001All right, you guys are live. All right, it is 7:03 in the secondary school media center and we'll call the meeting to order and we'll start with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. Yes. Okay, I am here. Josh is not with us this morning. Um, Sour here. Sandstead here. Order? Yes. And girls here. Did you have anything for the board this morning? No, I'm here for my government class. Okay. Usually they come up and give us a speech about government. No. All right. Invite on that. All right. Then we'll look. you'll see a couple of modifications to your agenda um adding 5.2
002um for the corrected meeting minutes from February 5th and also uh 5.3.2.2 for a leave request. Are there any other modifications or corrections? And I would look for a motion to approve the modified agenda. So and a second. All in favor say I. I. Motion carries. Uh committee reports. Uh first up the task force. Did you want to make any comments, Claire? Go ahead. Um I guess I thought there was some good discussion that happened. Um they did look at four different options. Um I think they've kind of narrowed to two, would you say, for the most part? But then they kind of asked for modifications to those two, right? So I think at the end of it, and this was my take, they they didn't feel like they were comparing apples and apples. So
003they wanted to get some modifications that kind of made the two options more in line with each other. So they were, you know, similar output, right? So we've talked about several different things. if you just fix what we have and leave it like it is, it's different than if you modify it and you add steam and you add all the other things. So, I think they kind of, and correct me if I'm wrong, but that was my take is they kind of wanted the two options that they had kind of narrowed down to to be more similar and more accurate number-wise probably and didn't have I think some of this there was concern that there wasn't enough done to some of those plans either, I think. Right. They thought, right, hey, we're spending this money
004and we're not going to get some enhancements or things like that. So, it's that balance of dollars as well as they don't want to just keep the same. I don't think either was kind of the thing that if we if we do if we spend 25 million and we still see the same product in the end, is that really what we want to they didn't believe that the taxpayers would be interested in that. So, I think they were trying to enhance those two plans. I guess I had the feeling that maybe there was the third plan, the two sight thing might have still been there, but I think that was the one that was still kind of I think there still needs to be some clarity there, but I think they're working on on the
005other two plans. But yeah, I thought they I think the words we've been using is just a little bit more pop to that. I think there was concern about gym space. If we start to reduce square footage, um then all of a sudden we know that we have a real need during wintertime with indoor recess if we have to have that. Plus, you still have FIED going on or all the activities that we have going on. So, I think it was just making sure that we I think probably simply to do it the do it the right way, not to if we cut cost to get it down as narrow as possible and we leave something out, we could regret that as a 20-year decision, right? And I think the one meeting I think Kent
006Marshall said it really well, you know, sometimes you have to look at the things you can't afford not to do when you're doing process like this. So, I I think they, you know, they really gave a lot of thought to it. Um, I guess I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll get a good consensus of that group once they're, you know, have the details they want, but we'll see what the next meeting brings. So, and that will be the first, April 1st. Yep. April 1st. So, we will need a couple of board members. I will not be available for that meeting. So, um, if you're interested in going, we'll make sure we have a couple board members lined up to get to that. So, anything else? No, I I guess I would just say it was a
007long meeting. I don't think a good meeting and I think it's important that we decided to have a ne a second meeting which originally we were kind of looking closure for that. So, I think people were really engaged. It's tough conversation and it's a tough problem. So, um I I applaud the task force for hanging in there and really working on this. Yeah. One thing I think they're, you know, as we talked a little bit, we we kind of had a recap with Lindsay and Brent afterwards, I think they really need to take whatever they come back with and weigh it against their pinnacles of, you know, these is this is what we're trying to do. You know, we we really want forwardinking education. We really want, you know, um, operationally, you know, efficient, um,
008sustainable. Yeah. And really want to have one a one community feel to it. So, I think that once we get down to that point, hopefully they'll, you know, get a good option and be able to bring it to the board. So, um, yeah, you're right. It was a long meeting, but I think a lot of really good conversation happened. So, any questions? and brings the superintendent report. Okay. Well, we'll start by uh congratulating our girls basketball team for an excellent run to the state championship and actually winning the state championship. So, it was a great turnout of fans. I I'm always impressed by the community support that we have and and uh my wife and I made it to both that game on Friday and came up to the boys game and I didn't think
009there was going to be as many people at the boys game but that was also full and so yeah our community following is great. There's lots of fans. Student section does great but yeah congratulations to our girls. I have talked to coach Holland to say that we'd like to recognize them at an upcoming board meeting. I figured today, this morning, might have been a little early uh for them to get here, but I said we'd have refreshments for them and celebrate them. And I think I don't know, I think I passed along the email from the bus driver that just said, you know, to me, sometimes it's important to win a state championship, don't get me wrong, especially if we haven't had one for a long time, but to see the character of our girls
010and our coaches that stood out to the bus driver, I think is amazing. And that's I guess wherever I'm at, that's what I want to make sure that our kids are the very best kids that we leave with them saying, "Wow, that was pretty impressive." And just how our girls handled themselves on the court as well. I mean, somebody got knocked over, they were more than willing to help pick them back up regardless of what team they were. And and they were just constant throughout the entire thing. I was talking to Darren yesterday. I said, I think I was a lot more nervous than what they were. They just seemed to be had a couple turnovers and get us the ball. We're going to go back down. We got to score another basket. This is
011what we're going to do. and and they did a nice job. But uh congratulations to those uh girls and coaches. Excellent uh work and welld deserved for them. Legislative update. Uh we're kind of getting towards the middle of the legislative session and they've got some deadlines coming up here before their Easter break uh with some different pieces. And so what they are trying to still figure out is how to bolster that workforce. And so they've got a couple ideas or initiatives that they're hoping to pass. One of those, remember they had the short call sub program that they were kind of looking for to get more folks, but there was some strings attached that you had to pay $200 per per day for a sub. Well, that put a lot of districts out because they
012don't pay their regular subs that were licensed at 200. So, if you're going to pay the short call sub who you're going to try to work to get into that license more than the other people, they knew that there was going to be some negatives there. And I heard that the assistant superintendent from Morehead was up there testifying just saying, "Hey, we think it's a great idea." But it just puts us in a bind because that's not what we typically pay a substitute. And that's the hard thing, I think, when you make a statewide because I'm sure now in the metro $200 probably is not what they pay a substitute, but in our area it would be much more than what we're paying our substitutes here. So, um, it's kind of looking at that. The
013other thing is not this upcoming school year, but the following two school years. Of course, Labor Day happens to fall very late. So, the start of school would be late. So, there is a bill to allow local control for districts to make their own decision if they would like to start prior to Labor Day. I know they've done that every time that cycle comes around. Usually, it works out fairly well because sometimes you can start a three-day week, a 4-day week, and then a five day week, and it does work out pretty smooth uh that way. But of course, keep in mind that state fair 4 and um and the resort groups testify against that because it does put them in a bind. And I just read I think it was on MA that they
014said that a third of their revenue comes from the Labor Day weekend and they can't afford to lose that. So those are the three groups that really testify against that because for some people it's like why doesn't this just happen? Well, that's why it's a it's the resort groups are pretty strong against that piece there. Uh, so if you I'm just curious if I mean if if you give them a Friday to go with the Monday for that. I mean does that I mean is there really a ton of effect to the they say it is. So I wouldn't think there would be. I guess I don't know how many families and quite honestly I look at it but I'm not a resort in the resort business. So if I was in that business it
015may be different but our sports teams have all started practice because they also say hey that takes away from the people who are willing to travel but they've already started in August and things like that. So I don't know if it's that much or if there's just fear that once we give now what's the next piece too as well sometimes that becomes the concern there but no I think there could be flexibility and like I said it's a local control piece of just allowing districts and you can gauge your communities itself to say hey how would this impact our students how would it impact our families and or our businesses and make that decision from there but so we'll see I like I said it's happened in the past so I would assume with it
016being so late otherwise we're not starting school till like September 7th or 8th. It becomes incredibly late and then then it because on the offset of that is then that just pushes us to Memorial Day weekend or then it's a later start there too, right? I mean, we're always on Right. I mean, so you know, again, that's the start of that season. It's not really any different, I guess, if it No, I get the concern, but at the same time, if you're gonna have four days off anyway, most people are working Thursday, Friday, and doing stuff on the holiday weekend the way it is. So, right. Um, and then community task force kind of already talked about that. Um, and so our next meeting is April 1st at 6. So, if we can get the
017names of a couple board members who will attend that, that would be great. Capital outlay, we'll start working through that process here. uh probably bring it to the board for discussion at our April meeting. It's a little bit later than usual, but I do also believe that we have to have a long hard look at where those dollars will be allocated for the next year because curriculum the curriculum cycle has really kind of been neglected over the last several years and we need to get back on that piece. I know last year we spent about was it $90,000 I believe for our reading curriculum for grades uh K through five and so 6 through 12 is now looking at their curriculum and they did ask for a dollar amount and I said well can you
018maybe do it for 15 to 20 and they said what and so no they're probably between that 40 to 65 to 75 is what we need and that really should all be done in one year we're one year delayed um which I've heard from MDE they said probably not a bad uh decision to make because they were still working through RedAx things and and the curriculum wasn't necessarily all lined up. So, we'll have to do that. But then you think about math, social studies. I know that some of our new teachers as they come in, they're finding out that we don't have written curriculum. You know, teachers have developed it on their own or it's so antiquated. So, we do need to get some work there. And I think Clary, you're on that committee, I
019think. Right. So, we we just need to make sure that we have those pieces lined up and ready to go. And those are significant expenses. That's not just a small piece. And I know some people say, "Well, if it's digital, it should be a lot cheaper." No, those companies have got that figured out that here's your digital cost and it's about the same cost as the textbooks. The beauty for them with the digital is at the end of five years, they turn it off. And so then you either renew for an additional year for a lot more money or and so yeah, the that has worked to the the book uh the publishing company's advantage on that. So, but we'll get that out so you can see. I think Darren also noted maybe we need
020to start allocating or designating a small amount of money for vehicles and stuff like that. So, but I'll bring those dollars. I'll have Todd here available as well so we can have that conversation right after that meeting. If there's dollars available for certain things for staff like have happened in the past, we would put that out there as well. But again, with our budget, we need to make sure we watch that pretty closely. I think my first year coming in, I think we were 90,000 $85 to $90,000 over budget and capital outlay and we just can't continue to to do that practice and especially when we don't have esser money available anymore. Negotiations, I'll be meeting with our teachers group on March 31st just to start on language. Um, so it won't be anything with
021finances. Uh, so nothing with wage and benefits. That'll be something that the board committee will look at, but we can kind of go through those pieces there and hopefully have some of those things ironed out. I have talked to the other bargaining groups as well or or employee groups to say, "Hey, if you want to start looking at language pieces," I said, "We can start going through that, but I said the board makes final approval." And I said, "Wage and benefits are really something that I said we can't engage in until we know where the state's at, and that's where the board needs to be there." Because I said I don't want to have them say, "Well, we'd like to do this." And we say, "Well, I got to go back to the board. I
022got to go back to the board. Let's just make sure it's a streamlined process, but hopefully can get that completed earlier this uh negotiation cycle than it was the last cycle there. Health insurance, we had our bid sealed bid opening meeting yesterday. And uh according to our uh representative, he is a salesman. Keep that in mind. But he said the rates that he's been seeing right now, I said, "Well, we want to go less than what it's costing now." He said that's probably not going to happen. But he said between increases that he's seen so far are between five and 61%. And so I said, "Well, 61% is definitely out of the out of line." He did say that our numbers look fairly good. Remember, we were on Pete before. So to get a number
023that insurance companies could bid on, it becomes difficult when you try to look at those numbers from Pete, but now they've got better numbers. And so he thinks that our and I think we got seven bits. So which was pretty impressive for our size of a district. So that's everywhere from Lakes Country to Sourcefalls and other service co-op to Blue Cross Blue Shield and a few others that we'll be looking at just to see. But there's a a committee that'll review that to make a recommendation to say here's what we believe would be in the best interest of our our staff. And right now one of the things that they've mentioned is we have a lot of plans. Um and so we kept that as we made that transition last year. You remember we brought
024pre peep and blue cross blue shield together with our so the teachers were in the peep group and everybody else was in the other group and we didn't feel it would be right to say hey we're going to consolidate to one group but now we're going to start throwing out plans. Insurance companies want fewer plans. Um but we'll want to look at that to see if there's some opportunity to do that. Um have a town hall on March 24th for uh rural child care that Kari Krept is kind of working on in her other position. Um and then community task force April 1st and then our next early release for professional development will be April 2nd and the schoolboard committee meeting will be April 2nd. One final thing as we kind of look at climate
025and culture uh Mr. Wood had brought to my attention and we've had our staff take a survey or they're or completing that as some of their makeup time from last Thursday is really looking at that climate and culture and just our yearbook company uh does a nice piece and they've got a a conference or a workshop in June. It is not within the boundaries of Minnesota but I think those highlevel national conferences can be very good. So, I've kind of been talking to Maggie Doll and our admin team to see what we do there to start rolling some of those things out and putting that together. So, be looking for a proposal here probably in the next month so we can look to see see where that goes. But I think it would be a
026real positive piece to move forward on that. All right. Any questions, comments the superintendent report? We'll move on to the approval of payment of claims. Did you have some things for us, Mr. Porter? Yes. Well, we had a more than or pretty typical March. Um, we had some extra payments to go along with our um sporting events events. The 6A section admissions uh was 3,55 and 2575. um we don't get to keep that money. That's for the section playoff admissions. Um the um we're getting we're getting caught up on bank reconciliations and uh along with ensuring that the payroll um and the bank statements are matching our smart system. check register showed uh um state participation for the meal money 4205 and $2,880. We had some technology um expense of $2,500 this month. Um a
027couple things I was going to note. um the Kensington school. Um we had some plumbing repairs there of 1,200 uh one time and 2,000 another time. Um the other item I was going to note was our um we our in-house our PSO was $9,5 and the ES courses of $45,538 for so that's a pretty good expense there for our um college courses. So Paul, did you have something you would like to Nope. I think that was Yeah, I think that's Yeah. So you look at that at $64,000. That's one semester. So that's well over a a teacher for us. And so I mean good good experience for our students, but we just want to make sure that we're getting the value for our dollars as well. And I think that's why Mr. Wood came with
028that proposal that was supposed to be on this meeting, but we still need to tweak a few things there on our policy uh pieces there. So, again, like I said, really good things, but as you can see, we're going to be well over $100,000 just in those expenses. Um, that's why we're looking to add more of those courses inhouse, which there's still a cost to the district for the college credits, but at least it's much less by having our own instructor there. Um, as Nathan mentioned, too, yeah, so the plumbing pieces were there was a a pipe, I believe, that broke outside of the building and so there was some drainage issues that needed to be taken care of and then a water meter that we weren't didn't even know was installed there. didn't think
029was being used froze in the one side of the building because all all of our water was coming in the other way. So, there's just some repairs that we need to take care of on that piece down at the Kensington Kensington building. And then the mission mechanical that bill actually is was a voided check after that. It was one that was from an old system thing rolled in, but it'll be voided there. So, those were the only pieces that I had. Can I move back to the college class? I'm just curious and you may not have that figured out. Roughly how many students participated that you know how's that break down and some kids take more than Right. Yep. I will have to double check to see what that mean. It's a big number. So
030what is it attached to? Right. Maggie's done a nice job of evaluating too between the ECS ecol and the PSO and she said actually if we get more of our kids to take the E college and the high school that's cheaper by $103 per credit. So, we do need to do some checking on that to see that we're again getting that best dollar and things like that. We don't want to curb opportunity, but we also want to make sure that there's value to those opportunities. Any other questions? We would look for a motion to approve the $73,000 or $73,740. Are you making that motion? Yes. Is there a second? Second. All in favor say I. I. Motion carries. Then we'll move on to our consent agenda. Uh you'll see there are several meeting minutes. Uh
031February 19th regular meeting. March 5th uh finance committee. March March 5th committee meeting. Yep. Regular committee meeting. March 6th buildings and grounds committee meeting. And then you will see that there was um a correction for that March 5th um committee meeting minutes. And then February 5th, oh sorry, February 5th. I Yes, February 5th. Correction, March 5th radar meeting. Got it. Um and we'll also have the personnel and hiring of Anna Ericson for social school social worker. And we have the two leave requests, one for Lauren Byer and one for Morgan McGaffy. Um, additionally, we'll have the final reading of the following policies. Policy 504, student dress and appearance. Policy 505, distribution of non-school sponsored material on school premises by students and employees. Policy 507, corporal punishment and home restraint. Policy 508, extended school year for
032certain students with individual educational programs. Any questions or comments on the consent agenda? Just a couple things. The first one on those corrected minutes, what I noticed last night when I was reviewing things, I didn't have Clara was at the meeting but didn't have her reflected in the voting record because that was a roll call vote and so I had to make that change there and I believe the check numbers I had left off one number there. So that's the the corrections there. uh the changes were made to the dress code policy um in regards to headwear. So, I don't know if you saw that. Plus, I looked at the policy closer and you'll see certain things are crossed off because it says, "Hey, you can use paragraph A or paragraph B." So, I visited
033with Mr. Wood. We've opted that paragraph B is the better approach in the general statement of policy. But then, um what we have for headwear, we just changed it to headwear, including hats or head coverings are not permitted during the school day. School building administrators may make exceptions for special events or activities. I think when we have homecoming on that Friday and things like that, there's different, but that's up to each building administrator how they want to handle that. It says students may wear headgear for a medical or religious reason. So, that was the change. Instead of saying that they were permitted and hoodies and stuff like that, we did update it to that and that does match our handbooks. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? Look for a motion to adopt the consent agenda.
034So moved and a second. Second. All in favor say I. Motion carries. Uh that brings us to new business. We have the resolution to accept donations. Um we have one donation from Marus for $1,000 for girls basketball state cost. Um I would look for a motion to adopt that resolution. And a second. Second. And a roll call vote. Vincent, yes. All work is a yes. Sour, yes. Sandstead, yes. Porter, yes. And Gross, yes. Then we will move to um approve the purchase of the 2023 Ford Transit van. Uh you should have seen two two quotes. The one quote was incorrect. We found there was actually one for 88650. That one was the one we will move to accept the other one. The 89 really should have been 80 108. Yep. 1088. So the lowest price
035he can sell that for. Um is there any discussion on that? I think we kind of had a conversation the last go around. This would be a two-w wheelel drive van. The all-wheel drive version was the 108 and it's not ready either. Is that correct? Right. Yeah, we have a wait. So, the two wheel drive van we can get next week. The other one we had to wait 3 to four months or something like that. Yeah. He said six to eight weeks depending on how he said it's still kind of a tight market. So, he said it could be six to eight weeks, but it could even be longer than that depending on where we got put in the queue. Sure. So, um, as we look at those, we've come with a, you know, the
036look to approve the quote from the North Central quote for 88 650. Yeah. And some change. Sorry. Can you do this just a real quick rundown on the funding this? So, this will be done through our um medical assistance dollars that we had significant dollars last year. I think in the tune of $115,000. So, we'll use it that way. We'll work closely with Todd Travis. So, Todd Netsky, our business manager, will work closely with Todd Travis just to make sure that it's coded correctly uh so we don't run into any issues that way. But, it's planning to use that reserve. Those dollars can't be used for anything except for um special ed salaries or benefits and wages. And you want to be careful on how you also code that because then you could maybe lose
037money in other special ed funding streams. But um my understanding or listening to both Todd and Todd that this would be the best way to most advantageous way for us to use those dollars. So yeah, so it's nothing that comes out of capital outlay but because we're also spending it that way. It purely is a special education vehicle. I think I mentioned at one point I thought if you used for 51% special ed and I was misunderstanding that or somehow some other business manager said that's how we can do it and that's what we did. But he said, "Nope, it strictly has to be for special ed," which that'll get a lot of usage. And I know Jake right now said that'll be very helpful as we get to spring sports with golf. Not that
038that vehicle will be used for it, but he said our special ed uses the the Suburban. And so now we'll be able to or the Yukon and now that will be available for them and it just opens that up a little bit easier. If we have students that need transportation on a, you know, with wheelchairs, which we do have some students that will require that, we will probably start look at adding that or doing that ourselves instead of some of those midday things where it's quite costly. Pair professionals got to be there anyway. So now the pair professional will make sure that we've got it set up the right way, but they can transport that student and or other students and they can do their job coaching. So, it'll just make it easier and I
039think a lot uh more costefficient for the district as well. All right. Then I would look for a motion to accept the North Central quote for the transit ban and a second. Second. All in favor say I. I. Motion carries. Um and then our last item we have approved the resolution reducing discontinuing reducing and discontinuing educational programs and positions. Uh this resolution is a standard start of the process. Um if you want to touch on that Mr. Brown. Sure. Yeah. So again, no names are identified with any of these are just positions that based and really I think we've talked about having to continue to rightsize our district based on our student enrollment uh where those numbers kind of land. And so as we looked at our class sizes uh in our elementary and secondary
040uh we do see that the next year would be in second grade at North. we would have one less uh need there based on student enrollment again because of those numbers. 18 to 20 in kindergarten through first grade and 24 second through fourth grade is the number of students. um that was the numbers that were given to me by a previous administrator and I think those were what I was told the Doc Cheney magic numbers and so we'll kind of use those and and I think still being committed remember our operating levy uh that our taxpayer support is really that small class size but those are still small class sizes if you talk to folks in other districts I know a neighbor in a larger district their number is 26 now um in kindergarten but
041they do have that teacher aid in that classroom as well or or a pair professional. So, that's our one area and then it still gives us some flexibility in the other elementary uh based on because student numbers can change a lot from now until next fall, but there's some flexibility there, but we would have need for one less staff or teaching staff down at South as well. Um, our special education teacher, we will have to continue to monitor that closely. So I do have Todd and Wendy Banditavia from the Midwest Special Education Cooperative looped in there so we can continue to monitor those numbers because there becomes fear right as our numbers continue to grow a little bit in special ed and all a sudden we're going to not look to replace now there's a
042reduction here but we've had somebody resign from that position. So it makes it a lot easier when it's natural attrition. Uh but we'll have to continue to monitor that just to make sure that we can provide the services that we need and don't have any issues there. So that'll be con continued uh to be monitored as we go through the.12 FTE music teacher that again is going to be down at um south just because of the less need for music there. Fied we're moving part of our FID teachers time down there back here to help with an elective and so it's really equal um both of those sides there. So 0.12 is really just one hour in the day. So we're getting efficient there. So it'll leave us with a um about three and a
043quarter hours is what we'll need to fill then at South with music time. So we'll get that position posted after today. Uh hopefully have some interest in that. But what we're finding out right now is uh especially new folks aren't interested in part-time jobs. They've got a college education to pay for and and they kind of know that they have that in the driver's seat. So we'll look there. Uh we have talked to our music and fied staff up at North just to make them aware that we we need to find some solutions. Um potentially the hard part is if we didn't have to travel it would work out just fine. The travel with that uh travel in between buildings makes it difficult to make that work for one teacher. So we need to continue
044to monitor that and the admin team's done a nice job of looking over that. We will have some time a little bit right now at North Elementary again because we're one class less there, but we have some plans to adjust some pieces there with some recess duty, um some potential lunch duties and other things like that. Um just the simple I mean ideally would be you're going to teach music here and go down there. We can make that work, but now we're talking class sizes of 40 students, travel time, overload, all those pieces there. So it doesn't quite work out as well as as we would like. Um, our numbers in the preschool program, uh, we would have 12 kindergarten readiness at South and that's our four-year-old program and we have eight little nights. Megan's
045done a nice job of reviewing all of those numbers that really kind of matches up with our census. So, we really just have one full-time FTE there. Uh, we are we've talked a little bit to our our preschool teacher at the four-year-old level just saying, "Hey, there's going to be a little time left over. What we'd like to do is figure out because we're starting to see some more behaviors coming into school. And I think I've mentioned this before a little bit. I think some of our not WCA's expectations, but expectations set at the state national level of where students need to be when they come in. I mean, now we're, you know, they're already doing literacy and in preschool. And we have some students that that really becomes kind of difficult. Um, and we
046went away from just here's how we set up the rug. I mean, they do those things, but now it's not just working on here's how we get along with the friends and all that stuff. We have to add that. So, I've asked that teacher to maybe come up with some ideas. What can we do? Is there some outreach, some parent, you know, I think back many years ago while I was here, I think it was um they had parent education courses where the two preschool teachers, one took the kids into the preschool room and then the adult educator worked with families to say, "Well, here's some things that you can do." And things like that. So, we'd like to maybe figure some pieces out there for some outreach and hopefully get that program then to
047not just be a south piece, but how do we get that to go throughout the district to find some other other ways to do that? The biggest challenge we know we're going to have is sometimes getting families to attend. You know, trying to find that right time. You can do it in the evening. It doesn't work for certain ones and and we need to get that sorted out though. So, that's kind of the plan there in preschool. We thought there might be some additional need at North Elementary for some more little nights programming, but right now we don't see that. We'd have a in our three-year-old program have a class of 16 and a class of 15, and that would be um taken care of by the teacher as well as um a pair or
048a pair professional who we always have had in there before. So, we've got that summer child care. I don't know if you saw the kind of the numbers that Megan and I reviewed and crunched a little bit. um she did a survey earlier this winter kind of checking for interest and there was interest but not strong enough interest to make it we're going to lose money on that. So, for the month of June, she had seven um full-time, excuse me, eight full-time in June. And then the one family said, "But in July and August, we don't need that." So, it drops to seven. And at $178 per week plus our dropins, which aren't guaranteed, we figured that we'd lose about um it was going to be $15, $45, $45 per week in June, and then
049we would lose about $200 per week in the month of July and August. Now, that doesn't include food, but we had our summer food program, but those numbers were very low as well. Um, it doesn't include the utilities. They were providing the snacks, all those different pieces there. So, it's, you know, we were projecting to be probably $2,000, $1,500 to $2,000 deficit spend, and we just can't afford that anymore. And then it's that fine line of how high do you go? Do you bump that rate up to a $200 now per hour that becomes fairly expensive? And Megan said the one thing that she's kind of noticed is schoolaged child care during the summertime is a little bit easier to obtain um than maybe during the school year. She said where the struggle is is
050the infant care and she said we're not providing that. So so our recommendation there is to to not provide that program. Now after this meeting if all a sudden we get all kinds of calls and say we didn't know that the survey event you weren't going to do it then we may re-evaluate that. But with our current numbers now, we don't see that being cost effective for the district. And if we don't do the child care, then the summer meal program, those numbers were fairly low last year as well. And so, and a lot of those numbers were kids coming from the child care program. So, we would look to reduce or eliminate that program for this summer as well. Activities budget. uh visited with Jake a little bit where we'll continue to work on
051those numbers based on um you know number of participants in various activities to say here's kind of our guideline doesn't mean that that's the hard fast number but here's our guideline that we would have for the different activities everything from football down to knowledge bowl and things like that just to make sure that we've got that taken care of and at least there's a guideline for us to follow to start with so there's no ambiguity there and then also looking at supply budgets um on that end as Well, let's see if there's anything we can change there. Supply budgets for our uh teaching staff. A lot of that dollar amount um comes, remember, by constricting by having fewer teachers. That takes care of that uh on its own. And then the other piece is we
052dropped our elementary classroom budgets and our secondary budgets. Uh but elementary is a little bit easier to describe. We when I first came here, I bumped that dollar amount up to $600. Um and then realized that that's a pretty significant dollar amount. And I found out that prior years to me arriving, I think in the elementary was $100 is what I was told. And then I've been told that neighboring districts um are at that $250 mark to $200 mark. My biggest concern is um I don't think it's the teacher's responsibility to buy the classroom materials that she has to teach her students. Now, there's a fine line with that um because I see it within my own daughter sometimes all the stuff she has in kindergarten. I'm like, "Well, those aren't things that well those
053are nice pieces that I'd like to add." ad and I said, "Well, those are the ads and here's the things that we would probably need." So, we'll monitor, but we believe the $300 would take care of that for them. And then, um, photo copies. Uh, I think the biggest thing that really kind of comes from our teachers, uh, some teachers that have come in to me and just said the amount of waste of paper and prints that don't get collected from the, you know, the copy machines is just phenomenal. I think, you know, probably would be safe to say, Kevin, probably we could probably put a box of paper back in each building at the end of each month. I think with the amount of copies, I think sometimes they don't know where they went
054or they forgot that they printed them, the class came in and they've done it again. So, we just need to get back to to monitoring that more closely. Paper cut, I think, was the system that was used prior uh to my arrival and then we have not had that. But again, it just I think sometimes just awareness to say, "Oh, I didn't realize it." I for me the awareness was after that first year when our overage cost. So, not just only our copy cost, but our overage cost was $19,000 in in prints. And so, we just want to make sure that we're watching that. And if we can watch these pieces, hopefully that allows us to keep our staffing pieces there. And the last one is just some of the un unapproved overtime. There's still
055going to be overtime, but it's going to be some of those pieces. you know, if somebody comes in at 2:00 and they don't start work till 2:30, but they punch in but don't start working. Um, then that's what we need to kind of just monitor there a little bit. So, again, not saying I mean because we have people doing extra things that are fully necessary. Just trying to kind of kind of watch that piece there if we we can. I think I just saw in the Fargo news to their I think their city council was looking at they were millions of dollars in overtime and said, "Hey, we need to get a an idea of that." we are nowhere near that but I think it's just one of those pieces that we need to kind
056of watch there as well. So those are the recommendations admin team has looked at over it's uh never easy as we look I mean because it changes lives right I mean that's one of the things when people don't have a position so this is not something last year was the first year in my career as an administrator having to do that so it's been something that uh I try to do very delicately sometimes it doesn't get perceived that way because if you're still out of a position it's still difficult um but I know it's also you know our declining enrollment is one of those pieces and it's just not WCA. I mean, there's other districts that are in the same position of of trying to find other ways to make those pieces work. Um, you
057know, I think one of the things that I misspoke on when I talked about the early separation, early retirement, you know, there's a timeline there and I think I got back to you just saying that, uh, I was kind of cautioned by MSBA as well as district legal counsel um, on how we proceed with that because we kind of missed that February 1st window and there's nothing really in our contract. We have to be careful about putting something in our contract just because we do get the dollars um, on that because we have a sunset clause on any postretirement benefits. questions, comments and then the timeline after this would be after this is taken care of then we need to notify those staff and I've already had like I said like I said conversations with
058them so they um because our seniority list is really the start of that process so it's pretty clear I think right now but I wanted to have that conversation beforehand to let folks know um and really it's two staff members right now but things can change between now and then if somebody says hey I found another opportunity or um things like that you know we would definitely take it slow as we move forward on there but I also understand if people need to find opportunities that makes sense as well and I would look for a motion to adopt the resolution for reducing and discontinuing educational programs and position itions move and a second. Second. Roll calls. Gross. Yes. Porter, yes. Sandstead, yes. Sour, yes. Vincent, yes. And I'm a yes. That brings us to the
059end of our agenda. Motion to and a second. Motion carries. have someone want to talk about