001Mhm. >> We will go ahead and call our board meeting to order. Could you take roll call, please? Ms. Atkins? Here. Mr. Buck? Here. Mrs. Peterson? Here. Mrs. Sando? Here. Mr. Sorenson? Here. Mr. Sturm? Here. Mr. Wright? Here. Approval of the April 20th, 2026 agenda. Do we have a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second. Any discussion? Vote, please. Ms. Atkins? Yes. Mr. Buck? Yes. Mrs. Peterson? Yes. Mrs. Sando? Yes. Mr. Sorenson? Yes. Mr. Stern? Yes. Mr. Ray? Yes. 2026-27 budget public hearing. At this time, I'd like to open the floor for public hearing on the budget. All right. So, uh $2 more than West Central. Our property tax valuation, I presented on this a couple months ago, but our valuation uh continues to increase. Uh one of the biggest changes that's happened over the
002last couple years is our flip from um residential carrying our district to now commercial and industrial property carrying our district. So, this current year, 54% of our valuation is commercial and industrial and 43% of the 2.2 millions in valuation is uh taxable valuation is residential. Uh on April 7th, we published uh the notice of a public hearing for this public hearing with our proposed school budget summary. This sets our levy rate at $11 and $0.20. This amount is the highest that the board can set the levy at since this is what we published at and this is the amount that I will be suggesting that the board sets the rate at for this coming year, which would be FY27. And to get to that $11.20, that is made up of our uniform levy of the
003$5.40 that is set by the state. Then there's the additional levy of $1.43 that is also set by the state and that is the portion of our state aid that is paid through property taxes. The cash reserve levy, we are not suggesting a cash reserve levy. That would be the board's um control along with the instructional support levy, which is at $0.20. Then the management fund, uh last year we did not levy any management fund to spend down our balance. Uh this year suggesting that we levy just a slightly over a million dollars in management fund to help cover some of the cost uh for this coming year. It does not cover all of our costs. It's about half of it, so we will be spending down our balance again, but this would be about
004$0.46 towards the levy rate. And then PEPL, we have the board-approved regular PEPL at $0.33 and the voted-approved PEPL at $1. And the debt service at $2.37. And this debt service also does include the proposed $9.5 million GO bond that was just sold today. So, that is already included in that $2.37. So, that is the total GO bond that was voted on a couple of years ago. So, the total there is the 1120. Last year we were at 1126. So, we do have a decrease of approximately 6 cents compared to this year. So, I already discussed this a little bit, but who controls the levy? So, looking at our levy rate of 1120, out of that 1120, $6.83 of that is controlled by the state. $3.37 of that is controlled by the voters, and $1
005is controlled by the board. So, looking at that as a percentage, approximately 60% is controlled by the state, 30% of that levy rate is controlled by the voters, and 9% of that is controlled by the board. So, when we discuss the levy rates being set, majority of that is out of our hands. You as the board only have control of those for the management, the board pepple, the instructional support levy, and the cash reserve levy. So, this is our levy rate history. As you can tell, we had a trending decrease until the GO bond was added. And then now we had that increase, which actually ended up being less than a dollar, which we were proposing. It was 97 cents, and then we have now also started to decrease um from that amount as well.
006So, we are uh a dollar 39 less than what we were in FY16 when we had the last full GO bond still on the levy. And we're getting towards the end of our timeline here for the budget. So, tonight is obviously our second public hearing. We had this noticed published on April 7th. So, this evening we will also adopt the budget, and then I will file the budget prior to April 30th with the Department of Management and the County Auditors. Okay. And this time we'll open the floor to any comments uh specific to the budget as part of our public hearing. We'll give it a couple minutes for anyone online. Good. Okay. All right, hearing no comments, we will close out the public hearing portion regarding the budget, and we will move on to accommodations
007good news. Uh just a couple um updates. We'll do our next meeting or the meeting after we'll do our bigger spring update. Um, this one will be in the meeting after, I guess. Wait till the end of sports, but uh um, we had the musical this weekend. Um, they did Wonderland, which was kind of a uh different way to state to tell the Alice in Wonderland story. Instead of Alice being a kid, she's an adult, and she kind of goes back in time to re find herself as you know, maybe somebody who's not sucked into the the hustle and bustle of today's world. And so, uh they did a great job. Um, they actually had some young kids in it, so my uh daughters were in it. So, that was they had a lot of
008fun. Um again, uh we just had some very, very talented individuals. Uh, last week we also had uh Special Olympics track and field day. Um, so we had a bunch of kids participate there. I don't have the results of that yet. Um, hopefully I'll have that by the next meeting. And then we also had um prom. Uh, prom by all means was very successful, which means that we didn't nobody got arrested, nobody got in trouble. So, um for us that's a win. Uh, did a great job. We had uh several students uh participate um in uh our state invention convention, which was in Iowa City. Uh, that was a couple weekends ago. Uh, we actually had um uh three individuals get special honors. Uh, so Paige and uh uh Rashani got they were the inventors
009of Paw Dash, if anybody was able to go. Uh, Brooklyn was the inventor of Robota. And then we actually had uh two different groups get uh selected to go to nationals. So, well two individuals. Um, we had Clara. She was the inventor of Road Trip Roll. And Willow, who is the inventor of Willow's crayon fixer. So, and actually there was only 15 special honors and then a national 11 national uh spots. So, that was pretty good to get um a couple of those. So, pretty awesome. Um see what else. Uh so, it's it's this time of year too that we're looking to go back to or we're looking to tran- start transitioning. So, we actually had our um one of our first freshman orientation uh days completed. Um so, our eighth graders got to step
010up to visit the high school. Um here in the coming weeks we'll have sixth grade step up or fifth grade step up to sixth grade as well. And then we actually had kindergarten round up um last Friday as well. So, just lots of lots of activity. Titan Hill spring family night there was it was packed. I mean again, hard to find parking around here. If we could ever add another parking I don't know where we would add the parking lot. Maybe a floating like a garage or something out here. Out of parking garage. Um so, outside of that um we're in the middle of testing as well. So, hopefully we'll get back um some of our results. Here, do you think we'll have them by the end of May? I know they're going to do
011some new norming stuff. So, Yeah, the language arts and math are completely re-norming those. So, um we have for the high school we have scores. It's just that we don't have proficiency ratings yet. So, the scores don't really mean much to us right now. Got you. But probably early fall. Okay. And that's that's about it for our short and quick update. Any other commendations, good news? All right, we will move on to comments and suggestions. This is the first portion of our meeting where we open the floor to public for any comments that they would like to share directly with the board. We'll give it a couple minutes for those online. >> Good? Okay. Hearing none, we will move on to the consent agenda. Do we have any updates? Yeah, there are a couple of
012updates on the personnel chief. Okay. Do we have a motion to present the consent agenda as presented? Motion to accept as presented. Second. Any discussion? Vote, please. Mr. Buck. Yes. Mrs. Peterson. Yes. Mrs. Sando. Yes. Mr. Sorenson. Yes. Mr. Sturm. Yes. Ms. Atkins. Yes. Mr. Wright. Yes. Report 7.01, finance with Mrs. Wright. All right, my report's going to be pretty short cuz I figured you guys are going to be tired of me talking by the end of the meeting. So, let's see here, maybe. Oh, the suspense. Uh so, this is our year-to-date through March of 2026. Uh our numbers are looking really, really good in the general fund. Um we will definitely be finishing under budget there. And in all the funds, our capital projects, um we will be carrying over um a significant amount
013of that um into the next fiscal year. Um a lot of That is all of our bond proceeds. Um so, we will have all of those still that we can um use next year as well. And then, I just put the budget timeline on here again. So, we're obviously have done all of that in March, and then um April, we will finalize the rest of the budget this evening, and then I will get those uh published. Um going to Mills County tomorrow and Pottawattamie County tomorrow afternoon or Wednesday morning. So. Okay. Are there any questions? I don't think so. Thank you, Mrs. Race. We will move on to 7.02, curriculum instruction with Dr. Hartman. I'm going to repeat uh uh Just buckle in. I want the board to be informed, so mine will take more
014a minute. Okay, so ours is about um mentoring induction onboarding. I've given you a little bit before about our onboarding of mentoring and training of mentors, um but this is just kind of overall the whole program. We've closed out the year. Oh, that should say not say August at the top, but anyway, we've closed out the year, so we've got some feedback that I can share with you as well. So, um why this mat- matters, obviously you guys know teaching is super complex and demanding, and so we want to provide some early supports for teachers. Um our goal is to provide all of our teachers, not just beginning teachers, but those new to Lewis Cen- Central a strong start. Um set them up so they can give instruction that's strong right away, and then hopefully
015retain our new teachers that come on board. Um so here's at a glance our beginning teachers, and this is part of Iowa code, they have to be part of a 2-year program that is designed for professional growth. Um our teachers who are new to Lewis Central, um this is the first year that we have done like a 1-year onboarding with them, and part of that is because of our move to the Danielson framework that's tied to how they're evaluated. Um so we want to make sure that they had an opportunity to learn and understand the Danielson framework, so that was new this year. Um our um beginning teachers, so again those year one and year two, um get assigned a mentor. We'll talk a little bit more about that here shortly. Um and then we
016worked really hard to um align the Iowa teaching standards with the Danielson framework and coach and support our new teachers along the way with that. Um so then here's what it looks like in August. We have two new teacher days, um that's before the school year gets started, and that's for all of our new teachers, new to the district and beginning teachers. Um and then we have the kind of the seminar series that's once a month um for the whole school year, and that's for both of them to be a part of. Um we do some differentiation there, and then ongoing obviously we have um you guys just saw on our teacher leadership um higher sheet, we've got induct- induction mentors, those are just for our beginning teachers. Um and then we have instructional coaches
017that support both. So, here's some highlights of those new teacher days. That is when we bring them in and really teach them about the district vision and goals, our values, teach them a little bit about Danielson, MTSS, just do some culture team building kind of things. And it's really just designed to provide them some overall clarity around the district, um, build some connection, and then hopefully reduce some overwhelm. So, those are two, um, days we just have them for the morning here, and then at in the afternoons they're they're back in their building. So, we've learned over the years those days are kind of like fire hose coming at you. So, we've really tried to pair back and and just really give them, uh, what they need. And then here's the monthly sessions. So, we
018ran those September through April. Again, we focus on the Danielson framework, um, did some deeper learning and then had them apply that to something. Um, they were able to collaborate with teachers across the district. So, some examples you can see here, um, those are the Danielson components on the end, but there's things like instructional planning, um, culture in your classroom, supporting student behavior, and how to differentiate lessons. Those are just a few of the examples of things that we kind of dive a little bit deeper on once a month with new teachers. Um, so again, it's tied to our Danielson framework. The Danielson framework has a lot of components, but at Lewis Central we've scaled it down to just 10. Um, so we want to make sure teachers have the opportunity to learn and understand
019those 10. Um, so we break it up by doing two at the beginning of the year and then spread the rest those eight out throughout each of the monthly experiences. Um, so we kind of had this dual support system going with our mentors. They provide that one-to-one support, give feedback, it's a two-year commitment, and then our coaches also support new people who come on board with just some regular check-ins and coaching cycles. They also can provide some modeling, co-teaching, and support with some observation and reflection for teachers. Um we talked about this a little bit uh but this is again the first year that we really differentiated between those new to the district and provided some onboarding for them. Um next next year we're going to do things a little bit different and I'll show
020you that here shortly. Um here are some of the things that we learned when we surveyed those teachers. So they felt like they were supported. They really felt like they had strong relationships with their mentors and coaches. Um we're really clear on what expectations were of them as they came into our district. And then here's what we learned this year. Um the time demands. So we currently have it scheduled from 4:15 to 6:15 once a month. I think that time was just a little too much for people. 2 hours is is too long. So we're going to shorten it up a little bit. The other thing we didn't realize when we planned this for teachers who are new to the district, some of them came in with Danielson experience. That I we just didn't think
021about that or anticipate that. So um we're going to do something different for some of our new staff next year. Um I've already sent out emails to our new hires to ask like what's your experience with Danielson so far. So we'll do like a really quick um onboarding for them if they've got Danielson experience. Um here's a survey that we did. This was um just new to Lewis Central not necessarily beginning teachers. But on a scale of one to five, how helpful did they feel like these sessions were? And you can see uh where they um scored it. So the average was a 3.96. Um so pretty good, but at the same time I think there's room for improvement and and I think differentiating for those who have had Danielson experience will really help. Um
022this just really talks about that. Just trying to streamline that process for those who are who are new. Uh maybe reduce the time a little bit. Um and then this what I want to leave you guys with. This was some of the feedback from teachers. It was really cool the last night just to hear some of our teachers talk about either what they gained this year, what they're looking forward to, and one teacher who taught in another district for years, and he This is his first year here. He's like, "I just learned that like it wasn't necessarily teaching." He's like, "I came here, and it turns out like it's about the environment and the people that you work with." He's like, "Because I actually enjoyed teaching again." I thought that was really cool to hear
023from somebody who came over here. Um several people just talked about like in general at Lewis Central they really felt like they've been supported. Um other people just talked about like all the supports that we built in. Like they felt like they were able to like hit the ground running. Um there's a couple other quotes. I won't read them to you, but you can read. These are from veteran teachers who just talked about their experience um coming in and having this kind of support. So, they felt like it supported them in what they were planning with student uh work and student engagement, and also felt like they were able to learn about the Danielson framework through this process. Um so then this just captures what I talked about already, but here's some of the things
024that we're going to do as we move forward is just um continue to think about ways to refine how we're onboarding people. Um one of the things that continues to come up is uh teachers who are new to Lewis Central but not beginning teachers want uh mentors, and we've looked at that in oversight before. We just don't have the budget to provide that many mentors to people. Um but I think that's something that continues to stay on the back of our radar is how can we use our current instructional coaches in our current model to support those who are new to the district cuz it can be a lot to acclimate to a new place. So, um that's how mentoring and induction went this year with new teachers and beginning teachers. Are there any questions
025about the process or any of the things that they learned this year? Do have experienced teachers that have worked with Danielson. Isn't it smart just to let them go through the system or go through the classes to learn the culture here? Yeah, I mean >> Just because they had it somewhere else >> Right. doesn't necessarily mean Yeah, and who knows what their training was. But I think depending on their experience there was probably some redundancy of like, okay, I know you know, some people have lived it for 10 years where some people it's maybe only a year. So I don't know. I maybe wouldn't have thought to change it except it just kept coming up in the feedback that people felt like I don't know if I need to do this. It felt a little
026redundant to them. So I want to you know, respect the feedback, but I don't disagree with you that we personalize it and did it probably a little different than what they had before. What type of feedback are you getting from existing teachers? Yeah, so existing teachers I haven't yet surveyed them at the end, but they we were surveying them like every quarter. And part of that too was just to check in and make sure that like their relationship with the mentor was going okay and they felt supported. But overall very very positive feedback. Again, like their mentor and their instructional coaches, people feel so supported by them. They have like multiple avenues to get support and get help. So that's where I think some of those who are not beginning see that and they're like,
027well, we want those layers of support too, you know. So we've tried to build some of that in, but I think we could be more intentional with what that looks like. How do you select your mentors? They apply through the teacher leadership application process and then those building committees that meet will then look at who applied and and decide. And a lot of times it is decided based on is there somebody in that same grade level or same content area that could be their mentor. It doesn't always play out like that, but if if they can, I think that goes into the decision. Any other questions, comments for Dr. Hartman? Thank you. We will move on to 7.02 Superintendent report with Dr. Casey. I sent you, Dr. Hartman, a just a This one? >> There
028we go. That's the one. Can you blow that up for me? There we go. Keep going. Bigger, bigger. There we go. Now we can actually see the numbers. Sweet. Okay. Um so, this is the most updated spreadsheet. Uh you can just go down real slow. So, basically, if you look at the um the dark blue, the light blue is already completed. The dark blue is what we're going to be working on this summer. So, if you notice, if we thought last summer was hectic, if you scroll down slow, uh this one is going to be even even more so, potentially. So, um Keep going down. Keep going. So, dark blue, so all those kinds of things. And if you look, that number right there, projection under budget, right now, we're projecting at 1.355 million under
029budget. This is with all of the bids that we've received. And if you scroll to the right, this includes um that contingency. So, it includes the contingency and then about a half million dollars under budget. And then it does not include the $400,000 that's still left in that high school road um that we just haven't really dictated what that's going to be used for. So, um and again, that doesn't that doesn't contain all the contingency that's in the middle school um project cuz the middle school project's listed as a project. So, all of that contingency is still in the middle school as well. So, that's another $370,000 in contingency just for the middle school. So, we're sitting really good. Um hopefully we at the end of this year and like I said, if you ask
030any of my staff, they'll tell you that I've put the kibosh to pretty much any any additional spending as far as for projects. No more major projects, obviously small things. We just had a situation where there was five desks or six desks that cracked in one classroom that were broken. So, I allowed them to go get uh our chairs. So, I said, "Well, go go get a classroom set of chairs." You know, like So, there's some stuff here and there that's still in our regular budget that we'll continue to do. But nothing major otherwise um that's not already been approved or is already in the works. Like for instance, we still have the the middle school camera system and the Titan Hill camera upgrades that are still um out there that just were refining those,
031but they're that's already in the works and it's already factored into here as far as the budget goes. So, outside of that, we're not going to do um much else. As far as project goes, if you go back up, um I'll give you a quick rundown of all the dark blues. Um so, athletic building um remodel expansion. So, they will actually they already they're already act they're already in it. So, they're already gutting it from the inside out. Um we do have they came to us and and asked that we um shut off the access road um while they're working there because when their mind once they start tearing steel out and stuff, I think what ended up happening is they were out there one day kind of walking around the building and they saw
032some high school kids come rip roaring around that around the back of that thought, "That could be real bad if they're running machinery and taking down, you know, siding and everything else." So, they've asked that we essentially close that road off for non-authorized personnel. They're not worried about like cuz I told them I said, "We're going to have to run buses cuz that's how we run our bus routes at the end of the day um and before school. We don't want to even attempt to run the buses out to the highway and over the middle school." They're fine with that. They're fine with their personnel. They're fine with, you know, like for instance, one of the wall that heals comes the wall that heals, that's going to come through the middle school and then kind
033of go that route instead of trying to drive through the high school. Um all of that's okay. We just don't want necessarily the high school the the the high school kids or the parents kind of having a free-for-all back there. So, uh if you hear anything, that's they've re- that's their request that they we shut that off and it's for their liability reasons and I think it's a very reasonable request. So, um sanitary sewer uh system repair, that's that's something they're still going through and and identifying and trying to figure exactly what they want to do. Craft what window sills and caulking, um that's already been awarded, so they're going to start um getting on that. Um as soon as school's out, the high school weight room wall removal. So, they're actually starting that next
034week. So, they're going to come in and build the temporary wall and then start the demolition of that even now while we're still in school. The The goal is they want to be in that they want that room buttoned up, done, everything by about mid-June. So, um so, that's pretty exciting. And the reason is is because wrestlers are looking for a place to wrestle. We're looking for a place to, you know, we're going to be working out all summer. So, we're going to leave the mats in there and be able to roll them out and, you know, so they'll still have a place to go. Um middle school parking lot, obviously as soon as the school year's done, uh that's theirs to to take on. Um high school roofing, they're ready to move back there,
035but again, wait until the end of the school year. They think they're actually going to maybe let them in there about a week early, you know, to start kind of prepping and doing that kind of stuff. Um uh high school LED lighting, obviously as soon as school's out. High school mechanical, they're probably going to start a little bit of that before school's out. Um the middle school renovations, obviously waiting till school is out. The Titan Hill renovations, and that is the exterior envelope. They're actually going to start that before school's out where they can. So, and then uh safety technology, that's all of the camera systems and everything that we have in place. That's that's going to be going in there. So, uh lots of projects, um lots of organiz- uh as far as uh
036um trying to organize the time and and who's at what place when, that's something that I'm really glad we have project advocates and Brad to help figure that out because that that would be I don't know. I'm not I don't know enough about what's needed as far as for equipment and everything else and trying to make sure that that everybody stays out of each other's way. If you drive by the high school addition, it actually has uh stone on the front, and they're going to keep working on that, which means as soon as they're done with that, then we get windows. And the whole goal is they're going to get as much done as they can before the end of the school year before the end of the school year, so then as soon as
037the kids are out, we can start demoing that one. So, and it's going to have to be a pretty tight timeline in order to get that done by the time school starts. So, um just lots of stuff going on. Any questions? The 1.35 then? Yes. That had That that's bond money, so I'm not worried about finding what we can spend it on, but we we can't take >> that and save it. I we we need to use it. >> We have to Yes, we have to use >> to clarify that. Correct, yeah. So, essentially we have we're going to have 3 years to spend that, counting this summer. So, 3 years from the time we get the money in to spend it. Um a lot of that contingency will end up going towards um HVAC
038projects that we would otherwise maybe not maybe not do. Um we have a couple concrete projects uh that we potentially use it on. Um there's a potential we talked about um um some different classroom upgrades as far as like like a lot of Titan Hills carpet needs to be replaced. That's not included in any of this so far, but if we could use some of you know, it's just things like that. We have a We have a list of like when we're all done what can we use it on? So, it'll There's plenty of projects to be used on or to use it on. So, but it'll all be infrastructure, it'll be HVAC, flooring, etc. Those types of things. I know band really wants um more storage for instruments. They don't have enough storage in
039their room for instruments. That's like lockable storage where you can kids can put their instruments. Right now it's all like one big open cupboard, so everybody puts their instruments in there and then stuff gets you know, misplaced, you know, lost, stolen, etc. So, they would like individuals. That's pretty pricey. It's about $50,000. So, there's there's things like that that are on the list that once once that time comes, I'll I'll give you guys in the in the facility committee a whole list of stuff and say all right, we got this much left over. What do we What do we want to do to that What can we capture, you know, as far as projects go? Is Jim finishing up his list? Jim's list is never-ending. So, uh Jim Jim only gets to dictate part of
040the list. All right, any other questions, comments for Dr. Hazen? All right, we will move to Are you good? Yeah, yeah, I'm good. We will move to discussion items 8.01 2026-27 budget and certified levy. Yes, so as I presented, uh I am proposing to set the levy rate at $11 11.20457 with a total property tax of $25,568,137. Thank you. Any other question? All right. We'll move to 8.02 Greenhills AEA addendum social worker updated memorandum of understanding. Yep. So, one of the things when we were talking about and we've talked about adding the the therapeutic classroom at Craft. Um one of the things that came out of that in order to support that classroom, it'd be nice to have a little bit more help in the mental health field. And so, um this would expand our
041social worker that we already have coming uh 2 days a week to 3 days a week um at Craft. So, they would come an additional day and their focus during that during that time and really can be any one of those 3 days, but their their focus will be on that classroom and and helping to, you know, create relationships with parents, help to find additional resources and support because not every student that's in there is going to be on an IEP. So, trying to figure out, you know, what is the what is the reason for um the student acting or behaving the way they are and then trying to figure out what resources can we provide them even outside the school um environment in order to help them kind of turn a corner. So, um
042that's what the kind of the social worker piece will be in that. Any questions, comments? Okay. Move on to 8.03 trailer purchase. Uh so, the trailer that we have is in really bad shape. Uh the last 2 years when we've sent it on a long trip, um it has broken down. And so, we've had to I think the wheel came off of it this year. And so, just kind of you know, not not great things. Um so, they've been begging ever since I've gotten here for for us to take a look at another trailer. Um I kind of held off as long as I could after the latest incident. Um I said, "Okay, well, enough's enough." Um and so, I asked uh Director Sturm, who kind of is well-versed in this field, to work with
043myself and the um band and choir guys to come up with some options, you know, as far as replacing the trailer. The trailer's not going to necessarily go away, but it's going to be turned into more of a maintenance trailer, something that we can utilize on site or in the in the immediate vicinity. We're not going to take it to Wisconsin or Sioux Falls or Hastings or anything like that like we do now. So, um one of the things that we worked through with them was that they wanted a much bigger trailer. We currently have a 20-ft trailer. Um they wanted something that was much bigger. Um we wanted something that drove easier um instead of feeling like you're hauling something, something that um you know, can ride a little easier. One of the things
044we looked at was a gooseneck trailer because especially with the new one-ton pickup we bought that has a ability to hook up as a gooseneck, those pull a little easier, a little easier to tow. Um and then we worked with the the teachers to determine, you know, what do they want? And really what they wanted is they they're looking to put a bunch of shelves in there. And um they wanted this e-track system. They wanted multiple doors. They wanted uh doors that are easy easy to open, easy to close cuz they're in a hurry sometimes. They want something that looks nice because all these other schools come in with these flashy flashy trailers and semis and everything else. And so, we will look to to get this potentially wrapped or at the at a minimum
045get some decals on it so it looks nice. But, um two different options we looked at here. Uh both the options have the exact same specs. They're both a 40-ft gooseneck, spread axle. Um they have added height, interior lights, ramp stores, e-track, hydraulic jack. They all have essentially the same thing. One option is out of Sioux Falls, this Prairie Wind. They They had an all-aluminum one for $46,000, and then this Load Pro, which is out of Clarinda. This one actually had a rubber floor, and so I kind of took that out, so it's kind of rubber apples to apples. That's 40,000 total, but it's not all aluminum. So, and I can ask Director Sturm to kind of give some thoughts and feedback on this as well. Yeah, I've dug into this pretty deep. So, the
046the Load Pro one, it's So, the base price of the trailer was $24,000. And then every upgrade got us to this price. So, I would say that the Load Pro is a entry-level trailer, and then with all the upgrades, they're trying to make it a a better trailer. The Prairie Wind has all of the options that are automatically included, including the floor. Is a all-aluminum plank, non-slip. So, we will never have to worry about it mold, you know, like mold or mildew, or something gets spilled. We can sweep it out, and it's good to go. Um The Prairie Wind trailer is a It's called a Sundowner trailer. A little history on Sundowner trailers, that they're known mainly for their agricultural trailers. So, they're pretty heavy-duty built. The only thing that I will say that I
047added to this whole conversation was the spread axle on both of them. Uh, because of all the instruments that are going to be in there, I didn't want them to rattle apart. Um, the as far as security, um, they both have lights in or extra interior lights for loading at night and stuff. Um, but the one at Prairie Wind has um, what I'm going to say is an upgraded latching system. So, if they are gone overnight and at a hotel or whatnot, it's going to be more secure than the other one. Uh, that. You have questions? I mean, myself, I'm going to recommend the Prairie Wind uh, and go with the Sundowner. It makes it because it's all aluminum, makes it about 30% lighter. Um, it will be a little bit easier to tow and
048I think the long longevity is by far, um, better on that one. It's a It's been about a 2-month process for this sucker. And and just so you guys know, I I reached out to like four different companies in the Omaha metro. Nobody wants to build something this big. Everybody kind of caps out around 32 ft. So, um, so it's kind of hard to get somebody. One company said they could do it, but then wouldn't respond after that. So, apparently, I don't know if they decided against it, but so, we tried to get a couple more bids, just nothing available in the area. And it's fairly easy to drive around for somebody that's not used to like a gooseneck or that big of a trailer. Yep, it will be. It'll be, uh, or I guess
049what I'm going to guess is that once it's here, we're going to have a little bit of a training driving training seminar type thing because we don't you know, we're not trying to set anybody up for failure on this thing. We're just trying to make the smart decision of buying one that's larger and uh you know, and for the longevity. But yeah, it's it is relatively easy. Any other questions, comments? Okay. Thank you, Director Sturm. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Hazen. We will move on to 8.04 Chromebook purchase. Uh so, we got a Chromebook bids back. Um I was kind of excited. We've kind of gone outside the area for Chromebooks for ever. We actually had a local company. Um It's the only one I think that's in the area that bid uh and got
050the got the lowest bid this time. So, Innatech uh located at a The owner is actually live Council Bluffs here. Um but they are on on Omaha. Uh they got the bid. There's two different comparables. The reason is is because the first one on top is last year's model, which is the one we want, we usually buy the previous year's model because we can get them for significantly cheaper usually. Um if you look the top one, the quantity is 800. The bottom one is 650. So, I'm trying to get in that in that budget range of 250,000 um in order to get the next year's models or the new the new year's models, um we would have to go down to a quantity of 650 or spend you know, significantly more than our budget. So,
051we're able to get under budget, uh get the 800 that we want, um and uh I guess go local. So. Cool. Any questions, comments here? What do they do with the old ones? Uh well, we use them so they're on like a 4 to 5 year turnaround. So, by the time a Chromebook is By the time a $250 Chromebook has been through 4 and 5 years, they're they're pretty much toast. So, we keep we keep them though in storage. Like, the really good ones we use as replacement or loaners cuz we I mean, we'll have kids every single day that turn in their Chromebook because they picked off keys or they broke a screen or they broke a hinge or whatever it is. So, they're constantly turning them in and we're giving them loaners. And
052then the ones that are like the next tier, which aren't they might have like a broken screen or something like that, but we can still steal the motherboard, we can still steal the keyboard. We try to get make sure that's what we like to buy. There's a certain unit we like to buy and it's because it's they're pretty much interchangeable A lot A lot of the parts are. So, um so, we probably I mean, we have hundreds in in back storage for interchangeable parts. And then when we get to the point where we no longer can use them or the new model that we got, they're not compatible anymore, then we then there's like disposal system like companies out there that'll come in and give you, you know, it's like a disposal rate they do.
053So, you get something for them. If you go outside, you don't do the disposal method that's approved, then like I always had this idea that I would like, you know, you'd have it for 3 years. Like, our freshman get them new when they get in high school and then they have them through their senior year. So, then I thought, well, then when they graduate as a senior, they can pay me a dollar and then they can take them with them to college. Well, that's actually illegal. You're not allowed to do that. Um so, I didn't know that. I did it 1 year in Missouri Valley and then somebody's like, "Oh, that's illegal." I'm like, "Oh, okay." So, I thought it was really cool. I'm like, "We don't really want them." I mean, they're kids beat
054and you know, really give them some incentive to cuz if you told the kids like, "Hey, you can you get this for a buck when you graduate." Like, they took really good care of it that first, you know, the first 4 years. Um but if you do that, that machine actually has to be put up for auction and then they can bid on it. There's they'll quite likely get it for a dollar, but you still have to go through this massive bidding process of for and I'm like, "Oh my goodness, I don't want to do all that." So, so anyway, so we go through the disposal process. Any other questions on this one? Okay. Moving on, 8.05, approximately 9 and 1/2 million general obligation bonds series 2026 resolution directing the sale. All right, so I
055actually we actually have a guest with us. He's been on here for quite some time. To be fair, I did tell him 7:15 and 7:17, so I think I did pretty good. Uh I'm going to switch over. I'm going to unplug. Oh, you're going to do that? So, you're going to put him on. That might be better anyway. Uh maybe I'll do this. All right. So, we have Let's see if I can get Uh-oh. Maybe. Let's see if he's Oh, there he is. All right, Matt, are you there? Hello. We got to turn this up. Matt, can you hear me? Let's do Can you send him a chat? All right, Matt, can you hear me? All right, there he is. Hold on. Oh, he can't hear him. Now he can't hear him. Okay. Bluetooth mode.
056Oh, Bluetooth. Yeah, it looks like it's just changed the surface. Oh, did it? Oh, I don't want that. Easy mode. Oh, and now we used. Okay, perfect. Matt, can you say something so we can hear you? Nope, can't hear you. Darn it. This is not good. I even brought this fancy speaker. It's at 100. Uh Um check your speak open your speaker settings back up. Okay. Hit the little buttons next to the all the way to the right. Yep. What's that listed at? Okay, can you hear Talk now? Nope. Is it on our end or his? Let's see. What the heck? >> Spatial sound off. Output device. What's this one? All right, Matt, can you talk now? Nope, still not. Just Just keep talking, Matt. We'll find you eventually. Oh, hey. All right, well There
057we go. I'm not talking. All right? Yeah, okay, we can hear you. You're not on the big speaker, but it's it's at least working. So. Okay. A lot of people trying to keep talking, so Um okay, well, good evening board. I'm Douglas Peer. I'm your stand-in clerk. And I'm going to go over the packet that I have up on the screen. I'll try to blow up a few different areas. I know might be a little bit difficult to see. You may have a physical copy of it, too. But as you are aware, uh we did take bids today at 1:00 for the sale of the remaining portion of your voter approved general obligation bonds 9.25 million. So that's what this first page is showing you the report of sale or the summary of the bids
058that were received. We did have an A+ rating Standard & Poor's. That's the same rating that they assigned last year and they interviewed your staff again this year and affirmed that same rating. So that was the rating on the bonds. We did receive four different proposals or bids, the lowest bid coming from Robert W. Baird & Company in Milwaukee and the combination of interest cost weighted over time and their fee worked out to be a 3.1829 true interest rate and it's that number that we look to to determine who the winner is. That compared to the second place bidder at 3.23 Stephens Inc. from Birmingham, Alabama, Bank of Oklahoma bidding out of their Dallas office which seems a little bit odd, but they do bids from Dallas at 3.24 and then the Baker Group which
059is a completely different company than the Baker Group in Central Iowa if you know of them that are electricians. This is a brokerage firm 3.299. So the summary of just today's bond proceeds, so we'll see in another page combination of all of the proceeds from the last year and this year, but from just today you are issued 9.5 million dollars of principal. The way that bidder structured their bid, they're paying you a premium of 412,000 dollars. For those of you that might remember last year, a different winner, but that same winner also factored in about a million dollar premium on last year's bid. Very common in this very low low interest rate environment. So you have $9.9 million in net proceeds to spend. Of that, the underwriter's discount or the fee that that particular bidder
060worked into their bid, $79,737. Pretty big number, but that's actually a little bit lower than what I had estimated to be. So, that's that's right on target for what we would have expected basically a little bit less. And then the cost of issuance, the 113 655, that is the combination then of all the other professional companies helping. So, that would be Ahlers & Cooney, your attorney in Des Moines, Standard & Poor's for the bond rating, Piper Sandler, the company I work for, and United Missouri Bank. Those different expenses there. So, what's remaining for you to spend on additional architect's costs, construction costs, all of those types of expenses, $9,718,780. So, just shy of $220,000 more than the principal that you're actually issuing. So, that's a positive result there. This is showing you the repayment schedule.
061So, as you know, you you chose to structure the debt over a very quick repayment period, last year's and this year's. So, you're incurring, although what seems to be a big number, $1.5 million in interest, actually a very low amount of interest overall because you are repaying it in such a short period of time. These bonds become callable in 2030. So, that's when if you had extra money from some source, you could pay the rest of them off at that point or 30 days with 30 days notice anytime after that. You could also refinance the bonds at that point, although there will be a relatively small amount of principal remaining and a very short repayment period remaining. So, it's unlikely that you're probably going to refinance, although you could. It could happen beginning in 2030
062or you just continue to make the payments on time and then you don't you don't make any changes, but you can't make any changes until June 1st of 2030. You'll receive the rest of the bond proceeds on May 20th. You did receive today $95,000. It's called the good faith deposit. Same thing happened last year on the day of the bond sale. Sort of like like earnest money when you buy a house. So those funds should have been wired to your bank this afternoon, but the rest of the proceeds will come to the district on May 20th. You can invest them then in you know, a CD or money market account, checking account, earn some interest on it while you're you know, paying out those funds over the next year or so as the the project
063unfolds and gets completed over time. This page is showing us basically the yield is what we want to look at here. This is this is the number that we can compare apples to apples when we look at other bond issuances. So you had yields of 2.65 going out to 3.2 for that 2032 maturity. And then if we look down below, you can see a comparison of what has happened over the last few weeks, the last few months, and the last few years with the reoffering yield. So again, I brought I brought the Lewis Central yields down here today. And comparing that to what happened last week at East Marshall schools, they had slightly lower rates, but not too far below what you have. Two weeks ago, Harris Park selling general obligation bonds also a little
064bit lower. Bondurant for our two months ago, quite a bit lower with the longer end and most important lower. And then four months ago, Dallas Center Grimes, they did not have the very short maturity of bonds that you have, but they did have four, five, and six year maturities that we could use as an example. And then looking out five months ago last year when your district sold bonds at that time rates were quite a bit higher. So coming forward they've actually gone down over the last few months and then they've risen back up just here in the last week or so but not significantly but it is not uncommon for that to happen. You look back two three four years ago. I just put the five year in there really almost as not really
065a joke but just to get everybody's attention. This is not a typo. During the heat of COVID Nevada School District was lucky enough to be selling bonds and this is correct. They had yields in the sixth year maturity of 0.74% compared to anywhere between two and you know three to four percent that that you've seen over the last few years with other issuances. So that was that was really the rock bottom low kind of record low of all time interest rates. So we're still in a super low interest rate environment. Not as low as we have been over the last years two years but still very very low which is one reason why that premium gets factored in there as well. This page here is showing the big picture of the entire funding. So I'll
066blow up each side for just a second so you can see it a little bit better. On the left side of this page is last year. So these are the this is the result from last year when you sold 20,500,000. But down here in the bottom we're pulling together last year's net proceeds which is 21.37 million. Today's net proceeds 9.7 million. An estimate and this is probably a pretty conservative estimate of interest that you will have earned while all of this bond money sits in the bank as construction you know unfolds over time right around 300,000. You will probably have earned and may even have already earned uh more than that. But again I just left that number there. I didn't try to adjust it upwards, uh intentionally trying to leave it as a relatively
067conservative number. So, total funds that you could be spending on architects cost, construction costs, um you know, all of those various things outside of the bond fees, cuz the bond fees have already been accounted for, 31.39 million. And that compares to what we had originally estimated uh when we first started talking about this potential bond issuance of around 29.6 million. So, significantly more proceeds for you to spend uh that will be helpful if some of the bidding that you have not yet taken comes in over over the estimate of the architect. Uh you could still accept some of those things if you want to. Uh you could also probably accept some bid alternates that no no doubt you've built into some of the biddings so that you can accept maybe a little bit higher quality
068or a little bit larger size of something uh that might cost a little bit more more money since you'll have a little bit more net proceeds. Um and on the right side of this page, we see the potential tax levy rates. So, in this kind of blue, whatever gray color that is, I'm color blind, um that's showing you the tax levy rate in the future if your property value never ever changes, which of course it's going to change uh and almost certainly will go up, but not necessarily always, but it typically will go up. But, we could not exceed a $2.70 levy based on current property values, even if you never grow. But, what we were really trying to do was keep it below 270 gross, but we're factoring in on these little this little
069box over here, the assumption that your taxable property valuation grows at around 5% a year, uh and in your case it sometimes grows at a faster pace than that, sometimes slower, but uh very likely more more quickly. So, if it grows at 5% per year, that means that next year that tax levy rate instead of being around $2.48, if your property value didn't grow, would be somewhere closer to the $2.37, which is was your our target today. That's what uh you know, the district had been assuming over the last, you know, several months, last years as you've been planning for these things. So, we tried to keep that levy around 237. Of course, we won't know for sure until next year's property valuations are known. So, it could be 239, it could be two, you
070know, 29. Uh it'll just depend on where your property valuation truly is. And then the the years after that we were trying to keep the levy a little bit lower at maybe around $2.25 if property valuations grow at 5%. Uh and then the final year when there's a a much smaller payment overall, uh only about a 56-cent levy-ish, depending on how property values have grown by that time. The timeline for the whole transaction today, uh we are at the April 20th meeting here, obviously. Just presumably here in a few minutes you will award to the best bidder. At your next meeting on May 4th, you will go through the same process that you went through last year, if you remember that. Uh the what we call the issuance documents. So, those will come to you
071from Ahlers & Coonley. They'll already be pre-populated, so they'll be pretty simple, uh but the board will have to go through the motions of approving those issuance documents in order for the bonds to actually get issued. And then again, the 20th of May is when the the bond proceeds will come into your bank, uh and you can invest them and and begin to spend those funds. And then I did include in here the this the formal written rating report from Standard & Poor's. Um I'm not going to really go into much detail about it. You can take the time if you'd like to and read that. Uh it is somewhat boring, I will admit, but also does provide you some information about um the bond process and some some information about the district that Standard
072& Poor's uh was interested in. So, you can take the time to read that at another time if you'd like. Went through that fairly quickly. If you want to ask questions about any part of the process, any of the worksheets that we just looked at, what will happen in the coming months or the coming months as the bond proceeds begin to be spent down, uh any questions that the board members have at all, uh we'll open it up right now for those questions. And then once your questions are answered, I'm going to lead you through the resolution. But before we get to that point, any questions the board members have about today's bidding or the process? Why does it seem that Lewis Central always has the highest interest rate? Out of all the examples that
073you showed, Yep. >> every one of them were higher. >> Yep. It I mean, it's literally it is just a coincidence. There are rates Actually, I did not put in here for example, Marshalltown and Spencer. Uh they were selling bonds about a year ago. Um they were considerably higher also um just because they didn't fall along these kind of even dates that I put up here. Uh that's just a coincidence in what we're looking at. There are definitely other rates that were higher. Um if we went back in between some of these one and two year and two and three year, uh it's not that the rates just constantly went down to Lewis Central. There were there were also ups and downs in those periods that you don't see. And if you wanted to see
074some other schools, I can definitely show them to you. Um but that is not that's not any indication of the district by by any means. You have one of the highest ratings that an Iowa school would expect to achieve of an A+. Um so, that it's not that it's it is literally just kind of coincidental the way this they you time things out. Um the board always has the obliga- or the prerogative to reject bids, too. I'm not suggesting that you necessarily do that, but it is something you could do. Um but unfortunately, when you when a district would do that, which is very rare, um you're just going to set another point in time, another date, and you don't know what's going to happen on that date. Uh rates could be higher, they could
075be lower, and we don't know. And then you're you're just subject to what's going on in the economy and the world and Iran and oil prices and you know, who knows what could be happening if you decided to sell the bonds 2 months from now or, you know, 5 months from now, etc. But it it is your prerogative. It is always something that a district or city could do. Any other questions that the board members have? No. Nope. Okay. Uh obviously, if you do have questions anytime, you know, you're always welcome and should send me questions. Uh especially if your citizens have questions that you don't know the answer to, we don't want there to be uh misinformation, you know, out in your community about any any of this process or the topics. Um that
076just is not good for the district to have what really is ultimately gossip and sometimes lies. Uh I'll call it misinformation. Um so, if you if you hear other questions you want answered, just always pass them on to me. A week from now, a month from now, 2 weeks from now, whatever. So, I'm going to go through the the resolution. I'm going to paraphrase it, which is acceptable for me to do. One of the board members needs to simply so move what I say. Another board member needs to second that motion, uh and then you are required to have a roll call vote. So, the resolution before you is directing the sale of $9,500,000 of general obligation school bonds, series 2026, to Robert W. Baird & Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. So moved. Second. Tell them
077we will we have it down there later. Oh, it's an action item. We have it down as an action item. So, we Okay. back. Sure. That's right. Yep, that's right. Either the board can proceed and allow that to happen out of order or you'll know that somebody can so move what I said later on in your agenda and go through it that way. Either way is fine. Do you guys want to so move or do you want to hold it for later? It's up to you. I'll just wait till the end. All right, we'll wait till later. Yep, that's fine. Um Yep, again as you guys have questions about any of it at any time let me know. Brett and Andrea, you guys are going to continue to get emails from me and from Deb
078and William in my office and Laura and Cooney etc. If there are things that you get and you have questions about, obviously you should also ask those questions to us at any time as well. So, I'll I'll leave that for this evening. Again, you can just so move you know what Matt said earlier. You don't need to go through the whole resolution later. As presented as presented by Matt. Yep, exactly. So, have a good night. Congratulations as your project begins to unfold and I will look forward to stopping by the district line over in that part of the state here in the over the summer perhaps to see hopefully some good progress. All right, sounds Have a good night. Thanks, Matt. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, we will move on to Are
079any discussion there? Okay. We'll move on to 8.06. Closed session is recommended to discuss this late filed open enrollment application per Iowa Code 21.51A. Closed session is appropriate to review or discuss records which are required or authorized by state or federal law to be kept confidential or to be kept confidential as a condition for that governmental body's possession or continued receipt of federal funds. Do we have a motion to move to closed session. Motion to move to close session. Second. Vote, please. Mrs. Peterson. Yes. Mrs. Sando. Yes. Mr. Sorenson. Yes. Mr. Sturm. Yes. Ms. Atkins. >> Yes. Mr. Buck. Yes. Mr. Wright. Yes. >> You good? All right. I could come up with a few. This is a second portion of our meeting that we open the floor to comments and suggestions. Uh we'll give
080it a couple minutes for anybody online. All right, then we will move on to action items. 10.01 2026-27 budget and certified levy. Mr. President, Yes. >> I'd like to make the motion to approve the 2026-2027 budget and certified levy as presented. Second. Any discussion? Vote, please. Mrs. Sando? Yes. Mr. Sorensen? Yes. Mr. Storm? Yes. Ms. Atkins? Yes. Mr. Buck? Yes. Mrs. Peterson? Yes. Mr. Wright? Yes. 10.02, Green Hills AEA agreement, social worker updated MOU. Mr. President, Yes. >> I'd like to make the motion to approve the addendum to the MOU with Green Hills AEA for additional social worker time for $22,320. Second. Any discussion? Vote, please. Mr. Sorensen? Yes. Mr. Storm? Yes. Ms. Atkins? Yes. Mr. Buck? Yes. Mrs. Peterson? Yes. Mrs. Sando? Yes. Mr. Wright? Yes. 10.03, trailer purchase. Mr. President, Yes. I'd like
081to make a motion to approve the quote from Prairie Wind for $46,000. Second. Any discussion? Vote, please. Mr. Storm? Yes. Ms. Atkins? >> Yes. Mr. Buck? Yes. Mrs. Peterson? Yes. Mrs. Sando? Yes. Mr. Sorensen? Yes. Yes. Mr. Wright? Yes. 10.04, Chromebook purchase. Mr. President, Yes. >> to make the motion to approve the Chromebook purchasing contract with InnoTech for $243,400. Second. Any discussion? Vote, please. Ms. Atkins? Yes. Mr. Buck? Yes. Mrs. Peterson? Yes. Mrs. Sando? Yes. Mr. Sorensen? Yes. Mr. Storm? Yes. Mr. Wright? Yes. 10.05 approximately 9 and 1/2 million general obligation bond series 2026 resolution directing the sale. Mr. President. Yes. >> Like to make the motion to approve the resolution as stated prior by Matt >> Yes, Matt Gillespie. >> Matt Gillespie. Second. Any discussion? Vote, please. Mr. Bach? Yes. Mrs. Peterson? Yes. Mrs.
082Sando? Yes. Mr. Sorenson? >> Yes. Mr. Sturm? Yes. Ms. Atkins? >> Yes. Mr. Wright? Yes. The resolution has been passed. 10.06 open enrollment request for student A. Mr. President. >> Yes. >> Like to make the motion to deny the open enrollment request for student A as presented in closed session. Second. Any discussion? Vote, please. Mrs. Peterson? Yes. Mrs. Sando? Yes. Mr. Sorenson? >> Yes. Mr. Sturm? Yes. Ms. Atkins? >> Yes. Mr. Bach? Yes. Mr. Wright? Yes. Items of interest, future board meetings. Uh so two board meetings, uh Monday, May 4th for next regular board meeting and then just a reminder, the regular board meeting after that is Tuesday, May 19th. So we can do senior awards on uh Monday night. For the meeting on May 4th, we will probably have a discussion doing superintendent review.
083So I will be sending documents out ahead of time. All right. Having no other items on the agenda, do we have a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn. Second. All those in favor, say I.