001Recording in progress. All right. Dan's been on the beach all day. So, is he there? He is. He's So, we have everyone here and it's 5. So, I just called to order that. Hey, are you guys on mute right now? We are not. I can't cuz I can't hear you. Wondering wondering if that's my problem. Um, we have sound working. Matt Hughes, can you hear us? Yep. I got I got you. Okay. So, that's on your end, Dan. Better do that in the chat, huh? Yeah. It wasn't feedback. I got Oh, I'm not sure. Who said that? Damian. Damian. Damian. Hello. Hello. That's better. That's better. I think we're good to go with Dan. Can you hear us now, Dan? Apparently not. Look, now it's not me that was it was it's not me that
002was holding us up after all. I feel a little better. Yeah, I know. I I don't know if he uh Can you hear us now, Dan? Uh, he messaged. Okay, thanks. I'll figure it out. Don't wait for me, though. So, okay. Are you ready, Chris? I am ready. So, we call the meeting to order at 502 and item 2.0 is [Applause] 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. Item 3.0 O is agenda motion to approve the agenda. I'll second. Thank you. Item 4.0. Oh, we have to vote. Oh, thank you. Uh, and so all in favor I I I all opposed. Motion carries. Item 4.0, acknowledgements and recognitions. Do we have
003Did anyone sign up for speaking? I don't have anything. Okay, that's for the community comments, but we don't have any acknowledgements or recognition. Okay. Uh rec and so item 5.0 is recognition of visitors and community comments. Uh do we have community comments? No. Are we wanted to sign up? You wanted officially supposed to sign up if you want to quickly want to be able to. So, committee comments is an opportunity for the public to address the school board on an item included in the agenda in accordance with guidelines printed in the end of the agenda. Should I be reading any more as our formalities that we do? And so, it looks like we have Jason Urban signed up for community comments. Welcome to the I'm just wondering if there will be a response from last
004meeting that I was here. Is there going to be a response at all? We can certainly shoot you an email or follow up with a phone call. Typically the board doesn't respond to community comments, so it's just input, but um I can certainly give you a call. Email would be better. Okay. Email. Okay. Anything more? No. Thank you so much for coming, Jason. Um so item 6.0 know is report 6.1 is the principal report. [Applause] Good evening. All right. So, as we uh finish out March here, uh we have uh recognized um 150 SATU students for demonstrating junior Viking values. Um it's always a fun thing at the end of the month to at the beginning of the month to bring the kids together to recognize them for being respectful, being responsible, being their best.
005The other big thing in Saut Elementary is we're talking um pre-K and kindergarten registration. And so we're hosting uh the Thursday after spring break on April 3rd, a family fun night. We're going to have bounce houses in the elementary gym, um games, um treats. Uh there's going to be an open house going on in our preschool rooms with preschool staff there. Um our kindergarten staff are going to be hosting elementary school tours for families um and just kind of getting the word out. So, we really hope that the information is out now in the community. We really hope um any and all families with kids who will be ages 3 to 5 by September 1st come on out to our school to check out all the great things we're doing um in our preschool and
006elementary um schools. So, that's what's happening in Satuth right now. And then the big thing in our middle and high school is we're finishing up course registration for next year. Uh Miss Kovich, our school counselor, is just tracking down kids who haven't quite turned in their registration forms yet. So, we're hoping to get that all wrapped up by tomorrow before spring break. So, then we can start building out schedules and looking at numbers. Um, spring sports are underway. You can always tell it's springtime when you have to walk out of a room at the end of the day and slowly open the door and look both ways so you don't get trampled by a sprinter practicing in the hallway. Um, so track team is out and our softball and baseball teams are also getting ready
007for their seasons. And then our seniors are really busy um applying for scholarship opportunities. Um so the large number of scholarship opportunities that are available to seniors, those are all due uh when we get back from spring break. So we're reminding them every day to get their I have a very specific unprofessional kind of question. Um is is it normal for them only unprofessional in that it's not really was my role as a schoolboard member. Is it normal that's just on my mind? Is it normal for him to ask for your bank account number on the scholarship applications? I I haven't filled out a scholarship application for 25 years, so I guess they don't know. Huh. They vary. They're all different. So, it's not that it's not necessarily a scam. No, I mean, if if
008they're getting it from the school, they're okay. And legit, right? Yeah. But they're all different. Yeah. And some are like money comes to us and then we give it to the kid and some are great to the kid and some are, you know, they're all depending on the Yeah, I got a call. I thought that was unusual, but I mean kind of feels weird. Yeah, it does. All right. Sorry. No, that's great. But I again I I know I was amazed last year when we handed out over $300,000 in scholarships to our graduating seniors last year in this small community. That's really amazing. So, um, we're, like I said, we're reminding them every day to get those, um, applications in MCA testing. We're just kind of gearing up for the planning of all that stuff.
009And then, um, just wanted to thank the community for coming out to conferences this last week and a half. Um, on Tuesday, it was really fun because our Spain travelers were hosting a meal. Um, so it was great to, you know, have conferences going on and people coming in and sitting down and having a meal and supporting our, um, student travelers. So, that was great. And then just a reminder to the community that we're on spring break next week. So the kids will school tomorrow. Yes, there is. Yeah. All right, that's all I have. Thank you, Josh. Um, so item 6.2 is student representative. Got a Okay. Um, hello everyone. It's nice to see you all again. And we're in the last stretch of three as our last day is tomorrow. And then following me,
010we have our spring break and students are getting really excited. Um, we have one last final harra for winter uh, winter sports. We had two alpine athletes compete at the Western US High School Championships, which brings top high school um, racers from the western half of the US. And the 2025 event was held at Grand Tari Resort, I don't know how to say it, in Wyoming. And Goshi Deitro placed fifth in Slalom. And the boys team got second overall and team Minnesota got first overall which is really exciting and cool. That's awesome. Yeah. And um with the close of winter sports comes the beginning of spring sports. So track and softball and baseball are ready to go. And our track team has their first meet tomorrow in Superior um where they're going to be competing
011indoors. And recently, um, the fifth graders went to Wolf Ridge for two nights and they got to enjoy lots of yamu meals and fun activities and some more education. And the highlight of their trip was the ropes course. And then this month, our fourth, 7th, 9th, and 12th grade classes had retreats. So the fourth grade learned about kindness, the seventh graders learned about courage, the freshman learned about respect, and the seniors learned about wisdom. And then during these retreats, they had like small groups and activities and things like that. And then at the very end of each retreat, everyone would circle up around this like microphone and they get the um opportunity to tell the class about a way that you could be more courageous, kind, respectful, etc. And they were all super fun to
012be a part of and they were all really high energy. And then for clubs recently, the National Honor Society volunteered at EATS. We handed out gloves and utensils for various vendors and helped set up and clean up. And I got to serve walleye chowder for now. So that was fun. Um for the past couple of months, a robotics team has been building their robot um which is supposed to like pick up coral and put it on a reef. It's supposed to like imitate that. And then recently they got to travel to Duth to compete among 50 other teams. And they ended up getting uh getting 26th place. And then as Mr. Balanchi mentioned our travel club was fundraising for their trip to Spain and they had a taco night on Tuesday. And then also on
013the topic of traveling, our grades 7th through nine, I believe, are about to leave for their DC trip. So they were fundraising for pizzas and they're leaving the spring break to go visit museums and historical sites and things like that. And that's all the news I could come up with recently cuz I'm already checked out for spring break. And I hope you all enjoy your remarks. And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me through my email. Uh, what day do they head out? Sunday. Sunday morning before the sale comes. Very, very bowl is going to state. Oh, I didn't even know that. Exciting. Exciting thing. Yeah. Okay. Super exciting. So, you have our bra our Yes, I do. So, I have them in this bag and they're frozen, so I
014don't think they'll melt by right now, but on my ice. Okay, now Dan, you're missing out on your butter break here. Some save it for you, Dan. This one is for you. Thank you guys so much. Hi. I'm just going to eat dance. Appreciate it. Thank you, Greta. Yeah. Have a good rest of your meeting. You too. Have a great spring break. Thank you. Did you do anything epic? Oh, I do actually want some chocolate. Yeah, take some chocolate. I know. Okay. Thank you guys. Bye. All right. So item 6.3 is the superintendent report. [Applause] Thank you. Um I'll just mention a few things. In my written report are um some reminders about advocacy work with the legislature. Uh I will be and Reena will be joining me tomorrow uh with Senator Housechild for a
015meeting and then his town hall uh at the YMCA. So that's in there. Um, also in my report, um, was the note that the LCCMR grant was officially submitted earlier this week. Uh, that is a grant for $250,000 that is separate from the referendum that, um, would fund outdoor trail improvements and outdoor learning areas. So, uh, we'll see. I've now figured out that that is a long process. uh if if we get past round one, then there'll be in more presentations, more meetings. Ultimately, then it gets put into the legislated hopper next January for approval probably like like May a third 14 months from now. Um so it's a super long process before we'll know if we we got those dollars. Um but we're optimistic. Um that's the money that is from the Minnesota state.
016Uh, in my notes, I I gave the board some um notes about, you know, budget struggles amongst other districts across the state of Minnesota. That's a just a loud cry right now among superintendent. Uh, it's a really good day to be a Viking. We're currently financially stable. U, but it just speaks to kind of the wind that's blowing out there in public finance um over the next couple years and what may be coming. Uh and then last but not le also there's a link in my report to the week or the monthly uh progress report from ICS. Um so Matt who's on our Zoom call today once a month provides an update and so the February um update is in in your report. And then now last um I want to say thank you to
017everybody who participated in the annual eats event for our education foundation. The foundation provides grants for our staff to do innovative and creative and fun things with our students. Uh the event uh they are not totally done with totals, but it's close to $10,000 was raised uh to push back into our classrooms and into the things that our kids do. So great event, uh great vendors as great food. Greta was there serving chowder. Yeah, great food. Was amazing this year. I feel like this year might be the best ever for the food. Oh, you did. I was in New Orleans. So, I missed it. Training or something. Have food there, though. We had good food in New Orleans. Yeah. Yeah. Don't worry about that. But thank you to all of the donors, all the um
018private auction donors, the vendors, everyone that uh dedicated their time and money and energy for that. It's a great thing for our kids and and for the foundation. That's all I have. Thank you. Any questions for him or anything? Okay. Um 7.0 is the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to We just approved the consent agenda, right? That's all. Do I have a motion to approve or anything you want to pull out? I motion to approve. I'll second it. Uh all in favor? I motion carries. I I Oh, there's Dan. Okay, there he is. He figured it out. Tech issue. Um, moving on to item 8.0, discussion and action items. 8.1 is to accept the February revenue report. Do I have a motion? Do we need to discuss it? You have anything you want
019to say about it? The two items that I would just note is um both on the expenditure um side and the revenue side. We see fund six um appearing on our budget spreadsheet and that is the bond sale and then the start of payments for IC and things. So um I will have to do budget revision because currently there's zeros in those spots. So that will be presented probably talking through it when we talk about our um uh budget the starting of our budget talks in April. So then we'll have those revisions put in there. So that's really all I have as far as this report goes. Everything else looks um we're tracking fine. Yep. Looks like we're a little ahead of budget actually. Is that true? Um as far as expenses, revenue side there.
020Yeah. Oh, I mean where should we be right now at 70% or um if you look in the gray column from 324, okay, you see what last year's percent of budget spent was and then you can compare it to the far right. So pretty similar. We're almost right on with last year, right? And so as far as the um regular instruction, that's going to look like we're ahead of budget, but then in June when we pay out all the teachers, it catches up. So that's kind of it's going to look a little bit low, but we're tracking fine. Okay. I'll make a motion to accept the report. I'll second. Any discussion? All right. Uh, all in favor? I. Motion carries. Item 8.2. Approve. Approve service contract with Greater Minnesota Family Services. I little delayed. Um,
021point of information for item 8.2, uh, what the service contract represents is a 3% increase in our cost uh, from last year. And you'll note in the language, it's actually now crafted so that they can have two FTEEs in that. Um and uh we don't pay for two if we don't have two. So the position is posted. We have one person right now. Um and they're hoping to expand that to two. And uh that was done a a while back. Um so um that's not a change either. So the only real change is a 3% inflationary increase to what we're paying. And also remember that the local healthcare foundation uh has paid for about about half that um through a grant. So, I actually have a question about that when I was reading it. Um,
022you know, I see that the primary source for a lot of the payments is Medicaid, correct? Which kind of like makes me kind of wonder what happens if we see the cuts that are being talked about to Medicaid. Um, you know, how how how would this how would this happen then? or would it? Yeah, it it the company itself, Greater Minnesota Family Services would have to figure out how to manage that fiscal fluctuation. And um so like other third party building structures, they they bill Medicaid, they bill family insurance companies for that time, um that's how they get most of their revenue. So if Medicaid goes away, do they stop serving those kids? Do they find other ways to fund the work? um those questions will be navigated if and when they come at them.
023You know, that's I suppose one benefit of having a vendor versus like we've got a contracted employee, but um that would be Greater Minnesota family's problem to figure out and it might that very well impact us as in losing time, service time. Mhm. I just think um kind of as we go along and you know, Department of Education is going away. There's just things happening out there that um for me I would like us to be able to identify what the potential risks are as these different things happen. And this that was one that stood out to me here when I saw Medicaid. So because sooner or later we may have to make other decisions based on things that are out of our control like that. So yeah, you never know. Uh so okay, when
024we can define when we can define the problem, then then we'll start tackling it. But at this point in the ball game, we're assuming that we're going on with um sort of a partnership with them for next year. All right. And it's been absolutely um what's the word? Uh valued and appreciated amongst our teaching staff that our kids are getting services that they haven't gotten before. Um it's a big big deal uh that they're getting services right here at school. Uh Lisa is a part of our team which is so different than vendors that are kind of outside coming in. She's here part of our she feels like a part of our faculty. So, no, I I'm I'm not questioning the value. Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm in fact what I'm hoping is that we have
025a backup plan. Yeah. You know, in case something like that happens. Anyway, that's my only question about it when I read it. So, do we have a motion to approve the serving service contract with the Minnesota Family Services? I'll make that motion. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? I I motion carries. Uh item 8.3 is to approve the schematic design documents for IC. All right. Um I am going to ask Matt and Damian to kind of take the lead here. Um guys, you should be able to share your screen if you want to. Um unless you want me to take care of that. Um, we're not seeing it yet. There we go. Power. We are. Yes. Um, for transparency, um, Dan, Shirley, and Reno, um, and I and Josh and Teresa, we've seen this
026in the PC meeting. We've gone through it. Um, so I know Matt and Damian won't take nearly as long with this meeting as we did in the PC meeting. Um, yeah, because that's the purpose of PC is to is to make these meetings a lot more abbreviated. So, um, take it away, guys. That's all pretty much that packet right now. Um so the purpose of this meeting will be to improve schematic design after review it. Um so the cover today drawing and review after that we'll do following that we'll talk about overall project schedule it's a little down the next slide here drawing I'm vacation track. So you'll see each area packet pack. So here's an overview or plan of the school and left screen. I'll touch on the norththeast corner which is the fitness
027fitness tradition. We have our station box, athletic dining room, weight room, visitor locker room, and then our building services that'll connect to uh the existing teaching area as well as uh um the existing building services. Um our other major addition is the flex classroom which is on the east side of the courtyard. Um and then our third and final area of addition is the um admin area addition on the southwest corner of the school. Kind of right in front of where the existing admin entrances there. Um that'll house a variety of um things such as a new nervous office, um counseling area, um superintendent's office, principal's office, business manager's office, um as well as a new safe and secure entrance underneath our new front entrance canopy. move to the heavy remodel areas which are the
028areas highlighted in yellow. Um all of our toilets and sped um areas are covered under that heavy remodel area as well as our Ojiua and AAC center. Um you can see that circle around the Ojiua and AAC center which is our new clear story that's going to be rising above the roof there. So that's one of our two clear stories um roof bumpout and the other one is running north to south from the cafeteria to the welcome center. So you can see that yellow um highlighted rectangle that butts into the orange around the cafeteria. So that's where where a bump out in the ceiling is going to be there. I'll move into the orange which is a medium remodel. Um you can see our board and flex room um space is that possible DCD area
029um was one of the orange areas as well as the space underneath the cafeteria. That would be new new floors, stuff like that. Um there's a couple sped areas and classrooms to the north of that just south of the the current GM facility that are covered in that medium remodel area. Moving on to the light remodel, which is kind of that um gray blue area. Um you can see there's a variety of spaces covered in that. Um some current sped spaces, some existing elementary classrooms um as well as a flex area west of the cafeteria. So, those are kind of our four areas of uh construction ranging from total additions to heavy to medium to light remodel. Um I'll kind of get into some um SD narratives now. So, architectural and the SD phase has
030some drawings that they associate with the um project. Um but the rest of our consultants kind of just have narratives that they propose at this time because architectural is kind of kind of the first to the plate um with getting the drawing set up and the title box um and areas like that. So once we get the design development phase at the end of May here in early June for board approval um each each consultant will have their own associated drawings and that's when we walk through those drawings. Um but for now I'll just touch on um structurals narrative. Um, so it's going to be pre-cast building at the new gym box. Um, roughly 30 foot walls for the new gym, 14 to 16 foot walls for the fitness area. Um, the new flex room
031will be steel stud walls on concrete and concrete slab. Um, and the admin edition will be same thing, concrete slab, um, steel stud walls on that as well. Brick veneer, um, bar joist for the roof structure for everything. And then we're going to be adding some glue lamp beams um potentially in some areas such as the new commons area. Um and then kind of working around the existing structure within the cafeteria in the media center. So there's a lot a lot of good reading there. I think it's a five or six page document in your narrative. Um everybody should have all all five or six pages of that narrative um within your packet. So uh if you have any questions on that, just feel free to reach out. Move on to the mechanical narrative. So,
032it's the same thing as structural. They don't have any drawings to work off of. They're just highlighting um some of the um things we're going to be doing in the school. So, there's a variety of deferred maintenance um items that everybody's probably aware of. Replacing a couple water heaters. Um rerouting some storm water out of that um flex addition area. Courtyard potentially just to save on some issues that I've heard about within there. Um there's a lot of restroom and plumbing retrofitting and moving underground. we're going to be doing um trying to utilize as much existing plumbing as we can, but with a variety of bathrooms and bathroom layouts that we're going to be undertaking in this project, there'll be some some plumbing work there. Um running new fire suppression lines, um anything and everything
033like that. So, this is a 10-page document. Same thing. There's there's a lot of boilerplate items in here. There's some overlap with CMTA between mechanical and electrical narratives. Um but you can you can read through that and highlight anything there that uh like to get brought up. So, move on to the electrical narrative. Um, same thing here. There's a variety of deferred maintenance items we're going to be um undertaking such as new security um new security st cameras, um door access, door access control, um new paging throughout the school, um new LED lighting interior and exterior. Um 2 by two's lights where we can, 2x4 lights um in existing areas where we're not touching ceilings. um new fire alarm, probably moving the existing fire alarm to the YMCA so we can continue to utilize YMCA
034activities throughout the construction. Obviously, we can't shut the shut the YMCA down. So, the new fire fire alarm system with the voice evac option throughout. And then it'll be just the electrical hookups to all the mechanical units that we're installing, whether it be new air handlers or rooftop units. Um rewiring to the new domestic water heaters, um IT upgrades, working through IT upgrades, etc. Moving on to civil. Um civil was a little bit limited just because we are working through our survey and soil borings right now. Um but survey is wrapping up this week site survey as well as a soil boring report. So um civil doing the best they can to progress with the design which is limited items at this point. Um we had to work around a lot of snow and frozen
035ground obviously throughout the winter here. So um civil will be be working through their narrative and plans through the design development phase. Um but for now they've been working with local agencies to establish um SWIP so storm water pollution prevention controls BMPs best management practices stuff like that. So there's a there's a lot of areas to take into account with the um groundwater potential and uh water just running over over the land and working around existing structures. With that I'll get into project budget and estimates. So got a snippet here of the project budget. Again, everybody has this in their um narrative packet in front of them. Oh, go ahead. Damian, any questions on the actual uh schematic design documents at all anyone has? Before we move on, I was going to mention or Matt
036was going to mention or I was going to mention that we're going to have uh there in the packet you will find the renderings and you'll find that the architect has marked up those renderings with uh some of the finishes that they're they're looking to or proposed to use. Uh so again if you want to take a look at some of that information it's good information stuff that we budget. Thanks Damian. And for board members this budget sheet is page 57 I think in your back 51. Sorry 51. Sorry m questions. Keep going. going. Yep. 175 technology tracking construction cost 1715,350 hard construction cost there is a $1 million project for shoes. I'm not at this time. So this is our large design estimate. So on the left side you descriptions there as well in
037the middle totals 15 million million 24,000 then you can see the variety of items on track contractor 5% as well as% tax isolation grant for um slightly over construction budget. We're making a lot of this time taking us on that over. Any questions on that? Can you hear us, Damian? Nope. I can't hear but I can hear you can't hear us. Okay. Did Raina have a question at all? Nope. I think I just wanted to uh to note that these these charts that we're seeing are going to get filled in quite a bit more as this process goes along. Right now they're we're just kind of see I didn't understand that. Can you repeat? I was talking the budget mostly but that these items will get flushed out a little bit more. They all Yeah.
038that we're really just kind of looking at the templates we're going to see throughout the project. Y4 at this point you're going to see is 95 construction cost that's not going to change my project out with it contractor then you'll be able to see breakdown of each contractor what they what they building what they have left to build as well as projects So they're all nice round numbers right now like that. Right. We'll update this document every month. Perfect. So we're starting out over budget with estimates right now. Just broad estimates. Yeah, they're broad. We do have you know you know the council area you know, the%, you know, so we're a little over again. I don't know how good I feel about fairly confident. Well, keep in mind the whole bidding process drives this,
039right? So, you know, bids can come in under, they can come in over cost of steel. We don't know what's going to happen with that. So, there's there's so much unknown right now. And if it comes in over, then we have to make decisions about what goes away, what we cut. Yeah. So perfect. And with that in mind, I felt like our feedback last week when we were in Grand Portage was not very favorable about our round glass entryway like the the a proposed AAC. I didn't hear that. I feel like was I am I imagining that that people were like we don't really want to be the first thing in the building and the idea of the clear glass was the kids want to have make sure it's frosted so people aren't they're not
040like in a fishbowl that came up but I maybe interpreted that but that's what I felt like I was hearing yeah I mean unless like in the group discussion I don't think I heard that I didn't I've I've heard a lot of positive about the culturally repres representative approach but the circle and the um some of the floral patterns from the trading post and the lodge and and some of that. But um other than the concern of not wanting to be in a fishbowl that we have heard from the kids actually more than anybody. I feel like I guess that's what I thought we heard last week from adults too that were there. I didn't hear too being front and center and in the last was they weren't as excited as the as the design
041looks about it. ICS wouldn't I mean it's been in the drawings all along even to the voters this big round entrance I guess fishbowl I guess that frosted glass that impact I know we have more user groups coming I'll touch on another slides here at Grand April with GW. So that's one we can revisit for sure design next week. Any other questions on budget register estimate? Okay. With that timeline changed further along in there. Um right now we are completed with design for day six and we've already been designing associated with each mechanical electrical so so tracking changes schedule timeline at this point. So next step we're going to have a group of community meeting info input design development process through that process finding space layout and we will be additional user groups of April
042tenatively in addition addition to our design project with that that's all I have thank to everyone and let them open up to anyone questions here. Matthew, can you just clarify the the action that the board is being asked to take what it does? So it's just the approval of mathematic design. So you'll just approve all narratives packet and then formal design projects. I think it goes about saying well like none of this is like worth it. You're not like committing sandstone, you know, like this strong is the it'll all keep moving. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is schematic design and now we move into DD design development when they get more granular with the consultants and the assessments and and then it's when we get to approving construction docs that's what are going to go
043out for bid. Okay. So this next phase, everything has to get tightened up tighter and tighter and tighter for approval of construction docks which will be on September 18th if we follow our our outline. Is that accurate, Matt? What I just said? Y this time is that correct? I have a motion to approve. I'll second that. Any further discussion? All in favor? I I Motion carries. Item 8.4 for discussion step and family survey data. All right. So, we need Yeah, we need Matt to stop sharing. Uh, and now we're going to be moving to Cullen. Cullen, um, I can mute us when you are presenting, but um, then you can't hear the board if they have questions. So, we've It's kind of weird. I don't know why we're getting some echo here. Yeah. Um, why
044don't you go ahead and share your screen if you're comfortable with that. Uh and then we'll walk through uh so for our board members, this is the survey that went out to all district parents and staff. Cullen works with RAP strategies. Um and uh he is going to walk through what the survey results um were or are uh and then at that point uh the board can have some discussion about next steps, answer questions. I do see that on our Zoom call, um, Lori Christensen is also listening in. Um, so she may jump in if you get to some questions that she feels like she wants to help answer. So with that, Colin, go ahead and rock and roll. Yeah, absolutely. Those of you working November remain aware. Can you sit closer to your microphone,
045Colin? Just can you hear me? Can you hear me? Yeah. I think you have to be closer to your microphone. Okay. Okay. All right. Um, so as I was saying, you guys had [Music] function core groups uh So, your parents, your staff, uh just to get a sense of uh their attitudes toward uh this opportunity. So, just to kind of kick things off here, um just a quick reminder of where things were left in November. Um obviously question one um approved, question two and three uh narrowly rejected. Um but I think biggest takeaways um just at least on our side were um really that um your community regularly shows um very strong support uh for the the decisions you're making as far as uh school investments go. Um one thing uh you may not know
046is that uh your district is the only district um in all of rural Minnesota to have passed voter approved um any kind of voter approved funding uh during the past three presidential elections. That's pretty impressive just given the uh relatively kind of tense political environment um and uh the rates that you know property taxes and just general property values have been going up recently. Um so it's a really impressive track record. Shows that your your district uh the residents of your district just really show a good amount of trust um uh in the the decisions you're making to uh to improve your buildings and your facilities. Um so this survey in particular um as I said was shared only with parents and staff. That's a very important thing to remember here just as we're interpreting
047uh the results. Um they're not meant to be interpreted as representative, you know, of the entire community or even of all of staff and parents. Um rather they're uh a reflection of, you know, the people who are paying the highest amount of attention uh to the decisions you're making and to this capital investment planning uh that you guys are doing. So um definitely useful. Uh just a quick note on kind of how this survey was conducted. um conducted online using the Survey Monkey tool uh a little less than a month ago at the end of February um to parents and staff. Um all of the uh results that I'm going to show here or at least most of them are rounded to uh the nearest percentage point. Um there are a couple that uh won't
048necessarily add up to 100 just because there was an option for any questions uh for people to respond that they uh didn't know or that they preferred not to respond. Um so those were just omitted unless they were a notable piece um of the hole. As far as the number of people who took the survey, um we had 213 total respondents. Um about 3/4 of those were parents and about a quarter were employees. Uh we had a little bit of overlap there. About 12% of all who took it uh were both an employee uh and a parent. U met both of those criteria there. Um and then uh the vast majority of people who took it um have are pretty established within the district, have lived here for over a decade, and nearly all are
049property owners. So certainly have a stake um in any decisions uh as they relate to uh property taxes um or any kind of levies. As far as what we sought to answer, of course um wanted to gauge kind of the relative appetite and attitudes toward uh making any further capital improvements um with assistance from the RB. Um, and then as far as those kind of outstanding improvements go, uh, which ones are considered sort of the highest priority, which are going to receive the the the most amount of traction, um, if they progress forward. And then, uh, just to kind of get a a rearview look at the, uh, the last, um, referendum, um, we asked why voters may have, uh, voted no to question two or question three. Um, just a reminder, you know, the
050totals that we're going to see definitely not static. They're going to change uh, um, over time. uh if you continue to pursue um these these investments going forward um we'll talk a little bit about that uh kind of toward the end takeaways. So just to begin here um this is uh the results from uh when we asked about uh how people voted in the 2024 referendum. Uh 91% of everybody that took the survey uh reported that they did vote in the 2024 referendum. Um and of those who voted, 58% said they voted both in favor for question two and question three. Um obviously that total is higher than the the overall community. Uh given that both of those questions were rejected. Um uh which is to be expected just given that you know your parents,
051your staff members very likely uh are more likely to support uh investments um in the schools. uh the participants who did say they voted no um we asked what was the biggest reason for that. Um and I would say uh when we've done surveys like this in the past in other districts um almost always the number one response is something to do with the tax impact. It's a version to changes in taxes. A little bit of a different result here. Um certainly did see some of that anti-ax sentiment. Um but the the more prevailing attitude was that um people weren't quite sure that your district was prioritizing the right things um in these questions. Um the the other uh part of the the pigraph that you're seeing there um in the orange uh that was
052uh the respondents who chose to actually write out um their own opinion or answer to that question. Um, and in reviewing those, uh, we saw a lot of those those, uh, similar kind of sentiments reflected that, uh, they weren't quite sure if the district needed a third, a third gym station or weren't sure exactly how the improvements that were going to be made as part of these, uh, these questions were going to, um, impact, you know, uh, educational success and stuff just given that they were very activities and athletics uh, oriented. We then of course asked about um whether or not uh the inclusion of IT RB uh grant funding would impact uh their their decision to vote um on a a future referendum. Um so here on the left here you'll see uh this
053is the information that was provided to the respondents for the survey. Um we we shared that uh there is interest in providing a $7 million uh grant to cover roughly half the cost of those remaining improvements. um and that the the projected tax increase um of a referendum to fund the remainder of that cost would be about $4 a month uh for the median value home in your district compared to about $11 a month which was the projected tax impact um in 2024. Um so based on that info asked if they would support a new referendum to fund those improvements and as you can see a very sizable majority 70% said yes that yes they would. Um if you'll recall uh in the previous uh results uh 58% of participants uh said that they had
054supported questions two and three earlier. So we do see um a bit of a jump uh there in the the amount um that would support and that's what's shown here um just this comparison. So these were this is how uh respondents voted in 2024 and then on the right is how those same people so those people who voted last year um that's how they said that they would vote uh if the Irb assistance was included. So um again you do have a share of of people that are you know always going to be opposed. That is not surprising. Um but the fact that uh just based on those couple of details uh that I shared um people were uh were willing to to some degree um change their level of support for those investments. And
055then we also asked about uh the kind of level of prioritization um people had for uh the the individual improvements that would be included um in that plan. um on a scale of 1 to five, one being, you know, this should not be a priority, this is something that does not need to be urgently addressed at all to five being this is a uh a very urgent priority, something that absolutely needs to be taken care of. Um and then we averaged out the scores that people gave for all of these uh individual issues. Um initial takeaways um as you can see on the right there uh the kind of first and foremost is that there is positive support you know belief that these are priorities things that needs to be um addressed but that sentiment
056isn't necessarily strong. We did not see um any particular uh thing any particular improvement that scored an average of over a four. Um and so I think overall um our recommendation is that you know anything that's below kind of that three three and a quarter mark um is probably something if things move forward if these improvements are are pursued um it's going to require a little bit greater communication just to demonstrate the uh the need um get people to understand you know why these were included in this plan um overall and um you'll see that uh there are a couple of things in this list particularly the track and field stations outdoor running track and the ADA compliance issues that are kind of outliers there. Um, and just can we can kind of anticipate that
057um in the future uh as you as you look into these improvements, those might be the uh the things kind of those those flagship improvements that might uh uh carry these these overall this overall plan. So, so that is the individual improvements. Um main takeaways uh from all of this data. Number one is is that the strong majority of these teachers, these parents, they are likely to support a new referendum um if you move forward uh with this and with this IT RB support. Um it's uh it's it's going to increase your chances of success relative to 2024. Um and just for that reason alone, I certainly think it's a pretty exceptional um opportunity that you guys have here for for your district. Um but then the only kind of word of caution that that
058I'd offer is uh was the results um of the kind of prioritization that respondents gave uh to the individual improvements. Um as I said, it's it's there's definitely positive support for those those improvements, but um not necessarily as intense as we might expect from uh from parents and staff just because they do tend to be the biggest uh supporters, biggest advocates um for capital improvements. So as far as next steps, um certainly think that uh this these initial results uh certainly are are grounds for you know exploring a new referendum. um the the opportunity that is is is here just given the uh the Irb's uh potential support is pretty unique and um I don't int I don't pretend to be an expert in the IT RB's uh funding process or um how selective they
059are with that but have to believe that that is not going to be a uh long-term um offer um so definitely requires um or merits a good amount of uh of examination um so I guess a question too just to kind of be be tossing around and be thinking about is that um if this isn't taken advantage of now um what are what are these improvements need to be made going to start competing with in the coming decades? Kind of the if not now then when question certainly something to consider. Um an a very clear step um that we'd recommend that you take going forward is just continue collecting community feedback. Uh this survey uh kind of first step gauging those those core core groups core supporters. Um but going forward uh would recommend doing
060a more kind of communitywide survey to all residents uh to gauge their attitudes on this. Get a closer look at how or more representative look I should say um of how your total electorate um would perceive this and then um potentially the opportunity to do a representative scientific survey. So something that is going to be um far more reliable. Um and we're currently inquiring about some opportunities to to do that that we'll we'll be in touch with Chris on. And then lastly, um something that you can kind of do right now, right away, is uh to consider ways to share more information about the, you know, the challenges, sort of a why, um these these uh these improvements were even considered in the first place. Um I think certainly in the the first uh the
061November referendum, a lot of the focus ended up being understandably on the building space, on the learning spaces. Um given that that was the first question and the largest question, probably the more visible uh to the community. Um but uh this time around I think there's an opportunity certainly to improve communication about the the why for uh these activities um improvements and that's going to benefit you you know not only just to uh um improve that understanding and potentially improve support uh for those investments um but it's also just going to give you a more accurate look um at uh what your community is prioritizing. So that's about all I've got there. Um any initial questions on any of the uh results? Otherwise, I'll turn it back over to you guys. There we go. Yeah.
062Any questions? So, does this uh increase support from this demographic, do you think it's enough to get us over overall like numbers small group? Um that's the biggest [Music] reason I think we're convincing people to do this but sorry for sure. So, I mean, I I took the survey, so I can't remember it, but I mean, I look at this and I I see the the jump, but if you look at the how respondents voted in 2024, it's really if you if you combine 58% with 9%. That gets you pretty close to 70%. I mean, is it is it really that big of a jump? You know, I mean, that's kind of like if because I What are we asking? Aren't we largely asking to do question two? You know, how is that two and
063three? How is that asked? Would you with this new funding, would you vote yes for both two and three? We did not ask about structure. I'm sure that there an opportunity to potentially turn that into a single question or it could be to propose um it the exact same way as it was in 2024. Um, but given that we don't know that structure yet, it was something that uh was going to be difficult to to ask about if that makes sense. There you go. I mean, there's also more for the group, I guess, but I mean, if you if you take the people that voted yes for at least two, at least to question two, that's getting us almost to that same 70% right now. You know, I I wonder if from the parent and
064teacher point of view, those people were generally going to vote for it either way. That's that's kind of and what would what makes me curious is is uh in the bigger community if the impact of the ILR would be larger would be larger because there might have been people that are like well I don't want the tax impact but if you're cutting it down from $11 to $3 or $4, you know, then I could see the value of it. You know what I mean? Like the teachers and the parents probably didn't really switch that much. If they wanted it, they wanted it. That's what I And it also they probably the least affected by the tax. I mean, they're affected by the tax, but like the thing where the tax impact is the smallest category,
065right? That's only going to happen with people who are actually and who don't have kids. They're probably Yeah. If they don't have school, it's going to be a lighter. I as I looked at it, probably what I heard about more than anything else was why are we spending all this money on sports? Um, and we had that discussion here as well. And to me, I think we probably and somehow that messaging isn't changing in this because it's still almost all about sports. Um, the auditorium just says auditorium improvements. I didn't even know what that meant. I mean, I I just kind of glanced over it. I thought, "Oh, it said in the gym." I didn't, you know, so that having having some a little bit on that community space, but I really I really feel
066like the messaging needs to be bigger than athletics. And to me, um, having a really quality school attracts families. And if you know people that are looking for a place to move or come and start a business are looking they're comparing this school to maybe the one in Silver Bay or the or in Duth or or wherever else. And so to me, this is as much as anything putting in this investment in our school, our athletics, and our theater is really just another piece of infrastructure that makes this community be a little more sustainable and a little more attractive to families with kids, not just retired people. And I really feel like that messaging kind of needs to talk about infrastructure and in in a healthy community that's got lots of families in it where
067people want to bring their kids. So I don't know that's just my two cents worth on that because if it just focuses on we need a track for a track meet but why do we need a track for a track meet? What's what what does that bring to the community? What does that bring to the school? What does it make our school better? I guess also and I mean you can see that the track is is the outlier track's the winner here. Holy man, America's pastime loser or or likes the baseball field or whatever it is. You know what I'm saying? the there there's there's just that and the demographic that would be more likely to change their vote or that we're hoping would change their vote is probably not the demographic that cares that
068much about the track. They care more about what what they care about the future of the community. They care about the community. So that messaging being strong, right, has value to bring the demographic we're looking for. I mean, not that I know anything about it, but if I were to be hired to create a marketing campaign for this tomorrow, um, which I won't be, you know, obviously, but I I Are you looking for a job? Yeah. No, I can't even get my forms in to get uh No, I would say that I mean, it's it's sport, you know, there's a lot of sports in here. You can't hide that because it's a lot of sports. And it's even I almost think it will look a little different because now it's not here's the education stuff.
069Here's the sports. Now it's just sports, which is better, I think. But I guess I would focus on how meaningful that those activities are to kids and how they want how that improves their overall school experience, um, socially, how it gives, you know, every kid something to feel good about. Not every kid, but the kids that do. The ones that are theater though. Well, same and the same just generally the extracurricular. I mean, it's it's like school, you know, if you look at these like the drawings and stuff and you see the spaces, like school is not anymore just like you sit in the classroom, you get whacked with a ruler, you know? I mean, it's not that. It's like all these we don't we don't laugh kids with a shucks. But they aren't uh
070you know what I mean? Like this is part of school still. This is part of education, right? And that would be I mean showing how meaning I think it would be harder to like hear from kids who are on the track team right and say no this isn't meaningful you know than to hear I don't know that's that's maybe we we need to get kids out there talking about it more I think that I mean I think you know in videos or do whatever but I I think the other thing is a small community where there's just not a lot of stuff for kids to do you know that's organized that this is that the sports here really are pretty important to keeping our kids healthy and safe and out of trouble or extracurriculars in
071general. Right. Yep. I think so. I do agree that if it were the auditorium sounds less clear than if we called it ahead center for the arts or Yeah. and talked about, you know, things that help, you know, do our productions better or make it more comfortable for the audience or dance recital, you know, dance recital, theater, all of that. You know, that that supports these changes support those activities. want to chime in. Yeah. Um I thinkeneral schools um It's like how many um could you hear anything that I just said? Um but so just briefly, you know, on a percentage basis, our extracurriculars just touch um so much more of our student body than and our extracurricular facilities touch so much more of our student body than perhaps at other school districts. You know,
072we got 100 kids in track. That's 25% of our high school right there. Um, not to mention, um, how that facility may be utilized by outdoor ed, um, or other classes, you know, during certain times of the year, um, when they can use it. Same with that multi-use field. um you know that's now suddenly a field that can be used by not just the athletic teams but it's a not it's a non-muddy um controlled space that you can go and utilize in PE or other outdoor educational um settings that um is hard to do um outside of summer, you know, on our existing fields because they're wet or they're muddy or they're whatever. Um so it just opens up a lot of stuff and so I think those are I sort of echo what um
073you guys have said on that front um just in terms of it is it's bigger than it maybe seems on the on the surface and so we need to sort of message that. Um and then the other piece is just in terms of timing. Um you know I think that need is going to continue to be here for our kids that live in this rural community that don't have a lot of outlets. So a lot of kids do extracurriculars. Um we invest in our kids. This is a big way to invest in our kids. Um across interest levels, interest areas. Um but then the timing piece on it is like just you know efficiency. You know efficiency is a popular word these days. And I would say in order to leverage this project in the
074most efficient manner, we take advantage of this huge chunk of money that's sitting on the table. And we also take advantage of the mobilization of all of these professionals and contractors that are helping us execute this thing. You know, if we're going to restart this process in five years, that means we're re-engaging with IC. We're paying them again to restart this whole process over. We're re-engaging the architects and all the contract and all that sort of stuff. Like right now, we're like we can leverage that. We can be efficient about doing this project. Um, and I I just think that's a huge thing that we need to consider as a board as we just determine like the timing of it. You know, the need piece we need to message that better, but like the timing
075piece is kind of like up to us to determine and I and I would advocate on the timing piece that now is the most efficient time to do it. Um, so that's what I got to say about it. Thank you. Thank you. So, um, can I assume from our discussion that moving forward with some more scientific communitywide survey is a concrete next step? I think so, cuz I don't think this tells us a ton, right? Right. Right. And as was said that this is these are your strongest supporters. Uh, this was about if our strongest supporters are against it, like we need to know that on the front end, right? So, we didn't get that. Um so now the next step is to test the greater community and uh I'll work with rap strategies on
076uh the best mechanism to do that whether it's a both and you and you know one option or the other either a scientific survey or a broad communitywide survey. Can we do a scientific survey? It seems like the the broad survey is kind of up to the person but I like to hear like pick all these demographics out and get kind of some feedback. Uh we'll explore that. Um there is an opportunity I don't quite understand it to talk smart about it, but there's a there's something in the works with I think wrapping um that is an opportunity to tack on to another um communitywide scientific survey. Um and so being getting on to that would cost us some, but it would be cheaper being that it's already in the works with another organization. So
077I'll flush that out with um RAP Strategies and ICS. And I I kind of concur with you, Eric. I mean those scientific surveys are just a lot more reliable than those that opt in to answer. Um so it would be good to maybe go down that road. Um that's a concrete next step. Um another thing for board members to be thinking about is u is it is it an ask of 7 million? Is it an ask of 5 million? You know where where's that threshold with the community? We know that ITR has committed seven uh and they did that in the spirit of kind of all of it in one question. Um so I would hate to go just kidding to it RB. That feels a little bad. However, um as I've given you in
078my emails, uh we now know that we also have uh about $1.5 million coming to us from investments um on interest earned on money that's invested. Uh, so there's some opportunity here for us to maybe not have to ask the public for seven. It might might be five or five and a half, which gets that $4 a month down to maybe $35 a month or, you know, three bucks a month um on a $400,000 house. It's a onetoone match, right? You can't scale it down and have them still give us $7 million, right? It's essentially if we scale it down, they're going to scale it down, too. What what we could say is that they've given us a $5 million match for a $5 million referendum and then they've also thrown in another $2 million
079um to put towards the additional gym stall because that's exactly what they did. That's telling it just just like it played out. Um so we don't necessarily have to have them vote on the gym stall. That's an item of conversation. Um uh so Gary Servvenic, he he actually recommended um kind of pushing this as a referendum, $5 million with a $5 million match to get all except for that additional gym stall. And then they will throw in an additional $2 million for us like Oprah to do that. You get a gym stall. Yeah, we know the gym and a new car and we know the gym stall cost 3.5 million. So, um, we only have two of the three and a half million needed and then we got to come up with that in some
080other way. And that's where I was making innuendo about the interest earned money. I get, um, we might be able to get closer to that. So, we got to fine-tune that budget. Lory's on this call. She's working on, you know, how does the budget look a year later and what has gone up and all of that kind of stuff. And are we really at the point where we can ask for five? You'll build half a track after our state of our economy. Oh, right. And I mean there's so many moving variables but um we're really at this point of a razor sharp line you know like half a million means could mean a big deal then you also have the ability to use general fund and other resources and donations. So um well let's go
081a little further. There are mechanisms we can play like doing some of the parking lot stuff through abatement bonds or bonding against LTFM funds for some slices to be able to stretch that a little further. Those are those are the kind of levers you want to have in your back pocket for when bids come in high and all of a sudden you're in trouble. So I don't want to burn all those bridges. Sure. No, you don't want to spend every on the front end dollar on the We need something in our back pocket if things go crazy. She'll tell me that. So um when do we decide about this again? I think I asked this every meeting but final decision has to be end of May. Um well or early June because that's when we
082have to submit review and comment to MDE. So uh we've got basically April and May to tighten this up. And so we'll get going on the survey um and uh hopefully get that out here in the next month or so. And then I would think this more scientific survey be quicker too. This thing took a while. I'm not sure how they uh how they uh how that works yet. So, I'll get back to you on that. I can give a little bit especially to a more kind of communitywide one. Uh so, it would be an optin. Um but, uh that would be quicker than the scientific survey just because that uh the scientific survey option that we're we're looking into right now um is going to be on a a different uh different timeline. um
083and the fieldwork for those uh can can take a much longer um amount of time. So um community or an online survey would be quicker. Scientific would be um a little bit longer and I don't have a defined timeline quite yet from the same people that called the last election a tossup and it wasn't. Jeez. Well, I mean, seriously, like, you know, what if it's the same kind of principle where the more conservative voice isn't right represented and we get our ass handed to us again? Yeah. Cullen scientific survey, you're thinking timeline would be more like May or how late how late do you think? My guess is probably probably another popping out of that. Yeah, that might be a barely making it. Yeah, that's cutting it really really close. Okay, thank you for that,
084Colin. So, concrete next step, move forward with a survey of some type. I will get working on that and then um expect to have this conversation again in a month and we'll circle back. Okay. Okay. Um and also uh we have a sophomore student in Mchugh's class working on WTIP story interviewing kids. Um she and I met today and um really wanting to put together some good media work with WTIP. So I'm looking forward to uh what patients can put together. So, it's fun to fun to watch regard regarding the potential upcoming referendum. Yep. Everything we just talked about, huh? Yep. So, I I I want to get kid voices in the conversation here. So, yeah. Very cool. So, we concluded 8.4, I think. So, all right. So, moving on to 8.5. Accept donations for
085March 2025. Uh, yeah. send you some ride. Oh, okay. You're right. 5,000 bucks for the robotic, too. That's nice. Yes. Very nice. It's a lot of big big a lot of big money. Big money here in this one. No amies. Big money. I'll make a motion to accept the donations um with appreciation to those people that have donated our students. Second. Do we have any further discussion? Uh yeah, with great appreciation to everyone who donated. Um all in favor? I uh all opposed. Motion carries. Um, moving on to 9.0 personnel. Item 9.1 is new hires, resignations and leaves of absence. We have any anything anybody like from Chris's side or anybody needs to say anything? just thanks for all the years of service and dedication to our students here in Cook County and um got
086a few couple people leaving and a retirement and uh and some coaching positions there. Um do we have a motion? I'll second it. Any discussion? I also want to echo what Chris said. Thank you so much for the years of service and also uh best wishes to people as they move on to whatever is next for them in their futures. Um all in favor I I all opposed. Motion carries. Item 10.0 is to adjourn. I'll make that motion. You've been waiting for that all night. He jumps at that one. It's really hard when it's nice. You can just close the meeting. All right. So, meeting closed 619 stop the recording. Yep. I don't have them all for you.