001here. Thomas Barrett, director here. Tim Litz, superintendent. Excuse me. Okay. Summary overview of agenda. Superintendent. Thank you, Chair Barrett. After our a lot of time for public comment and delegations today, we'll review the reports which will include the financial report, a presentation by Haley Brekie, a presentation by Scott Harrison of Highland Electric Fleets, and I should double check. Scott, are you able to join us? Are you on with us right now? I am here. Can you hear me? I can hear you. Yes. Good. Thank you. We'll hopefully get to you in a few short minutes. Okay, sounds good. Thank you. And you're welcome. And then we'll have uh we'll close out the reports section with the enrollment report, monthly enrollment report. After that, we will move into the consent agenda, which during our retreat, I
002said there were 39, but there are actually 40 items. You have the two new items in front of you. Uh packet stapled. There's one that's sort of a pink or maroon color. And then halfway down, twothirds of the way down, there is a second item. So we have consent agenda MM and consent agenda double N. And uh that's in blue. We have I believe 40 consent agenda items. After the consent agenda, there is no need for close session. So, we will go into uh our well, first of all, let me run down what the consent agenda items are. We'll have the minutes from the April 16th, 2025 meeting followed by the rescending of two job offers, the resignations of three employees, excuse me, and then the board has 29 hiring recommendations. We have one parental
003leave request to approve today, two outofstate travel requests to approve, and we will have an approval of a research proposal from Haley Brekie, a student support professional. And finally, 7N, which is to approve the recommendation for agreements of proposals on special education and related services contracts. The board will then move into the action items on the agenda, of which there are six. First of all, we'll approve the list of bills and wires in the amount of 2,84,64724. Next, the board will be asked to approve a termination request for employee 2025-a. We will then consider a request to grant additional compensation to Kyle Fairbanks and Alexis Dejarlay for covering varsity and junior varsity girls basketball due to a coach shortage. We'll then accept a bid to build two storage sheds as the lowest responsible bidder BOD
004construction. We will accept a grant award from the Minnesota Department of Commerce for electric school bus grants and EPA clean school bus program and contract with Highland Electric fleets for three electric buses and charging infrastructure. And finally, we will accept a bid from Wolf Track Energy for Red Lake Elementary's solar array project grant. We will then close out our meeting with our miscellaneous items. Thank you. Okay. Any other additions or anything? If not, we need a motion to approve the agenda. I'll move to approve. Okay. Motion by TR. Second approval of agenda on May 21st, 2025. Further discussion? Hearing? None. All those in favor say I. I. Oppos. Other comments and delegations. Has anybody who wants to speak to the board? Okay. come on up. And uh before you start, we have a new process
005that I'd like to read and then we'll let you share with the board. Thanks for participating in the public participation portion of the board meeting today. We ask that you share your thoughts in five minutes or less and I will monitor you with the timer and if your time is up while you're in the middle of a sentence, you can certainly finish your your thoughts and then we will ask you to wrap up. Please bear in mind that the public participation portion is not a give and take session or a conversation between members of the board and you, but only an opportunity for you to share your thoughts. So, please do not expect a response or comments right away from the board. Also, please remember that an employees reputation is important. Therefore, public criticism of
006an employee by name or by implication is very inappropriate in an open school board meeting. Please refrain from using names or implying names of district staff members or we'll have to ask you to to sit down. Anyone who has a personal complaint should reduce that complaint in writing and submit the complaint to the superintendent. If the concern is about the superintendent, it should be submitted in written form to the human resources coordinator. Finally, since board members are not administrators, they're not involved in the daily administration of school issues. So, if you're coming to the board with a concern or complaint, but haven't first used a chain of command and spoken to a teacher or principal, we ask that you do that first. Thank you. Question. How come only five minutes because that's the the procedure
007and the policy. I've been seeing that a lot on Yep. Well, not just here, but across the nation that parents are coming in and speaking and they're foolish. They're done talking. That was one minute. No, we'll give you that. Okay, go ahead and start. But anyway, um I was actually here for um so the survey that went out Yeah. was very confusing because spoke to quite a few parents and I said well I'll go into but the way it was written I mean I did take the survey I read it and all and everybody was very confused because they used the word climate environment which they thought the school was going to be taken care of with air conditioning and air quality and all that But here it was way off the the terminology climate
008environment which we didn't you know it had nothing to do with that part. We thought and here it was about bullying and how kids are treated to one another or how to teach. It was not the right terminology. It's what we say and due to the fact that um we heard that um oh I better not get into it. They'll disclose another where you guys can't answer, but I will talk to each individual later about how I feel. I'm a here as a grandma and a great grandmother and I'm the one that gets called for my children and I'm the one that but as a community member they call me and try to find out what they can do or how we go about it, how we write up and um actually we're disappointed in
009the school Actually, we are we are we are very much disappointed. So, that's what I'm going to say right now. Nicely. That's my five minutes. 2 minutes and 10 seconds. Thank you, though. And don't hesitate to come to visit me, too. Oh, yeah. Like, I I heard that we had to be invited, so I just thought I'd better Yeah. Double check. Thank you very much. There anybody else who's here for raising of concerns or anything reports and presentations. Thank you, Chairman Barrett. I would uh refer you first of all to u our board book page seven the finance report and this is the report that comes every month in board book from our business manager and uh what I can say is what I say every month that our finances are strong they're solid And
010uh everything is in order as it usually is with Mr. Larson when he submits them. Um I can point out that our starting balance was a little over 32 million and our ending balance is 32.7 million. So we actually took in some funding. Some of that was impact 8, I believe, and uh other grants and funding awards that we've received. So this is the month when we went up. Some months we go down a little bit if our spending exceeds our our revenue of course, but everything is in order and our fund balance is almost as strong as it has ever been, which is uh time of the year. And so it's uh it's good news always when when we can say that. And I've worked in districts where the fund balance uh was maybe
011three months out for making payroll, but we have like about a year and a half's worth of fund balance. So we're very solid. So that wraps up the finance report. Um if I could as a rest other part of my report, I have Haley Brekie with us right now. and what she would like to do is speak briefly to one of the items that is on our consent agenda. It's in board book as uh 7 A towards the very bottom where we approve a research proposal from Haley Brekie. She has spoken to the tribal council already and they approved of this. Now, the next step is to get your approval. Once Haley is done with her presentation, then we will move into a presentation from Scott with Highland Electric. So, go ahead, Haley, you have
012the floor. Um, for this part of the report, um, I can't remember if I believe your item is in board book, right? We did that to you. So, do you need the smartboard, please? That would be great. Yeah. I'm going to uh disconnect briefly from this laptop so they can you guys can see what she's got. Perfect. Um, thank you for giving me the time to uh talk about market. Uh, my name is Haley Burkie and I've been working this year and part of last year on a project proposal. Um, it's all about strengthening the support youth and using a community centered approach for that. So, a little bit about um who I am. So, I'm Haley Gury. This is my second year in the district. I am our only staff member and teacher at
013the juvenile detention center and I'm our only teacher at a ready appointment and then I also work with our kiddos after they leave um doing the school. Um, I also have a background in criminal justice and psychology and um, for most of our incarcerated kiddos and our kiddos at the Red Home, most days I'm the only adult that they interact with is when they leave their cell and they come to class. So this entire initiative is completely based in sitting with our kids every day for most kiddos on their worst day and hearing their thoughts and their needs and where they are getting met. And I've been listening to all this and I'm reading this into a proposal to help uh reach our kids. So um basically when we get kiddos in the jail and
014in the group home I collect our basic data such as their attendance, their date of birth um you know when they enter the GDC when they left those very um basic data. The entire idea of this is not to add on more work at all. It's to use the data and the things and the interventions that I'm using every week with our kids and taking that data and utilizing it more to better benefit our kids. It's just taking what we already have and taking it to the next level and utilizing it to its fullest potential. Um, and not only that, but it's also an an initiative and a way to take what I'm already doing and also reach past the school and use it to benefit the community as well. Um, using this data, it
015would also work to strengthen early intervention and re-entry s uh systems, which right now we don't have any in school. It's a struggle. Uh, I've had over a hundred kids in the jail this year so far, which is almost a fourth of our high school. And when those kiddos leave jail, we don't have a re-entry program. We don't have a transition program. That's me by myself for an hour maybe every Tuesday and Thursday. Otherwise, our kids that are coming back from these traumatic experiences are fully expected to reintegrate back into the school and community like a normal student. and it it just doesn't work. So, this is also a piece to take again what I'm already doing and use it to learn from our actual community. Right now, the resources that I use and what
016I have available to me are they're great resources from outside communities. They're outside resources. They're based off of data that doesn't represent our kids. I'm using interventions that I'm sitting down with with our real kids in our real jail from our real community. and it it doesn't meet them. It doesn't represent them. And not only that, but we're taking our funding and we're setting it to outside group forces when we could use what we're doing right now to not only cater to our actual kids using data from our community, but not only that, bringing in more resources, bringing in funding and bringing in resources to the community instead of sending it out. And of course, the big piece about this is focusing on growth. Um, and as I mentioned, another big piece is strengthening our
017community. It doesn't just stop at the kids. This would reach out to their families in our community because that is our kids. It could focus, we could use this funding and this data to look more at those gaps and look at helping not just the kid but the family doing family based interventions and helping uh partner with more community programs like the women's shelter. Um, as Tim mentioned, I presented at the tribal council which was so cool. Um, and just from that presentation, I've already had so many more uh branches go out for more partnership. Um, for example, this uh research proposal will be through the Red Lake Nation College. I spoke with Dan who is marvelous. So, it will be IRBbacked um with the institutional review board to make sure that we're following the
018ethical standards. But, so this is also a great opportunity to connect the school and the community more and also put that funding and those resources and that data straight back into the community. It's not just stopping at the school. because it's so much more than that. It's not the school. It's the go. It's the group home. It's the women's shelter. I have kids that they have nowhere to go because not only do we not have resources at the school, but we're low on resources in the community, too. So, this would go beyond just the school. Um, this is not just a school initiative, it's a community initiative. It's community investment. And of course, the top priority is always protecting and respecting our students committee. Um, this is a really big piece. Historically, um, oftentimes, and
019you can see this in a lot of the resources that um, we use. Historically, our community hasn't been represented fairly or fully in data, which is a struggle. this could help address that, but also that's a big piece that will absolutely be considered because we need to protect our community. And my full priority first and foremost is making sure that our kids and our community are represented fairly and respectfully because it's not about accountability. It's not about focusing on where we're failing. It's about focusing on growth respectfully with currency. Um and then of course uh when we eventually apply for grants and funding any information that's shared will be carefully considered which this is also a great area where um the Nation College will come in really well. That'll be a huge pillar in our
020community that can help directly offer critique and approval and advice when applying and sharing that data just to have an extra layer of community input making sure that this isn't hurting our kids or hurting our privacy in any way. Um, so to wrap up, basically, um, what I'm asking for is your approval to use what I do already and use it to bring more into the jail, into the community, set up more resources for our kiddos, especially when you consider that we do have a high population of kids that go through this process, but a really scary low amount of resources to help the community and they're here. Um, and so many doors have already been opening just by starting this initiative. We could take it and expand it so much farther into the community
021with approval to go to move forward. Um, it's so hard for me every day to leave the jail and to leave at work. I'm dreading the end of the school year. Um, because for most of those kids when I leave, the support leaves with me. So the entire idea of this is to make sure that the support doesn't leave when the school day does. That they're still supported fully, that they're still intact with their community, and they have all the resources that would be provided more. And it doesn't rely just on the school day. Thank you. Um if there are any comments, concerns, or questions, I would love to address them. Thank you for your fun. Thank you for what you do. It's a dream job. We find somebody like her who does hard work
022and she called it a dream job. We got to keep it. Well, I was I was once one of them students. I had to be in a group home setting for a year and I became the peer leader. Really? Yeah. So, I I know a lot about what you do. That's wonderful. And if if any of you have any ideas or input, the more community input, the better. I will always take a visitor to jail. I love bringing anyone in. I mean, just knowing that we have a bathroom with that. Yeah. I was in public school for 9th grade and I have to be there the whole year. Yeah. I just want to share. I'm quite familiar with what you do. So, thank you. Well, and our kids, it means a lot to hear that
023with our kids. So, I would love to be sharing that with them. Yes. Thank you for your time. And I'm sorry I missed two of your emails that you sent this morning, but because I was in a meeting with these guys all night. Good. And help yourself some of Tom's birthday on the way before you come back. It's Tim L's birthday. We share a birthday on Friday. Okay. So, happy birthday. So, no school Friday, right? We'll celebrate Saturday. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. That was awesome. Awesome. So happy to have her. A lot of times nobody gets to hear those kind of stories and these awesome staff members we have. You know what I mean? Usually they're they're coming under the bus. Yep. They don't care about our kids and those of us in here
024on the inside know that we have a whole we have a lot of buildings full of staff. That's right. I'm glad she I'm glad for her work and she came in to share today here. Thank you. Okay, continuing on with our reports portion. We are ready for uh for you, Scott. If you I'm going to pin you here so that we can get you uh on to we can all see you as you present to us and I don't know if you have anything to share but feel free hopefully if you do you can share it on your screen otherwise the floor is yours. Yeah, thank you so much. I will. Do you guys First off, can you hear me? All right. You bet. And can you see this? Yes, we can. Okay. Awesome. First
025off, thank you so much um to the board and superintendent for having me here today. Really excited to give you guys uh an overview of the proposed phase two of the fleet electrification initiative at Red Lake. Um I think as as most of you know um you guys have two EB school buses right now in partnership with Highland. Um and this would be an extension of that to deploy three more buses. Um two at your current depot um and one at one of your secondary depots in in Pinea. So I'm going to give a a quick overview of what I'm going to run through today and then leave plenty of time for questions at the end. Um, and I'll I'll stay all the way through the uh the consent agenda just in case anything else
026comes up um later in the meeting. Um, I also want to apologize. I had really hoped to be there in person today. Um, unfortunately, both of my flights were delayed last night and I I ended up sitting in the airport for a while and I I was not able to get to you guys. Um, which I I regret, but I'm I'm hoping to be able to come up um again sometime. I have not been able to visit the site um since the first contract was signed. So, apologies again. I'm not there in person, but happy that I could uh could make the virtual appearance. So, I've got a few components of the presentation. I'm just going to do a quick intro on Highland and who we are just for anyone who who doesn't know as
027a refresher. I think a lot of you know this information, but I'm going to run through it again. Um, then I'm going to do a quick overview of the funding um that is available to you guys. Um, and then I'll go into the project overview and I'm going to try to leave plenty of time for questions after that. Um, and I think we can answer questions for for as long as they they're there. So, I'll jump in now. Um, quick highle overview of Highland. So, we're we're an electrification as a service company. We were founded in 2019, currently active in about 30 states with a couple projects on the cusp in Canada as well. Um, we're really proud of the fact that we've helped districts secure upwards of $520 million in grants and incentives for
028electric school buses across the country. Um, that's all work we do for free, just helping districts apply for these incentives to make a project possible. Um, we currently operate the largest school bus project in North America with Montgomery County Public Schools. That's 380 or 280 EV school buses um down in Montgomery County, Maryland. And then we currently have about 900 EV buses under contract um at this time. This is a quick uh vis visualization of where we are um in our distribution throughout the country. Uh we're founded in Massachusetts and so we sort of have a concentration on the east coast. Um but I'm actually in charge of the Midwest being from Minnesota myself. Um and so really happy to have two projects active in Minnesota right now. Um yourselves obviously you were actually our
029first project um which was fantastic. And then um we have a project that will be operational with Edina Public Schools um down by the cities um starting this fall. Um, we actually helped a number of other districts apply for funding in this last round of the Minnesota program um that you guys were also awarded. Just a quick overview of of what we do. So, we do a lot of free grant writing for districts, but our core offering is this electrification as a service. And what that really is meant to do is simplify all the components of fleet electrification. um districts are really familiar with diesel operations, but there are a lot more complexities that go into standing up um a portion of your fleet as EV. So that's project planning, vehicle procurement, charger procurement, charger
030managing, management, permitting and installation of the of the the project, staff driver training, fueling. So that's the electricity with the utility um charge management and then a really robust maintenance and repair support throughout the duration of the contract. Um and then a quick overview of of the benefits of this partnership because that's really what we are. It's a long-term partnership and commitment on both ends. Um so what we're proposing today here is a 10-year contract for fleet electrification. Highland is fully responsible for everything that has to do with the vehicle and the charger um throughout that period of time. Um so it's a performance g based contract with no upfront investment from the district. Um it helps streamline budgets. You know exactly what you're going to pay per bus every year for the duration of
031the contract. Um unlike a traditional operation where you might have a major repair in an out of warranty period, that doesn't happen with this contract. um if if that was to happen, that's actually Highland's responsibility to pay for that. Um and the district's um costs do not go up. And then I think the part that we're most proud of is the ongoing level of support we provide. Um we're we're pretty transparent that these buses, like any vehicle, they have issues, too. Um the chargers have issues, but but we're there as a partner to help you, and we're the ones who are helping you solve these problems. You're not trying to figure them out on your your own. we're responsible for the cost and that's not just um something that happens at you know the beginning
032of the contract. We're there throughout the duration of the contract to help you with all these problems. So on day one um and then also in in year 10. I'm going to jump now into a quick overview of the funding um that you guys have at your disposal for this um phase two of the fleet electrification. So, we worked um with you to apply for the Minnesota Department of Commerce EV school bus grant. Um you guys were awarded approximately 1.3 million or 1.16 million um to support three EV buses. Um, and then on top of that, Highland was able to add you guys um, as a district to our EPA round two grant application, and we're able to fill the additional capex delta between what the Minnesota grant was covering and what the vehicles and
033the infrastructure themselves cost. Um, so there's two grant programs. The bigger one is the Minnesota program. Um, but you're also beneficiaries of the um, EPA clean school bus award. Both these grants are pending. final um approval and contract signature. So um we don't expect any hiccups there, but technically I don't think the the final contract is executed yet with the EPA or the state. Um that does not mean um we need to be held up with that. We don't expect any um any delays there. Project description. Um so like I said, this is an extension of the project you already have in many ways. Um we're deploying three additional buses. you already have two, so that'll be five total in your fleet. Um, jointly funded by state and federal money. And then the anticipated project
034start date is spring of 2026. That could move around slightly depending on bus delivery timelines. Um, but I think that's a pretty safe um, project operational date. Um, quick overview of what the grants can actually cover. So, they're eligible to cover depot costs. um vehicle costs and then the cost of the charger and the infrastructure. Um there's a percentage of each of those buckets that the state is going to pay for and then we're using EPA money um to try to cover the rest of that. Um there are certain costs like utility interconnection costs. So working with Belrami Electric to bring in new service to these locations. That cost is not eligible to be covered by EPA grants. Highland pays for that capital cost upfront. You guys don't pay for that upfront. Um yeah, that's
035the the majority I wanted to cover there. This is a just a quick overview of um the two different sites. So, this is the existing depot. We've already electrified at the elementary school. The vehicles outlined in blue are the existing vehicles. We'll be adding two more um and two more chargers and upgrading the transformer. Um, and we're sort of going to build up from where we are um, currently. And then there's one more depot site being added in Paneea um, to your current operation up there and that will just be one vehicle and one charger that's being installed. We will need to bring in a new service for this. We've already worked with Belrami and they've verified um, that it is something that they could do and are very supportive of. quick overview of everything
036that's included before I get into what the contract pricing looks like. So, the school buses themselves, the chargers, the bus depot electrification cost. So, that's like the construction site installation, charge management software, electricity, Highland pays that electricity bill, so you guys never see that electricity bill. Um, and then a big one is vehicle maintenance and repair reimbursement. So, routine parts and labor costs, things like that. We're re you guys are billing us for that and we're reimbursing you. And then the big one is major maintenance and repair items. Um, so if something major on one of these vehicles breaks, that's Highland's responsibility to fix that and provide you guys an operational vehicle. It's not on the district. Um it's really de-risking the technology so that you guys can enjoy the benefit without having um you
037know the risk associated with what people would see as a a new technology um in people transportation. Jumping into the contract pricing. So I have two prices here. This top one is phase one. This is the current contract that we already have in place that applies to those buses you guys already have on the road. Um you're paying $16,750 a year. Phase two, the contract price is actually dropping. This is a function of us bringing more grant money to the table and offsetting more of that capital cost. The cost is 15,000 per bus per year over three buses. Everything else really is remaining the same from the contract that you've already signed. Um, but the price is going down. Um, this is uh the bulk of what I had to present today. Um, so I'm
038gonna pause here and I can flip to any slides that you guys have comments or questions on at this time. Um, but thank you so much and and really appreciate you guys um, having me to speak. So, thank you. Does anybody have any questions? No, sir. Nope. You're all good with what you shared. Okay. Well, thank you so much. Um, and I'll I'll remain on the call in case anything comes up later. So, thank you, Scott. Appreciate our partnership very much. It's been going well for us. We do, too. Thank you. Okay. Now, we have one last part of our report section to cover. So I will refer you to the enrollment report which is all the way down to page 99 in board book. But I already shared a lot of that with you
039during our retreat that our enrollment is actually up a little bit from last month which is unusual at this time of the year and uh it's holding steady. It's a good strong sign of of what we're doing here. So 1469 for K12. If you include the three and four year olds, we're at 1559. So we are uh when people ask how many we have as enrolled students, I'd say right around 1500 give or take, but it can go up and go down. But if you include the three and four year olds, it's closing in on 16. It's closer to 1600. So that's good news, too. And that is also one of the reasons why our fund balance is so strong because the funding we get for our students from the state and from the federal
040government. That wraps up my report section. Thank you. Okay. Consent agenda. So May 21st, 2025. We had one addition on there. Mm. Yep. actually two and then double M as well. So that's what's in the blue. Yeah, I have Oh, I did u want to request be added on to that trial of Pennsylvania. Yep, that's right. Rob would like to be able to go along with to the trip to Pennsylvania for that mass customized learning. So, and uh I think our budget would support that. So if you're okay with that, Pennsylvania. Okay. So that's in JJ, right? That's in state travel. Yep. Delina JJ. JJ. Yeah. So add board member Rob. Okay. It's actually AJ. We start over with the A. So, actually these this kind of got numbered wrong. It should have a M
041and a N, not DM and double N, but that doesn't matter as long as we keep track of it. Okay. Well, then we're adding the MM, right? Yep. That's a hiring of Ariana. Ariana Hy, music teacher. As a music teacher, that one's added on there and that's it, right? And then and then in the blue section here, there's another section that turns to blue and that's to approve agreements of proposals on special education and related services. Oh, okay. And and each spring on behalf of the district uh Dustin publishes an RFP for special ed and related services and uh and that's what which we're we're approving there. Proposal. It's just like it's blank here. Yep. Contracted services. Anything you want to add to that, Dustin? They're contracted services. We published our team services that we
042can't find staff to the field and this includes things like occupational therapists, physical therapists, school psychologists, death hearing teachers, blind vision teacher. It was a whole host and every every spring we publish both the RFP and advertisement for the positions to see if we can find staff of our own and for those of us who can't and we look at the proposals that were submitted and make a recommendation about which individual companies I can't hear can't hear. Sorry about that. I'll stand up and come over here. Um, so this is uh special ed and related services purchase of service agreements for um requirements that we have to meet for students with special needs uh where we can't find staff of our own to hire. So we contract out with individuals or companies. It's a pretty
043routine practice every year I've been here. We've we've done it this way. We advertise um try and find staff at the same time as we publish the RFP. Anytime we can't find staff, then we look for the proposals that were received. I make a recommendation about which um proposal to go with based on my knowledge of the company, the cost that they're proposing, all of those sorts of things. And then comes to you guys for approval to enter into agreements with all of those different individuals and companies. And sometimes it's more cost effective to just contract out than to have somebody on staff for just a few students as well. Right. Yeah. Some of these are five hour a week sort of positions. So nobody really wants to come on staff for five hours a
044week. So it's easier to speech therapy, right? Yep. Yep. Send Mike over. I was going to say that too. send you over that hearing one day. Yeah. Yeah. No, I got hearing too. I got these brand new hearing aids and holy band. They were pretty slick. Are you wearing them though? Yeah. I can hear people even thinking about what you think. Let me see. Yeah. Hook up hook up to my phone. I know. I I'm supposed to wear Oh, really? Yeah. But I got to go in for another appointment cuz yeah, they they put them inside here. But I like that they're on the outside. Little wire here wraps around. These are the microphones. I like that. It's better than the ones I had. This is something we do. Every year. Every year about this
045time. Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing the amount of services that that are offered within our district for our kids with the special needs. I think you're doing an awesome job staying on top of that. Thank you. My son speech therapy. Good work. I think Chris is hearing my thoughts already in his hearing aid. Thank time to get back on track. So, so we have all these items, 40 of them for your consent agenda. So, we just need a for your approval today. Okay. Motion on the consent of all. There's a lot. A motion to approve. Chairman B. Okay. Motion by Nicole. A second. Second by Dean to approve consent agenda May 1st 2025 as presented. Further discussion hearing none. All those in favor say I. I opposed. We don't need full session. So action items. Okay.
046And for this, I would refer you to page 364 in your board book, which hopefully in a month or two will be all on a device. No more paper shuffling. But I have for you everything in order from Willie Larson, business manager, to approve the payment of 2,84,64724 cents. We just need a motion and a second. A motion to approve. Okay, second. Huh? I'll second Rob. Oh, Rob. Second by Rob. Approve list of bills. Wires amount of 2.8 million $4,647.24. Further discussion. Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I opposed. 9B approve a termination request for employee 2025A. Thank you chairman Barrett. For that I would refer you to page 410 in your board book. U and again caution you we have to be careful not to mention names. We will refer to this
047employee as 2025A. Try to also avoid pronouns so we don't indicate this individual. But on this one, and this is always a difficult thing, but basically um this employee began employment on March 10th, so not that long ago, but uh we have a the probationary review for the employee with recommendations of dismissal and grounds of the dismissal are attached in board book. We've had a memo of expectations that has had to be delivered three different times, twice on one day because of a no-show and uh not pretty much just yeah not doing the expectations. A verbal reprimand on April 17th followed by a written on April 22nd. So, it's escalated and there's been warnings and you know uh communications going on, but uh all non-certified employees who are new to the district are required to
048serve three-month probationary period and this employee has not been able to provide the services we need during that three times. So, the unfortunate recommendation is that we uh terminate the position because we want what's best for our students and we need people here working and doing their work. So, I submit this to you for a motion second and a vote. King has submitted a lot of no names board to the board for review. Yep. And I haven't we have the letter or I've never I haven't seen it. I thought it um but basically just Yeah, it's beautiful. But I was looking for that too because it did say that. Yeah. There was something added in there that there was something added on a sheet. Yeah. on here, but it said letter, too. So, that's where
049there's like a little comment. Yeah. Piece. Cool. It is in there, right? It's in there. It's just pretty small. Oh, right here. 415 at the top. But it said letter. Yeah, it's more of a note. A motion to approve. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what it's often a common there. A lot of things we don't agree with. Have personal things going on. Well, we have to put our students first. When there's personal things going on, we still put we still show up and put our students first. Okay. Have a motion by the court to approve. I'll second that. Chris. Yep. Second my approve termination employee 225A. Further discussion. I was just trying to figure out when the hire or huh? I was trying to figure out when the hire occurred. It was in March. Was
050it too long? Oh, okay. Yep. So, within that within that. Okay. Within 90 days. Okay. All those in favor say I. Iain. Who's abstaining? Me. Okay. request to grant additional compensation to Kyle Fairbanks and Alexis Dejari for covering varsity and junior varsity girls basketball due to coach shortage. Thank you, Chair Barrett. Page 417 in your board book. With the extra duties we had with the girls programs, uh the AD is asking to compensate the two coaches split up the coach pay at step zero. There never was a third coach hired. So, they had to cover the duties of that third coach. And it's something that uh Willie and I talked about and didn't think was we needed to bring it to the board because there was never a point where Nolan brought to the board
051the uh job abandonment or the dis the rescending of a coach or the adding of a new coach. So they just took took it upon themselves and they did do more work as two coaches covering for that additional third coach. So they and the AD are asking for the uh that third coach at at paystep zero to be split and they each get half of that. So what we need is the board to consider that. Um, how many how many times did they have to do that other coach's job? Oh, I guess it would have been every practice and then every game. I'm not sure. from the beginning right from right from the day one. She did it by herself cuz remember that we we when we hiring him that one coach didn't get hired
052but I seen him later and he he wanted to be a coach but he said that there was already somebody there and I don't know if that was guy that left or not but how come we never gave him an opportunity to come in and I don't know the answer to that that was something that Nolan probably handled and he probably had his reasons, but I don't know what they are. I think that guy should at least chance. Well, maybe this next year he will have that chance. But so why are 1600 then? Yep. So this is a board action. Yeah. Send it. It's a deal. actually doesn't he sounds like it's a managerial issue. It should be a managerial. Why is it getting to the board? Well, because it was a matter of personnel
053and because the personnel change never took place, which is a matter for the board, then this has to come to the board. So, they should have came to the board before they even did this. So, then we could have just approved it. Yep. Nolan should have could have, you know, come to the board uh and done that. But I think it, you know, he was busy with basketball and coaches were busy with basketball and uh never got done. So we for the sake of the auditors, we feel it would be best if we make sure that the board does this. So it doesn't look like there was any kind of favoritism or um making changes in our policies when it comes to personnel who is hired, who is not hired, and how we handle things.
054So because technically they're splitting the the pay for a coach who should have been hired by the board after someone else has been rescended position but the job was abandoned right in the season. So so when the job was abandoned the board action should have been to resend the offer and then to find someone else. I don't have no problem with it because they did it from the get-go and they get half to where when I was a teacher and I had to do two classes ates once then they paid us half of what you know. Yeah. So I I don't have a problem with this. So is that a motion? I guess I motion. I got a motion by Thank you. Second. I think it's been done before it second by Tom approve um
055grant additional competition 1600 for city further discussion I have so much to say further discussion pretty hard to where she's gotten in her like it's not because who her parents are. It's because of her hard work. She's been a good She did. She did all that coaching herself and she comes in with lots of energy and a great attitude. Thank you. And we had attendance of 29 which we've never had in the past years. 29. So we need to, you know, praise our people who work hard for us, not because who their parents are. You support them. Can I say something? Yep. Well, I kind of think conflict of interest and all those in favor say I. I. I oppose. accept mid to build two storage sheds from B construction incorporated as the lowest responsible
056bidder and for this I can refer you to page 419 but I can also mention that I've been working with really and Chris board and these are storage facilities that are needed one here and one at the elementary and uh we have the fund balance to be able to cover that And so the recommendation from both of them and from me is that we move forward this summer with the building of these projects so that we can continue to protect various investments that we need to store in these sheds for these are storage buildings. Yep. Chairman Bar $2 million. Yep. They did go above a little bit above the uh the recommended, but I remember over 10 years ago building a a bus garage, basic bus garage in Kellier, and it was quite expensive, you
057know, but we're looking at now you're approving this, but we're also looking at reducing some of the costs. We don't think it'll come in this high. We can cut back on some of the costs, but some of the costs were, as you can see, they're a bit higher than we expected. because of uh the layout and uh some surveying issues and the challenges of connecting utilities to existing utilities. Um but we believe that there are this is a valid and good bid and that we can reduce it somewhat by cutting a few corners back on some of these things. If it looks like it's getting too expensive, we might just decide to remove the concrete floor and just have a hard packed floor because we're not driving heavy vehicles into we're not storing buses in
058there or anything like that. And we might even look at a different heating system. It will be these will be heated, but we can look at a more or less expensive heating. But even if we went with this full amount, um we can afford it because we have such a strong fund balance set aside just for these kind of things. So I submit this to you for approval. Motion motion to approve. Yes. Okay. All sir by Chris units we have any construction discussion we just do I thought we just for structural so is this a separate project or is this the one that we just This is the one that we are you talking about 9E or I mean that 9 I know we did a I thought we just did a garage thing. Yeah,
059that's what I'm talking about. Yeah, I thought we did one for another maybe it was somewhere else being constructed. Might have been I know this one's going to the elementary school but I thought we had did another bid for to bid for another construction project. Not that I can No, that was the latest. We did one for the boiler project last year, but that was before you were here. But no other one for a bid a couple of months ago. Pretty sure storage unit. I think what you were what you were approving then was maybe could have been pan maybe. That's the only reason why I'm asking because I thought we just did one for a new door. I think what you're referring to, we we approved going out for an RFP three or four
060months ago for this and now we got the RFPs the bids back in and we're accepting one of the bids now. So, okay. Well, I thought that bid that we looked at was like 900,000. I thought that's what I seen. I could be wrong. I'm just asking because I want to make sure. Yep. No, there's no other no other construction projects. Okay. It's coming out of your checkbook. Yes, exactly. That's why I'm asking because I thought Yeah, I thought we get one for like 900,000. Well, we can sell a solar panel array to cover get us out of So, we're going to go with the max uh for now. Yep. And then we can look changes. Okay, we got a motion by Nicole, second by Chris. All those in favor say I. I know. accept
061grant award from Minnesota Department of Commerce EV school bus grant and EPA plane school bus program and contract with island electric plates for three electric buses and charging infrastructure. I'll move to approve Mr. Chairman. Okay. Second motion by Chris Tom. Second by Tom to approve as presented. Further discussion. So thankful for this opportunity. Yep. Me too. It's good to be the the first. Yep. And looking at you know that total number 1.16 million. Usually we were buying 188,00 you know we need to take care of the environment. Mhm. It lines up with our values. Okay. All those in favor say I. I opposed. Okay. Accept bid from Wol Track Energy for Red Lake Elementary Solar Array project grant. I'll move to approve, Mr. Chair. Okay. A motion by Chris. I'll second that motion. Second by
062Nicole. bid back lowest bid. Um, yep. So, page 519 in your board book. Um, and, uh, I've actually had to begin I've begun working with this organization because we have only about a week left to finish the the grant application to finish it totally. But, um, they were, however, categorize it again as the lowest responsible bid that fit everything that we needed. So, and I've been pleased in my work with the individual who represents Wolf Brack out of the loop. So, they're good. So, I submit that to you. I guess we already have the second motion in a second. And it is uh it is covered by the grant. So, it's not like we paying anything, right? We will pay for a fence to go around it like we did here, but everything else is
063covered. The location is a little bit north of uh the elementary school, not too far from where there's another old building that will be taken down in that area somewhere. The early childhood wing in the gym there. Okay. All in favor say I. I I have anything miscellaneous. I've covered everything. I'd just like to share I want to share with the school board that I went into Mr. John Edgar's classroom and I talked a little bit about my educational history and what got me where I am today. And so I went and spoke with two classrooms and I think I made a huge impact because when I see some of the young men in the community, they recognized me and said, "I remember you from study hall. I just want to share, you know, maybe
064other board members would like to go in and talk to the students also about how important graduation is." He invited me too. I think you were there too. Tom, you went too, didn't you? Yeah. I spoken classes opportunity. appreciate the space to any any kind of perspective to the kids. Yeah, there's a couple of the seniors graduating who took them an extra year, but they're graduating tomorrow. I'd like to grab them sometime and tell the kids in his class, you know, don't do it the way I did it, but I did it. I did it. But get that ninth grade year figured out first and make sure you finish graduate because that opens doors. I'm really pleased and proud of those two kids and all of the kids who are walking tomorrow. Speaking of uh
065did you get you already signed them all? So I hand them over. So before you leave, sir, you could do that. Tim, was there ever Mr. Roger then? Thanks for I was going to I have a note to mention that too. tomorrow at uh find my uh there is a pot block Friday. Sorry to interrupt. It's Friday. Thank you. Friday. You're right. on the day ahead Friday and uh starts at is it 11:30 service awards for secondary complex staff and about luck and that is where he will be honored so be great if some of you or all of you could make that I'll be there too. Thank you. Thank you. High school cafeteria just where we were. Yeah. Also before I 11:30 11:30. Yep. Until about 1:00. Before I forget, um, if I could
066have the binders back, if you want to save anything from the binders, but I had to thanks, right? I had to borrow them so that from the business office. So, I want to make sure they get them back and probably use them again next time. I give you updates. If you want to keep the binders and what's in it, go ahead. That's fine, too. But if you don't if you don't uh plan to use them for any reason, just give them back to yourself. It's up to you. I wrote notes in all mine. Okay, you keep them. They did the binders. We can afford it. Yeah. No, I just thought if you weren't going to use it, I could take some of them back. Yeah, we got enough paper, right? iPad. Something like that. Yep.
067iPads or Chromebooks or something. Yeah. And then, you know, like with some of the job postings in there, there's a lot of redundant pieces of paper. Yeah. I want to I want to thank you all for a really good retreat this morning and for a very well-run meeting this afternoon. [Music] We got a lot done. Thank you. Okay. Motion to a motion to second by Then 209. Have some cake. Thank you all visitors for joining us. We're signing off now. kind of felt like elongating, but Shel, if you're still there, can you give me a quick call? Oh, okay.