January 12th, 2026 School Board Business Meeting

001I'll call this meeting to order at 601. Roll call. Blake >> here. >> Kelsey >> here. >> Robert will be here in a few. Merl >> here. >> Blood >> here. >> Jenny >> here. Crystal chair here. If you join me in the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> If you had a moment to look at the agenda, I would accept a motion. Do I hear a second? >> I'll second >> discussion. Moving to a vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. Public comment. Sorry, Diane. I didn't look. We have public comment >> and board communication. >> All right. Well, this

002month marks uh board appreciation month and uh Kim and I will share a few of our appreciative comments. But before we do that, uh I have Cheryl here representing our principles, our students, and others who have put together a video. So to turn it over to Cheryl. >> Yes. So we put together um a video. There's a little bit from each um school. And then we also wanted I just wanted to highlight the room in here. And we have updated the bulletin boards and updated the orange. So that's we appreciate you. There's also you know maybe >> um so yes this is ex uh from all of us to all of you. So we have some students to share some messages for you. Sure. >> Thank you. smart, >> helpful, dedicating. >> Thank you, school

003board. Because of you, we get to be seen on our hardest days. >> Because of you, we get a big school. Because of you, we take pride in our school. >> Because of you, we get to walk through a safe school. >> Because of you, we find our voice in discussion. Because of you, we have specialists that create individual plans. >> Because of you, >> students are full. >> We have a great music program. >> Because of you, we have a great sport program. >> Because of you, we have a new gym. Hi, I'm Nicholas Young and I'd like to go into public office after high school. >> I'm Laya Schaefer and I want to be a lawyer when I'm older. >> Hi, my name is Darham and I'm using my North High School education

004to pursue being a pediatric occupational therapist. >> Hi, my name is Tam. I'm using my high school education to become a Marine. >> Hi, my name is Roman Culkins. I'm using my high school education to pursue on >> Hi, my name is Riley Wer and I'm using my high school education from North Mary to pursue a degree in pediatric oncology and nursing. >> Hi, I'm Aubrey. I'm going to use my North Marian education to pursue um the psychiatric nursing program. I'm going to use my education to pursue nursing. >> Hello, my name is Christian. I'm going to use my education to pursue business in college and hopefully play soccer. And if not, I will join the Marines and continue my education from there. Thank you. >> Can I ask Kim to share a few words?

005>> I I appreciate just having an opportunity to I really want to extend my my sincere thanks to uh the leadership, the commitment and the service that that each of you are are providing to uh to the district in six short months. Um it's very clear uh how much you care, how much you are committed to our students, to our families, and to our staff. Um I just truly appreciate this opportunity to be here and working among um an entire school community that I I really can tell takes a takes a pride to that next level. And I just I want to say thank you again for the opportunity to come and join this incredible place. He was right. >> And I want to uh thank you uh very much for uh I feel like

006we are a really strong team and team means a lot to me and you know teams show up for each other in a lot of different ways. his teammates do that for each other. And you know, last week we we gave this uh district-wide presentation last Monday, which we're going to give tonight for the public. And uh nearly every one of you reached out in your own way to to check in, not only just to ask, you know, us how it go, but how did it go for our employees and what how was the message uh received? um you know, your care goes beyond just you know, the personal level, but your the care demonstrates how much you care about the district um and how we serve kids. And so I just I tell myself

007every single day how thankful I am to be here. And really, it's because of you because you make it such a wonderful place to work and be a part of a team with you. So, thank you so much for all you do for us. >> Okay, moving on. Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Do we have high school ASB here? >> They are here. >> Oh, you are back there. Come on. >> Definitely going to have to come up this time. Um we just went around and we're start our presentation by just uh telling you guys and updating you guys on the things on the clubs that have been going around our school and what they've been up to. So first we'll start off with Skills USA. >> Um Skills USA is resuming after

008school practices with both culinary and bakery students. Uh they have five culinary students and three baking/pastry students preparing for their state competition in April. Um the state leadership conference will be will be held at Knife River Training Center and they're looking forward to a strong showing. Um as a member of prop committee currently we're having meetings on Thursdays during advisory and we're doing lots of fundraisers. Our most recent one, we sold chocolate bars for a dollar each and we all sold uh there were about I want to say 10 members and there were 60 chocolate bars in each box and we sold all of them. Um we're currently doing another fundraiser. We're doing a can drive and a crispy cream sale at the Hubard Park, the water park. And um we're hoping to pick a

009date. We haven't picked one yet, but sometime in April. >> Um next up is FFA. They have Oh, their student members are currently working on practicing for their speech contest, applying for FFA degrees, and preparing for the national FFA weeks, which I have I'm not sure when that will be, but once we get further into that, I'm pretty sure Miss will let me know. Um, others are preparing their farm, their fair animals, and are looking at trying out new fairs this year. their annual plant sale is on track to be one of the best and biggest ones yet and they want to say thank you for your continued support of the FA program. >> Um next we're going to talk about Key Club which in November um slash December uh Key Club held a clean

010start innovation and collected hygiene items which will be donated to a local nonprofit organization. um NHS uh their second blood drive will be happening on February 19th. Uh their October drive was very successful. They collected 58 units and they hope to exceed this number at the next drive. Um they're still continuing uh on with their Monday homework help during advisory and soon uh they will be helping during Monday math help labs too. Um FBALA as members, both of us members as FBALA, we're still doing really good with our Big Brother Big Sister program as we go to the intermediate school every other Monday. Um 23 FBA members are signed up to compete at the regional skills conference on January 24th at Cami High School. And most students already um competed their completed their online tests,

011but multiple students will be presenting in person at regionals in events like sales presentations, public speaking, and job interviews. Um, for yearbook, there's currently 22 students attempting to work on the book on their own time in their own spaces. Um, their production on the yearbook is going much slow at at a much slower pace than usual. Uh, they're trying to they're trying to uphold their goal of covering every student in the book um at least three or more times. Um, and the theme for this year's book is together we are one. um ASB we changed to weekly meetings um to bi-weekly. So officer officers meet every week and then just general members meet every other week. Um this December was the first ever uh spirit party award to the junior class for earning the most

012spirit points during homecoming week. Um and we're currently working on winter formal and hopefully some fresh ideas for the spring. >> And lastly, Meta held a stuffed animal and candy fundraiser last month. They raised around uh they raised over $800 with 500 being donated to our high school's family outreach program. They set up the giving tree to provide um families in our community with gifts for Christmas and they will hold another fundraiser for Valentine's Day. >> Thank you. That was a wealth of information. Thank you so much. >> Yeah. Thank you guys. >> We appreciate though. And don't feel necessary to stay the whole time. I know you, >> but there's brownies in the back to the school board and there's plenty. So, feel free to take a brownie. >> Take a snack. >> Thank

013you. >> Okay, you and I. >> Okay. So, first of all, thank you guys for all that you do and happy uh sleep board appreciation and thank you for allowing the union to speak to the board today. My name is Diane McGeligget and I am this year's UNME United North Educators vice P uh president. I almost said principal. Um, as this school year began, our members were met with a great deal of change, including staff reductions and program eliminations, to name a few, which have had a significant impact on our daily work experiences across the district. UNM conducted staff check-in surveys in October and December to better understand the successes and challenges that were being experienced by our members. Given the significant staffing and budget changes for the current school year, these surveys were designed

014to ensure that staff had the opportunity to share their experiences so that if there were any areas um in need of support that we could identify those and help to address them. >> Um some executive board members met and sifted through the two different surveys and identified the main like themes that they were seeing throughout both of them. and we wanted to take this opportunity to share those results with uh the board tonight. So overall, the staff has reported a strong um support from their colleagues as a huge positive aspect of their work environment this year. At the same time, members have also identified that larger class sizes, particularly at the younger grade levels, have presented instructional and management challenges along with behavior concerns. Also with the staff reductions, the shuffling of teaching assignments and

015larger class sizes, the limited planning time for individuals and new teams has been one of the top concerns identified by our members on the two surveys. Across the survey responses, the common theme is that there's a sense of just being kind of overwhelmed and struggling to manage the demands from the increased workloads and the new roles that are being taken on. So the members have asked that we UNME continue to advocate for appropriate planning time support and smaller class sizes and just want to once again thank you guys for giving us the opportunity to share those concerns um with you tonight from the survey. >> So thank you. We know how much time and energy you give to our students and we just really appreciate all that the teachers and the staff do for us

016at the district. So, thank you. >> Thank you for your sharing your concerns. >> Thanks, extended overnight field trip acknowledging the wrestling team January 15th through the 17th. >> Yeah, good luck, >> Jenny. And then a consent agenda. I would entertain a motion. Anyone? >> I'll make a motion. Uh we approve consent agenda as presented. >> Do I hear a second? >> Second. Second. Okay, moral is up. Discussion hearing none. Move to a vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. >> District operations. >> All right. We'll invite our administration from the middle school, Joe Jensen and Jason Olsson up here. And so I won't steal too much of their thunder here, but it's exciting to have a full report and focusing on the three initiatives. And uh uh what

017I really appreciate about their report that they're going to launch into is we have talked a little bit about the importance of language acquisition and having student talk in our classrooms. And I know that there's been some board member questions around what does that actually look like? Well, they're going to walk you through what some of that actually looks like uh in our classroom. So with that, I'll turn it over to them. Thank you because you're our >> Well, thanks for having us tonight. Um I've been before you before, but I'd like to introduce Jason Olsson, our vice principal this year. >> Um we are your North Mary Middle School team for this year, and you know, we've had a great year so far. Um back in the fall, the principles came before you and

018kind of talked about the initiative wheel and we're still working on that. So um the middle schools continued this work primarily as a focus with language acquisition because that can be integrated easily through the other two components as well. All right and the main vehicle we've worked at with the uh language acquisition is the plus model. So I'll give you a quick overview of it there. I'm not going to go through each one of them but essentially we've focused our PD on this. Mr. Olson's done a great job of developing and delivering that PD. We've had a lot of great feedback from from staff and it being what they're needing, what they're looking for. Um, so this is a schoolwide approach, but we are looking at um a math problem tonight. You know, a lot

019of times we think about language language acquisition. Um, we might think about our typical language arts classes or maybe a vocabulary heavy class like science, but um, math is also hitting us there. So, here's a pretty typical question from our eighth grade math text. So, for those of you that maybe be math averse, just take inhale and and hold it in and exhale. I'm going to read you through it. So, um this is an eighth grade problem. Um transversal P intersects parallel lines L and M. If the measure of angle BCD is three times as much as the measure of angle ABC, what is the measure of angle ABC? and please show your or explain your thinking in your response. >> So what we are seeing is you know students can often do the math

020but when we get to that show you're thinking or you're explain your response sometimes that language academic language specifically is missing. So um or when they're teachers to build this up when we get teachers whether it's a math problem sorry teachers students whether it's math problem or otherwise one of their universal strategies right from the beginning are some of our reading strategies that comes from AVID and so they might underline or highlight key words uh draw a box or define words that they're not familiar with and then kind of circle other key terms. So this is just one of their first steps that they take and then you know we got to kind of feed them that next part when we get especially to that explain your thinking. You know there's the stuff that might

021be in the question itself but there's some assumed other academic language and in this case a common academic acquisition strategy is um you know where do we have scaffolds maybe a word wall for words that they've already seen so they can activate their prior knowledge. We know that supplementary is in there somewhere, but that wasn't in the question. So, when I'm explaining, you might want to know supplementary angles. I might want to know interior angles or adjacent angles. And so, we're really working with teachers to have everything in place for students to build this language when they're explaining their thinking. Um, which leads us to our effective educator domains. And for this area, we're looking at domain 2, which looks at the learning environment um with some particular focus on that kind of fostering a

022culture for learning, maintaining purposeful environments and organizing our spaces for learning and what that looks like on the day-to-day in your classroom can take shape um in many ways like this. So, in the physical space, you know, is it set up in a way that's conducive to collaboration? Is it in a circle like this where everyone can see each other and build on each other's thoughts? Um, are there tools at their disposal? Are there those word walls to pull that prior learning that they had? Are there sentence stems that are available for them? Um, can they do that? Are there instructional moves? Has the teacher actually designed time in their lesson to stop? you know, think about the protocols for how students are going to talk. Um, have some of these examples. Um, you know,

023a lot of times students are in groups and teachers might be frustrated like, well, I put them in groups, but it wasn't productive or they got off task. Oh, do you have roles assigned? Are there ways in which we're going to say, partner A, you're going to give your explanation. Partner B, you're going to ask two questions for further explanation. Got to have some roles and practice. It's just like anything else. If you threw them together once and then you get frustrated because the result wasn't what you hoped for, that's a pretty common outcome. Um, do we practice those roles? Did we take time to learn the process so that then we can use it as a learning tool as we continue to go through that? Um, and then for kind of what resources you

024have. Um, our math book actually think about our example is really good and each unit they take at least one question to break it down. It has native language supports um and really walks that through for teachers who might be might not be as familiar with that. Um and then what other tools are available? We started dipping our toe into the use of AI. A lot of teachers use that in a variety of ways, but we're wanting to focus on how do we use that tool to replicate what they may already be doing in a way that scales it up to a factor that makes it more productive in terms of every unit. you know, we have, as we heard from you and me, there's only so much prep time and the job keeps getting

025bigger and more complicated. So, the ability to differentiate, provide more resources. Um, that's one tool in addition to that. So, when we look at this next slide, these are a couple of those sample um explanations for the problem. So, if we remember, >> so you remember the question that we asked in the beginning, what is the measure of angle ABC? Um, so what we did was we put that problem into the AI and we asked the AI to come up with some explanations of examples of how students could explain their work um, using their own basic vocabulary that they have inherent um, all the way to a um, an advanced form of sharing their answer. And so um, on the on the screen you'll see two different versions of a response that could have been

026made. Response one, I checked my answer by multiplying 45 degrees by three to find angle ECD. That gave me angle 135° or that gave me 135°. Then I checked if 45° plus 135° equals 180 and it does. So the answer makes sense. So it generated a a very human sounding response that they could read as a script and and um verbalize out. The example of the um advanced was I notice that the angles are on the same side and add to 180 degrees. Since angle BCD is three times angle ABC, I used X and 3X. When I add it, I got 180. Solving 4x= 180 gave me x= 45. So angle ABC is 45°. So these um stool tools of efficiency that Joe was referring to really help our students out in the classroom. um

027problem by problem. >> So even with all these supports, teachers still seeing some gaps in academic language. Um so you know, we're continuing that work and some of that work is building on our ongoing AVID um system that's been in place for a number of years. So um some things we're looking at student organization. Um if you've been into the commons at the middle school, you might see those black shells. We call that our binder barn. And um we've got a very well-developed binder system that keeps kids organized, especially for our sixth grade. You know, they're coming from the elementary where they primarily with one teacher the whole day to bam, now you've got home room plus seven classes. How do you keep organized? How do you manage your work? How do you not lose

028your homework, etc. So that schoolwide organization is huge. It also lowers some of the cognitive load on where is my stuff? And so it's like, hey, it's all here every Monday in home room. They're checking their binders, making sure they have what they need, and um what homework has been turned in, what hasn't. Sixth grade team's also been great. You know, homework's on pink paper. Green is something for in class. So, we're kind of developing that. Two other areas are focused note-taking. How do we take that information that we're processing from the short-term memory to long-term memory? And we kind of have a five five-point process for that to really kind of where do we take those notes initially? we have a similar format across the classes. When do we review those? You know, try

029to get that at least three times to move that hopefully into longerterm memory, but when not, we talk about word balls and other supports for kids and they need to activate that somewhere else. Um, and we saw those critical reading strategies. Those are just some of our entry level reading strategies. Other things include questioning the text, how do we, you know, do margin notes with Post-it notes we're not writing in our books? Uh, things like that. And um and of course wrapping up language acquisition. Avid's amazing. It's not 100% original. The Avid language acquisition strategies are supported by and dovetailed nicely with our plus framework and the other work that we've been having uh within the district. Um additional supports outside the classroom. We finally got our scholar center up and running. So every Tuesday

030and Thursday we have uh teachers and I available for tutoring and homework help. And so far we've had about 15 10 to 15 kids each day um of those weeks and we started one day four winter break as a trial run and now we're getting rolling and a lot of kids are asking hey when's scholar center can I come to scholar center so our staff's been great about getting that going on and another kind of academic club that we got going on is Messa which is a science club this year I think they're at 17 to 20 members which is almost triple what they had last year I believe um with good representation across the board Um, and our robotics club is doing very well and it's partnered with our high school as well. And

031>> all right, so you want to take this? >> Um, well, we can't really take credit, Joe and I, this because this happened at North Middle School last year, but the uh, ninth graders we sent up the high school have been received very well. Um we received a note from one of our former colleagues um just stated that this year's freshmen take notes read out loud to each other work quietly. It is amazing. I have seen the effort on the note on taking notes and collaborative learning. One of my freshmen's notes are university worthy keep on doing the great work and so the high school is benefiting from all of the efforts that have been made. middle school have it >> and we do know that, you know, we get the kids walk across the

032stage in June. That's not just the high school, that's K12. You know, middle school's trying to do its part. And we're glad to see that the high school's seen some of the fruits of that labor and building upon that. Um, so that's one of our goals as well to think about where can we take those strategies that kids are already using for three years here and build on those as they transition to high school for a more successful high school transition. Um, in other AVID news, uh, last spring, now you may have known or may have even attended, we had a trial AVID showcase where educators from other schools came to visit our school in our classrooms. Um, this fall, I went to Cascade Locks Elementary School to see their showcase and get a sense

033of how that was running. It was great to see things we're doing are the things other showcase schools are doing as well. And even though it was an elementary, they still had their binders even though they're a lot smaller. you know, they had reading strategies, note-taking strategies, collaborative uh focus. So, uh that was great affirmation. This week, in fact, Jason and I are going to head down to Town Middle School to work with their administrators, visit some of their aid classrooms, and think about their process as we continue to plan for what is tenatively scheduled, uh April 29th for the North Maria Middle School AVID showcase. And we'll keep you informed on that as time progresses. Um, Southside AVID, we've got, you know, a lot of other things obviously happening here at North Mary Middle

034School. Um, going back a little bit to October, we did make a shift to our conference style and um, traditionally we've done the appointment based system and that was great because we could really focus on the message, but we heard from teachers and some parents was, I don't get to see all the teachers I want to see. And when you have the appointment based system, our home room classes are 20 to 23. That's just about how many slots you can fit into our our scheduled time frame. So, um, we looked at what else was out there. We had a couple teachers that proposed the arena style. We did a lot of work with our staff to see what would this look like and we communicated with our families and say, "Hey, let's give it a

035shot." So, with arena style, we had all of our teachers in the commons and everyone had stations. Families could come. We asked them to maybe check in with their home room teacher, but we also had invitations from teachers who really wanted to make sure they got to communicate and um had very successful couple of nights there. We had 63% of families show up. Don't have data to see what that compares to previously, but we had um many of our teachers said they met with um 30 to 20 to 40 families and even three of our teachers said they met with 40 plus. So we think when we take all of those interactions that we actually had a much higher rate of communication between teachers and families. Um teachers felt pretty strongly about it for the

036most part. Our parent feedback was good. One thing we definitely going to look at in the future is um some time frame limits. Sometimes some teachers and or families get to talking pretty good and there might be two or three families waiting. So, you know, we did some afteraction report on on the system, but we think it's something that we can definitely move forward to meet the needs of that. So, um, few other things quickly. Uh, our AVID group, we have a seventh and eighth grade AVID class. They were able to head to OSU, do a campus tour, take in a basketball game, see Benny the Beaver. I don't know who our Beaver fans are here. I'm clearly not one of them. Sorry. Um, I'm from Montana. I get to be neutral. So, that was

037there. um don't want honorable kids at the end of trimester 1. I I selected these cuz sometimes we do forget how hard students working for that recognition and that sense of pride they feel they get to feel when they go home and show their certificates to their families. Um you know throw it on the refrigerator with the magnet and you know enjoy it for a long time to come. And then our robotics actually hosted a robotics competition back in November um with the high school and the middle school. Um, so you can kind of see every year there's a course that's designed. They have to get the robots to do a certain thing and um, and there's a lot of guests in check and learning. The great thing about these competitions is they really get

038to see different approaches from different styles of learners. Um, so that was very successful right before Thanksgiving and then uh, last Thursday we wrapped up or last week our winter sports session one. So we had boys basketball this season and girls wrestling. Uh girls actually had a final competition over the weekend. We had a number of girls went and competed very well. And then uh tonight actually girls basketball and boys wrestling started. So that'll be our next season. And so we yeah, like everyone else has said, we thank you for your continued support of our students, families, staff, and communities. And understand many of you are our families. We've got your kids in our schools or have had them. And that's great that you're supporting us in those continued ways. >> Right. Any questions we

039want to take or >> we'll do round table quickly. Blake, anything else? >> Good. Thank you. >> Thank you presentation. I'm impressed with the community connections and and I like that and my family isn't necessarily all we although my wife >> but my father made a point to get us to the basketball game. All right. Good memory. >> Glenn, >> I would just say thanks for coming and presenting for us. I know it takes time to come and do this, but really appreciate the interaction and and keeping kind of a pulse on on what's going in each building. Jenny, >> yeah, I appreciate um one thing I noticed about your guys' conferences that you listened to the staff and then you followed up and found out what worked and what didn't. So, I appreciate that

040that insight. Yeah, thank you so much for presenting and it was uh really good. I appreciate it and I would echo what Jenny said. It's nice to see action but then also follow up. So that's good. Good job. Thank you all. >> Do we also get brownies on our way out? >> Yes, please do. >> Just make sure there's seven left saying that there needs to be seven when we're done. All right, you're on. >> All right. Well, thank you all. Uh so tonight for our financial enrollment update, um I don't have a formal uh actual presentation, but uh we have the financial report as well as the enrollment reports linked on the memo. I wanted to take just a moment um and highlight a couple areas on the financial report. Um, similar to the

041trend we were we have been seeing, our revenues are coming in above budget uh for our state school fund. I cannot emphasize enough that a very very large portion of this is due to increased transportation grant revenues that are going to be uncertain until May of 2027 when they may need to be paid back. Uh again, this has to do with where we end up ranked statewide. Right now, we are the last last one on the cliff of getting the increased funding. If one school ends up with $1 per student more in transportation costed us, we will lose 10% of that of that funding, hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, we really um really want to keep just that in the forefront. The other piece is u unfortunately we do have a a negative uh

042pulling down that revenue. Our ending fund balance for June 30 of 2025 which of course then would translate to the beginning fund balance for this current school year missed the mark by about $126,000. So that is revenue if you will resources that we had counted on to pay expenditures this year. That is not there. However, really great uh in the expenditure sections we are coming in uh overall. We are showing uh trending that expenditures should be able to come in under budget. Uh at this point I am still predicting that there is a possibility I will be coming to the board asking for a uh transfer of appropriations. If we go back to how the budget is built, this section here about expenditures by function is what is providing us the authority to spend funds

043in different types of functions of academics. Right now we are uh trending that we our expenditures will likely exceed what that allowance was for support services. This goes back again to the the kind of term of the of the of the year. right now our transportation costs are are driving that that piece there. So what that would mean then is possibly my prediction is coming to the board and asking to transfer budget authority from the instruction category into the support services category. So not increasing total expenditures but moving where that authority was granted by our budget committee. In uh terms of enrollment, um we did see a pretty healthy drop unfortunately um with our January 6th. I use January 6th as the measurement date because that was the date we came back uh from winter

044break. Unfortunately, this drop though is um somewhat typical. It does appear that we hit a little bit of a um downward slide and then we we tend to see some things pick back up. So, we're going to continue to monitor this. Um, we, you know, the predictions I had had us ending the year at about 1554. So, if this can come back up, we may, you know, be in a little bit of a positive trend there as well. So, um, this is, you know, again, just I think um, a lot of times people are on extended holiday and we've talked about the 10day rule and how that impacts our our count on any one day. So, we'll continue to keep you updated on on the enrollment. So, with that, I actually would like to turn

045it over to our auditor. Dan Miley is here. He is with TKW, and we are extremely thankful for the partnership and uh recent delivery of the 2024 25 school year audit. And uh really, really glad you're here tonight to help us walk through this this riveting document. For some of us it's riveting. Uh thank you and thanks to Kim and all the staff that come together that we have to ask questions of and say please provide this documentation and we go into all the different schools depending on the program especially a single audit. So um it takes a lot of people and a lot of effort to get through the audit each year. Um this year um we are a little bit later than usual. Um probably a couple things. Um the biggest one the

046federal government decided that they weren't going to release their compliance supplement for the audit of the federal funds which is needed for the single audit till late November. And that provides sort of the blue book or the um the road um to how we need to audit those funds. And without that it was sort of just guessing what there is then an um and we'll talk about a little bit later uh implementation of a new of a couple new standards but one in particular requiring a little bit more work um to get through and then lastly just turn over a new fresh set of eyes and just going through. Good thing but still just something to work through. um who's on there. Um we did the audit within generally accepted auditing standards um and government

047um auditing standards as required as part of a single audit and the secretary of state of Oregon. Um we did interim field work um in July and then we were out here for a couple weeks in September and then of course continued on our work um through there. The single audit was over $2.1 million of federal expenditures um that the district had during the year. That was down from about 4.1 million last year. Just go through that. And the um ESF, the education stabilization funds, the ESR funds definitely threw those numbers back and forth over the last probably four or five years. Um the two major programs were uh title one and the special education cluster this year and those are all all done by formula of how it gets through to make sure that

048there's um a rotation of what gets audited and then a sufficient amount of expenditures that gets audited. Um the financial statement audit results. Um good news, unmodified opinion, clean opinion. This is the opinion that you want. Um that the financial statements are presented fairly um in accordance with US GAP. And then the um audit for Oregon minimum standards, the that's required by Oregon state regulation. We had no findings. This would cover budget expenditures, ADM type U measurements section. Um before moving on to the single audit, a couple things that I just want to note um for the district's financial position in in total. Just in summary, um we did have a pension liability that increased about $9 million. Some of that was offset by other pension related balances that are more timing. So it nets

049out to be about a um it reduces that impact from about 9 million to about $3 million um and there's a number of reasons for this but mostly it has to do with per um and how they calculate it. Um, it is worth noting that the district did, I think back in 21, issue some pension bonds and so they're paying a significantly lower rate um, of their PERS contributions than they otherwise would have. I think 20 something% >> they're saving about 3 to 4% over the current rate. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, so there's some of that and and there's not other than number of people in those pension bonds, there's not much to do about that liability. Um, and then the second um big impact as was mentioned is the implementation of Gazsby 101 for

050compensated. The biggest thing to do with this was instead of just what was paid, it was paid or used as far as leave balances. And so sick leave got added into this. Um, while it is a large number, I do like to remind boards and other people that reality didn't change. You always had this sort of liability hanging out out there. Uh, that people were going to use sick leave. That's why you offer it. Um, but now um the accounting standards put a number to that. So that number at June 30 was about $2.6 million. um the beginning number so the implementation what we restated the financial statements for was about 2.1 million so about a so it increased your expenses by about uh half a million dollars during the year having this uh new

051balance on the books for you guys. Um overall there was and I as sort of mentioned federal funding dropped about $2 million that was sort of offset by uh state funding increasing by about $1.4 million. So that's there if you want more information about the compensated abses and how that's all calculated in the restatement as I'm sure everyone does. That's on page uh 23. um where we go into. So, any questions on any of the financial statement numbers or anything like that before moving on? >> Um, I have one question. I noticed several places that you say we don't set out at the outset to to give an opinion on the state of affairs at the district. Can you enlarge on that or tell me why you wouldn't provide any assurance of compliance or an

052opinion from your professional standpoint? So the requirements are an opinion on the financial statements numbers themselves. Um one place where we don't give an opinion on is the management's analysis of the numbers in the management discussion analysis because that's more of a I wouldn't say opinion but more narrative than the actual numbers themselves. Um the other is the other information. So you have information provided by Marian County. We don't audit that other than saying yes, this is what Marian County said the number is. So we make sure that it's consistent with the financial statement numbers and with other information available to us, but we don't give an opinion whether that number is materially correct because we didn't provide any other procedures over those numbers. I was especially interested in the matter of no opinion as

053to compliance with assume regulation. >> Well, the there is an opinion over compliance. I was trying to >> What's the >> I I guess I'll just have to rest my case here. >> I came down and got a copy of this and I spent about three hours this morning and afternoon and I left it on my desk. So I >> Yeah, we because we most >> mine was all marked up. Yeah, >> we most >> I think I understand things better than I did four hours ago, but >> retirement sounds good. >> Thank you, Merl. Yeah. Um to go on to the single audit results, there's two reports that we issue on that. One is the um report on controls or financial reporting and non-compliance and other matters um based on an audit of financial

054statements performed in accordance with government auditing standards. This is where we have to um report to you any internal control findings um deep um that we were made aware of as through the course of the audit. Um we noted two significant deficiencies. Um one related to leave balances. One thing about a new standard, it makes you look at things a new way. Um something that was never really recorded before in the financial statements. now getting on there. Testing was done and there was just some questions raised and Kim did some investigation and I think we're on the path to getting that resolved. And then um the payroll one is related to the single audit finding um noted below that some indirect cost um for title one uh or not indirect um some allowable cost questions

055came up about a stipen for a teacher that did not provide services to title one. So, um, we went through, we found one in our sample. There was two months, I think, um, that were reported as title one expenditures, and they totaled, uh, uh, $750. Um, more detail about those findings is in the schedule of finance and question costs um, towards the back of the um, report in the compliance section. um some other required communications and most of these are in the letter that was also provided to you. Um we implemented like we said Gazsby 101 compensated absises. There was also another um implementation of Gazsby 102 and it was about risk disclosures. These are things that would have a significant impact on the district's operations or um financial condition. One of the examples that

056they use is if all the teachers went on strike and that's actually in the standard. That would provide that would make it hard for the school district to operate as a school district. Um others would be a significant loss of funding. So if you were 90% reliant on one funding source and that went away, that would be a significant impact to the district. So those are the types of things. Um talking through with Kim and um there was nothing that rose to that level that we were made aware of that would require disclosure. And then also what's in the um letter to you is some representations and that's also a representation that um Dann and Kim signed to me that there was nothing that rose to that attention in there. Um significant accounting estimates. We

057like to make sure that you guys are aware that these are estimates that and whenever you have an estimate it can allow for management bias to um to influence those. So that's where it's always good to make sure that does that make sense and if you have any questions about those estimates that you're raising those and making sure that they um don't lean one way or another too much. >> Um we didn't have any audit adjustments identified but there was one uncorrected misstatement and this has to do with elgip is supposed to be recorded at fair value. So this is the local government investment pool. Um, it operates a lot like your money market account if you go into what you have a dollar in, you get a dollar out type of thing, but because

058of the accounting standards, it's supposed to be at fair value. And the fair value for one of the funds with little activity, the capital projects fund with the amount of cash in there just raised above some of our thresholds and it was just a really small um fund to begin with. Um so we just noted that as that was an uncorrected misstatement. Um management determined that it was um immaterial. We agreed that it's not material to the financial statements and so but we have to note that to the board. >> Um we're not aware of any consultations with other accountants. Um Gazsby has continued to have fun. They there's three new accounting standards on debt. two or for next year. Um the financial reporting model this doesn't necessarily change the numbers in the financial statements

059but it will change the presentation um for you guys. Right now you have your um budget to actual as statements that option that you guys elected to do will go away. So they will now become part of the required supplementary information. they will no longer be in your actually called financial state. So now they'll be schedules of budget to actuals and they'll move place within the financial report. Um the other thing that will impact you guys a little bit is just a renewed um emphasis on analysis as part of the management discussion and analysis and they put some more rules around that. There's some other requirements that are there, but they'll have minimal to no impact to the district because you guys don't have proprietary funds, which would be like your water fund or your

060internal service fund, which obviously the district does not have. Um, then some disclosures around capital assets. These relate to your lease and subscription disclosures. Um, you just have to call those out separately instead of combining them in other places. And then subsequent events um is a concept that Finn pulled in by reference from the commercial world. Um and it just put some government definitions to it and and um put out there for the government financial statement some consistency about what the definition is and what's the required there. Um we always like to emphasize a shared responsibility for independence. we have um to be able to provide you an independent opinion. We need to make sure that we're not making decisions as management. We're not operating as management um and we're not doing um engagement for

061the district that might impair that. And then the management representation that I referenced in the p past um is also attached to that letter and that's a laundry list of a few pages of things that we asked uh Kim and Dan to sign to make sure that um what they told us is all there. Glenn, >> you want to get us started? Well, uh, just have issues because we, um, it seems to be there seems to be some stuff that we as a district have found that I felt like you as an auditor or your firm probably should have found or given us accurate numbers or at least given us um you know some sort of heads up that um maybe they you know maybe they were inaccuracies. I haven't mistakes were made. I I

062you know I'm not complaining about that. um power as a board member. I if if the inaccuracies are after an audited version comes to us um of our numbers, I'm not sure where we go to trust any numbers. I'm not sure where we place our trust in order to be able to make informed decisions. Does that make sense? So I I get the concern. Um and I think what the financial statement opinion is is reasonable assurance that the financial statements are materially correct. Um there are things had we known yes we would have done something different but we aren't testing every single transaction. We use sampling we test controls we rely on statements by management. Um, so an audit is never going to be foolproof. Um, we always want >> it's not going to be

063foolproof, but um, the level of at this point employees it seems to be affecting is more than it's more than a >> more than a blip. It's more than, you know, And so that's that's that's my concern as a board member. >> Um cuz sitting in the chair position for you know prior to Crystal >> um I was delivered those >> you know those reports and and was material to you know to having to making sure that when they were received I felt like they were accurate. So >> and I guess the question is at what level? So we're talking about in we do some analysis and risk assessment based on a study of the district's controls and how it goes through. We also look at the overall balances within the financial statements. So something

064that may be material to the individual, and I'm not trying to discount that at all, may not be material to a $2 million balance or $9 million balance to the district in total. And I and I get there's that dis disconnect at times. Um and so so while acknowledging the concern there's the procedures that we do I >> and and while I get to the individual >> transactional amounts may not be significant but the significance to employees and the widespread >> nature of it it it does become an issue Yeah. >> Um and it it it just causes me to to second guess um you know the accuracy of of numbers that are being presented. I mean we pay you >> in order to provide a service so that we you know we we are

065in compliance um that our numbers are accurate that you know everybody within the organization is being treated >> you know fairly and judiciously from a financial standpoint. So >> yeah and and I get that. Um and we do strongly adhere to the auditing standards um through sampling and through the risk assessments and all like that. Um we've been in this spot before. Sometimes it's the random question, it's the random sample. new information comes up on a regular basis and there's always that opportunity that something gets missed and are we happy about it you know um information was going come comes through there's a lot of transactions go through the through the district and I get that individual people It impacts differently than the district as a whole or good. >> I'm okay. >> I'm not

066okay. >> Okay, Merl. Well, I would just comment to we we do not know the dollar amounts and they may be small and not that significant. We do know the number of people affected and it's quite large and it goes back beyond this audit I think. So we're speaking to that I think also aren't we >> last year's audit and maybe the one before that we don't know >> here. So I share some concern. I also understand that we are so varied with bureaucratic requirements that it's almost impossible to comply with that. So I don't know what to say further a material misstatement or a significant deficiency and you make the distinction between the two one more serious than the other. So maybe they're not that large and and can be corrected. I hope so.

067So maybe we need your help in and how to do that thing. >> Robert, anything? >> I don't have anything good to say. >> Okay, Kelsey. >> Blake. >> Nothing. Jenny, >> um I'm just wondering about your audit is based off of like statements provided from Kim and management, right? >> It's one piece of the audit. >> Yeah. But what about do you deal with like just actual data? >> Yeah. >> Like rather than just statements. >> Yeah. So we do a number of different procedures throughout the course of the audit. Um we take samples, we ask for please provide us um invoices or other kinds of supporting documentation. Um for that we we do confirmations. So we ask third parties, we ask banks, your lenders, please tell us this is what the district says,

068please tell us if these numbers are correct. Um we pull down reports from OD from curves from all like that and compare that to the district's records. um we do analytical procedures. So where it may not be an individual test detail, but we go um okay like payroll taxes. We'll do that because it's an easier concept to go through and you're you paid roughly 8% of your payroll and payroll taxes um last year. Okay, payroll taxes is roughly 8% of this year and within some tolerances. Does that make sense? And so we run through depending on the risk level and what's there. Um we also combine that with tests of controls of the district where we pick again random sample and say hey please provide us support that this control is in place that this

069was reviewed that this was done by a district personnel. Um so there's multiple layers that go on there. Um, so it's >> answers to the question that >> Mr. Miley, I just have to go on record and say I'm extremely disappointed that this purse issue was missed for multiple years in a row. I sat on this side of the table. I find that if a full sampling was done that this would have been displayed at some point rather than have our business manager who's new find the error and report it because she has integrity and transparency. In the future I expect better. >> Thank you board action. All right, we have a few things on here for your uh for your vote tonight. Uh the first one is the instruction materials policy um where we

070discussed this at the uh December board meeting. And so this is one sentence that's now accurately displayed uh from um what we discussed in December. and that uh the superintendent will develop processes to communicate with students and caregivers both se core and supplemental instructional materials that we required for any courses and um again just want to really thank uh members of the English department at the middle and high school for helping develop some protocols uh that's those those documents have been shared with you. So we're now recommending uh the adoption of this policy. >> All right. Do I hear a motion? Again, this is for adoptions. I'll make a motion that we approve the policy IIA instructional materials. >> Would you amend that to say we adopt? >> We adopt. I Yes. Thank you. Do

071I hear a second? >> All second. Any discussion? Move to a vote. All those in favor? Oh, Merl. Merl, >> I'm kind of slow. Sorry. >> I'm going to vote for this, but I still have some reservation and I may take the opportunity to say, let's bring this back. One thing that bothers me about it is that it takes the language from the Senate bill, first House bill, I think, and then the next session, the Senate bill, and puts it into policy pretty much the way it's written in the bill. And it prohibits things. You cannot refuse material with this in it, but it doesn't reach the other side, the positive side that says you can. It says you cannot refuse, but I like to see us address what we can use as screening criteria.

072Age appropriate. For example, again, my current notes left at home. I feel it prepared and should. >> Thank you for bringing that. >> I'll just say that much at this point. >> Thank you, Merl. All those in favor say I. I. I. >> Opposed. >> Motion carries. >> Okay. We now have the OSBA runoff election. I would entertain a motion. I'm prepared to make the motion that we pass our vote for OSVA uh board member for region 11 for Satan standard giri. If I can get that right. Do I hear a second? >> A second. >> Any discussion? >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. You good, Diane? >> And then approve the audit report for the fiscal year. So, we're making a recommendation that you approve the audit

073report uh for the 2425 fiscal year that ended on June 30th, 2025. Anything to add to that, Kim? >> Uh, no. I I appreciate appreciate the explanation walking through some of our big changes and in our balances and welcome any questions, you know, put in the board as well, but request your approval to uh close out close out our year. Yes, >> I have one question that you can probably answer. The the man management discussion and analysis portion. Does that information come from us from the district? >> Correct. After our financial statements are complete, then that information uh is very um similar district to district short of the closing uh par uh segment I would say. uh it's pretty pretty structured in how it's presented and how it provides an overview of the subsequent pages

074and then the the ending analysis which is where I believe the expansion is coming in the new gazmies um in into some more insight and analysis um you know into that but yes that that is a district um you know it's all of our information but that is a district drafted document is best way to state that >> okay thank you for that I it took me several hours of contemplation We recognize that. But it begin to come through eventually. The wheels still turn. They just turn a little. >> I'd entertain a motion. >> I'll move that we accept the audit and approve the audit as presented. >> Do I hear a second? >> I'll second. Any other discussion? Okay, hearing none. I'll move to a vote. >> All those in favor say I. >>

075All those opposed. Motion carries. >> All right. >> Great. Well, um we are going to provide the board and the public uh the same presentation that we gave to all district staff last Monday. So, this is an identical report. Uh before I turn it over to Kim to give the first half of the report, um I'd be remiss if I didn't extend my appreciation to both UNM and OCDA for their cooperation through these issues and discussions. they've just been excellent partners both in just kind of how do we want to problem solve, how do we want to present and I um and know that moving forward as we work to solve some of the issues ahead of us that they will continue to partner with us. So, I just really want to publicly thank them

076for for their partnership on this. Uh and and midway through the report when it transitions back over to me, I'll also uh make some comments about Kim's work in putting this together. But before we do that, I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to Kim uh for the first half of uh this presentation. >> Thank you very much. Um just uh for the board's sake and for the public's sake, we are going to walk through this as if uh the similar presentation as we did to our staff to ensure we are able to communicate that same message. So please forgive if we're referencing the views and that sort of thing, but that that wanted you to see what what our staff heard. So, so we started off before we jumped into the details

077of the PERS records review felt it was absolutely critical to uh try to summarize the PERS benefits and create a greater understanding of this generous benefit and why those accurate records are so critical. Uh it's important to be clear that this information is a very very high level summary and each member within hers has uh individual factors that will impact how their benefit calculations are are uh calculated. Oregon's pension system has consistently been ranked one of the most complex systems in the country. And my hope is in just a few minutes I can break down some of those barriers and uh explain some of the the benefit that we each receive. So once we become a PERS member, we're we are each assigned a membership type and we will be either a tier one, a

078tier 2 or what is termed ops, which stands for Oregon public service retirement program. And within these membership types, we each have two separate PERS benefits. One of those benefits is a pension. And a pension is a retirement program uses a formula to calculate guaranteed payments for life. PERS uses those membership types again either tier one, tier 2 or obser calculates total years of creditable service which sounds straightforward but is not. And then a final average salary which of course again is also uh should have an asterisk behind it. And that creates a formula for calculating an annual pension benefit. And once those pension payments begin, they are going to continue through the end of your life and even potentially for a surviving family member depending upon your specific selection at the time of retirement.

079Those pension costs are fully paid by the employer and it is a very significant part of the retirement benefit. But yet there's another large piece to the PERS benefit and that is known as the IAP and it st stands for individual account program. By law every PERS eligible employee in the entire state must contribute 6% of their gross pay into an IEP. Fortunately here at North Marian as is the case in a number of districts in the state that 6% is paid by the district. That's that money goes into an account in your name at PERS and it's very similar to what many of us in the private sector know as a 401k. The excuse me, that account will be impacted by market performance and it may grow faster or slower or possibly be negatively

080impacted based on the market. But when we're ready to retire, we can work with PERS and their retirement counselors will learn about our options. that typically includes either a lump sum or regularly scheduled distributions. So, PERS bene the PERS membership is a great benefit and a great solid foundation as part of an overall retirement plan. On the next slide, I wanted to explain the the the goal of explaining the PERS benefit and how how uh the information is used is to create that direct link between your earnings and what gets reported to PERS. Every month, every public entity collap uh combines all their payroll data for the month, submits it to PERS. And what we've discovered that while the information on the left your the payroll uh was processed correctly, the information recorded in the

081PERS system is where we have found our concerns. Um the impact uh of this can uh be to retirement benefit calculations for our employees. It can impact the amount the district is invoiced for pension contributions and it can impact the calculation of that 6% required uh contribution into the employee accounts. We contacted the business department of Wamsd uh upon finding this and asked them to review our specific PERS data as well. um they they confirmed that we they did find the same variances in our data and uh we are we are certainly grateful for their their help even though it may not have been the answer we were we were hoping for. So one of the questions we keep getting or you know we is comes up is how was this discovered and we want

082to share how this was discovered to emphasize the importance of communication but uh from our staff and reaching out for help when you have questions. So shortly after I joined the North Marian team an employee came to me with a letter from PERS. I reviewed the letter, looked at the employees earnings in the PERS system, and it was clear that the information in the PERS system for that employee was not complete. It was unclear how that happened at that point, but we knew we needed to correct it. However, a short time later, another employee noticed on their online PERS account that their earnings for a specific month were not listed at all. And so after confirming this second issue, I ran a a quick comparison between our payroll system and the PERS system and it

083confirmed our fears. And at that point, we knew a detailed and complete review was absolutely critical. In late November, I completed the detailed review of each individual payroll record from January through October 2025. And uh again that uh that has uh validated the discrepancies between those two systems. So what did our records review find? So each month PERS receives hundreds of records from us. However, for January through October, we identified 189 individual records in which the amount of earnings reported to PERS was less than it should have been. We had 12 records where PERS did not have any record of earnings for the employee yet the employee did receive pay that month. 10 instances where PERS had earning records for an employee but the employee did not receive any pay that month. And then we

084had 28 individual records in which the amount of earnings reported to PERS was more than it should have been. These records impact 146 different staff members. And some of the staff members of course have multiple records that are being corrected. So our corrections are underway. Uh some of these corrections are significantly complex and requiring support from PERS staff. We're continuing to uh work on each and every record to ensure every employees accounts are correct. So what should our staff expect? Um, the staff with the a reporting error in 2025 have now received an email from me uh as of Friday outlining every month in which a discrepancy was found, the amount of the discrepancy and which way it went. Um, we are continuing our records review on prior year data. We wanted our employees to

085note their records in the PERS system are changing daily. So this is causing some confusion and we really are you know our goal is to you know curb that confusion as much as possible but while we are currently making these corrections it can be seen live. So there's definitely some transparency there but um prior pension estimates may look different. If somebody has uh has previously received an estimate on their pension it may look different. And then of course their IAP balance that 401k side savings account uh piece um that's that could look different too. So I I kind of was earlier um when Dan was talking about controls this slide originally said controls and I got some great feedback from somebody like what's a control and so when he kept referencing them it was kind

086of made me giggle but systems that we implement for accuracy. So, um, we have a, uh, expanded reconciliation tool, um, that, um, I've used for years and and was fortunate to, uh, get to bring over here that is going to ensure 100% accuracy for all of reporting, PERS, taxes, all of those critical pieces. We also are um, uh, the PERS reports are generated out of our payroll system. take payroll, send it to PERS. PERS posts it, but expanding this to say, you know what, when it's done, when it's posted in PERS, let's pull it back out and make sure it does match what we sent. So, you know, there's we've all seen computer gremlins, of course, right? Or or human, you know, intervention can cause things. So, this is going to give they call it

087three-way communication, right? In a lot of uh pieces. So, this is kind of our three-way communication on that. And then the additional piece is um uh enhancing how we use our payroll system to track the status of our PERS members gets a little complex but there are waiting periods there are non-qualifying positions there are retirees there are all kinds of movements within the PERS system tracking that knowing where every employee is in their different uh membership types or uh retirement phases or finished their waiting periods or in a non-qualifying position, but then they qualify due to concurrent employment. The complexities are there, but uh through these uh changes I've made, we're making in the system, um we're going to be able to have a a way to track those carefully. So, what's next? the prior

088year's uh records review and corrections, the PERS invoice adjustments will be coming our way. And then a commitment to ongoing testing of those systems, those validation tools, just as our auditor tests us to make sure what we what we say we're doing, we're going to be testing ourselves and making sure that those work. So employees, we we wanted to let them know what they could do. Starting off by saying absolutely clear PERS reporting is the district's responsibility. We are you know committed to accuracy of our PERS reporting moving forward. We are committed to our employee compensation and benefits being accurate. However, despite having those systems in place, we're all better when we work together. So we ask people to review your payub. We ask people to review your PERS account regularly. That AP account that

089we explained was similar to a 401k is a separate login from your PERS pension login should be reviewed and we encourage every employee to reach out with questions. Payroll and benefits are extremely complex. We through the analysis even with our auditors you know it it's very very complex to to track all that and even more so in a public entity. So wanted our employees to hear we are here to serve you. We are here to take the worry, the stress out of the pay and the benefits so that our true boots on the ground people are out there and they can focus on number one which is our students out there. >> So yeah. >> All right. Well, before we transition to the the next half of this uh presentation, just really want to thank

090Kim for how many hours she has put in to uh do this work. Um, also, you know, having all of those notices, 140ome notices go out on Friday afternoon, uh, you know, was an incredible timeline to give herself, deadline to give herself. Uh, and you know, also what a lot of people don't realize is just the amount of effort that she puts in to make sure that that message is as clear as possible and doesn't create additional confusion was just uh uh probably I don't know if labor of love is the right terminology or not. Uh, but just really I I I guess I want to just highlight how much she cares about employees and that they get the the um they the the service that they deserve because like she said, they they work

091with our kids and so being able to provide them with the most accurate information in the mo most digestible way possible. Uh we see how much uh how dedicated she is to that. I just really want to thank you for all the work that went into to this project thus far. So, one of the things that we also presented to staff is um and you heard it referenced in uh the audit report was some things that we discovered related to the issues uh regarding leaves. And so, uh we're going to talk about excess leaves, unpaid leaves, and what we call short acrruals. Just so you know what an acrruel is is when uh at the start of every school year uh employees are giving given a certain amount of leave. So let's say let's say

09280 hours of sick leave. We call that their annual acrual. It's what they are given in terms of the amount of hours uh for whatever leave type that they might have. So um it's referred to on their payubs as acrruels. So that's that's what we referenced it here. Um, and so within this, the first thing we want to, um, maybe I should just use this and use your notes if I need it. So, uh, one of the things I talked about with staff was the fact that leaves are also complex because they overlap with one another. And so, uh, what I explained to staff is their CBA paid leave, which would be like the personal or sick leave. You know, if you wake up sick one day, you got a doctor's appointment, you enter in

093that absence, that sick leave absence, and that's about all that that happens there. And that those types of absences don't interact uh with the other ones. And that's the most common one people use. But let's say that you have an ongoing condition or uh you have a family member that is going to need additional care or what we you know kind of in a general term have a qualifying event for that would qualify for someone to uh be under fem or um in which case they're using their contractual leave to protect their pay which you can see there is is noted on there but then they have uh leave protections under the federal or state uh uh leave laws that protect their position and benefits. And so there's some o there's overlap that can occur

094there. There can also be an overlap where maybe they're out of contractual leave. Um and so which is protecting their pay, but their job and benefits are still protected because even though they may be an unpaid status, they're still protected by a fa a state or federal program. So that there's these overlaps that happen. And also we have the new paid leave Oregon which is uh where the funding may be coming from the state and that's also under the umbrella of Femler Ola. So this makes leaves a complicated system because of the way these things ma these inter these programs interact with each other. So, and within the review, um, what we found were some negative leave balances did not result in a pay reduction. So, if someone exceeded their sick leave, uh, they may

095not have had their pay reduced. Um, some negative leave balances were covered using the next year's approval. So let's say somebody and I'm just making up numbers here, but if somebody went 50 hours negative in sick leave and got 80 hours the next year, they may have then what ended up happening may have started the year with a uh with 30 hours left. So basically the new year's acrual covered the negative balance. Um in some cases uh negative leave balances were were purged at the start of a year. So, let's say that somebody had a negative 80 hours or negative 100 hours. They got 80, but they might have just been zeroed out um just manually. Um and in some cases, some employees retain benefits after eligibility uh should have ended and uh we also

096just found some errors where someone didn't leave uh didn't receive their full approvals. So, um that latter one we're working to rectify as soon as possible. Uh the other issues we're still uh working through in terms of uh making sure we're adequately addressing these which we're getting to in the next slide which talks about our leave systems uh that we're implementing. So, one thing we did already at the beginning of the year is no longer can an employee uh indicate that they are going on unpaid leave. that has to be approved to the superintendent's office. So, that was something that we we put in place over the summer um to try to uh manage uh unpaid leaves uh differently. Um and then we're also uh improving systems to make sure that pay and benefits are

097properly processed during periods of extended leaves uh and absences. So, trying to put better controls into our leave system. Some of these are going to take some policy changes in terms of how we implement both s our sick time policy and how we manage the female. So these things are more synced up uh to manage uh in a different way and that's where we'll need to be partnering with our uh both associations to make sure how we implement things uh moving forward are both within the contractual provisions and effectively communicated with staff. All right. So, um, and one of the things, you know, I've already mentioned about revising some of the procedures to ensure leave is is applied appropriately, but I think it's also important for the district to be uh frequently reminding uh people

098and and providing trainings on leave options. you know, when somebody's going through a medical event that, you know, kind of the last thing that they want to be thinking about is how do I how do I make sure my work's taken care of? And so, the more that we can proactively communicate with people and let them know the options that exist for them and partner with them, we won't have these issues if we're actively communicating and coming alongside employees like that. So, I think that that's an area where we um we can do better. Um, and we'll also be communicating with those with leave discrepancies. Um, uh, and our goal is to notify them at the end of by the end of this month. So, if they've had not received their full approval, we'll make

099sure that's getting taken care of. But on the other on the other side of it, if they were one of them who maybe whose negative balance was purged or other things, we don't want past experiences to uh be used to make future plans, if that makes sense. So, someone thought, well, this worked out for me last time. Um, we don't want them to be making those same decisions based on past experiences. So, not necessarily trying to um, you know, make people feel bad or anything like that, but just want to make sure that they understand what their options are moving forward. And so what we mentioned to to staff is if they're having any uh extended absences for any particular reason, please reach out to us so that we can work with them. Um, one

100of the things that's u a little unique to to North Marian is that um um American Fidelity which is um a third party that that many districts partner with. They also manage our FEMA and OFLA system. Um it's very common for American Fidelity to manage paid leave Oregon. Many many districts do that. Some districts also have p American fidelity managed female ora um um but from my HR experience that's new to me and so that's something that I'm I'm figuring out of how does that partnership work when they go to a third party to get those uh leaves approved. No, this is the last thing that I shared with staff is, you know, what transparency means to to me or us as the district team. And it's really going beyond being honest. It's also sharing

101information to build trust and avoid misunderstandings. And one of the things that I shared with staff is during the that staff meeting that we had, we took some questions and and answered them publicly, but only the questions that we really were confident that we could answer because the worst thing you can do for transparency is give an answer you're semi sure about and then have to change it because they only heard what you said the first time. And so it's really important that make sure when we get questions that we give definitive answers that we're confident about. And so also linked on the on the memo um is um a PDF of the frequently asked questions that we've received so far and the answers that we've given. Um and so this particular document comes from

102our greenhouse which is um which is it did you pull this off the off the memo? Okay. So, we've made this part uh I think public for everybody uh because we vetted these questions, made sure there was no personal information in here, but these are the type I just wanted the board to be aware of the types of questions that we're getting and the answers that we're giving and these are all accessible to employees as well. So, um so I just want to share that that we are working to get answers to these questions as soon as they come in. And with that, we're done. Okay, I will just start, which I don't typically do anymore, but I want to just thank him and you for really going above and beyond to communicate with everybody

103involved. Um, with being clear and concise with the board, keeping us in the loop, um, your work with the auditors and also especially our employees like I can imagine that this time would be very challenging and the fact that you're very approachable, that you're putting up an FAQ, that you're keeping all of us on um the same communication path, it it really is valuable and I feel as a board member that it's more of a partnership between everyone rather than one person has some information, the other person has another. So, I just thank you and thank you Kim for the obnoxious amount of hours you have put in to bring forth right trustful information and I really really appreciate it. I I just can't say enough how blessed we are to have you. Anybody else

104want to comment? >> I would I would echo that. Thank thank God for Kim. I I drive by here 8 o'clock nine o'clock at night sometimes. I drive by on the weekends. Her car is here. I don't I don't know what we do without you. So really, thank you for for your dedication. >> We appreciate you. >> Hearing none, >> I just say I'm looking forward to the future. Glad the windshield's bigger than the rearview mirror. And uh it's nice to have a line drawn in the sand where uh we can look forward to uh new opportunities. >> Truth. All right. Before I adjourn, I'm going to read this executive session into the record. >> Uh can I just Sorry. >> All I want to say for board members is just kind of being uh

105mindful of the upcoming uh items listed below at the bottom of the agenda that talk a little bit about we'll have the primary and intermediate school. We're going to give a strategic plan update. We also have a couple principal searches coming up. So, just be mindful of the things that are on the horizon in the upcoming meetings. So, >> Oh, and I will speak to the fact that uh Jenny and I requested that budget 101 be moved from the January work session to February to accommodate the extensive amount of work that Kim's doing. All right, I'll read it in. You need it right in, right, Diane? Yeah. Okay. Please. >> The board will now meet in executive session according to OS192.6602D to conduct deliberations with persons designated to carry on labor negotiations collective bargaining for

106NME according to OS 192.6602D. We good or do you need the rest of it? You're >> Yes. Um so we will adjourn. We'll have a threem minute break.