001All right, you are live. >> Good morning. It's 7:01 in the secondary school media center and we will call the meeting to order and we'll start with the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Roll call. Vincent >> present. >> Alrich is not here. Sour >> here. >> Sandstead >> here. >> Mr. Porter is not with us. And Gross >> here. >> We do not have any public comment this morning. Um so we would move into u adopt the agenda. We do have an addition of item 6.6. Uh be a medical leave for Erica Bordon. Are there any other additions or corrections to the agenda? Then
002I would look for a motion to adopt the modified agenda. >> So move >> and a second. >> Second. >> All in favor say I. >> Oh, sorry. Roll call vote. I'm sorry. Uh Vincent, >> yes. >> Sour, >> yes. >> Sansstead, >> yes. >> Gross. All >> good. >> And is a yes. There's your sheet there too. >> Yep. Uh then we move into our administrative uh committee reports. Uh we'll start with business report. >> Good morning. Um first off, I'm going to go through the spreadsheet that I normally do. Um so this is the preliminary numbers for January 31st, 2026. Um and then I'll have a little um another presentation as well. So nothing unusual for January 31st. Um so in the general fund on the first page um we've received about 5
003million in our revenue out of the 12.2 million. So 41% by January 31st. Compare that to 41.6 6 the year before. Then for general fund expenditures, we've spent about 6.3 million in comparison to 12 million budget. So 50.8% compared to 49.6 the year before. Um there is an equipment budget there that is over spent. So, I will go through that and make sure we have updated budgets on that. Um, I know we had some a vehicle purchase and the HVAC system went through there. So, I just have to make sure we have them appropriately budgeted. Then on the second page, um a diff an item that stands out for revenue is um in the trust fund there's 20,513 that came in um and that's not budgeted. that is a additional scholarship trust that we that
004was established a little bit um a year or so ago and um it's for scholarships for girls and boys basketball. So that's going to be in that account now. Um and the interest it was a $20,000 um donation. So any interest that's earned off of that can go to students who who um are awarded that for scholarships. Um then >> could you get all the budget lines to look like that one Tanya? >> Oh to go over to >> revenue. That would be nice >> to be at 2,000%. That would be great. >> Right. That would be great. Then for expenditures, I just wanted to point out we paid our bonds and did debt service. So 279,000 that's in alignment because we pay the debt service um in January each year and that will be
005the last payment. Then um just overall in the summary section, so it shows the 41% in revenue total compared to 40.8 8 the year before and then expenditure is spending 50.7 versus 50.6. So all looks pretty good um in alignment with the budget. And then um to kind of sequel into my next part, you can see that we receive revenue a lot slower than we spend our money. 40 41% in revenue versus 50% in expenditures. So, there is a $ 1.5 million um difference at this time, which I just wanted to say is important to have a fund balance because of how that works. Um so, and then for make sure we're properly investing our money that we do have available so that um we're able to earn interest on that. So, that's what I
006had on this report. Do you have any questions? >> Nope. >> Okay. And then um so Paul said he put the PowerPoint in. >> Is that correct? >> Yep. And they have it on the the other projection screen as well. >> Okay. Okay. So um this is just a quick presentation on um how we should how I'm recommending we should invest our money um that we have available. So um schools have two option basically in Minnesota um Minnesota liquid asset fund and P well I call them PMA but PTMA financial solutions. Um so um I am presenting recommending that we currently use Minnesota liquid asset recommending that we move to PMA. Um so second slide just shows um what kind of services PMA provides for investments, cash flow analysis, they do bond proceeds um they
007do referendum support. So they provide a lot of services and all these services are free as long as we um use them to invest our funds. And then the next slide just shows they're pretty much nationwide. They have over 210 Minnesota school districts. Um one in our area um they do serve Morris area schools and Morris has good experience with them. um they're experienced advisor. They manage over 10 million billion in bond proceeds. And then what um I like about them is they provide cash flow services. So um with liquid acid fund, our funds kind of just sit in a money market account, which is good when money market rates are high. So like in 2023 they and 24 they're around 5%. So that was great. We were getting good interest off of it. But
008now those rates are down to like 3.7 and we could um invest differently and um PMA helps do a cash flow analysis for us and then makes recommendations for investments. Then um all their members are listed in the next slide. Um so it shows lots of different schools. Um there's a couple slides on that or three slides actually. So they do have a lot of experience. Then on the seventh slide, cash flow and investment plan. So you we would get a cash flow projection. So I would provide data to them and then they would go through an analysis and it's a big bar graph and chart and whenever we have money available to invest that's when they make um recommendations that do lots of portfolio management um they recommend us going to CDs or um
009there's different terms series one and two that we can invest in. They also help with debt service if needed. Then um cash flow. So with them the next slide is um maximizing the interest earnings. So um they'll make sure that we get they'll recommend different CDs or different investments and consult with me and then we'd decide what to invest in identify to have enough cash. So they make sure that we have enough liquidity so that we can still pay our bills, pay our payroll and and checks, but then um the cash we don't need is invested. So they also if we tell them we have large purchases they'll back off on the amount of funds that they invest and then they identify if we'll have any negative cash flow balances which then I mean that
010would mean schools would have to borrow in certain cases. So they provide a um on the next slide this shows the um different money market rates that have happened over the past several years. So that's where I said the rates have been around 5% 23 24 but now they have gone down significantly. So that's when it's important to look at other options for investing. And the next slide also shows different rates and what happened during recession and COVID. So after that they provide a cash flow program where they go through actually each individual day and figure out the aid that we're expected to get anything miscellaneous. Then they go through what we're expecting to pay for bills and um for payroll and then come up with a number and then from there make recommendations. So
011after that there's they show grid lines so we can see where um where our ups and downs are in cash flow. That's the next two slides. They also look at fund balance and of course we don't want to be in red um because that would mean the district would need to borrow which is important why we have fund balance in place. Um the next one just these are the contacts. I work with Dave Anderson a lot in some of my other school districts and I work with um Steve Pumper as well. So they're good staff. and then just the disclosure. So, um if the board is um in favor of making this move, it would just require a board resolution in a future board meeting to make the change. And then any of the state
012aid payments that now go into Minnesota liquid asset fund would instead go into PMA. So, it's just a resolution and then a bank change. >> Are there any questions? >> Well, and just to clarify, Tanya, the bank change, we would stay with our local bank, Kensington. It doesn't change that bank. It's just where the those large funds with minrust are invested in like our school liquid asset fund. They're all protected. I mean, there's risk with Minnesota school district liquid asset fund. This has the same protections as that does with that risk. I think one of the values too that I see in this is they'll allow us to so they oftenimes will stagger CDs to say hey here's what you can do you can get a you know a four-year CD and then our local
013banks can also bid on that and then it's the board's decision to say hey we realize it's maybe a half a percent less but those banks are also paying taxes here and things like that right now when that money goes to liquid asset fund there is no local piece out of we have some of our CDs in there for our buses and some of our reserves but I've seen this work very well where they just lay that out and say, "Here's your staggered CDs." So, they'll we could have 10 to 12 CDs at a time as they're just saying, "Hey, you need this one to cash out in 12 months. This one's an 18 month, this one's two years, here's four years, and just to see where those rates are, but then they do push
014that out to local banks to see what rates we can get there as well." So, it does involve our local banks more than what the school district liquid asset fund has. So, um, think about it. We'll put it on. I would say when Tanya is back here at the next meeting on March 18th is when we take action on that and it doesn't take a whole lot to get that moved. Then we just have to sign that resolution. Um if you're in favor of that and they would just move those funds from the liquid asset fund over to M trust. All right. Any other questions at this time? >> Okay. Thank you, Tanya. >> Yep. Thank you. That brings us to our superintendent report. >> Just a couple updates there. Uh the school calendar updates.
015We have two congratulations to the wrestling team on winning at the section championship again and going on to the state tournament. They have changed the structure of the wrestling state tournament here for this upcoming year and I think in years future we're adding girls wrestling and so things have kind of changed a little bit that that way with scheduling. Um, so our first match would be Wednesday. Typically, it's been a Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Now it's Wednesday, but with that, it'll start later as well. So, our first match won't start until 4:00 on Wednesday. Um, sorry, 6:00 on Wednesday. So, we'll do a 2:30 dismissal. So, it'll have little um, you know, impact on our school day. So, we'll run till 2:30. Like I tell families, if they've got uh student or a student athlete that's
016participating and they need to leave at one o'clock, that's excused. You know, they would they could definitely take their students at that time. But for the bulk of our students that'll be here, that'll be until 2:30. I've talked to the bus company already making them aware of that as well. And so for the high school, the only change there is we'll just eliminate advisory for the day and shorten the class periods by 2 minutes. So it keeps that day pretty standard for them. and it'll be a 2:30 dismissal. Depending on the outcome of Wednesday, they have two matches. If they um win one of those two matches, then they would wrestle again on Thursday. And so those matches would either be 4:00 or so if it's a 4:00, we dismiss at 12:30. And if it's
017a 7:00, we would plan to dismiss at um we wouldn't dismiss early. That would just be a normal dismissal time for state wrestling. But first of all, we're just going to deal with Wednesday and see how they do there. Good luck to that group there. It was an exciting time, I heard. I think were you there on Friday? >> I was I was watching from the stands >> stands there. So, yeah, it sounds like a very exciting time. So, good luck to to Coach Gro and all the wrestlers there as they compete down at Grand Casino Arena, which used to be Excel Energy Center. So, and then and then our daycare will also sometimes there's an impact when we close um early. So, our daycare for any of our regular daycare families will stay open
018until 5. So, we do have care um there for those students because we know that that can be an impact for some of our families. And then we will make up school on uh Monday, April or the plan is Monday, April 6th to make up for that day that was missed on Friday, January 16th. So those are the two calendar updates. The board will take official action, but I normally like to wait until in case we have any more days so each month we're not changing the calendar. Legislative update, the legislature convened on February 17th, so yesterday, and they're scheduled to finish by the 18th. MRA will be hosting advocacy briefings uh Mondays through the legislative session. So, if you'd like to join with those or watch the recordings, let me know. I can get
019you that information so you can participate in those. I plan to participate in those when I'm able. Uh the big one that we got to keep a really close eye on is this compensatory funding. So, when they changed to universal meals, of course, that changed the fact that people don't need to submit free and reduced lunch price applications. So, the state then changed. So, now they call it direct certification. So families that qualify for SNAP, different programs and things like that that would qualify them for free and reduced. The state just gives us a report to say these are the students that qualify for free and reduced. While that does have some negative impact because there may be other families that maybe don't qualify for some of those programs that would qualify for free and
020reduced. So we've seen, you know, seen a drop in that number there. The state doesn't even allow you to turn those. I mean, you know, right now they're just taking that number and basing your free and reduced on that direct certification. So, um there's some work through MRA, uh to see what can be done. Hopefully, there's some whole harmless pieces. If not, that could be about $180,000 negative, um revenue source for us in the following school year. So, I know that we're not the only district that's going to see a large hit on that. And I'll forward that information out to you from MEA. They've got an interactive map to show other districts that would be impacted there as well. Uh but it will have that type of an effect at WCA. And then budget
021timeline. Um, just I know that Tanya, Maggie and I have met a little bit to start putting pieces together to review uh getting next year's budget ready to go. We'll meet with our uh supervisors and district our building administrators to start going through pieces there uh because I know at the March meeting that's when we as administration need to come to the board with any proposals for reductions. And so we'll kind of work through that. But I think it's also important that our finance committee meet so we can kind of see what budget targets you want to see for us. The hard part right now um is the fact that our declining enrollment often negates any increase that we get in state funding. So we get that 2 and a.5% or 2.6% but when we
022continue to see slight uh decline in enrollment that usually negates that to bring it at a net zero which isn't helpful when expenses continue to go up. And of course, we had a 3% increase for salaries because we had to do that with our contracts. And so, we'll have to watch that closely as we move forward. But, um, yeah, after the meeting, maybe we can figure out a time, but we'll have to wait because I know the other two folks aren't here that are on the finance committee. So, we'll get that set here hopefully in the next couple weeks uh for that. Got a Lakes Country meeting next Wednesday, the 25th, during the day. State wrestling uh is the 25th through the 28th. And our next committee meeting, if the board approves it, the schedule
023change would be March 9th at 5:00. All right. Any questions for Mr. Brown though? >> 180,000. Is that the general fund or is that specific? >> It's restricted funds, but we can we use it every year. So, it covers we can use it to cover support, you know, additional supports and things like that. So, we're able to expend that money all the time, but it isn't a restricted fund. So it can be counseling dina students, teachers in our lower grades and things like that. So it's always expended each year. >> All right. And then I'll move us to the approval of the payment of claims. Um do you have anything on that, Mr. Brown? >> Maggie did send an email just kind of explaining a few things there. Um and I had it pulled ready
024to go. So, um, just a couple things to bring to your attention. Payroll, we we're very happy with the work that Bonnie's doing. So, in this, um, wires, payroll wires and things like that, we have three payroll. So, that one looks a little bit larger, but she's able to get So, the payroll that happened on the 13th is already included in this in these board bills and which is amazing there. So, we're happy to see that. We do have an unemployment check going in at the end of the month here for 5,921. Um, and then large expense through interstate power systems of $10,000 for our generator here for the secondary school. I know Chad's been doing some work to see if we can keep that work locally because often times when you bring folks from
025Fargo or the cities, the expense is large just to even get them here. Then once they get here, if they don't have the right part, then they got to go back and that doesn't eliminate any of that cost. We just have to pay that again. So, I believe we've got a local vendor uh that's working to look that over to see if they can help us there as well. Uh and then we did have our contract services for in the business office for both uh business manager and a month of payroll were included in this um in this board bills as well. Okay, any questions on that? And I would look for a motion to approve the payment of $863,623.16. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Uh, roll call. Gross. >> Yes. >>
026Sandstead, >> yes. >> Sour, >> yes. >> I'll be a yes. Vincent, >> yes. >> Payment is approved. Then that brings us to our consent agenda. You have the minutes for the January 21st regular meeting, the February 4th committee meeting. Um you also have uh the hire of Grant Iner. >> Yep. >> For the physical ed long-term sub position as well as um Lauren Byer's return uh from leave notice. Are there? And then we have the final reading of the following policies. Uh policy 615, testing accommodations, modifications, and exemptions for IEPs. Section 504 plans and LEP students. Policy 616, school district system accountability. Policy 618, assessment of student achievement. And policy 619, staff development for standards. Are there any questions or comments on any of those consent agenda items? And I would look for a
027motion to approve the consent agenda. >> So move >> and a second. >> Uh roll call. Let's go with Sandstead. >> Yes. >> Sour. >> Yes. >> I'll be a yes. Vincent, >> yes. >> And Gross. Motion carries. And that brings us into new business. We have uh the following uh the approval resolution accepting donations. Today we have the following. WCA North PTO um $181.17 for recorders for music. Community Health Auxiliary, $1,000 for age friendly supplies. uh WCA North PTO $500 for a library donation as well as the music boosters uh $2,500 going towards musical salary. Do we have a motion for that resolution? >> So move >> and a second. >> Second. >> Uh roll call. I'll be a yes. Vincent, >> yes. >> Gross. >> Yes. >> Sandstead, >> yes. >> And Sour,
028>> yes. And then we move into our approved the 2526 certified staff seniority list. Do you want to give a little background on that, Mr. Brown? >> I can. Yep. And so you'll see the explanation there on that front page and that was shared with staff as well. Just trying to provide some clarity. I know that I received a few emails that said thanks for helping us better understand. And so I think the biggest thing that was throwing some um people off was the idea of the that it's alphabetical order. So if they're all in the same year, say 17, 2017. Right now we're listing it in alphabetical order. We're not going to go each year and say, "Okay, well this person did this, did this," and keep moving that list all the time because
029that would add confusion. But these will be the pieces then um that would be taken there. And I think the other piece too, our contract is silent on the fact of what it is at first day of work or date hired. And so I did consult with both CLA as well as then the union co-presidents and it should we decided it should be the first uh day of continuous service um really because of the fact that if somebody's hired let's say we have an early hire all the way back in March and then another position comes open in June nobody gets to demonstrate their first day of work until that same day in August at workshop. So it's just a first date continuous service and then just that the different uh pieces that would be
030considered as we make decisions um at the discretion of the district and the best best interest of our students in the district would be um the criteria we'd include would be performance teacher performance. It does say in the contract right now if a teacher's on a teacher improvement plan uh that they would be you know the one of the first to be reduced training experience additional duties. So if they're coaching, advising are on uh school district committees, skills in specific in special assignments, special or advanced certifications obtained in the teachers field and subject matter employed. So maybe we've got somebody who needed to get an online 18 degree so they can teach a college level biology class, a college level um social studies class. If we made that re, you know, if people were at
031the same seniority level and then we made that reduction, that could cause us to lose classes that would be available for our students and then any other relevant factors. But that does kind of clearly lay that out. And so our staff have had opportunity to review that and so that list now and then the other thing I want to point out, remember last year we moved preschool into the list. There is no difference now between preschool staff and regular staff. And so that does move those folks. Um, one of our teachers who's been here a long time moved up to 2001. Um, and before she would have been at 2017 because that's when she took a teaching position. But as soon as we added in her continuous service as a preschool teacher, put her back
032to 2001. Then our other three teachers are 15, 16, and 17. And last year we had them at 2017 because that's when they were incorporated into the teacher contract as a regular um there used to be a separate ECF contract and now they're all considered under one. Um so we've made that change as well and that was um that's what was suggested by the union co-presidents as well when they did their vote a year ago. So that's for the C certified staff. the non-certified staff is a lot easier because for the most part those folks are starting, right? If we hire a pair, the only thing would be a pair is if they didn't start if we hired them in maybe in May because we knew we had four openings, which we won't do very
033often because we need to see where our student numbers flesh out over the summertime. But if that um you know, that would be one of the anomalies there, but otherwise it's going to be again that first date of service uh for that group as well. But that group is often times they're starting within a week or two of being hired. So there isn't much discrepancy on that piece, but again continued service to the district. It doesn't mean so we had some folks say, "Hey, I worked with the in the district back in from 14 to 19." Well, then they had a break in service. So then that city starts over again. However, we would recognize them for the years of service. So let's say they've got five years in one chunk of time and then
034they take three years where they're not here and they come back and do another five years. We're going to give them their 10ear service pin. I mean it doesn't hold them back from anything that way. It's just seniority isn't isn't we believe fair if somebody's been there. Now if somebody takes you know if a teacher takes a leave their seniority date retain that's part of that leave agreement is their re their seniority is retained. So right now we have somebody who's looking to take a 5-year leave that date to hire stays still at that point. They don't drop five years and or a year each year because they haven't been here teaching. that does retain for them. >> Okay, any other questions on that? So, we'll handle those two separately. Uh the first would be
035the to approve the 2526 certified staff seniority list. Is there a motion for that? >> Some moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> And we will uh Vincent. >> Yes. Gross. >> Yes. >> Sandstead, >> yes. >> Sour, >> yes. >> And I'll be a yes. And then we will take action on the non-certified seniority list. Is there a motion for that? >> Somewhere. >> And a second. >> Second. >> And Gross. >> Yes. >> Sansstead. >> Yes. >> Sour. >> Yes. >> I'll be a yes. And Vincent, >> yes. >> All right. And then we have the calendar for 2627. >> Yeah. And I placed a copy um there and I'll get it updated on the well I think I've got it already updated on the the digital packet there as well.
036Um but this is now the the final copy and so you'll see there. So we did uh add ask for staff input and it came back 75% were in favor of the early start. So starting September 1st uh before Labor Day and then we would also end prior to u Memorial Day. Memorial Day ends on the is the 31st. So we'd end school. The last day for students would be the 26th. Staff would be the 27th. We did say that we would survey our families um for graduation to see if they're comfortable moving everything to the 28th. So, we'll get that out um for them so they know a little early cuz of course this is not this year's graduation but the following year's graduation. Um there I think some pieces that were so we
037do have a week and a half at Christmas time. There is actually a kind of a you could say a Martin Luther King Day break where we'll have the 15th would be a staff day. That would be the end of the quarter. The 18th would be or excuse me the 15th is the end of the quarter. The 18th is a staff development day. Uh no for no school for students. There's actually a President's Day break. So having that uh Friday would be a teacher comp day and the Monday following is a day off. So there's a break there. Easter um we would have our last day with students on the 24th. The 25th is a staff day. And then the 26th and 29th are both days off for for our staff and students with the
038exception of our 12-mon staff would have to be in on that Monday. Uh but that does give a longer Easter break there as well. And then April is a full month and some folks did mention that. But then we would look to end school for students on the 26th of May. Uh 27 would be staff day. So, our potential makeup days are going to be March 29th, that Monday. We don't do Good Friday because that is a holiday for some of our staff. Now, in their contract, it does say that we can bring them back if need be, but we try to avoid that if we can. And then we would also look at the 27th and 28th as snow days, but remember, we have our TOPS day takes care of the first snow day.
039we can use five e-learning days and then we would go to making up snow days if need be um for that case there. And I know we're talking a little bit amongst our staff to see how we maybe revamp e-learning days for the future. So we've got a group that'll be getting together to review those days. All right. Any questions on the calendar? And I would look for a motion to approve the 2627 school calendar. And a second. >> Second. >> Uh, Sandstead, >> yes. >> Sour, >> yes. >> I'll be a yes. Vincent, >> yes. >> And Gross, >> yes. >> Motion carries. And then we have uh 6.5. Approve to change the March committee meeting date from the 4th to the 9th at 5:00 p.m. Um, we talked about that kind of last
040meeting. Um any questions, comments on that changer of our meeting for March? I did reach out to um Darren Severs with school perceptions that is two hours enough to get that done. He said yes. He said we'll be coming with questions prepared. He said that it's a matter for the board to look those over and make any tweaks, but he said we don't start blank slate. He said we'll have some questions. Then I said, "We of course have your questions from the last um survey that was done." So we said, "We'll review those, but they'll plan to come with a with a set of questions already kind of um already made to say, okay, here's the question. Here's the answers that we hope to get. You know, this is the answers that we um need
041to look for and things like that." And so they'll have that all ready to go uh for us. And so they said two hours would be a great plenty. I think we also said that our administrators would not um bring their admin reports to that meeting as well and so that would give us the full two hours prior to that because it is the choir concert that night. >> Any other questions on that one? >> And I would look for a motion to approve that change of meeting >> and a second. >> Um I'll be a yes. Vincent, >> yes. >> Gross. >> Yes. >> Sanstead. >> Yes. >> And Sour. Yes. >> And then our final item would be the medical leave for Erica Bordon. >> Could I get a motion for that? Medical
042leave >> and a second. Second. >> And uh Vincent, >> yes. >> Gross. >> Yes. >> Sanstead. >> Yes. >> Sour. >> Yes. >> And I'll be a yes. That brings us to the end of our agenda. >> Motion to approve. Is there a second?