001- I now call order the meeting of the School Board of Independent School District 624. (gavel bangs) Will the court please call the roll. - Arcand. - Here. - Daniels. - Here. - Ellison. - Here. - Skaar. - Here. - Streiff Oji. - Here. - All right, if we could please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. - [All] 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, with liberty and justice for all. - We have before us an agenda. Can I get a motion to approve? - So moved. - By Ms. Ellison. Do we get a second? - Second. - Second by Streiff Oji. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, this will be a voice vote. All in favor
002say aye. - [Members] Aye. - All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. We also have a consent agenda. This contains a variety of business items that comes to us monthly, including donations. We're always truly grateful for the support shown every month to our staff and students. We want to say thank you. Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? - So moved. - Okay, by Ms. Daniels. Second? - Second. (members laughing) - Streiff Oji. Is there any discussion? This will be a roll call vote. I'll ask the clerk to call the roll. - Sorry, Arcand? - Aye. - Daniels? Aye. Ellison? - Aye. - Skaar? - Aye. - Streiff Oji? - Aye. - Okay, and we have an agenda in front of us. Nobody requested to speak for the public forum, so we will
003not have that tonight. That'll take us to C1 Student Recognition, Dr. Kamierczak. - All right, thank you, Dr. Arcand. Tonight, we proudly celebrate the achievements earned by students in Scholastic Art Awards, VFW Auxiliary Young American Creative Patriotic Arts Contest, All-State Band, Choir and Orchestra, Hennepin Theatre Trust Triple Threat, Boys and Girls Track and Field, Boys and Girls Golf, Girls Softball, and Boys and Girls Ultimate Frisbee. Congratulations to each and every one of you for state-level recognition. We also extend our sincere gratitude to the dedicated staff and supportive family members who play a vital role in these successes. In recognition of their accomplishments, students have received a certificate, bear pin, and letter acknowledging their achievements. Now, please join us in watching a video highlighting their accomplishments. Go Bears. (bright music) (bright upbeat music) (members speaking indistinctly)
004- Congratulations to all the students that were in all the success they've shown this spring. This takes us to information item C2, Superintendent's Report, Dr. Kamierczak. - Thank you, Chair Arcand, members of the board. For the last couple of weeks, schools throughout the district have celebrated the end of a successful school year and honored students were moving on to their next chapter. More than 700 White Bear students have completed programs at White Bear Lake Area High School, the Area Learning Center, or the Transition Education Center were celebrated in the ceremonies last week. This year marked the beginning of a new 9-12 building tradition as the White Bear Lake Area High School ceremony took place outside the district's first outdoor commencement since 1983. That was the final time White Bear had two high schools, White Bear
005Lake High School and White Bear Mariner High School just before the district moved to the split campus of North and South that fall. Thank you to our retirees who represent more than 641 years of service to the district. Later this week, we will honor our retirees in-person with a celebratory event. All retirees receive Bear Awards and certificates to commemorate their time in the district. Thank you for all your service to White Bear Lake Area Schools and to the community. Pre-summer meals are available for kids and teens age 17 and younger. There is no enrollment and no cost. The healthy meals are based on USDA nutrition guidelines. Additional information is available on the district's website. District representatives will be back this summer at Marketfest, which runs Thursdays, June 19 through July 31 in downtown White Bear
006Lake. Stop by the district's booth for pencils, bear paw tattoos, and conversation. You know, this year is an Orange Out on July 10th when the district sponsors the event and hosts a White Bear Lake Area School Spirit Night. 4th Street will be filled with district booths, activities, and a pop-up employment affair opportunity. Please bring your friends and family and wear orange and join us at 6:30 for the scheduled Orange Out photo. And finally, the district recently received 2025 Awards of Excellence, which is the highest award possible from the National School Public Relations Association for the following communications department publications and projects. The '24 annual update, the '24-'25 calendar, community E-newsletter, the fall 2024 Bears Bulletin, the video series, the weekend 62.4 seconds, and building our future impact on teaching and learning video. So hats off
007to Tia Quirk and Marisa Vette for leading these efforts. - All right, thank you. Okay, that brings us then to discussion item D1, Fiscal Year '25-'26 Preliminary Budget. Mr. Wald and Ms. Johnson. - Thank you, Chair Arcand, members of the board, Dr. Kamierczak, we were here in the May work session and we reviewed a draft of the preliminary budget for the '25-'26 school year. At that point, we noted that some of our revenue assumptions were based on our best estimates of what we thought the legislature would, you know, would finally decide on and that process is still in progress. I think their special session today and I have a feeling it's going to be a long day in St. Paul. So tonight, we're going to move forward on the budget. Just a reminder that state
008statute calls for school boards to pass a budget before July 1st and so we need to move forward with this budget proposal recognizing that some things might change depending on what comes out of legislature tonight. Our budget, this budget cycle we like to put up whenever we review budgets, recognizing that we are at the final step in that budget process, or I should say one of the first steps in the budget process. So there's really no beginning and no end to this. We'll get the preliminary budget, we're bringing that to you today, and we'll start right away with the audit of the current school year beginning in October, excuse me, in July, and that will continue through the fall. We reviewed this in May as well, and it's important, I think, to recognize as you
009look at the orange dotted line that shows the student formula going back to 2003. And I would say school districts probably weren't flush in 2003, but if we use that as a starting point and just follow the student formula as it relates to the rate of inflation, then you can see that it has lagged. And as we get more and more recent years especially, the budget impact, our buying power is $13,365,000 less had the student formula kept pace with the rate of inflation over that period of time. Okay, Andi will take it from here. - So starting out, I'm gonna talk about just broad categories of how our funds are received and then where our funds are spent. So the largest majority of our funding comes from state sources. You can see at the bottom
010there, 53% of our funds come from the state. And then if you go up to the left, special education and state revenue as well. So when we put those two together, 72% of our revenue comes from the State of Minnesota. The next largest pot of money is our property taxes. And our long-term facility maintenance is a form of property tax as well. So when we combine those two, we get to 24% of total revenue from property taxes. So in total, 96% of our money comes from either the state or property taxes. We have very little say in any of the other avenues of our revenue. So how do we spend them? We look at this in two ways. This is based on the objective of the expense. This gets very granular when we report it
011to the State of Minnesota. But in broad categories, the largest portion of our revenue or of our expenses goes towards salaries and benefits. So you can see there, that amounts to 80% of our total expenses. And then the next largest is purchase services and that includes both our transportation, our contracted transportation and our long-term facility maintenance expenses. Those all get grouped into that purchase services category. And a small amount of money goes towards supplies and materials and then capital expenditures and then other we have dues and some of our bonded debt that goes through, lease levy goes through there as well. So that's how we spend our funds in that category. And then we group it out kind of by department. And so the largest amount of our spending does go towards regular instruction, that's
012over on the right. And then if we look kind of down into the left, the next several categories all also are attributed to kids in classrooms. So vocational ed, that's the technical MDE category or career in tech we call it. Special education instruction at 22%, instructional support services that includes departments like our teaching and learning department, the media, technology, staff development, and then our associate principals. And then pupil support services is also very connected to our students and that includes counselings, our health, social workers, and then our school sites. So then as we look up at the top of the graph, those are the items that are maybe a little bit more on the administrative side. So transportation we break out sites and buildings, so like our custodial departments, long-term facility maintenance, small amount of
013other administration includes like the superintendent, school principals, the school board and the district support services are largely the departments here at district center, so finance office and resources, communications, et cetera. So as Tim had said we had assumptions in May and now we have new assumptions based on what's going to the legislature for approval. We think this is what's going to happen, I really thought in May that we were going to know for sure by today, but we don't. So I'm highlighting the changes and the assumptions that I've rolled into the budget. First, no change in our enrollment, we are still projecting 8,308 students for next school year and no change in the formula allowance so 2.5% increase for next year or 2.74% increase for next year and then 2.5% in the following years. The
014summer term unemployment, we do anticipate that this is going to be a positive impact for a school budget. Previously, we were projecting that in the second year that would be an unfunded state mandate and now it looks like they're going to continue to fund that through '26-'27, but not in those out years, so stay tuned for that. And then the Paid Family Medical Leave Act. There's no change at the legislature in this area that we're seeing, but as we've been talking about the implementation of that, we think that we need to increase our sub costs because we know we're gonna have more people out and we didn't have an associated increase for the substitute expense. So we have increased that in fiscal '27. And then on the special education transportation reimbursement, we had been projecting
015that we would receive 95% proration in that second year. And actually what we're going to think, we're gonna end up realizing is a 90% proration. So there is an extra cost rolled into the budget for that. So then what does that all mean when it's rolled into the total budget? We'll just focus on the preliminary column in the shaded column, '25-'26. So for revenues for the general fund, we're looking at $146,700,000 of revenue and $147,050,000 of expenses, so a deficit of $267,000, 205,000 of that will roll into our unassigned fund balance. If you recall, that's the fund balance that we tend to focus on, we have a school board policy that requires that we maintain an 8% fund balance. So all of that activity rolls in and puts us on that blue line at an
016ending fund balance of $11,650,000 and that puts us above our fund balance policy at 8.2%. And then when we project forward to '26-'27, total revenue of $151,700,000 expenses, 152 million so a deficit of 235,000. The largest amount of that deficit though in '26-'27 is a planned decrease in our operating capital fund balance you can see down below where we're spending that down by about $444,000. We're actually seeing just about flat operations and the unassigned fund balance for that year revenue of about 67,000 going into that. And so the ending fund balance and that year will put us at about 11,700,000 or 7.9%, it's not quite at that 8% target we'll watch that closely as we come up to the revised budget for our next school year and then the preliminary budget for the following. And
017then no changes in either of these three funds so the other three friends that we bring forward for your approval is the nutrition services fund, the community services fund and the debt service fund. So again, the nutrition services fund, we're looking at a deficit of $831,000 for next school year. But if you recall, we're just now in the second year of the free meals for all, the universal free meals. And so we don't have really solid data yet. We don't have a full year projection of revenue for this school year. And so when it was time to build this budget, we took a conservative approach. So we think that it's prudent in this case to do that in the Nutrition Services Fund. We also have some planned one-time spending and the expenses. but we do
018know that when it comes to the revised budget, it's gonna be a little bit better than that, and then we'll continue to watch to make sure we return to balanced operations going forward. And then in the Community Services Fund, again, in this area, COVID really had a drastic impact on the Community Services Fund. When people don't participate, the revenue goes down, and we weren't able to just shut off expenses 'cause we had people on staff. And so they've been working on a deficit for the last couple of years, but we have a good plan that we're gonna get there. For next school year, we're looking at a total of about $150,000 extra revenue over expenses, and that $115,000 will then really cut that deficit into half at about $115,000 remaining deficit. So by the following
019school year, we should get to a place where we're back at balanced deposit, fund balance in community end. And then our debt service fund is again, where we essentially pay our mortgage payments. So as a school district, we issue debt to pay-off all of our improvements in our school construction. And the revenue comes in the form of property taxes, and then the expenses are essentially our mortgage payments come under there. And so that's set by the Department of Education. We provide to them our debt service schedule, and then they levy 105% of our expenses in the form of property taxes. And then as that fund balance gets a little bit too high, the Department of Education will just hold back a portion so that government can continue to build. So in total, about $800,000 extra
020revenue over expenses for next school year for the debt service fund puts us at 19.6%. So, any questions? - Thank you. Anybody have any questions? Mr. Skaar. - Here's a question on your question. Are we going to be able to have questions later on for this, for the budget presentation? - Do you want to ask it here, or do you want to ask it when it comes up for approval? Theoretically, you can do both. - What would the Chair prefer? - We can do them now while they're here, so. - Okay. - If you have them now. - Well, does anybody else have questions? - I do. - Okay. - Well, you can go ahead. I'll wait. - Okay, Ms. Ellison. - Thank you. Again, this is always a very complicated thing, the district budget,
021so I appreciate all your time. So I'm looking at the charts, where do our funds come from and how are our funds spent? And so we get just shy of $28 million for special education, but it costs just shy of 33 million for special education. So when things like that happen, it just comes directly out of a general fund- - Correct. - Right? And so where are we this year with special education funding as compared to previous years? Is the gap widening? Is it shrinking? - So this year, the gap is roughly the same as it was last year. The proration is going to have an impact. I haven't calculated the revenue over expense of that. The proration is definitely going to have an impact. One positive thing is legislature did approve an increase to
022the special ed class subsidy percentage. So it was previously at 44%. In fiscal '26-'27, it's going to go up to 50%. So part of that 95% and 90% proration will come back to us in the form of cross-subsidy aid. You know, just like everything school finance. - Can you explain what proration means? - Yeah, so what the legislature, what it looks like the legislature is going to approve is that instead of having 100% of our special ed transportation costs come back to us in the form of revenue, they're going to prorate that. So next year, it looks like we're going to receive 95% of our costs back as revenue. And then the following year, it's going to go down to 90%. So it continues to exasperate that deficit. - Why would they do that? -
023As a cost saving measure, the special ed transportation costs just statewide have increased really, really significantly over the last number of years. And so I think their hope is that school districts will be able to find a way to cut costs and realize some savings there. I don't know if that will come to my fruition. - Well, I mean, we serve all kids, And so all special ed students who come to this district get service. And so- - Yeah. And those costs are really, they're simply driven by IEP needs. And so our hands are tied as far as, you know, once that's in your IEP, you have to provide the service. - Yeah, absolutely. And we have great services here. It's just unfortunate that the state doesn't keep up with the cost. - Correct. -
024So, thank you. - Okay, other questions? Yeah, Mr. Skaar. - Thank you. So on the enrollment assumptions, is this the same company? I think, what was it, Teamwork Dynamics? Is that the name of it? - Yeah, Teamwork International. - That was close. - Yes, we had the first- - [Daniel] Were they the same ones that, when we were doing the referendum, said that we'd be at 10,000 students this year? Is it the same company? - No, we... (Andi faintly speaking) - Yeah, this enrollment projection is based on numbers that we have. One portion of what we are able to use from them on the annual enrollment projection is life or birth rate data. So that's helpful to us to look at. But it doesn't really tell you how many families in their census stayed in
025the district over the last five years or have moved, how many have moved in or moved out. So some of that is just working with experience that we've had. But Teamworks International's data that you referenced was, there were two demographers who looked at the data at that time. Hazel Reinhardt was the retired state demographer, and then Teamworks International. - Okay, thank you. - And they both came up with roughly the same numbers. - So it looks like that one comment that they had was that we're going to grow market share, but the numbers are flat. So I imagine you're just being conservative on that. - Yeah, it's actually, we're improving market share because birth rates are lower. - So just one thing on enrollment, and I don't know if we have stats on this, but
026it'd be interesting to find out how many people, or how many families, or students are coming back to our district that were in private schools or in homeschools. That would be a good metric to kind of show a trend that, hey, we're bringing people back. We're getting market share. Just a comment. On the funding versus expenditures, I was looking mostly at cost, not funding, because we have more control over expenses. On administration, we were projected to have an increase of about 300,000, 5.4 from 5.1. District support services, about a half a million dollar increase compared to the previous year. Instructional support services went from 10.2 to 9.6 to 10. So, something must have happened last year. Was there an anomaly there? You know, if you don't know, that's fine. You can answer it later. The
027other one was pupil support services went up $200,000. And then when I look at the nutritional services fund with the $800,000 deficit, you're being conservative. What's the potential upside on that? I mean, could it be zero or that's not going to happen? - [Andi] Repeat that one because I was still focused on the instructional support and people support. - [Daniel] Okay, we can go through each one. - Yeah, okay, so that one, it took me a minute, but I remember now. What ended up happening is we have some items that we had budgeted in the elementary and secondary instruction. So if you look at that increase from $56,404,000 to $59,292,000, we have a shift in where expenses are being coded. And I apologize, I remember looking at this really closely last month, and then I
028haven't refreshed my memory, but that's what we're seeing as a shift. I think if we would group those two groups together, I think that the increase would be roughly like a 3% increase or something like that. So that's really just a coding shift that we're seeing in those two items. - [Scott] Okay. Is that the instructional coaches? - Yeah, I think it might be how we were coding our instructional coaches, where we had been coding them as instructional and then partially, then we changed it to code them as teaching and learning. I think that is where the group of folks that we're recording. And then, okay, and then what was your next one? - [Daniel] The nutritional services fund, you said that you're being conservative. Is there any, is the upside zero or is it
029half a million? Or what's our range of risk there? - I think it's going to be pretty significant and I can't commit to a number on record, but what I will say is so it was, you know, a couple of months ago that we were working on developing this budget and at that time then, your revenue is a couple months old, right? And so it's different when you just don't have that full history often we look back at five years of history so we can kind of figure out where we're going and at that point, we probably had one school year plus maybe three or four months of operations to kind of get a feel for where we're at and so we are, you know, then intentionally conservative, especially knowing that we can be based
030on where our fund balance is in that fund so I won't be surprised if the deficit is half or more. We're also conservative in the staffing just, you know, we don't know what's going to happen, we do see that there might be some decrease, actually in state revenue, even that's going to come forward on there. So the revised budget is conservative and we know that and then we built the preliminary budget based on that. - It's the department that's seldom ever fully staffed. And so it's, you know, we budget it as if it were to be fully staffed and it's typically isn't. - Yeah, they have a plan to it as well. - [Daniel] So, on the projection, we have a... - [Wayne] Can I add something to that question? - Sure. So, just to
031Mr. Skaar's question about nutrition services. So, what's changed, for example, from the actual fiscal year '24 compared to now? Has there been anything that's dramatically different statewide or federally? So I would go on record as saying, I would bet that it's going to end up being positive. But, you know, I wouldn't put any money on it if I were you. But, I suspect-- - What about you? - I suspect. I mean, just knowing, I think being conservative in nutrition services is prudent just because the statewide funding of all meals, although the session is probably not going to change, but there was some question of whether that was sustainable long-term. Federal funding is sometimes in question, so being conservative there makes sense. However, those talking points are very similar to a couple years ago and we
032ended up in the black, fairly healthy, you know, pretty healthy in black. We've also, there are some capital expenditures, correct? - Correct. - And you've factored it in this time. - Yep, some of the- - That would be one difference from fiscal '24, so that will be one variable that would be different, so maybe I take back what I said. - Okay, last question has to do with, you know, we have a deficiency of 267,000 and then 235. Is there any way that we could reduce costs so that those are at zero? Can you go back and look at that to see if we can reduce the cost so that we're not a deficit, we're at zero? - Yeah, probably, you know, and particularly in the projected '26-'27, because that deficit is really folding into
033the operating capital fund balance. And part of that is planned. It's intentional. The operating capital fund balance at 1.3 million, it's quite high. It's, I don't remember, 30% or 40% of operations or funding that we receive there. And so we know that there's not a need to maintain a fund balance quite that high in the operating capital. We also have some curriculum purchases that we have to make due to some changes in state standards. And so that deficit in the operating capital is because of those one-time expenses, those one-time curriculum adoptions, and those needs actually go down in a couple of years as far as curriculum. Those are really large purchases. And so we feel comfortable bringing it forward like this just because we know that the reduction in operating capital, it's planned, it's one
034time, and going forward it won't be quite as much of a deficit. - [Daniel] Would you be comfortable if it was at zero, so we didn't have a deficiency? - I don't know that I would actually on the operating capital just because we do have that one time need. So I think it makes sense for us to bring forward a deficit just knowing we're still in a comfortable place with our operating capital fund balance. - So is that a no? - Yes, it was a no. - [Daniel] Okay. Well, I'm thinking that you could find $235,000 worth the cost somewhere to cut, and it'll come out in the wash somewhere, right? - [Andi] Yeah, we could, we could, but it's not administration's recommendation at this point to bring that forward. - [Daniel] Okay, all right,
035thank you. - Thank you, other questions? We're hearing none. Thank you. We'll have you back up in a few minutes. - I think we'll just stay on here for a little bit while you do business. - Yeah, we got one more. The next, we're going to start with our discussion D2. First Reading of School Board Policy 613. This policy has been reviewed by the policy committee. It will come back on July 14th. There are another agenda for the second reading. If you have any questions, can you give us the page number so we can find it in the packet? Yes, Ms. Ellison. - Just one clarifying comment. These are the changes that are made to shift to the trimester. - Yes, ma'am. - Okay. That's all I wanted to clarify. - Other questions? - I
036just have one question. When I look in there, that policy is going to be as if I'm a freshman moving all the way through. So we are going to have, if I'm coming in as a senior year, it'll adjust to match, but we didn't put it in there. But for the classes that are already on this semester, the adjustments will be there, but we don't need it in the policy. All right, that's what I thought, but I was going to ask. Other questions? Yes, sir. - Just a quick question. Who came up with the credit requirements on a trimester basis? (Jen faintly speaking) - Jen, why don't you come up and... - Hi. So we follow the Minnesota Department of Education and their requirements for our standards. So there are specific standard graduation requirements for
037each of those areas, as you can see in the policy. - Okay, thank you. - Any other questions? Okay, this policy will be coming back in July. Thank you. We're going to move on now to our operational items. Operational item E1, Action on the Fiscal Year '25-'26 Preliminary Budget. Mr. Wald and Andi Johnson. You've heard the recommendation, can I get a motion to approve? - So moved. - By Ellison, a second? - Second. - By Streiff Oji. Any additional questions? - Well, can I just... - Yes, sir. Mr. Skaar. - Can I make a friendly amendment that they would look for $235,000 of savings and expenses? - Okay, we have a motion to amend it, so if we have a second? Do we have a second? - Well, I would just say this, if the
038budget changes, it would need to go to the board again before July 1st. - Can I have...? - You may have clarifying question, yes. - What does that mean? (chuckles) - Well, it means that this is our final meeting before the end of the month. And by state statute, we have to have a budget approved before July 1st. - Oh, gotcha, I understand. - Okay. - We don't have to... - So at this point, I did not receive a second on that, so that- - So I'm counting I'm 0 for 4 in counting. - All right. So we have in front of us a motion to accept the preliminary budget. Any further discussion? Okay, this will be a roll call vote. I'll ask the clerk to call the roll. - Arcand? - Aye. - Daniels?
039Aye. Ellison. - Aye. - Skaar? - No. - Streiff Oji? - Aye. - Okay, motion carries. Next we're going to go on to operational item E2, Actions on the Workers' Compensation Agreement for '25-'26. Mr. Wald. - Thank you, Chair Arcand, members of the board. Yeah, we bring before you tonight the workers' compensation insurance proposal for '25-'26 school year. The proposal is that we work with RAS and Dakota Truck Underwriters as we have the previous. In some years, we bring it out for public bidding and we did that last year. So we're recommending that we stay with RAS. They've actually been our carrier since 2014. They've been great for us to work with. We asked our broker from Gallagher to work directly with them and negotiate the rates for this year. And so the rates are
040before you, 561,375. That's a 9.7% increase. And we just note that factors that impact workers' comp rates are payroll expenses, which increase each year. Your rate per payroll, we have a 5% increase in that rate, so, 58 cents per $100 of payroll up to 61 cents, 5% increase there. But over your payroll, it has a significant number. The experience mod factor, which compares your experience with workers' comp claims in your district compared to others in similar industries. We had one outlier year that really impacted us, and that's on our rates for three more years. That was '22-'23, and you see that jump in '24-'25, that's the year that the state changed the calculation for mod factor. So, '22-'23 was actually our outlier year, but normally you would see that on '23-'24, but then they changed
041the calculation, which makes that year a more significant portion of your mod factor. Loss history and market adjustments play out over time to impact your worker's comp rates, so. The rate for next year, 561,375. The recommendation is that the board move to accept the renewal quote from risk administration services for workers compensation, insurance effective July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026. - All right, you've heard the recommendation. Can I get a motion to approve? - So moved. - By Ms. Ellison. A second? - Second. - By Daniels. Is there any further discussion? Yes, Mr. Skaar. - First of all, thanks for your transparency and showing the trend rate on your xMod factor. You know, I worked a lot in schools as a contractor, and you know, usually, they require you to have an xMod of
042less than one do work. We're at 1.25, which means we're paying a premium because of our incident rate, safety incident rate. What is our incident rate, our OSHA incident rate? Do you know off the top of your head? - I don't know off the top of my head. I know that typically our claims come to about 260,000, 250, 270, in that range. The outlier year was 550,000, And so that is just having this to give some impact on our mod rate. - [Daniel] What was the nature of the incident? - It was two... I'm not sure what that was. I've looked at that, I just don't recall. But there were several injuries that year that were significant brain injuries. - [Daniel] Are we on any kind of probation or anything as a result of having
043an xMod of 1.25? - No. No, we believe it's going to improve. And our custodial training addresses, custodians and nutrition services are oftentimes where we have the most injuries. Oftentimes, from lifting, it can be pinch points in the kitchen, and so we do training with our staff to try to keep that, well, keep them safe, but also keep them hydrated. - [Daniel] What about hands and fingers? Is that a high rate? - No, I don't think there's any really big red flags there. It's, you know, it can be someone falling as they, you know, it just kind of a slip, those same things. - Who is the safety officer? - Kevin Klecker. - [Daniel] Okay, thank you. - Other questions? Hearing none, we'll go ahead. This will be a roll call vote. I'll ask the
044clerk to please call the roll. - Arcand? - Aye. - Daniels? Aye. Ellison? - Aye. - Skaar? - Aye. - Streiff Oji? - Aye. - All right, the motion carries. Next, we have operational item C3, Action on the Property and Liability Insurance for '25-'26. Mr. Wald. - Okay, yeah. So, yeah, before we tonight, the property and liability insurance, this is actually the '25-'26 property and liability insurance. I missed that little detail, but we have it on the bottom here. So a significant increase in our property and liability insurance for next year. White Bear Lake Schools is a member of Insurance Cooperative, the Minnesota Insurance Scholastic Trust, which has traditionally provided really favorable rates for the school district. In fact, when we went to MIST about a decade ago, our insurance rates dropped significantly, I believe
045by over 50% at that point. But the industry has changed a lot over the last several years. A lot of pressure on governmental organizations. And that's where a lot of significant increase has occurred, is within public and governmental entities. So things that affect our insurance would be our square footage. So this year, like this building for example, we had Sunrise Park was covered by construction insurance. And so this square footage of about 35,000 came off the construction insurance went into our property liability insurance. When we brought the high school on, that was an additional square footage. We added cyber liability insurance, increased that by our coverage by 50%, with a $12,000 increase. Had a huge amount on this, about just a little under 2% of that increase was for cyber liability, which we think is
046probably a pretty wise move given that governmental organizations, school districts specifically, have become more vulnerable in that world. Outside of district influences on rates, it has been probably the most significant influence on rates is the extreme weather and climate disasters that have occurred across the country, and even though we haven't seen those so much here, the pain a few years later starts to be felt more and more as that gets spread all across the country. And so that's a big part of it. 27 extreme weather and climate disasters of greater than a billion each in the US in 2024. Also, public and governmental market has increased. Part of that is increasing litigation expenses for public and governmental organizations. And then finally, ongoing inflation that's had an impact on our property liability insurance as well. The
047providers that we have here are pretty much generally the same providers we've had the last several years. And so, MIST, that's them and does the bidding with those providers that feels comfortable bringing them forward. So all that being said, the recommended action is for the board to move to approve the property and casualty insurance package renewal with the Minnesota Insurance Scholastic Trust in the amount of $935,037 effective July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2025. - '26 - 2026, thank you. - All right, so you've heard the recommended recommendation. Can I give a motion to approve? - So moved. - All right, Streiff Oji, a second? - Second. - Seconded by Ellison. Is there any further discussion or questions? Yes, Mr. Skaar. - I would just have one question on the, do we have to use
048the Minnesota Insurance? Is it just called MIST? Do we have to use MIST? Or could we ask Gallagher to take a look at this to say, "Hey, can you guys do any better than this?" Is that likely? Does any other school district, does every school district in Minnesota use MIST or does some use brokers like Gallagher? - Some use brokers like Gallagher. And yeah, we could decide to go out and test the market on this. Gallagher, or excuse me, MIST has been really a well-performing organization. And so- - That's how we did prior to... What's the first year of MIST? '14, '15 maybe, 2014, '15 school year, I think. Prior to that, it was like you're describing, we just had a broker that shop the market for us every year. MIST has a group of,
049I don't know, I don't know the number, 25 school districts that have come together to do this collectively to get better rates, and it's proven. - That makes sense. - Very well worth it. - And there's an element of self-insurance in it too where the first $750,000 of the claim is covered by the carrier and then there's a self-insurance that picks up about $550,000 before you go into the excess insurance. - Right. - So you wouldn't have the benefit of the self-insurance I guess when, if you went to the market. - I guess you could probably structure it that way, but it might be a little bit clumsy. But 24.3% increase. I mean, that's just a tough one to swallow, isn't it? That's 200, that's over $200,000. That's a lot of money. - Yeah it's
050about- - You know what? We're in the wrong business, right? We're in the wrong business. (chuckles) So you think that's a pretty good number. Have you talked to other school districts as well that are seeing a 24% increase? - Within the MIST world, we're right in the ballpark. Some are saying a little more, some are saying a little less, depending on their district situation. Right. All right, thank you. - Okay, any other questions or discussion? Hearing none, I'm going to go ahead and ask the clerk to call the roll. - Arcand? - Aye. - Daniels? Aye. Ellison? - Aye. - Skaar? - Aye. - Streiff Oji? - Aye. - Okay, motion carries. Now we're going to go on to operational item B4. This is going to be action on the school board policies 702, 720,
051729, and 732. These came before the board for the first reading in May. May I get a motion for approval? - So moved. - By Daniels, a second? - Second. - Second by Streiff Oji. Is there any discussion or questions on these policies? And if so, if you could please give us the policy number and the page so that we can follow along. Any questions? Hearing none, I'm going to go ahead and just call all in favor, say aye. - [Members] Aye. - Opposed, same sign. Okay, the motion passes. Now we're to the board forum. Now this is the time for board members to share about upcoming things that they'd like to share in the district. Anybody have anything they'd like to share? Yes, Ms. Streiff Oji. - So I attended an event a couple
052weeks ago on celebrating teachers and educators. It's called Elevate Teaching. It's really about elevating the profession of teaching and all of the good things that go with that profession, within teachers at a time when they may not feel as supported. So I highly recommend that as they do their work, it started here in Minnesota via Roseville school board member. So while I was there, I did come across this Kids in Need Foundation. It's an organization that partners with teachers working in underserved schools where 50% or more of the student population qualified for free reduced lunch to ensure students are prepared to learn in the classroom. And they provide, it's a teacher resource center located right here in Little Canada, where they serve educators, helping to create an equitable learning environment, they allow teachers to come
053and shop for supplies and information. I will pass the information on to Rachel to share out with the school. (faintly speaking) - Okay, thank you. Yes, Ms Daniels. - Well, I wanted to thank all of the teachers for a great year and families and students and congratulate all of our seniors who are moving on and congratulate our retirees for all of their final work in the years of service they've given our district. And I wanted to mention too, with all the graduations, I wanted to mention the 916 Northeast Metro District. I went to several of their graduations last week. We had students that were placed at or had graduated from some of their programs. And those are just outstanding ceremonies. And I wanted to congratulate those students as well. So, thank you. - Okay. Mr.
054Skaar. - I just want a couple of things. One on the graduation event. I mean, he took a risk having it outside with all of those folks. It really paid off. It was really a nice event and a memorable event, I think, for the families and the students. So, that was well done. We have our... (Wayne faintly speaking) Pardon me? - It's a good thing it wasn't planned for Tuesday events. - Yeah, right. (chuckles) So, the other thing was we have our Education Foundation Golf Event on June 16th. If any of the staff or board members are playing golf behind me, please don't hit into me. And then the summer meals program, I just had one question. What do we do to communicate that that's available to the community? - I can take a stab
055at it, but principle is probably right, that communicate all to the families. - We put something in the local press? - Yeah, there's something- (staff faintly speaking) (Wayne speaking indistinctly) - That's great. Thank you. - All right. - I had one more thing. - Okay, Ms. Daniels. - Just being out on the field and looking at the beautiful high school for graduation. Many of us have lived in the district for a long time, I've been here since '81 and in '83 when our first son was born that's when the school split up and it's going to be temporary. Of course, it took a long time for us to have this vision and it came to fruition and it was so beautiful and so wonderful and just so grateful to the community for the support and
056the staff and everyone that put together that ceremony because the speeches were wonderful, the weather was very positive. And Wayne told me he put his order in for next year already for the weather, which is great, so. - Temporary means 41 years in White Bear. (members laughing) - Anyway, it was great. It was like a dream come true for people in the community for a long time. And we're, to have it happen, and I say thank you to everyone. - Anybody else? I just wanna say that I loved the graduation. It brought me back to when we graduated. I was one of them that graduated out on Price Field. It was nice to see back outside. I like the opportunity, too, that at the end of graduation, that siblings and parents could come down, the
057pictures and the smiles, they came down on the field. We never, you know, at Aldrich, we went out and they kinda had to find a, they had an opportunity to come walk right down, and I think families were really excited about that. So we hit it out of the park. Yep. - Sorry, I did think of something. I think the other benefit to being in the stadium is that you can have more than four people from your family. - Yes. - You know, I think all the grandparents and aunts and uncles and family members that I saw there, that wouldn't have been possible at Aldrich. So that was a gift as well. And then kids couldn't just run around, because kids get antsy. That's a long ceremony for littles. And so there were just so
058many beautiful things about it. - I believe we went from 3300 to 5500, so we're about 2,000 persons gain. So that was nice. Congratulations to all the graduating seniors. And we set a high bar for next year. So, all right. We are now at the adjournment section. Can I get a motion to adjourn? - Motion. - Okay, Mr. Skaar, can I get a second? - Second. - Ms. Ellison. All right. All in favor, say aye. - [Members] Aye. - Opposed, same sign. Motion carries, we are adjourned. Thank you. (gavel bangs)