001I don't care about a storm. I just like the stupid. Yes. All right, it's 7 o'clock. I now call this board meeting to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance 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. Miss Cook, will you please take role? Everybody is present. Thank you. Is there any new business to bring before the board? Hearing none, I would seek a motion for approval of the agenda. So move second. I have a motion by Mr. Welch and a second by Mr. Gist. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Same sign. Motion carries 70. Next item on the agenda is to approve consent agenda items 6 A through
002E. Is there any item any board member like removed and voted on separately? Okay. Hearing none, I would seek a motion. So move. Second. I have a motion by Mr. Gist and a second by Miss Kefir. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. And I'm going to abstain just because my daughter's on there for hire. So motion carries 6 with one abstaining. Next item on the agenda is the resolution for accepting donations. And you can see there was a couple to the track program. So I would seek a motion for accepting donations. So moved. Second. I have a motion by Mr. Ravenhorse and a second by Mr. Lowman. This is a resolution. Miss Cook. Hi. Mr. Gist. Hi, Miss Kefir. I Mr. Lowman. Hi, Mr. Ravenhorst. Hi, Mr. Welch. I I for
003myself. Motion carries 70. Next item on the agenda is to consider an approved Miss Ber's extended state field trip for BPA to go to Florida May 6th through the 11th. And we had some of these students here acknowledging them winning to go to nationals right now. Yes, I believe there's three of them going. Um, so it's a normal annual trip, um, which we're happy to say that some of our students make it to. Yeah. So, uh, we would seek a motion. I got a motion by Mr. Lman and we'll give Mr. G a second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Post same sign. Motion carries. 70. I look forward to hearing how they do. Next item on the agenda is item nine. Consider and approve Mr. Johnson's trip for the choir
004to go to Omaha May 7th through the 8th. This is also a routine trip. So I would uh seek a motion. Second. I have a motion by Miss Kefir and a second by Mr. Welch. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Post same sign. Motion carries 70. Next item on the agenda is item 10, high student achievement with the principal and director updates which were attached. I hope you all had a chance to read them. Reach out to the appropriate principal if you have any questions. Item 11, aim two, safe, welcoming, engaging learning environment. We don't have anything tonight, so we'll skip to aim three effective and efficient operations. 12A consider and approve administrative recommendations for the renewal of the employment to probationary teacher Ally Brown for 2526 school year. So Ally
005um her position would have been a tier 2 that was discussed at our last meeting on April 14th. Um because the board did not pursue that then her renewal is on this agenda instead of having it on last agenda and removing it if you had approved the tier 2. Does that all make sense? No. No. Okay. Uh when we presented our tier 2 recommendations, there was a fourth grade section on that list. Oh, and you did not pursue that. That's right. I got you. Okay. So, Ally is would have been the position. And so, this now allows her to remain employed for next year as a probationary teacher. Okay. Now, I understand. Does everyone else understand? Okay. So, um is there any discussion? Okay. Hearing none, I would seek a motion. So moved. Second. I
006have a motion by Mr. Raven Horse and a second by Mr. Gist. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Post. Same sign. Motion carry 70. Next item on the agenda is to consider and approve the bid recommendation with Elcore instruct construction, excuse me, for the Stroke High School field improvements that will be happening this summer. And Miss Selfers has that. Yes. So, um, all of these, uh, projects are funded through long-term facility maintenance, which we, uh, receive state aid for. The money can only be used for, um, replacing current facilities. So, it can't be used to build new facilities. It can only be used to replace what we currently have. So, we're replacing the lights, we're replacing the track, and we're replacing the turf field with grass, not artificial turf. artificial turf
007would not qualify for this funding. All the projects have to be approved by the Minnesota Department of Education. If we spend these dollars without their approval and they determine that it was not an appropriate use of funds, then we would be penalized. So, all of these have been pre pre-reviewed by the Minnesota Department of Ed. So, they do qualify for the long-term facility maintenance funding. And again, that can only be used for facilities. it cannot be used for anything else. Uh the bids that we received from Elor were just over 1.3 million. Um the other bids were from Rochester Sanding Gravel which were almost 1.5 million and then Urban Companies which was almost 1.9 million. So Elor was a low bid. Um they um are certified that they will meet all of the requirements. So
008it is our recommendation that you approve this bid from them so that we can get started on the work. And the 1.3 doesn't the lighting or does that include the lights? No, that was separate. That was separate. We voted on that. Did that one last? Yeah. Yeah, they already started. Have you driven by and seen? No. Yeah, they already started the lights. So, they want to get the lights done before they do this other work because the equipment that's used to put the lights in is going to damage if they do this work. Oh, sure. Work at night. So this is the rest of the project. So um is it we seem to have um gone against our LTFM money quite a bit lately. I mean where how does that sit with us couple years?
009I guess the construction projects from summer of 2022 were ended up being lower than what we had projected. Okay. Because we did do some things to do some cost savings and so we have about a half a million dollars in there. Um and um Mr. Sharter is very comfortable with where this will put us uh because we'll be able to pay it over two years. The way that's the financing is structured for this. Um, we won't have to do a bond, but just the way that the work will be done, we'll be able to pay out of two budget years. Okay, good. So, I I was asked when the agenda came out, so there's obviously no home track needs with this summer, this year, or this spring. What about the football field? Will it be
010ready for home games in the fall? Um, we may not be able to get on the field until mid to late September, but Mr. Hughes is already scheduling things as appropriate so that we can be pretty confident on when we can get out to the field. Okay. It includes soccer as well. Oh yeah. I apologize for that. Um is there any other questions or discussion? So I would seek a motion to approve the Elcore construction bid. So moved. Second. I have a motion by Mr. Ravenhor and a second by Miss Kefir. All those in favor signify by saying I. I I oppose same sign. Motion carries 70. Next item on the agenda is to consider and approve the accepting the quote to upgrade the video surveillance system with custom alarm. So this doesn't meet the
011threshold for bids. Um the threshold for bids would require the amount to be 175,000 or more. This is going to be funded through safe schools, capital outlay and LTFM if we need it. Um, but we are looking at our safe schools and our capital outlay dispersements that have come from the state and this should cover those two funds should cover the majority of this. Our current cameras um that are being replaced are 15 years old. And so if you think of any technology that's 15 years old, it doesn't work the way it should any longer. It's outdated and has very limited functionality and the software is no longer available for those cameras. So you think about a laptop that would be 15 years old. It's virtually unusable. Um this will include 156 camera replacements, cabling,
012servers, hardware, software licenses, and the labor and installation. We did get two other quotes. This one through custom alarm was called Open Eye. It's 135,000 and change and then a monthly service fee of $780. The other quotes that we received were from Wisnet Wave at $167,000 and Exact Vision at 173,000. So this was the best bid. Um we also explored you know the differences between the programs and Mr. Conger feels very comfortable with this bid and the services that it will provide. What is a monthly fee? What does that mean? So that's going to allow us to do live monitoring and notifications. So $5 per camera will allow us to get not the supervisors of those buildings notifications on their phone of which door, which alarm, which camera instead of finding out after the fact
013and then going to their offices to look for the incident. They'll get the video right on their phones. So we'll be able to do a much better response time to issues that occur that are related to security. Is that cameras in all are BCI as well or is it Yep. This includes the cameras that are um BCI Bonner middle school and high school. We have a few of these cameras here but it's not as well covered. Sure. Um, primarily the tots door, exterior door, a couple of cameras in the hallways there, and then the front entrance, but not as pervasive as the other buildings. It's going to be quite a change. When's this getting done? This would be this summer. And we're currently with Custom Alarms. Yeah. Custom Alarm also has our um exterior door
014fobing system. Sure. So, these cameras will link right into the fobing system, so it'll be very efficient. Because didn't we have those replaced recently because we were having an issue with the shop door, right? And that alarm going off all the time. Is 156 cameras an increase or is it No, it's the same. It's the same. Okay. So, there's no recommendation for we're we're covering all the space maybe except for here, but we're covering all the spaces we need. Right. Um there's going to be relocations of cameras. So they came out and did a um assessment of something assessment and had these um graphic maps of what coverage is and um the administrators wanted to move some of the coverage and um there's going to be some fisheye cameras versus just one direction cameras that
015can swivel based on motion where we don't have that right now. So much better cameras at a much more reasonable price for sure. Yeah. The technology is just dramatically different. 15 years ago. Oh, it'll be like big brother. Yeah. Everybody will be seen. Perfect. Are there any other questions or discussion? I would seek a motion. I have a motion by Mr. Gon. Is it Aaron? Yeah. And then second by Mr. Lman. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Both same sign. Motion carries. 70. Next item on the agenda would be the superintendent update with Miss Sers. So enrollment is pretty stable. Um we're monitoring the open enrollment as we always have, but we are hovering around 400 kids that are open enrolled. Our total right now is 1929 across the district. Um
016I do want to touch on the legislative update. I'm not going to go through all of this because it wasn't um attached to today. Wasn't able to get the full update until yesterday. Um, there's just a lot going on right now with three weeks left in the session. We do have the education finance bill in Senate File 2255. It was heard in the tax committee last week. Has another committee stopped this week before it goes to the full floor for the Senate vote. Uh, this ed house education finance bill did not get released before the Easter break. Um, we hope to have this early this week, late this week or early next week. Um, I'm very concerned because with only three weeks left and the House not releasing their bill to finance education, with about
017two and a half weeks to go makes me very concerned on whether or not they're going to get done on time. Um, there's a lot of negotiation that has to happen after both bills cross their floors. Um, there has to be reconciliation between the House and the Senate and the governor. So, if they don't get that done by May 19th, then they'll have to do a special session. We need to, and we've talked about this, we need to have our budget for next year adopted by June 30th. That's statute. We may not know what our financial standing will be until after we adopt our budget. So, um there could be a revised budget coming to you in August when we know the follow from the legislative session. Um just some things I want to touch
018on um that are in a Senate bill right now. Some of it is good. Um some of it is going to be more problematic than we had planned on. Uh the first one is the budget target. So their target for next year 2627 is zero. And then they want to reduce 687 million in education funding for the following bienium. So that's dramatic. No increase in the coming year and then a $687 million reduction in 2829. So we're not just looking at the next buy in and we're looking four years out of pretty being financially strapped within the state. If the state is financially strapped, so are the school districts because the majority of our funding comes from the state. Um under the per pupil formula, it removes the annual inflation adjustment for p per pupil
019formulas after fiscal 27. That was a big win for us in the last legislative session that we would get the inflationary increase no matter what. Now they're looking at taking that away. It does set the formula allowance for the coming year at 2.74 and the following year at three and then after that there's no guarantees. They can flatten it at zero. Compensatory revenue is going to hit us and I'll show you in a table later on that their proposal is going to be a reduction for us. Um there are still concerns about how they're going to fund compensatory revenue. They either do it through direct search or filling out the paper form. The paper form we know is highly inefficient, highly unreliable. Um unemployment insurance aid they are looking to support us with 100 million
020for 2627 only and then this becomes the responsibility of the district again. So, uh, we had projected that this would be unfunded for this coming year. 100 million is not going to fund every district and so it'll be prrated. So, we will have some of those expenses coming out of our general fund which comes right out out of our classrooms and our programs. The special ed cross subsidy aid, they're looking to increase that from 50% to 53.26. Unfortunately, the governor's proposal is to reduce special ed transportation by 5% both years. So, it's still a loss for us. We're not going to gain enough with this to make up the difference that we're going to lose in the governor's proposal for special transportation reductions. Uh we don't have enough of our English learner um population here
021to realize any benefits from the cost subsidy increase there. Literacy aid would be based on council of student enrollments. Um it's just going to require us to um align our goals with the our literacy plan. Um it also they're going to use students eligible for free and reduced price meals, but we don't know how they're going to count those. Are there going to be direct certification or those going to be paper enrollment forms? So that has not been spelled out. Um long-term facility maintenance revenue, they're going to allow us to do roof repairs out of that without having to go through a voter bond. So that's a plus for us. Student personnel modifications. So it increases the minimum aid guarantee from 40 to 80, which is helpful, but we would be eligible for the higher
022payment of $48.73. They're going to reduce that by $12 down to $34. So um even though we'll be eligible for the 80,000, we won't get the full funding because we're not going to get that $12 per student. Um, I'm going to go to school library aid. So, we are beyond the $40,000 minimum. They're going to cut the school library aid from $16 down to seven. So, it's almost a $9 loss per student in school library aid. That's going to help not help us with replenishing our collections and, you know, all the equipment that the libraries need. So, that'll put a push on our general fund again. And then this is um unfunded mandated in some ways. So we have to have a cardiac emergency response plan. It'll include automatic external defibrillators. Um they're going to
023give $2 million for the entire state for AEDs in 26 only in FY26 only. That will not be enough. So it's an unfunded mandate because they're going to require us to have this equipment which I'm not. We're in support of it, but if we're going to be required to have it, then it needs to be funded. It comes right under that category of adding on expenses without giving us the resources to pay for them. I wanted to show you the compensatory aid issue. So, the current law that we are getting for this year is almost $555,000. We were expecting to see an increase of almost $50,000 for next year, which would allow us to have increases in the wages that are paid. It wouldn't have allowed us to add a staff member, but basically pay
024for increases in wages. The Senate files proposal is to have 30,000 less than what we're getting this year, and this was not accounted for in our budget um projections. So, we don't have this $30,000 accounted for anywhere. for FY27. The current law is 634. They would meet that law for the FY27, but we're still going to have this $30,000 loss for next year that we have not accounted for in our budget. And you've already passed all the budget recommendations. So, um this is now a matter of us probably being underwater. um because you went to $850, this $30,000 is probably going to be a net of $820. So getting to 9% might be a challenge for us unless we can find $30,000 someplace else that is not going to be an alignment or a reduction.
025The literacy aid this year we're getting almost 98,000. The law um for FY27 would be 88. So there already was already a decrease, but the Senate file proposes 74. So that's a decrease of almost $23,000, which we didn't account for in our budget projections because we didn't see this coming. So we're concerned between the two, it's about $100,000 of lost revenue for next year. Um when the House file comes out, there'll be similar kinds of things that we just did not see coming because they haven't been discussed, haven't been proposed. It just puts the district behind the eightball again and trying to manage our finances and stay on the right side in the black. So, I don't want to be a Debbie Downer, but this is I was not um not pleased with the direction
026that this is going. Do you have any questions? Okay. Is it just a shift in where they're choosing to spend their funds? I think there are no funds to spend. It could be either or, right? It could be either, but health and human services are not getting what they would have expected either. Um, the two biggest areas that this state budgets been spent on is education and health and human services. And we're both in both areas are seeing significant reductions in the funding that they're getting with more expectations to fund it yourself. I saw a couple emails floating around here today and I was just asking the question because they were conflicting in their statements. Yeah. So, this is what we know right now. And the Senate file may not be adopted as is. It
027has to get to the floor and they can make changes up until then. But not seeing the the House file at all is very concerning for us. We just don't know what's we don't know what we don't know. Is there any other questions or discussion? Thank you. Thank you. Uh item 14 would be board committee updates. Uh facilities. So we haven't done anything since our meeting on April 21st. Um I have visited with Haley just to talk about next steps since she wasn't able to be here that evening, but we'll wait until ISG reaches out and start the plan. Okay. U meet and confer as negotiations. Huh? Need to set some dates. Yeah, it's coming. policy just adopted the title N last um at our last meeting. There hasn't been any other work. We'll have
028to wait till the legislaturator's done to find out what policies are going to be changed. Yeah. And then there'll probably be a bunch just word. Uh have any school members done any visits since our last time that we talked? I I wasn't aware so we just put it on here. I would honor last Friday. Okay. Last Friday. Yep. Friday. They had waste management there. Oh, fun. They love garbage trucks, don't they? Garbage trucks. I had a good conversation with Mr. Rap. Uh he was really praising his special a team for all of the work they do and the number of kids that they have. He was really really touting them up. So, I guess good job to those guys. They're doing a good job at Bonner. Mhm. I went to the high school. I went
029into Spanish and English nine um for a couple hours and that went really well. I met with Haley like a month ago. We just You came here? Yeah. Okay. Just walked through the rest of the building and sat and I watched a couple classes and they were doing some sort of obstacle course outside. They thought it was a lot of fun. Did you join them? I held the tube so it didn't blow away. I don't think I would have fit. Yeah, actually I I had a kind of a unique one. I went to central, but it wasn't for a school visit, but I kind of counted it as that. So, um my wife's a parah here. And there was grandparents day, and there was a little little boy that whose grandparents were they lived way
030too far away. So I was a surrogate grandfather. Oh, that's very nice for the day. And what was unfortunate was that nobody questioned it. But no, it was it was a lot of fun. It was a great I know. I know. I know. But no, it's Yeah, that was fun. It was a different different lens to be able to look through on that one. I bet um the little student enjoyed that. Yeah, I don't think you knew who I was. So, I'm getting warmed up pretty quickly. Have you gone home? Um, I go to the middle school on Wednesday, but I did go do roller skating at BCI. Oh, yes. Some fourth graders. And just wanted to shout out to Mr. May for the bringing that in and making it such a fun thing for
031the kids to do. So, they roller skate for a while during gym and then they did all the black lights and all the It was really cool. So, super fun. The kids were having a blast and I was really impressed with their roller skating abilities. They Theirs was better than mine. So, yeah. Yummy. Yeah, I haven't gone either. I Well, I since I last reported. So, okay. All right. Well, thank you. Um I don't believe anybody's going in May unless you do have something lined up, but May is usually really busy in terms of field trips and graduation and everything that they're preparing for. So tomorrow I will be sending out a RSVP form. So each of the special events in which we need to know that you'll be attending will be in the form
032and you just say I will attend, I won't. And then you'll get a copy of your responses so you can add them to your calendar. Nice. Perfect. Man, I love technology when it works. Right. Um uh are there any other from any other committees? Go ahead. Yep. I got Z update. Just a couple of things. Um, for the first time, I think ever, we um increased the cooperative aid that each school district pays zed um per pupil from 650 to 750. I don't know how long's the partnership with Zed been, 30 something years. It's been 650 for 30 something years. Um so we changed it to 750. Uh which impacts the district about a couple thousand dollars. Uh, and those are funds that support some of the programming that they have there like um, knowledge
033bowl or the art show, things like that. Um, that'll start next year. A couple of dates if anybody's interested. On the 9th of May is activity day. Uh, this year it's in Triton. Um, I believe next year it's in Steuartville on the new track. So, um, but this year it'll be at Triton on the 9th. Uh, and then the ALC graduation is on the 28th at 4 PM. If I'll I'll definitely be going. If anybody else is interested, just reach out and um, typically we there's a couple of folks from the district that usually show up. So, the 28th at 4 20. Yep. Wednesday the 28th at 4 p.m. And it's at Z at uh, in the gym. Okay. That's that's all I got. Okay. Uh before we adjourn, I just want to read something.
034Um as the board chair, I want to take a moment to thank all of you who have reached out to share your thoughts and concerns regarding the discontinuation of the gymnastics program. Please know that we have heard you clearly. We truly appreciate the passion and dedication that this program has fostered in our community. We understand that gymnastics has been more than a sport. It's a source of pride, teamwork, personal growth for many of our students and families. The decision to discontinue the program has not been made lightly. Due to the significant financial restraints, we are being forced to make a very difficult choice across several programs and services, including academics and activities. Within the next week, gymnasts who participated in the 2425 season will be provided information and details regarding the status of the gymnastics
035fundraising account. We are hopeful that the gymnasts will find new opportunities to stay active, engaged, and connected through other athletic and extracurricular options. We apologize. Next item on the agenda would be adjournment. I would seek a motion. Second. I have a motion by Miss Kefir and a second by Mr. Gist. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries 70. Meeting is adjourned at 7:30. Drive safe everyone. Oh, can I use your bath, please?