LPA School Board Meeting

001[Music] start I said I know we're sitting close but we no worries I came final countown it's like going live got Hammer Hammer on the right yeah I saw that I thought it was going to have a sharp edge on one side A Nails sticking we'll just talk about the yep we can talk with M come order this is the meeting of the Board of Education of Lake Park otan uh roll call 1.2 uh Susan here Jade here Jennifer here Marge here Sarah Hill she's not seated yet um and here and Brian I am here Pledge of Allegiance please one I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation under godible with liy and justice for all all right 1.4 approval of the agenda

002so move second okay we have discussion uh Mr chair I would like to make a motion to rearrange our current agenda if we could replace item 8.1 and move it up to above the public comments section okay um well I think we have to vote on the approval of the original rate first because we have a motion to approve that we'd have to vote that down and then you can do the motion at the same time so motion to approve the agenda with a modification okay motion to approve the agenda with modification do I have a i motion motion by Jen second by Susan all those in favor say I I all those opposed same sign all right give a second so always times like this things go slower than they should okay Senor Bor

003member is now 1.5 all right so next would be 1.5 um seating of the new board member I lost connection I lost connection so he's oath of office suie do you have a paper copy of the oath of office she okay so basically we just would call her attention and then she would uh your of office right here all right Sarah we need to have her stand up and read it or do I have to read the top part you do well you can read the top part the following all right uh acceptance of the oath of office Lake Park ottoman school district clerk the following acceptance and oath of office must be filed with the school district clerk within 30 days of this state of the mailing or the personal service of the certificate

004of this election I Sarah Hill hereby accept the office of school board member of Independent School District number 2889 for a term beginning March 24th to 2025 and expiring the first Monday of January of 2029 the forgoing the forgoing instrument was acknowledged before me this 24th day of March in 2025 I Sarah Hill swear and affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and of this state and that I will discharge Faithfully the duties of the office of school board member of Independent School District number 2889 to the best of my judgment and V foring forgoing instrument was acknowledged before me uh this 24th day of March congratulations there you go there you go all right [Music] back all right 2.1 recognition of visitors to the board meeting Lake Park ottoman schools

005welcomes all attendees at our LPA Board of Education meeting while this Gathering is a public meeting it is essential to clarify that it is a meeting for the board to conduct business in our commitment of transparency and fostering Goodwill the LPA Board of Education invites members of the public to share their thoughts we kind request the public comments be expressed in a civil courteous and thoughtful manner any disparaging remarks directed towards board members employees or community members of the lak park ottoman school district will not be tolerated to ensure a balanced and efficient session the public comment period is limited to 230 minutes with each speaker allotted a maximum of three minutes we kindly ask each individual speaker to State their name and address before presenting their comments during the meeting board members and administration

006will not respond to comments we appreciate your cooperation and thank you for your support of students at LPA do we have any speakers tonight all right staff reports 4.1 Elementary principal so not a ton to report this month um Elementary numbers we did gain one but lost one so we're still at 323 students um something exciting coming up April 25th is the ele Carnival so that'll be from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. if you would like to come and help out or at least come and enjoy the fun games there's going to be some fun games and activities that night um reach out to Barb johnsen if you would like to assist in any way um and then kindergarten registration did occur on March 10th and 11th um parents and their children were allowed and invited

007to come engage there was arts and crafts um in both rooms they got a bag of goodies they had a book in there some fun art supplies um some fun educational activities they could take home as well um they got to take a lunch train and get food to try from the lunchroom um so all those fun little cute ideas that they were able to participate in and be excited to come to LPA next fall and then upcoming events just as laid out school carnival Raider field day and last day of school that's hard to hear well for me kids I'm faster than we know it right well thank you any questions anybody all right moving on to 4.2 um Middle School report we've stayed consistent with enrollment numbers um all year um we have

008a few Studio updates we were recognized for um a 2025 Minnesota promising practices award for the Minnesota for our Studios um so that I think Dr gy has a little bit more to talk about on that one um we have MCA testing coming up we have emmerly Snider visit our school today the kids really seem to enjoy her um so she was here visiting all of our students and we also had Dennis Rogers a native a Navajo American Indian dancer present to our seventh and eighth graders um last week also very cool anybody have any questions thank you all right 4.3 secondary princi Mr Meer uh I was going to highlight our our pay pay group uh they presented last week at NSU uh just some things that they've highlighted this year uh their theme

009or Focus this year was Animal Care Elderly Care and then also mental and emotional health they have three areas that they focus on uh they chose to do their service project this year with uh her name is Bailey Adams uh she was a former student of Dr gy uh the cool thing about it is Dr gy and myself could have just told the students this is what you're going to do uh they made their own decision uh what they they did is they made 300 cookies for people who have either lost a love one or in the military service that are serving oversea that was their service project this year uh when we went and watched them last last week uh it was pretty cool we were in the NSU i b room uh I

010felt like I was in the president's room very very nice in there but the our students we had 2021 students uh so we were the compliment from a lot of the people in there you had the pay group leaders you had lawyers you had business uh people from the par community parar community and they were very impressed on how our students presented uh everybody could have little note cards a lot of our students were able to present without it uh they all participated versus doign one person to they said that's how they've operated all year is just inclusion and and everybody have have a voice so it's kind of a cool experience and it was a really proud moment for Dr G and I on all the the positive comments that they received back so

011then that last Friday was the end of our midterm we are on the the fourth quarter uh Journey so we get about 43 days left to school uh which brings us to April 8th we already have cap and gown uh piter day we also have our Dollars for Scholars on April 8th my opinion very cool event here where we have very like as long as our students are put in the work we have so many good people that donate here uh so that will be coming up April 8th uh going with the testing schedule I put the link in there so that was our MCA testing but also we had 31 Juniors last week also do the ACT test and then we have our activities uh program coming up on April 23rd which will be

012at 2:40 if you want to come attend that our Aroma numbers are the same as last month all right anybody have any questions for Mr Meer okay thank you 4.4 business manager report Lisa hi there can you hear me okay oh I got I'm gonna reshare the screen for some reason it kicked me out okay we're ready okay okay so we have the general updates uh preliminary work on budget negotia related negotiation related requests um some information to UCI for gasby 75 that's audit related uh miscellaneous Food Service items miscellaneous sped items finished unclaimed property and then pass to on brigh wheeel is 18569 as of March 12th uh reports coming up expense and revenue summaries uh cash position budget summary and building expense listing and the consent agenda will include the bank statements and

013the detailed payment register by vendor for February so the first report is on a smart system showing the annual budget the period uh expenses and year-to dat expenses and revenue by fund the next page shows uh the same information but detailed by source code grouping for each fund and then the graph shows how the expenses are spread um Again by source code showing salaries and wages at 56.5% of expenses and this report the top shows the cash position of February of 24 January of 25 and February of 25 the middle section shows how we're doing on the budget compared to um last year compared to this year year to date by fund for the revenues and expenses and then this report shows the expenses incurred for the pro the bonded project in February and that

014is the end of the report does anyone have any questions our percent of Revenue are salaries to revenue is that consistent with last year or is it up or is it down or about this right here yeah um that's about consistent um the best way to look at it is and even though it's not broke down in here um that's general fund expense and you can look at where we are as far as general fund spending that down so we're 3/4 of the way through the school year we've spent about 3/4 of our general fund towards those expenses so that that's pretty consistent overall where we is our Revenue up from last year yes our revenue is up from last year I'm hoping our end and found balance we have more of a surplus this

015year it looks like we will not a big one um but the way we did our budget construction last year and Lisa and I are going to start working on our next proposal um this Wednesday as a matter of fact um so Revenue is up because we got increases in different revenue streams but also expenses are down because of a lot of our budget cuts and that can actually be seen on uh the next page I believe it is right there yep so if you look at the bottom um there's a year-over-year difference showing um the expenses are down by $528,000 Mr chair I have a question too um in the community service in February what's the uh what's our expenditure difference for February 2024 and why is it uh such a difference for February

0162025 um in February of 2024 we did a transfer from it's not in the expenses it's the revenues that are a big difference we did a transfer from the ener fund Y in February of 2024 so that's why the revenues were up okay that makes sense the district have been carrying an overage for community service um for years and years in order paying it down so much per year what we did the board and this is probably 21 the board uh approved to just take what we had in reserves and pay it off so we didn't have to pay year over year over year we had reserves that time to take care of does the Bri wheel balance get dealt with by the end of his school year or how long does that go to

017it does um we we look into bright will covers a lot of different um different things ECFE or prek and Rider care and I send we send letters home um and then we send two letters home then I make a call well often times when I make that call with some of our higher end they we found out they're extenuating circumstances so rather than you know I don't know uh health reasons um a change in family Dynamics so when we find hardships like that we restructure the way they do it sometimes we cut it a portion of it sometimes we just forgive depending on we've had some pretty drastic cases where we just cut it because it was non yeah it would been an undue hardship on that family what is bright wheel again bright

018wheel is the system we use for paying for um prek and Raider care comes out of community ed right um not all like we it's a community ed bound service but we supplement Community Ed with General funds too every every District does our community ed funding is just Mena skill compared to allocate a certain percentage annually for that we budget we do budget for it do we are we consistent every year or do we fluctuate depending on WE fluctuate depending on we look at Trends and then we make decisions based on that um so also we take tuition in from prek and we have payments for Raider care right so we do budget for part of it tuition takes care of a portion of it um so we at the end of the year we

019look at arear and what what did we what were we able to to recoup through bright will that unex paid expenses and then we budget according to that is that the transfer that's in there for the community y that that supplements the community yet yes gotta Mr chair Dr gri we had talked before and you said we were going to still look at raising the cost of enrollment for that was that still going to happen this year yes well next school year for next school year yes we we'll do a um so we compete so we're voluntary prek which means um we get no funding from the state for prek there are uh schools that have voluntary pre- programs that do get funding from the state that's 1.6 or6 of one ADM so every student

020would be 6 every kindergarten student would be6 there are so many slots and they're taken already the every legislative session the legislature expands the number of slots we apply for it and four years I've been here we haven't gotten it which would be a huge boost to the funding for prek but we'll keep trying every year um there is talk in the legislature just about making Universal prek now which means we would get funding for it and hopefully that passes CU I don't know if any District that does not have prek um there may be some I don't know of them uh and the majority of them have to charge tuition and sometimes it's a hardship sometimes they get in a situation where they haven't been paid for that and then we have to fight

021fight doing that so there is funding for it but we generally don't we don't qualify for it what why what's what reason do we not qualify because there's only so many slots when they started paying the doing voluntary prek funding they said we'll just I'm going to just give a a paraphrase figure so they said we're going to fund 20 schools 20 school districts Assurance everybody applies they look at need and they'll pick the 20 well it stay at that number for a very long time and the last two legislative sessions they've increased it by maybe 10 so we apply the 10 are already picked up by somebody has a bigger need than we do um that's why expanding to Universal preak so I not to go kind of on a tangent but pre- is

022very beneficial to kids coming in not just that we start bringing kids in by recruiting through that which we do but it also builds a school ready skills which are very important and they a lot of behavior issues later on are rectified at that time because kids are just ready for kindergarten when they go into kindergarten so the universal prek even though it'll be dollars out of the state budget would be so beneficial for any state that can pass that Mr chair I pointed this out when we talked about about it last year the only issue that we we' arise which would would not affect me is if it goes to Universal preschool and they take three four year olds you'll see a drop in anybody during early childhood because they cannot sustain it one

023and two year olds yeah and they do we do get a little bit of Grant but Vis A parent aware Child Care aware but they've only F I think it's three or four kids yeah it's not much it's not much but we take what we can get yeah else got any questions for Lisa all right thanks Lisa thank you 4.5 superintendent report Dr conrey so just some some quick messages here um I put in for our Middle School Studios for the Minnesota promis practices award and they were honored with that award um the award ceremon is May 6 we're hoping to take if not all uh Middle School teachers at least a portion of them to Minneapolis to be presented with that award um they're very as um astonished with what we were able to

024provide through the studios and I and for another discussion our Studios focus on our profile of a graduate so we have critical skills in there which are more interpersonal skills and that's what our Studios focus on opened we have um Granton tonight to speak and probably ask or answer any questions when I went to the superintendent's conference last week I had the opportunity there are now three schools including us that are in contract negotiations with opened and we got nag managa and gfw school so I met with those superintendant um very good conversation their boards will be um approving their contracts with opened I I believe this week um the superintendent from gfw schools was able to actually have a telephone uh conversation with one of the superintendant in their schools in Oregon who said

025that their school has normal enrollment 1100 students open Ed enrollment another 1,200 students that is infused over $2 million into their revenues per year um he said they were going forward right now with uh uh they um they're installing uh artificial from the football field their teachers are some of the highest paid in the state of Oregon because they've used those funds to increase teacher pace so again opened recaptures those um homeschool kids within our district but in across the state as well so we're looking at pulling homeschool kids with three I we talked with them before and they said they do cap the number of districts they work with so they don't saturate the market that way the three districts they do work with are it's a win-win situation um so interesting um the

026contract again I'll remind everybody that uh the board will take action on night has been vetted by our attorney um and they're in agreement with the red lines there were changes made um opened agreed to all those changes so they're in there now uh the 2025 2026 PD plan is in there for approval tonight to let you know how this works every year I ask for a committee to work on our professional development plan we have a couple items on there that are kind of non-negotiables one is rcd it's our district wide um training that we'll be doing for the next three years now um we've done one year of it already we have three more years to go um and that is responsibility Center discipline which is a classroom management districtwide classroom management and

027it matches with our PBIS um there was thought of bringing in a committee to approve personal professional development um which I'm going to talk with the the members of that committee and see how that would work but I'm I'm not against that I would like to get further discussions but the purpose of that is not everybody uses their personal professional development funding so if there's a possibility where there's a pot and they can pull it so other people can use what they don't use and maybe take a more expensive class or conference or something like that and the money is budgeted every year for that so I'm fine with that as long as we make it a fair process uh board dos is migrating to diligent communities so what we're using right now will be

028it will transform probably over the summer to a different type of platform but uh Susan and I both watch their video and it's very very engaging for our community very Community friendly very easy to enter minutes for Susan as we're going through the meeting um instead of having to go back over what she entered entered in proof rate everything it's all right there in the system your um your uh I don't even know what to call it but when you log in what you see is going to be more userfriendly for you as a board member what you'll have access to just incredible and I just think the way they're updating it it's even even if you look at board docs it looks a little archaic I've used it for a long time it's a

029great form of transparency what's coming down is over the top as far as what we're using now uh School Board self- evaluation update I did talk with Dr Shotz after a work session um I did share the completed I think there were only four evaluations completed board evaluations completed he's going through that he wants to work with the board at our work session on April 9th he's going to come in and talk to us he's going to work on formulating an evaluation that fits what you need um so uh and this is what he does he works with nonprofits for um most strategic planning and buing evaluation Schoolboard superintendent relations all of that so he'll come in and work and it'll take everybody's input it'll design something that's more effective and feels more comfortable and

030that's what I heard last time is it didn't seem like it matched what we wanted it didn't seem like it was the evaluation you were intending it to be so there'll be an opportunity to get your input and create what you want strategic plan up just run through that real quick as well um we're going to begin preliminary budget proposals uh middle school will be piling saxson math and CMP math next year we're going to get adoption kits for both of those and then by next spring we'll determine what math program to use that will be sixth through e8th grade program open a contracts ready for approval tonight uh rcd s mindsets and restora of circles are continuing the PD plan will be ready for board approval tonight continuing to support um the Lakes crisis

031Resource Center by the way I'll have tickets to their annual ball for sale here before too long and I'll be hitting up all the board members because all the money you make and be able to afford a ticket to it just let you know that part um Lions Club the annual bankets on there and the on negotiations and we've had a new Elementary principal hire all right then hold on okay then I just couple things on legislative updates um I don't know if you saw but there's been a change in our Senate uh split now because uh one Senator resigned recently due to some legal allegations so it there will be a special election held I believe in May to fill that seat um don't know if it'll go to dfl go to the Republican

032side but right now majority of dfl and then the house side is split um just some things in here if you want to click on these links you'll get more of an understanding of what these bills are there's a lot of bills in here that will help increase funding the schools should those be approved a lot of that is a change in our local optional revenue and increase to that um some offset for seasonal wreck paying operating Levy the I have a feeling the cell phone bill is going to pass where every district has to do something to eliminate cell phones to school day I had the opportunity to testify before the legislature a couple weeks ago on that um the biggest thing in there it says it tell schools you will do this instead

033of telling schools to do what's right for your District I testified on how successful it's been for our district but I also testify that that's a board decision and not a state decision um also in the reading of that they said principles can make exceptions to that we felt that wasn't right because of inconsistency well you can have your cell phone but you can't but you can but you can't we don't want that we want consist across the district I felt they got my message across that let districts make the decision um I was one of probably five people that testified and at the end the legislature said well we see that this works with schools we should probably move forward with passing this bill so it fell on deaf ears in a away um

034I'm glad it's being recognized as an issue um I just wish and I hope that they make decisions let school boards decide this for themselves and that is all I have and you can go in there back in board dos anytime you click on these there's hyperlinks that'll lead you to all the documentation or the discussion about what these are anybody have any questions I want to add to reports what I'd like to see is areas of improvement things that we've had as concern because everything we hear is always positive and I know there's things out there that are not always that Rosy so is there a way that we can identify something that has become an issue and and that's what we're here for is to resolve issues right now we have no issues

035no we definitely have issues so but so with these reports that receive I'd like to know where do we see feel like we're falling short because we really need to be here to help resolve those issues and I don't know I don't have the answer for that but I'd like to be thinking how do we go about that Mr chair I'd like to say Jade I think when we so we talk about a lot of our issues at the meetings and then I think Dr grer you will update us on on stuff that we run into but we do run into issues all the time but we don't hear the issues like Elementary principal and high school principal you want to hear more from their reports I mean the boots are on the ground ours

036are not and if we're hearing about it well we're not the ones that should be hearing about it so we're hearing about the school issues we're hear about the issues Dr Godfrey has yeah so any other issues you guys have what are we seeing as a concern and how can we proceed Dr G would there be a way to at least start with a exploratory meeting on how we could sure discuss and talk through this session aside and we should be get I mean no I mean two of the board yeah and I I agree like I know the reports you guys do a lot to get those that information too but I'd also want to add the other side of you know celebrating the things that are happening in the classroom too and getting

037into the classroom side of it and the the successes too to to let the community know what their kids are learning and stuff too so both sides of that coin I think you know just getting a little bit more into the granular I think would be helpful but I think we have to first say what does that look like um for you guys to to know what we are trying to hit so Mr Sher I have an issue too when we're talking about the um homeschool idea so if they have three people on thinking that they're considering doing it right now and when we talked he had only talked about maybe doing three school districts would it be ca there would he now be considering four he's on so I think when we get to

038that item you could ask him that okay and home school isn't necessary home school it's online learning at home school correct right homeschoolers using the online all right think we'll move on to 4.6 technology director beyond the submitted high lff now that we're um it's kind of a really busy intense season got a lot of things going on in school school years winding down we've got performances got testing which testing C really starts off with PCT last week drift into MCA here shortly um and uh Trying to minimize the stress and and uh anxiety that staff goes through with those MC have been um of being trouble Al though that's infrastructure has really been updated um for the last probably last 10 years that really make it not quite the issue it once was um

039also Gathering numbers and whatnot for reorders um as far as our ordering as far as licenses pertaining to the software um user accounts for devices uh infrastructure Network back those kind of things year up for that um for next year so more or less my focus is I'm already working on next year um summer projects things um and kind of coming through our enrollment number which obviously are down right now especially at the lower lower grades and that we're graduating more than we're bringing on but I think that's just a symptom of the country right now birth rat kind of down um those those agees so um so just adjusting some things and kind of breaks on some things you might have been put an accelerator to the last couple of years just purely because

040of the numbers aren't there so change gears and adjust on the FES as we to Mr MD yeah Mr McDonald um do you foresee anything like with the tariffs or technology for next year that you're like could be 10% more could be so the tariffs um that will be that's a big question mark um some manufacturers have made some shifts and there have been some things that have happened in the technology world and just probably manufacturing period as far as what I can glean from the Press um you know there's Manufacturing all of a sudden spring up we shifted to the lower 48 more or less so that we can control those kind of things whether it's foreign countries buying real estate and investing into manufacturing here that should adjust some of that um so

041those are kind of some things the vendors really jumped on it late last year in December you got a lot of what I what they call kind of call the action phone calls get ahead of the tariffs you know just that kind of trying to force a panic P um but again I just got to pump the brakes and My Philosophy is kind of like let not need react let's make an informed decision and um kind of go with that so fortunately we um we're in a good position student devices probably more expensive and of our our stuff we're already in L lease with only a year into and then we have the ability to add on to that existing lease so we'll just add more devices and already secured pricing for that so we

042probably move forward with that and that'll just attach to our current contract schedule so it'll just be the additional dollars for the additional units as we cycle up the old stuff attach these devices in there so we looking at other devices for the majority basically our Kade through eight are all on the same schedule there so we'll be looking at that and seeing what comp for availability are most of our devices they're not I mean they're not readily like new brand new we usually get them one or two years when they're in the mix and then we get them on the that's kind of part of our sh sh to Chromebooks top the bottom okay was when we get them they Factory okay so and then um I kind of changed from a when I

043came on board we were doing fouryear leases which tends to be a little long in the hands of school children so we went to a threeyear lease um the machines are still functioning but um they traveled a lot we'll say so um anything after three years I kind of noticed that the repairs Skyrocket and then thr one more time at that instead of other things like you know we could be focing is there a certain percentage that we try to rotate out or do you based on your lease or how do you no so it's just a threeyear lease once that's expired way we bring in we bring in the new stock ESS that point um trying to stay I could afford to do a two-year thing it' be great just to keep us you

044know a little bit closer to the The Edge as far as technology but Year the stuff that's leaving still has parts are being manufactured screen honestly the Chromebook Market regardless of manufacturer there's probably only two different screens that they're all using in this size so all manufactured by Samsung or the processors there's really only two foundaries that are producing the processors that go into those things so so the parts are still relevant we part with them through the leasing approach rather than outright buying we don't have to deal we don't have the overhead of um to deal with because I just what I walked into storage unit hundreds of devices that basically into life that could live somewhere but now we had to figure out what to want to explain also Mr McDonald the cost

045of recycling those or having have to pay a company to take them off your hands before well you can either pay I mean everybody offers to buy your own stuff but it's a short list when they're like yeah this is the stuff we're buying but we'll take all your stuff for this mon um so but if we can eliminate just that headache of shopping around and coordinating and all that kind of stuff ends they send a box and a pet and them there anybody else any questions all right thank you all right uh 4.7 activities director so Mr Meer he is at a is he at a training conference ad conference ad conference so he's got he's got everything in there I know archery team had a family night last night I don't know if

046anybody came to enjoy that but then they have you had a dress like a St and shoot and shaa called me and I'm like oh I got something going on but what a great thing to do and R your team is I think thriving um my guess is we're going to send some to Nationals again this year clay targets spring Sports beginning um beautiful outside thank goodness um you have some students get out there and for practices um PTP All Conference honors for students their names are in there and two boys receive all conference honors for boys basketball names are in there as well robotics uh the T Regional competition in gr Forks believe it or not it's a niche in this school and there are we have a pretty consistent team year after year

047our hardest part was getting a coach now we have John Anderson coaching who said he will be with us for quite a while which is what we've needed for that group and then there's the rest of it you have any questions for Mr schles just let me know email them to me please I'll for him his way right 4.8 Transportation director um I was I thought he'd be here tonight I'm not sure why um Mr Jensen isn't so just to let you know the uh we we have on the agenda tonight for Action um we had met with the transportation committee about a month ago now I think it was and we talked about purchasing a van Mr J had found a van um used one uh Jay did some research and it just did

048not seem like something would fit our needs or last to fit our needs and then uh Mr Jensen reached out to a couple other uh couple other Sellers and did find a good price and a lease so we've been working on leasing vehicles in the last several years rather than buying outright thing about the leases we pay a three-year lease on it at the end of it we own it it's just easier to manage for our budget and it's allowed us to get more newer vehicles in at a reer supply this is a a Ford Transit van it's very hard to find um we have one already it took us about a year to find that one we've looked all over the state when I was helping search I call a dealership and they say

049nope it's gone uh just sold it was gone yesterday they just they don't last and the reason behind it is a high top 10 passenger van which falls under the state requirements the Ford Transit are all will drive so we we know that's something we use the transit Vans this one won't be a special ed van it'll be for General Ed use but it can be for special ed use they'll use it for activities but there are times when we need that extra traction on the roads um and again that will be uh in the agenda tonight for approval or to take action on we're going to have more discussion about those two different plans at that time Mr chair I have a question on that one so Dr gper you said at the end

050to release so at the end it's years we will own the B we'll own the B yeah thank you and that's with our buses too that we lease at the end of their lease we pay a dollar and we own the bus so it's a three-year-old bus it still has probably another three to four years life on it but then we get newer vehicle so we can have a rotation of new vehicles more often than we were 4.9 buildings and GRS Mr zck Right never all moment in the facilities as our wrestling and basketball slows down then we pick up with baseball softball track um archery they said they had a great turnout yesterday when they came on yesterday afternoon and that was great to see from archery um a couple finished items that we

051got done this month uh we did get the water hooked up in our Greenhouse which is a huge accomplishment um we're just waiting for the checklist from Ace that I can send in and we're going to have our final training so they already have orders coming in um timus Sooners has a class this spring it's going to help us with the outside of the greenhouse and the school grounds nice so I'm looking forward to that to uh seeing some kids getting out and working with this there we did get the uh theater checked uh for the little bit of ice and water that we found uh this spring and it was from the subzero temperatures uh those two areas Stick Up on the Roof about a foot and a half to two foot each and

052they're sealed just a condensation inside that froze and came out so I was glad to see that that we are going forward with the with the theater that we're we're going to have a good facility there Elementary School we had some good reports there the boilers did pass inspection everything was good there Diagnostics by G for HVAC system we went through everything on that and he's actually starting on the high school today we have good marks over there um I I'm working on a filtered system with about four different companies finding out real quick that cheapest is not always necessarily the best and so I'm going to try and get a couple filters from each company put them in relatively close HVAC systems and see is our better cinate for the year coming up we

053like to get that set up so that we have it set up for this next school year are you talking Elementary or high school or both both both we have different setups with the boiler system at the elementary our filters are on top of school you have to do deal with the outside elements as well as the farming and whatnot and the airs where here with the geothermal most of our filters are indoor I'm hoping to be able to use a better filter I could expand nine months and then a 3mon summer and we'll see if I've done some research on it but I want to see if that's going to be cost eff well it would help on labor changing them every uh 90 days does get a little bit labor intensive but uh

054we're looking for some different things and I I do like um G&R has always been around Mission has got some filters still at the school for when they put the new units on so we're not desperate or behind at all but I do want to look at some other avenues to make sure we get cost effective so that system at the elementary is the existing system or a new system or are there two separate systems for the Old School portion and the new or new everything's been hooked in now and got new units on the road which uh we did have the insurance EMC came through and John has been in that business 35 plus years looking at schools for the insurance company and was really impressed with our elementary um with not only the

055units but how the building's been taken care of and and everybody in there it was really a nice thing to hear I haven't gotten the final report from him yet but uh up to that point everything was looking really good so I I was happy to hear about that uh mission is coming back and doing some warranty work water fountains needed to be attached um and just a quick note not everything being on a positive when we built that school and The Architects put in handless soap dispensers and you get no touch faucets we didn't get our money right it was nice to write down but I don't think some of these pieces of equipment are meant to have 20 hands every hour I work great in a a private home or even a nursing

056home or something where it's 20 a day they're just getting worry wor out we're already having soap dispensers plugging in 1 would it would be good to write a policy you only get to was your hands once a day then just throw that out there I'll talk with the policy committee forgot we had some volunteer companies that would give us nice red LPA soap dispensers we can match our paper dispens but um we are working on that also so there are some changes Even in our new new system um unfinished um is kind of where I was at with un with bidding for filters um new lights I don't know if you guys we did do have a couple of Ace lifts they're in the parking lot we're going to have new lights we should

057be lit up and be able to see it from the highway just fine over on this side and really looking forward to that especially for the softball season coming up um as we get over in in that area with the later Sports Complex on that side um repairs for the basketball grops I definitely learned that you have to get your name in really early on some of these because we're still waiting for them to get in but we'll be ready for next year's Hoops with just some checking of the cables bolts that we needed uh uh fixed on that Elementary School some unfinished there Mission mechanical is working on one of our pumps that we put in this year um it never has worked right they're hoping that it's bearings in that pump um but

058this is the fifth time it's been down in like two months when you say a pump which for what the water uh pumps to get the out of the warm water out of the boilers throughout the school we have one great one we were against just to an appell and we found out that there were no longer available so we did get the extra money put in two brand new pumps one has worked perfectly the other one not so much so they are working on that with the uh factories um the new electric brother did get finished Ace finished up on that we had state inspection uh just last Friday pass inspection so we know you have two electric boilers now as a backup there Sol G G&R has them online on an off so

059that is a looking forward to this next school year if anything were to happen to our boilers uh we'd be able to let this backup um we are looking this week I'll be having meetings with IC um and Dr Godfrey and looking at our plans coming forward now with our water heaters here in high school and with our length of uh lifetime of the boilers that we have at the elementary so there are some big projects you know that are always looming on in the school system but we'd like to get that in order for you all to take a look at um work on the railing at the handicap we did take care of that this last year um scheduling up for this next month um girl Softball Association or their coaches have come

060to us and they'd like to see a new concession stand um they've just used a table and a tent in the past um they have volunteers uh B of construction will do the uh construction for free they're going to put it up for us it's going to cost about 2500 in materials and Ace electric is going to uh put in three new units for each field out there so that we don't have the triangulation of extension cords that we've had in the past from what I understand so we're trying to get that centralized and that's 1,800 both of those should be in the budget that softball has set aside so we wouldn't have to use funds out of anywhere else in the school which is really nice um the only hint of a draw back

061to that is with that solid building comes a Kermit for health D has already made calls to Fergus Falls and we can get a perent a temporary perent for 95 this season and this stand will be made on blocks so to moveable um the goal would be I call it the Raider Sports complexes because would love to be able to see the football baseball and softball fields all become one complex with walking tracks in between each one of them um through aval we've got a long way to go um sprinkler systems have been in and out busted and back it's that's huge um but that's something I think I bring up to you guys we get the word around where we can get the community uh behind us even folks that hear word of mou

062can maybe start looking at herey I wonder if they need some help funding that or different groups to help fund it because we do have some uh costs coming up um last year we had a $155,000 Turf contract um and lakes area Turf has been doing now the last three years is my understanding they've done a great job of getting the football field back up with their surfacing and adding sand into it um I did put that out for bids this year um being at my first year coming in team Labs put in a bid and sherbrook soing is also going to put in a bid um mainly just old school more bang for the buck I'd like to be able to see not only our facilities in in the sports arena but around our

063schools both here in Lake Park and a so I'd like that to come in and still be under that budget we had for last year and so far I've had no bad marks about it ways they can cut um we've got some new product coming out six Monon release fertilizers and so I'm excited to see what these final bids will be G on our area but I'd love to see our schools all the way around Greener and brighter towards fall when we start school again we do we control on the practice fields are always kind of a overlooked location something to watch for and we will have the entire 20 acres here will be covered as far as D fields and you mention along the school too y the entire encompasses the entire 20 acres

064we have pack this fields to back fertilizers just on our main planting surfaces football field um the softball field mainly because that's what we can get water to I am going to have fertilizer put around the schools because we do have um water available for our yards so we're going to set up a schedule that can get a little more watering done um of course the ultimate goal would be to have a sprinkler system for everything um be able to have those sprinklers going four hours you know early morning 4 in the morning kind of a benefit to it and it's also a benefit now that we're tested on the sponging of softball and football fields uh that test can be given at any time so water water water is our our main goal this

065summer as the rest of the schools looking towards the end of the year this is what mine wraps up so otherwise yeah just want to make sure everybody the new board members knew about uh the drill softball would really like to get that going and if we just getting okay my biggest thing is the footprint for the school getting this side go gold set then Turf will be coming up for you guys and then to look at some driveways and stuff that's later in the summer and just to update the board the girls softball concession F was approved um probably four or five months ago so it was approved a while ago it just took us that time to figure out the configuration of it where materials are coming from um Mark how our softball

066coach said the girls would fundraise for that and they have um we just want to make sure the board was aware because when you come in you see building out there now you know what it belongs to Dr Mr chair it's my understanding the girls actually are covering it completely like they they waste all the money for it so that's awesome ask um what's the track on the greenhouse at the elementary love to see that go into the Hors shoe around the school but um I haven't had the chance to get inside the greenhouse I know they moved it from that area back over um but what that'll entail how we can get that in I would think probably the only way we're going to see that come in is from the street side on

067the that' be the west side of the school and then back in if we were to move it um I think we should have more mean to find out where we want to have it for sure but I sure would love to see it used I know initially it was because of the school That was supposed to be done finished and then we would start moving it but I don't think a spot was ever designated for it so they hadn't used it they hadn't used it in all of 2122 school year and then they moved it the next year um when they started doing that area and then they have not moved it back yet I don't think an area was ever designated I think the Horseshoe that you're talking about is a prime spot

068for it yeah I think that all the kids can see from inside the school and see the growth coming around from it we also have uh this spring coming up a pad that has been waiting for we have our tennis no they're they're concrete board games concrete concrete board games yeah so we'll have aad spot over there for that concrete p as well so never D moment yeah well I I just I don't I don't want to forget about that I agree you know that they received a lot of money to create that yeah you know from donations and I don't want to see that go to oh no of course not no and I think I think because we spent so much time and energy on this greenhouse to get them started early over

069there and then get them to keep continuing that type of education is is a good thing so I agree with Marge that we definitely want to get that back up and running as soon as possible so I know it's possible so definitely oh go shut up we it's an older Greenhouse it's been a while think she raised all question AR was that Kat ell that started oh Mary sof but it was a while ago oh yeah and it all had to do with the nature area too right is it the nature or they had the Native Garden remember the Native Garden it was all taught six R uh last question Mr Z will the um concession stand match the other buildings that are out there as far as the sighting and the in the red

070and black we are going to try and match everything up best we can because eventually would like to see that even as a storage building okay when we do find a a permanent spot I'd like to see our the coaches we've had a couple meetings where it would be two story but we're talking some major dollars then you need restroom water electric permanent and then a second level to that so you can have sports casters be able to that's what I was going to say they want to stream that stuff so I think that would be a good idea to get some kind of it would be box that they could do that I was wanting to have it more between the football field and the softball fields but the way that we have the

071fields already set and the amount of money it would take to move them around is pretty astronom what I gathered with the investigating that so yeah as we have it now let's do the best we can with what we have and I think this is a great start all right 5.1 consent or 5.0 consent agenda do I have a motion I motion I have a motion by Susan and a second by Jen right all those in favor say I I abstain all those oppose okay same sign motion carries 6.1 donations quite a few here just want to go through these here um Whitney Carlson uh Sam's meals for Min $100 uh fult buildings Elementary carnival $300 Lake Park fire department uh archery $5,000 wesland Excavating Elementary carnival $500 SJ Elementary carnival $50 uh Charities Aid

072Foundation school supplies $33 team uh yearbook $50 National FFA organization FFA $1,200 Charities Aid Foundation school supplies $66 so we want to thank all those that uh give to our students and our school district and we really appreciate that all right going on no old business going on to well would be 8 would be 8.2 then skipping that 8.2 because 8.1 actually should changed in the system to 88 8.1 8.1 okay .1 opened contract so this is the contract that we uh Contracting the services we talked about we met with open Ed at our U March work session I spoke with Mr Dand today uh because he was not able to attend that just to update them on this um again I spoke with three or excuse me two other superintendents in the state of

073Minnesota that are also looking to approve a contract with opened um the feedback we've gotten is very successful very helpful the districts uh inre their enrollment and for these other districts they're in the same situation where declining enrollment they're looking for other options to to boost that I know that we do have Grant is still on I think Grant and shaune are on so if you have any questions um I think you probably feel free to ask them about it but this contract again has been vetted by our attorney um the red lines changes were put in and open end agree to all those changes I guess just to reiterate do a motion first yeah we have to have a motion first so do I have a motion on the 8.1 opened contract a motion

074to approve the opened contract as it stands okay do I a second I a second okay discussion we are staff neutral through this process we're not increasing any staff in any way as we proceed correct yep they provide all the teaching staff the only um things we may have to provide is some special support um speaking with our director of special education he's not very concerned about that um we will have a little bit more clerical at the beginning of the year and at Mid semester or mid year at semester end if we do registrations but we do have people in place if do that Mr chair I have a question um I see that you have three schools on the docket now that are interested in doing it are you look going to be

075looking for a fourth or are you going to be content with a three in Minnesota and Grant that's directed to you yeah Grant here for the record um right now we're content with uh actually two or three we don't have any intentions to be seeking a fourth in Minnesota uh the only time I could see a fourth coming into play is if uh we're sitting somewhere around the 4,000 students enrolled across all three uh we might uh start entertaining um a fourth option to make sure that you all can keep your Staffing levels neutral and not have to add folks but um once we come into a state and have those initial Partnerships we consider ourselves a team and a family and those conversations would not be done in a vacuum they would be done

076long sign you sounds good and then I just had one more question out of it and the section that it said the school May purchase a professional development package to train existing on-site teachers to support any course from the company's catalog to use in school after school or in the summer programs price varies based on the package negotiated separately you go further in depth on that um yeah Grant please address that yeah so we uh we offer the opportunity to train and work with your staff to be comfortable with things that we're offering I don't exactly do those negotiations on that on that piece those are entirely separate would be a separate contract uh I have not seen us actually execute that uh in recent in any recent years um we're we're here to help

077and uh we provide best practice documentation to to our partners when they're thinking about how to how to work with virtual students and do things differently again we try to consider this a a long-term partnership and we don't want to be in the nickel and dime business but if there is a a cost we would probably just pass it through it would be my guess sounds good I was just more interested on the um not necessarily it's good to hear about the money effect on it but just saying that you would work with in additional with our school yes yes okay that part interested me thank you is there an example of when that may occur when uh you would have to jump into that portion of a so so to be completely transparent since

078I haven't experienced it I I don't I don't know when it would come into exact play um I'll give you some examples of things that we have experienced you know um with one of our partners in Oregon uh that was uh discussed we they were struggling with how to interact with some virtual students that they had in a different program than ours um because sometimes districts have multiple virtual options and we were happy uh to provide them with with some of our best practice guidelines uh that we've experienced across multiple States uh working in the virtual environment to help their uh I believe it was their guidance counselors get more comfortable with how to deal with virtual students um we didn't charge them for that it was just a kind of a one-off request we

079um hold monthly uh and sometimes more more than monthly meetings with our partner schools and it just happened to come up in a in a conversation you know we're really struggling Ling with this is this something uh that you know anything about and you know our learning division is has seen most everything over 15 years in the virtual space and we're happy to to put together some some high level points and point them to some additional resources that would help them um also they are wanting to do a a virtual immersion program with some language things um that are our team is helping them connect some dots we're not a part of those discussions but we know some schools in emala that were looking for an English partner school we were able to connect those

080dots so that they could see if there was a partnership that they could do there so we're always looking to find ways to help our partners uh improve their U quality of Education that they not only offer to our uh open ed students but to the students who are in the brick and mortar schools as well Mr J yes you have been doing this for 15 years is that correct that's correct the openet has been around for 15 years could you state any low points that you've had be honest yeah um I mean so we we had the we had the ultimate High and the ultimate low of covid um and I think every school felt this we we saw massive uh growth during Co obviously and then we saw massive retraction uh when families

081decided to to go back to to to school however it really did affect our um our ability to really know who our niche market was and uh it's opened up a new market we I call them kind of refugee homeschoolers people who experienced something different during covid but couldn't find exactly what it was but didn't want to go all the way out on their own they're just kind of sitting in this limbo land and we really provide them with a great place to to land also you know we've we've grown uh and learned how to do Partnerships better um we are a way better company today uh with our partner relationship than we were probably five six uh even probably two or three years ago to be if I'm being completely transparent um we have

082always taken an approach that our customer is our students and sometimes that um we for we forgot that our that our partner is as important to us as our customer and um I actually Jo the company in the last year uh for this sole purpose of of how do we how do we be better at being uh partners with our districts we've always provided great financial resources but how do we provide um good reports how do we make sure that our district Partners feel comfortable uh about you know what's going on uh so we now have uh multiple times during the year we have uh reports that we'll provide you um that are around uh kind of semester in review year in review type reports we don't we don't want to hide the excitement that

083we have with our program we want to we want to shine the light on it and for too long we just never told our partners about the good things that happened um and so we've we've gotten really a lot more strategic and a lot more thoughtful about that and so um I'm proud that uh all active uh partners that we have in our program so we have six partner schools in our program today um all of those would give us a recommendation um even our newest one that has yet to enroll a student uh but we're just going through the onboarding provides recommendations and I'm not sure a year ago that would have been a yes but today they are um they all understand what a vital and role they play in this relationship and

084uh we understand it a lot better to be to be completely honest do anybody else have any questions Grant and I will I I just want to offer this for for the for the group uh for the board we are we are likely to only launch for two schools next year and that the if the third School comes online it would be for the following school year we we doubt that we would launch all three in the same year um and so we're having those conversations as well but since you guys are the first to the to the table we will be we'll be excited to launch uh for for next year but that's just a conversation that we're having is we want to make sure we get it right we want to make sure

085we do it right and um you know in all honesty we think launching with two even though we have three that are super excited is probably the safer Avenue and then pushing that third one to be next year Mr chair it was a long time ago when we talked you grant um no is this uh done by contract yearly or three any more questions for Grant I'm not sure if he wants to stay on or if he any other discussion we want to have as a board probably wants to see on through the motion action I would love to U um I I I'm really conflicted about this on a couple different areas here um I feel like it's a transaction between a private company and a public school which that happens all the time

086I get that I'm a little concerned about the revenue and trying to forecast that revenue and what we're going to do with that Revenue um as a school district as far as budgeting um I feel like this is a Band-Aid to a bigger problem which is obviously decreasing enrollment which is something as a board that we are you know going to have to laser focus in on and figure out what we can do as a school district to entice more people to come and stay and grow this District as much as we can um I just this is this is UN I think this is an Uncharted Territory for a board and I feel like we're at a we're at a really weird in the road if we don't do it are we passing up

087some really good opportunity to make improvements across the district with money we didn't have budgeted that could come in if we you know do do it then what do we know what we don't know how is this going to work you know with trying to forecast what is coming in we're kind of along for the ride per se we don't have really any control structures in a lot of this [Music] um it's just I just feel like it's it's a big it's a big decision and uh I don't know Mr chairman right offer comments so one thing to look at is it's a three-year contract which means at the end of that three years if we fa it's not as successful or effective or efficient for Lake bark ottomon we don't have to continue with

088the contract I would say that fear is just like the fear of the bond referendum we went through we didn't know if that was going to pass we had a plan in place but then when it passed its construction time our construction cost came out much higher than we budgeted for because of inflation unpredictable there are so many predictors and UN predictors in there that I don't think that you can weigh on that I feel that the issue would be passing up on this this is our only opportunity um the same thing happened in the other states of the worked in UT and Oregon um they do cap it again there are other school districts that will jump on board if we don't we've talked about declining enrollment and revenue not only for different things

089we can do for our school district building grounds programs but for our staff our teachers competitive are not competitive in their contracts right now there's still more steps than all of our other surrounding school districts that's why we often lose teachers to other school districts we're losing a teacher analy said quite honestly Dr godre I can't stay here I looked at the contracts of other districts and we don't compare that's verbatim um I'll say this paraphrasing but pretty close to verbatim the way she told me that's what we're going to have since I've been here and I know before I came we've talked about hiring staff and retaining staff and the retaining staff has been an issue I think that's slowed down in the last two three years but it's still an issue unless we

090become more attractive we're going to continue to do that we do have people that will be here for life because they grew up here this is their home they want to teach in this district and retire in this District we have many teachers that aren't part of this community that come here they stay because of the amazing things we do but they also leave because they they get paid more in other districts so I think it would be as you can tell I support this yeah believe it or not I think it would behoove us to look at this and move forward with it because you have to put trust in your administrator running it you have to put trust in your decisions and it is Uncharted Territory for LPA but everything new we did

091so is work-based learning that was UN territory but it's become successful so was our electronic call pass so was no cell phones so was our Academy model that we've talked about already Uncharted we don't know what it's going to look like in the end or how it's going to turn out but if we don't take the chance we'll never find out and we'll probably lose out respectfully Mr chair it would also for to those kids that are at home that are looking for an Avenue to be an online school and without the I'm going to grab this class from here and this class from here just support them bring them in to give them experience of a school district absolutely and um for parents it's free it's very supportive for families we're not out anything

092if it doesn't if it fits you know what I mean so like well again it goes back to you know if we start to rely on that money if we use the money for teacher pay and then we decide after 3 years we're not and say we're getting $2 million from this company where do we come up with that 2 million well I wouldn't say we use 2 million for teach no but I'm just saying there plug yours but you you know what I'm saying that whatever whatever that dollar amount is you get used to having it in your coffers Brian I do completely agree with you on that we could focus on the stuff that we need to have done in the school like the roof and stuff like that where is this the

093year we can accomplish that or oh my gosh we can do that and I think we can set up just like we have long-term facility mainus plan once we see what projections are we set up a long-term plan for how we budget and and and we can budget continue with reserves invest that money we have talked so many times about having a swimm pool here we talked about having a track so we can H track meets artificial turf on our football field those are onetime purchases with maintenance upkeep but those are and those are Community things that would allow us to be a community full service Community School like we are supposed to be giving back to Lake Park ottomon imagine if we could take those funds and build a swimming pool with a splash

094pad that would be awesome imagine then how that would start attracting people to move to our community because we're a small town community small town feeling small town manners and a beautiful facility for them tojoy summer there just so many I think looking how worrying about how we budget now maybe we wait until we start looking what enrollment is what projections really are and then we can start developing a plan and year after year this year we're going to complete this project next year this project next year this project Mr chair and a lot of a lot of families do decide or they leave our district which I've had throughout my kids going to school depending on our sports program so the track if you had a kid that was really excels in track maybe

095you don't want them to drive over to Holly but you go to Holly but I remember when my oldest was in school they went somewhere else and those was before wrestling this room was big but I know the wrestling coach told me we could still have more there and at the pool what if we get a swim team right something that we don't have but we have a student right now in elementary that's doing very good on the swim team and he goes so hard to deal and that and that's my biggest thing is to make sure that if this Revenue comes in that we look at it from a betterment of the student body and do everything we can to to be known for this known for this in not you know put it

096into things that you know we can't we can't count on if it's going to be there the next year but we could do a capital project maybe with a little bit of it as it comes in it would give us a little more leeway at the negotiation table though and would increase rate of Pride yeah I say yeah we could definitely I mean don't count the teachers out by any means no not to be a Debbie Downer but I've been trying for a track for 40 years I would love a track it never never happens I'll get you a track Mar it will happen I'll get you a track we'll get there Mar as a board I think it's our responsibility to provide that opportunity and this is an opportunity for those kids that may

097not so much have it yeah if we have Revenue issues I think we can deal with that yeah I agree and I I feel like from what we're hearing from the partner I I think it sounds like be silly not to give chance give her a shot I I think it's more important that it's ultimately giving a student on a street even if it's only one the opportunity I think that's what we're here for to be educated yeah and just so the community is clear about what this is and what it isn't right if you want to just tell us one more time about this we have Raider Academy correct and then this is a different so this will Target homeschool students in our in our school district and throughout the state of Minnesota um

098like Grant explained last time School Schoolboard communities or excuse me homeschool communities are an interesting niche in the education Market they are in fact a culture most homeschooled students are homeschooled because that's their parents Choice a lot of parents and families that are in The Homeschool Community have homeschooled all of their children can through 12th grade it's what they prefer they have control over the education they have control over what their children are studying they get to be home with them and watch them actually do it and monitor that and a lot of parents feel comfortable and there's more of those parents in our communities throughout the state and the country than you would think there's thousands and thousands and thousands that homeschool um right now when you homeschool you have a couple choices number

099one you go buy textbooks and you sit down and try and teach your children or you latch on to a service provider that will do that uity is one of them that's a cost to the parent those this way those homes School parents actually become enrolled in our school and this becomes their curriculum so it's Public School curriculum and it's free to them so we're not just um gaining revenue or enrollment we're providing a service a much needed service and a free service to the students but it is public tax dollars correct they're paying for it correct yeah mine and yours I think the other part of the picture is that opportunity to maybe have that student be able potentially socially join the student body at some point maybe I think there's there another part

100of it that there's a possibility Mr chair that's where I said a lot of homeschool families they'll do it up until a certain time and not all of them because I know a lot that just graduate their kids from there they keep but it'll hit like 11th or 12th grade or something and they come back in yeah we can welcome more children yeah are we worried about this being one of the first companies to approach us or you know what I mean that is out there that there won't be a better company offer that could ever come out in the next year too I'm not I'm not concerned about that because if you look on Department of education's website there areund 150 different online schools now some of those are companies we have charter schools

101that provide distance ed services I mean they're out there already um to us the appealing part was as we use Raider Academy those of our students that are already enrolled School are not homeschooled students they have to be pretty independent to do this this gives students that are homeschooling an opportunity to interact with a teacher too there are many out there that don't have that there are many out there that do um and I approached them and started the discussions I think probably December maybe November time frame and then delighted to find out some of my colleagues did the same thing because they saw that and that's what they needed to support their students in their districts Grant do lightly raise his hand yes Grant you can just speak up you don't have this is

102school but it's not school go ahead Grant look um I appreciate the last question um and here's here's what I'll say sign up as many virtual schools as you want we we know what we're doing we are very nichy and who we go after from a targeting a family standpoint and so we do not require or expect any exclusivity in terms of virtual programs you you already have raadar Academy online if you want to get another one go right ahead we're we're fairly confident a lot of families are going to choose us uh our customer service is focused on families but we by no means lock you in to be exclusively with openet and Mr chair managa had when we had a discussion meeting managa had used else and then they're interested in switching to

103them soin 3 years if you're like hey we found this is the way we F all PA should go look at it again any other discussion and we're not we're not pushing for kids that are in school now corre correct I want to make that clear Academy hopefully it it has the reverse effect right can bring them back in Mr chair I'd like to End discussion and move to vote if we could at this time I second may I um May I make a suggestion to you because of the discussion and both um positive not negative necessarily with concerns that you do roll call vote on this particular item yeah and I think we have to have one motion at a time so we have to vote on this motion to approve so let's do

104a roll call vote that Susan yes Jade yes Jennifer Yes Brian no Paul yes no Sarah yes okay yeses have it approved Grant I'll uh I'll touch bcee with you tomorrow that sounds good I'll put uh the signable contract in your inbox this evening sure thank you very much thanks for your time thank you all right . three van leas have a motion or do uh just if you want to just let me yeah enlighten a little bit and then the maybe the uh Transportation committee can offer discussion afterwards about the meeting that we had but um Mr Jensen we've been searching for this van for a while when we found one before it took quite a while because they're just they're not out there they go as quickly as they come on um they

105go off the Lots we have to find the one that we have currently brand new we traded in our Tahoe that is paid for under medical assistance funding which is special ed um this one would be a three-year lease with to own at the end of that lease um all-wheel drive 10 passenger van um we it will replace our as you remember we have the Town and Country that was wrecked by a deer that decided to walk in front of it um so this will be replac in that vehicle and and these are two these are actually two different bids that we've gotten so is this to approve which bid correct so that we have to have a motion to approve one of the two yes that what you're asking both Le both out right

106uh no they're both leases yes the lease paperwork is not in here but there's they're both leases does um Mr Jensen have a preference the one that is about $20,000 cheaper so I figured that well one is an XL one's an XLT and he did explain that we didn't need the XLT but the difference was only about six grand I think he said so the XL for the cheaper price has all the bills and whistles we need um and everything so that's the one that we had we had discussed that's one from shuty sh Shi have we done business with them before uh not that I know of uh I Mr Jensen probably did at one time or another it' be nice if he could have been here yeah I thought he was going to

107be there I'm not sure why not he's had an appointment that was unexpected okay I forgot to tell you at the beginning of the meeting that's fine what's what's the Miley joh these are brand new brand new brand new brand new brand new they both R around 80 grand weren't they uh no this one uh was let's go to the final prize this one was $ 83 919 the other one is oh this came up differently so let me pull this up a different way let's give me just a second here I'll show you okay sorry that it's taking so long did you're pulling up when we you want me to cover we sure that'd be great so when we met with Matt there was a couple used models and it looked good but when

108you go back into Carfax they had been for sale for almost two years they bounced on a few different Lots so obviously those vans are hard to come by and they're still trying to get rid of them so to me it just it surfaced issues yeah dealership bought it and they sold it to another whatnot estate it was pretty obvious there was something going on with them so and and they were still at was it like mid 60s yeah something like that about that time you would start getting yeah transmission or train issues 60,000 Mi 70,000 Mi and you know we 20 grand more and starting over and hasn't been on a car lot for year and a half or two years so this one is the the 105 so 105,000 so yeah so 20

109$22,000 difference it's got to be I would assume that's all leather then or I would hope so in a TV and something the camping model maybe that's the Cadillac and I would say this I I can't recall the exact price let me see if I can pull this back do we know all the power trins all that's the same it's all-wheel drive that's as far as you know it's all in a spec sheet though a motor transmission it's got a motor transmission it does it definitely has motor trans um the the other one for $839 I think that's a little less than we had paid the last time we bought one last time I was I'm thinking it's around uh 185 let me go to back to this one uh keep getting dropped off all

110right yeah so I think we paid 85 last time a little over 85,000 so again this will be split up over three years do I have a motion for one of the two what's this one what are we going to call this one this one is the sh I them too purchas the sh key to approve the sh key very low do I have a second I second it all right discussion I can discuss um I did notice that the other one was a 2023 this one's a 2025 oh so that's a big difference and this one's less money the one that we're voting on yeah if you look at the Excel i' like to hear MTH take on it but I mean two years newer and less money I'd be all right but more

111transmission more ens one is the 202 23 yeah the new one is the one that we're looking at is the 25 I did I did talk to Mt it's not just the price difference we talked about the company of the other one um who somebody I met we actually met at the school boards meeting or the school board convention and he knows him actually Matt knew him for a long time I actually recognize the name yeah and he said just occasionally United does that they jack up the cost it's an XLT so it's got more convenience features that we don't need no safety feature changes that they're all feature same correct so um yeah so the the 10 passenger the gross weight those things are what qualify as for class three and they both meet

112the requirements um it's just big difference in price there's no additional purposes that can be used on the XLT nothing else that stands out no not really um just luxury yeah they might have lad seats I don't know but I would say if Matt is recommending then he's looked at most of this yeah he's gone through the specs he's just kind of laid him up side by side right well they could be increasing the cost because I know a lot of vehicles that are used for schools and uh cities and stuff they're all of a sudden just not making them the next year and so it's Jack prices up and United deals primarily with school districts too all right so we have a motion on the floor right now to vote on the shuty uh

113bid do I have uh eyes or yes or those in favor say I I those opposed same sign eyes have it all right 8.3 professional development plan yeah just pring uh presenting our professional development plan I share a little bit about the process so every here review professional development plan so let me specify by Statute 2% of our uh budget needs to go towards professional development it's a restricted fund which means those funds can only be used for professional development purposes um we do have some District professional development that we do every year um I add that in I work with the committee and get their opinion um we also uh talk about what's best for districts it's good so we've done heavy professional development the last few years this year I've made a decision

114or for next year that we will scale back a little bit most of our Focus will be on rcd I think teachers have got enough on their plate with two um curriculum Pilots at each district or each School building and everything else a new principal coming on at the building I think we just focus on um the primary ones that are supported by strategic plan so in this a book book study anxious generation every year we do a book study this one is about the um the issues that come along with with children who have internet access and have uh access to um smartphones and so forth um I talked to a lot of a lot of teachers were interested in this a lot of them already heard about it um we do that I

115offer it for credit we do it through NDSU U with me as the professor I don't take pay for that they get the opportunity to get a cheap credit for continuing ed purposes responsibility Center discipline we're in with them for four years this will be year two that's a relative cost every year with that we have on on-site training we have coaching days and admin days with the the trainer Alice training that is our active shooter training we do that every year because we have new staff every year and we need Refreshers Tracy Ron is our district um our district trainer and she that $4,000 is typically responsible for purchasing her time that she puts into the training um we have personal professional development we've had that for believe for four years now um it

116was set at $300 per year um less less teachers used it than I had hoped but more used it this year for a variety of purposes I felt that an increase to $500 per teacher is adequate to make sure there was enough funding for them to take more costly trainings or classes or so forth um they can pull their money um if somebody's not going to use it they want to allow somebody else to use it it gets budgeted so it'll be on our budget and then I put miscellaneous DP uh PD at 10,000 just in case something comes up that we want to do we see um Step Up dring or this comes in and we want to do a mini professional development then we have those funds budgeted in there and to let

117you know that dollar amount is under what we we will actually have for revenue for that purpose extra does that carry over Tim usually yes it does it carry us over all the time whatever is left over and stays right in professional development funds do I have a motion so Mo motion by Marge second by Jennifer any discussion all right all those in favor say I I all those opposed same sign guys have it all right this would be 8.3 right or did it it 84 8.4 approval of the elementary principal contract so I say we had a successful hire IR ing of an elementary principal we used two rounds of interviewing had a great interview team um we started off with nine candidates interview we narrowed that down to three and had a second

118round of interviews and our interview team I think um in asle chose U Mr Ryan Johnson he is from St Francis School District 12 years of experience at an elementary principal um and these contracts there for your observation and approval Mr chair Dr Godfrey what draws him to the area um he has a significant other in Fargo he wants to move to a smaller district and more Hometown fi to it um St Francis is much bigger than we are um there's multiple elementary schools in their District cuz we're voting on it we got to put a motion out there before we discuss do I have a motion to approve a motion motion by Jade second by no second second by Paul now we can discuss [Laughter] so there is a item in there that has

119the $5,000 in lie of health insurance um I'm a little concerned about that because of a precedent that it might set and if we want to go through that so I'm a little concerned about how we have that worded um with negotiations and this stuff that's currently so Mr chair I would suggest if that's a concern of the board you can just roll that $5,000 into salary um if you choose to do that you would you would make a motion to approve with a approve with an amendment to that pay salary yeah Mr chair I do not feel comfortable having the amend them to moving from health insurance because whatever we do for one teacher principal whatever I want it to be consistent on across the line so say that again whatever we do for

120one yeah but you you do I want everything to I do not I am not comfortable amending it at all no I'm with changing it now but I'm not comfortable with how it says paper right now I think we're all in agreement with the same thing all right couldn't here I think if you add that in lie of money into his salary be commiserate with his years of experience um so I think it's justifiable when do we U Mr chair when do we negotiate our principles again Dr we have another year left on the contract I thought so then we would have to look at our principal negotiations we do an addendum so we do an addendum to the regular contract for specifically for Mr Johnson I'm I'm just saying that what we were aiming

121for in our last principal negotiations oh yeah that this would throw excuse so I would say this so the the um this negotiation he said was to get him at least close to where he is now y so I'm assuming he's taking a pay cut he's taking a pay cut so I think we have to vote this motion that's currently on and then we can go back and a motion for the addendum so we'd have to Mo vote this current contract to approve so I remember it from the msba training so because we only have one motion on the table at a time yeah so all those Oppo or all those in favor of the current contract say I all those oppose say no no okay did we get everybody so basically what the chair

122is asking is um you don't agree with the 5,000 Lo of insurance so you would vote no against this contract and then we modify that I didn't I wasn't understanding that so that's why I didn't vote right off the B yeah so now we can so there's no motion well I don't know if everybody votes I don't know if I heard just I would just ask for the vote again vote again for the same as is for the same for the the motion that was still okay so okay we're g vote again on the uh current contract as it stands right now so concern all those all those in favor say I all those opposed say no no okay now we need another motion so Mr chair I ask can we um ask for a

123motion if you can call a motion to um seek a contract where we put the 5,000 in Le of health insurance into the salary amount is there a motion no motion motion to amend put to amend the 5,000 into salary okay there's a motion is there a second all second all seconds all those in favor say I I all those opposed say no no no okay motion passes all right 9.1 work session April 9th exceeding meetings 9.2 regular uh board meeting will be uh April 28th and we are going back and forth with work sessions being at the elementary and all board meetings over here so that we don't confuse anybody so meeting is attourney thanks y'all got Hammer Hammer I'm going to get better with that