001You know who that is? >> So my brain must Yeah. or you know it doesn't have a key. I don't want it. All right. Are we ready to hit record? >> Good. >> Call the flag 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. Roll call to reflect that all members are present. Um I have uh three comments today. So, uh, first is, uh, we have another $11,000 in donations, uh, from the community and and, uh, for going towards the prek, uh, towards the band and towards Steve Portage. So, thank you to those that, uh, donated for that. Um, for the board, uh, we're going to look at doing a close session uh,
002for superintendent evaluation people. Um so start thinking about that now. Um really looking at setting goals for next year but starting them now and uh we can give uh superintendent the park a little head start on on that since we didn't uh didn't do too much for this year with with the and then I had a couple parents bring up lunch options and breakfast options to me. So, I handed those over to our student council representatives and uh so they're going to coordinate with Wayne with the feedback that they get and then talk to Barb about it and see what they can do with some of the options that they came up with. So, um just wanted to throw that out there. So, it's a really good use of um the students to uh have
003some input and really uh follow that through. That's all I have for comments. Anything from you, >> Ally? Okay. Um, with that I will entertain a motion for the approval of the agenda. >> Director. Thank you. >> I'll second. >> Director Andre. Thank you. Any discussion? >> All in favor say I. >> I. Opposed. Okay. Motion carried. Appreciation, recognition, and presentations. Best part of the meeting. Chair House and Home, members of the board, Superintendent Leard, um Kaitlyn from activities director. Um I'm going to present our XL nominees and our AAA nominees for this year. Um so starting with our XL nominees. these are um somebody in the junior class that is part of um athletics, arts, um but they also do a lot of leadership or volunteer time. So this where it's a little different
004from the AAA is that it really focuses on leadership and just in community involvement. Um there is actually another part of it an academic requirement as well of a certain GPA. So, our male um selection was Noah Pearl and our female was Brana Pop. And then our AAA award, this is meant for seniors that are involved in academics, arts, and athletics. Um we had two really good candidates. Um they actually did a banquet where they had to give a speech and both of them did a really good job. Um, but our male nomination was Chaz Chaz Pacific and our female was Haley. >> Picture time. >> Do you want picture time or do you want to wait till after he goes? >> Once you're st Chair's office at home, members of the board, Superintendent Lard,
005Joel Swinson, high school principal. I am here to recognize the winter trimester students of the month for the senior class. Uh these are nominated and vote voted upon by staff each month. Uh these students will be recognized at the student awards ceremony at the end of the year and are eligible to uh for the student of the year scholarship uh that they will apply for hopefully are applying for here in this next few weeks. So, December student of the month, Haley Wbeck. January student of the month, Emily Block. And our February student of the month wouldn't be here tonight hockey banquet. Um, and the February student of the month is Isabella Lee. So, congratulations. Um, you kind of maybe do like the triple A and the XL first. >> Back there. Where do you want
006to go? Right there. Yeah. used style. Yeah. Got it. Doesn't look like there's anybody here for citizen input. So, we will go to the student. >> All right. So, we just finished our middle school dance. It was Friday. Um, I wasn't there. I was at there was a lot of states, but I heard it was a pretty good turnout. Not as good as fall, but still decent. Um, and then next week we start survival week. So, we have shirt orders, which close today where each grade has their own specific color. Um, we'll have dress up days every single day of the week. And then students will also be able to participate in trivia and other um events to get them excited for the actual survivor event Friday afternoon. um similar to homecoming except students will
007be competing um individually in their own locations and then they will be coming together for a teacher versus uh boys basketball at some point that day. So >> the other thing we had with Survivor is the senior candidates. The teachers were upon five seniors, five boys and five girls. And then those five all or those 10 all compete against each other. And whoever whoever wins the most challenges gets crowned the survivor king and queen. So it's just another tradition I would use for survivor. Very good. Thank you very much. Uh superintendent report. Okay. Uh just a reminder, March 30th is the our next strategic plan meeting be in the cafeterium 6 pm. Um I have a long list of legislative highlights. um kind of just run through with you, but uh a big topic is
008health insurance and there's a uh push for statewide educator health insurance. Um it's not going to happen next year, but potentially the next years if it goes that route. Lots and lots of questions behind that. um the forecasted uh budget is looking a lot better than they thought in November, but on the flip side, they also sit in the statewide budget. Um but they're also saying that by 29, most of that is going to be spent, forecasted to be spent. So the short term looks good. Years from now, not so good. uh House committee updates. Uh some of them kind of are repeated between the House and the Senate. Um want to talk about federal im immigration action and schools uh hearing on the impact of schools on federal immigration enforcement actions. Um im immigration
009access to schools on the school property. Um uh there's an overview on student attendance and a 15 15day drop. Um that's being pushed more so from the metro with uh immigration issues in the schools and things. So uh they're looking at potentially actually this spring looking at um dropping that requirement for a lot of the schools potentially even in the next year. uh bills to increase funding for city schools uh in particular for charter schools, public schools and cooperatives. Governor has a violence prevention package that he's going to lay out there uh for school support intervention and resource teams to establish school safety center resources and the school safety grant program. Um, and all this has to be vetted throughout the spring and into the the race at the end of May. Um, something I
010haven't talked about yet that we're uh we've been working on is a a mapping system in the school. And so there was a free state funded school mapping project and they contacted uh Tony and myself last I'm going to say maybe December. Um, and they're coming. There's a group of them coming on March 25th to do a site visit and walk through for about three, four hours. And they've already had copies of our digital print maps and their uh they've come up with some colorful maps, so to speak, and detailed uh that they'll put throughout the building, but they want to uh visualize a little better as they come into the school. But some of the things that'll be on the maps will be main water shut off, sprinkler shut off, roof access points, main
011gas shut off, area of refuge, tornado shelters, um, fire department connections, main water electric shut off, AES, key boxes. We have hazardous storage, fire extinguishers, canvas, lots of things. Labeling include hallways, classrooms, stairwells, storage rooms. The goal is to provide clear and precise information to aid first responders in in the event of a crisis. So, I think it's a good thing that we're one, it's free, and two, it's I think it's going to be a good product. Um HR resignation just uh we met with Bridget and Creative Planning um with their what their potential offerings could be and we're kind working through some details for the short term. Um otherwise we're working through Mandy and Linda right now until we get a short-term plan in place beyond that and then um pending what we can
012offer and what we can support in the office uh we would either advertise or not advertise. Um April we start negotiations with directors and principles. Uh just want to say congratulations to the winter sports teams and activities and programmers on a fine season and uh we look our spring activities already started outside >> running in the grass today. >> All right. Any questions for William? I have one. >> The hearings today were about having CPR and a training for all high school coaches. That's going to pass. It's not going to be fun. >> Yeah, that's I watched it. So >> somebody and the track again >> a good nonfuded thing. Yeah. So, >> all right. Uh, business reports at home, members of the board, superintendent, my name is Bridget, and we are looking at January
013financials. So, the finance committee met a couple weeks ago and reviewed this. Um, couple notes. We do have a proposed revised budge on here that we I think is going to be discussed a little bit later, but I do reference that. Um it's just basically an updated point in the point in time that um we will continue to look at. Um with that the ADM on the proposed revised budget are at 893. Uh the latest enrollment report which again is a little bit different than ADM with that 9003 I believe. So there are always a little bit of um adjustments between those two depending on students in the se PSL um ECSE etc. So that's tends to be the difference there. Our proposed revised budget that's reflected on this report shows a deficit of all
014funds of 132,000. Uh this does get us to a projected fund balance of about 3.9 million. So at the end of January, 58% of the fiscal year was complete. The revenues and expenses compared to that uh proposed revised budget were pretty much in line with that. About 58% for revenues, 61 for expenses. Cash balance was sitting at 3.2 million. That's all of your accounts. That was at the end of January. The prior year safety receivable. So this is just something we monitor. This is what the state um still owes based on the audit the ending audit for fiscal year 25. So we're that shows about 76,000. They will continue to adjust things up until June 30th that your federal aids receal. So this is the current year federal grants. So as we said we can
015submit for reimbursement. Those are fully reimburseable but we just um put this as basically a receivable in the interim. So that's sitting at about 60,000 accounts payable. So this is any invoices that we have that were not paid um by the end of January, but we knew about then they were in the works. And so that's about 93,000 salary and benefits payable. So I talked about this before. We essentially just acrove what we paid the teachers over the summer and um approved for that. So it's basically shown and it's not a large expense at the end of this year. And I mentioned that we do have that proposal revised budget on the financials that um will probably still be adjusted a little bit. And then food service revenue. So that is always about a month
016behind just because you submit for reimbursement after the month is complete. And so I just want to note that that revenue on this report is reflected through December and January January clicks were deposited in February in the amount of 78,000. can hop to the next page. This is basically the dashboard that shows you the numbers and it's more graphical format. So the top one shows um approved budgets the proposed revise. So essentially it's showing how where we're at in the fifth year. The next one is just a breakdown of revenues and expenses within the different areas, the different buckets. Fund balance history. So this just looks back over five years historical data. And then the bottom line is a financial trend. So essentially where we're at through the fiscal year, that diagonal line. And then
017you can see the revenues and expenses each month compared to that diagonal line. Enrollment summary so far this year. And then enrollment over the last five years. Again, historical data there. Balance sheet. A lot of this we have talked about. I'm just trying to see if there's anything I want to um pull out with this. Um, uh, the negative on that liability is negative79,000. That is just a timing. So, it always looks funny to see a negative liability, but essentially it's when you pay your health insurance bill. So, in this case, most likely the January at the end of January will be paid in February, but we haven't deducted that paycheck. So, it's an issue there. This is a roll up of all your funds. And so you're see the approved original budget the proposed
018revise and then year-to- date activity on the right side general fund revenue. So you can see the top portion of the state aids and so all the revenue categorical aids are flowing through your ideas payments now. So as a reminder does pay twice a month and so that's how this revenue comes through and then we just estimate that approximate 10% hold back that um they hold back they get paid back primarily fall federal we had already talked about that um it's your title and your federal special ed and there's some Perkins there um one thing we did notice uh the Perkins revenue from last year came in this this year, which is not uncommon, but there wasn't it was a book that's a receivable and so it is actually revenue this year. So that's where
019you see prior year adjustments and so it's you can see that it's going to equal the budget of course. So um it's money that you were owed and just um essentially didn't get booked last year. So you're you're going to we're going to book this revenue local revenue. So this is your big areas here are athletic scholarship is a little bit in there and then your fun student activity revenues as well. We did add in some fee rate there. You've received this in the past u but it's going to be a little bit higher this year and then next year just with some projects. So you get a reimbursement for the I think this here is the a little bit of some camera the camera securities that you submitted direct David did for reimbursement and
020then you always get a little bit of your benefit um those reimburse fund one expenses so whole payroll analysis is done and then just basically he dive into different line items and so you can see if anything was adjusted some of the bigger ones pupil transportation vehicle that's 100% because that has been purchased. We don't send anything else in there. Um the technology equipment that is partially offset with that cyber security grant that came through from NDE. The most expenses are the camera security system upgrades. Um add six. You will see you can see still see zero in year to date, but those adjustments were done. That program has been in process all year. It's just a coding adjustment and those were done at the end of February. So you'll see a little see that
021line up um in next month's report next level for that. Um this is just a summary of your fund one essentially a roll up of your fun one there. Fun two on the bottom part of the screen. This is like I've mentioned um basically any revenue you get for the food um federal intake and then any local. So that's just all carts etc. much that are revenues coming in there fund for. So this is your um preschool for active care adult youth education. Um you get state aid levy and then the largest piece here is the tuition from the um patrons. Um the debt service fund I did want to point this out. Uh so you will see the expenses are fully have been fully set those debt payments in January and so essentially that
022um is a large expense that did hit in January but we budget of course it's budgeted for but um if you look you I usually say compare it to where you're at year to date well that's of course at 100% and it's a larger amount so that can trend your total expenses a little bit higher for the year at this point in time. for uh principal reported superintendent board members of the board principal. Um, we recently completed studentled conferences here at the high school, uh, grades 6 through 11. Our participation rate for students was 73.9% for studentled conferences. Uh, in the spring, that would usually be between 25 and at the very upper end, 40% uh, on an arena style conference. Um, but we were at 73.9% for student conferences, which is a really good
023number. Our goal every year is 70%. Um we are completing registration at this time. We are starting with our juniors uh with registration for classes for next year. Um and so we are beginning that process and that'll take the better part of the next few months to go through that. Um, last week we did have the Morrison County K9 unit come through the building and do a drug sweep with dog. Um, thankfully there was dog didn't hit on anything. Um, it was very interesting to see the dogs are trained a little bit different now, which makes it a little more difficult for us is that with the state approving marijuana, the dogs are no longer trained for that. And so they don't uh they're they're really picking up just hard stuff, real hard stuff. Um,
024but still good to have them go through and and check on it. It's amazing. If you have never seen it, it is amazing to watch how trained these animals are. And uh um we had a number of years ago where the drug dog went through and hit on some somebody worked at Domino's and it hit on their tip money and it also hit on their boyfriend's jacket who had also held the tip money but did not have the tip money in it and it hit on both and when I mean hit there is no doubt that that dog wants to tear the door off the locker at this point. Um and so uh we thankfully went through did the logger banks and uh did not have any hits on that. So it came kind of
025came up last minute with the availability through Morrison County to come in and uh and do it and so we uh we were able to do it in about a 25 minute window from start to finish. Uh we currently have two positions open. Science position for next year full-time teaching position. We currently have three applicants for that which is encouraging considering it has only been open less than a week. Um we are looking to um hopefully have that taken care of by the middle of the month or at the end of the month April 1. Um open parah position uh we have one. It's a difficult time of year to find pair of professional positions. you just don't have a lot of people that are going to switch jobs right now for two months and
026come into a position and then go off. Um, so it is a long shot, but we will keep it posted. You never know. Um, do you know anybody out there that is looking to uh make a career change or or or looking for a job like that? uh um please share our open position with them. And the last thing I have is tomorrow night is our choir concert 6 pm in the cafeteria. And uh we are going to see if we we are right at the very upper limit of being able to host the choir concerts at one time in that room. We might be looking at doing a split concert in the cafeterium like we do with the band where one group goes at 6:00 and the next group goes at 6:45. Um, it's
027a really nice setting for choir concerts. For those of you that went to choir concerts in the past and the gym was hard to hear the students, the echo and acoustics in the gym is awful. Um, Ptorium does a much better job of of hosting and you're closer up to the kids when we're singing on stage. So, our goal is to try to keep it in there at all costs if we can. We just got to find a way to logistically put it together. So, we'll give it another test run tomorrow night before we make a determination for the future concerts. Any questions for me? >> All right. Thanks, Phil. >> Chairs Hol members of the board. I'll do my elementary portion next first and then I'll do my um literacy league after that. Uh
028it's been a busy month of January and shaping to be a busy month of March. I love the read month is always fun with all the dress up days and all the fun activities that classrooms are doing. Um and and that wrapped up and then we rolled right into Dr. Seuss week last week and again a lot of dress up stuff, a lot of participation, a lot of fun, a lot of energy. Um and so so that was awesome. We uh had conferences last week as well, Tuesday and Thursday. We had 95% um of families participated in conferences, which is which is great. Historically, I looked um when was the last time we had something that high and it was eight years ago where we had 96%. So that was 1819 school year. So it
029was pretty that's pretty cool. Um chronologically thinking, uh tomorrow's a big day for our fifth graders and first graders. They're going on field trips. Fifth graders are doing their annual ice fishing trip up at Fish Trap Lake. Uh Jerry Getter smoked it out yesterday and it's looking like it's a good good to go uh situation. So they're really excited to to do that. They got their hats today. Um which is which is pretty cool. So they're excited. Um and then first grade the children museum at St. Cloud. It's a that's a hot that's a hot ticket uh these days. So they're they're excited to go that as well. Um and then what do we have coming before Easter break? you know, um, next Monday we have our school students program, uh, providing free dental care,
030reduced dental care for children and families that want it. Uh, a couple of taking advantage of it. Um, which which is cool. Um, on the 25th of March, we have vision screening sponsored by the Royal Alliance. We're screening K1 3,57 and 10 uh, starting at the elementary in the morning and then transition in the afternoon. Um, so I know, um, Joel's a part of that, uh, getting that device and coming over and screening the kids. It's a great opportunity to just get a just get a referral if need be, catching those kids early. The end of the quarter is coming up, end of quarter 3, the 27th. So, we're already thinking about um, what's coming around the bend here as we as we close out the school year. Uh so we'll have our end of
031quarter celebration on that Friday the 27th and then the following Thursday before we break for Easter break is our RIP program where we're we're getting a couple books for every uh prek through five elementary kid. So that'll be a fun day as well. Any questions on the elementary school? Okay, now district literacy lead time. Um I was tapped with this position uh being as literacy is an essential component of the elementary realm and as it is for the secondary as well. Um so this position encompasses a lot of crossover between buildings. Uh again focus on literary a lot of it was the read act. It really heavily applied to our our teachers going through letters. um it applied to to training repair professionals and then also kind of looking at what requirements do we have
032for testing. So I want to kind of run you through what we've got going on. Some of it's old stuff um and and there's one new component. We know that MC happens every spring. It happens um in reading math and then science as they get into fifth grade. This is a 30,000 foot view. Um we get results in maybe August. My first year we got them in August. They were in borrowed for a week and then we got them got them out to families midepptember. This year we didn't get results until midepptember. Then we had to print those and then mail those out so families to get them till later. So what can we do with MCA results as a as a kids specific thing. There's really not much we can do in the moment.
033Okay. It's it's a it's an institutional evaluation of how how we're doing and then we kind of got to try to play some catch-up on what strands are we missing historically. Is it a group that missed it? Is it a is it a continual thing? Okay. So that's that that's that's the MCA you're going to see um should those reports come home. In the past it's been exceeds meets partially meets and does not meets. with the MCA4 science last year though that language changed now it's advanced meets intermediates and beginning so they're changing the language we'll do the MCA4 reading this spring that language will typically follow that follow that as well so that's that's coming up and then it goes in that that Minnesota school report card that's on MD's website and you could
034we could take a look at that we we get those reports out to you guys uh when we're able to tabulate those results as a a cohort of of kids. Next one, please. Fast bridge. Um, we've been doing FastBridge for quite some time. The reports are longitudinal. We get to see those and how the kids progress uh from year to year. We do see that that summer dip a little bit and we always want kids to grow. Um, we've been doing three taking this this test three times a year for K5 for quite some time. Um we take it three times a year within the first six weeks the post the post Christmas six weeks so January through mid midFebruary and then the last six weeks of school is how we've always been giving it
035um with the read the state mandated you take the fast pred three times a year in these timelines um you only required to do it K3 for fast bridge uh we'll lead into what we're what we're doing what we're supposed to do for 4 through 12 next. But um we've expanded that in in our district where all of our kids are taking the fast test, assessing where they're at, where are they growth, where's their growth, what are they missing, and then that can kind of guide us into uh what interventions do you need. For the elementary specifically, we use our lower grouping and our title programming, access programming to group kids that are likabilities and grade levels and get them those interventions that they need. they can give us great data. It's immediate. Uh we
036share this information with families. Um the fall testing window at our at our fall conferences, the winter testing window, they were just shared at conferences now. And then the last six weeks of school, we take that fast test. Those results are shared home um with with families at the end of the year uh showing where their kids are progressing. Um, you know, when when we have these different uh testing points throughout the school year, it can help us influence our groupings. Some kids grow really quickly and then they exit out of our title programming, out of our access programming, and they can provide those interventions within the classroom because they got it. Uh, some kids need more help. They could be pulled into title one. They can be pulled into access. Uh, but we're we're
037always making those minor adjustments as as kids grow to get them what they need. Within this bass program, we can progress monitor. So, we can do weekly assessments. We can see where they're at, where they're growing on a week-toeek basis. Uh, but again, we're doing that K12 and reading and math. Next, please. Now comes the next component of the read act that was introduced this year. So all schools in Minnesota are doing this for the first time this year which is the captive read basics test. Um students in 4 through 12 have to take the captive read basics if they are identified. Okay. So for fastbridgeidge we we're giving the fastbridge test to kids K12 uh which can be a marker to are kids deficient. what what do they need? That then flows into for
0384 through 12 into this captivity basics test. What it does is it gives us a deeper dive into the specific components that a student might be missing and where that intervention could be placed. It could be a tier one intervention could be placed in the classroom. It could be a tier two where it's a small group pullup. It could be tier three. It could be special education if that's necessary. This captiv basics test uh took 25 to 30 minutes. We're in the midst of it right now. Um and um you know, I've had some some families give some questions. Does my child need to take this this re basics test because I already know that they need this, right? And my answer is maybe, but if they don't take the test, it's assumed that they
039need it. So we have to we have to provide where are they where are they missing and what can we give them to get them to grade level because that's that's the main component of the read act is all kids at grade level by the time that they graduate and that's what we want to do. So this captive read basics test can give us um immediate results. I I've seen the results. We have to get together with CAPY to help us interpret for the first time what these results mean and how that's going to guide us in our groupings. The thing with CAPD is is you can't progress monitor within it. It's it's a six to eight week um temperature check is where it's at. And and that that's kind of a where where we
040need fast bridge as well because you can progress monitor within that and you can put in those results and see the growth. We could take the capy again. We haven't gotten that far as far as how often we want to offer it. Um but this is our this is this was our first go around. Again, this is about the Fastbridge test and the Cappy test are about the individual students. It's not about the school as a whole. Yeah, we want to see where our kids are and how they're growing and and are they at grade level, but these are individual student results. Okay, these are individual student results. Now, how does this stuff get reported out? So, I want to kind of show that as well. Reporting uh part of reporting those families get individual
041results for the MCA. Those are mailed home. fast we talk about conferences and then the cath results we're getting to that once we were able to to decipher out what these results mean and how is that going to inform our our student interventions. Um, at my end of year report, the literacy plan that we've got posted online, I just have to do a broad overview of how many kids we've tested, what the results are, how many have screened, um, what what curriculum we're using, what interventions are we using as a whole, and that goes in that report. It spits out their report. We post it on our website. Um, and that's that's where that goes. Um you know we again the first time going through this cafety process um we him and hot as a
042group about how do we notify families about this? How much information do we do we give people because I can type out a two-page report single spaced and it's going it's going to be this doesn't apply to me. I'm not going to read it or I got halfway through it. I don't know what's going on. It's too much. So what we decided to do was to give um families the intent was I know we we we had a misstep and send it to all fourth and fifth grade families instead of just the targeted ones initially um just a overview of what it is and come come me call me if you need questions and I can talk you through what we're doing why we're doing it um to get get the kids on the right
043track and I think that's that's the reason for it. Um but yeah, that that capping test is a that first initial one is we're getting through it. So questions about testing the new stuff. >> I have a question for you. >> Um so with MCA's fast bridge and the staffing testings, um I know MCA's there preparation before those tests come. I don't know if there's preparation for vas test, but what would you say the percentage of time per month or the school year we're spending on testing? >> Um, we we break apart the MCA tests um into small chunks. We we probably, you know, the attend the attention span of an elementary kid taking a taking taking a test in front of a computer is pretty short. So, we do like half hour chunks of
044time. we're only going to take this chunk of time and we're done for the day and then we'll take the next chunk the next day and then we're done for the day. Just to kind of keep that that um that mind fresh. The average depends on the level. The older you get, the more independent you can be you could become. When you're talking about teachers testing kindergarteners, they have to do it individually because they're looking at letter sounds. They're looking at um how many letters do they recognize? Upper case, lower case. Um, so that takes more time to do, but you're just doing it with an individual student and it can take between 30 seconds and a minute per kid. Um, but finding time to do those all those individual tests. Uh, but typically it's
045done in one sitting for fast just because they can they can get through it pretty easily. Kids kind of it's old hat for them because they can they can get through it. the captive test what we did um and it was suggested from like other schools like Villager what they did um and we educated the kids on what they're going to see because we don't want them to fly to it and just click click click click click click through it doesn't help us it doesn't help the kid um figure out what you need because this is about again about them. So, what what me and um the the staff that helped is going to help interpret the results and and procedure the test, we took took them into the media center and we showed them
046um a couple minute video of what the test is. We ran through some test test questions with them, ran through some scenarios um just to so that they're comfortable with understanding the structure of the test. not so much you're fiddling with the different um color schemes that you could do because you know some kids that are are dyslexic like the different fonts or the different the different visuals. Choose one that you like and go. We don't want to waste time on this because now you're losing time. Um so we we you know we said that kids were able to ask questions. What what do you need? You know what's this all about? Um and and we we tried um so to answer your question about how how how much your camping test this year we
047only did four to six subtests um which took about 25 to 30 minutes. next year. Um, MDE told us is telling us that we have to do all six subtests, which is going to take about 60 to 75 minutes per kid, but we can chunk it out and we can do it in two different days and several maybe not even continuous days. We could do it on a Tuesday and then we could do it again on a Thursday or Friday or the next week so that they're not just sitting at a screen for for half an hour one day, half an hour the next day, quiet looking at it, looking at this trying to you get tired mentally. You're drained by the time that you do that. Um but again, the cap key just 4
048to 12. Um you know, you're probably looking at 25 to 30 minutes for those. a fast bridge test three times a year, you're probably looking at another 25 to 30 minutes per per time with that. Then the MCA is is um what would you say, Joel? Couple hours, but you know, if you're older kids, they only take one. I've taken all of them. Um reading, reading, and math for our middle schoolers. >> Okay. So you are very focused on how these tests help the kids that are behind. Are you using this data to help kids who are exceeding? >> You look at the fastbridge data because that's our ultimate goal is we want kids to continue to grow. So you take a look at the data and it it shows that maybe a student is
049you know the color scheme that that we use is blue. Blue is on on college pathway. So you're they're they're above grade level essentially for their grade level. Now, we want them to stay in blue. Um, and then that indicates also growth. Is their numbers growing? Did they stay stagnant? Um, did they decline? They may decline but still be in the college pathway. Doesn't mean that they're not on grade level. It may just mean that they need more um additional activities, not not or something that's going to challenge them. Um, but it really you take a look at the the color scheme and and and the kids that are behind, you want them to grow at the blue rate, the the aggressive growth um because you want them to to get to grade level, want
050to get to them to to that benchmark. And the same kids that are at some risk, you want them to be um aggressive growth or typical growth so that they can close that gap and get their get their benchmark score to grade level so that we can continue to push higher level academics as they go through. Did you replace Jerry Bishop's position? >> We're trying. It's posted. We don't have anybody that's applied for it. >> Do you guys switch classrooms? Now, my old school beginning in third grade, they already had us um switching classrooms of maybe this was meeting exceeding behind. Um they didn't explicitly label it as those categories, but like you knew because the uh what was the position? Basically, our version of Sherry Bishop would come to this classroom and this classroom
051only. Um, I really liked the way that was done, but each district has their own thing to them. >> Yeah, it depends on what what's best practice and and that's, you know, it's probably been researched before. I haven't taken a deep look into that, but does ability grouping help kids or does it hurt their ability to grow? We want kids that are behind to still be exposed to grade level content. That's a pretty big thing where if if you're behind and you're in the lowest group, okay, you're working at this level, but grade levels here. If they're not exposed to grade level content because they're constantly working here, they're never going to grow. So there is something to be said about kids being with peers that are above or below them so that they can
052kind of work through and troubleshoot, you know, together. Um, but I haven't dug into the research of ability grouping. I I I remember that as an elementary kid, too. There was an upper math and there's regular. There's uppers and there's regular. Um, well, I'm not sure when the last time that we did ability group in here >> because I just feel that at Royaltton it has been a disadvantage to me to be of the on the higher end and then to have to be constantly helping these children like I don't mind it but it's just something to keep in mind. >> We yeah we and we did that again that that GTE position is still posted. So what we would do during roar time, so that wind time is kids that are are needing the
053most academic help would go with um carry rolling and title and then other we'd have other groups that would be with pair professionals and doing um ext you know activities could be extension activities and then teachers are taking uh the next lowest group that are still within the classroom. So each people have a group and then the highest group went with Miss Bishop u a couple times a week before those extension activities. the the you know when I was in there one time they were doing um binary and so they were working on the coding aspect of of um programming so you know just doing those types of things we had that but again yeah it's posted um but it's been it's been tricky to fill >> any other questions All right. Next, we have
054the consent agenda for approval. So, any board member can uh pull an item off consent agenda uh if you wish. On the consent agenda tonight, we have approval of the regular board meeting minutes, plans and council financials, approval of personnel changes, approval of final policy readings, and then um those policies are too well. You can see them there. Um, as that is there anything anybody would like to pull. >> All right. Does somebody want to move the consent amendment? >> I'll director. Thank you. I'll second it. >> Director. Thank you. Any discussion? >> I just have one question on the planning financial target. Um I've seen the purchase of two new vans. Is there criteria around um what specific vans are available for purchasing? Does it is it have to be rent 2026? Is there
055specific criteria know the answers for that? >> Just Joe's recommendation. I mean parameters. >> Well, yeah. Any other discussion? >> All in favor say I. >> I opposed abstaining. Motion uh calendar approval. Uh just a review of some of the highlights I mentioned last time. Calendar options were discussed embedded through administration and school staff at each site. Um start date would be in this proposals before Labor Day which is uh legislator is allowing that to occur for the next two years. Um no early hours for professional development as we have in the well this year. um student days off each month other than September and May to staff as well. Uh PLC's on is it short weeks on Wednesdays? So we would still have those. >> Yeah. So we have workshop week or the first
056week of school for students is would be the week before Labor Day. It would be Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, student days, Friday off then Labor Day and then back school usual. Um it be done by Memorial. Any thoughts or feedback or questions? >> Somebody want to move the calendar for approval. >> Thank you. >> Any other discussion? All >> in favor say I. Oppos. All right. >> Uh the revised budget. >> Yep. So this um again we reviewed this at the finance committee meeting a couple weeks ago and it was on also on those financials we just talked about. Um I have two reports in there. This is the detail of all of the calculations and the other one is basically just summarizing any changes between the original budget that was adopted last spring by the
057board and then essentially um the end of February when we um met with all the budget managers etc and kind of compiled changes for the proposed revised budget. So in general, ADM's uh big piece here, EDMs did decrease compared to that original budget. So we have right now at 893. Um this is our best estimate based on the latest Mars reports we're getting. Um and the way student counts are falling. So that's a decrease to your ads of course drive your revenue. So that decreases your revenue decreases. So that's a decrease to state aids of about 256,000. Um the federal revenues are about 7,000 and that's really just a decrease based on um allocations between title and federal special ed. And then um we did add that per revenue that we I had mentioned in
058the financials local revenues overall those increased by about 110,000. So the big pieces here were which I had also mentioned. So that's eligible technology expenses. So um internet network switches etc. So that increased by about 14 athletic program did receive a onetime donation of 60,000. So that increased that local revenue and then your student activities to fund 12 just based on year to date um trend 25,000 increase. So overall the general fund revenue compared to original budget decreased by about 154,000. So you can see that um the state aid decreased quite a bit but then some local revenues help that your general fund expenses. So I highlighted quite a few lines just based on adjustments. Um I'll take out some of the bigger ones just to um again because there is quite a bit of
059detail in here. So the instructional some of them do kind of wash out as well. So you'll see that like communication services utilities decrease but then instructional software and that's really just me analyzing year to date and um prior year um equipment decreased by about 31,000 just based on there was some a budget for classroom furniture and that um did not get purchased and we'll push that into a different year. the technology equipment increased about 33,000. Part of that is offset with your cyber security grant from MDE. Um that was camera security system upgrade. School library expenses. So both school library aid and the student support aid. Those are revenues that I think last year was the first year from MPD and they're very specific what those can be spent on. And you usually will
060budget revenue expense because you get the revenue and you want to spend it. If you don't spend it that year, you need to reserve it. And so essentially I just made the um for the school library I matched it to the revenue that you were expected to receive. Um and that's based on what MD has allocated plus you had a small reserved amount and I do believe we can use to spend that reserve out. So that's there. And then student support, I just essentially made it to match the revenue that we're getting from MDE. Um, one of the bigger pieces was access. And so this, oddly enough, was actually pretty close to overall your general fund expenses increased by about 167,000 when you look at all lines compared to the original budget. And the ADS
061grant was an increase of 163,000. So there was a lot of things announced between the other lines. Um, but that says it's a new grant that for those that don't know, so access is essentially like a grant that you get from me that is hoping to prevent kids from becoming special ed. And so it's like the interventions and you get reimbursed 55% from the state, but it's a year late. So you'll see start to see that revenue next year and that's lumped into your special ed revenue. Um, and that's on a two-year basis. So I didn't apply every two years. So um that was one of the bigger expenditures that wasn't necessarily budgeted at original and then of course your revenue was delayed. The federal grants those just basically again I like the revenue people
062expenses with those and so it was just a um adjustment increasing that to match the revenue and those are fully reimbured. So overall, your general fund increased expenses by about 127,000. And at this point with the revised proposed revise, the general fund is budgeting a deficit of 78,000 food service fund. And so this um you do have a fund balance in here. And again, this fund balance can only be spent on food service. And so if you do have a year where your food service which is state and revenue, state and federal revenue for your meals and then local, you know, the extra money that kids meals etc. and then expenses, the food and then um any employees that you that you pay to work for lunchroom essentially. So if it ends with a surplus,
063you add in that fund balance. If you end with a deficit, you can it goes against that. And so right now there is $181,000 in that fund balance. Right now, we're expecting a slight deficit in that fund, but that would be use that fund to go against. And I will say that most schools I work with don't have a usually your food service. It's, you know, sometimes you can net it out, but I don't it's not a money maker. You don't really want it to be because it's very, you can only spend it on food service. The fund floor. So, this is again your community service fund. We're just budgeting just a slight surplus in there and a similar that has a that also has a fund balance that can only be used for community
064expenses. And then your debt service fund and this is um basically it's budgeting a slight deficit of 30,000. Um that's where you're you get some state aid levy money and then that's your debt service where you pay your debt your debt payments out of there. So um overall when you compare the original to this proposed revise um we are projecting a deficit of about 132,000 for fund balance that would end up and you can see I did put um general fund percent based on the general fund expenses that would be about 20.8 and then if you wanted to analyze total fund balance percent of all expenses um it's 22.8 week, but I think usually we want to focus on general fund um percent of total. So, and this is um most likely there'll be some
065adjustments over the next month that we'll go over with finance committee again um just with changing etc. So, um but this is a point in time right now that we're being revised but questions. >> Um I have one. So the 893 that we're projecting that my assumption is that is about the most conservative that we will go and it could increase I'm assuming PSO and how people register for classes are going to really allow that to increase if it goes with the other things like that. >> Exactly. Yeah. Our hope is that um if you go to the very top page maybe you can see the the 12th grade is really where um right now we have it at 41 and I know Joel we talked about 57 are expected to graduate so it does
066seem like a large are we losing 16 gio hopefully that'll get reconciled here in the next few months and it will actually be a higher number um so yes that is conservative >> we were looking today last year's trend and it it's kind of at the same place percentage wise with the number of PSO students um at the low end right now and it balance out again we don't know it until late June other question. >> All right. And this we're not approving. We're just looking at All right. um summer school recommendation. >> I believe I shared a recommendation uh letter from the principles to you. Um that's really the details in there that I'll veer off to the two principles to kind of the discussion. I guess >> over the past few years we've
067had summer school at the elementary and at the middle school that came from the ESR dollars that came after CO. Um and then we moved summer school because you had to have expense dollars before the 30th with the vesser money had to be expensed before then. And we put summer school in June. we started seeing a decline in numbers and just the input we got from they need they need to get away from school and I don't necessarily disagree with that but our numbers got to a point where we're targeted services just maintaining the ratios of teachers to staff um we were putting some expense so you have five kids on a bus or you have 25 kids on a bus do you have a bus expense Um and so we have been looking at
068it and looking at putting it in hibernation for now um is kind of the recommendation. We don't want to necessarily we want to maintain our our relationship with freshwater targeted services because there is a chance that we may find or come up with a different plan for this and be able to build that relationship back up offer summer school. Does it does it go back because we're not in using ESER funds? and we put summer school in July where it used to be and it's kind of a midsummer, give them a month off, they come in for a little refresher in July and then they have another month off before school starts. Those are the kinds of conversations that we can have going forward. We just did not think that this year with where we're
069at, doing it in June again was a good thing. We will keep the high school credit recovery in place. um that saves us from having students go to CEC or do other options during the school year. Um but that is not um we don't we don't cover high school credit recovery through targeted services. >> ESY and special ed is a separate um also a separate um scenario. ESY has always been in place in both buildings for many many years. every year. All we did with it in the past is because we needed the transportation, we we lined up ESY at the same time that summer school was. This summer, they're actually looking at moving ESY back to back to July away from the end of the school year. >> Yeah. So the ESY like that
070group of kids that's something that we then not reimbursed for those summer school students who are special or whatever and more the summer school kids that won't have the option are just kids who need a little extra help but don't get or are ready for. >> Yeah, you could have special ed kids in regular summer school because they just need extra help. the kids that need ESY are showing regression after breaks and that's that's what kind of gets them into ESY, but um but a special ed student could go to regular summer school. They're just not going to be reimbursed for summer school or for for special ed. It's going to be just go to his retirement services. I'm guessing if we brought this back in the future, we would redesign this away from Esser
071and CO as a response to that and redevelop it as our a program on its own merit without that those ties to it. >> Yeah, I feel like the kids who need that little bit of extra help, I don't qualify in those categories and then again miss out on help. I mean, and I get it for funding wise, but it seems like that's always a problem, you know, where you don't quite need that total help, but that whole three months in the summer can really sudden time, too. >> Yeah. If I was guessing, I would think that in the future we will have some sort of redesign on this, which is why we thought it was important not to terminate our relationships. We don't want all that because it's a um just at the middle
072school level, it was we build that based on performance in school. And so to turn around, school ends May 29th and by June 4th, you got to have transportation set up, know who the kids are going to be. They're communicated with home. We're starting to see some feedback that this isn't easy for us. We're planning a vacation, but you don't know if you're going to be in summer school until the last week in May. That kind of deal where we're going to do this again and do it in the future. It is so much easier to communicate this when you have the month of June to give them a chance to get away and it allows us time to set up plan it out without being bound right to the end of the school year
073so we can get it done before June. >> So you feel like there was a better turnout for kids when it was in July. >> I think it was way easier for families to plan because they knew at least a month and a half ahead of time that they have summer school this year. We did look at the numbers. We didn't see a drop because that first year was all about learning loss and there was there was a significant amount of people that requested it and and we were able to get them in. The next year it dropped by about 20. >> Um so we did see a drop, you know, thinking about registrations. Last year the kids that come had really good attendance. You know, we were we were sitting, you know, I think
074we had 24 registered and we were averaging 22.5, which is great. Um but we referred 60 >> and so so and then when you look at staffing levels we have to we have to by freshwater 11 to1 ratio. So I had two rooms had a K12 room and a 345 one and we were then scraping by at 22 and a half. I think we had to steal a couple digits and numbers to make sure fit with the middle school too. Um teach teaching a kindergartener and a second grader and you need to do reading and math. you know, that's a pretty broad spectrum of abilities. So, it was hard to do just two rooms of K1, two, and a 345. It worked a lot better when it was K1, 2, 3, 4, 5 um with
075abilities. >> And even on the middle school side of things, we invited probably 30 to 40 kids and we we had a lot of them that just like now my kids not doing summer school. So, I mean, we invited a lot of kids, but we struggled to get people that actually want to send their kids to somewhere school. So, that's the other side of it is we it's not required. So, even though we identified kids that we felt like would benefit from it, the parents can say no. So, there's that side of it that there's no we can't force them to do something. >> Yeah. So assuming these numbers stay the same, what do we do with the 22 kids that want to go to something school or want that help and need extra help?
076Right? Because we we thought there were 60 that needed it, 22 wanted the help. What do we do with the 22 that want the help? Is there something else some other program? But these parents come to you and say, "Hey, that was really good last year and now we're not offering it. Is there something else we can offer?" Maybe it's not even here. Yeah, you can go here or go there. I don't know. But it sounds to me like there are going to be some families that may want it. Maybe not if we don't offer it. But if they do come asking, >> is there something some way we can point in a direction or not? Is there some kind of co-op we could do with a holding for a little or something for those
077that wanted to do it >> because we'd still have to pay the blessing. And I'm assuming that it still come with a cost, >> right? I would assume we don't really want >> I think I think we explored that conversation with Freshwater not not knowing what our numbers were going to be like and they advised us that they've had some schools in the past that had tried that and you pair with little falls enroll in Little Falls then >> we got it come to us. So, we don't want to loop kids if if you know what I mean. Like, I'm not saying we would, but they're Hey, we got it. Come on. Come on to us as a recruiting tool. So, yes. What What could we do for them? Um, >> Midstate, I know Midstate's
078like a higher level special needs. They don't have any programs. >> They have a program and whoever's enrolled in that will be going to the extended school year. people going to Midstate if they're enrolled in Midstate, right? >> Yes. >> But the ones that are here that may need a little bit can't go there for that little bit that they would need, right? Like Midstate doesn't offer anything for the anything like that. Like if we were to >> No. Well, because we still have our extended school year here, right? So, it's it's anyone that is not a special needs. I shouldn't say now special needs, but um >> those that don't qualify for ESY, >> correct? >> Um are the ones that would get everybody that does qualify for ESY would be whether it's here
079or that's a shared school. >> I feel like there's maybe some talk around revamping map a little bit to do a little bit more enrichment and some of that educational things. I don't know if where that's at exactly where down the road that but that was a potential that map would include more enrichment type activities that parents could potentially utilize if they wanted a little bit more structure or something. >> Is there anything we could do through community if we have it? Well, that would be like the math part situation or it'd be a class probably had more school. We should know who they are. And if they want to go, that's my only issue. If there's 22 that wanted to go, right? And I was not that. And did it help that? I assume
080it did. There's more time in the classroom. The teacher, you know, you think, well, are we still going to track those that we would have offered to? >> I mean, middle school, middle school's easy because we just look at their grades. So if they fail X number of classes the fall and in the spring that would be who basically ends up hitting it for us. Elementary is probably a little bit different. Uh but if you if you put into a a referral form to see how many kids we're referring or we would refer and track that against what we had last year to this year to if we're going to try to offer it next year to see does that number correlate with hey we had 60 for this for the summer of 25. We
081have 65 for the summer of 26 and now we've got 85 for the summer of 27. Then we've got to that we know that hey we got to we got to do something. Is is the summer school purely academic or is it some is there you know like I don't know what you call in the class expectations that kind of >> there's there's some there's some but they do get out and play you know it's it should be more hands-on more more involved learning rather than should be shouldn't just be book learning right sit down and learn um typical day would come in uh they breakfast. We offer free breakfast. They come in and then they'd start their ELA and they go out take a break and they come back in and do math and
082then we get them to the lunchroom at about 11:25 for lunch and then they're on the bus on the road by about 11:55. That that would be a typical summer school day. middle school had a mix of kind of the core academics. um a little bit of a survey of the core academics and then I've had some skills for being a successful student and some more kind of cultural social when I say cultural I mean like that like organization making sure you >> that kind of stuff especially when you move up so which you should be using oil for >> I We did that at Royale hour. My first study hall was a seventh grader and a group of seniors. There was three seventh graders of seniors for study hall. I like a lot of
083bad. We do have our Apex program as well with enough seats that if a student did say, "Hey, I'd like to I'm going into eighth grade algebra next year and I'd like to do something over the summer." we can assign them to a a classroom with some eighth grade math concepts that they don't necessarily have to receive a grade for, but they could work through a class um kind of give them. But like I guess the thing is is how good I know I'm not going to learn math unless I have the teacher there with me. But um there are opportunities that we can address some of those things that uh they want they want something to do in the summer. We have we do have some avenues that we could open. The other reason
084I asked the question I did is because I don't want we had 22 and a half kids average daily attendance. I don't want us not having summer school activating 60 or 80 kids on a daily basis because the summer numbers will not be I just watch. I think it'd be a good idea to just have some options like hey there's a tutoring service if there's parents that come and say hey my child a little bit behind it there's obviously out there and let them know we're not doing that but hey there are some tutoring services and this is how you get to them and we just have some resources for them and say hey here's what's available you know some parents that could be parents or both parents working all the time they have no
085way of helping us do throughout the summer and they just want a little extra boost they just or resource forms a at least ting services or whatever called they have some kind of answer. >> Are you guys familiar with the program at the Minnesota had us all do week ones not because we get behind but because she wanted us to stay ahead. Um but that is an option out there as well. So those are all online and then we meet on Zoom. Lots of good resources. >> All right. Uh next is approval of donation by resolution. Uh does somebody want to introduce the resolution and the way of the reading? Director Trump. Thank you. All right. Whereas No, I'm just kidding. Um, so uh we are uh thankfully uh and gratefully accepting the following donations.
086So the Royals Alliance Club uh has a donation of $2500 for Royals 3K. uh Clinton top kits for $5,000 towards the band program and Royaltton fired for $3,500 towards uh Dage. Um does somebody want to uh second that motion? >> All right. Um and then gentlemen call >> Director Trout. >> Hi. >> Director Hack. >> Hi. >> Director Home. Hi, >> Director Andre. Hi, Director Boy. >> Hi. We have some discussion. >> Hi. Sorry. Go ahead. Um, so it's got Roy fire 25 fire for,000. I believe the thousand should be blessed. We did send a check for a thousand. >> I think you're correct because that number I had to sign off on it. So I think >> I had the data clear and check the number if you want to look back. >> I'm
087pretty sure it should be bless. >> Yeah, probably. >> All right. Um and that was all six for so motion the resolution is adopted. >> All right. Next is uh policy readings. So we have some new first policy readings. These are all threeear uh renewal policies. Um so not because they've changed, but just because it's been three years since we've looked at them. Um the one I I want to call out is our second policy reading. So, the school resource officer um that one uh we went through uh and talked through a lot. It's a very short policy. Um but I went back in this book and then my last book of what we talked about as a board of what we wanted the school resource officer to do and it basically laid out education
088as a do some education. Um so I wanted to put some specifics in there for what we had all talked about in the upper layer. Um so the first one was uh educational programs of cyber awareness um conflict resolution, addiction education, bullying prevention and then safe driving, biking and pedestrian safety more so geared towards the elementary at that point. Um safe driving up here and the bike pedestrian um at the elementary. So, not that I need feedback right now, but go back and look in your notes and see if there's anything else that I missed um that was on there. A lot of them talked about some of the same stuff, but it was kind of like under cyber awareness, how we do that at the elementary versus middle school and things like that. um
089and let us know so John or I um as we look at that policy, you know, in a couple weeks uh if there's anything else you can think of that that you'd like added to that, but we're leaving it opened, so it could be everything. So that could include their program and and different things like that, but we wanted to make sure that these are the ones that you will do for sure. >> That's all I have. on that. Um upcoming meeting schedule, finance on March 25th. Um and then policy, same thing. >> I need to change that. >> Of all the things we can do, that's policy. >> All right. Well, it rhymes with not March 25th. >> Um pretty much anything but those 24th, 25th, or 26th. after that. Um, what if we
090look at Wednesday, April 1st, that next week? >> Perfect. >> That work for you. Good. Okay. All right. So, we will go April 1st, 2 p.m. That's hard to say. Um, and then our next board meeting is April 13th. Like I said before, um I'll send out an email maybe tonight or tomorrow uh with the the superintendent evaluation guide and our probably the last three superintendent evaluations with the goals that we did. So everybody can kind of look at those. We only have to use that format, but that's what we have. So um at least start thinking of some ideas of that. Um and then the last uh stuff that we gave way for here some priorities to look at from that first evaluation section. All right. Um anything else? I do want to make
091a if you did not see on social media, our middle school robotics team actually won the state robotics tournament on Friday. Were you there? >> I was there. >> Um, >> so that is pretty awesome. So then they were a they got a bid then to be able to go to the World Robotics Competition. So >> that's awesome. and the high school group. So, high school gets a little tougher. Um, but the high school group ended up eighth at state, too. So, >> awesome. And if you have never experienced being in an environment like that, it's it's pretty cool. >> We host like an IQ one typically in end of January, February time. So, which is your community ad. Even watching that sort of stuff is really cool because it's a lot of supporting each
092other and things like that. >> I even heard Mr. Hawk was a assistant coach at one time. Yeah. Well, I have received the last couple they had to endure some robotic statues. >> All right. Um All right. Uh we're looking at a 725 if somebody would like to make a motion to >> So, Uh, all in favor say >> thank you all.