um, boys are definitely full. I think we
025have 14 JD players and 10 police players. So, trying to find ways to maybe even get some JB2 games to get more playing time for those kids. Um, wrestling numbers are down a little bit. Um, we graduated a really big class last year. Um, quite as many coming in as what we graduated. Um, but I think those numbers will jump back up the next year or so. Um, we actually have three girls out this year for wrestling, which is cool to see that the girls side of things grow. Um, and yeah, in the junior high, uh, girls, their basketball, they're wrapping up their season in the next couple weeks. And then junior high boys will be starting after the winter break. Um, every December, I do have to give a fundraiser report on those that
026have done fundraisers for activities. I only got a couple of them. I know I'm missing I think football and volleyball. I didn't get all their numbers, but um prom they did the burger stand at the homecoming um tailgate. Um income was about $1,500. Expenses were just over $600. So they profited $887 and that goes to for decorations and stuff like that. From um cross country they put on the Plat River 5K. um they ended up making about $699. Um the fruit sales for FFA um they made roughly $11,000. So I don't think those numbers are completely total um yet just because they're still finalizing everything. And then the last activity I have as a report would be our student council. Um, student council is a little different than most of my other activities because whatever
027money they raise, they donate or they put back towards into their activities and stuff. So, it's not going towards their actual program. Um, but they have some highlights like the color run, they raised 1600 1650 for the care closet. um the middle school activity night um that went to their um kind of pocket for stuff and that was 577. And then for turkey bingo which is a huge hit and having kids come running, walking, gobbling down the hallway is fun. Um they raised just over $200. So, um I know volleyball they had a pretty successful fundraiser with selling uh frozen frozen soups and cookie dough and then football did like their little donation fundraiser too which for those specific questions for Kaitlin. >> All right, on to the students who voted. >> Hi Um, yeah,
028like Nathan just said, we wrapped up Turkey Bingo last month. Um, I think it was a hit. Kids had a lot of fun like usual. Turkey bingo is one of those easy ones. It's easy to set up, easy to run. Um, had a couple hiccups though, but I think we figured them out. Wrote a new plan for next year. So, about it. Uh, moving into December, we are starting this year. Um, like if you guys are familiar with Angel Trees, like they do at Walmarts, we're doing our own version of that. the wishing tree. Uh similar to how the elementary schools doing the giving tree. We weren't aware that they were doing that, but you know, it's cool. Um so we just put it up today. We had 20 cards that we um had um
029that Miss Wearer provided to us. And of those, I think 13 were already taken. So we're going to collaborate with the elementary school, see if there's anything else they need. um hang those up, see what students are interested in doing, and that'll be going through the 19th. Um along with the new Christmas activities, we also have our staples, which is just like the dress up days or the Christmas activities the day before we get off school where the kids just have a variety of activities in different classrooms that they are free to attend to. Just a little holiday spirit before we get off on break. And then our hot chocolate sales too, which bring in more money so we can provide greater experience for them. Awesome. Any questions for our student board members? >> Awesome.
030Well, thank you very much. >> All right. Next is the uh consent agenda. So, the board is consenting to approve items listed below as presented at one time. At any point, a director can pull an item off the consent agenda for further discussion. Um, is there anything anybody wants to pull? All right. Does somebody want to move the consent? Mr. >> Chairman, I'd like to move the consent to >> All right. Director Hackett. Thank you. >> I'll second it. >> Director Boy. Thank you. Any discussion? >> All right. >> Director Trout. >> Hi. >> Director Holm. >> I. >> Director Hackett. Hi. Director Andry. I. Director Boyd. Hi. Director Hopback. I abstain. Uh, next is the approval of the final levy. >> Uh, I think we already pretty much talked about just that we'd like
031to do the levy without the building in the under levy as presented on on there. So, um, I'm willing to make that motion for the 2 million 2,643 338 don't change I didn't get the decimals >> 30 same uh discussion >> all right >> director I >> director Holm. >> Hi, >> Director Hackett. Hi, >> Director Andre. Hi, >> Director Boy. >> Hi, Director Hack. >> Hi. >> All right. And we are waiting for audit report. So, that in the next 10 minutes or so, we should uh have our auditors on. >> Um, feel free to He's on. >> They're on. >> Oh, well then we'll go to uh the audit report. >> We're rocking and rolling tonight. Can you hear me? Okay. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. Awesome. Um, so good evening. I guess I'm
032planning to go through the auto report tonight and uh have a tendency to run through things pretty pretty quick. Uh, so feel free to slow me down. Um, I will open it up for questions at the end of the presentation. So u but I find in these remote meetings it's maybe a little bit easier just to wait for questions at the end. Um, before I get started though, uh, you know, as far as the audit went, we, you know, got, uh, no difficulties performing the audit, no disagreements with management. We appreciate all the help that we did get to turn this around, uh, in time. Um, we do have one new standard that was adopted during the year, which is what we call GAsby 101, compensated absences. So, you'll see in the auto report some
033references to that. Um, really just an accounting exercise for for the report. um doesn't affect anything really on a day-to-day basis for the district. Um what we used to set up was a liability for vacation or sick leave as it was paid out upon termination. Um but now the new requirement says, okay, the part that's not going to get paid out upon termination, how much of that might get used? And so that's what we had a nice uh fun time kind of figuring that out for all your employees. So that's a new standard. Um, the other thing I guess I probably maybe brought this up last year too, but we've had a few oddities fall victims is some fishing attacks um, basically related to uh, automatic payments from the bank. So like direct deposits or
034if you pay any vendors electronically, just be very careful if they ever ask to change their account number or routing number. Um, that that probably needs to be followed up with a phone call. Um, just for a like a procedural standpoint for the district. it's just too easy to steal somebody's email or or act as somebody. And then we've even had a couple instances where they've stolen like the internal form that gets used. So that's, you know, kind of not any good either. So phone call in person probably even better. So uh that is my soap box item. I'm going to see if I can share my screen. >> Okay. Do you see the audited financial statements up on the screen right now? >> We do. >> Awesome. Um, pages 2 through 4 is our
035independent auditor's opinion where we've issued an unmodified opinion on the financial statements. Uh, that is considered a good or a clean opinion that they're fairly stated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. Um, it is management's responsibility for the numbers and the footnotes within these financial statements. And then our responsibility as auditors to ensure that they're reasonably stated and that's what our opinion is stating is that we believe that they are. So uh a good opinion. Uh the next several pages uh which would be pages 5 through 12 is what's known as management's discussion and analysis. This section is designed to provide you with some highlights of what happened during the year and uh probably the easiest read if you're just looking for a quick little snapshot of of what's going on in the audit
036report. It does have some comparative information. So, for example, on page 10, you're going to see your general fund revenues compared to the prior year as well as your general fund expenditures compared to the prior year. If nothing else, it might generate a question as to what happened. Uh, a lot of the revenues obviously are based off of uh student counts, but also the expenditures can be can be different too based off of, you know, new debt or uh capital related activity, etc. The first audited financial statement is on pages 13 and 14. This is known as the statement of net position. And I'm not going to go through much detail on this because I think it's very confusing to read. Um the number that you see on the bottom of page 14, 4,495636. That
037is the overall net position in the district as a whole. But that's including things like your your building and and some of the long-term debt, the net pension liabilities. So, uh, take that with a grain of salt. It's a little bit harder to read. There's some things on there that I would call accounting exercises as a far compared to, you know, decision-m things that that you as a board can do. Uh, we'll get into the fund financial statements here in a second and that'll be a little bit more meaningful. Uh, the difference that you see on here, five lines from the bottom, the change in that position on a full acrruel level was a positive $1,65,529. Once again, this is including things like changes in that net pension liability, uh, depreciation expense, etc. Um, so
038most of the time I we spend is on your fund financial statement. So you can see you have three different funds of of activity here. Uh, the general fund, the debt service fund, the column that says other non- major funds, that is your community service and food service funds combined. We have those broken on the back of the financial statements. If you look on the bottom here, two lines to the bottom in that first column of numbers, your general fund has a fund balance of 2,637,486. Of that, the line above 1,857,378. Those are your what we call the unassigned portion. Those are the dollars that you have available for spending. They're not restricted for any special purpose. They're not tied down for or earmarked for anything. So, those are the dollars that we looked at
039for financial health. One of the things we do is we take that number, divide it by your general fund expenditures, and you're at 15.37%. Um, the prior year you were at 15.97%. So, pretty much the same spot you were in the prior year. Uh, we do like to see that over 15% which is what you are. Anything under 10% gets concerning. So, just kind of an idea. the the the reason behind this or the the purpose is basically to say how many months of operating expenses do you have um you know basically in reserves to be spent. So that's where that percentage is coming from. Uh you do have $439,000 for debt service and your uh combined food service community service funds have a positive $64,664 as well. Um, moving then to the change in
040the current year, the you can see the first column of numbers is your general fund. Three lines to the bottom. The general fund was up $211,238. Debt service fund basically broke even. Um, and that was with some uh advanced refundings or or refinancings that happened during the year. And then the combination of the community service fund and food service fund was up $49,000. Uh then we get into the footnotes to the financial statements. And I typically don't go into much detail here. Um going to bring you to page 41. Um some districts like to just see what kind of debt issuances that you have out there. So you can see you have some geo bonds of about $15.8 million. Uh maturing in 2032 and 2036 now. So, um, one of those obviously got refunded during
041the year, but just to kind of give you an idea for cash flow, um, you do have a lease that's out there that's, you know, basically going to get paid off in 2027 as well. Um, then we get to the budgetary comparison schedule for your general fund. The column that you see all the way on the right is the difference between your final budget and actual. So basically right on target with where you're uh expecting to be with revenues about $25,000 or $25,800 more than projected. Uh down at the bottom about four lines to the bottom you can see expenditures were about $118,000 less than budgeted. So the overall difference was $144,000 positive from what you had anticipated. So a good change there. Uh, as I mentioned, we do have breakouts for your food service
042fund and community service funds um on pages 50 and 51. And then I'm going to go through some uh page 52 is kind of a nice little snapshot of a different way to show your fund financial statements and the different buckets of money that you have. So, the state of Minnesota is very particular with how you code things. Um, the revenues and expenses need to be put in the right codes or you could lose money, etc. Um, so that's what this state page is kind of doing is breaking out those codes. Um, one thing we look for is to see if there's any negatives because that basically indicates that that money is maybe being borrowed from a different source. The only thing on this page is your school readiness program. Uh, does have about $120,000
043deficit, uh, which which grew by about a hundred grand during 2025. So, uh, basically something to keep a an eye on. Um, our suggestion usually is to transfer money or budget transfer from your general fund to cover those deficits. Um, especially if it's going to grow by another $100,000. Otherwise, that number gets pretty big to try to cover. Um, and you have to kind of eat away at that over period of time. Um, it's not unusual that districts have the school readiness program run a deficit. So, like I said, it's it's more practical, I think, just to budget some money from your general fund to pay for that. Uh the other thing you can do is basically look at how your your expenditures are are operating to make sure that they're being put in the
044right uh category. Uh because you do have some money in community education, ECF, but those those funds that are there cannot be transferred to cover that deficit. Um then we get into the basically the compliance section of the audit. Um this is the Minnesota legal compliance letter which is a clean report. We have no findings. uh we tested things like pledge collateral, conflicts of interest, uh bid work and nothing uh came came about for findings there. Um and then pages 5 54 and 55 um this is your government auditing standards letter which is a highle overview of internal control structure. So we do have three findings. Uh two of those findings are repeat findings in virtually all districts have your size and it's just related to uh separation of duties within the business office as
045well as the auditors preparing the financial statements. Uh those two findings are pretty common just because of the size of the district and then um you do have things in place to help mitigate those risks like reviewing the financial statements before they get issued as well as audit or the board approving bills etc. Uh the third finding is something just unique to this year where um you know the accounting should be done on a timely manner. So there was a few general ledger transactions that weren't uh ready to go. I I don't think when we started the audit and one of them was related to that debt refinancing where there was no uh transactions in the general ledger. So uh we did note that and those transactions were made but just the the proper mechanics
046would be is to you know record those things as they happen during the year. So, um, other than that, I don't have anything else, I guess, to to bring your attention, but I'd be happy to to circle back to any page anybody might have a question on. >> All right, question. >> I should I should mention, too, I forgot I have a management report, so I'll go through that real quick, too. >> Can you see some graphs up on the screen right now? >> Not yet. Okay, try this. Sorry, I forgot. Put some graphs together for your district. Okay. Do you see some >> Yep. >> little line graph. Okay. Um, so two things. One one is we noticed that some of the food reimbursements weren't done timely. So I think there were three months
047of food service claims that hadn't been received at year end. And usually we see those all being received because foods, you know, done being uh is or offered in in May or or early June. And so I think we had maybe April, May, and June all set up as receivable because they hadn't been drawn down. So just to make sure that those are being done timely. And then we get into the graphs. This is basically just showing you over the past four years where your fund balance has been for the unassigned portion. And that's that portion I mentioned is available for spending. Uh so basically in that 1.8 to to 1.9 million range. So pretty consistent there. This is that percentage that I was talking about. So as high as 18%. uh last three years
048been you know right around 15 to 16%. So pretty pretty standard there. And obviously a lot of this is going to depend on student counts going forward etc. Uh food service uh food service had an increase a little bit this year too. Basically broke even. So uh no no major issues there. And then this is your community service fund. Um overall it was up. Like I said, the only issue was that school readiness program, you know, decreased part of the fund balance, but it was basically netted out with some increases in the other categories. So, um, yeah, that's that is the graphs and I I think we will be sending those to you as well. So, sometimes those are a little bit easier to look at than the 60 pages in the audit report. >>
049And I'm following a line straight across that sideways paper. Sorry. >> All right. Uh, any questions? >> All right. Uh, does somebody want to make a motion to approve the audit report? >> I'll make motion. >> Director Andre. Thank I can second. Uh, any discussion on the uh, audit? I'd just like to say thank you to all of our staff that worked on that because I know it was extensive and intensive and very drawn out. So, I appreciate all the time and all the work uh that everybody put into that. >> All right, >> Director Trump. >> Hi, >> Director Holm. >> Hi, >> Director Hackett. Hi, >> Director Andre. Hi, Director Boy. Hi, >> Director Hass. Hi. All right. Well, thank you very much. >> Thank you. Have a good evening. >> You as
050well. Good luck on your next presentation. >> Appreciate it. >> Um, all right. Next, we'll go into uh MCA data. Nicole, >> cheers home. Um, members of the board, Superintendent Leard. Um, I am Nicole Cole. I am your district assessment coordinator. Um, DAC for short. your technology integration specialist and your Mars Edi coordinator. Tonight I'm just your dad. Um so I live in data um and this is last year's MCAs. So as we look through this um this is one data point of several things um that we have to look at for our system as a whole and for students um when we are looking through that. So um we'll just kind of review the appropriate and appropriate uses of results um as districts are expected to use them as well as states. Go ahead.
051Um so we again we need to look at the overall proficiency for a grade, school or district and we um cannot use them as an indicator for a student alone um as one indicator to determine if a student needs special ed services or any other kinds of services. Um we need to take a larger picture than that. So, and we can use it to compare the results across student groups or what um MDE would refer to as a cohort. Um, but we cannot use it to focus in on one individual student and what that student may need in the classroom. We can't cater to that one student in the classroom. It needs to be the entire classroom. Um as we go forward we um when looking at these we get a scale score. So we
052get a raw score but we also get the achievement or the performance level levels. Um we cannot use scale scores um because those scales change every year. They increase every year. So if we were to use scale scores it would look like every single student is actually making progress when that may not be true. Um the content of an MCA is grade specific. So we have to use it um use the performance or the achievement levels to actually watch what that student may or may not be doing. Um and it it doesn't indicate either um if they've retained knowledge from the previous grade necessarily because that content is grade specific as well. Um and again we have to use multiple points of data uh when decision- making and we cannot use it as something for
053a teacher's performance for their peer reviews or any evaluations. We'll go to the next one. This is a new one for us. Um, so as Minnesota academic standards have changed, last year they implemented the new science Minnesota academic standards. So that shifted us in science to the MCA4 series while math and reading are or were still in MCA3. That's they're different standards. So we can't take the science standards from MCA 3 look at MCA 4 and it it makes it a little complicated to make any inferences or any other considerations when looking at that data. So you know MDE complicated um put it in I I wanted to throw this in here uh the different roles of what these groups are looking for when they are looking at MCA data um from the policy makers
054to the district the educators and the families. Um so from our point of view we're looking at what how are we meeting those standards? How are we um communicating with students and is there development, professional development or continuous improvement needed somewhere? So go ahead and that's not in the scores alone. Um and I already touched on this um with some of that not only did the MCA but the alternate MCA that used to be called the MTAZ. The alt MCA is for those students who cannot take just a regular test. they need more of a hands-on or some other help beyond um your standardized test. They also threw in their new indicators for us. So, it's no longer going to be exceeds meets partially meets or does not meet for MCA for content and testing.
055It is now going to be um beginning intermediate meets or advanced in how they give and they're changing from achievement level to performance level. when they look at a student. So, district results. Um, this is based off of state proficiency versus what our proficiency is. And as you'll see, depending on how we look at it, the proficiency is going to change. Proficiency means that it takes the number of students that are exceeds and meets is what it means to be proficient. So here we have MAP which is grades 3 through 8 and 11. So Royal 10 is always going to be on the bottom just so you know. Um statewide for reading that's 3 through 8 and grade 10. There is no testing in grade 9 or 12. Go ahead. Here is our science with
056the new MCA format and the new MCA standards. As you can see even across the state and you'll continuously see that even throughout the grades as we go um when we break it down by grade that even across the state um scores went down or proficiencies went down. So FRP or our free and reduced students. So, we watch um to make sure that our free and reduced students, those that are um in more of a challenging atmosphere potentially, are also getting the care that they need and are not being having anything different or um any other extra challenges that keep them from being able to meet the standards as well. And as you can see, we've been above state proficiency factor group of students has been even with the new science. We also do this
057with our special education because we want to make sure that our special education students are getting the services that they need. So again, get down by just special education across the district with math, reading, and the next one is science. slow me down if you need if you have a question in between. All right, then we'll break down by grade. So, here's our third grade. Third grade is the very first year that they begin testing with MCA. And again, this is just telling us this is measuring um how we're doing with the Minnesota academic standards. they progress on to grade four and then five. Grade five is the first year that they take the science. And each year that's on here is a different group of students. So it's not the same group of students,
058it's a different group. So, it's also watching that trending of what what's affecting that if we're seeing that because as we watch now when they transfer into middle school, we tend to watch that transfer. How well are they transitioning into middle school? You can go ahead and go to sixth and keep going on that. and eighth grade is the next time that they'll take the science. So five eight and then we get the break apart here. 10th grade gets reading and science and 11th grade gets math only. That's it. Questions. I know it's exciting stuff. >> How how does our population look this year compared to or sorry, last year compared to the year before? >> Meaning like number of students that >> number of students. Yeah. >> Um so I I watch each grade
059and it varies maybe two to three students by each grade. So, not a huge amount. Um, count of those opting out, we had 39 opt out last year and 39 again this year. So, I watch has as all of those trend as well. >> Okay. >> All right. Comprehensive achievement and civic readiness. So, these are required, if you will, smart goals that MDE puts out for categories. What we first do is this is our student population. This is what Royalty looks like right now for a breakdown. Obviously, majority white. Um, but we do have some variation. You can go to the next slide. Next slide shows us who our teachers are from those that are at a bachelor's degree versus advanced. And the majority are at an advanced degree. Um, we also have to pay
060attention to those that are teaching in field um or in an experienced or out of field. Um, out of field meaning that they are teaching in an area um or uh teaching in an area that they're not licensed in but they're covering it. Um because that's what we need to do. Um and experienced that um they have taught three or fewer years. >> That's what that is. It's three or fewer. >> Yep. Yeah. >> So, um, so the state puts out the category and so the categories shifted just a little bit last year. So, some a couple of these are new, but kindergarten readiness has been here with for years for us. Um, and so we set the goal that all of our four-year-old program um, preschoolers would be ready for kindergarten um, meeting the
061objective um, 1A through 3B. um or show a year's growth. And we hit that 98th percentile. So, we're gonna because we're so close, we're going to hit for that again next year. Go ahead. >> Okay. Oh, I'm sorry. Did I miss one? >> Oh, sorry. Um the achievement gap. Um this again is watching the the population. We um in this case watch special education making sure that they are um ahead or or on with reading. So we look at the proficiency um in this category uh because we're required to report and this is where they meet or exceed and we did not hit the mark this year. Um and so we are going to go forward again next year. We're not going to give up. college readiness. So we started um the teachers and Joel
062started um a program in which they will they use school links and they are going all students are beginning um a little bit more into middle school but as they get older now they are um putting together their post-graduation plans and then they are presenting that plan to a committee in the spring to show that they are ready um they are ready to go out what that plan is. um first year we didn't meet that goal, but this last year we exceeded our goal um in the second year of the pilot. And so we're going to go for that one again as well next year >> um to keep >> I think we're at 100. I think we're rolling at that one. >> Oh, going for 100% next year. >> It's required for seniors. So
063>> the goal is 100% and the first couple years were just pilots. We just took I think we took a group of 25 one year. Last year ended up being we had 66% of the class participate in the pilot project and then so now this year so basically went almost like 33 66 and now we'll be at 100%. >> Oh market for an update. >> Okay. Um, and this one holds steady every year um to have our students graduate 90% burnout. And we have held that um actually for the last I think since 20 2019 and before. So we've always been above that 90th percentile. And that one's pretty standard for the state. Kind of works that one for us. It doesn't take many students to cut us off and then go on. >> No,
064>> it does not. It does not. Uh, so this one was brand new. Um, and we really had to rack our brains as to how we were going to do this. Um, and so this one lifelong learning. Um and so there was a lot of data that was gathered and watched. field trip participation, community ed class participation, um any anything any life skills that were taught in elective classes. Um any even the athletics and activities programs um anything that would bring them into a lifelong self-discipline um or learning a skill or something um is what we started out with. Um and figured well we'll hone it from here now that we kind of know what we have. Um but we hit 74.4% overall in the district of participation. That's elementary up. So, they've got very
065active students. I'll say there's at least some in middle school and high school, maybe a little bit in elementary that we couldn't necessarily account for. Like, so there's certain associations with athletics that we don't necessarily have access to their data. So, it's possible that our kids are that number could be higher just not have access. >> Yeah. like girl scouts, boy scouts, if we had those counts, it would be higher >> like 4 or even just, you know, if they're doing gymnastics with somebody else or hockey or things like that, which we don't actually provide. So, that number is probably higher would be my assumption. >> Yeah. Yeah. If we could get a self-report on some of those. So, any questions? >> Thank you, Nicole. Thanks for putting that together. Yeah. I had one sorry
066>> for 100% of the years to the new program or the new requirement. How how do we decide if they if they've met that or not? Is that a is that like a board >> that that's studying that or is that a group or is that a >> that was meeting them actually putting it together? The portfolio is basically just a project that we assign. >> Um >> but is it required by the state on who who is our requirement? >> It's our requirement. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So we're just determining that you have to go through it. Cover letter. Yeah. Job or college application. How do you reflect the core values? What is your future plans? Um those are the things that we do. And then we have a committee usually be three
067different committees, three different groups of >> yeah at least two people. And then we break the senior class into three groups and for like two or three mornings in May, we bring them in. And to be honest with you, it's a little more of a celebration. Uh hey, what are you doing after school? If there is a student who might need a little boost before the end, it's a chance for us to meet with them and encourage them to finish it out. But for the most part, it becomes almost a celebration. It gives me an ability and our ability to track the conversations about what they think, what they're thinking about doing, where are they going for training, are they going into the workforce, military, um, apprenticeships, and allows us an ability right there to
068collect a whole bunch of information on our outgoing students, too. So, >> I just think it's a really neat program that I don't know that everybody's doing it, but, you know, just something that we should be proud of that we're doing. So, >> absolutely. And it's useful afterwards. Well, going in front of somebody like that, I mean, do you remember your first job interview? >> I'd never done anything like that, you know. I wasn't ready for that, you know. So, if they if they're getting a chance to go sit by themselves in front of somebody, I think that's a great idea. >> The majority don't know how when they leave even know how to write a cover letter or a resume. that one time where you should actually use it. >> Yes, >> it is.
069>> You can't plagiarize yourself. >> That's for sure. >> Um, do you guys have any questions or comments on this? This is a a hugely student driven >> school. >> Yeah. >> You want the student body's honest answer? >> They don't like testing. >> People hate it. >> Yeah, people hate it. But I think it is a good thing with like the resume cover letter cuz I had to do one for like when I was a BPA I had to write out one for like interview skills and I I thought I knew what I was doing going into it and then turns out I had no idea. I had to ask like the adviser like so many questions and whatnot. So I think it's definitely good. >> I think it's very beneficial but I also
070think students just hate the idea of having to do more work than their actual school work. So I think that's why there's so like a ghost to it as a whole but >> but everybody has to do it >> tooling would be >> the buildup tool that we use to get to the portfolio. Few of these seniors may not have been presented the actual portfolio assignment yet this year happens in January. >> There's more coming guys. Huh. I know the whole point was like there are some of the things that they'll be like being able to submit things that are classifying them and things like that and I think it's evolved a little bit over time but it's not it's not supposed to be making them do a whole bunch of outside like your cover
071letter and resume like those will come in handy. The goal is five years from now that when you started in school links and using school links throughout your ninth, 8th, 9th, 10th grade that you have naturally built this portfolio. You have all of it wound into your senior year. You take an hour and compile it and get ready for our conversation and show me your res resume and cover letter. I want to see that. I want to see did you do your volunteer hours? We're requiring 10 hours of 40 hours in high school 9 through 12. 10 hours a year. Well, most of the kids when they start putting thought to it. As long as you're not being paid, you're not doing it for your parents and you're not doing it for credit, anything counts.
072So, when you help out, >> but it's a matter of documenting it. >> It is. >> And it's hard to believe they they're willing to do the work but not document it. >> Y imagine that. >> So, when they start documenting, all of a sudden they realize, geez, I have hundreds of hours that I've volunteered. Yeah. Most of you do. Most of you have done a lot more than you think that you have. And we got to get them thinking about that in the future when they're building and going out for jobs as don't undercut don't underell yourself that you have a lot of experiences and a lot of opportunities in a small school to have those opportunities to grow. >> So we want it to be as naturally occurring as we possibly can make
073it. >> You mentioned that we can access this after >> absolutely >> because right now it's connected to our student email and we lose that after graduation. Yeah, there's a point in your senior year where you will put in a different email, okay, >> into school links and then you will have access to it as you go into wherever you go to college or go to >> we're going to have you come back at your tenure class reunion. You got to give another >> how close you were to the goal that you told us. >> Yeah. Yeah. Randy, did I know you were asking them about the assessments too, right? like the MCAS and I don't know that many of you know that it is also it's not about like how you're necessarily doing just
074you guys but how we're doing as well as a district. >> It's the only thing that we can do to measure because we we can't just measure one person. We got to kind of measure the whole school and you know it's hard to do it. This is the only tool and we're required by the state to do it. So >> yeah, >> and that's that's what it is. >> And there's quite a few colleges now they are asking for MCA scores >> and some of them in place of the ACUPPLACER. >> Um some students um are aware that it's not a reflection of like it's not going to impact them. So I know a lot of students like just click through answers. So your scores may be tanking a little bit. >> Yeah. that once
075they become realizing that it's not going to matter. >> But as long as that percentage of students doesn't change a lot from year to year, >> that's going to always be there. >> Well, and we can pull actually with the data if we really needed to. I can pull a report, a time report to find out what how long it took. >> Yes. And so we could filter those students out and really dig in and find out what it would have been had they weren't had they weren't counted in there. me. So, I just thought about it. So, but feel free to chime in anytime with questions or whatever. All right. Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. >> All right. Uh looks like we have four more things. So, now might be a good
076time to start the car. >> Uh all right. Next is uh naming of official depositories for our district farms. So does somebody want to make a motion to approve Bridget Bridget Merrill Meyer Pine Country Bank Minnesota School District liquid asset fund and Minnesota trust PMA to be the official depositories for district funds. We will update authorized signers on the district official depository accounts and all certificates of deposit. Uh, continuing Ryan Hoffstead, school board chair, Maria Shroud, school board treasurer, and John Andrews, clerk being the same, removing prior school business manager Todd Netsky. Adding Bridget Merrell Meyer, business managers authorized signers on behalf of the district effective December 9, 2025. We would like to make that motion. >> I'll make that motion. >> Director Trout, thank you. >> I'll second. >> Director Andrews, thank you. Any
077discussion? All in favor say I. I. opposed. All right, motion carries. >> Still on. >> Uh, she fell off. >> Oh, >> yep. She logged out. So, we're good now. Uh, next is investment of funds. So, uh, would somebody like to make a motion to approve Bridget Marer, business manager to invest funds on behalf of public schools. >> Director Hacket. Thank you. Second. Uh, any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I oppose. All right. Motion carries. All right. In the delegation of authority to make electronic funds transfers. Motion to approve Bridget Merryill Meyer, business manager to make electronic fund transfers. Somebody like to make that motion. I >> Thank you. Second. Director Hackett. Thank you. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. Post. All right, motion carries. Next is our resolution uh
078for accepting donation. Somebody like to introduce the resolution and wave the reading. >> I'll do that. >> Director Trout. Thank you. >> All right. So, our uh as we talked about at the beginning, our um resolution for donations include Royaltton Fire Relief, uh a donation of $25,000 to uh match the T-Mobile vote, uh LBT Concrete for $25,000 towards concrete and labor towards football field. Keystone design for labor uh for planning and design of the football field. Tanner Lamser Groundman, $10,000 in labor uh towards the football field and Neimoth Orthodontics with 100 reusable water bottles uh for all of our preschool students. So, thank you to all those um generous donors for that. Uh does somebody want to second that? >> Oh, yes. >> Director I wrote H. It was going to be you or me.
079Mhm. >> Um, and then can you call the role? >> Director Troutton. >> Hi. >> Director Hack. >> Hi. >> Director Andre. Hi. >> Director Boyce. >> Hi. >> Director H. >> Hi. >> Director Holm. Do I have to call her since she's not here? >> No. >> Uh, because she is off the roll now. Um, all right. Motion carries. Resolution passes. Uh, next is policy reading. So, we have none for approval, >> just the new additions, >> right? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Just want to make sure. All right. So, we have upcoming meeting schedule. So, um finance committee December 17th, noon. Everybody's still good with that. Um policy committee we are cancelling, >> right? All right. >> Um, and then the next meeting. So, we'll have to we're going to keep it January 12th
080for now. Um, and I'll talk to Ellie when she gets back and we'll see if we can figure something out because I can't on the 5th. And, uh, if we can't have a meeting on the 19th, I don't know that we want to take it for the next the 26th. >> So, I'll I'll talk to her when she gets back and we'll see what we can do there. Does anybody have anything before we uh look to adjourn? All right. I'd just like to say happy holidays. Make sure to express our gratitude to all the staff as they came over the next couple weeks. Um and thank you. Thank you all for for what you do here. Uh with that, I will uh take a motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:18 p.m. Sal. Thank you.
081Dr. Thank you. All in favor say I. I. I. >> All right.