001Thank you for attending tonight's uh meeting. Um and so next we'll move into the agenda and I've got one item that needs to be removed and that's 4.1 was an action item but uh that will be uh changed to a different time. And uh then I look for approval of today's agenda. >> So move >> chair. >> Yeah. Oh, >> chair cot. I make a motion to remove 5.1 from the agenda. I just don't think it's the appropriate time and our focus needs to be on students. >> Okay. >> Well, you said 4.1. >> Yep. 5.1. I did 41. You got 51 then, right? Yes. So 41 and 51 will be removed. and then I'll come back to you, Vice Chair Schindler, if you would like to approve today's agenda as RIT without 41 and
00251. >> Yes. >> Okay. Is there a second to that motion? >> Second. >> Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I oppose the same sign. All right. So we will go into uh 5.2 which is ALC discussion. Dr. Hy. >> Sure. Well, thank you for the opportunity tonight to present. Um this is something that we've been kind of looking at um over the last few months just kind of at a at a higher admin level. Um today was I had the honor to uh meet with the ALC staff um at noon. and had a good discussion with them. Then I was able to go talk to the Southwest staff at 2:00. Had a good discussion with them. Then at um a little before 3:00, met again
003with the ALC staff out over at Southwest and kind of toured and had a had another discussion. And I know through a lot of our our budget cut meetings, individual meetings that I have with board members, um I've kind of brought up this thought. So, um, if we're going to move on it, um, and do something, we got to start talking a little more publicly and working with the staff, um, to do this. Um, so, uh, when I got here, uh, last July and and met with administrators and and we discussed we had, uh, situation where, um, one of the assistant principles at the high school was going to work between the high school and the ALC. Um, as that went through the year, both both high school administration and ALC staff told me, "We
004don't have an administrator here enough." Um, high school noticed they were short. ALC noticed they were short. Um, so, uh, with the retirement of an administrator, we restructured a little bit at the high school. Didn't hire two assistant principles. Went with more deans. uh had some other adjustment there. And with some of that savings, we were able to go ahead um and hire a part-time um administrator um that wasn't didn't currently have another job in the district um to go over the ALC. Um in turn, that allowed uh the counselor who was doing part counselor role, part dean role um at the ALC allowed our counselor to do more counseling. And I can tell you, I've already seen a difference. I've already seen a difference. Um, uh, having the administrator there, she's there as much
005as she can be. Some weeks it's only a couple days a week. She averages three. Um, sometimes she'll go just a couple hours one day and a couple hours the next to get there four days um, a week. Um, but we have seen um, the connection between an administrator and the students grow. and we've been able to see our counselor um in her role of of being a school counselor and being a counselor um the connection between her and the students grow and you can tell a difference. Um, so kind of using that and working with Tyler at Southwest and actually Sean at the high school and some of our discussions, um, when I meet with them either weekly or bi-weekly, um, we've started to talk about if we can't through budget cuts really put
006an administrator at the ALC, do we can we and do we or should we take the ALC to an administrator? So, kind of exploring that idea, walked around. I've looked through all the schools. Uh, the concern with if we were to move it to the high school, there's there's not really a wing or a spot that you could have all the the teachers in one area. They kind of be mixed in with the at the high school. Um, we see that potentially as an issue because a lot of the kids went to the high school, they were not successful. So, they they are over over at the AL current ALC location and they're being successful and and the the worry is they would sli they would slide and they would fall back into old habits
007at the high school. Um so, in kind of looking through the buildings, we did notice um Darcy, if you want to put that up, we did notice that the the ALC and this is all the numbers in the rooms are kind of subject to a little bit of change here. This was a rough design from the conversation and I can tell you already with talking with staff both at the ALC and both at Southwest, this has changed a little bit. But um you'll see when you walk into Southwest, you kind of walk in um to the front office there where it says uh reception and then dean and then SRO. You kind of walk in there. Uh the new entrance goes to the side. Um, but you get to the hallway um where it says
008conference instructional coach, you get to that left hallway and then the the bottom hallway there. When you look at these rooms, they kind of relatively isolate themselves there. So, you you kind of walk back to get there. Um, and our conversation was um we could bring them here if we brought them to the Southwest campus. They could occupy these rooms. Currently, the conference room is used a little before after school for a few meetings. Um, not overly used that much. Um, but in working with Tyler, he said the conference room could really be a conference room for the ALC or an office for Jesse, for the counselor. Uh, the Tiger's Den is is used. That's where they prepare uh um the backpack food program, food for backpacks. So, they they have that's relatively open. Three
009and four we have some social workers in. Five we have a counselor in. Six is a little speech room where they do online speech. Um and then one and two uh there's there's a special ed program that's back there at level three. Um and so with with the declining enrollment, we're at the point where Southwest is actually going to have some open classrooms. So, it is possible to relocate those individual staff members both to some open offices and some open classrooms back in the academic wing and kind of have this spot open for an ALC center. So, what that'll really do is allow us to have a permanent administrator. It allows us to also have a dean of students, access to the SRO, build those relationships with students. Um, and it allows our counselor to
010go from part-time counselor, part-time dean to doing full-time counseling. Uh, the counselor will still be in charge of the online programming. Um, but as I've stated in in the past, uh, Sean and, um, the high school is actually going to take on the online portion of for the district. um they just have more access to staff and probably can schedule that a little bit a little bit more effectively than just using ALC staff. Um we it can potentially give us access to social workers. And then um as we have staff that are working in between Sibi and the middle school, there's extra curriculum like we could potentially open up PE for them. um uh they have access to a little bit more learning opportunities over there from an ALC standpoint. So with that being said,
011you know, there are a number of number of worries, right? We have sixth and seventh grade students over there. Um so, you know, potential the potential worry is that they'll they'll come into that area more than our ALC students will will exit that area. Um uh you know some other concerns. One, we're just moving programming around. Um we see this at least for the next four or five years. Uh this potential spot of the um Southwest will be more and more not used. So it is a good area that that could produce some good use in it. So, that kind of being said, questions or thoughts or >> just to get my bearings in that building right in the center of the building, is that where the skylight is? It doesn't have a number. >>
012Uh, that skylight's kind of that little indent in the media center. >> Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. >> That's where that is. Yeah, it doesn't have a number in it. Yep. Is there a separate entrance getting in getting back there or they come through the entrance with the sixth and seventh graders? >> So, they could and schedule-wise um and I don't have a now that I think about I probably should have provided a schedule. So, um typically right now the majority of our students that attend the ALC um come to the school between 8:30 and about 8:45. Breakfast is a little bit after 8:30 in its current location. Using that same schedule, by 8:30, um, all of our 78 students are in class. So, the majority of the time the students would be coming
013in um to the school would be after they're going into class. The students that do come a little earlier, like if they're on the buses, they're they're already riding the buses with all the students. So, we don't have specific ALC routes. We have a specific ALC route that comes from the high school to the ALC, but that's after they've boarded their buses and gotten to the high school. Some of our students board the bus, they go to Southwest, they go to the high school, get on that bus, and then come back. So, um, they they do run a first hour. It's currently online. We could run a first hour with one or two of the staff where it's in person and they could just come in say starting at 7:50 in the morning, start their
014class early, have class then go to breakfast. >> Times of school day start at Southwest 8:30. >> Southwest starts at 8:30. >> Dr. H, I noticed here that the dismissal of the ALC students um was seemed to be separate. I mean there was the distinctive time frame where the ac were dei dis dismissed and then the younger kids the preschool whatever was dismissed around 10 to three I'm I think that was by design we anticipate the need to do that here. >> Yes. So, if we follow the same schedule, like I said, the majority of the kids come in after Southwest Day starts. If we follow their same schedule, about that 8:30 time frame, uh, your ALC kids would come in. They're done about 2:30. >> So, Southwest is about 3:15. So, the majority of
015them driving, parking would be in front of the of the building along that tree line. So then they would they would go out, leave, and and that would be ideal because we'll have less we don't need more drivers in the in the pickup lines uh for the southwest. We want to be able to clear those cars out. So >> and I witnessed it almost every day because our grandson is here. And it it does it does work that staggered dismissal has that allows for that separation be and I would assume that >> the concerns about where ALC is located are or higher here compared to being over at Southwest. I'm making that up. >> Yeah. Well, I mean, so you can look at it two ways. Um when you start to talk middle school students,
016those are pretty influential kids, right? they're they're wanting to know. They're trying to figure out who they are. Um you know, where do I sit? Um who am I? So, um so you kind of look at that and you say, "Okay, well, if you have an ALC kid, and some of the kids are they're there for various different reasons." Um but but I will also say that some of our um students that need the most help um and that that um are in the need the neediest for education are also those ALC kids. They're the most at risk, right? They're the most at risk for dropping out, the most at risk for, uh, struggling with their academics. And so, uh, generally, you'll find the staff at the ALC really get all of our staff really
017gets to know the kids, but the staff at the ALC seems to get to know the kids at kind of a a deeper level, what their needs are and and stuff like that. So, they they really connect with the kids. And so, um, here we've got, you know, younger kids and and I'll tell you, I've seen every once in a while a little kid kind of gets loose and I'll see a kid will come holding a hand and help help the kid down the hallway and get in line. Um, and you'll probably see a little similar uh here. If if a kid's kind of lost and and where they shouldn't be, I think you'd see the kids say, "Hey, you know, this is this is our hallway or you're supposed to be around the corner."
018Things like that. So, um, but I it they'll be on different schedules, so like the passing times really aren't the same and you know, all that stuff needs to be double checked and and rechecked. But, um, it's just a I think it's a it's a it's a good answer to how do you how do you provide administrative service to to the school, right? Um, attendance-wise, you, you know, you're 40 to 60 kids a day that are in attendance. Um, even though there's over a 100 kids that attend the ALC because they can do some of that work online, so it becomes hybrid for them. I like the uh the more convenient access to, as you talked about, the administrator, the counselor's dean, SRO seems to make a difference. And let's hope maybe we can if
019we can get them here and it works out, we get a nice run like we had at Riverland where the the kids where they get used to it instead of you're here this year and there next year type of deal. So, it seems like it's a a a nice separate area. Uh I haven't been to that area for a while, but it uh when I saw the plan, I thought it looked kind of nice that way. But again, I like the convenient access >> to other people like uh like Mr. Johnson, where are you, sir? There you go. Thanks for your help. >> Access to the cafeteria. I forgot to mention that staircase on the bottom goes straight down to the cafeteria there. So, >> so Steve and I have had many discussions about this.
020He knows that I'm I'm not a huge fan of this. Um, but I do I do appreciate the um the work that's been put into this. I has there been a conversation about a plan B or is there um just to confirm there's not an administrator in this building that could take on that responsibility? >> So so the the hardest part is um finding kind of what we learned is if if the administrator is not dedicated to the building, right? So the hardest thing for our assistant principal from the high school to do was leave the high school because they were sometimes dealing with a lot to come over and and be over here. And then when they were over here, so they we always felt that pull of that administrator. Um so it's it's
021really hard to assign. And then there's three of us over here that are licensed that could run upstairs. Um but I wasn't always here. the other two administrators weren't always here. One of them is has a lot to do with the preschool and they're it's really hard to find subs there. So, a lot of times that administrators in classrooms with kids. So, there was there was a handful of times where um one of us had to completely stop everything that was going on and and go take care of something. So, that was hard. Even with the administrator at the high school had to say this had to wait, had to go over. Um, so that really showed us um the person that kind of needs to be on site and needs to be free enough
022um to kind of adjust as the staff or the students need it. Um that's why we looked at the different sites. When you get to the four other sites in the district, there's not really a wing or an area that's not being used. and and this is being used, but as we go through budget cuts after this year, there's open spots and there's open offices and open spots at Southwest that we can use which really keeps this open. >> Dr. H, how what's the schedule of the SRO at Southwest? Uh typically they so our SRO's uh are housed either at the Southwest Middle or the high school and then they each have two elementaryaries that they will respond to if they need. They'll go to any of the buildings. I mean if if the Southwest
023called the other SRO, he'd come over um to that. But that's typically how they work. And so generally if I need to find one of the SRO, I can go to one of their offices either at the high school or at Southwest and I'll say 99% of the time I can find them. >> Um you mentioned that this would be the spot for four or five years. Um what are you envisioning after that? >> So on the 20th is when you'll get the task force report. And so you'll kind of see everything goes out to 2031 and then and then enrollment wise, district-wise, we'll have to see where the district is and then there might be some additional decisions. So that that's kind of we know kind of enrollment till 20 2031. >> Could you
024share some of the feedback you received today from the Southwest teachers? >> Sure. Um so uh you know concern about um you have students that are you know 16 to 19 some maybe even 20 right? So you kind of have an older student you have sixth and seventh graders. Um and the concern the concern is more about could the younger kids be seeking out something they think the older kids could give them the vape or something like that. Right. um could they be influenced some way in some behavior? Um so there's there's that concern. Um some of the feedback was uh um you know how how are you going to ensure that kids stay in that corner and don't go wander around the building, right? On the flip side, how are we going to make
025sure our seventh and eighth grade students kind of stay out of that area? um and not, you know, try to run around and use that bathroom or hide in those restrooms. Um so it was kind of within those two areas was a lot of the concern and and it's it's mainly just about how do you maintain separation? >> Um so there's some of the the positive feedback that we got back was um you know teachers understand they see how that could be a good part of the building and they understand how that could work. um and that we need as a comprehensive school district, we need to look out for all of our students and if this could be uh help them in their programming, then then yeah, that we could probably should look at
026it. >> Dr. Hell, I just would like to ask the question too. What do you anticipate an assessment plan would be if this move were made? what what I mean what what would be some components of evaluating if it's effective or not? >> Yep. So, uh you know working with the teachers making sure that the the the the educational needs are being met for the students. Um working of course with the administration, you know, are are they too thin? You know, because we could potentially thin out the administration where you know, yeah, you really did need to add somebody. Um um and then looking at the graduation rate, are we continuing are students continuing working on their graduation rate? And that's that's the more piece that I would be looking at along with any discipline
027issues that pop up. You know, watching what your discipline issues are. >> All right. That was that was my concern too about we have additional access to the social work. Well, access is very different than availability, right? Um so that was a concern. And then um talk a little about bit about the counselor moved to full-time because she's taking on some admin responsibility now without an admin. Is that >> right? Yeah. So, uh, right now when an administrator is not there and there is a potential discipline problem, um, she'll look into it, interview the kids. Um, if if it gets to be where there's a removal or something, then she'll call for an additional administrator to come. Um, those kind of things. Some of the other tasks that she's doing are a lot of the
028enrollment pieces where an administrator might sit down and help go over transcripts or um if there's a discipline record um with the student, she's kind of going over the majority of that. So that that piece of of the counseling job of the counselor figuring out what they need, it's probably not going to change a whole lot um for her. Um, but having access to a dean or an administrator right away to take care of some of those other issues will actually allow her to turn around and do more of the counseling end of it. So, and that's what we're starting to see with the the part-time administrator that we have coming in. >> Seemed like when we were at Riverland, we didn't have an administrator there or dean or a counselor either, did we? >>
029Did we administrator? Was it from at Riverland? >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Not not from us. I mean, you had it in. >> Yeah, we had it. >> And then Jesse. >> Okay. Okay. Good. Good. All right. So, the kind of the bottom line is again uh with the budget cuts that we're seeing um and in and all departments looking at cuts. The the administrator to the ALC is one area that we're looking at potential cut here. Um, and the way we can do that is by adjusting the programming. And the district had kind of tried to do that with sharing the AP from the high school over. Um, which we found to not be a very successful model. All right. Okay. Thank you very much. Looks like you're up next also for the MTSS
030discussions. So, another piece of um kind of within the budget cuts and I um I got a few questions on this over the last uh couple of weeks um from various parts of the district. So, that's why I thought we'd we'd um kind of look at it. Um, so if you kind of look up on here, um, so we took a number of compensatory kind of our literature coaches, title one coaches, ATPPS coaches who were what was called braided funding and that's funding that's used between title one, ATPPS compensator and general funds. Um, and we kind of un and we unbraided them. So basically you we had uh 14 total positions that we were paying with you know maybe a 0 2 here a 0.5 there three here and until they had a full position.
031And so as we started to look at funding, how we're paying uh people, how basically how the budget's working, um we looked at these 14 positions and we were able to say, okay, if we were to unbraid them and so like ATPPS goes straight to a model that they hire their coaches, and you'll see there's three on there. um we took those 14 positions, we're able to whittle them down to two literacy coaches um that you see the focus will be K7 and then 812 is needed and the reason for that the two literacy coaches is that focus on really great reading and uh really great readers and witten wisdom that literacy component and really implementing the programming which we're starting to see um some increased um how we're seeing increased literacy skills and our
032students in the classroom now. Um so we know that the literacy coaches are needed. Um and then um but there will be two coaches that work across all the schools um districtwide. Um we're looking at implementing a new mathematics curriculum. We're in the beginning stages of what curriculums are out there, what should we look at, what do we want to test next year, what do we want to get uh board, community um and public feedback on next year, and then what do we want to implement? So, we know we're going to need that mathematics coach. So, we're going to start that coaching now as we're going through the process. And then we have um we're going to move down to one MTSS coach to kind of work districtwide with teachers um on those tier one
033instructional um strategies. So ultimately we had 14 positions that we moved down to four, but we do have those three ATPPS coaches. Those will be hired. So really we moved from 14 positions down to seven positions. the seven positions then will move back into the classroom. And that's what you saw when we did reductions the other time is what happens is they're all tenured staff and so when they move into those classroom back into those classroom positions then our non-tenured staff start to get um I don't want to say pushed out but that's ultimately what happens. So, um, so we're just we're really creating the focus on that literacy, on that mathematics, on those tier one interventions that we can work with staff in the classroom. Um, and really focus on that learning by kids
034in the classroom. Um, and then and we let go of some really great teachers, but making sure we've got those really great teachers in front of kids that are teaching um, and working with our students. So in front of you alongside that I gave you was the job descriptions to those literacy coaches, the mathematics coach and the um um MTSS coach. So if there's any questions, we didn't create four new positions. We we just we kind of unbraided the funding, put them together. A literacy coach does do a lot of of tier one MTSS coaching, but in the literacy realm. A math coach does a lot of that MTSS, tier one coaching, but in the realm of mathematics with the implementation of our programming. And then your your one MTSS coach is working just on
035that general ed tier one. could be reading, could be math, could be social studies, could be science, could be behaviors, but we're working with the those tier ones with the teachers in the classroom with the kids. >> So, at one of our curriculum committee meetings last year, we talked a lot about the read act and the concerns on the mandates. Yeah. >> Especially at that 8 through 12. Are you anticipating that that scope will look different because of that or >> So we we have uh there is our our redact coordinator um and I'm trying not to use specific names. She is actually getting trained in strive which will be the 812 well 712 is really what it's for. So 712 tier one uh read coaching. So what the upper grade teachers would do with
036literacy skills to help students continue to build their literacy skills or if they're struggling with literacy. And so that's that strive. So that person um will implement that strive and then help these other two literacy coaches learn that. But that person in the district is really going to be focused on 812 for the next few years with the strive training. Had you previously told me that the union had to agree to these changes in order to implement them or >> so uh at so they have to do their ATPPSOU and they voted on that um and that that has gone through. So now we have to get theou and get that. So you'll see that April 20th. Um but I have to consider it in all these different moves too. So, and that ATPPS that's
037its own funding realm. So, and the the teachers kind of vote on it and that's how it's going to be used. So, >> good to see some experienced teachers come back to the students too. So, >> yeah. Okay. Um well then let's move on to uh 54. Do you want to kick it off or should I? Okay. Um 54 high school activity fee discussions. Basically um something that I've been uh thinking about for a while since we're cutting two plus million dollars. Isn't it time we start looking for some revenue sources? It's uh been very nice for many years and I was trying to remember Neil, you were pretty new on the board when we went to no fees. I was trying to remember when it was probably eight, nine years ago. But um as
038I looked at it and I was talking to our activities director Dave Langude, uh we got talking about some of the costs. We we currently have 22 different sports that we sponsor here with an average cost of right around $50,000 per sport uh for each uh year which includes coaching, transportation, uh facilities usage, uh equipment, uniforms, things like that. Um out of that, I guess if you do simple math, that's about a million dollars. Um, last year, um, Dave, um, told me today, and I think he got the information from Paul, we took in about $78,500 in, uh, the, uh, fees that are available if you want to pay and how much you want to pay. Um, which, let's see, I I guess I'm not going to do quick math. I might that's probably somewhere
039in that seven or 8% maybe that we're paying for with fees. Again, not a bad thing. Um, according to him, there wasn't there hasn't been a whole lot of huge number increases by um having the um pay as you pay as you want type of um scenario. So, again, as I was thinking about it a little bit, uh my kids have been gone for many years. Way back in the good old days, we seem to uh pay for a couple we we always encouraged as many activities as you could. So the kids, it seemed like would pay a certain amount of money for the first two sports and then the third sport was free. Uh if they took three, if they played two or you get get into the situation where you've got families with
040several kids and then you come back with a scenario of so many dollars for a family. I remember uh uh at the beginning we had three kids in three sports. Uh we just wrote a check for about 600 bucks at the beginning of the year and then they were in any sport or activity they wanted. So was just kind of uh looking back at that uh doing some um you know encouraging I mean sometimes a little skin in the game as they call it uh also keeps us a little bit more focused. Uh I don't really have any specific um numbers in mind, but I wanted to lay out I know David mentioned if we've got around 600 uh students that are athletes and we got a participation rate of about 2.0 0 N 1.98
041which gets us in that 1,200 um unit we'll call student unit uh in in activities uh at $100 a piece that's about 120,000 that's probably you know in that I don't know 10 to I don't know 15% right probably closer to 15% of paying for the entire uh uh activities I'm not looking to see the entire activities paid for I'm just trying to find uh some help. Um Paul, did that 78,000 that we took that include the 10,000 from the foundation or is that a different number because don't they give Neil? Don't you like 10 grand? Yeah, Gary Neil. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Do you was that part of that? Do you remember that off hand or not? >> I don't think that 10,000 was included in the 78,000. >> Okay. Kind of was a
042scholarship fund a little bit, wasn't it? But that would present a total of 78 plus $10,000. >> Okay.$88,000. >> Okay. So again, you know, at $78,000 is nice. Um but it's uh you know, again, just trying to see, you know, trying to find revenue sources if we're going to be cutting uh back on some uh different things. Also, I know there's some activities which I think I'll lead into Dr. Ohio that we've had smaller participation in uh maybe in the five or six student uh unit number which still costs 40 $50,000 depending upon the coaches that travel and everything. And I know we've been involved by bringing student athletes in in co-ops. We also could have the opportunity of sending student athletes out in in co-ops. And as I've seen or as I've been told
043that when the students register for the activities at their school, those schools keep the activity fees, we get nothing unless they want to go ahead and pay us something to go toward our fees. So, a lot of different things I've looked at from, you know, from co-op fees as far as I, you know, and again, just sitting on the state board talking with some of the uh um different schools that happen to have really good hockey programs. You know, the hockey seems to be one of the um sports and and again, think about it, you can't have ice year round everywhere, but one of those sports where there's been a lot of movement or a lot of co-ops that take place. and I'll turn the co-op talk. You've you've worked with co-ops before or talked
044about it. Yeah. >> More than myself. So, >> yeah. So, I've worked with a number of co-ops. And if we if we wanted to approach any schools about co-ops, it's usually about the agreement that you have with them. Um, one of the agreements that I started using in in my last district was when you form the co-op, you you agree to pay the the percentage of participation for the whole sport. So, some schools don't like co-ops because that school district gets stuck with all the busing, say, to and from practice. Um, and so some of the more successful agreements I saw where let's say you have um 15 Albert Lee students and you co-op with um I'll say Austin just because everybody figures that would never happen. Um and you got 20 Austin students, right?
045And so they're going to practice at one site or the other. And generally as the season goes on, you kind of stay at one site or the other. You don't flip-flop back and forth. Um so when you do when in the agreements that I've done, um you write up who's going to hire the coaches, who's going to pay the coaches, all that. But at the end then you have a bill of with all the busing including all the practice busing all the game busing tournaments all the hotel all of it you take your 15 and you pay 15 35ths of it Albert Lee would pay and Austin would pay 20 30ths of it right so you split it right down the middle and that usually makes it as compatible or um for both districts to
046do it um and I've seen where it's multi-dists where there's six or seven districts. And I'll use hockey for an example on one that I know has nine districts. They split that check nine ways. But I can tell you um by the particip by the participation makes it really easy for the school to offer those different events um because they know they're just paying the the portion of the whole event um for it. So, and it helps everybody out. >> Thoughts, questions, G? I would encourage us to do what Dave is doing. We need to look at some sources of revenue and I like that cooperative approach if we were to do that more. My only concern would be with fees would be you know excluding any student that chance to participate. So we'd have
047to have to me some mechanism and it may be the foundation to perhaps provide some support that way. I think we've been pretty consistent in maintaining support to under write uh fees to avoid any student being turned away from an opportunity like what >> and I know that's Dave's worry too but both Dave's the AD and and Clott's worry is that you know we want to make sure that all students can have access. So Neil, >> yeah, it was a happy day. Um I thought when we entered into this agreement where we students didn't have to pay an activity fee I know as a coach um head coach a few years back um one of the really difficulties was in expecting a kid who might be interested in being involved in an activity a sport.
048uh but just flat out u it was a hardship to pay the fee and now there's no hardship to come out for a sport and it it has increased the amount of participation I think so uh I'm I'm a big fan of of that arrangement I know when I was in high school back in the middle of the last century uh we didn't have activity fees and and I think it would have been a real hassle I think to for to expect families to pay that. Uh it's been my understanding that when we enter into a cooperative agreement with another school, they pay for their share of participation in in that activity. That has been the case uh when when I was directly involved in you know those arrangements as a coach. Um so I
049I I I like the arrangement we have now. the the uh education foundation will do everything it can to raise money to to present to the district to help uh you know student activity fees. So I I I would be very disheartened if we changed our our program there. >> Yeah. I'll just share I know that um one of the things that a lot of organizations are charged with is because of funding cuts from sources you have to look for revenue and we at the time made the decision not that that wasn't going to be a place because we wanted all students to have equal access to to those. Um but I think some tough decisions are made during that time and I think there are lots of people that will um you see it
050with the CEO group right you see people saying how can we help this community is very generous in that and I feel like um we also have seen um I've had conversations with Dave Langude and he has said there are people that that um have have approached him and said what can we do to to sponsor or an athlete or something like that. So, I think there are definitely people um that are willing to do that. This I I'm also disheartened because the reason for why we did it, I think we've shown that we've had more participation. We have people participating in activities that never thought that they could um or even thought that they wanted to. So, that that's the hard part, right? But I think it's the way where we are. We have
051to look for revenue generation. um in many different ways. >> Yeah. One one thing I did I neglected to say was that another source of revenue to to assist in the financing of of sports activities are booster clubs. I know our our wrestling booster club raises a lot of money and contributes a lot to uh help provide a lot of equipment uh help pay for buses uh occasionally and and uh housing net tournaments and so on. >> Come on. There we go. Dave, the I I'm anticipating we'll see a a fee schedule of some kind at some point that'll come to the board for review >> if if that's the direction you want me to go. I can bring it I can we can put that together. >> I'd like to see it. Also, I
052I like where you were going too. if there's a cap that a family wouldn't pay more than X in fees because I'm assuming this would cut across athletics and clubs and organizations. Um, but I'd be nice to have some sort of family cap that they wouldn't pay more than a certain amount. And I also want to say too, um, having been an administrator at Riverland and having to look have budget challenges, we had to assess the range of clubs and organizations that we had and this number of sports that we offered and we had to make some tough decisions. And I would encourage the district to examine, you know, if we have really low participation in a particular club or organization, it may not have viability anymore. I don't know what which clubs that would
053be, but I think we have to do evaluate that as well to find a way to save some dollars. >> Oh, go ahead, Mayor. >> Sorry. I I agree with as well with the conversation of trying to find more ways because the conversation eight or nine years ago whenever that happened at the board meeting was very rich in that not only is it sports, it's we're developing students into adults through their education continuing after school as well as the character building. And we all know for kids to be involved is it's super important. So, um I think we need to keep looking at more ways booster clubs. There are options out there. The Tiger Fund has been great to support kids as needed through the foundation. So, that's my thoughts. Um I would just want
054to know what we're anticipating, how much of a difference it will make. you're if you're estimating that the fees cover about 7 to 8% of the cost now, you know, what percentage was covered before and what are we thinking will be covered and that kind of information would be >> with the same participation would be about double that. I mean, and I shouldn't say it's anywhere from 12 to 15%. So, that doesn't seem like a lot of money, but it is. It's about another 7550 to $70,000. And and and it's not the revenue source isn't take this one wrong. It's not necessarily the kids were looking for the revenue source. Some booster clubs don't have the money that others do. And as a coach, uh it's it's nice to see out there. I'm in baseball
055right now and we've got a couple kids that have come in uh and and asked about it too because they wanted to give something and uh that was a a direction we went just to our booster club. But um you know um it is Mary Joe it's you know from academia standpoint and I would never uh want any teacher to feel bad but I think it's just as important with the socializing in an outside real world setting as much as in a classroom setting learning as how we develop our kids and develop us. I remember in college I always thought, you know, it might be over half of the the socializing might be as half as much as I'm getting out of a classroom. So, yeah, it's so important. And Kim, I'll find out for
056sure. I was told today when I asked that there wasn't a lot of difference in the numbers in kids. Now, I would say in the first year or two, if I remember when we talked, we might have had a good 20% jump in participation and then I think it's leveled off. I think that's kind of how it's been. But, you know, I don't want to lose 20% either just because we're going to do this. So, um, totally agree. That's why just obviously discussion, you know, everybody's ideas on what we can do. And I mean, I don't I don't want to have to have a bake sale for it, but if we do, we can, why not? So, any other thoughts? It's uh it's it's it's again it's great to have these kids involved as much
057as they can and uh um again develop them into full full people. So all right seeing no other comments I guess that takes us to 5.5 which is a close session persuant to Minnesota statute section 13D.03 for labor negotiations. I'll look for a motion to go into close session. So move. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Is there any discussion? We got to get Greg Jensen in here. Say none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I oppose the