001But it is going. >> It is going. Okay. Well, it is 6:06 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. Uh, roll call. Vincent, >> present. >> Olrich >> here. >> Sour, >> yes. >> Sandstead, >> yes. >> Porter, >> here. >> And Gross, >> here. >> Um, do we have any public comment tonight? No one back there wants to make any comment. All right. Uh, then we will look to our agenda. If you notice on the back, um, we have a couple of resignations that we've added and also
002remove the, um, the agreement for right now is not complete yet. >> Nope, it'll be on December. Yep. >> It'll be on the next board meeting for that. So, um, are there any other additions or corrections to the agenda? And I look for a motion to approve. So, move. Second. All in favor say I. >> Motion carries. >> That'll bring us right into our committee reports. We'll start with the truth and taxation hearing. >> Okay. Good evening. Um I will be going through a PowerPoint presentation for truth and taxation and um Paul will chime in when he feels the need and he's going to be running the slides for me. So, um, feel free to ask questions anytime during the during the presentation. Um, I might not see you, so just, uh, let Paul know
003and or we can take questions at the end, too. So, so this is the 2825 payable 2026, um, levy that we're looking at. These first few slides are just to read over. um truth and taxation law um requires that cities, counties, and school districts follow certain steps before they adopt a tax letter. [clears throat] And then there's a mailed notice that comes from the county each year. I don't know if you if you have received it yet, but it should be received very shortly. Um and it shows what the percentage increases are. Um next slide. So, we have this requirement um to have this meeting and allow public comment or questions. So, that's why we're here tonight. So, next there's three requirements um to share the current budget. So, the budget for 2526 um the
004proposed levy changes any changes from the prior levy to this levy and some explanations and then allow for public comment. And that's according to statute [clears throat] 257.065. So, um things to remember for our levy, um all of our revenue or formulas that are set up by the state, they have a lot of complex, um formulas in place. Um the levy sheets are like 30 pages long each year, so it is pretty complicated. um local levy and state aid is included. So sometimes if levy is going up, that doesn't necessarily mean we're getting more revenue. It might be that state aid went down an equivalent amount. So that's called equalization. The state only has so much money to allocate in each of their um buckets of money. [clears throat] So that's why that changes every
005every year. So an increase doesn't necessarily mean an increase in revenue. So then next we will look at the school district budget. This is the budget that was originally adopted for 2526. And the district does have five different funds. Um the general fund of course is the main one that accounts for most of the activity which would be the student enrollment revenue. um local referendum levy, all the expenditures for classroom instruction and supplies, equipment, special ed expenditures, extracurricular, transportation, and then all the buildings and grounds, facilities, capital, [cough and clears throat] and health and safety. So, that's the biggest fund. And then food service just accounts for the breakfast and lunch program. >> [clears throat] >> Community service is uh outside of the K12 arena. So it would be anything related to early childhood levy,
006um enrichment programs, um school readiness, which is like the preschool, and then adult basic education. Then we have debt service and that accounts for when we pay bonds off for principal and interest payments. The fifth um fund [clears throat] is not listed here is we do have a small trust fund that's for scholarships. [clears throat] So um the numbers for the revenue is on the next slide. Um, so it shows the 2425 actual revenues and then the 2526 budget and the change and it's just listing the four main funds. Um, so the general fund had a just a change of negative 1.8 compared to the prior year. Food service a change of 3.4. Community service is a change of 36.6 six, but that's because um in 2425 we approved a transfer of funds into community
007service of $200,000. So that's why that there's a significant difference there. And then debt service is an increase of 50% which is it's based on the principal and interest payments that we have on our bonds. So um the next slide shows a graph of where the revenue comes from in the general fund. So 74% is state aid. So we're highly driven by the amount of students that we have in our district. So as that changes um that revenue amount changes. The next largest piece is property taxes. And then we have f a little bit in federal and local. Then next for expenditures, we're listing the same funds comparing the 2425 actuals to the original budget for 2526. In the general fund, there's only a small change of 1.4. Food service 6.2. to community service is
008about 18% and um that we're going to look into a little bit further. Um I think it's a very conservative budget at this point. So um we could potentially reduce the expenditure budget we have in that in community service. Then debt service about a 5% change. Then um next to break out general fund expenditures by program. So the Minnesota Department of Education has a complicated coding structure and there's many different programs that we have to categorize. So um the biggest area that we spend which makes sense is in regular instruction. That's 43.3%. And then secondly would be special education. That's 15.2%. Then there's all the other different areas as well. Okay. So next we have another pie chart that just shows expend expenditures for the general fund by object. So um salaries and benefits. If
009we total the two large amounts, 53.2% in salaries and 15% in benefits, that's about 69% of our expenditures, which makes sense. I mean, we are have a lot of people in different positions to be there for the students. And then next would be 23% in contracts, which a lot of that is special ed contracts that we have. and then 5% supplies and the other areas are equipment and other. So now we'll shift to talking about the school district levy. It affects three different years. In 2025 is when we certify the levy. We start the process in September and then do a final certification in December. Then um all the collections at the KUI level are done during the 2526 school year and then we actually don't record the revenue on our books until fiscal year
01027. So we have different authorities um for school levies. They're either set by formula, they're folder approved or board approved. And we do have two voter approved referendums, one for operating and one that capital projects levy. Then next, um there's different impacts that change that make the levies change, which is inflationary pressures, different abatements that might reduce certain properties. There's property improvements that haven't been previously taxed. Then there's changes in market values and then changes in property tax classifications for West Central area school. We have two funds that we levy for. So 97% of it is all general fund and only 3% is community ed. The previous year we had a portion that was debt service but now that debt will be paid off. So I'll go through that in a minute. So the next
011slide shows um in green you can see that's our proposed 25 pay 26 levy a total of 2,783,74162. So um compares it to the previous year which was 2,753944. So only a change of about 30,000 total which is an increase of 1.08%. So not a big change. You can see the dollar differences in general fund 295,305 and then the debt service fund a minus um and that has to do with the LTM was going into fund 7 which is debt service fund and that was helping to pay off the the debt payments that we had but now will be the last year that we make that principal and interest payment. So that goes away. So the money goes back into the general fund. Then um specifically breaking out [clears throat] the general fund itself, that's
012an increase of 12.25% and 1 through 12 lists all the different levy areas. So, um, a lot of the first I mean 1 through six, they're all going down and a lot of that is either equalization that we talked about the tax the aid and levy shift or um a reduction in our number of students which then reduces the revenue. And then the biggest item is number nine, long-term facility maintenance, shows that increase to 276,106 because it moved back from debt service to the general fund. [clears throat] The only one other big one that changed is the capital projects referendum number 11 and um that was approved a few years ago. So it started out at 300,000 and it was voter approved and it will change every year depending on the net tax capacity of
013the district. So um as the net tax capacity increases that will keep increasing. So it did increase 46,773 [clears throat] from the previous year. Okay. Um the community ed is the next levby comparison and very little changes um increase of 3.08% just in early childhood which is based on the 04 census count. So just a small increase there. Then the last slide, I know you're not approving anything tonight, but this is typically what a resolution would look like for um approving the levy, which will be on the next board meeting. So, it just lists out the total by dollar amount for the general fund and community service fund and has you um certify it to all the counties. Oh, do you have any questions? Perfectly stated. No questions. >> Well, that's great. >> All right,
014there are no questions and we'll move to our next comprehensive achievement and civic readiness presentation, formerly known as >> world's best workforce. should have left it a pop quiz. All right. So, I get to present our comprehensive achievement and civic readiness [clears throat] report. And the first slide just has our mission statement on it. Um, which we all >> because it's a PDF I have to it'll be a little different than the presentation. >> It should be okay. Okay. So, I'll just I'll do my best. >> Yep. Um and then this slide that you see here, it just explains what the CACR report is. So, it was in 2013 statute um state statute went into place that we have a world's best workforce and it's really the goal is to enhance our student achievement through
015teaching and learning. And then in 2024, legislature renamed it to the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness. And there are five goals. So, um, all public and charter schools in the state of Minnesota are required to develop a plan with these five goals. That children all children are ready for school, that we work to close the racial and economic gaps, that we have students that are career and college ready, that all students graduate, and that we are preparing lifelong learners. And remember, the lifelong learners was just added last year. Prior prior to that it was the all students can read by third grade and that one is no longer on there. Here's our timeline for um our plan at WCA. So we worked on developing our report based on our goals from last year um starting
016this summer and two just recently and then developed our new goals for this current school year. Tonight I'm here presenting our summary and then I'll also present our goals that we have um drafted for this school year as well and then you'll go through the approval and then we'll continue to work through um and implement the goals that we have set. So the first goal is that all children are ready for school and we had set the goal that 80% of students who are eligible for kindergarten will meet proficiency on a district created readiness rubric and that goal we did not meet. We had 65% of our students um as they enter kindergarten were using the rubric were kindergarten ready. Um we did look at just our WCA students and that was 67%. So [clears
017throat] the 65% was all students, 67% was our um students who went through our preschool and that was a little bit higher. And then our goal for this coming year or for this current year is that by the end of the school year, so by May 80% of students will demonstrate readiness and we're going to use our core advantage assessment and that is aligned with our preschool curriculum. So um the goal is a little bit similar but we are changing the way we measure it just because that is an assessment that the teachers already give and they um gather data on that throughout the school year and that will give us some really good information on their math literacy and social emotional science social studies those pieces. So we'll use that um assess a little
018bit of a different assessment going for this school year going into um next year. Our next goal was that all um on closing the achievement gap and that goal was set that we would close the gap between our free and reduced lunch and the students who did not qualify by at least 1% and the gap for reading and this was in all third through 8th grade. So we pulled MCA data from third grade through 8ighth grade and in reading we did reduce the gap by 3 and a half% and in math we reduced it by 11%. And Paul and I did a lot of looking at um the different grade levels and just making sure that you know it's important to make sure we're reducing the achievement gap for free and reduce and we'll continue
019to make sure that we're um looking at the data to make sure that all of our student groups grow too. Is that more difficult with the free lunch now that people, you know, that we've talked about the fact that now that there's free lunch, people don't fill out the paperwork, all is that more difficult now or is it does it still translate? >> Well, I would say you're going to have probably less reported under the free and reduced lunch category because they're if they don't fill out the form, then they're not identified, but they would go into the non-free and reduced. So, we'd still have their data. it would just be under the different category for reporting >> and some of those will still qualify under the direct certification. So, the state's kind of taken
020that over under SNAP benefits and so we'll still have that piece there, but yeah, people filling out the form is kind of a thing of the past. >> Okay. Um want to go to the next one unless there's any other questions about Sorry. No, that's okay. >> Well, this shows our goal. So, did you go >> Oh, sorry. Yes. Okay. Um so, this was our goal for this school year. We're still going to look at the free and reduced price um lunch population, but just changing the goal a little bit. Instead of um having the gap decrease, just looking at increasing their reading proficiency. So the students who were proficient in the 25 school year 30 or the end of last year, which was the 2025 MCA data, we had 38 and a half% and
021we want to increase that to 50% of our students. And then the math prof proficiency increase it from 39 to 50% as well. And that will also be in third through 8th grade. The next goal is around that students are college and career ready. So we look at three different criteria and in order to meet this goal students need to have at least one of the three. So they don't need to meet all three but they have to have at least one of the three criteria. Enroll in a course. have a completion of two or more college courses or score at or above the ACT college readiness benchmark. And so our goal, you want to scoot down to the next one, was that 100% all of our students would have at least one of those
022criteria and we had 98%. So we were so close. So, um, for four for 54 out of our 55 students. And so, next year, we're going to keep actually that same goal in hopes that we can have 100% of our students, all of our students be college and career ready. So, that's what that next slide is, just saying it's the same. Our goal was that we would have 95% of our um, students in the class of 2025 have a graduation rate of at least 95% and we had 97%. So, we met that goal and our goal next year will stay similar that we'll have at least 95% of our students graduate in the class of 2026. And then this last goal, this was the new one that was added under the CACR is that the
023stu um that we are preparing students to be lifelong learners. And so our goal that we had set for last year was having at least 80% of our seniors participating in a variety of learning experiences. So Mr. Wood um along with a few other of the secondary teachers looked at students who may went to DC FFA, they're involved in work-based learning, extracurriculars such as sports or musicals, choir bands. We looked at all the different um activities that are offered to provide a a variety of learning experiences and 92% of the graduating class of 2025 had participated in an additional um learning experience. So that's a great met that goal by quite a bit. And the goal for our current school year is that we'll have at least 85% and we're going to actually have our
024graduating class do an exit survey. So, we're going to um instead of having the teachers and Mr. Wood looking through that data, we're going to survey the students and get some information from them as they um graduate to see what they participated in and get their perspective on their learning experiences. And then we looked at what are some areas that we need to um that we're continuing to look at and and grow in here at WCA. and just continuing to um always look at our our achievement our academic achievement for students. So some ways that we are working um through through that this year or improving it is looking at our data teams and our student assistant teams. So revamping those to make sure that we're looking at the whole child. How do we um
025look at reading, math, and behavior? We have our new EL um English language arts curriculum for K12. Um we're in year two of implementation for K5 and then the first year for 612. Our teachers are undergoing letters training and our pair professionals will have all completed letters training by the end of this year. And then the next group will start letters training in the upcoming year and then um I myself and Claire is on that committee and Paul is there too. We are um working through a curriculum advisory committee that has a couple parents on it as well and just looking um to get feedback from the public and um different groups to make sure that we are going through and and getting input in the curriculum advisory um the curriculum review process. We're also
026continuing to look at our student attendance, making sure that all students feel connected because if they feel connected, they're going to come to school. That's our graduation rate. That's the broad learning experiences. And so how do our course offerings um really keep students engaged and keep them involved? And then our school culture, as you know that we're um doing the Justin's Renaissance framework this year. We'll continue to survey student, staff, and the community. And then our PLC's this year at the secondary school have um some new focuses with student connections, attendance, um cell phones, the reach program that we have. So those are all different pieces that we have been working to implement to to grow our grow here at WCA. Any questions or comments? So I'm curious are there guidelines out there for let's
027take all students are ready for a career college for example the goals that we have underneath that heading. >> Yeah. >> How are they developed? Are they >> Yeah. that we come up with or are there guidelines or >> That's a good question. So, um, from MDE, there are certain pieces that they that they give for ideas. Um, so like I pulled I pulled this off of their website. They said you can use the college entrance exams, you can use post-secary outcomes, graduation rates, local assessments. So, they do give some guidelines. Um, but some of it is also, you know, they just said like um kindergarten ready, school readiness. So, it's a little bit open to do you want to use your own district created rubric? Do you want to use an assessment that you
028already have? So, MDE um did provide does provide some guidelines. They have five bullet points on their website that we can use and then from there we can um look to see how it would fit in with our with our district. >> I that meeting was excellent. ran a great meeting the curricular advisor meeting and we talked a little bit about really the need for the community and board members to to understand what happens at data teams and when the PLC's are working and how do we showcase that a little bit because it is very productive and it's working for students and that's why you're seeing increase in scores. So, I don't know how we do that if we have people to present or if we put together a video. But I really think we
029need to find a way so people can see what that looks like. What does that mean? And how does it help this? Because it's pretty pretty impressive. You guys are doing great work. So, I would really like to see us find a way to do that. I know people are busy, but how do we make it a little bit? >> I like the videotape idea where we can do it during their workday, but present it to the board. Maybe at certain meetings we say here's showcasing our >> reading curriculum. Here's showcasing our math curriculum and things like >> well and how do they talk about student data? I mean, we have to be careful about confidentiality, but how do you say, "Oh, gee, we've got these kids that are struggling with cause and effect." And
030so, you know, just how do you work that through? [cough] Even if [clears throat] you use fictitious names or something, but I think it would be really good for people to see how how detailed that is for each child. I mean, it's pretty drilled down. >> So, but that was a really good meeting and there was good community input at that meeting. really good parenting. >> Yes, it really was. >> Any other questions or comments? >> Hopefully. The biggest thing you saw on there as well is just that uh survey so I think we're going to do a better job of getting seniors emails once they leave so we can check probably right away once they leave. How how did things go? Did you go into the workforce? Are you going to college? And then
031after there did you feel like you were prepared for college bio or you prepared for college English and things like that or do we have to tweak then some of the things we do here? Did they have exposure to activities that we would find valuable? So I think it's doing that also surveying our parents hopefully we can get you know some more input there on curriculum. We have some parents that are there that are great, but even getting more [clears throat] parents to give that provide that feedback and really even on our current the CACR report to get more community input there to say, hey, what things are we doing well? What things would you like to maybe see done differently? What things can we improve upon? And I think that gets some buy in
032as well. So, I think that survey is going to be an important piece of students, staff, community, and then just trying to get that engagement within our buildings as well. It'll be next year's assignment. You'll all have to come back and tell us what you're doing. >> You guys pick the right meeting to come to. >> Write all those names down quick. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Then we'll move into administrative reports and we'll bring us right back to you, >> Miss going. Um, so we finished conferences with the even with the [clears throat] snow day and the change in schedule, we had 96% of our families attend between the two elementary schools. So a very high a very high rate of attendance. Um, we just really appreciate the opportunity
033[clears throat] that we have when parents come in so we can set goals for the [cough] rest of the school year and just take time [clears throat] to discuss progress and u make that partnership. So, thanks to all the families and we also have held book fairs and Penny um Peterson and Carla Nadwick took the lead on those. So, we appreciated um the the time and effort they put into getting those because that brings brings funds back into our library. Then, um Ki and I have been meeting with um his name is Craig from Lakes Country Service Co-op and we've been doing these math pathway meetings. They are we attend virtual meetings on um instructional practices series that's hosted by Compass. So that's a state [clears throat] I'm on some of those meetings I'm with
034people from all over the state. And then Craig comes to our building once a month and him, Kari and I are talking through the math um instructional practices in addition to looking at the new standards for 2022 because those will go into full implementation in 27 and 28. So, at the end of this school year, we are going to do some work with our staff in May. Um, and I think that'll be a welcome change because we've been so focused on on literacy the last few years. So, we'll be starting to go into the new math standards to prepare for that implementation. Um, back to literacy, we have our another letters training [clears throat] in December. Um, so we're getting close to wrapping those up for our K4 teachers in addition to special ed and
035reading intervention. And as Claire had said, we had a district district curriculum advisory council meeting on the 20th of November. Nicole Bolinsky came and talked about our 612 social studies review process, where we're at right now. So, I appreciated her coming and speaking on behalf of the team. And then I just provided some updates on where we're at with the readact um and on MDE standards and then implementation timelines such as the math one and then where we're at with our district's curriculum review cycle cycle in addition to some of the instructional frameworks that we've changed at the elementary school due to the ELA standards changing. Uh REN team update. We're excited to have our first high- five Friday at North. The students on Nate's um REN team at the high school are going to
036come and do [clears throat] that at North on this Friday and then the following Friday they will be at South. So we are excited to have some high schoolers in our buildings and I've been doing random knocks at both schools so teachers can nominate a class or a student for it could be maybe an improve improved test score or they were recognized for something really positive. Um so I've been doing those and it's so fun. when I was in a first grade classroom today and they were jumping up and down and cheering for themselves, which is great because they had done really well in their subtraction math test. [laughter] Um, we [clears throat] had our students of the month for responsibility recognized in November and then we're focusing on responsibility again and we'll have all
037school assemblies at the end of December that the fourth graders will be leading. Our Christmas concert at North is tomorrow and South is December 11th and Mrs. Johnson and Miss Bordon are the concerts are going to be amazing. So, I'm really excited about those. And then I just couldn't be more proud of our staff for how hard they're working. There was a lot of a lot this year with the letters training, all the ELA work. We updated our report cards and just their willingness to adapt, implement the new teaching practices and change as we as we learn and grow. It's been really incredible. And then one [clears throat] thing I didn't have on my report, but Carol 11 came to South on Monday and did a new segment on Mark and all of the um
038decorating he does at South. And so they came on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving um and did a little piece on him. And then they came back on Monday and interviewed some students and Mark and myself and got footage of kids coming off the bus and seeing the lights for the first time. So, I believe it's going to be aired on December 22nd at the 10:00 news. And once I have that confirmed, then I'll share that out with with everyone. Um, but it's a pretty special thing that they came and did a segment on him. So, he deserves it. The the school looks amazing. So, any questions, comments? >> Awesome. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> That'll bring us to Mr. Wood. Alrighty. Uh my order porch starting with our musical once again was
039a great success. If um I hope that everyone had a chance to go and see the musical. It was >> [snorts] >> um really a whole lot of fun. I thought our students and staff did a fantastic job with the musical and it turned out excellent. Um some other things going on. November 19th we had a presentation from the Zero Abuse Project focusing on the positive traits of Jacob Wetling. um trying to shift the focus from the tragedy of Jacob Wetling into instead celebrating how he lived and kind of how we build the um community based on those positive traits. Um very well received by our students. A very um we had all 512 students at the presentation. Um very well behaved, very good questions. Um, in regards to the presentation, parent teacher conferences, we
040also um had ours this November 25th and then the rescheduled one on December 1st. Um, we [clears throat] continue to provide valuable opportunities for meaningful conversations. We we especially at the secondary level continue to try and find ways to make conferences a meaningful experience for parents. um they were quite well attended for the fall conferences and we're looking at some things for the spring conferences to try and continue to build that attendance up here at the high school. Uh other things going on, we had our first recognition rally um celebrating first quarter with our students on November 25th. Um we celebrated students of the month um recognized students with perfect attendance. Another cool part of that um that I don't have in my report but was that um teachers could give random shoutouts, submit random
041shoutouts to about students and then Mr. Gro read all those out loud to everyone at the the rally. It it was pretty cool. Um, our student renaissance team has been doing a ton of work um, in our building and they helped lead this rally. Uh, and they did a fantastic job and are really stepping up in a lot of different ways as Caitlyn mentioned with um, some of the high five Friday and just being willing to help out and really go above and beyond to help out with things. And lastly, just um, you know, feel very blessed with the energy and dedication that we have in our student staff and community here at West Central. And it's really a good thing going on. So, um, any questions for me? >> I guess I'll make I'll
042make make a comment, you know, going back to when we this Renaissance thing started and going San Diego, but I was maybe minimally skeptical, but I got to say, you guys are really, you're doing what you said you're going to do, and that's nice to see. So, I appreciate that. I everybody else does >> and it's it's it is really a great framework. Thank you. And and you know, I think the hard part is there's so many cool awesome things you want to do and to the focus on trying to keep it small and sustainable and build as we go has been a main focus for us too. So >> awesome. Thank you, Mr. Wood. That brings us to Mr. Fosling. >> My report is short this week so or this month. So, I was
043long the last couple months. Uh, we had our corporate partner recognition night last night. It's early in the season to do that, but it felt like a good time to uh get that taken care of last night. Uh, have a state high school league board meeting tomorrow morning in the cities. Uh, we have a band concert here on December 8th at 700 p.m. We have the first annual girls grant county wrestling tournament on Friday, December 12th. I think we are at 17 teams I think right now that they may not be big. We we don't know that wrestling count yet but uh we'll know that here kind of the middle of next week. So kind of cool. We'll see how that all comes together. So um we have our and you're going to laugh at
044this our second 40th annual Grant County wrestling invite on Saturday. There's some discrepancy on when the 40th is. So we kept it [laughter] we kept it the same this year. So, um, >> we're going to have it covered yet. You do a couple more years. We'll make sure we get the 40. >> So, we're just going to call it the second 40th annual. Next year will be the 41st. So, >> we have a choir concert coming up here on Monday, December 15th at 700 p.m. The 56 concert is that same week on Thursday at 2 p.m. Our senior high knowledge bowl team heads to Concordia also on Thursday, December 18th. and our boys and girls basketball teams are in the Pelican Rapids Holiday Tournament December 29th and 30th. Uh what's not on my report is
045I want to thank you guys for your support for online tickets uh through the first two games. I'll be honest with you, it has been very smooth. >> So, thank you for allowing us to do that and and being behind that opportunity. And I think that people would tell you who have worked the gate, it's gone very easy. So, thank you. Hopefully, it continues that way. We're only two in what 30 games this winter, but it's been good. So, I don't know if you've heard anything, but it's been been good on our end. So, >> guess my ticket didn't work the way I could get in. Yeah, >> it worked the second night. >> Yeah, it did. >> Any questions, comments? >> All right. Thank you. >> All right. Thanks, Mr. Fosene. That brings us
046to community ed, Mr. Ryan. So, a lot has changed since I wrote this in the last week. But, uh, November theme was good. We had 25 students sign up at North and then nine more sign up at South K volleyball actually started tonight, so I have to run over there after this to make sure everything's going okay. We ended up with 11 teams signing up, so that's pretty good. Uh, Thursday night skiing. We had low numbers to begin with, but we ended up with 56. So, we are going to provide transportation to Andes that starts tomorrow. Play and learn at North happened yesterday and South will begin in January. Um the 55 plus class is still in the works. The people I was working with typed in my email wrong so they were sending the
047information to nobody pretty much. So I will get that set up here shortly. Um the youth basketball and youth wrestling are both underway and going well. and dance and rhythm class by Bron Go in the wrestling room was a success with 11 kids signing up. >> All right, any questions, comments for Mr. Ryan? >> Well, I think one of the things too that Miss Nadwick is talking about down at South is some ECF classes that I don't think we've had for a little while. So, I think seeing those parenting [clears throat] classes with their young learners will be an excellent opportunity. So, we're grateful that she's looking to get that beyond the play and learn. I think there's 10 sessions maybe during the winter time. >> 10. And she's going to offer it for the
048whole district, not just self. So, it should be good. >> Awesome. All right. That brings us to technology. Mr. McNamer, what can you tell us about technology today? >> That's a tough one. um within the district. Uh one of the hot button topics that we are dealing with and kind of have for perpetually forever is student uh damage to Chromebooks. More so the intentional damage um or lack of uh care for the device. Um, I am working on a plan to bring to the admin team to see if we can find some ways to curb some of that behavior. Um, I'm going to work with Stacy to try and make sure that it's as fair and equitable as possible. Um, one of the things that's always a challenge is when a device comes to us,
049we become the judge and jury of whether it was intentional or unintentional. because 99% of the kids are going to say, "I didn't do anything. I just found it this way." Um, however, it's all about trying to turn out good human beings. So, making sure that we teach some accountability that comes along with that. Um, still in rough draft form, but I'm hoping in a week or so to have something a little bit more uh with teeth that we can put into play possibly as we come back from winter break. Um, as always, I have to say a gigantic thank you to Stacy. She is phenomenal. Um, even when she is not in the building or during work hours, she's still getting things done and very responsive to everything that our district needs. So, she
050is a major reason why we continue to have success to the district and huge thank you to her. All right. Questions, comments. >> Thank you, Mr. >> That'll bring us to buildings and grounds. Mr. Nornberg, >> here we are. Um, you guys got the report there. You got to read through it. The water to waters went in. They went really smooth. Um, the only glitch was our holiday and the weather. The factory startup was supposed to be done on Monday. Um, but the fellow was not able to make it, so they're trying to reschedule that. They are up and running. They've kind of done some jerryrigging to get them to work and function um until they can get that guy here. So, um, we're just waiting for that final piece with him and and when
051they can get that scheduled. Uh, yeah, the other thing was I was I was going to mention is the the stuff with Mark. Um, Kaylin took care of that. >> Sorry. No, you're right. >> So, you're [clears throat] >> No, no, [laughter] no, that's fine. Um, and we've got the stuff set up for Mrs. Johnson for the stages and things like that. Um, and it's the new ones are on their way. [laughter] I'm on the third email now of it keeps getting pushed back. So, they they're going to be using the old stages for this year. Um, it I mean [clears throat] it's all good. It all works out. It'll it'll be fine. And uh other than that, just yet, the staff is doing a good job of keeping things going. Um trying to keep
052things clean around here and keep it looking ship shape. I think it's doing a pretty good job. Um these first couple snows are a little tough because your ground is so warm to get that how much do you clean off and polish the ice and how much salt do you throw down? And so we keep working on that, but everything's working fine so far. And I think we'll we'll be in for a good winner. Hopefully I'll hold you to it. All right. Any questions, comments for Mr. Nornberg. That'll bring us to the superintendent report. Thank you, Chad. Yep. >> So, kind of looking at our student enrollment there, you're going to see that we've remained consistent. We did add one student that transitioned back to um WCA here. So, we're up from 130 students to
053131 at South. uh little nights all the way through fourth grade and then North Elementary stayed consistent at 190 and we had one student less now at the secondary school. So um just one change there balances out so we stay at the 771 students that are here at WCA uh in the month of December. And then the other parts of the report there with uh parent teacher conferences, we ended up having to of course reschedule those due to the weather. We were hoping it was going to hold, but I'm sure [clears throat] glad we dismissed when we did cuz the snow flakes were large and then all of a sudden it got to be pretty sticky and kind of a challenging situation for folks to get home. So we did reschedule those for the uh
054the 1st of December and I think that worked out very well. Josh's Renaissance. The principles have already talked about that, but I think it also just shows I'm not a Facebook person, but once in a while I do get on to my wife's Facebook and notice that we had a couple bus drivers also feel appreciated by what our team did to get out and and thank our drivers. And so that'll be a continued piece that our group will do. And it just shows what recognition what it does, right? When people are recognized for their hard work, their good work, I think they appreciate that. And we just want to keep that piece going. I know today at the elementary leadership team meeting there was some some different things there that were talked about. I don't
055want to ruin anything that way, but I think just finding still ways to recognize, celebrate, have kids jumping up and down and things like that. That's what it's all about. Um, also as well today in the mail got two postcards and I'll share uh from one. I'm not going to share the other one because I haven't been able to talk to that staff member. They weren't here yet today. But during the state fair, you were able to write a thank you note to an educator. And so we had one of our educators got a note from one of our students here that said, "Thank you for making the unseen seen in our school. You make a difference." And so pretty remarkable for Mr. Austin Hansen. So thought that was pretty cool that he got that
056from one of our students and just shows I don't think sometimes our staff realize the impact that they have on on our students and community and stuff like that. I saw it I think a year ago. Mr. Fosene had somebody come [clears throat] up. I think it was the section girls basketball game and that young lady came up and was tearyeyed when she was telling him how much impact he had on her time here at WCA. I know Mr. Wood's seen those. Um, everybody's seen those, you know. So, I think again just shows that recognition and sometimes we just get into the the deep long days of the day. But yeah, so went into Mr. Hansen's room today to celebrate that with him. He thought that was pretty cool and got a nice little postcard
057from MDE and like I said we have one other staff member but wasn't able to share that and I don't want them to watch it on this broadcast here. I want to make sure we can celebrate with them tomorrow. So great things going on. I think we have big plans still for December here and we'll continue to roll forward and and have a great team. I think the biggest thing with that team is sometimes I feel like we don't always necessarily make headway because there's about 5,000 different ideas and so we're trying to keep that streamlined to make sure that we can make sure all those ideas are good and we can follow up on them. So there's great ideas and and we've got a great team working on that. So we'll continue to see
058positive pieces there. Uh the leadership conference remember uh I do need to get you registered if you want to do that or need um a hotel room. We do have Mr. Swatsky going down to present on the work that's happened with the greenhouse and the meat processing um trailer that we have. I think sometimes we take that stuff for granted because we just know that it's here. But we did have Whitth uh Steve Rzidlo. He was the superintendent over in Brainer years ago. And so he's the one consultant that normally sits in this chair here during those meetings. He said, "Hey, can I see what you guys kind of explaining what we had going on?" and he said, "Well, do you mind if we just take a look and go check it out?" So, Mr.
059Sawsky took him on a tour and he goes, "I don't know if people realize he how did he call it real time learning in real time experience." And he said to produce meat, he said, "You can't just let the meat sit there for 3 weeks." He said, "Like that's got to get out and ready to go." And so, he was very impressed that our school had it. He said, "I know CLC has it, but he said to see what you guys have here," he said, is awfully impressive. So, it was kind of neat uh to see those pieces there. So, like I said, Mr. Swatsky will be presenting um 245 on Thursday. So, it'd be great to have some representation there. And I know he's also going down to Nashville, I think he said, in
060a week or two uh to get recognized for that regional award that he's won. So, we have a lot of great things going on on WCA with a lot of great people. Um and then we did have our first kickoff meeting yesterday with um Krauss Anderson and Witsath. And so they're starting to get together a schedule and a plan. And so they are sitting together to coordinate those schedules to kind of lay things out. I had talked to them about getting our staff out on tours and Lindsay said, "Oh, slow down." She said, "We want to come back with those staff now that there's some a concept for a project to say, hey, here's what we've kind of put together. How does this feel for your spaces?" Remember, I think Darren, you had asked that.
061So, they said, "Oh, no. We need to come back together to say, how do you feel about what this plan looks like?" So, they would like to have meetings scheduled with our staff in our three buildings to say, "Here's what we've cuz they said they've not seen that yet." They said, "This is going to be new to them." So, we'll share that with them. they'll be able to give some feedback there and from that point then they'll determine the best sites to go visit because they said it doesn't make sense to take them to a site that's not going to be similar to what we're looking at. So they said let's put that together and then we'll get out there. They said our timeline seems to be enough time, but I know that the the
062marketing person said, "Hey, there's going to be we got some push here a little bit. So we got to get things rolling." And so they're ready to get that started and and move that forward. And so I'll keep you posted on that. KA the reason why their uh contract is off tonight. They're still tweaking some things. So it was nothing. They just said they didn't know that I was going to be pushing it for tonight's agenda. They said, "Well, we we could have something, but I don't want to rush you." And they said, "There's no rush on our end." So said they said, "Please don't feel like it needs to be there that we're concerned." They said, "We're moving." They had their group here yesterday, so we'll move there. Um I did sign the agreement
063with Wit Seth. And I guess the biggest piece to let you know there as I read the contract a couple times I said the way I'm reading your contract there there is no charge now from witsth until there would be a successful referendum. So I said yep. Brenton said nope that's how this works. So I said yep we'll continue to have these meetings and do that. And he said there won't be a charge until the you know the referendum would be successful. The reason why they wanted that agreement, again, just to clarify, was they didn't want to put all the work into the pre-referendum and then have us say, "Oh, you know what? We're going to actually go with some other architect because they said then we have no we put in a lot of
064time and effort and didn't receive any compensation." So, that's where that sits with them. And then you'll just see kind of the dates here. Of course, the committee meeting tonight, truth [clears throat] and taxation. I will be out of the district next um week, Monday through Friday. And uh so I've got Mr. Wood and Mr. Fosine in charge of weather decisions and things like that. So, they'll be in charge of that and any other pieces. Maggie will be able to help and payroll's already been taken care of there as well. We've got that process for the December 15th paycheck. So, we're good to go there as well. Questions, comments from Mr. Brown? All right, then we'll keep plugging away here. We got new business. the first reading of the following policies with statutory and recommended
065revisions from MSBA. Uh policy 7-Eleven, video recording on school buses. Policy 712, video recording other than on buses. Policy 720, vending machines. Policy 901, community education. Policy 907, rewards. And policy 534, school meals policy. Are there any big highlights on any of those, Mr. Brown? The biggest thing was on the video recording other than on buses would be that they remove the word surveillance and change it with the word recording or record. Um, and then one that I was kind of surprised to see that was still in the policy is just recording. It said in extreme circumstances recording could happen in bathrooms or locker rooms and they've removed that and just said that it would be monitored by staff. It would be a same sex um gender, same gender person in that bathroom. If we
066had issues in the locker room and things like that, it would be that. So that's the change there. And then just the school meals policy updating it to include, you know, if students want to come up to take a second meal, which they can. There's a cost to that, but to make sure that they have to take a reimburseable meal the first time, they can't come up and just say, "I want to take these things." It's got to be the reimburseable meal the first time and then the second time they can come, but then it is a non-program meal charge. So they cannot get that second meal at our student rate. And so really probably down the road we'll take out that student rate um because then they have to pay the 505 the $55
067rather than the student rate that we have because they've already received the USDA compensation for that meal. So that's the biggest change there. [clears throat] And then just that we use GMC for our payment system for meals as well as any of our messaging that goes out. We're able to use that system. >> That's all I have for those. [clears throat] So they can be a student for one meal but not for two meals. >> Then it gets to be a little more expensive. That's right. Yeah. >> Okay. Um just the first reading on those. So no action there. Um and [clears throat] then we move into personnel items. Um we have the uh administrative contracts for [sighs] almost all of our administrators. Correct. >> Yep. Everybody except for Mr. Ryan since he was already
068>> Yeah. We got him one last year, right? >> Yep. >> All right. So, we have the elementary principal, curriculum coordinator contract. We have the secondary school principal contract, the Dina students and activities director's contract, buildings and grounds director contract, and technology director and director of assessment coordination. Um, all those policies we are removing or we added also then we're going to do all these together, right? So, is that >> No, I would do it separate. I do the administrative system. >> Yeah. take it first the administrative contracts. Any questions or comments on any of those contracts? >> And Claire and Darren were the two board members. Is there any tried to keep them consistent? I think was the biggest piece, right? Some of those things that we looked at sick leave to get those
069consistent amongst all the contracts as well as kind of the vacation days and increase there up to four days, six days. That could we be the cap and some payout there for them. And then just pretty standard on our increases for all of our administrators. Anything else that you would want to highlight? >> No, we appreciate all they do. Our negotiations went well. >> Great. Then I would look for a motion to approve the administrative contracts. >> Second. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Motion carries. Uh [clears throat] then we have the following resignations. We have Quinn Olsson, a pair professional, and also Ununice Alexander, a payroll manager. Um those are both effective at the end of the calendar year here. So at the end of the uh UNUNICE would be December 31st
070and Quinn will be at the end of the last day with students students. All right. Any questions, comments there? We'll look for a motion to approve those resignations. Second. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Motions carry. Um, then we [clears throat] have to approve the comprehensive achievement and civic readiness annual summary report. So, Caitlyn gave you the presentation and now this is just what we need to submit through our title one uh grant. That's where they track us. And so you'll see where it talks about our goals, if we met the goals, if some of those goals are multi-year goals and the goals that we've set uh for this current school year. And so it's the summary report that we'll post on our website as well as submit to MDE. Any questions
071or comments on that report? >> Move to approve. >> There's a motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor say I. >> Motion carries. Then we'll move down to adopt the resolution establishing combined polling places. Uh similar this is done yearly. Uh this would be effective in any case that we would have a non-standard election. Um >> similar to what we had this year. No one else was on a ballot. Um, if we were to do it on one of the February, May, August dates, um, this resolution would essentially set our polling places in Elbow Lake and Kensington, similar to what we had last year. Um, so if we don't do that, essentially, we can't hold an election outside because we don't have a polling place. >> Yeah. We have to set
072this by December 31st. And so, I guess the biggest part of discussion would be, you know, we amended our resolution to go from 4 to 7 for that special election. I know there's a little bit of discussion of um we're not going to do that in the future. So, right now it's set at 8:00 a.m. um to 8:00 p.m. Again, we're planning our referendum to be on the November general election. So, this does not impact that at all. But this would be if we had anything else, it probably won't come into play, but if the board member resigns or we have something else that we have to do, we just need to be prepared. So, I guess that was the only conversation piece is um right now it's in there at 8. That's been the
073standard um piece was the 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. You can't go any earlier than 8:00 p.m. It's got to close. That is set in statute. But your minimum hours, I believe, can be 3 hours. So, we could have did 5 to 8 on a special election, but you cannot close before 8, but uh you can decide your starting time, where would you like that to be? >> And we could amend that again later if we chose to. Yep. >> Is that correct? >> Yep. >> So, I guess I would say we just leave it at 8 to 8 for right now. We don't know what situation would arise that we would need to use this. Doesn't look like we will, but to be safe, we'll have it there. And if we want to amend
074that later on, we can. We have that option. Does that make sense? >> We should do a roll call vote from being a resolution. >> Any other comments, questions on that? Then I would look for a motion to approve that. >> Yes. >> And we'll do a roll call. Gross. >> Yes. Porter, >> yes. >> Sanstead, >> yes. >> Sour, >> yes. >> Olrich, >> yes. >> And Vincent, >> yes. >> And I'll be a yes. All right. Then that brings us to set organizational and January 26 committee meeting date and time looking at the calendar >> and I mean we've typically kept it that first Wednesday but we do have to set that since it's the start of a new >> right >> um calendar year >> and that is like the 8th 7th
075>> 7th would be Wednesday >> and does That that one has to be in the evening. The organizational one has to be late. Is that correct? >> No, it doesn't. But there's no time on it. >> It's the really the truth and taxation had to be at 6:00. That's what I thought today. Nope. The organizational meeting can be, but >> our standard time has been at 5:30, >> right? So standard time would be 5:30 on Wednesday the 7th. Is there any issue with that? I will say I may not be here on that. I think I'll be gone for a training, but I could be remote. >> Okay. >> But I just wouldn't probably be able to be present. >> I'm on vacation that day, too, for that week. >> If you're on vacation, then
076don't bring your computer with you. >> Sounds like you got >> But you may have a lot of committees that you weren't [laughter] ready for. So, I'm just saying >> plant some seeds. >> Yeah, >> that's right. Yeah, let's keep it the way it is. >> So that 7th at 5:30 would be acceptable for everyone. >> Yes. >> Okay. So we'll set the organizational and that committee meeting for January 7th at 5:30. [cough] Anything else? Do we have anything else? Then I would look for a motion to adjurnn. >> So move >> second. >> Motion carries. Did we actually take a motion on the setting the organ?