001Okay, we're good. Good evening everybody and welcome to tonight's committee the whole meeting for Tuesday, September 2nd, 2025, start of another school year. >> Oh, excited. >> I'd like to call this meeting to order. We have met official compliance of all notifications. Roll call please. >> Kathlean >> here. >> Laura Gapsky excused. Nick Olsen >> here. >> Sarah Schuber McCone >> here. >> Shelley Mullen >> here. >> Nick >> Schumacher here. President Steve Wilson >> here. This meeting is a meeting of the board of education held in public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business and is not to be considered a public community meeting. There is a time for comments by members of the public during the meeting as indicated on the agenda. Members of the public wishing to address the board
002on any of the topics included on tonight's agenda may do so by signing up on the public comment signup sheet by the entrance prior to the start of the meeting. The board requests refraining from making any comments involving personally identifiable information about students, staff or administration. Comments should be respectful focused on the items being considered by the board and will be restricted to 3 minutes in length. Do we have any speakers this evening? and >> no. >> Then we'll move on to our agenda. Action taken at today's meeting is to forward the recommendation for final approval at the next regular school board meeting on Monday, September 8th, 2025. >> Report from our superintendent. >> I just have one thing, but uh Christine will be joining us at our meeting next week, so she'll be giving
003us a Cooper update. >> Update, I bet. Yeah, will have plenty to talk about with their school and professional. >> Thank you. We'll move on to the board committee reports budget insurance committee. >> So I have one action item this evening. The gifts, grants, and requests and administration recommends approval to accept gifts, grants, and requests received in August of 2025. >> Motion to approve. Second. Um, David, is there any clarification that we need to make on this? >> I see hands made the change. >> Okay. Max. >> Okay. >> We appreciate the gifts. Any discussion? Okay. Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> All those opposed. Motion carries. Okay, discussion items. We have noneformational items, equalization aid update from David C. >> Y this real quick. I'm just
004going to preface it with um as I said before um the tax is going to go up. So taxes are going to go up for the next next year. But um this past week the equalization aid numbers came up. Usually that's not a big deal. They give me an estimate and the estimate is usually really good. Um the estimate this year way off. Um the equalized value of all the property in the for the district to superior actually went down 1.6%. It's absolutely unheard of. I had my consultants down south calling me up. I was calling them saying what's going on here. Um the way the equalization aid works is it takes three different things. It takes our share of costs. It takes our membership and it takes the equalization value of all the property
005we have in the district. Our shared cost stay pretty flat. Our membership is falling and up until this year our equalization value has been going up kind of in line a little more than with what the rest of the states going on. Um and that what that is causing is our equalization aid is going down every year. Um so from last year to this year we're actually going to go down 2 million or $1.8 $.8 million and we're looking at about a $1.8 million increase in our tax levy. So pretty much 100% of the increase on our tax levy is going to be attributed back to the state last year. But with this huge shift in equalization value, unfortunately it's a year behind. So when I tell you these numbers, it's for not this 2526,
006but it's actually 2627. We're actually going to go up a little bit on equalization. Um the average for the state was an increase value of 8%. And we went down 1.6%. Um I talked to the city today to say, "Hey, what is going on with this? What's causing this huge dramatic fall?" Um and it's some issues they had with the marina being on the tax base when it should have been >> and then um a revaluation of commercial property at the state level. Oh, that really helped us. I don't really know because all areas have this um this commercial property. So, in other words, what I'm saying is this is really good news as far as our tax levy for not this year, but next year we could see what I could probably see is
007staying flat. Um the thing that's going to hurt us for this year is when we go out and we communicate our tax levy, we do it in two ways. One, it's a total levy. We're going to levy for $32 million. to serious about my estimate. And then we also communicated as mill rate. So mill rates are per $100,000 or yeah per $100,000 is how much you're going to pay the tests. Um up until 3 four years ago we were like $9. Then our meal rate tanked values spiked at least didn't increase. So really paid our bill rate down to you know last year I think we're at 685. This year we're actually I was anticipating before this huge change in a probably $7.20 on mill rate. Our mill rate jumping up to $78. So that's
008just going to be another thing that we need to communicate communicate out to the community say hey this mill rate it it it's changing not because we're getting any more money or anything like that. It's really what it's just saying is you guys don't have as much wealth as you did last year. So, it's um I just wanted the the board to be aware of it because it's you know these are the little things that I get caught up in the the minutia of it and it's like this is a huge thing that's going to have these huge ramifications. Um and when I looked at you know neighboring districts our neighboring districts see this. So this was like I said absolutely unprecedented. I had our the lead of our and our consultant somebody I talked
009to about once a year literally called me up and say you need to figure out what's going on here. Make sure this looks all right because this is a huge outlier for for superior. So we have one additional information item which is the fund 10 revenue and expenditure preliminary reports. This is me. So again, it's don't be much revenue, you know, let's start getting that test on last week or two weeks ago and that was $9 million. So you'll see a huge jump on that. So that ends my report. Right. >> Thank you. operations committee. Sarah, >> I have no action items, no discussion items, informationational items. Steve is here to give us a update on the Bryant window project. >> So, a little update. Um, we're about 90% complete. We have two windows that
010are on either side of the stairwells that are left to be done with supply uh constraints. Those should be going in the week of the 15th, September. So, it's given a couple weeks for school to get going. Um, we have uh plans in place for uh children drop off pickup, all that kind of stuff. Um, we replaced or they've replaced uh 65 windows, replaced uh broken, cracked brick, deteriorating brick, uh motor joints, put new window blinds in, did a lot of the sheet work, uh sheetrock and paint around it. um corrugated metal uh on the corners. They're called the curtain wall. Did some structural steel work, some roof work, and then uh replaced three doors. So, it's all coming together. We got a little bit left to do, and it's all just this uh quality
011assurance type stuff, making sure we get a good product. >> So, just to clarify, sorry, they'll the bulk of the project will be done in a couple weeks, right? >> Bulk project's done right now, ma'am. Um we have >> but they'll see a little bit of work in a couple weeks for some finishing stuff and then potentially in a later in the year >> later in the year and it shouldn't affect the kids. It should be weekends after hours all >> just so you know what's happening then. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. And it looks like Pat will be here next week to talk about back to school transportation. >> Exactly. >> That's fine. >> Please do. So, we we had busing today. It was uh it actually went really well, just like I was
012expecting. >> Actually went really well. >> But it went really well. >> It's not like I'm looking over my shoulder looking for shadows. So, but it went well. Um we have six graders tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes. But, um yeah, we uh so I'm happy with how it went for today. And uh right now we're we're looking forward to after we get through this first uh week, week and a half, we're going to we're gearing up for we're getting pretty excited for the haunted bus. Looking at a couple extra items this year really well. And um yeah, the team's excited about being back. Looking forward to the new year. >> I know the kids love the haunted bus, so they always a highlight. I think the staff like >> them, too. Got to
013add my new tradition in the river loop to end on a good thing when I saw um [Laughter] going number two. >> Uh just this past month Pat was working with propane provider. That's what we run 85% of our buses on and was able to negotiate a significant savings. So we're looking over $10,000 by him working with a vendor. So it was, you know, every penny count. It was equal a lot of work to do. Nice work. Nice job. >> Wonderful. Go share. That's all I got. Mr. President, >> personel negotiations. >> Couple action items. Administration recommends approval for the September 2025 new hires and separations report. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? We pretty much >> Yeah. Where are we, >> Molly? With >> Are we fully staffed?
014>> Um, we have a couple support staff position for the next week here. And then substitute teachers will be adding as well. I'll be at least. >> Sure. Are there applicants or is it Oh, okay. Yes. >> Yeah, we've had a good applicant pool this summer. >> Any other discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries. Administration recommends accepting the resignation and releasing Aaron Fezy, high school principal, from his 2526 school year contract for his request effective August 29th, 2025 with the liquidated damages provision. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Motion and a second. Any discussion? >> So, I'd just like to u acknowledge and thank Aaron. He came to us in 2011. He was a teacher for us, a coach, instructional coach, an assistant
015principal, and then finally the principal at the high school. Want to uh thank him for his service to the district and definitely wish him the best as he moves on to another venture in his life. >> Yes. Thank you, Aaron. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I >> I opposed. Motion carries. No discussion items, noformational items. And that concludes Mr. >> Thank you, Mr. Olson. Next, policies and rules committee. Shall we >> doing each of these um separately? >> Yes. Administration proposes the approval of changes to the following policies based on Neola recommendations in order to be in compliance with federal law updates. First reading of policy 6231, budget implementation. This policy is revised to clarify language regarding fund balance expenditures consistent with current practices. >> Motion to approve.
016>> Second. >> Okay, I have a motion to approve and a second. Is there any other discussion? >> It's pretty just stuff. hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> All opposed. Motion carries. >> First reading of policy 6235, fund balance. This policy is updated to include additional rationale and options for a district's management of fund balances. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> I have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? There's one line on here that says the target fund balance range for maintaining the district's financial stability is 15% of the preceding year's fund tend expenditures. Is that what we've been running? >> No, we're running higher than that. That's the minimum. That's when I I get below 15% I need to get in front of
017you guys so we can make decisions. >> You know what we sit at normally? 20 >> is the 10 almost 30. >> Yeah. >> If you're running that low, are you at risk of having cash flow and have to do short-term borrowing? >> Yeah. When you get down to the 15 to start >> discussion. All right. Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. All opposed. Motion carries. First reading of policy 7430, safety standards. This policy has been revised to clarify what information is required to be reported to the board. Recommended for consistency with statutory requirements. Motion >> to approve. >> Second. >> Motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> All opposed. Motion carries. >>
018First reading of policy 8600, transportation. This policy revision clarifies the transportation obligations for a student with a disability as defined in their individualized education program. To >> approve. Second. Any discussion? >> Anything on here, Dina, that's that's new or no? It's just their responsibilities. >> Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> All opposed. >> Motion carries. There are noformational items tonight and no discussion items. This ends my report. >> Thank you. Teaching and learning committee. >> All right. No action discussion. Couple information items. K Tesh, director of continuous improvement and assessment. Update on plan and leadership chair leadership team. Hello. >> I haven't seen you for a little bit. So I just wanted to update you on our work. In August, we had a very successful two and
019a half days with our shared leadership teams. Principles and their teams came together at Cooper. We worked through some learning and some professional development, but also figuring out where schools want to go within kind of the overarching view of the work that we all did with our strategic plan. So, I felt I think it's always a really amazing couple of days every August. It's exciting to start the year and um the teams do such a spectacular job that it it's a really cool process to observe and be a part of. Uh every building walked away with uh a great analysis of their data. They did a needs assessment, a SWAT analysis just like we all did when we went through the process. Uh I tried really hard to kind of create similar processes that we
020uh went through when we created the strategic plan last year. I thought that was an important link to our district strategic plan. So uh at the end we walked away with our each building having their action plan in the form of a CPR card, a continuous performance report. So now from a district structure we have our district strategic plan continuous performance report uh from a district level the actions we're taking and now each building has their continuous improvement plan in the format of a continuous performance report card monitoring their action steps with dates and who's responsible and um we had some really great energy and people are are excited and we're excited today getting to see see kids in front of them. So it was a really a great day. The work doesn't just end
021there though. So we know that that's the work we continue on through our structures with shared leadership team building staff meetings building the work happening in our professional learning community communities throughout our buildings. So just wanted to kind of give you a little update on that. >> Cool. >> You've been working hard. >> Yeah, it's hard busy. Today's the first day we take a breath and everybody else is >> extra busy. So, yeah. >> Thanks. >> And it was a great first day out in buildings today. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Kate. Thanks, Gabe. >> All right, Jennifer. Will it be director early childhood and family education update on union education and 4K and before and after school programming? >> Good evening. Um, I do have a few updates to share. So for
022pay enrollment, um I always like to share just kind of where we're at once the school year starts and the where the numbers kind of all shook out for us. Um we are still enrolling students though, so we still may see a few more. Um but I'd say the majority of them are probably with us already. Um we have for all of our elementary buildings, YMCA and Cathedral. This year we have about 156 students enrolled. It's about 50 students less than where we were at last year. Um, and as you may remember, that is probably a direct correlation or would be a direct correlation to uh Head Start no longer partnering with us for 4K. So, they held on to many of their four-year-olds who were in their three-year-old preschool programming the year prior. So,
023the kids just rolled into a 4-year-old classroom. Um, kindergarten though, I kind of looked just to see where we were at and we're at 254, which is pretty similar to where we were for 4K. So, I would anticipate that for kindergarten next year, our numbers will be similar again for um before and after school programming. So, before school program A is offered through the YMCA, um they are full at all of their locations. They are missing, they're still looking for staff uh for some of their schools. Northern Lights has a pretty lengthy wait list at this point in time. So, I know I know they're still searching uh for staff to work that before school programming there. Um but they were able to change around their licensing a little bit uh to get more students
024in at um the schools that they could at all the other elementary buildings. Um so they could work with licensing to make that happen. So they have two different age groups and two schools. Um our after school enrollment uh is looking good. Um I'd say we're up just a little bit, maybe about 10 students from last year. Uh we're at 288 students and we still have about 15 to 20 were in processing. We have received probably about 70 enrollments over the weekend. Wow. >> So we we were busy in the office today. Jill was very busy working on all of those. Um and then Indian education uh just an update about what's going on there. Uh we had um some tableabling happening for open houses. Uh so that was fun. Nice to get out and
025see kids and families. Um I was at the middle school in Cooper. We had parents at high school uh Cooper and Great Lakes helping out with those too. So that was um that was great. We were able to be there and connect with families, share paperwork, uh share books, things like that. Um we'll be meeting the fourth Wednesday of every month. Um one of our first activities we're planning is um going to be on Indigenous People's Day October 13th. So we'll have an event at the middle school that evening. Um so after you're done here at the board meeting, you can head over there if you want to come say hi. Um and then drumming will start up uh at the middle school again September 16th. So the uh sign up for that is being
026shared Thursday when we send our first newsletter out. >> Any questions? >> Okay. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> That's it. >> All right. That does conclude our conclude our meeting tonight. Our next meeting is Monday, September 8th, when we will have our regular school board meeting. Entertain a motion for adjournment. >> Motion to adjourn. >> I'll second that. A second to adjurnn. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion carry. Thank you very much. Have a great evening.