001All right, we good to go. Good evening, everyone. Calls for order at 6:30 for our regular board of education meeting. Um, Dr. Schlim, who's meeting, you probably noticed. Sure is. That's awesome. Uh, we do a roll call here. Joel here, Leah here, Jessica here, Sarah here, Carly here, Tom here, and myself. Understand? Thank you. Uh let's all rise together 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. We volunteer to read the mission statement. I can read it. The Mour Area School District in partnership with the community is dedicated to nurturing, educating, and challenging all students, preparing, and empowering them to be productive, responsible, and self-fulfilled members of society. Awesome. Thanks, Tom. Item two, we got
002uh agenda and minutes. Uh do we have a motion to either accept the agenda as stated or move anything around? Second. Motion by Jessica, seconded by Carly. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion passes. Next up, approval of our June 16th regular board in executive meeting minutes. Motion to approve. Second. Motion by Joel, second by Jessica. All in favor? Any opposed? All in favor? I have three address on the board. Citizen comments. You can't see me here. Summer summer crowd 3B school news. Dr. Slick, would you care to lead us? Oh, I'd be happy to. A couple of items for you. I have four uh that I've been thinking about. Today was the first day of our second summer school session and uh kids were back ready to learn. It was really great to have them
003back after having been off for this past week in anticipation of the Fourth of July holiday. So, we're we're grateful for that. Um, I want to take a moment to recognize two students. And if your schedule happens to allow uh to attend over at the Drifless Historian, they're always so good to us. They're hosting two of our our young uh student uh artists. Uh it's called Ivory Echoes uh Colorful Voices. and Josetta Donaldson and Annalie. I'm not going to say the last name right be thank you. I should know that and I apologize. But uh both those students will be recognized on the 18th of July from 5 to 7:00 p.m. Have a nice reception for them and you can see their selected artwork at that time. It really will be a treat. Uh, speaking
004of treats, uh, this week we're going to go live with our new website, and I'm very excited about the energy that's been put into this. Um, it it really just looks classy is the word that comes to mind for me. Easy for people to access. It's goes beautifully with our branding. I love the fact that you can use um the website on your telephone, your iPad, or your computer without any issues. Um, and this has only been possible as a result of some work being done by Miss Aubrey Hanks and Mrs. Chelsea Hedges in a number of keynote. So, I think you're going to really enjoy it. Wednesday, are we doing this? Tomorrow. Like I said, tomorrow morning is we did change it in my my feeble minded attempt to reconcile the dates. Um, yeah,
005tomorrow we're going to go live because this is going to be great. So, check back to our new website maybe around noon. you'll see a nice tree. Um, and then I wanted to take a moment just to uh brief the community. I know the board has been so interested in following um the updates to the state legislature. Uh we now have a budget bianium passed for 2025 to 2027. Um and uh that was signed into law I want to say very early Friday morning like 2:00 in the morning just because of some issues that would have impacted uh some federal um decision making around hospitals in particular. In short the the um the takeaway in my opinion there's two. The first of which is the governor's $325 per pupil um expense um was not given
006uh to schools uh directly through state. It's going to have to be levied through um our normal process and with the upcoming August 11th annual meeting which I invite all those listening to this meeting uh to please consider coming uh their community meeting on the budget that will be very important. And then the second takeaway uh to all of this is with regard to special education funding. You might remember that we as a school district spend about $4 million a year annually out of our fund 10, our general fund to offset added expenses to special education. And each year um we receive a percentage back on that. Um, in this year's God, I want to say we're somewhere in the neighborhood of low30s. Uh, we Yes, obviously. Yeah, somewhere in the low 30 range. And,
007uh, keep in mind that the expense reimbursement that we get for the 202425 school year, we don't get that money until 2526, typically at the end of the year. But we're pleased to announce that an agreement has been made that um the reimbursement rate will eventually get to 45%. So go from 32%ish to about 45%ish by the 2027 budget year is very promising. Um the difference in this for those listening in is that there's no guarantee they put out the state has $500 million to to ensure this extra cost that would be disseminated back to school districts. However, there's no guarantee um that they'll eventually get to 45 million or 45% of the reimbursement rate because it's what they call a sum certain amount. SUM certain which means that if you have more people that
008apply for that money than than there is $500 million, that's a certain amount of money. There's not any extra money that goes into it. So what that means for us is often times that 45% will be something less than um than 45%. I think we're supposed to be at 36% right now under the current model and as you know I just mentioned we're in the low30s. So it's really hard to prognosticate. It's really hard to budget on something that a doesn't come to us until a year after uh after the school year is over with. And then um being a some certain amount, not a some sufficient amount. This runs concurrent with what you may have been reading about in the local paper about the Department of Education and funding being frozen. So at the
009state level, we can conceivably be in a really good spot. Not really a good spot, we're a better spot. But at the same time, um, with the federal government, uh, questions about, uh, freezing, uh, any non-title one and any nonIDA funds, special education funds could really wreak havoc on school district budgets all throughout the state. Typically, we know what our amount is in federal allocations um, by this time and we just don't. Um, and so all this to say that this is a very critical time in our school finance office uh for a variety of reasons, those that I've just shared with you. But then um secondly to remind folks that uh we have an audit uh coming up here uh next week and we've always done such a super job on that audit and
010that's a collective effort under the leadership of Scott B. Young. Um but that also means our turnaround time on trying to get projections, accurate projections uh based upon some um uh numbers that have yet to come to fruition uh in time for August 11th will be a push. Uh but we'll get her done. Um and as you know, we often do every year we often look at budget transfers and and these sorts of things once we get a better look at um equalized property values and and the like. So, um, thank you to members of our finance team, uh, for being a part of not next Monday night's meeting, but, uh, 2 weeks from tomorrow, our finance committee will meet at a completely different date. I want to say that's July the 18th, 22. Like
011I said, the 22nd. And, um, that begins at 4:30. We'll do that virtually. and we'll hopefully have a better um uh picture uh because we're waiting for the state's admin rights to come through and and what that all pretends for us. But a lot of moving pieces. I wanted to share that with you. I share it with the public who might be listening. Uh may not be as simple as just assuming we get 45% uh we can start spending that money. Well, because of what's happening at the federal level, we would be wise to go slow to go fast on that money. others who have been so closely aligned uh with the with the budget process uh reflections or uh feedback about other things that you've been following. Uh the other two things I would
012add is one that they released the uh 20 funding. So the literacy reimbursement funding um they released that as part of the budget. They restored some of the they restored the mental health funding that the first pass the budget had originally cut which is good. Um and they have funded the office of school safety through the budget. So some some good progress there. A special thanks to Vice President uh Fischer. She was kind enough to put together a really impassionate message. uh we were asked to provide something as a school district uh and as it turns out they didn't need to have a hearing but boy you put a lot of love into that and I'm glad you didn't have to go all the way down there but uh nonetheless it was just a really
013lovely message and thank you for investing your time uh two statements that I'll try to say objectively and uh correct me if this is not objective one is that We're still operating in a state where the statutory requirement is 70% repayment on special education which has not been fulfilled in a long time. Two, there was no explanation given on the withholding of the Department of Education funds. Correct. That's right. Okay. the the DPI in a memo to us is equally um concerned obviously because we're we're in the throws of building our budgets and it's hard to to do that when in our case about 8 9% of our budget is federal funded and so imagine having that money on hold what do you do kind of we'll figure it out we got the best minds
014around the table to do How many good news? I had thought too. Um, one, um, the PTO had such good response for stocking the break room during, um, staff appreciation week that we've done an Amazon wish list, um, to try to stock the break rooms more consistently throughout the school year. So, that is up there on the Facebook page. Um, and then the MHK5 PTO is looking to also offshoot and maybe start something at the middle school. So, if any parents of middle schoolers are interested, um, send us an email and we can get you some information. I went to the CIS 2 annual meeting which was lovely. Um, and Trish Kilpin, our friend, spoke, which was great. I feel like every time I listen to her speak, I do learn something new. Um, and
015then also I would just share that Dylan, and I hope I say his last name right, Helmanstein from Wisconsin Heights, who we have met at many events. He was in the day at the capital. He's been at regional dinners with us. He is the I think we're in group B or something. he is our CIS sub now because then you like sign up for two-year terms and you're open to meeting something. So anyways, he was very happy to do that. So that was great. And then my other thing that I would share is um the end of June I was able to go to um the creating a culture of excellence for all conference and I got to wear my dual hats and uh listen to Cody speak and he did a great job talking
016about the systems that they put in place at the high school to support the achievement and growth of all students. He did a really good job. It was a packed room and he spoke well and shared lots of information. It was it was good. Great. Thank you. Thank you notes any schools. Um cars too is showing Thursday night. Thursday night. Let's hope we don't have green light today. Right. And uh as uh Dr. Solo mentioned in the uh uh weekly update I'm into the WA was summar seminar this this week looks like a lot of really good stuff in there um some sessions on finance which will be interesting to see if there's any more gleanings from that which I'll share back with the group um also communication uh just in a general subject community
017engagement essentially um communication and there's a lot of stuff on for new board presidents So, um, watch out. Um, then my only, uh, and I'd be really curious if any of you happen to look at the agenda between now and then, there's something you want me to pay special attention to or curiosity about, let me know. Be glad to ask questions and just kind of, uh, rev those folks up there and point. Um, and then my one other thought was just in talking and being on the grad party circuit uh, for the last month. um so many great compliments to the district about the process of these seniors coming through and all the special attention and the experience that they're given. Um I know a lot of other districts do really good job but wow
018like ours people just were so happy with the experience. It was really cool. Nice to get those good good messages. Any other school news? No. All right. Uh I4 personnel transactions. Fourth reserves and a dead end this evening. Motion to approve personal transactions. Second. Motion by Jessica, second by Sarah. All in favor? Any opposed? All right. All in favor? Our consent agenda is there. Are there any items that anyone would like to pull out? Otherwise, be asking for a motion to approve. Members, if you don't mind me just also mentioning there that um we have the application for the WIA high school membership. Motion to approve consent agenda. Second. Motion by Jessica, second by Carly. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? Motion passes. On to discussion items. Team member reports uh PGT top. Yeah.
019So, those ground we met on June 23rd and Scott De Young was nice enough to give the presentation cuz Brian was on vacation. Um, we talked a little bit about them in the year and kudos to all the drivers that took on extra routes. Um, we did all the field trips and sporting events and everything else that was going on. Um, also great job to the drivers and the families that had to deal with uh a lot of road construction towards the end of the year. Um, it added some time to some of the routes and some problems, but um, bus drivers handled it well and families did did as well. Also, thank you to everybody. Um, August 15th, the Department of Transportation will do their inspection of our buses. So, the bus garage staff
020is is meticulously going over everything to be ready for that. Um, staffing as of right now looks good, but there's always a chance there could be a few um last minute changes to that. Um, on the electric bus side, we're 90% installed. Um, and the bus is currently at the dealer because it needs to have a couple things um, done to meet our specs. So, we won't take delivery until that is completed. Hopefully that happens sooner than later. And then Dave Reed gave us an update on buildings and grounds. Summer cleaning is going on um, currently at all the schools um, except in some of the areas where the summer school is going on. Um capital improvement projects are going to begin as of July one. So they should be started a little bit now
021and we'll get an update on that by the end of July. Um the grounds team is staying really busy staying ahead of the grass and everything else that needs to be done. Um and currently we have about 15 to 20 um extra employees helping out mostly students. So it's great to have those uh that group of people on board. Um, as far as the primary center, they're um doing the geothermal test well and the test site is in um deep right field and the ground team will have a temporary fence and that's about a oneweek process to make sure that um that site will be good to go when we go into the full construction. Um mechanical and structural engineers were on site last week to see the PC in person and surveyors came and
022did the lot lines at the PC. So if you see states who title team that is working for that and our next meeting is scheduled for Monday July 28th 4:30 virtually questions for Tom what's the ground rule on that if you hit the right field here awesome thanks um Joel finance We met on the what was it? June 9th I think and we've already approved the already the pre-budgeted technology purchases. We approved those at the last board meeting was already done. Um we talked about budget summary update and where we're where we were at as of that time and according to Scott and according to what we have seen in the past we seem to be right on our spending targets. nothing new or uh too unusual there. Uh there will be a couple of
023policies tonight that we'll review as a full board related to how we go about spending federal dollars if they're there and how we go about uh um procuring and and spending dollars from a local procure uh excuse me procuring bids that kind of stuff spending dollars at a local level. As already mentioned, we're going to meet again on July 22nd after the audit has been uh not officially completed, but has been the work has been done and we have a preliminary um opinion from our auditors in terms of our uh financials. So, we'll be able to do those that'll go into the or bring us into the budget meeting or the annual meeting coming up already in August. So, goodness gracious. Awesome. Any questions for Joel? Jessica, safety and wellness. Um, a little foreshadowing of
024items to come. We spent probably the bulk of our meeting talking about the belonging statement which we have a chance to look at shortly. We had one policy update um, student immunizations which is also on our agenda for the evening. We had our standard safety update and we did a little um discussing about how May 1st went and then also our mental health update. And um Brian shared a not going to be able to recreate it, but he shared what a fantastic example of how um the student services teams at the ELC and the PC created their student learning objectives and tied it to sense of belonging and how they were showing growth and use. Pretty impressive. And our next meeting is July 21st. questions for Jessica on that one. All right, let's lead right
025into parks. Oh, yeah. Parks. Okay. So, they were disappointed that it wasn't you. But I went and I told them that I was filling in. And um so it was the first one that I've gone to. It was uh June 24th. We talked um just like not even really about Logan Farm. It was an agenda item. They just said that so far they like the plans, that it's off to a good start. Um, then they talked a tiny bit about Foster Park and that there is a plan from 2021 that they're revising and updating that's going to be presented and discussed at the July meeting at Grundle. I'm guessing that everyone's noticed that the playground equipment has all been removed and the new install is happening week of August 4th. uh the rec director gave
026her report and activities pool all of it is going really well and the next meeting is July 22nd so it's all all good nothing in particular but awesome they just they have no one to take cheap shots at just maybe only me and I just be prepared right um there was a notation here on community engagement uh on the agenda that that I had seen listed. I think that might have just been extra on there at that point. That uh that's connected to the board strategic plan. So when we have discussion items, what we try to do is we try to connect the discussion items with our strategic plan. Great observation. Thank you for that. Great. Thank you. All right. Um on to action items. Um 7A considering our 2526 academic standards referred by the
027education committee. This is Sarah Strong. Each year uh the board reviews the academic standards that we base our work off of base our resources off of. Um so disaster occurred by as close to our July 1st timeline as possible right there. Um the curriculum team leads um they all reviewed this with me. They looked at their specific standards and their specific part made sure everything wasn't lined up, everything was tight. Um one thing I'll change once if and once we have board approvals at the bottom of June 1st or July 7th, sorry, July 7th, 2025. Um but it's pretty straightforward. It's the same process we've gone through every year. Format has not changed and I don't believe any of the standards have changed that. Motion to approve. Second. Motion by Leah and the second by
028Jessica. All in favor? I. Any opposed? All right. Motion passes. We'll get this on our new website in the next week or so. Thank you. All right. Next up, we have Brian Johnson concerning approval of the board of education's draft statement of belonging which was referred to safety and wellness. Yeah. So, safety and wellness committees worked for the last few months on a statement of belonging. Um, about in 2020, over 5 years ago, we had a statement of equity. Um, and really wanted to, as as you said, every five years or so, relook at statements that you make and then and adjust to it. What we really did was we um connected it to the board's power goal of belonging um and took some of the pieces in that implemented it into how do we
029support all students within our district and and how do we make a statement of belonging and a lot of you came to saw to look at it as well and so we've gone back and forth and Jessica's done a lot of work on it and this is our what we came up Anyone have any thoughts about this? Um, just in general where we're at, especially for those who haven't had a chance to look at it before. I just hope this is the most tiny thing ever. The every in that second paragraph, every student, is it supposed to be italics? Because it says all means all is italics and then every also still italics. That's my tiniest thing. That's good. I I spent a lot of time looking at it and every time I was like,
030"Oh, it should say," I would like read it again and find what I was thinking. So, I think it's really good and comprehensive. I This might feel I don't know if this is too like wordy. The only thing I just thought more about today is whether in the first paragraph we say that um all should feel welcome and feel respected and I just like had this internal debate of like should they feel welcome or should they be welcome right like and then whether is that and then what's the actual difference in that um and so that's the only thing secure school community where all are welcome and belong is the I would say in response to that like I get what you're saying. Yeah. But you can say that you're welcoming to everybody but unless
031a student feels like that feels that that's kind of a little bit with that same thing of like intent and impact, right? Yeah, for sure. And the the flip side of that was where it was like if we say our goal is to make you feel welcome, does that feel more like not patronizing but more like you know service to it? I get what you're saying for sure. But you're but yeah, I guess to your point if the goal is the impact. Yeah. Yeah. No, I get I get exactly what you're saying with the back and forth. Yeah. So, that was where my thinking is. I don't um feel particularly strongly about changing it. It's just kind of where I was thinking could you like where you students are welcomed and feel welcome like how
032can you con convey both you know maybe we could say we're all are welcome and feel welcome period yes and then that and that they belong kind of falls into the second sentence anyways because it says feels respected and part of the school community we could say where everyone feels respect Ed, I don't know. Part of this group, my community kind of means the same thing at the end. I don't know. Yeah. What do you uh what would you think? No. Like what I said it um you say all are welcomed and feel like they belong or feel a sense of belong or feel a sense of belong. Are you trying to get more into the definitive arm for both of those? Was that the I was trying to get Yeah. No, I mean we
033did the sit too bad like it's important because it's your statement, right? You want you to feel confident with it. I like that. And the first sentence is going to be kind of your the most important piece to it, right? So, can we make it not past tense though? Not all are welcomed, but all are welcome. Yeah. where all are welcomed and feel that they belong like with the R. I think I think what's up there is good. Yeah. But but I agree with you. It should be are welcome. Welcome to Yeah. And feel good. Um and one very minor thing on number four. Uh, I was thinking that the way that that's written, the verb would be promotes instead of promote cuz you're talking about development. Does that look right to people? Yeah, that
034makes sense. Yeah, that's right. Big picture on this. Brian, can you kind of reset, regground in how this statement like how this will be used and when it'll be brought out and refreshed for people? Yeah, I think that this really was on a center page of our website as this is what we believe in. Um, what kind of has happened in the past few years and I've heard it from multiple new staff members is they actually went to what does the board believe? Um, and what are and that that helps them be reassured to take a job in the horn, right? Like I believe in this and I want to know that the people I work for believe in it as well. And so I think that it it gives a sense of what we
035what you believe in as a board so that we can promote as a district. And so I think that we'll do that. It's um when we give our update to the to the staff, it's going to be brought up that this is a revised edition. and you know it we've talked about. So I think that it it just will be in a lot of things that we do moving forward. What I like about this one is that it not only states like what we believe but how we're going to work on it and like the specific things that we're doing. All right. Does anybody The last two words with seems completely ambiguous to me. What if we replace that with accordingly, which in my opinion ties it back into what we said we would be
036doing. I like that. And I don't That's not a hill. No, I like that. I like that. Yeah. because that's our commitment as the board. Yep. Yeah. And then in that first sentence together these actions reflect our commitment. Should it be to provide provide an inclusive responsive learning environment? Yeah. Brian, I appreciate it too at the committee meeting you talking about where we're really hitting the mark and where some of this is like, yep, we need we know we need to right continue focusing on it, right? And I think that's where the last sentence is really important, right? We know that this is an ongoing journey and we're going to keep trying to get better and better. Um it isn't a a you know sprint, right? It's the marathon that we're committed to and that
037we're going to keep making progress over and over and over again. So, I appreciate your work and your really kind of diving into the specific wording and making sure that it's it's right for what you believe in and how we can move forward as a district. Any further discussion from the group on this one? Otherwise, we'd entertain a motion to approve this statement belonging. I will make a motion to approve as revised. Second, third. Motion by Sarah, seconded by Jessica, third by all in favor. I I Any opposed? All right, motion passes. Thank you. Thanks, Brian. Um, KP here for approval of policy 453.2, student immunizations, also reported by S. So, if you had a chance to review this, there's a lot of changes. So, um, this took us a couple meetings and saw it
038to kind of go through each piece. Um, a lot of it's taken directly from the law. So, like that second paragraph, right, that isn't, you know, Ryan or CJ or Christiey's words, right? it is. It's right on the state statute. Um, and so Christie and CJ and I kind of did our first well delved into it. So, school nurses are reviewing it and and kind of talking about what we're doing as a district. So, we also took out some of the uh um the the friendly, you know, like we believe, right? like this is the facts. Um and then went through it and then we moved a big section of it to um admin, right? Cuz it doesn't all have to be policy. Um and so some of the sections are there and then it
039just kind of clarifies what kind of happens and what we do. Um and so we took recommendations of the of the attorneys and really looked at state law and um updated accordingly. So, is that whole parent responsibility section coming out? Because it's in the clean version and the marked up version and it just says move to admin rag and so Oh, yeah. I just wasn't that part moved to admin rack. I assume since that's what it said, but since it was still in both versions, I just wanted to Yes. I appreciate that. Was it is it everything below? No, just that one. Yeah. Any questions for Ryan about this one? The only thing I had is there's a repetition requirement of the law. There's an entire line that's repeated twice up. If you go up,
040Steve, uh, after the date on which the students admitted present written evidence to the school, blah, blah, blah, is admitted present written evidence to the school. That there's a just a looks like it was copied and pasted twice. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I see. That's all. Oh yeah. Yeah. Good catch. You said 17 times. [Music] I know I'm not a healthcare worker, but my goodness. Good catch. Yeah. If there's no further discussion, it's like a motion to approve this. Second. Motion by Leah, second by Jessica. All in favor? Oh, I'm sorry. Excuse me. Roll call on this one. Joel, yes. Leah, yes. Jessica, yes. Sarah, yes. Car, yes. Tom, yes. I'm also a yes. Excellent. Motion passes. Thank you very much. Thank you. Great. Now, we've got uh two policies coming up from Mr. Scapnia. first
041one first reading on both of these uh which means that we could either f continue further discussion for our next meeting or go to a roll call vote if so inclined. Uh first one is considering revisions to board policy 658 cost principles spending federal funds. Okay, stop everybody. Um so we have three federal policies that currently in our books. Um this is one of the three and um the vast vast majority of the information in here is directly from law. Um the board adopted it approximately 2 years ago with any updates that were required. Well, page three of the document um I'm going to point out the the the major importance of this of the change. On page three, letter B, um it talks about capital expenditures. And in the paragraph, it addresses any purchases
042with the unit cost of the old policy. $5,000 or more require prior approval. Um at a workshop that I attended back in May, as well as just shouting out to our auditors, I won't see until next week. um the re both entities uh the presenter and our auditors recommended that we change it from 5,000 to 10,000. Reason being is you'll see it in the next policy that we'll talk about in a minute. Um capitalization threshold for our purchases has to change from 5,000 to 10,000. That's why we're changing this from 5 to 10,000. So what does that exactly mean? It means if we buy something it with a revision $10,000 or more um I just use a different account code in our budget um that's nearly it. Um, and then when our auditors do a
043review of all of our practices and policies and activities for the year, um, they have a spreadsheet of all of our fixed assets, assets that depreciate in value each year. And that capitalization threshold now makes the 10,000 consistent with where the federal government is on having it be 10,000. So, um, it it really doesn't change a whole lot in terms of what we do day in and day out. I just need to work with my team to make sure that things are coded correctly in the budget. Um so again, capitalization threshold changes from 5 to 10. Um which means that we need to change this particular paragraph to 10,000. Now, one step further from a from a grant point of view and managing all of our grants, state or federal grants, the reality is everything
044that we buy through grants, even if it's just pencils and paper. I'm being a bit silly of an example, but something that simply consumable, it gets approved by the grant entity anyway. So, it's not like we only when we buy things over 10,000, it's got to be approved. The reality is it all gets approved anyway. Um that's how we create our budgets. We get approval from the entity and they say yes and then upon them saying yes, then I opt in our budget to reflect what we're approved for. So this is just more of a technicality thing. Any questions or discussion for Scott? Second. Motion to approve by Jessica, seconded by Sarah. Should be a roll call vote. Joel, yes. Leah, yes. Jessica, yes. Sarah, yes. Carly, yes. Tom, yes. Also, yes. Thank you for
045that. When I see our auditors next week, I think that's awesome. But thank you. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it is. Um, yeah, you could have gone right into that. Ford policy 672 purchasing. Okay. A lot of revisions in this one. Um, it's not changing a whole lot of practice. Um, I wanted to clean up a lot of the wording and things that were pretty dated and old. Um couple of the of the changes from a financial point of view that are obviously important as well. Um one is as I've gone to some of these workshops I'm recognizing that presenters are talking about purchasing thresholds of 25,000 and 50,000 and that's a little bit too rich for us um in terms of having thresholds at that level. Um, so the finance committee,
046which by the way, members, finance committee, thanks for talking about the last policy that you just approved in this one as well. Um, we talked about a couple of things that, um, I was recommending to make changes to. It's a reflection of not only things I hear at workshops, but also the school board's association who reviewed all of our policies here a couple years ago. Um, the biggest concern that the school board association had with this policy, it got really into the weeds, and lots of different things with purchasing. And the attorney said, you know, the number one thing is there's a variety of very specific detailed things that are spelled out in the policy that refer to bidding or the concept of bidding. And there's a lot of legality around the process of true
047bidding which I guess we'll see when we do our general contractor. So um because of that we thought it would make sense to narrow down the scope of this policy and then where we're really getting into the weeds update those details in an admin rate that's more of a day-to-day practice kind of thing. Um so um point out a couple of the really major um changes. Um one is the capitalization threshold. Again, as we just talked about a second ago, changing it from 5,000 to 10,000. Um there's another piece to this that I think's most important for us to talk about and it has to do with the purchasing the purchasing idea itself. So you'll see number two at on you the top of the screen. talks about different categories of prices and who needs
048to approve. So, we're not recommending that we make any change. So, right now, anything $25,000 or more, as you know, as a board, it must be approved by the board of education. Not recommending any changes to that practice. where the change is is at number four at the bottom of the screen that addresses when somebody that is a purchaser. I'll pick on D. Um if Dave needs to make a purchase and it's something that is currently greater than 5,000 currently, he would need to go out and get pricing from three different vendors. Now, it doesn't mean that vendors will always return with a price, but he needs to contact three vendors requesting a price for whatever it is he needs to purchase. This change would change it not to 25 or 15,000 like my example
049a minute ago. It would change it from 5 to 10,000. It would make us stay consistent with our capitalization threshold of 10,000. And as pricing has gone up over the years, um it tends to be pretty difficult sometimes, especially in some of the worlds, like I guess Dave's a good example, um of almost being able to do anything for you know under 10,000 if that's something that's um you know more of a building oriented type thing. Um so this would be we're not changing our practice up at the top of the screen. We're merely just suggesting for people that are responsible for making purchases that they would be obligated to contact three vendors with a price point of 10,000. Again, it used to be 5,000 that way for quite a while. Um, so we had
050some good conversation at finance. Um, certainly I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. Um the vast majority of the rest of the policy which is a lot of cross out is just getting into a lot of the weeds of purchase orders and things that just kind of fluff kind of getting rid of the fluffy making it more direct to what I said [Music] might move much of this into an admin rig. That would make sense and Thank you for scrolling down because I think number nine is still really really important for us that we attempt to continue to allow local vendors which shouldn't change the vendors. What's that? It should be local vendors, not local. It should be local vendors. Yeah, I thought we made that change. Number 11 is important because number 11
051ties our purchasing procedures back to both state and federal uniform grant guidance. So while not all of the money that we use are tied to specific grants, a lot of the money that we do spend is still tied to state and federal government. And so the schoolboards association did recommend that in this purchasing policy, we would reference the uniform grant guidance from the federal government to be able to state specifically that we will remain consistent with our practices. Whether we're spending a federal dollar or we're spending a local dollar, we're going to follow the same practice. Any questions? Motion to approve. Second. A motion from Leah, a second from Jessica. And I just have one question first. I just want reassurance that I we don't need to be this literal. the part up top where
052it gives the dollar amounts and who is um responsible for it. There's some there's something that sits funny with me with must be approved by like it's a command like there's no consideration. This just must be a problem. So it it was not funny but um I thought about I thought about this actually for a couple years. Um only because right it at first glance it makes me think well it's telling the board they have to approve it. It's a must right. Is that what you're referencing? Yeah. Yeah. Um but the purchase cannot be made unless that approval happens. So I I I was stuck on that idea for a while and then when I started reviewing this again in preparation for our gym finance committee um either the light bulb came on to look
053at it from a different perspective or um or what but the purchase cannot happen unless the board approves. That's the must. Y um now does anybody else have that concern? because I was right in that camp initially. The the must is what requires there to be documentation for an auditor to look at. Without that word, there's there's none of any must and shall are pretty similar in that. No, I actually think different. I like the verb must. Must makes it that there would be a shall just means okay, you do it. It's permissible. Must means there has to be documentation of a vote that this was approved. Shall and should are kind of similar. Should means you could or you could not, right? Like you should do it, but you might not. Shall means you
054will or you won't, right? True. But I I get what you're saying though, like with the with the must. Um, but this is it's so hard because it's titled like the the section it's under is is the purchasing like the following purchasing set points. So yeah, my question is more is is if this is standard language that's a okay. Yeah. Yeah. Um I agree and the purchase cannot exist. There is no purchase. Purchase of $10,000 or less must be approved. Well, there is no such thing as a purpose as a purchase that's not approved. Okay. Well, thanks for this totally It's a fantastic question. I I was hung up on that for a long time. So, if I'm an employee and I go to my my principal and I'm like, "Hey, I want to I
055want us to buy this thing." it's it's $10,000. Like do we have the concept of like purchase requisitions and all of that? Like could could the principal come back just be like no rejected? Like do we have like a an approve and reject process? Um well yes. Um number one being there must be money in the budget. Um, all of that said, you know, part of part of the the detail of things that are across the lake in the policy really addresses the concept of purchase orders, purchase orders, and I've seen just over a couple of decades in the industry about, as you can imagine, right, purchase orders are just not what they used to be in terms of ordering. So many vendors either don't require it or just flat out do not accept POS
056anymore because technology and so forth. So, um there is an absolute expectation that where they work directly with their um supervisor or that person is the one in charge of making purchases. Um and then there's those those expectations of price points and the procedure of who they have to go through for approval. Um, so those things exist, but again, back to the beginning, that's where the admin rake stuffs out and not necessarily in this policy. All right, we have a motion on the table. Any further discussion? Another roll call vote. Joel, yes. Leah, yes. Jessica, yes. Sarah, yes. Carl, yes. Tom, yes. And I'm a yes. Motion passes. Thanks for listening everybody. Yeah. Motion. And our final uh action item tonight considering approval of school resource officer memorandum of understanding with the village of Mount
057Horton. Dr. Yes. Good evening again board members. Um, as you may recall, every 3 years, uh, our board of education policy calls for us to revisit our, uh, relationship with the village, uh, around having a school resource officer. Pleased to tell you that this is our third, uh, now iteration, uh, as we've gone through two successful cycles with a school resource officer. I don't think you need me or anyone else to tell you how fortunate we are to have this model in our district, especially in light of May 1st. But even um in addition to May 1st, uh the relationships that are forged uh between our school resource officer, in this case here, Officer Rose Meyer, and our young people and their families and our staff um were really well laid out by this board
058back in 2019. And what we'd like to do with your permission is to continue engaging uh with the village um to really keep this model in place um and save any changes to dates and the like. Keep the same model in place in terms of shared costs in the in the process and um how we go about operating. And so I've begun the process of at least setting the table with Chief Barrett as well as Nick Owen, the village administrator and the village administrator, assuming that there could be some consensus to move forward. Don't know if we need actual action tonight, but maybe just consensus that you direct your superintendent to continue to to look into this. um then this would go to the village board at their uh August meeting with your with your
059considerations. May I help to answer any questions about what you see there um or uh any thoughts about the history or the success of the program or concerns about the program for that matter? Yes, please. Um no concerns. I was just wondering you said minus uh date changes is pretty much the same. Yes. And I wondered, I know that we talked a little bit about people records and what they have access to or not have access to. I feel like we changed it so they could have a little more access. Anyways, I didn't know if that need did anything related to that need to be updated. I'm guessing Thank you. Um what we did last year, maybe about 18 months ago, provide access to Infinite Campus um to not only officer Rosemire but lieutenants uh
060who are on duty, off duty, especially for when we receive um office of school safety referrals. Um and this would uh free up um and allow them to act faster. Um so it's really just directory data information um which is subject to disclosure anyways under public records. So we don't think there's anything needs to be changed in terms of this language. It's just how we went about applying the practice. Great question. I know that you said you don't need a motion tonight on this. However, that's because it will come back to us for a formal approval. Yes, please. Yeah. I just want to make certain that there isn't anything that the board would say, "Hey, have we thought about this or we should maybe slow down here?" Um because I'd like to begin the process
061of engaging with the village and then my anticipation is that if it does go before the village here, the first meeting in August and it's met successfully that I bring this back to you the second meeting of August for for consideration. Is our current expired? June 30th. say this one is dated July 1st and that's already happened. So I didn't see anything in here that spelled out in the event that the school was saying for whatever reason this is not about the school want as an is something that we should look to add. Yeah. Or is there a way to do that? there is a mechanism to do that and in fact um they've been very open to feedback around the school resource officer model and the individual who's incumbent in that um and then
062when we hired the SRO we had team members who were at the table for that purpose not that there's anything you're exactly right but now's the time to ask those questions right y want to make sure that that's there because it just says once annually in the evaluation My only concern would be if something came up that required action before. Thank you. Quarterly, Chief Can I be formally um and then also quarterly uh Brian Chief Officer Rose Meyer and myself. Perfect. Thank you for your consideration. I'm not hearing any concerns. So maybe the proverbial okay move ahead it's okay find consensus. Thank you. That sounds good. Thanks. All right that's it for our action items tonight. The schedule of next meeting got saw and full board on July 21st that are formed management finance committee
063special night on uh Tuesday July 22nd. Do we have a motion to adjourn? So second video today motion by Sarah needed one by here second third all in favor I any opposed right we are