001All right. Call to order 6 p.m. Ben here. Connie here. So Karen here. Jillian I'm here. Sarah here. Mr. Collins here. Miss Holland here. Mr. Gel here. All are present. Introductions. All right. Do I have a motion for the approval of the agenda? Some Connie made a motion. Do I have a second? I'll second. Is there a second? All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion carries. All in favor? How's the recognition? Yeah. Last time we gave recognition to the knowledgeable for making it back to back to to state and their names are there again. Um Elijah Bailey, Andrew Hurley, Gavin Sorville, Connor Van Herdwick and they took ninth place in the state tournament. So congratulations to them. Also to our speech troos who qualified for state speech speechman William Wellman, Kayn Fpatrick Wilder,
002Zoe Johnson, and Olivia McG. Congrats to them as well. I also wanted to recognize the FFA for putting on the Easter event at the elementary school. I was going to recognize boss for breaking her own school record. All right, with that move on to donations. All right, we have a bunch. We received $1,149.90 from the Loyola Booster Club for the softball jackets. We received $481.70 from the Minnesota Valley Action Council and that was reimbursement for the October Tour of Manufacturing event. We received $500 from the St. Clair Fire Department for the after grad party. We received $12,62745 from the athletic backers and that was toward the track and field popup tent and roller bag, JP fitness training sessions, the reacher removal, the clay target wire trap kit, and the annual activity software. And then we
003received another $600 from the backers and that went toward those student activity accounts that helped with the concession stand. So that was volleyball, girls basketball, wrestling, theater, FFA, class of 2025, class of 2028, and student council. And then we had a big list of library donations again. Um Andrew Grant that donated a library book at $12.99 value. Riley and William Cedar Gran and family donated 24 library books at $148 value. The Oaks family donated eight library books at a $75 value. Don Shendel donated library books at a $40 value. Tammyu donated a library book at a $5 value. And Anna and Caitlyn Dunn donated four library books at a $55 value. So, thank you for all those. All right. No unfinished business or open items. So business consent agenda as presented package motion. Second from
004Jillian. All in favor say I agenda item number six. service employee Cheryl Peterson has been terminated for St. Clair School. I do have a motion to approve the termination. So count second by Mick. All in favor say I. I motion carries. We next we have resignation of high school counselor Melissa Oite. Uh she wants to resign her position effective the end of the 2024 2025 school year. I have a motion to approve this. Julian made a motion. Second second. Second by Connie. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Motion carries. All in favor extracurricular appointment. Uh we are recommending the appointment of Stephen Ward as the head football coach. Steve has been a to coach the football team for the years as well as the head baseball coach. Any discussion or a motion to
005approve this? Just want to share with board that went through both a s combination committee. That's it. I'll make a motion to approve the appointment. All right. Motion second by Karen. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion carries. All in favor longterm substitute appointment recommending appointment of Michaela as the long-term substitute for MS second grade class. Miss McCome will be set for us from May 9th to the end of the school year. Motion approved here. Yes, she's done quite a bit of subing for us. Um you know somewhat long term like she'll take a week at a time. Okay. So she's familiar. Yes, she's familiar. And I think she has previous experience as a teacher in the past, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. She'll she'll do a wonderful job. Very confident. I'll make a
006motion to approve. Julian made a motion. Do I have a second? Second by Mick. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion carries. All in favor? Next, uh, we have a motion to appoint the board chair to hear the pending labor grievance and then report the findings to the rest of the board. Any discussion on this? As I shared with you, it can be the entire board or the board chair. And at this point, I'm recommending the board chair. I'd make a motion to approve. J's made a motion to second. I'll second it. All right. Con second. All in favor say I. I. I say keep. There you go. Uh all opposed. Motion carries. All in favor. All right. We have the building projects. Remaining bond dollars. There are a few building projects left
007to complete. Specifically, the secured door system, the track construction, heated storage area, tile, the elementary hallways, equipment for the facility maintenance, and reinvestment in the main entrances. Any discussion on this? I just want to um share the board knows this. We've been very fortunate as we've uh invested our bond dollars um and even at the time when we sold our bond dollars um we made money and with the FEMA grant we've been very fortunate to have some remaining dollars to spend. We've talked about um all of these projects there there aren't exact numbers with them but you as a board know they fit within the remaining dollars that we have. um even it's not on you also know that we're looking at the theater box and the performing arts theater. So I just wanted to
008know official that yes we are going to move forward with this public and yes Tim keep moving forward on these projects. Can we add the bullet point of the performing arts then? Yes. So that's on there. Yeah. Then I'd make a motion to approve. Second motion by Jill and second by Karen. All in favor say I. I. All oppose. Motion carries. All in favor. We have the first reading of policy 616 and 617 which are school district system accountability. They're both system accountability. Is that Yeah, they're both I don't know why. I haven't even looked at them yet. Whenever I see annual review, I just there's no changes to them. So I wait till the next reading to look. Fair enough. All right. So with that, we'll move on to the elementary principal report. All
009right. I have a few thank yous to start with. Um first of all to Becca Carpenter and Lori Thorad. Uh they coordinated our second annual music in the schools assembly on March 21st. And this is an assembly that we put together for all of our elementary students so that the fourth, fifth, and sixth graders can show off what they've learned. And um the and choirs all play and sing for them. Um, and it's a really good opportunity for the younger kids to see what opportunities they have coming for them and to get them excited about those fine arts opportunities. Um, I also of course want to thank all the families who took time out of their schedules to join us for conferences. Um, we are very fortunate that we always have very high attendance for
010our conferences and we appreciate our families very much for that. Um, on Friday we had a big day because our staff completed our final face-to-face class for our read training for this school year. So um there's still um work there's reading out of the textbook and there's online lessons that we still have to finish up before the end of the school year but the face toface stuff is done. So um that was a pretty big milestone for us. Um, we're starting to work on the master schedule for next year. And, um, as we work on that, I do want to thank Troy because in a K12 school, um, we have to work together pretty closely to, um, to figure out schedules for all of those shared staff in the specials areas. And, um, Troy's been
011very easy to work with, and I enjoyed that very much. So, thank you. Um, and the last piece I have is um, we did books are a book blast event. We tried this out this year instead of doing a scholastic book fair because that is a ton of work especially for Pete. Um takes up a ton of room in the building trying to store all those shelves. And so this was a completely online thing where families could could purchase books for kids could donate money to purchase books for kids online. Um, and we are going to be sending home a total of 2,313 books with our kids. And even if the kids didn't participate, if they didn't raise any money, um, every kid in the building is going home with three books and many of
012them earned up to 10 books, which was the maximum that you could earn. So, um, that was it. It was a really successful event. Um, part of that We have a couple of teachers that earned $200 shopping sprees because of the number of kids that participated in their class. And so they can use that for classroom supplies and for books for their classroom libraries. Uh we have 14 more that got $100 shopping sprees for that. And then um we have about $1,100 that's going to be going to the media center from that to also purchase books and supplies. So, I I appreciate and want to thank the families who participated in that because if we want our kids to read and we want them to get excited about reading and become good readers, um you
013have to have books in your house. It's really sad to think that there are families that maybe don't have books that their kids can get their hands on. So, this is a good way to do that. All right. Well, thank you. not late tonight. Um, just kicking off, uh, we held class meetings, uh, regarding the cell phone policy implementation that I held with all the students. Um, just want to say thank you to the students for keeping it all in line and in bounds. Um, we had some laughs together. We had some moments that could have been contentious, but the kids handled it well. Um, as we've been implementing this, there have been ups and downs and hurdles. Um, Sherry's getting to work out some days more than others. Um, and it's been good teachable
014moments for students. Uh, you know, I would hesitate to say it's been uh it's gone well for everyone and I think it's been wellreceived. Um, but that may be presumptuous on my part, but overall kids have been great and the staff have been doing well with the change as well. Um, we're almost to the fourth quarter midterms. They're coming up on April 30th. So, we implemented this at the beginning of fourth quarter and we're in full swing. Again, I think um as I look at this, I'm really glad we started it with fourth quarter uh because there are some bugs that we're working through right now that there might be slight slight changes for procedures for next year just based off of the kids teaching us new lessons. Um MCA testing is underway and overall
015I would say um some scores are surprising, some aren't. Um I'm going through and dissecting right now kind of the ins and outs of what they look like. um just looking at 10th grade reading and 11th grade math, I can tell you that the increase um what the causal relationship is behind that that's for another day maybe, but uh again going from last year to this year, I think overall um we're trending in the right direction. And then my last one on here is uh prom is coming up May 10th. Um I appreciate Kenzie Burns and all the work she's put into that with that prom committee. Um we're trudging through. It's always interesting when you have change in advisors, especially with Nicole being a longtime adviser and Kenzie being relatively new to the district.
016She's working her butt up and I appreciate she's asking lots of questions which is good because then I'm in the know and I just want to um again give Troy kudos on the cell phone policy and also the fact that we have the West Commons which was so nice where Troy could go in there with a grade level at a time. he could take his time and say, "I'm talking to you directly as one class rather than going in the big gym with everybody." You're welcome, by the way. Yeah, that comments was my idea. Thank you, but we can't call it cousins now. Yeah. Yeah. Have to change that. Um, and I just want to the Minnesota ceiling program. We did it two years ago. We um the good news, bad news is we have
017enough interest to use it again right here. And uh I help get it going and then it falls in Naen's lap because then Naen typically finds the room because it's more elementary students typically and then she also finds a parent who coordinates it. But it went pretty smoothly the last time that we that we did it. We're still expecting more people to even sign up because that happened last time. It was like, "Oh, is that here?" When is it supposed to be to be happening? Uh May 7th. It's a great but it's a great program and I think I'd recommend staying with you every two years because you need at least 10 for them to come here and it seems like that happened again. Um just want to let board members know that during that
018August um workshop welcome back um I've been coordinating with six other schools to get a gentleman here on artificial intelligence. I saw him gentleman he's 23 years old. Um uh but I was at it last week for two hours and it is just mindblowing. Just absolutely mindblowing how students should start using it, how we should be teaching, how everybody in their workplace should be using it. Um and today I was on the phone with them talking about should we invite in business people that maybe want to sit in and listen because as I was sitting listening to him I was thinking wow this would high interest in the business world. So he and I were talking about that because then I will communicate that with the six other communities who are doing it as well.
019But it's um very very impressive and how much time it can save you. Don't be afraid of it. Uh use it and I don't it opened my eyes a lot what I could be using it for. Did you work for like a specific company? He is the company. He is the company. Yeah. Um I think Nina has heard him speak somewhere as well. Yeah, he was at the state elementary principal convention. I went to his session. He's very good and has a lot of practical uses for this in a school setting probably about three months ago. Grenade hot chain had them down with their staff and Wendy Wman was able to go there and she came back to saying, "Tim, we need this. was really really good. So, as it gets closer, I I know
020that board members would be welcome to to come and and view it as well. So, it was impressive. Um, as I talked to you before in work sessions about St. Clair and its size and levels of efficiency, grade levels of 50 and 75 are efficient. Anything else cashwise, there's nothing you can do about it. I mean, you can't all of a sudden say, "Hey, we want three more kids in third grade or seventh grade or whatever." But that's definitely the level of financial efficiency and even as board members know whenever we get above that or below it, that's just what you have to make tough decisions on. And that will I see that's the sweet spot of where St. Clair is going to be for the next decade, right in that 50 to 75 range.
021Just want to remind you that as board members um negotiations. I think I did share this in an email just recently. Um both the teachers and MS MSBA both unions that represent almost all the employees probably that aren't in that administrative group. W said that they would prefer to wait until after the legislative session. Um, I'm actually thankful for that this time because of all years there's a lot not going on and there's a lot going on. Um, there's not a lot going on for how much revenue we're going to get, but there's a lot going on for other things that could be impacting negotiations. So, all of you who are on committees, that probably won't start. I'm guessing there'll be a special session. So, I'm guessing we won't know the the pluses and minuses
022till July. So, I just wanted to share that. And again, I had down there the House, the Democrats, the Republicans, and the governor are all proposing some freezes or reductions in finance across the board. So, we do know what is coming. We just don't know what level. So, and then any of you who want to after the board meeting walk outside with me over where I think some options are for storage, I can do that in 12 minutes or less. Thanks. Uh yeah, the city council meeting they did come up with a um clean up day. Um they found one in May. So May 3rd will be at the park from 8 till noon or the city of St. Clair. People have to take their stuff down to the park and that's where the dumpster
023will be on May 3rd. um two weeks takeover um for the uh the Kirstson Township uh fire department to take over those um homes that were petitioned because of the fire department closing. Um there was a request to be able to put shipping containers for storage in their yards or in their driveways around the street and they said absolutely not. It's a storage city with standards for um looking nice. So they are agreed to purchase 100 tickets for the Boon Dogs and it looks like they're going to try and go with the um June 19th day of the Boondogs game where they people can call the city department and get free tickets for their families to go and normally I think we have our T-ball kids that participate at that game. So they're going to
024do that because it's been very well received and that was kind of pretty much gifting that really is going to impact the school district. When does the road get okay yet 14 decide what's going to happen? Okay. So, will it get pushed out? Probably. Because here's the thing. Whoever gets the job, you're not guaranteed you're going to have everything ready to go. I mean, yeah. So, if they push, why would you want to go in there and start? You know what I mean? They get all the stuff here comes Tuesday, they can start, you know, I don't know how they're going to do this. I'm just thinking, you know, about that. So, That's where we're at right now with those guys. So, and the same days um 2021 22 and it'll still go on. So,
025here's another thing too that I've been thinking about is once they shut Main Street down, people are going to want to go park at the park or wherever. So, I can see this already. Hopefully it's not going to be an issue where you got people that come in with their kids fall down there. You got the people are going to come home and they're going to have to park where you know what I mean? It's something we're going to have to work out. I'm sure we're going to hear about it. You know what I mean? So my question is when do they start like the T- ball down there? Is that in June? The T-ball is actually going to take place at the school this year. So, let's go with you down there. Any idea?
026There might be some eighth grade games. Okay. I know they're going to try and schedule as many games as possible on our new I won't even call it practice field anymore field. So, I know they're trying to schedule as much up in that area. I know we're going to hear about it no matter what we do. And so, if they start late, it probably to push it back farther in. It might be It might not be done by the school starts. Well, it needs to be. Well, can they wait till next year? It's too late. Huh? It's too late. I wish they would. What do you mean it's too late? We're dealing with the county. The county. The county calling the shots. And the county already has their money set up for this year. Yes.
027It would be nice if they would. Now, is it the county who's supposed to be soliciting bids or the city? It would be the county. The county. So the county hasn't solicited bid yet, right? The bids have not been out yet. I feel the same way. Well, that just brings up another point. You probably done until school starts. Then we got to start think about bus routes and things of that nature, too. We don't know with the contractor where they're going to start, how they're going to do it. You know what I mean? It would be nice if they go from the bar down to the street there, go past the post office, get that much of it done and do sections. So then they can move down to like say Main Street from there
028down to the other street where the little Y is get that much of it done and they continue. You know what I mean? So do the utilities do they have to run directly under the center of the road or could they be offset so you can keep one open? So, who's the contact that Mr. Collins needs to call make sure this gets done? Yeah, I have a lot of power over the county. And if it doesn't get done, we will figure it out because that's what we think. They should had reduction already two months ago with all this. They knew that last year that we were the county comm this this year's a bigger priority less just you know what I mean and so we're at their university I guess. Yeah that's all I can
029tell you. Okay. Well thanks Duke. How about my lighted signs do I said maybe they can throw those in. How about my lighted signs? I'll do some more checking on that. I talked to Steph today on something I didn't ask her yet, but I'll I'll bring it up again so we get this figured out. So, it is one other thing. What we're thinking of doing is the street light poles that are there now instead of putting up new ones. We going to probably get them painted or sanded because we know what they can handle for weight. the newer stuff that they're coming out with, they're saying you cannot hang like decorations signs and all that stuff. They're not built for that. So, we can save a lot of money and eventually maybe going on the
030west end of town from the school going that way more. We're trying to watch how we spend it and try to be smart about how we want to do all this, but we want it done the right way and only do it once. That's what we're trying to do. Anything else? No, that's it. Thank you. Um, community wrapped up archery since we last met. We had great attendance. They're looking at doing a summer um camp for some outdoor archery. Just looking at different spaces for that. Um and there is some leftover funding for the fire classes if they'd like any additional archer supplies. And then community also had their coloring contest wrap up on Friday and had three high school students coming. I will have my meeting tomorrow. We did not have a four minutes.
031We signed the contract. So about two years out years. Yeah, the chassis will have this fall and it's getting all built out in Wisconsin. They chassis everything goes on. issues you have only one person that I thought for the city looking to buy the acorns. Anyway, they got the terror before that will be done 6 p.m. right here. MOT favor says questions.