001Please rise for the pledge of >> 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. >> Mr. Raven Horse, will you please take board? Uh Mrs. Ray Maker and Mr. Welch are absent. for us here. >> Thank you. Is there any new business to bring before the board? >> Hearing none, I'll seek a motion for approval of the agenda. >> Second motion by Mr. Lman, a second by Mr. Dist. All in favor? I I >> I >> opposed. Motion passes 5. The next item on the agenda is to consider and adopt the consent agenda items. Is there any items that a board member would like removed and discussed separately? Hearing none, I would seek a
002motion. So move >> second. >> And a motion by Miss Keer and second by Mr. G. All in favor say I. >> I. oppose. Motion passes 5 Z. Okay. Next up, we have high school student council report by Alexa Bugrock. Right. Savannah Whitenbath. >> Whiten. I knew I was going to say it wrong. And Landon Haye. >> Yep. >> Thank you guys for being with us tonight. You guys know the drill. You'll tell me when you want your advance, [clears throat] right? >> Okay. >> Good evening. My name is Lexi Buntro. >> My name is Lander Hay. >> And I'm Savannah Whittenbach. Tonight we will be presenting an update of the student council activities that we have done and plan on doing in the upcoming weeks. Please. >> On our agenda, we will discuss our
003involvement with the Wick fundraiser, Turkey Bingo, Good Tidings for Tigers, Toys for Tots, Channel One, and other upcoming events. Please advance. Due to the government shutdown in November, student council organized a fundraising effort to support the women, infants, and children program instead county. We raised funds through through several activities including popcorn Fridays, monetary donations collected during the night of the living dead performance and the movie night in the pack featuring Zootopia and Homelo. A special thank you to Jess Hanzi and the band students for assisting with the band's surprise song fundraiser. During this activity, band members surprised a fellow student in a classroom setting. All performances were pre-approved and coordinated to ensure there were no disruptions to uh to instruction. All funds all funds raised from these activities were donated directly to the WIC program.
004We are pleased to announce that we met our fundraising goal and raised a total of $750 for the program. Please advance. On November 25th, we hosted a schoolwide turkey bingo event. At the beginning of each class hour, five numbers were announced. When a student achieved a bingo, they reported to Miss Mley's room to select a prize, such as toys. As a toy, snacks, or stickers. In addition, Mrs. Holm from the nurse's office won the staff pie. A special thank you to the social workers in our district for organizing good tidings for tigers for the first time this year. The student council was grateful for the opportunity to support this event by assisting with a letter to Santa station, a coloring station, and helping unload donated toys from the bus. It was wonderful to see our
005school community come together in the spirit of the holiday season. Please advance. >> In addition, the student council coordinated a Toys for Tots drive throughout the month of December. Students were invited to donate toys and each donation earned the student a raffle ticket to enter for a chance to win a winter themed gift basket. The student council selected five raffle winners. This year we collected a total of 66 toys. While this number was lower than in some previous years, we appreciate the generosity of all students and families who contributed. Please advance. Our experience assisting with the Channel One food distribution in November inspired us to continue supporting Channel One Food Bank. On January 5th, we visited the food bank in Rochester where we labeled and packaged 2,000 cans for distribution. It was also a great
006opportunity for us to see the behind thescenes work that supports food distribution in our own community. Please advance. In the upcoming weeks, student council will be organizing a Valentine's Day treat. Students can purchase a crush can for $1 to send to a friend as a reminder that they are appreciated. Compliment cards will also be included. We are holding a schoolwide dress up day on Friday, and we encourage students and staff to wear pink or red in celebration. Additionally, the student council is also holding executive board elections this month. Newly elected members will have the opportunity to shadow current officers for the remainder of the year. Finally, a few student council members will be attending the Southeastern Division Conference on February 27th in Austin. At this event, we will meet with students from other schools in
007the Southeast Minnesota region to build leadership skills, exchange ideas, and collaborate with neighboring districts. We attended a similar conference in the fall, and it was a valuable learning opportunity for us. Please mates, >> thank you so much. We appreciate your time tonight, and we look forward to meeting you with meeting with you all again. Are there any questions for us? who's a senior. >> All of what advice would you give to underassmen about student council? >> Um, I think it's a great way to get involved in the school and I don't know, I think that especially this year we just made school more fun and I think that we've helped like make more memories for the younger kids and stuff. So, being able to be involved in that has been a great experience. >> So,
008in order to do that, you need to be a member of student council. Of course not. But it's one way the ideas and the implementation of ideas, creation of ideas, all >> great. >> I just want to say thank you and every single time you come in, I'm like blown away by all the different things that you're doing and that I I know we've said this before, but not just in the school, but like in the community. Like that's very impressive. So, um, thank you for all the fun activities you're doing, but also the ways in which you're supporting the community as well. >> So, you guys are trending upwards. I like seeing it. It's great. Thank you. >> Great leadership. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you guys for coming. And you you can stay or
009you don't have to stay. It's it's up to you. Okay. Okay. So, we have nothing under AIM one or AIM two this week. Under AIM three, we have consider and approve the superintendent employment contract um with Mr. Guy Johnson, which would be effective July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2029. Um before we do that, um just want to say a big thank you um to the entire board um for the lots of hours and effort put into that. Um also to Laura. I know Laura was instrumental in um being the go-between in all that work um and the district leadership team as well um being involved in that process. It was a big process, an important process, but um [clears throat] so I appreciate everybody's time and helping us with that. Um and then also
010just the wanted to we're not all here tonight, but we were all here um when we approved the hire of um Mr. Johnson last week. Um, and it was a a unanimous decision um to approve the hire of Mr. Johnson. So, anybody else want to say? >> No, it was a very positive deliberation between candidates and it was nice to see that we all ended up landing on the same same one. >> It was hard though because for sure there was two >> greatates very they're [clears throat] very good candidates. >> No doubt any one of them would have done a great job. It's just, you know, got to pick one. [clears throat] >> Anybody else? >> I'll also say thank you to anybody that filled out the surveys. I mean, from from from and
011MSBA, they MSBA did an amazing job. I mean, they were incredible with what how they facilitated the whole process. And I'm saying from the first step on getting community involvement, I mean, we really wouldn't have had much direction. I mean, we would have, right? We would have figured it out, but it really helps, right? So, thank you to everybody that took part >> and then we tailored the presentation question based off those community >> Exactly. input surveys. >> Yeah, I think the staff filling it out in the community um that was very very valuable because that really did drive >> what we were looking for in the questions that we asked. So if anybody's watching that that wants to know what did that mean for us like that set the table for the for everything
012going forward everything that we were looking for in a candidate everything that we were the questions we were asking for the candidate it was all from that point build built forward >> and I would say I did the reference a bunch of reference calls to the three um finalists and I um was very upfront with all the people I called and said this is what our community is looking for this is what our staff is looking for how does this candidate fit these needs. So it very much did drive everything that we did. So >> and I think we had a good alignment between the community, the staff board in those those surveys and what we everybody was looking for. >> If everybody can rest assured that all groups involved all all had the same
013priorities, it was >> refreshing to see that there really wasn't any any certain group that wanted to go this direction. We were all >> we all were honed in on the same aspects that we wanted. think really excited too for Mr. Johnson to join us in in July and >> and thanks to Belinda I mean >> yes >> she's helping you know the onboarding process with with Mr. Johnson and uh >> you know just >> what does it take to be a new superintendent coming into the school? Um yeah, so um the first the learning curve is making the transition from South Dakota to Minnesota because the systems are so different. >> And so um he and I are already setting up twice a month at least a couple of hour video meetings. Sometimes he'll
014be here on campus uh just to t go deep dives into various topics that he really feels would be relevant and interesting and uh valuable for him to know before he comes on board on July 1st. Um one of the first things we'll talk about are the differences between South Dakota finance and Minnesota finance, South Dakota education statutes and Minnesota statutes. And so um that'll be kind of the foundation that we lay and then the rest of it is going to be how it works in Steuartville. So, all of the requirements, all of the statutes, all of the finance uh procedures and expectations and how it's applied here. And then just getting oriented to who does what is a big piece of that. Um hopefully there'll be an opportunity for him to be in person
015at a board meeting to do some observations there. Um I'm looking to have him come to an HVL superintendent meeting so that he can get connected with the network. um hoping to work with Steve Celia at Southeast Service Co-op to get him a a mentor that's going to have uh similar experiences and be able to um ensure that we can build this capacity to do a great job here. So, there's a lot of things in the works between now and the end of June. Um and he's super excited. So that really makes it a lot easier to start this process. But there's a lot he'll, you know, there's a learning curve to be sure and it might feel initially like he's drinking from a fire hose, but we're going to try to make sure he's
016got his floaties on so he can stay above water. >> So he's not he's coming in with a support network. So >> yeah, you know, and I think um from the leadership team's point of view and my own, if he's successful, the district will be successful. So that's our focus. Thank you for doing that. It's very much appreciated. Anybody else? Okay, then I'd seek a motion to approve Guy Johnson's contract [cough and clears throat] effective July 1st, 20.6. So second have a motion by Mr. G and a second by Mr. Lman. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Oppos? [snorts] Motion passes 5. Next on the agenda is to review the draft budget for 2027. So, you'll recall in January that the board approved the resolution to have the administrative team
017begin the process of making determinations for budget alignments for fiscal year 27. And so, you'll notice on this that many of the dates are not filled in. We meet with the PLC tomorrow as it notes there on the 10th and then the leadership team meets on the 19th. And so, um, we're going to start this process of going through all of the information that we have available. Um, I did get the seniority lists for, um, the administrative assistants, the educational support professionals, and the teachers, certified teachers today. So, we have that done. Tomorrow, we're going to review those seniority lists with the principal PLC and just make sure we understand the requirements for tier one licenses, tier two, tier three and four, and OFPS, which we have all of those categories employed as certified teachers
018in our school district, and make sure that we're aligned with statute on those licenses. We'll be looking at our projections for FY26, what we're over budget on, and then our estimated revenues for FY27. We'll be looking at district-wide staffing. And then we always look at supplies, subscriptions, memberships, and vendor contracts. Just want to recall um when we did this process last year, about 20% of our budget is spent on supply, subscriptions, memberships, and contracts. 80% is spent on staff. And so when we look at alignments, we need to keep that in mind. And we try to keep that balance between the alignments where not all of it's coming out of one area that we look at the balance of 20% in operations and 80% out of staffing costs. Uh Dan and I will be working
019on aligning those targets to account for the losses in 26 and the margins for 27. At the board meeting on the 23rd, we will have the board consider and approve the FY26 revised budget. And so that night he'll be look he'll be updating you on where we are in our budget for this school year and what needs to be revised. From there then we will start that budget forecasting process. We'll establish our targets and then we'll do a preliminary alignments of our positions and our programs. Um uh the principal PLC will then be involved in identifying the specific staff positions that are aligned with enrollment. We'll have a budget workshop with the superintendent and the leadership team and we'll look at those final recommendations. Uh the PLC for the principles will do the finalizing of
020those staffing alignments. We'll hold individual meetings with those staff that are going to be impacted. And I have here a special board meeting. And the question I have for you is, do you want to have a special board meeting before we have the recommendation of what those alignments will be presented to you for approval? Last year, we went through this process. I heard from the board that getting the approval on the same night that you heard about the recommendations was a little bit problematic for the board. This would be a special board meeting before you have approval. So, they'd be two separate meetings. So the special board meeting, we'd review our recommendations and then at the board meeting on the 27th, we would bring them forward for you to consider and approve those recommendations. So
021my question to you is, do you want a special board meeting scheduled between March 9th and April 27th? Because March 9th is our last meeting in March because of spring break. We do have two meetings in April. I don't think we'll be ready on April 14th. So, we'd look at a special board meeting sometime in midappril to late April before April 27th to share with you what our recommendations are and it's discussion. Um, if we have that you want that, I'll bring proposed dates to you at our February 23rd meeting. But if you don't want me to explore that, I won't. So, this is kind of just giving me feedback on whether or not you'd like to have a special board meeting. >> I would appreciate a special board meeting. I thought last time it
022was hard to make those decisions. >> More time, more info can't, right? [clears throat] >> Okay. So, we'd look at a special board meeting. Um, and that would be the only agenda item where we're bringing forward the team's recommendations for those alignments. >> Um, we'd also at that same time want to visit with staff who are impacted, make sure that they know. So, the timing of that needs to be staff are notified, the board is getting those preliminary recommendations. And then I would also have a voluntary staff meeting for all staff who want to know what those recommendations would be before the April 27th decision meeting. Okay. So Dan and I will start to look at this calendar. When I come back on the 23rd, I'll have all these dates filled in and then we
023can get the special board meeting on our our radar. Does that make sense? >> Okay. Do you have any questions [snorts] that you want to ask about this process? That special board meeting is an open meeting. So people will be able >> get [snorts] their information then too, not just at the staff. >> Would that would we report that one? >> We don't uh broadcast special board meetings, just the regular meetings that are on our on our website. >> Other questions, comments? Okay, we will get to work tomorrow. start the process. Thank you. >> Okay, last thing on the agenda is adjournment. Seek a motion. >> Second. >> Motion by Mr. G and a second by Miss Kefir and then all those in favor. Sorry. I >> opposed. Okay. Motion is adjourned at 7:19. You