001come off all right well we'll get started then we'll stand up and we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance if everybody join us I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all all right well welcome everybody thank you for being here tonight um please as we go through our our agenda always remember our vision of inspiring all Learners to be engaged and successful in our of providing an enrichment enriching environment to meet the needs of all Learners so from there we'll uh we'll start uh open a public hearing uh we have on the 25 26 Calendar at well we'll say 5:30 yeah getting you to the calendar all right okay um we will later
002in the meeting um look to approve this calendar uh when we do approve the calendar we're really approving three things uh we're approving that it's a calendar based on hours as it is this year uh this calendar is based on the state minimum of 1,080 hours um we're approving a a start date of August 25th we were hopeful of some legislation that would give us some flexibility with that that hasn't happened and I doesn't look like that it will although it's still alive and then we're looking at an end date of May 20th with students in between there it is a calendar that is really just like this year's calendar um it does have a spring break in March um it has our last day of school with students before the holidays is the 19th
003um the 22nd and the 2nd are both um PD days which will most likely be flexed which gives our staff um flexibility in in how they um fulfill those days then we talked about um hours um previously uh this one has 1,126 so it's about 46 hours extra this year's has a little bit more than that that's supposed to be 60 well with it Lux it's nice to see the two weeks at the Holiday it does provide that two weeks yeah this year it felt very short yeah it was it was because we came back on the second with students this year and Joe if we approve this tonight and legislation does come back I'm assuming we can make a revision to an early start dat what we would do is we would come back
004and approve a different start date yep we got the three things we're approving based on our start date and end date so we would come back and I'd um recommend a different start date if they would make the change um the language in the current leg legislation is the Monday prior to the last Monday so that would be August 18th we would probably make a recommendation to start on the 20th we like starting school on Wednesday not having the full week but not also having the short week so that would probably be what our recommendation we we wish we could start on the Wednesday of that week every year I I thought I saw some legislation that maybe we can revert back to requiring days have you there was I don't I also believe that's
005anti 4 day week that's what I was wondering yeah I kind of thought that same thing yeah which that that would change our calendar significantly because we don't have 180 days um so that that would impact uh us for sure all right any other questions all right seeing none we'll go ahead and end the public hearing and we'll come back to this uh on the agenda down the down on the agenda all right um we got roll call we have obviously a quorum here today no hearing of delegations we need a motion then to approve the agenda so moved thanks Andrew do we have a second I'll second that we have a motion and second all in favor say I I I oppos agenda approved uh seeing no Communications to board uh we'll move into
006the consent items and also realize you have additional consent items in front of you um to to review and I think Lisa got one in late that's not on it that we wanted to mention yes it's just an additional retiree Insurance Miss for 555 on he was on that 10 year early retirement uh group and so he just got his in late as everything was printed and this is the first month of doing it so it's everybody learning what we need to do I'm sorry what was that I missed it so when those retirees that a 10e plan hit 65 well Mark will no longer allow an inactive retiree to be on the plan okay so they have to move to Medicare okay but Medicare is built to the individual they won't build the school
007so I have to reimburse them gotcha okay so we continue to provide for them it's just not on our wmark health plan it's providing the supplement reimbursement for Medicare okay for for whatever number of years they have left on their with Chris it's probably four something like that 203 I think it's the first I make a motion to approve consent thank you Andrew do we have a second second a motion thanks Tom do we have any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I opposed consent items approved um we'll go into the superintendent's report all right so this this is when we will uh um look at our budget for the first time um we don't approve a budget tonight uh we we just simply look at um the different parts to it uh
008we'll talk about what what we will approve in April uh we'll also talk about U you know tax rates and some of those things but we don't uh there is no approval this would give us the opportunity then um after you guys see this draft budget you can say no that doesn't look quite right or maybe we want um Less in in a few areas something like that we would have the um the freedom to do that so the first thing um what our certified budget is it's a document that shows uh the amount of taxes being Lev levied for each fund as well as expenditures uh this has to be approved before April 30th it used to be April 15th it's moved to April 30th now full-time there's also an additional meeting uh that
009takes place um last month we approved that additional meeting on March 24th um so March 24th we'll have a public hearing at 500m where we just have a public hearing on on the budget that I I present tonight our second public hearing will then be before our April board meeting which is the 14th I think um so there's an additional required public hearing that takes place in order to adopt this this budget we're not uh just um certifying we're also informing that's part of this process we'll inform the public the maximum we can spend next year in FY 26 we'll also inform the public of what the property tax rate will be in FY 26 there's five areas instruction uh total support non-instructional programs total expenditures and total other expenditures so those are the categories
010that we approve now again we don't we don't necessarily approve um the the amounts that's being attacked for each we we approve total amounts um but I will talk about specifically um in those areas uh how much uh we we will certify property tax um the requested property tax dollars for all of our funds combined uh the tax rate is requested as a total tax rate what that means is we're going to talk about the cash Reserve Levy independently um but again we only approve a total rate even though we will talk about the pieces that make up the tax rate but really what we're doing is talking certifying uh total rate but that would be the opportunity for us to say now you know that's that's not a Management number we're comfortable with that's
011not a cash Reserve number we're comfortable with those are really the two letters that we have control over we'll inform the the the public of what we plan to spend next year we'll also inform the the public of uh reestimated amount for this year and we'll also inform the public of what we actually spent last year those are three requirements as part of this process next year what we think we're going to now spend this year and then what we actually spent last year so the the factors that make up our budget number one is our enrollment you know how many how many people uh do we do we have in our district um our headcount enrollment is up significantly this school year and that's what our our budget is is built upon uh we
012increased from 1411 to 1447 so 35 35.7 students is what we increased so a 2 and a half% uh increase in in in enrollment um this creates a scenario that we will not be on a budget guarantee you know that's if you have a declining enrollment you'll be on budget guarantee which gives you 101% of your budget for for the next year there's also supplemental uh enrollment pieces um which could be like an English language learner uh we also have uh reorganization incentives so what that means by supplement it's it's just not the number of kids it's also we get1 10 times our number of kids for reorganization uh we get a a measure for English language Learners um preschool those are not students who are funded at 1.0 they're funded at 0.5 so those
013impact your Supple supplementary waiting as well um this is a look at our enrollment over the past four years this is our certified enrollment so resident kids attending our district 1,447 this year last year is 1,411 so this is the number that is funding us right now last year's October 1 number this year's October 1 number is what we'll fund us for next year there's a 2% increase in that that that's great now as you guys know we we didn't predict that and we we don't predict it for next year but if it happens that's that's a good thing for us financially and a good thing for our budget special education waiting a student uh who's on an IEP they are weighted at either 1.72 2.21 or 3.74 so 1.72 says that that student is
014funded at 1.0 plus an additional 72 a 2.21 or a level two student is funded at 1.0 plus an additional 1.21 so those weightings together um is what this bar graph uh shows and our special ed weighting is 187.5 that's what this is right here which is up slightly uh from from the year before but very comparable to our our year before um it's up 3.9 which is 2% compared to the previous year our supplementary waiting increased by 6.1 which is 4 4.2% again this would be part of reorganization .10 times our number of kids um it woulds be some students uh who are part of our English language learning program those are a few factors that uh create your supplementary weightings so then that this number um of 151 is added to our certified
015number to create our total program our regular program uh cost our preschool enrollment slightly down uh 2.5 uh that's a decrease of of 4.1 this the this creates our spending Authority we are limited in the total spending by the number of students we have um multiplied by what each student is worth that's what's uh set by the the legislation we don't know that for next year what the SSA increase is going to be um the Senate proposal is 2.0 the government's recommendations 2.0 uh the house recommendation or U amendment is 2.25 so we don't know what our student worth is for next year yet the budget that I'm drafting for you tonight is based on 2.25 no that's not right it's based on 2.0 um if it would go to 2.5 that that would just
016be that would be better but we have it based on the the lowest it could be so our spending Authority is that number of kids multiplied by that number we'll say 7500 about 7600 what it is uh plus if you're on budget guarantee plus your supplementary waiting plus your special ed waiting plus teacher salary supplement um that's additional dollars you get uh for example when we increase teacher minimums that comes in TSS money it comes in teacher salary supplement so that's additional dollars there our teacher salary supplement is spread equally to our staff except um when we have to increase to the the minim months professional development cost which is a per pupil amount early intervention is a per pupil amount teacher leadership and compensation that's a per pupil amount plus the aea plus Dropout
017prevention all equal your Combined District costs so the this is your general fund and how we we are funded um from the state with state aid and property tax so property taxes for our general fund uh general fund dollars are dollar that we use to pay salaries to pay benefits um to pay insurance for for our people uh these taxes are based on $540 per thousand that's the uniform Levy because uniformly across the state everyone has the same Levy except for Alona right now and in Southeast Valley ours is $528 because of reorganization they lower our uniform Levy over a threee time period we were 516 last year we're going to be 528 for next year that's really important as we go through this tonight so 12 cents our uniform Levy went up 12 cents
018we don't have control over that um that's something that happens as part of the reorganization so us losing that 12 cents is really what causes our tax rate to to increase in in this next year which is just slightly but remember that 12 cents the state then fills up so all of our property multiplied by $528 fills the bucket up to here state aid fills it up the rest of the way and then there's left 12 and a half% at the top which again comes from our property taxes so the more that is generated from our property tax the less the state provides us the more that is generated from our property the less the state provides us so if you're a property Rich District like the Alona Community School District is with a lot
019of land we get less state aid as a result the end dollar is always the same where it comes from is what changes from District to District so our general fund what we pay teachers and staff members with what we provide insurance with um is that uniform Levy that's $5.40 ours is $528 it's the additional Levy that last 12 a 12% it's the instructional support Levy it's your cash Reserve which can come from the SBC or other these really are interchangeable you they can be used either way you'll see that uh we just have our money in in one place and the cash Reserve Levy is what we use to pay special ed debt and then it's what our uh plan is for next year those things together equal your total general fund Levy now
020that's not our total Levy because there's some others but for what we're using to pay teachers to pay our staff and pay benefits it comes from the those those five things our uniform Levy like I said um is increasing by 288,000 again that's because of that 12 cents right that 12 cents is what makes our uniform Levy go up from last year to this year our additional Levy is actually going down we don't we don't need as much from the the last 12 and a half% um you I could quiz you why would that go down it goes down because our evaluation went up you know so we don't have to have as much or ask as much with the additional Levy our cash Reserve Levy the sbrc is going down $185,000 so 18% so
021this is a place that we are reducing taxes for next year in our cash Reserve our other cash Reserve is going to zero we're not we're not going to ask for any of that so our total cash reserves together is down 360,000 or 30% less that's a tax reduction from the previous year again that's those are dollars that we use to pay our special ed deficit we are requesting less because that is all we can request um when your your fund balance reaches a certain amount there's only so much you can request in in cash Reserve dollars and that is what we can request this year but our taxes are reducing 30% in our cash Reserve Levy or 360,000 so if you look at our our two rates on the left is last year that
022our general fund Levy was $7.98 this year's is $782 so even though our uniform Levy went up 12 cents we were still able to reduce total property tax rate by 16 cents in the general fund that's because of less asking in the cash Reserve so there are additional levies that that that's not it that's not our total tax rate there's a there's a few other uh levies outside of the general fund um management is one that's how we pay insurance our our casualty in property insurance it's how we pay for uh early retirements health insurance also how we pay for um our our natural gas like we'll approve later tonight is paid out of the management fund the pep fund physical plant equipment Levy um 67 cents um is the voter approved 33 cents is
023the the board approved so a dollar per thousand is the P that's how we buy buses it's how we pay for technology you can do building uh you do that to do some building activity funds is simply our the amount we raise through admissions a Debt Service we don't have a Debt Service in all of the district we do in the former titanka where they have General obligation bond that they're continuing to pay at a dollar 34 per thousand nutrition is the fund that uh dollars that come from the federal lunch program and sales tax fund the 1 cent sales tax in the state of Iowa is distributed on a per pupil basis that's how we get that we have used that uh for building and that's how we built the Gateway as well as
024um the current Fieldhouse on the next slide we'll just go to the next slide are those what we certify you know what we certify is what we plan to spend next year what we reestimate will spend this year and what we actually spent the year before so those are their those numbers as you can see they're you know they're they're fairly close instructional goes up you know 4.8% except for down here at the end where they're very different that's because of the money that we we received for building the Fieldhouse um when we you know took out a loan we got all that money at once so it shows up in fy2 the big difference here it's really not that we're we're spending $14 million difference it's it's just from the Fieldhouse funding this budget
025is a total tax rate of $101 actually round it to 10:02 this year we are at $99.97 so it's it's a 5 cents increase from last year but but remember that our uniform Levy is going up 12 cents so even though our uniform L is going up 12 cents we were able to make it that our total rate only goes up 5 cents if you look at comparison through the years probably the bottom line um 97 999 102 you can see we had a high of 1081 in 2020 1060s when it dropped from 1063 to 997 that's as a reorganization that's what dropped that uh so it will climb up I I don't know if it'll go all the way to 1063 but it will climb up from there I don't know all right this
026is the uh the proposed property tax um certificate that will get mailed out to everyone I do want to point a couple things out on here I'm going to change so we can see this better May so everyone everyone in the state of Iowa will receive this and they're going to receive this and right here it's going to say a percent change of 133% so it appears that the school is raising taxes 133% and we are not over here this assumes 10% of that comes from assessed value change and we're in a odd year so there is no assessed value change at all so that that takes away 10 of those 133% the roll back on residential we are never taxed on the full value of our house it's rolled back to 52% the roll
027back increases to 54% next year so that's 2% so 12 of this 13.45 isn't isn't anything we have control over 10 of it's not even real one so the the rest of that 1.45% is what our taxes are going up from the school can I recommend that you make a video about that and share that on YouTube thank you we did that last year also we'll do that again to explain this as as people get that um and we we hope people are able to attend our public uh hearings as they have questions um taxes are not going up 133% they're going up 1.45% in the asking from the school these are just some deadlines um just to make sure that we meet all these deadlines and when we get things published when we get
028it on the website when we get in the paper we do all those things April 30th is when we have to have it approved our meetings at April 14th so we we meet that to a deadline um easily and then you know this is the the presentation we'll use next month this is our reminder to uh approve our certified budget there is no approval tonight um we're just simply talking about the budget what it looks like if you guys had any ideas or things that needed to be changed it would give you the opportunity to do that now two weeks from now is when we approve the budget hearing date the second one right two weeks from now we approved the hearing date no we've already approved the March 24th we put on that date
029we do the April 14 we got approve right okay okay yeah yes the second one second okay yeah got it that special one do we have to have it open any length of time or how does that I mean just you do not you do not last year we had a couple people here question question um so if they there's any questions we'll do that again this year any other questions some takeaways I think from the proposed budget is a a tax rate of 102 is the the proposed rate that's about 5 cents higher than last year um why is it higher well our uniform Levy actually went up 12 cents and we don't have control over that and we were able to balance that down to down to five and and that's that's why
030it's increasing we're asking for Less in our cash Reserve than previous years um um so I think we it's it's a budget that I I think is fair and is certainly responsible to our our taxpayers all right any other questions or comments Joe anything else in your report that is it all righty we'll then move on to the administrative report tonight we have Mr Roger here to discuss the Middle School food pantry I believe yep well thank you for having here tonight um I'm just going to present on a new program and and why it's being run out of middle school myself and Mrs Bronson are running it um it's actually going to impact every building in the district because it's eligible for any any student uh we're starting with students and then we're going
031to roll it out actually to our community as well so we named it the Alona bark School food food pantry um really wanted to bring attention back it's our students our volunteering um 38 health is partnering with us our staff are volunteering um so I wanted to bring it back to our school and bark as an acronym we came up with just Bulldog's assistance for resources and kindness um so we want to draw attention to the fact that we're hosting it and doing this for our community um we had a group formed uh Julie Stein no mlin um Colleen Bowman Christy Roberts uh and then Lindsay from Community Health and myself from part of this we've been bat around this idea for almost a year a little over a year when the Iowa Food Bank
032approached us about doing it and some of the challenges we had is who was going to run it taking it on also a location cuz and you guys know space is pretty valuable here uh in all our buildings and so once we got made the decision back in December like it was time to do something uh we worked uh Crystal Bronson stepped up and said she would be our site coordinator um I'm site administrator but we need a site coordinator to help partner with myself she stepped forward and did that uh we met with Mr Carter he was very supportive of the idea we actually was between Mr Carter and uh Mr Gish we found a location uh it is the old bulldog store uh at the Gateway project that was referenced a little bit
033ago um we set that up as our food pantry um so we got that all set up um it's in that pantry and one of the key elements is we want it access accessible to the public public without having to come to a school building um that's respectful we're calling them our neighbors um anybody that uses that food pantry they're just our neighbors our students or our community members we want to be able to get them in and out uh whether it was during a school day needs based we also had to have a way to unload a semi we really didn't want have to pull Palace through a semi and so the Gateway is exceptional this this site is amazing for it there's a big rollup door um there's also an outside access so
034there's a door you can walk right in very very easy for our community to pull up right there carry out whatever they're taking the food load it in their vehicles and and go so it's an amazing location um we are hoping to continue to grow it uh we're doing a soft opening the snow days last week kind of messed us up Friday was supposed to be our first day to send food home now it's tomorrow U and the reason why we're waiting till tomorrow as we're supposed to get another truckload of food in our first order I got some pictures here in a minute uh we kind of order based on what they have available so was kind of limited uh some days they have a lot of stuff um some days don't have very
035much oddly enough you'll see we have a lot of eggs and eggs are worth their weight and gold right now uh but it's a great location so we are doing our soft opening tomorrow our first group uh wave of food will be going out um so there's just some uh when we set this up there's some certain things we had to have uh we had to have shelving we had to have a deep freeze we had to have a refrigerator uh because through this we have beef chicken um we have pizza pockets right now fruit um to canned goods so and there's a bunch of regulations with food storage so we had to have that stuff um Local Union uh chapter 1045 donated the freezer in partnership with US Cellular and Appliance uh Kathleen and
036Steve Welsh donated a refrigerator um it's less than six months old they donated that to us a funny story that thing actually came from Texas uh they hauled it up here when they moved up here they donated it uh the food bank of Iowa uh we wrote a grant they gave us money for the shelving the Boy Scouts troop 71 they're going to be holding food drives one of the things we're going to try to offer to our food bank that we don't get is detergent laundry soap fabric software uh paper toweling household items that we can't get and they're going to help us do that um Mrs Stein is running a grant to isca uh they have a a program there that we're going to used to buy those items as well uh Fairway
037High had other Community Partners so they'll actually in time be providing us with some food items but they're also providing us with bags to send items home uh strowman Dentistry uh we all know uh Health dental health is key uh he uh they hooked us up with some toothbrushes toothpaste floss things like that we're going to give out uh Community Health they are uh invaluable they'll be helping us stop it volunteering loading or unloading truck St uh stocking your shelves and things like that and then uh the school itself just uh working with Joe uh Crystal Bronson has some time to help us in there uh supporting us with the location and things like that so those are our local sponsors I will say right now we have multiple other groups that have contacted me
038that want to do food drivve sports or hey can we make a cash donation so you can go out and buy items to stock your uh Pantry with uh one of the beautiful things about our pantry is you want and tell me you need food you got food I I there's no paperwork uh I take that back if it's USDA you have to fill out a form that says you live in the state of Iowa otherwise we are asking for any verification or anything we are here to help our community and our students if they need it we provide it um I'll talk about this in a minute but if there's an emergency in our community a fire uh we had one just earlier this school year I put together a load of food and
039I go we drop it off we provide it to them no questions asked um there's just some pictures that what it looked like as we were putting together shelving fridges that's a picture of the local uh 1045 uh I think that's the president vice president U making a donation for the refrigerator so just kind of wanted you to see what it looks like you hit the next slide Joe um um this is our initial order I know it doesn't look very much but that is an entire pallet of food that we can get our our first order was very they just didn't have a whole lot um what we do is we get a just like you go grocery Sho and think H online or Fairway online we go online and whatever they offer that's
040what we can get to order um mean it's real time so once we put it in our basket um it's guaranteed to come to us U and like I said um we looked ahead I mean they have beef chicken you can't see it in the bottom fridge but those are whole chickens um pizza rolls orange chicken pizza rolls um mac and cheese is we know that's a big one and then like I said eggs we are ready to send out eggs protein shakes we have hot sauce you know different things to put together meals um we are order next our second order comes in tomorrow and then our big order we're hoping for is next week we've kind of noticed a cycle that every about three weeks is when they really have a lot more
041stuff available and so that's what we're uh really hoping to fill our shelves uh so right after uh spring break we're going to go uh our next step and start opening it up to the public by Walkins so um we will be doing some advertising um we put together some flyers you we'll post these around different places in town you hit this QR code uh it will tell you the locations of all food banks in Iowa but ours will be listed how to get a hold of us and how to make a request to uh come in or our hours and things like that so we're going to be doing that we'll be using tons of social social media we've also set up an email account that um our neighbors will be able to email
042us and and ask you know we can send out uh our hours when we're going to be open hours will be um as we get going they'll be twice a week for about an hour and a half U it will fluctuate it will not be consistent because we one thing I promised anybody that's volunteering in Crystal is we're going to work around their family schedules she's got kids that are playing baseball activities we're not going to ask people to miss that kind of stuff um we will send home uh food to support our students it will be replacing our backpack buddies program in the school that's part of the agreement you make and I'm actually really excited about that that food is not really great stuff it's like milk that doesn't have to be refrigerated
043stable yeah and now we're going to be sending home uh mac and cheese uh Hamburger Helper uh you know beef to make that things like we're going to feed families vers versus providing snacks so we think that's a great tradeoff um we'll also be open during the summer this is a year round project uh so we'll be increasing uh the availability of that those food that that those things for our students um actually I've already talked about responding to um emergencies one thing that we've already uh been reached out to by a couple people in the food bank is um there's a level of food right now like we can have because it's cold but when it gets really really hot there C things we can't store in there so you know when we ever
044consider about putting air conditioning in there we've had a few groups already come for and say hey if you ever want to do that we'll help fund it so that' be something we'll as it grows and we know it's sustainable we like at you know talking to Joe if we they will fund it can we put air conditioning in there so we can host those things um that's kind of a nutshell what the program is um I think again the beauty of it is it's open it's successful accessible to our public our students uh nobody's going to be turned away I'm not here to really question your needs I'm here we're here to help you um I know Nolan Julie have signed on to volunteer community health Crystal Colleen Christie so we have a great
045group of Staff members I've already said hey we will volunteer um our kids are helping unload the trucks silver cord hours things like that um I was asked today if we would take volunteers from other uh schools in the air like I said yes they can come and volunteer silver whatever their programs are we would sign off on that um again this is for our community so we're really excited about it um kind of in a nutshell there a lot of stuff there I can probably talk for an hour on it but I will keep you that long any questions about the program and what we're doing with it I love it I think it's great it's good program so when they come up and ask for food you just ask how many in a
046family and choose that's how that's one of things we do ask is how many in the family um and that doesn't necessarily regulate how much we give you it's simply that's what they want to know uh the USDA form it's U your name how many's in the family I already fill it out that's the state of Iowa and then they sign it um so yeah and then we put together meals and and what we're trying to do is order based on meals so you know Hamburger Helper obviously need hamburger mac and cheese you know a couple different options uh tuna mac and cheese I know some people like PE Mac and uh mac and cheese so we got that uh hot sauce and chicken uh the pizza pockets a quick meal so that's what we're
047trying to when we order we're basic around the idea of putting together meals for a family not just for a stack but a whole family try to that well it does sound wonderful so I guess we can be encouraged to volunteer too if we have time so thank you James thank you thank you I am going to head to a concert so you bet thank you thank you guys all right we'll move into the old business end here um I think we have to second reading of some nothing on that okay yeah no that's right nothing it does say that all right going to do business here and first reading of board policies first reading of board policies um all of these um meet iasb recommendations except for 802 for Capital assets uh we need
048to update the paragraph limit from $3500 to 5,000 uh it's in the chart also if you would if you were looking on it through assembly and you clicked on the paragraph or clicked on the policy it will show you in green that uh or actually in red um the updated amount from 3500 to 5,000 the other policy change is 9032 community resource uh persons and volunteers uh which we need to add the last paragraph which is in green um for that addition no action on these tonight this is the first reading of these policies um again the rest of them U all reviewed and meet the iow association of school board recommendations and number the first one 714 we're going to change that number oh yes thank you um 7 to 104 the governmental Accounting
049Standards we're going to update the policy number to match the iow association and School Board 70104 ours was different we're going to updated to that all right any questions as you look through those briefly we'll bring them back next month for then approval all right uh move into we're looking to set the public hearing number two date number two yeah and I maybe we misunderstood your question Tom um we we do set the public hearing number two tonight um for the April 14th so we've already set our special or our budget hearing number one for March 24th we did that last last month tonight we need to set a special wouldn't be a special meeting a public hearing for budget hearing number two and I would propose April 14th at at 5:00 pm um before
050our regular schedule April meeting we'll be a separate you have two agendas two agendas um that that's a requirement and this is again meeting is is part of the requirement as the new legislation that was passed two years ago so my recommendations is for a special meeting for the budget hearing number two on April 14th at 5:00 pm. prior to our regular scheduled meeting at 5:30 do we need a quorum Joe for that not for the hearing at 5 not for the hearing at 5: right okay for the meeting yes so even though we have an agenda we don't have to open it with a quorum like because there's no business Tak because there's no business okay good good question no I was asking because I think we've got a college visit for that day
051so I may not be at the special hearing or the IE depending on on what time we get back so I'll have to check on that all right um if there is no more discussion then would like a motion to recommend the special meeting for the budget hearing number two on April 14th at 5: pm. I do a recommend a special meeting for budget hearing number two April 14th p.m. thank you Tom do we have a second I'll second that thanks Todd we have a motion and a second any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I I opposed special meeting approved uh move into look looking to uh approve a substitute teacher rate increase yeah we we have increased our substitute teacher rate a few times in the past few years uh
052again it um it needs to be adjusted currently we're at $125 a day um Lisa took found data for all of our regional schools there are some that are at 20 below us uh there's a few schools that are all the way up to 150 uh the average of the 19 schools in our region is $137 I would recommend we take the action of moving that to $150 a day now and then we're set to finish our year for next school year it'll take place right effective me okay effective right right I put March 20 payroll okay and that would be February hours does that help in securing substitutes we you know we hope so like do we lose some to districts closer to us that pay more well um yeah possibly um and I
053I think more more than anything it's rate for the people that come in and and work in our buildings and um you know I I would recommend increasing it to 150 a day I think it's a good idea I think we want to be right up there to be able to we do do no matter it helps us or not if there's a choice to between coming working with our kids or going someone else we wanted to make the choice to come here so all right uh we need a motion then to approve uh substitute rate increased to 150 a day okay I'll make the motion gotcha land you have a second Todd sure all right Todd second we have a motion a second any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I opposed
054rate increase approved um you and I contract yeah the the preparation of U education professionals teachers um through the University of Northern Iowa who's been a longtime collaborator with the district um this is an opportunity we think that's valuable for both our students and our staff uh the University of Northern Iowa does offer a threeyear contract renewal usually we do this annually um but I would recommend a threeyear contract renewal with the University of Northern Iowa allowing student teachers in our buildings great thank you Andrea do we have a second second for motion thank you Tom we have a motion in a second any further discussion seems like a great idea to get teachers potential in the building so all right all favor say I I opposed contracts approved for three years um look to
055approv a few change orders for our wrestling yeah this is a design issue in our in our new wrestling room in the Fieldhouse um on the walls there's some Rod braces that are not flush against the wall they come out Beyond the Wall uh so the change order is to fur out the wall so it's flush and the sheet rack will be we flush over the r Braes otherwise we would have notches in our sheetrock at at all of these Rod braces um again not foreseen in the design process it was not included in the drawings that's why it's a change order but C certainly something we want to do on top of that sheetrock goes our wall mats so having a a flush surface is is important uh in that room so I would
056recommend uh the approval of this change order the amount of yeah 1 $557 so moved thank you God do we have a second second thanks lny we got a motion in a second now any further discussion I just have a quick question y you can so I I think I asked part of this in the agenda review it because it it was a design it was just missed right yeah I don't know if it was missed or that the um when it was when it was put together that those rods were outside of the wall and not not flush so it is a design issue um but either way need still be resolved absolutely Y and I don't know like within our contract with the the architectures and and so on is there anything in
057there where you know I mean this is relatively inconsequential in terms of the 1500 but you know in foreseeable projects or in this one alone if if stuff gets missed by a team of people I'm assume it doesn't fall on us we didn't design it that kind of thing there there is in this case I think they would say this doesn't have to be changed that you could sheetrock around the rods that that that creates a problem for us because of the wall maps that have to go on the sheetrock so yes there is things in our contract for design um erors um we've executed a few of these in this project specifically with trim color um where it wasn't um specified in in design and in drawings as it was intended and the architect
058covered that that a cost thank you all right any further discussion we do have a motion and a second hearing none all in favor say I I I opposed uh changes approved how can I ask how we I know they're pouring the floor right yep um last Tuesday was the first pour on the floor uh they did the far north side on Thursday they did the the West the West Side um they are supposed to be done pouring the Fieldhouse floor this week so sometime in the next few days uh they've started to sheetrock in the the weight room and resting rooms that's why this change order comes place because they got these areas they can't sheetrock um so let's moov along well on the exterior they're putting some some trim work you look out
059there most of the Steels up but the trim on seams isn't that's something they're doing on the exterior um we still feel good about substantial completion of the summer so we have access for it next school year they are still seeing access to the wrestling and weight room um end of April first part of May which is an important part of the process for two reasons um like our new mats are here and we need a place for them and and secondly when the the new wrestling or the new weight room are done and we have access then the repurposing of those weight room of those existing places can begin otherwise they can't begin because we have to have them one way or the other so progress is is is good things are moving along
060they feel good about that stuff and um hope to continue to meet some of those dates and deadlines is there a concern with the exterior trim not being on and rain and stuff and insulation getting wet or um we asked that because yes we have that concern the insulation is designed to get wet okay it doesn't mold it doesn't M do those things um if you go in there it you know there's you know a few spots of um drips it's not because of those seams it's actually because of hbac duct work so they think even where those they have that exposure it's it's pretty pretty tight all right um all right we'll move on then to um looks like the approv extension of fixed price agreement this is an extension to the fixed price
061agreement between um Alona schools and taher Food Service um this fixed price um agreement happens um really probably every year uh uh the food service management company in this case taher will increase their fixed cost rate based upon the CPI index and what it increases now when that happens we don't necessarily have to raise our our lunch prices our breakfast prices unless we think we need to to cover um these expenses today we're just simply approving that fixed price agreement between Alona schools and tahar Food Service of 3.6% I will tell you in looking at that budget we will need a small increase in our breakfast and lunch costs uh when we do that in July to cover this 3.6% it'll be small um nickel and pennies those are still substantial and important to people
062um but we will need to do that to cover these these costs and this is for next year Joe this is for next year yes we have a multiple year contract with our food service manager company but the fixed price rate changes every year based on on the CPI index all right I make a motion to approve the fixed price agreement thanks Andrea do we have a second second the motion thanks Tom we have Motion in a second is there any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I I oppos fix price agreement approved uh looking at the local risk pool for natural gas yeah this is something we started 5 years ago now the risk pool program um helps stabilize our natural gas prices um public entities can be part of this
063the total premiums are set based upon the sum of our district meters um so The Meters from each building the premium uh for the enrolled meters is $13,999 that's 13,000 higher than last year but it's actually the same as it was two years ago so it's it's in line you know just has to do with our usage and and how much we we are using um we pay for this out of our management fund this is not a general fund expense um moving this to the management allows thiss us to save $130,000 out of our general fund that can be used towards salaries of people who are are working with our kids so that's a good thing for us to do that we may have to bring a change to this um based upon the
064field house um he of contacted him today it's kind of kind kind of great but um we may have to bring a change to this um at a later month but right now we can go ahead and approve the premium for next year at $3,991 Joe as I look at the kind of total premiums by school yeah um the high school is substantially higher than the other schools just is it pretty equal square footage wise or because we've got gy and of course now you mentioned the the field Performing Art Center Performing Art Center all that stuff square footage of the high school is is our largest building also um so yeah equal just a lot more square footage out here do we have have you if you put any estimates to what we should
065increase for be planning for for we're working on today I don't think we have a number Jeff was contacting was that guy um it's part of the engineering the the engineers um for the HVAC which they were for blue stone and the design team um on an estimate of what that might be for that square footage and the units that we're putting in SO waiting for that number okay it's a big you know it's 70,000 square feet it's going to be a big number it probably be substanti and just cubic footage I mean the height of the seat you know I mean there's you know are there any ceiling fans or anything in there to uh you know there socks that's what they call them you know the the tubes that are up there I
066think that's all part of the circular the rooftop units are all on the shorter part closer to the school um you know it's tied into some of our our equipment but otherwise it's it's an all new system all right need a motion then to approve the local risk group pool for natural gas so moved thanks do we have a second I'll second that thanks L we have a motion in a second any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I opposed risk group pool approved um all right we're looking to approve the calendar we have the open our public meeting for yeah uh that proposed calendar again is based on instructional hours not days uh with 1080 hours being the minimum uh the calendar has 1,1 126. 6 hours uh the calendar has
067a start of August 25th which would be the earliest date Allowed by law current law says you can't start school before August 23rd which is a Saturday which puts the 25th as the earliest date uh the last day with students would be May 20th the last day with staff would be May 21st uh the calendar has a holiday break for students from the 19th to the 2nd uh that that is a full two weeks um there's also a spring break in there from March 16th to the 20th so I do recommend a calendar again based on on 1,80 hours with the start date of August 25th and ending of May 20th all right any uh questions we had some discussion earlier but is there any more discussion feedback on last year's calendar Joe what are
068you hearing um good feedback um again we aren't to that uh spring break that's next week um but certainly the feedback we get specifically from our community families is appreciative appr appreciative of um you know chronic absenteeism has never been bigger right we have laws now based on chronic absenteeism and um we know how important it is for our kids to be here and if that is our emphasis which it certainly is going to be then we need to give a time for families not to be here and I think this does that so very well received we haven't actually had it yet um we also haven't had to add days because of mistime yet so those are both couple big actors in there but I still think it's what's best for our our community
069it's what's best for our families it's what's best for our kids and I think it's good for our staff too um after we've had spring break and and you know maybe towards the end of the school year certainly maybe the new legislation has will have impacted absentee as well and I know all the administration principles teachers everybody's reached I mean I see them doing a lot of work around absenteeism I would be curious to see some data right because I think before we didn't have a spring break we had kids kind of you know I mean did we really cut back on that and everybody that was going to you know I mean really kind of funnel through there do we still yeah that and will we'll be able to provide that data certainly I
070could give you absentee data now which we know we have reduced significantly um and that'll be part of part of my goals and what we'll we'll talk about at the as we close on the year is what that number is um but I think that's another Factor Andre to be honest is that um we'll have less families missing two three days here on P vacations because they'll they'll try to take them there during that week okay thank you I make a motion to approve the new school calendar for next year Andrea do we have a second I'll second next we have a motion in a second any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I opposed calendar approved uh some open enrollments we have four open enrollments uh three open enrollment out of
071the district uh two of those are homeschooled the other is due to a family move the other opening roll into the district all of these have met uh requirements and I recommend these these approval approval of these applications some thanks lny do we have a second second the motion thanks John we have a motion to second on open enrollment any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I opposed open enrollment approved all right we'll look at uh resignations resignations first we have Judy lean as a middle school and high school teacher associate uh Cindy Schmidt um retirement as a first grade teacher and we want to thank uh for all of her uh um years of service in education and and her her time in the district fabulous educator um and we wish her
072best in next chapter Cameron Shada High School Spanish Grace Herbst Elmer from middle school student Senate pending suud will replacement Rudy week from middle school girls wrestling and Brian conik from freshman girls uh freshman girls basketball so I recommend uh these resignations make a motion to approve the resignations than uh do we have a second I'll second that we have a second uh any any discussion hearing none all in favor say I I I opposed resignations approved uh will'll then look to approve the contracts I recommend the approval of these contracts Mo wesling for the spring play Megan mogard second grade teacher Olivia Row Elementary special education Shannon struer fourth grade uh teacher Pam Henson first grade teacher Shane meski Middle School baseball volunteer Michael Tillis Middle School football Travis berky Middle School football Brian
073conic Middle School girls basketball and Rudy week Middle School girls basketball football football yep is is there a reason why rosow and Bard say fiscal year 26 after them and none of the others do I didn't know if they were like start met to and okay nope that's I just didn't know if they start CER them half time yeah they would all be well um the spring play is currently yeah and baseball would be current cently the rest are all for but the teach next school year next school year got okay no I just I just noticed that and this um also kind of an update went to job fair Friday um wonderful event at the University of Northern Iowa we got some teachers we met there that were interviewing this week um some even
074um probably after that Mr Cecil's at a job fair again today at Iowa State that was something we wanted to do better this year's to get out um fairs in our opinion are too late um but we still had open positions so so it worked out we trying to find that high school English High School Spanish and then we have one preschool left left to hire so we we feel really good about our hires and the people are on this list and feel really good about some connections we've made at the job fairs recently too great yes anything we can do to keep keep uh keep working out there so um we need a motion to approve contracts motion to approve the contracts thanks Tom do we have a second second thanks Andrew have motion
075to Second any further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I I oppose contracts approved um thank you everyone for everything tonight and appreciate all your dedication for being here um we need a motion now to adjourn so move thank you do we have a second I'll second that all right Andrea and Lanny we are aour