001No one in the stamps gravel truck took out the maintainer. Well, they don't let me out. I understand that, but yeah. I don't know exactly what happened, but uh it ripped the front axle off the table. Huh? I think they're going to open the meeting and then Okay, you're on. Just shut this down and she's going to take this for your close second. All right, I guess I'll welcome everybody to the regular board meeting if you will when it's sorry you can call the meeting soon. Jenny Jordan, yes. Josh, yes. Mine, yes. Christy Bell, yes. Jody good. Yes. You have an approval of the agenda. I I see there was an addition here, but I would move that we hold off on that and approve the agenda as originally presented. I'll second. Josh, yes. Laura,
002yes. Christie, yes. Jody, yes. Jenny. Yes. I don't think we have any visitors or public comment. Our first I guess our only special presentation is Kip Harris on our insurance renewal and storm protection. It's all you. Thank you. But you said I was going to get on first. That's what I'll do is I'll go through the regular insurance package first just what everybody wants to hear. Um I don't know about last year the total package was and this is with cyber liability. This is what the umbrella This is what the world call auto umbrella linebacker pollution in the marine crime fidelity and property. The total premium last year was 383,885. This year the total premium for those same lines is $415,830. Now, that's only an 8% increase. Well, 8% we don't like any increase, but
003in today's world, 15% is pretty average with commercial packages. Is that what you're seeing, too? Is that right? Now, what I want to point out with that is though, there's a big savings this year on the work comp because our mod factor went from a 82 down to a 72. So, we've got about $12,000 decrease in our work contracting along with the rates that went down. Also, that's where we're at with that. Um, I passed down a sheet and what that illustrates is that illustrates that what these companies have started to do is is not only have they increased their premiums a bunch, but they went the high deductible and they've went to one to 2% wind and hail deductible. Now, you think that doesn't sound like a lot. Well, look at that illustration I
004give you. And and we're taking the the six major schools basically. Well, everything from up from 11 Glenn Street and then everything across 14th Street and then Maple Street. If you look at that, we've got a value of all the buildings and contents at 119, 315,000. So, a 1% wind and hail deductible is 1,193,175. So, as taxpayers and as schoolboard members, we don't ever want to assume the worst, but we've we kind of have to assume the worst because we've seen it across the state. That's what we could have to come up with in the event that we had a catastrophe, F3 tornado or something real bad. Now what Jester Insurance Services did along with the agents, we realized that that kind of a deductible wasn't palatable a year ago. So Jester Insurance Services went
005out and they developed a product that they needed 60% participation of the schools that are in the program, which they've got. And then they put a premium on that that you can buy your deductible down to a $25,000 deductible as opposed to that1 million. Now, I don't want to really shock you, but if you look at the bottom page of that, in order to do that, it's going to cost the school district another $46,999. [Music] But we don't have a reserve fund big enough to absorb that. If we could go 20 years and put 30,000, we'd be close to that. But that's I mean think about that. That's that's what we'd have to do in order to have that kind of a big fund. So what I did was and it just is what it
006is. I took that 46,9.99 added it to this year's premium. And in reality then with the savings on the word comp and everything you'd be looking at a 21% increase over last year. I can't tell you whether that's a smart move or not. If I could tell you that we were going to have any storms, I would keep the money, but unfortunately we can. So Lisa, I know has been involved back. Lisa may be asked to be one of the board members. So we'll have somebody that can sit on that board and do that. But it's a 280 agreement that's done. One thing I will point out is that there's no commission paid on that product to any agents. We realize that we need to be have have a good product for the school and
007so that's set up directly through gestures and there's no commissioning paid out on that account on that amount of money. So with that I must make sure but is there any questions? I guess I'll ask you. You've made a contact with Janelle Freeman. So, um, did she give you any indication? Are they at 70%, 80%. She didn't say that. She just said their numbers are coming in better than what they were expecting and that um, resolutions just have to be signed and submitted to them by June 25th. wanted everything wrapped up which was this was a good meeting to to put a resolution together if we wanted to go that direction. One thing I'll point out is is that in my years in the insurance business you used to have back in the day county
008mutuals there were accessessible policies meaning that if you bought into that the premiums were set on what their average claims had been during the year. If at the end of the year those claims were higher they would assess the policy holders. So, you could get hit with $1,000 extra. I mean, in this case, it'd be several thousand dollar extra. I specifically asked to make sure that they build in their rates that this wasn't accessible. It's not. So, what they've looked at, they've looked at a ratio going clear across the state and they could handle that with the reinsurance, the layers of reinsurance that they purchased. They started with all the schools on the west side of the state and contacted them first and then we were one of the first that they contacted because of
009our location and Kim I got a question. So with the the SPF storm protection fund, it's an addition policy. It's an additional piece of the policy that would cover any kind of damage done by natural storms. Any hail, tornado, wind, wind and hail detective, not tornado. That'd be wind. No, that's wind. Okay. So, anything that would be considered damage, we could file a claim because we'd have this additional, you know, writer on top of our current policy. Our current policy doesn't have really insurance that covers anything that's storm related. No, it does. Okay. What it would just be susceptible to that huge deductible. Correct. Okay. So, so even let's just take a million dollar. Let's just say we had a million dollar claim. That's $100,000. These are paid out of our management fund. Okay? And
010we haven't tried to raise that tax very much. And so, um, last year we talked about it was going to be 15%. I budgeted 20%. Because that seems to be how interest goes. This year I budgeted for 20% even though when we talked it was like 13. Um, so we only keep about four to 500,000 in there and the bill comes out to 415, right? So there's just less than 100,000 left at the end of the year and that's what you would use for your deductible. So it makes sense to join something like this because we could we could come up with you know 46 thou or you know we could come up with something but if we had to come up with 1.1 I mean we'd be borrowing from a bank to try to
011make that I'm just trying to make it common sense and applicable to actually something that could happen here. the roof. Most of the roof gets torn off here at the high school. It may end up being a million dollar roof replacement. The insurance would cover all of it with this new SPF or what would it cover? Cover all of it with with a $25,000 deduction that Okay. And so, well, I think this building's worse. So, that deductible is that paid out of management ever have to do that. So, so in theory we should keep at least that deductible in the management fund at all times. It does increase property taxes because all property tax under the current under the current plan 33 million is this building got a 1% wind and hail. That's 330,000. So,
012you may have a $100,000 loss and you're going to pay the whole darn thing. I just wanted to make sure we kind of understood that just the the realness of just a storm that could hit the building any kind of damage. Now, but what's interesting is, and I'll confirm this tomorrow because I I thought I'd read this many times, but you'll see in that second to the last paragraph on the sheet that I handed out, by participating in the SPF, the district's deductible exposure is reduced to 25,000 per storm. So, we could have multiple locations at 25,000. Now, I'll be the first one to tell you that we probably go 20 years. never have a majesty. We hope and we've got great facilities. But well, if we buy this and that guarantees that we're not
013going to that money well lost, right? That's right. It's one of those are giving everyone a chance to get in now. We're not and that would even include any of our outdoor facilities, not just our building and those values. That's everything in those locations. Yeah. And because we have all this new outdoor facility, it's probably more replacement cost is considerably more. I I hate to even bring this up, but when I first started, right insurance for the school, I think everything combined was right at $100,000 30 years ago. It just shows what's going on during that time. And we've got to be got all kinds of storms going on in the south. We got to hope that the summer treats us well here. Just like last year, we don't know when this is going to
014end. I mean, we got to hope that mother nature gives us a retrieve. We really do. Any other questions? The only other thing I'd, you know, add is that it did see a list of the schools that are currently in it already, larger size districts larger than Atlantic. So, I think that's interesting. And I guess I didn't catch your question. Just it's interesting some of the districts that are already in this, you know, sto protection fund. Just I I just found it interesting. It just came out this year. They just This is brand new as of two months ago. Anything else? Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. If anybody has any questions after they get done sort of wish I asked you a call. All right. Thank you. Thanks. Okay. Move on to reports. We just
015submitted the right one. So if you guys have questions, we're happy to ask. Does anybody have any questions after this one? big one. That's fine. Move on to superintendent report. Okay. So, if you open up my report, I didn't go into large detail narrative on any of it because I thought there's a lot to talk about. It's just easier for you to look at it and listen to information. So, the first one is just this fitness grant. I had met earlier this week with the uh mayor and she had come across a grant that was presented to the city of Atlantic and it's a very cool fitness grant. I think it's a $250,000 grant and it um and and I think she thought that the best location would be to have it at one of
016the schools and so either at the high school or at the middle school. um because of just the more likelihood of it being used daily. And I suggested if the city goes forward with um pursuing this grant to have this fitness center to have it at the middle school kind of in that front grassy yard area, you know, where it's just kind of we don't really use it. Um but you can see a picture of it. Um oh gosh, let me see if I can find it really fast. it and there's a video too, but the it's a very cool um outdoor fitness facility where there's all kinds of um fitness things that we can the kids go down daily any of the um four aid kids go down and do fitness training. It's more
017life skills kind of fitness that they would do on um on this outdoor equipment. the city um along with like Swiftco would grants and fund it. I think if anything the school district would be just the host of the location. So um just wanted to get kind of a first uh blush of of seeing this. I don't know if the city's going to go through with um working on grants. It's just it was made uh available. There's another city that already has it uh approved and I forget now the city should have written it down. Um but it's it's you can kind of see pictures of it and it's not maybe the best pictures. Um but it it's it's it's pretty darn cool. any thoughts on that discussion want to like no we're not interested
018or you know yeah let's keep kind of in the loop of it so this would be down this would be up by the building or this would be down by Bull Creek Bull Creek area yeah and the city is still looking at a Bull Creek project through the Iowa State University group had kind of different proposals I personally don't like anything out by the school I don't like people walking around there during the day there's no fence when the kids are off recess down below in that grassy area. No, I don't like anybody being down there during the school hours. Like I don't like that people walk like I don't safety. I would always Yeah. Okay. I one of our focuses is safety and I that's just inviting more people up during the school hours.
019I don't know. Maybe I'm the only one that thinks like that. I you know Yeah. I mean, I I don't necessarily want it up by the building, but down below there, you know, there is a pretty I think it could be kind of cool, honestly, especially off the pathway there because you have people that walk or run and they could stop and do some calisthenics, whatever, you know, or have some outdoor fitness classes there. I used to belong to a group. We used to go out there all the time on that grass and work out as a group. But be kind of cool. If anything, Jody, an idea could be we could fence off playground there a shoe or two. I mean, that's the outdoor play that's supervised, but it's not fenced. Don't think you
020can cage them all there. You've ever driven by there. They're they cover every inch of that grass. So, I think that the city's going to pursue to see if there's any grants out there that would support it. If the board says, "Oh, I don't know if we want it on school property or not." Um, who's liable for? Uh, we would be it'd be our property. It'd be like a playground. It's like an adult playground. It's exactly. Would we be liable if someone was injured? Uhhuh. Just like if they're playing on an insurance I think it's a great idea. I just lived here my whole life and I question that area. Is it going to be used? It won't be when I make this comment, but we really don't want that being used during school time.
021And so will it be one of those areas that's used during school time where you'll have members of the public mixing with kids and that I don't think you want that. You know, I don't think got to that point. There's more of we think the kids will use it during the school day and not necessarily the I get it. No, I get it. And what I think most people are conscious that they stay away from those kids in the school days, but if it was known to the public that that was that they could use it, they would use it. But we got people using facilities school, too. So, I mean, it's not like like the tennis courts you're talking about here. Yeah. From from a insurance liability standpoint, there's no problem. Yeah, I'd hate
022to anytime you can get a $250,000 grant, but try to figure out how to use it. Well, the city doesn't have the money yet. They work with like Iowa West Foundation. Any grants out there that would support it? The other option personally, if it were not on a school property would be out at Schelberg someplace. Oh, no. That's what I was thinking. Or by the ball fields or something where people walk and trails and That's true. We can I can suggest pass it down so you can kind of see it. It's kind of a cool thing where it's more I don't know apply metrics and you know body weight. Yeah. Your your own body weight causing you to do exercises that are um more of an adult life skills practice. Okay. So the next one
023feel the same attachment up at times. The next one is on um Russell did receive a roof replacement bid for the high school and the bid you can it's the drawing along with the bid. So if you open it up and enlarge it it's a $1.3 million full roof replacement. That's what Snyder is projecting the cost to be at this point. If the board says, "Let's move forward on it," then we we go and and let bids out for companies to come in and give bids on the roof replacement. This is just Snider's um cost projection of the roof replacement for everything at the high school. And it's even done in in phases. So, if we wanted to choose to do part of it this year, part of it next year, or just wait all
024of next year's budget, Lisa, what do you need to add in on that? Um, so we currently have the funds in our local option sales tax. We had uh Russell and I when we met, we knew we thought we needed about 2 million because we thought it was going to come in at about 1.8 and then there's always something. And so, we had planned $2 million of local option sales tax that we could take care of. now that didn't have to be involved with the bond. So, we were both pleased to see it come in at roughly 1.3 which then frees up a little bit money in case there is some some hangup. He has worked with Snyder. They would get uh contracts, bids, things of that nature. Doing it in three pieces maybe because
025of the way the design is that they could possibly do maybe part of it this summer, maybe two sections of it this summer, another one next summer. They didn't know they could get it all done in one summer, but would use what fund again? Uh, local option sales tax and it'd be on this upcoming budget, not this current. Exactly. So, it'd be on the 2526, but we have the funds already. It wouldn't be waiting on funds to do it. It's funds we have right now. So, it would be if the board would, you know, get permission for us to proceed to go to um get bids on on roof replacement for the high school up here with a projected cost approximately of $1.3 million for roof replacement. Right now, the current roof is close to
02630 years old. So, it's lived past its life. It's that incident. Any questions on that? That's back as an action item then right away. Uh I put down there the Blue Cross Blue Shield service plan. I didn't include it. It's just a review. Um I'm going to have Lisa talk about that. The plan um showed an increase. Do you want to do a summary on the current new Blue Cross Blue Shield plan compared to the previous United Health? Any talking points on that? Um, yeah. Sorry, I don't have that uh in front of me, but um yes. So, we moved to a self-insured Blue Cross Blue Shield through Walmart instead of United Healthcare because the cost of United Healthcare is going to go up um and going to be $100,000 more annually than what Walmart's
027offer was. Um they are almost identical plans as far as they're both $1,500 deductible. Most the benefits were the same. The pharmacy plan is a much um uh better plan on the Blue Cross Blue Shield. So, we've had um open enrollment the past two weeks. We've had employees that have our insurance. We have roughly 143 employees that carry school insurance. And so, each of them received emails, you know, explaining the different costs so they could see those rates. Um we've tried to work individually with people. We've had so far I feel like great success. Uh the questions that they've had have been really good. We also offer a high deductible plan that a lot of people are moving to because it does offer like a HSA, a health savings account that does roll over from
028year to year, which is different than like a flexible spending account. And so, um, I feel like again, if if you were already on a single plan and it was free, you know, you're not it's no different in cost for you. But, um, we have had, you know, a few people are like, gosh, I' I've got to make some decisions on what type of insurance I need to have. But it's all based on our claims. So claims drive cost and we were at a 34% increase in claims and um over a million dollars in claims were just on pharmacy alone. So we hadn't seen an increase in over 10 years. And anytime there was a small increase of less than 1%. The district didn't pass that cost on to the employees. We just paid it
029and we covered it. And then now 10 years later we get hit with a 34% increase. So it feels like it all came at once. Well, it did when it was based on the past three years of claims. Every year with Walmart, they only look at one year back and not three years. So, we're hoping um next year we'll be in a better situation. Rates could go down. They might stay the same. They could go up. Um but we drive those costs ourselves. Anything else? Comments or question? Okay. The next one um again focusing in on that master plan sitting in front of you paper copy find the one that says facilities master plan final reports looks like this and that is a summary document from SVPA and it's a compilation of just the whole
030master plan it's got a nice narrative summary of u what they've done what they um are suggesting that um the project would include and then it gets into the budget. Again, the board is already aware of the scope and budget on it. Um projecting it to be under $40 million for quite a few things going on specifically at Washington Elementary. um renovation at Schuler, renovation at middle school, addition at middle school, and then the high school has addition um along with an additional fieldhouse and then they broke it down and then it just shows Estus's um maintenance plan. Those are those back pages. So, it's just a nice little tidy uh collection of all the work that has kind of just come to a final um product or presentation of the master plan comments on
031that. And again, the board is aware of this. You know, the board is has has looked at a 50,000 square foot fieldhouse. The examples that are shown on the back page are just things that could be included in the fieldhouse. Whatever that 50,000 square foot example is is not, I don't think, is what the board's looking at. It's more just possible options that could be in that 50 square 50,000 square foot um building or we can call it a box. What could fit in there? Even though that's not exactly what I think the board will end up doing. It's just examples. So, whatever we see on paper here is probably not what the final project that the board would eventually present to the public. And maybe it is. I'm not sure. I'm just saying don't.
032That fieldhouse example is not probably um what it's going to end up looking like. It's just again. Yep. It's just schematic conceptual. Okay. So, there's the master plan. Then the next document is information from Piper Sandler. And again, the board has had a chance to um visit um with Travis Squire. He knows that the board is targeting $40 million. Um you can see what the payments are on that. If you look at you can see that it's not much of an increase. It is an increase, but it's not much. What I like is the third staple document and that is the 25 bond communication map done by that Donovan group. They have started to collect information um from the web page from um other kind of web resources that they know how to go find
033information. They've done a quick summary of the project plan. So the scope of the project in narrative form. But then if you look on page three, they've done a nice job of explaining if they went with, you know, that $40 million project, what it end up being and and make it comparable. Um, showing the rate for the 2026. If we look at, you know, the other school districts just in our Hawkeye 10 conference, we're in the middle of the pack. we went um but that's the current rate and then you can see what it would be um the future rates. I think that's how we set up and and yeah how we rank for the rest of them. Laura, you got any questions? I know you're looking a little bit No, I'm just looking at
034the documents. Well, here's what since you're looking over and you know here's what what we need to do as a board. Um accept and and you're you're good with the master plan from SPA the final report. Um, and then you're good with a $40 million proposed bond referendum. And then we have started to collect um um what are we calling them? Steering committee names to contact people to be part of of a steering committee. Uh and then if the board is good with the the language that you see on the communication road mapap then I will send that the information on hyper hyper sadler and then the master plan to all to have them put together petition language. The allers would put together petition language and then the board and whoever would have to take
035a petition around to get signed. And if you get enough signatures, then you move forward. So that all that has to happen in in probably the next month. In the next what? In the next month. Yeah. Okay. I do have some questions. That's okay. Um, are the changes we're making to our buildings going to last longer than the loan? I was a little uh like our repayment goes until when, Lisa. Um, let me look at it does. And then he gave some options about paying it down, paying off sooner. Um, I looked at this. Let me look at it again. I was wondering how much of that is principal and how much is interest. If you're able to find that for me. Yeah, let me let me look through Travis's piece here real quick. Okay,
036thank you. I I was looking at it and you know just getting some things but I couldn't find all the information I wanted. I also noticed that um there was something about that we might want to like restructure our debt in fiscal year 27 through 29 and I'm thinking that's very soon and I'm wondering if that that means uh there's a concern that we're going to have a really uh major bump right at that time and if that would impact on our possibility about getting the loan passed getting the bond passed. Well, to answer your first question, is the the building, you know, renovation and addition going to outlast the 20-year uh bond or loan? I would say yes, just because if we look at our high school right here, it's a 30-year high school
037and it's still in great shape. I mean, that might help answer that question. That does help. Has it been 30 years? Is that right? Anybody else thought that? You guys are frozen. I assume I am too. You are. Okay. Well, I can still hear you though, so that's okay. Um I was wondering about those um those people that we were going to contact that you were talking about like a steering committee. Yes. Weren't Wasn't there originally like we were going to do a survey and get some ideas from the get some like community input into the master plan? I guess I'm feeling a little bit like I want to know how the public is reacting unless other board members are more in touch with uh getting responses from people. But uh I think we had
038talked about some concern that maybe our community doesn't even really know that this is coming and I really would like to know if there's a general sense that of enthusiasm about particular parts or concern about particular parts. I talked to Jerry um Gallagher out of Donovan Group today about that like here are we supposed to do are we going to do this the survey um that we're going to collect information from the steering committee and then send a survey out and he goes you know you're probably a month behind on getting that survey out. So um because of the timeline left between now and a November vote, the survey doesn't give you time to go back and revise the master plan, the schematic proposal. It does not give you time to go back and make
039adjustments for it in the big picture. Now you go in and make, you know, somewhat adjustments. Um but committed money towards per building. and he said you're not going to have time to go back after a survey and and do that. Well, I think the only thing with that is if I mean I I obviously we're paying this company and I don't know this guy, but I don't Jerry's not going to pass the balls for us. Um you know, it's these community people in the steering group, whoever that is. Um, so I I think the sooner if if I think if there they start tomorrow, that just helps our chance, the more that that those individuals in the community have their hands in this. I'm not I mean, this is a fantastic document. But I
040I mean, we got to have those people to I mean, that's how we we did the you know, the prior one. I don't think most people in the public know this is in the works. And I thought we had discussed earlier like we've been working on this for the past few months. So we feel like through this research we have found the main needs of the school. So that's maybe not needed in a survey because we've done research that tells us well these are the critical needs etc. But I think as a community in a whole, I don't think most people know any of this is went on or that this is being done. And I think that's why, you know, Jerry is saying when we get this steering committee put together, we give them
041the information, they look through it, they're able to kind of um understand what what's supposed to be going on in the design. Even though it's not specific, it's a notbook of design that they can say, "Yeah, we're going to add on so many classrooms at the elementary, add on a fieldhouse, about high school, those kind of those big things." Well, they do like a newspaper release or Yes. If you Yeah. If you look at um kind of the last two pages, there's a calendar of a communication that they already have kind of in place that, you know, here's what they're going to do um by June 11th and then get a website going. Again, they've been doing this enough with other school districts in Iowa. They probably have templates ready to go. We just put
042in our information and they're ready to push it out on social media and then our web page. you can see just in the month of June the list of things we have to get going on. So what do we need to do to act right now? I think if anything, you know, that first of all, we get this committee going and meeting. Um, I get Jerry the names, emails, phone numbers. He gets the meeting going. He suggested to have two board members on the committee to, you know, help talk about what has happened already, talk about, you know, the the plans and why the board chose certain things. Jared will kind of move this steering committee forward and um at the same time we have to get the language to our attorney where they have
043to create that petition language. So that all has to happen just in June. And at the same time he's going to be sending out information like social media stuff um JMC posting of information in in June. So all of this between now and July 1st, a lot of things are going to come into place. It's just been hard for us as a board to me. I mean, we met um May 23rd. When was our last boarding 26, which wasn't too long ago, and you know, we made decisions then and then it's just it's moving pretty fast. It'll it'll kind of ease up a little bit, but to be to get things going right now, it's just going to take a lot of time specific things. Like there's some really good documents here with good information.
044But yeah, we've been looking at them, but I'm curious, you know, not just the community, but staff. um you know that said they're going to be your first proponents of anything like this staff and and the families of students where I know it talks about an email going out but it feels like the sooner that obviously now is a bad time because they're all on vacation to get that information or to have them be able to look at the scope of the project. I think if anything um myself I've been somewhat reluctant to share much of the project because I don't want it to go out like here's what we're going to do. It's still part of the board decision on if they're going to go forward with a bond referendum or not. And when
045you finally as a board decide, yep, we're going to go forward in the process starts pretty fast. There's a lot of pieces involved. You can see part of it you're going to have board involvement, but a lot of it is just, you know, by design keeping that. Yes. And I would believe if I look at the principles over here, their staff is aware that there has been things that we're working on, considering, talking about, especially at Washington. I know that the coaches are aware of the fieldhouse idea here at the high school. I don't know about the renovations in Schuler with the bathrooms and then that new uh cafeteria commons for the middle school and then whatever else we have going on for the middle school. I don't know if they're really aware of that.
046Are you guys getting feedback? Casey and Stacy or Stacy? Okay. Okay. That I mean that that's positive to hear honestly and middle school been minimal just because just want to ask about they know we're not one of the focal points because of the renovation that we've recently had. So um but most conversations I've had people know the need. I mean they see the need. Yeah. Washington and you still have that sky bridge that is kind of a need that touches your building. Anything else on this? If the board is good, I will contact Jerry tomorrow and we will get going on this. I'm good. Yeah, I guess I'm I mean I guess I'm good at we have if we can't rush through it get I mean I mean rush but if we can't get to
047the bond issue then it's not gosh I'm not ditching any of that I just said I'm I'm good with it too. I guess the thing is it's not like this work will be trashed if we potentially can't get to a bond issue right I mean if we pull the rates back or whatever. I hope that doesn't happen, but if it does, we have to wait. This work is still going to be valuable. I I think if anything, it looks like there's a lot going on. If you look at this calendar of events, but those are a lot of the things of information that's going out sent by this Donovan group that is really going to just share a lot of information. When we get the steering committee to meet, um, a lot of information is
048going out to them. Um, Jerry's going to work directly with them. That's part of his expertise is working with the steering committee on bond referendum. That's that's his specialty. And helping them to learn more about the bond, any of the finances that go along with it. Um if they needed to kind of do talking points with different groups that they go out and meet with, how to present information, answer questions, that kind of thing. How soon would that task force get together? Soon. like in a week. Okay. He he'd probably contact him tomorrow if I get emails and phone numbers of the list I have. Um he'd contact them within by the end of this week, set a time to meet with them. I cannot meet with the group. Two board members can be part
049of that group. Okay. So only two we can't be more than five wall. Can I ask a question for public? Okay. Say it out loud or too if you can ask a question. Oh, you can ask a question. Is the Donovan Group architectural firm? They are a communication um company and they work directly with school districts in Iowa, at least in Iowa, and they work specifically on bonds and and getting information out in our social media and posting and anything working directly with steering committees. We are also going to use them to help communicate other stuff that we um sending out just information with the district, you know, open house, back to school night, any of that kind of stuff. So, they're our communication company. So, the dollar amounts that came on this boulevard from
050whom the SCP which is their architect working along with the construction company IAT. Um, they proposed the design. I can't put the price on on the cost per square foot of like a space. Then the financing is from Piper Sandler. The financing is from Piper Sandler. Sure. Sure. It's probably a conservative bid and I mean that's what we have to believe and that's what most school districts are doing on any kind of bond project. You go with a conservative bid that's presented by the construction company and the architects knowing you know there's some contingency there. Everybody good moving forward on this? They're gonna struggle to pick a night that's not a baseball softball night and Jerry might be able to like, you know, zoom them in or or whatever. Include him somehow. I'm sure he's
051got ways to get people involved. Sunday night. Yep. We'll move on to the I guess board report if anybody from the board has anything. Well, I went to the um summit for student success today. Um as usual, they had a good keynote speaker and went to a couple of breakout sessions, one from Winter Set that was doing um what the board learns about student learning and I just felt like, oh yeah, we do that, we do that. I felt like we were doing a pretty good job compared to a school district that was showcasing what they're doing. So, um, it was an interesting day and I got a t-shirt. So, good job. Okay, we'll move on to financial reports. So, I shared with you financial reports. We're in month 11 out of 12 that we've
052completed. Um we usually June we start wrapping up things things that uh dollars that need to be spent have to be spent by June 15th invoiced arrived so that we can kind of close out those books because July one then starts a brand new year. So for about three months we work in two fiscal years uh ending books on one starting on another. Um, so when you look at those reports, um, the second page of the attachment, that's what I was going to look at a little bit at the very top and the far right, they're kind of in green. Um, it just kind of gives you our balances at the bank. So you can kind of see, so when we've been talking about um, local option sales tax, that's that fund used to be
053secured advanced vision. Um, so that local option sales tax is what we have in what I would call like our capital projects, construction. We've talked about, you know, putting the high school roof up. So when you're thinking, gosh, where does she get these numbers? As you can see, this is what we have in the bank that's set aside specifically for each of these areas. So management fund where we pay insurance out of, um, Pebble, which is where transportation and technology come out of. So each of those kind of broke or broke down on where things come out of. So, um, I just kind of wanted to point that out because sometimes that might get skipped over, but as we're ending the year, this is as of May 31, we have one month left. Now, we'll
054do payroll for most staff um because they start new contracts July 1, except our teaching staff who start a September one contract. So, that means we pay them in July and August out of this year's funds. So, June's payroll is a June, July, and August. So, it's three months of payroll for that teaching staff. We expend it. We hold it back. We pay them in the months that they occur, but we go ahead and set the funds aside so that I can close out my books showing that they've been paid. So, um, but everyone else ends June 30th. And so, as you're looking at that very first page and it says, "Oh, we have 20% remaining in our budget. Oh, but we only have 8.3 remaining of the year. Oh my gosh, we're in such
055good shape." Um, just know about 5% of the budget does go toward those teacher salaries. And so when you add July and August, now you're up to about 18% really that we will use up out of that 20%. So we are going to make budget. Right now we look like we're in a good position, but just know there's not, you know, 12% left sitting somewhere. it 10% of that is for those salaries that are paid out in the summer but yet not given to them until another fiscal year. Um finances are looking good. Lots and lots. We just received third quarter reimbursements. So we're process we'll start processing fourth quarter reimbursements. So all the money starts coming about July and August and we have to uh post it back. So there's just a lot of
056funds right now that aren't spent completely because we're waiting on funds to arrive for expenses we've had. So a lot of reimbursements. This is a really busy time in our office. June and July are actually our busiest months out of the year as we're working on both. So, if we if you come by our office and we seem a little sketchy, it's probably because we've worked 12-hour days and and we're starting to live in the office because um there's just so much that has to be done this time of year. Any questions? Is there a motion to approve financial financial report? I move we approve the financial report. I'll second. I second. Okay. Laura, yes. Christie, yes. Jody, yes. Jenny, yes. Josh, yes. Uh item seven is the consent agenda. questions or anybody want to
057pull anything or talk about anything. Chris, do you wanted us to vote on that without that additional thing? Is that what you said? Yeah. Yeah. I just think it's we're getting late additions on there. So, I just thought we could save that till next time. Okay. Okay. I was to the consent agenda as presented. Okay. Second. Okay. Okay. Christy, yes. Jody, yes. Jenny, yes. Josh, yes. Laura, yes. Uh, the only item is discussion item is the facilities master plan. I don't have anything additional than we kind of did that just discussion item and then also on the superintendent before. Does anybody have any further discussion on that that we already talked about? Okay. Move on to the action items. Item A is an A.A. agreement for transferring of state funds. Get a chance to kind
058of review that agreement. It's it's basically covering that 90% of sped funds that come from the state funding automatically transfer to the A.E.A.S. as per state law. Um and then um does that really say it in there about you know just the media services and any other staff development services? It's not in that. So it's just really covering any kind of sped funding. um 90% of it automatically transfers to the A.E.A. We spend we send to the AEA about $446,737. is the amount paid to AEA and that leaves us with 94,000 for media services. We get 10,000 for educational and then we m they allow us to maintain 49,000 that we can spend at our discretion towards sped. Um we're hearing a lot of districts again I'm reaching out to just southwest Iowa. So I'm
059not talking all districts but a lot of them are using it to support like a special ed director because there's some schools that don't have that or they're sharing. And so that's what I'm hearing districts are doing with their portion. But roughly about $61,000 and that's that 90% of the sped fun. The 90% is the 446 and that's what automatically transfers to the AA directly from the state department. Yeah, they just have to have a 2080 agreement. So, it just has to be a motion that the board is recognizing that that money is going to go to the AEA. Not sure we have a say. So, yeah, we don't. Okay. I move that we approve the AEA agreement for transferring state funding. I'll second. Jody, yes. Jenny, yes. Josh, yes. Laura, yes. Chrissy, yes. Uh,
060item B is the LAU plan. Okay. So, the LA plan is a plan mandated by the state department that we have to have some kind of plan in place to serve our English learners, our EL kids. Stacy Schmidt and team worked on updating this plan. We weren't for sure if it needed to be board approved, but on the safe side um for any kind of future reference, if it needs to be board approved, we've got it done. We can document it and say, "Yeah, board approved it." We just don't know sure if it's supposed to be board. So, this is more not precautionary, but just having it done and and in place. If you have any questions, please direct them to Stacy. The highlighted yellow sections are what wording was changed from the previous plan,
061which is basically reflects our goal for exactly what they wanted to do. They wanted to make sure that the plan uh mirrored the goals of the board in the district. I move to the district's loud. I'll second. Okay. Jenny, yes. Josh, yes. Laura, yes. Frisky, yes. And Jody, yes. Next is the uh resolution for the uh storm protection fund resolution. Yeah, we just talked about another Thank you. Can I ask is this something that we would renew each year? Unfortunately, yes. Yes. And the and I think you said Kevin and the rates can change from year to year. Say it again. You said the rates can change from year to year and they will. Yeah, that's correct. Probably in the going down direction, right, Kip? We could thanks everybody for your time. So that I
062understand. So we are approving the resolution to pay that fund to be a part of this consortium and and that what we received is just an estimate of what we anticipate the cost to be. That's that's what they're telling us and then we'll approve that at a later date when that comes to our policy or is that No. So we we're approving a resolution to join the consortium and then that that he broke out just tells you that's what it's going to cost you to be a part of that consortium. by by approving the resolution, we're approving that amount. And that's that 46. And this is because And this is because our insurance is going up, the coverage is going down. And so he's introducing another vehicle to try to give us like some gap
063coverage. Is that right? It's actually Jester Insurance that suggested it. They reached out to a handful of schools. We were one of them that they reached out to and wanted to know if we would be the uh starting group. Um, Fort Dodge is one of them. Um, there were quite a few schools to say, um, we recognize that when a storm comes, it it can wipe out an entire district's, uh, funds. And so, they're saying, "What if we pull the money and we can help each other?" Um, with the idea that you either get in now or you don't get in at all. So, um, they introduced it to all schools starting with everyone on the west side of the state. Um, we were one of the partnering starting schools. Um, and so this came
064through Jester. It's a brand new program they're trying. Um, so if if we choose not to get in, I don't know that we could get in later. So it's kind of a get in now and and hope we don't need it. The funds will grow, of course, if no one uses it this year. Those funds stay in there. they don't get dispersed out and then the fund just continues to grow. So that the insurance that's earned on that money that just stays in the fund. And I noticed there was something about sort of an annual like 6% fee and 2% fee. And how does that work, Lisa? Well, they're just trying to see they they didn't know what they should start out because it's something brand new that only Iowa is doing and only Jester
065Insurance is offering. So they're looking at different percentages. They're saying it could be. We don't know. Let's see what the first year looks like. We'll reanalyze and look at it the next year. That kind of thing. So it's still cheaper to go this route than like we would if we if we didn't have this, we would pay 1%. So like he said, if if we have a claim though, I mean, you know, we're not if you have wind or hail. Yes. Yeah. If we have claims, then we're paying the 1%. But if we don't, then we don't. I I would just need to make sure in management I kept 1% which means property taxes will need to raise to offset that 1%. And then how do you determine do you determine the whole 1% on
066119 million? Do you determine 1% on just the high school? So it's a protection. Um but again, it's it's board decision if you want to be a part of this consortium in Iowa. It sounds like it makes you more comfortable though, doesn't it, Lisa? Absolutely. Absolutely. 1% on 3 million versus paying 25,000 per storm. Yeah. Does anyone know like how much storm claims we've had? I guess we should have asked when Kip was here, but Well, I don't know that we really have that. That's what I was thinking. But you look at what happens across the state. It just takes one devastating I mean I know I I can speak to the fact our family personally had a tornado hit and um yeah you you're wise to look ahead to know what your insurance coverage
067is because it maybe is not always what you think it is. You assume that everything is covered and that's not necessarily the case. And just with what's happened with local mutuals here recently, um I think it's wise to be protected. And with that, I would move that we um approve the resolution to join the star protection fund. Second. Josh, yes. Laura, yes. Chrissy, yes. Jody, yes. Jenny, yes. Okay, next we have a uh bid for some paint at Schuler and and also high school. So you can see uh recommendations from uh Russell Pac to approve a quote from Larsson painting for seven rooms at Schuler and then five rooms at the high school and we'll see the cost there. The board can accept the bids or go back and ask for more bids from additional
068companies. He's only got bids from one source. I'm sorry, I couldn't hear that at the end. Beth, he Russell's only presented bids from one source and I'm not sure if that means that he has asked for more bids from other companies and Larsson Painting is the only company. It doesn't say that. He didn't stop in and talk to me, so I don't know exactly what the bids are. Lisa, did he stop in and talk to you? Okay. So, the board can approve the bids, which are are really good bids. I I know, you know, by just looking seven rooms at 14,000, it's 2,000 room. That's a good bid to have it painted. Um Larsson does a great job of painting. The board may choose to say get two more bids or they may move forward
069on just accepting the one bid. Well, we're already into summer getting done before school starts. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Are in, you know, they'll come in and do three coats of paint. So, primer, two coats on top, and they'll have it done in a week. So, I set aside $100,000 for Russell to paint, carpet, update, roughly 10 rooms or 11 rooms, whatever he could get 100,000. And so, he knew what he had to work with. And so, then he's been going out and getting carpet bids from what I understand, and paint bids to see what he could do to get used up that. Last year, we did that same concept where he took the 10 worst rooms across the district and updated. and so it kind of hit all the buildings and then he's doing that
070kind of same concept this year. Um so this paint bid is part of that $100,000 that we've set aside for him to use and they are to be done this I I move we have set paint for that. I'll second. Okay. Laura, yes. Christie, yes. Jody, yes. Jenny, yes. Josh, move on to the carpet bid. I move to accept the carpet bid. Same story. I'll second. Christy, yes. Jody, Jenny, yes. Josh, yes. Laura, yes. Uh, the next is the roof, the high school roof bid or the estimate from uh Snider and Associates. This was the 1.3 million. All we're really approving here is to go out. Yes. I move to approve. I'll second. Okay. Jody, yes. Jenny, yes. Josh, yes. Laura, yes. Christine, yes. Uh, next is the fuel bids. Steve Anderson went out and
071got bids for um the various fuels that we use. And his recommendation, he sent out bids to three individuals, but only received one back, which is the current company that we use. So, he was okay with accepting it. the costs all went down except is it diesel one of them maybe it's one of them went up slightly uh 10 cents but the rest of them went down and he feels like they offer good service and so he recommended even though he only received one bid back to go with that company I move accepts Steve Anderson's recommendation for Olsson Field Company. Okay. A second. Okay. Jenny, yes. Josh, yes. Laura, yes. Christine, yes. Jody, yes. Next is the uh 12 passenger van bids. Again asks Steve Anderson, transportation director. uh to go out and get bids
072on a 12 passenger transit van. Those are those larger vans that you'll see school districts drive anymore. They're very comfortable for kids. Um they're more than that nine passenger um or what is our vans now? 10 passenger n on an SUV. The anyhow I am very familiar with these 12 passenger transits. The kids like them because they're comfortable to sit. Even in the back seat, you can get to the back seat and still have all your bags and your gear. The drivers, which would automatically be coaches, um most of the time the the windshield and just the side in line of vision is is wonderful. The only drawback would be in very windy conditions, it's a higher profile vehicle. Other than that, if if it's not a windy day at all, um they're heated and
073dry. We got three different bids. Steve recommends going with an XLT because it's got a backup camera. Um he did talk to um Greg Young, local dealer, and then TNT out of Reto. And uh TNT, same vehicle, they have it in stock and it has the lower bid. You can go local with a little bit higher or you can go um what about Dennis? It's a different It's a It's an XL. It's not the XLT. So, the XLT has that backup camera and a few other things that probably is worth the cost difference just because of the coaches that are driving it. I think it's just a safer vehicle. Laura, I'm sorry. I didn't need to speak on and is this Do you need a show first license for this? Is that No. Yeah. If
074we like this transit van, we we're looking at probably getting another one or two because then you can take, you know, take two vans and take a full team instead of getting a bus bus driver and and that kind of thing. It's probably, you know, in the long run cost savings. They feel very similar to driving as like a full-size van. So, if you've driven a full-size van, these Transits are very similar. They're bigger, but they're very similar with just the driving TNT road. I would second that. Was that a move or Yeah. What did I say? Going with lower bid. Okay. Um Josh, yes. Laura, yes. Christie, yes. Jody, yes. Jenny, yes. Next is the 2526 student fee and r student fees and rates, excuse me. These rates have not changed. Um, so they're
075the same exact rates as a 2425 school year. If anything, um, we've already approved that breakfast and lunch prices that's at the bottom. So that's been approved, but any of the other student fees, it's the same as what it was in the past year. Can I just ask I mean I I think it's a very positive thing in terms of because as we see the activity ticket on there is zero you know we kind of approve that and then we just really haven't just let that go with things financially. Are we doing okay with that? And you know I should ask Andy to see if he can run a report for us through bound because that's kind of where all those ticket sales come to see if there's been an increase in not so much
076ticket sales but um population. um to see uh if by allowing students to go free if that's increased numbers. It would just be nice to have a report, you know, from that just to kind of understand it was a feel-good thing. I think we all feel good about it, but I would like to know are there a lot of Washington kids that are coming to games now because they get into free or are there more let's see what we can get up on the boundary. What I do know on activities is our student participation in in most if not all of our activities is a higher percent of students in any of the sports or any of the activities than most of the majority of the other Hawkeye 10 schools. I mean, sometimes we weren't
077able to even play uh JB girls basketball against some of the Hawkeye 10 schools because they didn't have enough to support a a girls basketball team at the high school level, instead varsity and those type of things. So, our numbers are looking pretty good. That's I think that's a positive. I would move to approve the student fees and rates. Laura, yes. Christie, yes. Jody, yes. Jenny, yes. Josh, yes. And the last action item is item J, which is to approve 2526 uh employment contract. I would move that we approve the 2526 employment contract with our certified staff. Okay. Second. Okay. Christy, yes. Jody, yes. Jenny, yes. Josh, yes. Laura. Yes. And we're gonna go into close session if somebody has that makes that motion to go into close session. I move we go into close
078session. Yes. Josh, yes. Laura, yes. Christie, yes. Jody, yes. Jay, yes. Now we are getting into a closed session, but we have to come back into an open session. So you have a couple of choices. Shut the camera off, stay right here, and just know that the last part is not going to be recorded. We can go in the other room, have the close session, and come back here and have that part in recorded. It's your preference. How are we doing with Laura? Laura. Oh, yeah. We We have to take her. Um, she could be on the phone. Somebody's phone, too. Yeah, I think I think we should probably seize her if we shut it off. That's probably Are you in Washington DC? No, I'm in a hotel room in Ames, Iowa. Hey, I was
079just looking at the art and I couldn't