001Uh big witch by the way. I mean, what many administrators can they will verify you. So we we want all of our teachers to incorporate the language into the classroom and so we uh want to get our principles to start being able to introduce themselves that way. So him and Dustin pretty good. They do self introductions in those people and uh we're that's the thing we're always working on in the district to have language always working on this language program and that's part of our part of our programming is always in any right now. Tim is Tim Tim asked how to do a prayer in Ojiway that he could do at his church and uh so um we'll have music because anybody can pray and uh good prayer and then ask him to give invitation
002here today and ask the spirits to come and help ask Dr. G to translate it afterwards. Okay, very short not too long. Oh, you said uh we asked creator to watch over us and be with us and help us and uh so that we can uh be good to each other and we can help each other and and and to do well and to do good things. One little syllable on TV. Thank you. The um the late Mike Feather offered when I was a sophomore up 20 bucks. Whoever could remember the next day. I got it. Tank of gas. Yeah. And I believe he said you should pass it on to the next person you heard saying it. Right. Right. So they knew you were asking how long it took. Took me a month to
003figure that out. How long did it take you to get it done? Overnight. But I was motivated by it. Took me a lot longer than that. Okay. College meeting 10:05 p.m. We'll ask the clerks to do the roll, please. Mike, Chris Jordan, Nicole, Robert Mlan, treasurer here. Jack Dog, Jack Djari, director here. Tina Stley, director. Thomas, director here. What superintendent? Monday. Yeah. Okay. Summary overview of agenda. There we go. Thank you. Have to call it up here because somehow my technology closed out on me. Uh here we go. After our aotted time for any public comments and delegations, we will review the reports. And we have a fair number of reports today. One of the things you had asked at the board is that we have some visitors from our school district to come in
004and let you know what's happening. And so we have a report from uh first of all to celebrate language and culture and then I have a message from Ashley Nelson about insurance benefits open enrollment followed by a food service presentation from Andrew Ericson. Then we'll look at three other reports. The health insurance bid results the finance report and the enrollment report. After all of that, we will move into the consent agenda, which includes improving the minutes from the or approving the minutes from the March 18th meeting, followed by a resignation, one resignation, one extension of parental leave, and one transfer request. Then the board has 11 hiring recommendations for next year to approve today. And we will then close out our consent agenda with approval of the 2628 achievement and integration application and fiscal year
00526 achievement and integration budget. And we'll have a report from Dustin Hinckley about that as well. And uh there's no need for a closed session at this board meeting. So we'll move into our action items of which there are two. First one is approving the list of bills and checks and wires in the amount of 2,744,9232 cents. Ne next next the board will be asked to approve the contract with the superintendent for the next two years, whoever that guy is, and then we'll close our meeting with miscellaneous items. Thank you. Oh my gosh. I thought it was part of it. Thank you. Appreciate it. Hey, we may still have a close session, right? I mean, we're still looking at having a close session to discuss item 9B. Does that require a close session? Um, well,
006that involves the superintendent. I don't think that would be legal, but we can check with um I'll have Willie do a check on it if it's for evaluations or negotiations having to do with negotiating strategies for let's say negotiating a new master contract or the sale of a land or if we have to uh Well, there may be some questions on there that maybe you don't want everybody to here. I I I mean, you know, I'm just right. But that that wouldn't um qualify. I mean, whether I want or don't want, I like to be transparent and that wouldn't legally allow us to go into close session just because maybe I don't want. So, I don't think that would be immediate. It's a personel matter. Personnel matter, but it's not a matter related to let's
007say so you rather do it open openly. Yep. Um okay because if um you know if we were evaluating a staff member to let's say terminate that staff member for cause and is kind of a due process hearing or something and it's a question about did you or did you not do this then that might be for due process a closed meeting session but um for like like a contract like this um asking questions we should be transparent. Yeah. Okay. If you're okay with Okay. Okay. Thank you. Anything else that anybody wanted to add? Uh needed to add I had questions on the consent agenda on some of the hiring. Uh, and it was just a open question because like for those hires like I didn't know I couldn't I was trying to find my
008old report to see if these are actual new hires are the ones that we had terminated previously or how that was because that that's pretty quick for us to open a position March 14th and then for us to approve to hire unless they're new hires because we're told we were told that that it was 60 days for the ones that we terminated to reapply for those positions. But if we're if these are new hires, I mean, okay, but that's saying about the those ones that we terminated earlier this year and told them they had to wait 60 days to reapply for those open positions and those are coming next month. These are not for the 60 days. 60-day ones are the those who have no teaching license like a tier one. All of these do
009qualify in the timeline because it's simply a matter of um looking at qualifications and then hiring them back. So they don't apply for the 60 days. So is it I guess it's my question though. We opened it according to what I read in the packet. We opened March 14th. We terminated them in February. We open March for the the positions didn't open until March 14th and we're hiring they were submitted pars on April 7. So in three weeks that's to me that's just you know what is it saying to the ones that are like enrolled travel members that were on that termination list that we terminated and then we're hiring once back. I mean, it was just a honest question. I thought this I wanted to make sure question bang here. And all those were
010the 60-day ones. So, they'll be back. You'll have a whole long list in the month of May for those tier one people. These are all people who did not need to wait for those 60 days. And uh so that means they all have license for what they're teaching. Yep. 7 E, 7 F, 7G, 7H. They were all um they all qualify. And then 7 I is a former music teacher who we're thrilled to have come back. Yeah. I mean, seven I I was fine with, but I was like with the other ones, I didn't know if they were new hires or what they were if they were on that list because the way I interpreted the way we were told 60 days for everybody. It didn't make a difference. I And I didn't know, you
011know, and I had people ask me questions about that, too. So, I told them I would ask and find out. The last four um K, L, M, and N and O last five are all new positions that were opened. I mean because of retirements or resignations and they're people and I participated in some of one of those is one of them actually. Those are offerings we're making to these teachers for positions that are open. They hadn't been cut before. they were just open because of the retirement or somebody resigning because they're moving away. Is the uh pending proper lensure andor requirements is that more of like a paperwork thing on their end or is that mean some of them are still currently obtaining their license. It's more paperwork on their end because many of these
012are international teachers and so we have to get the visas worked out and make sure they get the license in. So how is that going to affect us too? That's the other question I had too because when I read through it, we have these ones with these visas and with all of the stuff that's going on lately with the deportations and revoking of visas and these are all legal. We've been told that there won't be any issues because they're here for a good cause, which is education. So, I mean, but the other ones were here for a good cause, too. They were getting their education. They can sit back. So that's why I'm wondering because I don't want to have where, you know, one of our teachers get picked up and now we're having to
013do a long-term sub or, you know, how does that work financially for us because they're then they're under contract. So we're sending I don't know. I just those were my questions I had about all of that. Nope, they're all they're all legitimate and the financial repercussions shouldn't be any and these are all people. We follow the letter of the law every step of the way and we have the best recommended candidates up for you today. Well, thank you for asking that. So, so what country are these people? Are these from Philippines or We have a couple from the Philippines and I believe two from Ghana. One from Ghana and they're both from Ghana, right? Yeah, two from Ghana. Yeah. And uh they are very professional and come with good recommendations. So is that only the
014elementary that did because that's the way I'm looking at the way I was reading those. Those were just for elementary school. I thought there was one over here. Science teacher. Science teacher middle school. Middle school. Music teacher is for secondary college. Was that a new position then? Music teacher. It's a position we haven't been able to fill for the last couple It was it was there and because there was nobody taking the job we switched up we just maneuvered different jobs hence someone like Cory Medina came in doesn't have a music teacher license but you know have those kind of skills that was my understanding of that now that we have we temporarily closed it temporarily and everything so it's budget is put into the budget that I mean like with me being the treasur
015I always that's why I question a lot of stuff because I'm you know That's my position as secretary to make sure that that's in the budget that we're not creating new stuff and right unable to financially sustain it. That's a good point. Being that we are going to have a music teacher again, does that mean changes with staff or does that mean just a larger budget for salary per teacher as far as how much we're right and then would that cause anywhere else? Music music is very important. I'm really happy that we're getting it back and we are required by the state to have music. So, we have to do this, but we're not um you know, person who was there before. We're not getting rid of him. We're just relocating what he does. And
016our budget of of you know 60 plus million dollar budget of which more than half is safe and sound in a in a general fund fund balance. We are very solid and have no no concern budgetarily especially since we have to do this anyway. So any other questions? No, those are good questions. Yep. Thank you. Um because it was working just couple years ago, wasn't it? We weren't as stable. Well, we were having I mean in terms of the fund couple years ago, we were struggling a little bit with some of our unexpectedly low enrollments that we were not used to. Partly due to the charter school expanding and also partly due to COVID postcoid kids deciding to not come back or to do online school or homeschooling. But as you'll see in a little
017bit in a report, you'll see that our our enrollment is really holding steady. We don't have haven't had any of this this year. So we're about 48 students higher than we were last year at this time and holding steady. So that's the key is the enrollment. Okay. Wasn't any more addition to the agenda or anything? Motion to approve. Looks like a second. Further discussion on the agenda. Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I public comment and delegation. Nope. Superintendent updates. Okay. Thank you. Um, first item here, I'm going to play this. Hopefully, it won't be too loud, but it's part of the celebration of, as you know, we talked about our long range plan is to really make it a priority to teach Ojiway language and culture. And I'm really pleased with how
018we have made pro progress this year in that area. And so here's an example of one of our teachers who is going over with first graders some language lot of having to do with plurals. [Music] I apologize for how hard it is to hear. Um, turned up the volume full blast here, but you can still kind of tell. You might not be able to hear the words till he leaves a prompt and they answer right back. Continue here because it's another minute or so, minute and a half. I believe Dr. G, could you maybe share a little bit about what he was going over how what you saw there? So he was with first grade kids. He was using complete sentences positive and negative. Uh is is the girl crying? They would say uh and
019uh they would say she is not crying because it would be each of her laughing and smile way and then they would prompt them and the kids were first graders were giving these answers just really awesome answers. In first grade they were correcting the sentence they're saying it in positive form and in the negative form. They are not crying. He is not crying. They are laughing. He is laughing and he would ask him those questions and they were answering and what was really this is why I took the my camera out. I was I evaluate the teachers. I took a picture of him uh in action and uh uh he's an example of our our our program uh uh elementary team is really working together to help each other teach each other how to teach
020more efficiently. And so now we that's an example of the quality of of language that we have uh with the new program that we've set up. We've set up um here's the grammar scoping sequence. This needs to be taught at this grade. This needs to be taught at that grade. And then by the time we get to 12th grade, they should be able to have conversations in a jubile. That's the goal. So in order to do that, we needed to lay out we worked with the language instructors to say here's how we're going to lay it out through the grades and we even we created benchmarks for the language so the teachers can say what benchmark am I teaching and they'll put that on their lesson. So we're getting the lessons with the benchmarks on
021them that follow the grammar scope of students 8 through 12. And we've just rolled out our first time. It's kind of like an Ojiway MCA where all of the kids uh across the whole district can take the same test and we can see how they're doing. Not only do we see how the kids are doing, we see how the teachers are doing. So now we can make decisions off the data. We can look at the data and say, uh, for some reason they're not getting it here, but they're getting it there. Why do we think this is happening? How can we put our heads together as teachers to find out how we cannot fix this? uh issues. So that's part of the uh the overall programming of what needs to be taught and how it's
022going to be taught. They work with each other and how they're going to be taught and then it's assessed student like you know MCA districtwide and they'll is u what's really nice about that is I can walk into one classroom and see one teacher teaching u working on well we're supposed to be working on commands. I'm hungry. I mean, you eat, let's eat, you all eat. And I'll go into another classroom. The other teacher is teaching. Uh, you eat, you all eat, let's eat. They're all following the same plan and they're working together. They're every Monday. They get together, say, "What are we going to teach? How are we going to teach it? What can we do to improve the water?" So, we have a really nice program set up. This uh guy is brand
023new guy that you saw and he we got him from uh from the immersion program and uh uh he used to be one of my students at BSU you know boy language but he is very gifted very skilled and uh one of the issues that we're having right now in our language program is that we have uh our language teachers are have different abilities themselves. There's some that can teach level one just fine. They often teach children with level one just fine. But now we got kids that are taking whole pages of paragraphs, a whole story, and they're translating it and they're getting it and they're able to do complex and complex sentences. They're level two. So, we're trying to figure out and we haven't figured it out. I'm working with the principles. Uh, how
024are we going to catch them? In elementary, there's level two kids that are skyrocketing. when we get to middle school, how are we going to make sure we keep them at that high-flying level? So, we have to look at our teachers and say, "Well, we're going to have to put level two teachers up with level two kids." And uh uh and we we don't we have oh, three, four level two ready language teachers and this new guy is one of the new ones that can teach at level two. Uh so we have to figure out how we're going to place them. So we're always working on the program. We're always improving. We're always running into new things that we have to uh we didn't see that we need to fix and build. And uh the
025goal is and we're getting there. The goal is to uh uh have the kids there's called a seals test and it's really uh rigorous. There's an oji section of it. It's called a SEALS test and it's they have levels of language like there's beginning level, more advanced, intermediate, low, intermediate, middle, intermediate, high, and advanced. And this state test is really a tough test, a rigorous test because I work with them on it, too. I'm one of the consultants on the state uh bilingual skills test and some of my buddies from out in the field that are on it, too. But it's a tough test. Our kids are our kids are going to be ready for that as we finish building the program. We're almost there. We have a really good program. We have really good
026teachers, excellent teachers. And uh that's what I wanted to show. Uh Nadon Wayong is his name. That was in the video. And I see that in the other teachers when I go into their classroom, they're they're teaching uh excellent lessons. And I want to uh videotape them. And I'm sharing the video tapes with the other teachers so they get ideas from it and they say, "Oh, I could do that. That's a great idea." I'm doing it that way. And we're rotating on teachers tomorrow. One of our language teachers from the middle school is going over to visit elementary and watch them. We encourage all of our teachers to go around and observe other language teachers to get ideas and improve their toolbox. And that's that's basically it. That's what I wanted to show how cool
027our language program is coming along. I know Serena Serena really brought the program up to a very high level even made it in the Star and Tribune for teaching college level Ojiway in an elementary school and and they were the kids were getting it. So the program is is is really growing exponentially fast and we got to it's hard to keep up to keep up with the kids ourselves. So anyways that's that's thank you. I just want to share you guys are doing a good job. When I speak Ojiway with my kids at home, they go, "No, mom, that's wrong." Um, you're saying it not, you're not saying it right like the real Oji way that I teach is a real Ojiway. So, before we like doubled our staff, we have twice as many staff
028now and we're moving towards Ojibway every single day for the kids. Uh so uh the program is always growing and we have we run into rough times you know we got to do something different we don't know how to do it but we get into it we try it out and then we adjust to it and then we get rolling. So as it's growing we're having a lot of bumps and running into this and running into that. The good news is that there are great teachers here in the school. Can we focus on your long range plan and we have it laid out and apply everything our priority is language and culture focusing on that is how we've gotten you know to where we are and we need to continue to focus on that and
029I just like the fact that his name starts with nagan which means vanguard leader up front and I think that's s that's a good example and it his name fits what he does he's leading the way for Elementary over there. So, nice work. Thank you, Rich. Well, that was nice. Yeah. I got to keep up with the kids. So, when I visit, I try to engage in a conversation and a lot of times the kids can answer me, especially at the elementary will be fun. Yeah. My girls speak a lot of loj on your uh the agenda is a reminder from Ashley Nelson. Our benefits, our insurance benefits open enrollment window is still open, but it'll be closing in just a couple of days. So, she would very much like it if you could visit
030with her at the end of the board meeting and ask any question and let her know what your thoughts are about insurance. There was Zoom set up for us that via Zoom, right? And then 6C, Andrew must have been tied up. Hopefully, he'll be here soon. Check to see Dr. G. Thank you, Dina. This is the guy we all love to love because he makes good food. Hi, friends. Good to give you a presentation on the food service and what's been going on. Uh, we have new ovens coming into the ice kit here thanks to a $25,000 equipment grant we got. They're called a combi ovens, combination ovens. They use convection steam. Uh you can smoke in them. You can braze them. You can even uh pan fry in them. Oven fry easier. They're more
031efficient. They're self cleaning. So that's going to really improve the way our food is cooked here at the high school specifically. We're going to move the extra ovens most likely to the elementary school to accommodate the large amount of meals that we are serving over there. Uh we have summer food service for the summer or for the month of June. Open at all three sites and even until the 12th of June down here till the 27th at both sites I believe it is. Um and then in July I am applying for sites to take food trucks out to serve at sites in the community to reach the since there won't be bus services and stuff like that. We can get more meals fed. We have folding tables. we have canopies, stuff to make it work.
032Um, so as long as we have participation and approval, then we're going to jump ahead with that. Um, there is a buy American uh standard right now for food service. 90% of our food has to be bought American, 10% can be uh imported such as like bananas, kiwi, stuff like that. Uh, we use less avocados because it all comes from Mexico. So there's that little tidbit. uh we had to track it all, but it's relatively easy considering what we spend on imported fruits and vegetables. Uh we used up um a grant that we got for the school year 23 24 to 24 25 for buying local uh foods. We bought wild rice, literally a ton of wild rice from Redby. Uh we bought homony and wild rice from local people here in our lake. Uh
033we finally ran out of it last week here at the high school and the elementary school, but kids really enjoyed having wild rice a lot more different ways in the in the hot plain cranberries, wild rice salad, stuff like that. It all went on salad bars got served or directly on the plates going through the service at the elementary school. Uh our revenue was up from in March from our forecast uh of being about 140,000. it came out to be about 164,000. So, we brought in an additional $24,000 in revenue. Um, we have started breakfast in the classroom here at the high school to increase our breakfast numbers and they went from about 175 to over 300 now. So, we're capturing all the students. That's still less than half of the enrolled students, but we
034can of what we got. So, we're getting more kids eating breakfast, which in turn leads to more kids eating lunch. That's a good thing. Um, so yeah, I anticipate our revenue rather than dropping like traditionally at the end of the year as to either staying the same 164,000 or raising which is good. Um, we've gotten our breakfast cost down, our overall food cost down, our waste amounts are diminished to barely anything. Um, see sessions revenue was up. uh basketball, football, volleyball, and we're looking at doing softball, baseball as well. Concessions um helps kids feel supported. I believe helps the community gives them a meal, lots of compliments about the meals during basketball. So, yeah, looking for more ways to fund raise for sports and clubs, stuff like that. People seem to like buying things, buying
035food, so like to look at ways to do that more. Anybody else got questions for me? Will you guys be utilizing the um the little complex over at the softball field now that it's uh I don't know status. I know they work it up though. Um we don't necessarily plan on it, but we do plan on using food truck. We have a serve safe training May 16th for some of the special ed teachers. So uh safe serve certified and then sell snacks, pops, whatever out of the food trucks. So one way or another, we do plan on selling concessions for baseball. Quick question. So breakfast is not being served after 8:15. Correct. There is a breakfast for late students that come in that are at security. They don't get the hot breakfast. Okay. Breakfast option.
036Okay. And we have increased meal there to about 50 to accommodate the later students coming in. Okay. The hope is the hot breakfast in the classroom brings the kids in here on time. Um, we did have a small issue that first day ran out of breakfast. We the problem pretty quick. All right. Uh, kids also now get four days of hot breakfast versus three because we were doing Monday, Friday is cold. Now we're doing Tuesday through Friday hot. We also changed the fruits up a little bit to deal with the teacher saying there's leftover fruits. We have these little fruit cups called Psychics. They're pure frozen fruit. Kids love them. So, it seems to be helping with that. We have the best seller bar anywhere. Yep. These guys do great work. Want you to ignore
037what his hoodie says. Have clean hands, clean, clean money. But they are workers. Uh they do work hard. They're in there scrubbing, cooking, chefing, cleaning, good happy place to get their meals. Um, yeah, like like Tim said, they do have the full salad bar. Um, I know there was talk of somebody posting a picture of just two items. On Facebook, that's a a very large mischaracterization of what we offer here. Although that is a reimburseable meal by state standards, we go above and beyond. full fruit full bar unlimited root set. So, wasn't there um a policy on stack hosting stuff like that misinformation? I believe there is. Um that's not for me to say though. But yes, uh yeah, trying to spread a false narrative. But how much meals do they prepare back there? like
038what did they like by telling what did they repair from on a day based 700 um one issues was waste so we've been trying to dial it back and we're working on I do know sometimes the fifth uh last grades get don't get the same options so we've uh dealt with that so that shouldn't be happening yeah know it's impressive to watch what they do on a daily basis you know what I mean They're cooking for that's I was just curious about that number like these guys are you know gal they also provide food for and St. Mary's. Yeah. See that's but that's still in that same number. No I guess another 60 onto the elementary another 100 onto the high school here for what they prepare. Awesome. Yeah they're doing good. We roughly over,200
039meals a day. That's what I was looking for. Wow. Awesome. Good job with the crew, man. They're they're the real heroes here. Yeah. I'm not just buttering them up. I I enjoy coming to work every day and Amber's already here most days. Oh, sure. I've never seen him in a bad mood. Cheerful welcoming. That's how the school service people are, too. So, thank you. Thank you. Have a great day. Have a great day. Thank you, Andrew. I see that Ashley's here now. I did give them the uh information, but if you have anything you'd like to add. Thank you. Sorry. My chair nurse help. I just wanted to make sure everybody knew that we are in open enrollment. Um open enrollment for benefits allows you to change health care plans that you're on currently. Um
040this year we do offer three additional services. So um in addition to your standard life insurance policy, there is a voluntary life insurance policy you can increase all the way up to $150,000 um policy should you choose to want to purchase. Um as well as uh for board members um there is no offering of short-term disability but for your staff your employees there are short-term disability now offered for the employees. Um and then we have accident insurance. So accident insurance is a great supplemental insurance for those that cannot afford health insurance. Um it covers like hospitalizations um hospitalization diagnosis kind of those services that are provided by health care professionals for individuals that don't have healthcare insurance at a more affordable rate. Um so the paperwork that I gave you are very specific to coordinators,
041board members, non-affiliated and clerks. Um these are kind of what benefits are offered um per agreements and uh a lot of times when you get benefits it's when you first come on the school board um either come in sign up or say hey I don't really need it I get it somewhere else. Um but this isn't a time to kind of revisit and look at what options are available to you as well as get any of those additional supplemental ones that are not. Um so if you know after the board meeting or sometime before the 18th so tomorrow you can just stop in your office. Um I really help all staff. Um we also have enrollers um this year which is a brand new thing. Um staff members can sign up with our benefit enrollers
042um and kind of walk through it too. So a very quick overview of everything but basically all our health insurance plans are all the same. It's just different deductible amounts. So this one accident bill we can opt into this or absolutely. Um the only thing board members cannot opt into is long-term disability and short-term disability. I think that's only like $5.70 or 90 for a board member like this. Yep. So, just come and see me and we'll do it all electronically. All right. I mean, it's just a quick click like Thank you guys. Thank you. So, since we were just talking about insurance, the next part of the report, I'd like to uh refer you to page four or five, I'm sorry, in your board book that are the uh bid results. uh I think
043both page four and five page four is a narrative that described and then page five is table and uh we put out for bids the district received sealed bids from only two vendors first one was blue cross blue shield and the second was the Minnesota service co-op Minnesota healthc care conso consortium which works with medicica The district's group health insurance request for proposals was sent to three other following or three vendors total. Public employees insurance group program known as PEEP along with Blue Cross and the Minnesota Service Co-op. Bids were opened at 1:30 p.m. on March 18th about a month ago by district business manager and representative from Education Minnesota. The bids were reviewed by those in attendance and after the bid opening bid documents were reviewed and compared by the district and the results
044are what you see on this table. The district selects as its health insurance carrier Minnesota service co-op as was highlighted in the yellow. So there are four plans offered. the uh the VIA plan, the first one, $1,200 deductible. You can see the price there for single and family. 1386 a month for single, 3,600 and change for family. The traditional plan is only offered to a few people now who are grandfathered in, but that's the one that's really expensive, up to over $4,000 a month for family. Many people uh go for plan three for plan four and um it offers an Viva HSA plan for a high deductible $6,350 deductible. That's plan three and that's the most reasonably priced 964 a month for single 2500 plus for family. And then plan 4,300 and change versus 3,400
045and change for single family respectively. And uh one of the reasons that we chose to go with the district chose to go with the vendor we chose was because the bid from the service provides the same benefits as the plan that was negotiated way back in the 1991 to 1993 master agreement. But it also includes a 0% increase for next year over this year and that's big. And then provides a guaranteed rate cap that will not exceed an increase of 15% the following year. A lot of districts get more than that in an increase from year to year. Sometimes 18 or 20 or 22%. We can get zero%. And then a guarantee of 115. Worst case scenario over the course of two years is an averaged out seven and a half percent. You know 15%
046over two years of seven and a half seven and a half. So that's a report giving you some information on the status of our insurance health insurance. then we can move on to the finance report and uh for that I would refer you to the next few pages and as is always the case everything is in order. Um biggest things to consider as I mentioned earlier the fund balance is very healthy. We started the balance last month with 33 million and $26,000 and change and we're ending with 32 million 283,000. So down about 800,000 but that's very small amounts and what it we were up last month I believe we're down a little bit this month from month to month. It fluctuates depending upon what our bills are and when they're due and when we
047pull funding down from the state from the feds. Next month we'll probably have another draw because at the beginning of the month we often pay out various incentives for hirings and other incentives are due to keep people in the district and then in June it'll probably dip a little bit again even more because that's often when we not June and July because that's often when other payouts are made at the end of the year. But what you see here, this $32 million, if we ran this report today, it would show 38 million because just yesterday we received $6 million and change for impact aid. And not only is that good news that that uh is $6 million in our bank, but the best part of that is that's money that we now have that can't
048be taken away by the federal government with its budget cuts. But we have that in the bank. So financial report again shows a very strong fund balance and a strong budget here in email. Then we can move on to the enrollment reports and that's on page 98 on your board book. And that's where you can see that I was referring to the stability of our enrollment. As of April 4th, we had um 1547 overall students. the bottom line, several lines above it in the dark font, boldest font, if we don't count the early childhood and three and four year old programs, we're at 1457. If you look way back to the column, the fourth one in, which is the third one in, which shows May, and the one before that, April. Last April corresponding month,
049we were at 1415. So we are 42 students above that and we're down 14 from last month. So we do get some fluctuations. One of the biggest fluctuations is often in May for some reason. I think that's largely due to kids beginning to check out. But I'm optimistic that we won't see a big drop this year in May because this whole year has been improved in terms of student attendance and enrollment and consistency. And I think a big part of that is the positivity we're bringing back into the district with PBIS with the good work that our uh health counselors are doing for us, Chris and his team, keeping kids in their social, emotional, and mental health stable. and the work that we're doing with peer leaders trying to make this school place that kids
050feel welcome and safe. So that's some more encouraging news. And then finally, it's not actually in uh board book, but Dustin is here to give a brief report that that answers or addresses the very last item in the consent agenda 7P, the 2628 achievement and integration application. So I will let him share some thoughts with you and then if you could stick around any other perhaps questions you may have for consent. Sure that thank you. All right. So, um, every three years we reapply for the achievement and integration grant approximately $600,000 per year that we have historically used to fund five positions in the district. They include one of our culturists, two of our student support professionals, and two of our language and culture teachers. So the application as it's written currently just continues that
051goes over those five positions. Um provides for the strategies that we're using with those five positions to increase hopefully increase graduation rates which is one of the targets for achievement and integration. And then the integration portion is related to the star program and we have some of our middle school students who participate in that program each year. um which is an integration activity through peacemaker resources um that brings together students from manomomen clear Boston and red lake to learn more about one another's communities and culture and they do that periodically through dayong or half-day long events through the year. So that's just a really brief overview of achievement integration. I'm happy to share the full application with anyone who wants to read through all of it. Um, but it is a fairly routine item because
052we just continue to fund those same positions from year to year with that money. Questions about that? When will we know when we award? So, if you approve on the consent agenda today, the application, I'll get the last component sent in. Um, and they typically let us know about the award by the end of May. Um, it is it's one of those grants that's not competitive. So, we're not up against other people or other districts. Um, we just have to prove that we have a continual need for it. So, there's very little likelihood that we're deny it for any reason. But we just have to to move through all of the motions necessary to apply for the money. A lot of the funding for a lot of our programs comes from grants proposals and those
053kinds of things. Dustin spend a lot of time on many of those items. So, thank you for that. So, how many positions are we holding for the 600,000? The 600,000 covers five full-time positions and that's salary benefits. And there's out of the 600,000 there's between 10 and 12,000 that goes to that star project that we pay peacemakers to facilitate for us. Well, those wouldn't be a position that like the district will be able to because I'm just thinking if there is any issues where say we don't get the grant are we able to suspend through the budget our budget our own budget right so if for any reason and like I said I think there's a really small chance that we would ever get denied for that money but if for some reason says, "No,
054we can't give you the 600,000 this year." Um, I would come back to Willie and Tim and request that we fund that out of the fund reserve balance for a year while we reassess whether or not those positions could be rearranged, find other grant opportunities, or let those positions go after the end of a full year. I personally wouldn't feel like it was fair to have told people that they've got a job for next year based on the expectation of grant funding and then cut it in June because we find out we don't get the money, especially given the district's um ability to cover that cost for a year while we were trying to find other opportunities. It would be a different story if there wasn't a big fund balance available, but that would be
055my recommendation. And even after that one hit, if we couldn't find the money, we would try to figure out how to utilize these same individuals in other positions because they're good people. We like to keep good people. So, we would look maybe have a retirement here or there and or a resignation just those people. thinking is because with the right now with the Department of Education and then we talking about withholding state funding for certain things. I'm assuming that some of that funding is coming from that department of education. So that's why I'm asking these questions especially when they just sent out a letter telling superintendents of states to reverse their DEI, right? You know, or or they wouldn't get their funding. So those are the I'm following all of this stuff and I'm just
056trying to figure out what we're you know right where we're at and how it's going to affect us as a district. So I can I can tell you achievement and integration is specifically a state funded program. It's not a federal flow through program like some of our other programs title for example could be. So unless Minnesota legislation changes, there will be that achievement education body available. Um so like at Boys and Girls Club, there are certain grants that we go for and those departments, MDE, um DHS, they notify us if the funding is possibly going to be cut completely in half or changed and whatever. So I'd imagine that this what what department is this from? Department of Ed. Okay. See, that's the thing is Department of Ed don't even really know what the hell's
057going on because the Department of Education, State Department of Education is doing stuff last minute and they're spiraling to other states. So, I'm watching what's going on. Like in Texas right now, they're already talking about withholding funds from them. Oklahoma, there different states because they want um I believe Maine is the other one. So now they're actually suing because they won't reverse their transgender thing sports. So it's like different things that are going on. And I know since we're Democratic state, our DFL state, we're probably going to be under some type of stupid thing that happens because of he gets, you know, and then you got Linda McMahon. Stick with Raslin, but she's the head of department of education. So, we're gonna we're gonna wrestle with her. That's where we're that's that's the thing that's
058going on. It's a lot of politics in play here that we don't really know about and that's why they're playing this game right now and it's going to take I don't know what it's going to take right now. A lot of states are already talking about suing. So, we have a lot of really strong Minnesota's one of them. Strong advocates though in Minnesota, including our governor, lieutenant governor. Yeah. and our uh you know national senators or representatives who are going to advocate for us and our secretary in the state and so we're going to push back I'm sure it is I I only brought up what I did because we're applying for the 21st century grant and we got emails on that specific grant that it's you know on the chopping block basically so I
059imagine yeah email saying like hey I know you're applying for this But be weary. There might be less money in this pond if you haven't gotten that email, right? You know, and the reasoning for that would be 21st century is one of those federal flowroughs. So, it's federal money that goes to the state department that then they just and achievement integration is solely at a state level. It doesn't have anything to do with federal. Yeah. But Rob, you summed it up well with the word student. and other way to Yeah, there's no other way to put it because like even now with what they were talking about with the state of Minnesota and our budget, they had to make specific cuts in certain areas just because of um the uncertainty of a lot of things
060and chaotic. Yeah. So, but we'll focus on what we can control and what we can do and do our best and let's not assume and not counsel. Yes. I I mean that's what I'm getting from the news. I'm just watching what they're saying. C-SPAN and other places. They're they're really everybody's kind of scrambling scrambling to try to figure out what's going on. That's why the market's doing what it's doing. Yeah. Too much uncertainty. So that's all I got. I'm sorry. Thank you. Thanks. With that, we can wrap up our reports. Okay. Agenda for April. to 25 as presented. Need a motion. Motion to approve. Second. Where's the discussion? Yes. I I I'm sorry. So with our with the secondary complex, who would know when are they going to do their I guess h or whatever
061they're going to do or they'll come to school because I'm getting asked questions and and I'm like here's what you do. Direct the questions to me or to or to Dustin. But to answer your question, um we are going to present to you at the next board meeting all the other hires, but the hiring is is the interviewing is going on right now largely, but we can't offer anything until those 60 days are up. Dustin, can you add to that or Well, that's that's not good. that I think the confusion if there is any is related to the fact that there's we have multiple buckets of staff and there's some who are unaffiliated. We call them tier zero, but that's not really a thing. I affiliated for tier one or tier 2 through four. And
062there's different rules that apply to each of those buckets of staff. And probably the ones who are asking the questions of you are tier one teachers. And we can't renew a tier one license until we've advertised that position for 16 days and prove that there aren't tier 2, three, or four teachers who want that job. And that goes to the middle of May. So then the week after that we can come to you with recommendations. But that I mean and that's the only reason why I'm asking is because everybody's seeing this agenda and that's why the question is being raised is is because they're seeing teachers that we when we did our cuts in February that some of these teachers already being keep going. These are some questions that could be answered out of the
063boardroom meeting. This is really time consuming, Mr. Board member. So, let me just say that number one, we didn't really make any cuts. Those were just by virtue of the law. They had to not be renewed and now we're bringing them all back hopefully and interviewing people. We are the big elephant in the room question is are we following the law? Yeah, following the statute. Okay. We're making sure everybody gets a fair shake and we're doing everything properly so we don't get ourselves in the district in trouble. Yes. And also, we don't micromanage. We're not here as board members. We don't micromanage. We give it to administrator. I bring it I bring it to this board meeting because I don't talk to him oneonone because that's micromanaging. I want the board to understand when I'm
064asking a question that is being asked as a board independently. I can't do anything. It takes the whole board to make a decision on anything. But feel free to give us a call whenever you do need to know something. That's what we should do is be calling the superintendent when we have questions. Yeah. And then to save you time, too, if you want, just if you get calls, just say, "Hey, give Tim a call, give Dustin a call, give I do that. That'll save you some time, too." I do that but because they ask figure bring it to the girl table and that way it's not being misconstrued that I'm people out there want to know when they when they come up to us and ask us things but they should they already know we've
065told them we've told every single one of them in a letter print and verbally here's what we're doing here's why we're doing it here's the timeline they already do know so when they ask you next year when you get to this point. Just remind them to go back to the letter they got if they don't have it anymore to give Dustin a call or give me a call. We can straighten them out. But the board meetings aren't necessarily a time to rehash it over and over again because we're we're doing everything according to the law. My 19th 18th year doing it like like this Dustin at least that many years too I think. So the law changes and we trying to keep up with it. Call us. Yeah. Well, I mean, but when I went
066to MSBA, they told us or need when I went to bring these type of questions to the board table versus Yeah. I don't see anything asking questions if you don't not sure of something. I mean, I would do the same, you know. I wouldn't necessarily just call one person, you know, I'd rather just discuss it if if we can, but I don't see anything wrong with it. But as far as one, two, three, and four, that's not what they tell us. We have to discuss it before the meeting. And if you have a question, that's true though. If you have a specific question about something unique or proprietary, you can ask that. But all of us should know process by So anyway, but it's always good to be transparent also. Yeah. up front. All right,
067I guess we're we have a motion and a second, right? Nothing more on the consent here. All those in favor say I. I can somebody refresh my memory on the very first motion on the first page of approval of the agenda. Tom, I need a motion. Uh Tom, then myself. Okay. Thank you. Sherry had asked me to cover the minutes and I missed that one. Second part. Okay. Now move into the items. We only have two. First one is to uh approve the bills and wires for the month of month of March. To approve. Yes. I'll second by Chris. Discussion on the bill. Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Okay. A motion and a second to approve superintendent contract with Tim Luke for 2025 26 and 26. A motion to
068approve. Does this mean we're you're we're hiring you or are we putting out wires out there that we're hiring that we're looking for a superintendent? You would only put flyers out looking for a superintendent if you had a superintendent resign. We had an open uh which is what you did when Mindy left a few years ago and you hired me as an interim for one year and then since the position was still in I was still here. Um we renewed that contract for two years and now it's another renewal. So it's not like you post it's an ongoing contract that gets renewed every two or three years. And at the time I was uh talking to I believe Nicole was the chair when I renewed the contract and she the offer was for you know
069just negotiate for three years. I thought, "Oh, how about just two years?" Because uh I'm getting old, time to retire. You know, these last again these last three years have been have continued to be really uh uplifting and great place to work. And I wanted to say at least two years to see certain things get done like the electric buses, the solar panels, PBIS, cheerleaders, those kinds of things. And we're making we've gotten those things going. Now I'm thinking, okay, we're just really starting to fly now with language and other things we're doing. Let's give it another two years. So that was when I think two or three months ago the board passed a motion to negotiate with me for another two-year contract. And I could have said three then too, but I thought, no,
070let's go two again. you know, so if I picked three the first time, we wouldn't be even talking this year. We're doing till next year. So, it's another two-year contract. You know, we're we're doing really good on our ultra boy language and everything. I mean, being in school, teachers are all dissipating, but um I'm finding that a lot of our kids can't read and they can't add numbers. So what are we doing about that? And we're like D on the Minnesota state. That starts with the family. And we start noticing that when we get kids in three and four and five year olds. I have a four-year-old grandson who he's four years old before he turned four last month. He knows his letters. He knows his colors and he's beginning to read. that starts at
071the home because his mother is a kindergarten teacher. So that helps. But we often get students and this is what you see across the whole state and across the whole country schools that struggle is because they often have these struggling students in kindergarten, first grade, they come that way. And if it's not supported at home as much as it's done in school, the gap continues to walk. So that's the beginning of the problem. The next part of the problem is attendance and kids who are often absent. And so on any given day, we have maybe 30 or 40% of the kids gone and they cannot learn if they're not in school. So that's one of the biggest things and we've been working on that really hard the last couple of years. So do our teachers
072do they um send homework to them? Do they send home homework? Because when my grandkids are in here, they never come home at all. The best practice now is not to send home a lot of homework because kids don't do it because they often today because I always think that even though kids might not do it, maybe there's parents I want to help but they don't have nothing to help them with. So send them home with their homework. And there is homework going home because then they can learn and learn. But Yep. But a better practice is to give them time in class. It's called a flip classroom where you do a lesson and then let's work together to get the work done. So you're doing it in class and now you can go home
073and finish it but you get started in class. Um we have some very good teachers and very good programs in the elementary. We are making progress and we'll see even more progress next year but it is a long slow back. Would you be able to show us like you know they take those tests every year. Can you show us the results of those tests like you know the test that we're taking them right now so I can give you the results usually get those results at the end of August so maybe the September board meeting and I also hope to share with you probably next month if not next month June sort of a long range plan and set of goals that I building for the next couple of years here district that will make
074I help really move the needle forward in some major changes. One of those areas is academics. Another area is the graduation rate. Another area is overall attendance and the climate and culture of our buildings. All those things work together to make sure kids want to be in school and they're engaged in school. And also having a superintendent long term is very important and in and achievement and student achievement and status is we have to have a superintendent that's there a while. We can't keep changing them all. The average is three years and it barely takes that long just to get to know everyone. And uh when I was in Kelly, it was 10 years and it probably was about the fourth or fifth year that I really felt like I built trust and we're beginning
075to really move forward in the right direction. But unfortunately, the average is three years. You know, it's really hard and we got to start all over again. And also one of the things they teach us at MSBA being an effective board member is knowing how to read the data and what to do with the data. Then you go out to the community because you're an elected board member. You go out to the families that need help. That's your job. Our job as board members. Yeah. And we get your job to get us that. Yep. Absolutely. And they do provide it every time in our pocket. But if you'd like, I could spend more time making it a report where we cover things maybe on board. Spend a little bit more time on that. Then we
076can nail down, okay, here's how we did well. Here's how we're still struggling. And that might also help understand why we're trying to do certain things or bring in a certain co address that gap. So yeah, we'll do that. And if they did get it, who would read it? Yep. Who would read it ahead of time? You know what I'm saying? We as board members should read it and then we vote a community. So we should be doing, but who would? There was there was packets out here. till I picked up till the day of meeting. Mike's over there reading the contract right now. I mean, and he we keep boarding him as chair. He actually came in. So six I think we should really, you know, look at ourselves and bring MSDA here and
077do one, two, three, four together as a retreat to get on the reading. I I think I just came across the national average is like six. Yep. Blew my mind. No, it was just last month I come across that and I was like, and parents at home, there's a lot of apps now that are available. Everyone has a smartphone, there's a lot of apps they can look up to help them with their child succeeding. A while back, newspaper editors told their reporters, make sure they wrote for fifth grade. The average the average fifth grader could read the paper because so many adults couldn't read the paper very well. So, but I uh have found it to be um an honor to work here and to work with the community. And when people ask me uh
078what's it like up in Red Lake? How do you like it? I think they expect an answer different from what I give them, but I tell them it's great. The community supports us. The parents and grandparents and guardians want a good education for kids and they trust what we're doing. And whenever I get a call from a parent or grandparent, they might be a little upset about something, it almost always ends out in the end positive conversation because I listen to them. And even if they're maybe coming in with some different or incorrect information, I listen. I thank them for the call and I tell them I appreciate the fact that you cared enough to call. Here's what's really going on. We have a good visit. And I think that's important for building trust, too.
079And that's one of the reasons why it takes maybe more than at least three years to build that trust, get people used to being comfortable, calling in and talking and visiting with people at football and basketball, volleyball games and uh building those connections. So I tell people to spend good a good place to work. We always see Kim and evening hours here late at night interacting with kids. Can't quite stay as long as Mike does. You know, still waiting for that fantastic picture. I usually stay again. I I'll second it. We didn't have a second. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Okay. So, Nicole made the motion. Second further discussion. Well, I just want to acknowledge that, you know, for learning the language, sort of taking the peer mentor leadership on the ground and ticket running and
080it's being successful. A lot of the kids are learning how to to deal with issues themselves. Appreciate that and appreciate how our administration is going in the right direction and just appreciate his professionalism. I always see him at MSBA when I go. I always run into him there. So, he's always there. Also, I utilized him uh quite a bit whenever I get a call or email from a parent, guardian, staff, student. Um probably almost all the time I go to Tim to discuss it, get his two cents. a lot of times he ends up uh taking you know the situation and figuring it out or connecting the people that need to connected. So I really appreciate him being consistent with that. Um, this is the most staff we've had in our school district in a
081long time for the last two years. And that's that's really important, the fact that we've been able to fill these jobs, you know, and not be like short on paras, the the the staff outside of the classroom teachers that give extra assistance to kids. Um I believe testament to the leadership and the direction that starts by superintendent. Very kind. Thank you. Want to make sure I give a plug for Gustin because he does a lot of the behind the scenes work hiring. But I think a big part of it is creating a climate positive work. When we do hire teachers, they feel supported. We want to stay. So this will be part of it. Yeah, earlier when Andy was um finished his up, he said something about leadership, you know, and I think that's a
082good example of his personality translates to his employees and but that works the other way as well. You know what I mean? So, one thing I would like to see you do is make sure that all of our leaders are are using it in a good way. Okay? because there's been I hear a lot of complaints for multiple years now and the thing that I don't like to hear is the same thing over and over and over. Oh, that means because that means somebody didn't do it. Somebody didn't take leadership, right? So, as a CEO, I need you to make sure that the things that I'm bringing, they don't keep continuing. Yep. you know because because there's um it's so important especially at at well at all levels but you know in this building that
083that we have that environment you know because I I've often compared the difference between the two environments backtown and here and it's almost night and day and when you keep hearing the same complaints over and over and over it's like well either and one of my hardest things is is being here in two situations and trying to figure it out you know I don't like to be invested in here. But sometimes we got to do that, you know. So, so that's one thing I would like to see going forward because it is a different climate. You can walk in here and you can feel it. You can see it in the spaces. And I think that it's time that we address that. What is it? What is it? Is it Is it the policies? Is
084it the system or is it leadership? I don't know which one it is, you know? But I know there's something going on here and and you gota I got to trust the employees as well, right? They're delivering the service. That's the thing about it. If you look at this as a business, which is what it kind of is, they're delivering a service. And if that's not good, then then who suffer? It's the kids. And look where we're at testwise. Where have we been? We're down there. We're down there. That's the reality. You know what I mean? Home has a lot to do with it. But there's also been stories of kids who come from not so great homes who've done great in school and and have gotten some written some pretty awesome stories. You know
085what I'm saying? So, so as we go forward, that's one that that I would like to see, you know, is that we we really um do we need to equip them better, you know what I mean? But set people up for success at all levels, whether it's the leader, it's the staff, the kids. You know what I'm saying? And that was a good example you shared because even when I come over here and see these cooks, you know, the attitudes they have, you know, with the sports banquetss, it's really cool. And and and one really interesting thing is is I don't know what the stats are, but there's a lot of males, you know what I mean? Especially back in town, you know, and that wasn't always the case. You know, when I went to
086school, it was mostly ladies and then these guys are stepping in and doing a pretty phenomenal job preparing all the meals and and keeping the attitude. Yeah. Adam Sandler song 180. Yeah. So, leadership is, you know what I mean? It sets the tone, you know, just like this table sets the tone for for you to set the tone for everybody else. That's my two cents. points, man. I don't really have much. I'm just like, so when it comes to this contract, I, you know, I I wasn't here. I didn't do any evaluations. I don't speak on what I have right now in front of me, and I don't I really just don't know. I I don't know what the answer is. Um, in saying that though, like I I've been coming into the schools and
087I have noticed different things. Um, it's been it's hard to pinpoint. Uh, and I have talked with some of the staff. Um, but it was some things that that kind of caught me on board like the um the implementation of the middle schoolers getting physical fitness daily either by walking or because that was something I guess that according to the staff members it was something that was implemented by the board that they wanted to see the kids out more often get that little bit of exercise um sixth, seventh and eighth grade and for whatever reason according to whoever is not being done it's been written in that it is being done. So that kind of that kind of rubbed me the wrong way because I was like well have you talked to and I I
088asked the I said did you talk to the principal? Yes, we have. We've had meetings about it and I asked her for something in writing and she said that it wasn't in the I don't know if it's pl or whatever meetings they have but it was it was said in those meetings before but it's not being done but it's it's coming back to you as it is being. So that's something that you know and I told her you need to make him aware of it because you know I I don't want to I have no idea absolutely no idea what you're talking about some type of physical fitness that was always on then nothing's ever been done you could wear that in Japan or something the the superintendent and all the principles go outside in
089learning, bring all the kids outside and they do a shuffle dance. Well, I don't know. It was something that was supposed to been implemented according to the staff. That's that's all I had. But must have been before my time here because it maybe was something the board did by before co she said it was supposed to been happening and they're writing it in as it is, but it's not and nobody writes. So, I don't know. I don't know who keeps minutes at those meetings. Is there some report that gets submitted? Do not see. No idea what this is. Yeah. She says she's gonna find it when she asked for it. I don't know. I was just like, "Yeah, I can't." Like all the first grade teachers are together and then they come up with all
090these ideas and stuff and and at the end of the day then the principal gets everybody's ideas that they wrote down or what they're going to do for their classes. Then they turn it into the principal. That's not what they do at PLTS. Oh, that's what they did when I was there. PLTS, they look at information. They look at student work. They discuss what's working well. They discuss ways to solve problems and to teach better or to improve. So, it's not like they're coming up with ideas because they're directed, you know, here's what our curriculum is. Here's what we're supposed to do. Here's our world's best workforce pillars. Make sure we can do this and this and this. I want to say that was part of when I was on the board last I know
091that was one of Royy's pushes and they did they weren't implemented because they were walking like around the building pretty frequently. I don't know what caused that stuff but I wasn't on the board so I don't Yeah, they're still doing a lot of that and they still get their lunch ball which is important to them both for physical and mental health and just getting around from class to class. If she calls me back, I will have her reach out to you because I don't know. I like I said, I just wanted you to know. But somebody from what the way I understood it is is being sure that they are doing it, but it's not being done. Yeah. If she gives me a holler, then I can find out and I can give you guys
092an update at the next meeting. Sounds good to me. Yeah. He'll show us the shuffle dance. Yeah. There you go. That's all I got. All right. You know, um, one of my concerns over the years has been that we have one of the highest paid uh, faculty in the whole state of Minnesota, maybe a second or third one next to a dino and an we we still rank down at the bottom, even though our teachers are getting big pay, you know, big time pay. So, um, it's always been a concern, you know. Mhm. Getting paid good, but are the kids learning or Well, the school board association blame it back to the parents and everything all the time. That is what it is. It starts with a it's a partnership and and we it's always
093and it's not not just here, it's across the whole country. And it got even worse during co when we have students starting behind the eightball behind behind the curb in kindergarten takes more to get them caught up. And we all know that there are a few more issues because of generational trauma in places like Red Lake or other places where there have been underserved people. It's a bigger challenge. But you know we are making progress. We I we do have a very I I truly believe very caring staff, a very qualified staff and we're starting to fill the gaps now. So we have a full staff that'll make a difference. One of the one of the biggest issues is attendance. When students are gone and uh you know so many students gone 10 20 30%
094of the year or they come late they can't learn then and that's a combination of what can we do as a school to make sure they're here and what can we do to work with parents to get them here and have both of us both sides partnering. I've always thought that the word parent and the word word partner almost an anagramraph but parents are our partners and we have to be welcoming and partnering with parents and make sure kids want to be here and so they are here and that is key. We'll keep working on that. Get there. Okay. Motion and a second to approve the contract. All in favor say I. I. I. Three. Three over here. Jack and Robert. Okay. I just don't know what's going on. Like for me, I'm just like
095there's no evaluation attached to this, nothing. So I don't know. are usually done in like June or July. So, we'll be doing that one this year. We'll be doing it. But this is who's on the negotiating uh the chairman. We didn't actually do any evaluation. We we didn't we didn't do and actually this is the first Well, I suppose you could blame me. I mean, you know, generally for an interim shot done and this is the first time No, no, it wasn't just me that I said we would we would try to get a couple board members and we would do some negotiation, but we never really did. When I did, it was just me and and Willie and it's just the chair. Then Willie and Mike met. Yeah. For policy, it's it's the chair,
096the soup, and what's the position? Business. Business manager. Yep. seat before it. I mean, I'm just saying when I was here on the board last time, it was the chairman and then there was Roy and then we had an alternate. It was two two board members and alternate, but the chairman was on the board, treasurer, and I want to say Jack was an alternate at the time. And then we actually had hired somebody. The person couldn't find housing and then they went to MSBA. That's we got Tim as a interro. So that's what's throwing me all off is if he's been working here on an interim status for the past two years, that's not right either. But then to that position should have still been, you know what I'm saying? It should have been open
097where people could apply because he was just under interim position. Was interim only the first year, but then when I was renewed for the next two years, it was still contract was the interim. See, and I was out at that time. I don't know what happened after that in label because it should have been open. I really like how Tim is professional and he plays by MSA, MASA and MSBA. Um, he can't be micromanaged and I feel that's what some of our board members are not liking. I'm not micromanaging. I just want to know what's going on with the curriculum, what's going on with the athletic part, what's going on with the ed, what's going on because people come up and ask me and I just feel stupid like I don't know, you know, they
098didn't tell me what's going on. They don't come report to us. I don't know a single board member in the state of Minnesota who can answer specific questions like this. Just tell them, well, all I want is for them just come let us know what they're doing. I don't you know so then I go back there and it's like you know say hey that's micromanaging that's exactly what micromanage micromanaging you want to know what we're doing that's micromanaging your job as a board is governance and budget and policy that's it I and Dustin and Dr. G and the principles are ones responsible for knowing what's going on and what's happening. But I think it's a good idea to let you know and that's why we brought Andrew in today the peer leaders last month. Next
099month it'll be either Nolan or the month after we'll have somebody else next month too because it is a good idea to keep you in the know. But when it comes to a specific question that you can't answer, I don't want you to feel like you should know the answer because most board members don't know the workings of a very, you know, all the wheels and all the clocks. It's impossible to know. So that's where just have them call me. Have them call. I've been telling them to call you or come to the meeting and ask and you can answer them at the meeting. But again, not come to the meeting because if the board meeting is about Well, we always take good money. We can stay here till 10:00. 12:00 policy and government. No,
100we can't. Tina, why not? I need you to go to MSBA 1, two, three, and four. You need to get some knowledge. Well, give us then. Let's start a retreat and let's plan. I mean, they'll We've been asking you for a retreat. We don't get one. No, it's up to the board chair. It's not up to me to run the board and what the board does. This board meeting with one consent agenda and two action items should have taken 45 minutes with all the reports. Yes. And look at how long we're still sitting here. We're getting bogged down and inefficient and um dysfunctional when we invite people to come in to ask questions. It's not a session for asking questions or it's not a board meeting for making complaints. Those things should happen outside of
101the board meeting. And that's what I'm and that's the old school way. We're trying to, you know, move forward and make it um our students have achievement here. My kids come to this school. My kids don't go off other schools. Yeah. I came to it and and I my daughter graduated from here and it would be um this is my 17th year as a superintendent and my job is always to make sure our meetings are professional and efficient and that gets the job done but it's difficult when when questions get raised or question that should be asked before or after a board meeting and actually I have an update for you Chris if you want to stick around or something, but you call me and ask me a question, I'll always look into it or
102I'll bring the people together like Tom said, find the answer. Those things should be done outside of the board, not only for efficiency sake, but also the sake of liability because there sometimes we come close to talking about people that shouldn't be talking. Want to avoid that too. So, you can find out a lot too by going talk to the teachers, the kids, walking the schools. Like I try to make it a point to go struck the halls and I'll go talk to my former high school teachers. I'll try to go meet a new one that I don't recognize. Like I I know like what all the school orgs are. So when teachers when I when I see people in the community wanting to get their kids involved, I have a whole list of resources.
103Like the school has so many clubs, you know this, you know, you go and check out the schools, you know, you'll you'll see firstand like what is going on and you know the teachers will tell you too that they want to hold back on what they feel could be better. And that's when I I called him. You know, I don't wait for a board meeting to bring up whatever I was told by teachers or parents or guardians. You know, I'll hear it right there and when I got time, when it's work hours, I'll hit up to him. I always text him, say, "Hey, you free?" He lets me know and then we talk. Yeah. I've been only hit him up about 9 10:00 at night. Mhm. One time he hit a couple questions and I
104was in a different country. Even other school board members, me and Chris have bounced ideas off each others or concerns, whatever, too. But now that we're talking negotiations, I I want to make sure I don't forget. I'm going to hand this out to you real quick um as miscellaneous. Um before we do that, was it 43 for my notes or yes? No. No, we're at 33. Oh, okay. Seven. Okay. Yeah, keep us on task. They're serious. I'm just like happening here. You know, I I see some that are happy and I see some that aren't some who board members. You mean or he's only one? Yep. But one thing you told me and Willie has mentioned is too that you filled in you don't get any calls. So I haven't been getting nearly many calls.
105So what does that mean, Mike? And you don't get any calls. Yeah, I will. You know, I mean, there's not much bad happening or they don't want to call. I will tell you this that I can guarantee you that, you know, I hear in the news every now and then that you have a legislator or a superintendent who gets himself or herself in trouble with the law. I will always come to school and put the needs of the staff and the students first. And you can be sure I'm not going to get embroiled in some kind of a scandal. I always want to be professional. So, but it's up to you guys. The one thing I just want to make sure it says on here in article, what is it? Three, duties, the superintendent shall
106have charge of the administration of the schools under the direction of the school board. Now, you know, that doesn't mean I mean it doesn't mean he runs the school in in a sort of way. I mean we we we make policy, we uh make rules, we do this and we do that and and it's my job to operate the school based on those policies and delegate a lot of the work to people like Dustin and Ashley and Willie and Andrew and Mike and Nolan and all principles and teachers. Well, I have a time limit here. So, you know, I I if you you know, if you need to uh you know, I'll be back, then you can open up posting for another, you know, superend too. But I mean, you know, look at how late
107it is. And you know, and and you know, it's actually my fault why we didn't do this. I guess that's what I was told because we didn't do the negotiating. You know, it was supposed to be a couple of us would get together and do some negotiating on the contract, but things just start happening and and we didn't do it. So, I guess I'm to blame for that. But actually three two or three months ago you approved the contract. So that told me that I would have a job. What you're approving now is the basics of the contract. And really at this level there's only a couple things that need to get done improve. One is a standard increase of pay and then one might be something else like a physical exam or something along
108those lines. Those are the only two things I put into. So any kind of negotiation wouldn't have taken more than 105 minutes anyway probably. So Willie and I shared in my thoughts with him and then he called you in and negotiated with you and that's how it was done in Bumiji. It's usually the business manager and HR and the superintendent or just the and the board chair or in my case last it was in it was HR board chair and me all my years in Kelly it was board chair again business manager and me and then I would present to the board like I am now so it wouldn't have been done any different if you had done it any sooner we would have just had it in March or in April by in March
109or February we'd be doing this but but it was just two things changed in the master agreement and that was the increase and then in uh the provision for for physical which is generally in contracts for superintendent so pretty cut and dry I forgot I wanted to see that make sure you didn't have the same kind of doctor that's I'm looking for that same doctor so I can fit great mental Oh, me too. What I had wanted was more involvement. I wanted more board involved in in the actual negotiating. I didn't want to just make the decision, you know, because I didn't think it was right. I mean, the board should make the decision. But the board voted you as chair to make that decision. Yeah, I know. Yeah. And you don't have training. not
110not necessarily to make when we make that decision. But you're I think all board members should be involved in negotiating of a contract with you know that would then be violation of open board rules unless to negotiate during a board meeting. The purpose of negotiations is usually a subcommittee or a representative. No, it's just sitting down in somebody's office and going over contract. That's negotiating to me have to be my cuz I know that was him and Roy and then we have confident that was approved by the board that do those negotiations like with the teacher contracts and non contracts. But I don't know. I like I said if it changed it changed. I don't know. Depends on the board, depends on the school district. Everybody's got their different way of doing it. You know,
111student achievement comes from the top, the school board, and then we direct the superintendent administration. So, we as a school board, what are we doing to be effective? Do how many of us have a director award? How many of us have a president's award? I do. I don't think it's not a question of I don't work award that. No, it's hours you put in. You know, those are hours you put in your work for 100. You get not not the last superintendent, but the one before her. I remember when she was coming up, she had this low sheet telling us that you were going to increase this by 80% or do this by 60%. Or do this by 80, you know, whatever. That was that evaluation thing. That's what I was asking about. And that's
112what that's what pretending when we were going through her contract again, that's what she brought to us to look at. That's what I did in Kelly or what I did in the now that I'm on an official contract and do that. I'm going to submit goals to you all probably in June or the next year after that year we'll do it again and then we'll be evaluating not only based on those goals but other things too like is the culture of the climate improving are we building trust all those things. Yeah, absolutely. Time to do our get off the pot, sir. Yeah, I'll vote. Yes, 43 and so you don't know. Yep. You don't know. Um but even if we had two or three negotiating beforehand, that's what kind of what we're doing here too.
113This is a negotiation. Yeah. The one thing we have to do is we have to develop an evaluation for Mr. We didn't do that, you know, right? Because it makes it easier if the evaluation was done and that's you know board members at MSBA, they have superintendent search and evaluation classes that we can all attend. I thought we had I thought we had a group one for Have you passed them down? No, I'm talking about within our policy, we do have an approved board uh evaluation form. We had to approve that. So, it's in there. It's just not that it's it's just not. So speaking of maybe follow up with Ashley and see if we can find it. We should actually know because then we could do it. I'm assuming that we can now do
114this do the evaluation in June and then set our benchmarks for next year. So then when we do the evaluations for next year, then we have something to actually go off of versus people just wondering. Thank you. It has the time and dates on there. Yeah, great. But uh yeah, speaking of negotiations, we're we have the dates lined up and times and the teams. So, our first session as we meet with uh the non-licensed staff is June 3rd at 11 o'clock and that's Chris, Jack, myself, Ashley, and Willie. So, Chris and Jack and then on the same they pretty much mostly on the same days, not always. Third ones are all different dates, but for teachers, June 3rd, 1:30 to 3:30. Yes, Nicole, Tina, and Mike from the board. I'll be gone at June 3rd.
115Okay. I should be back by you can make one or two. That's the important piece that we move forward and we could end up with a fourth meeting. We'll setting the first three and if you missed one, we'll just in after the fact with minutes you can anything else under a motion to Oh, I got one more thing I just want to share. community. Um we had a basketball tournament this weekend with elementary kids and we had third and fourth grade girls. Um Krook dropped out. They had six girls. So we had three teams and then we had three teams with the boys. Navis, Black Duck, and then Red. So you know, one just got the fifth grade started with the help of Chris and and they want more. So he's going to head over
116there and have practice tonight after baseball. So, just want to share that's a good thing. And yeah, that's a lot of his time. He's tired after all the air, you know, but so just want to share we had a good basketball tournament this past weekend and hopefully every year it'll be March, you know, March 20th, 22nd. Yeah. Thank you. Clash with any other tournaments. Those kids are fired up. Yeah. So it's a good thing, you know, good thing everyone working together, you know, for positive events for the kids. Monday morning, they're practices. Were they? They're asking right away. Teachers record teachers already got hold of me right away. Oh, good. Good job, Chris. And also I want to share chairman Barrett and the rest of the board maybe we should consider having hosting a wellness
117day for our our young girls you know fourth through 8th grade. Um it's not just our community, it's every community deals with mean girls. And so we need we should be going over like empathy, you know, and all those different things that um pretty much the eight teachings that Mission A teachings, you know, but that's something I wish we could um bring forth is a some kind of wellness day for our young girls. It's not just our school. It's it happens everywhere, but I just wanted to bring that maybe something we could do. Uh, superintend. Yeah, I think so. And as for me, if you could um I think what needs to be spelled out is is because this kind of change with you was what's boarded and what's not boarded. You know what I
118mean? If we can explain that here. So, I think it would lead to less confusion, you know, even for myself because there's been some things where we, you know, it's not a board issue. You got one. Yeah. So, I think it's, you know, Maybe next meeting you can spell that out. Thank you. I was going to say at the next meeting I can make a name for myself. At the next meeting, how about I'm sorry to interrupt. How about bring MSBA? She said she would come up here and and just one, two, and three and four. And that way schoolboard members know. Yep. Yep. And not try to micromanage and get upset when they can't micromanage. I'm not sure. They'll need a motion to adjourn. I'll make a motion. If they don't. I'll second. All
119those in favor say I. I. What time is it? Uh 2:54. Who made the motion again? I made the motion to second was and Chris I think uh I'm really proud of you for standing up still wouldn't hurt even if you bring it that's really not what MSBA cover