2024_01_08 SFAS School Board Meeting

001ready good evening everyone please stand for IED Alle the United States of America stand indice all right thanks for coming in tonight everyone we get started here tonight organizational meeting we got a few things that to take care of in house before we get the actual meeting started tonight so to begin with uh adoption the agenda is a motion to adopt oh by the way when you vote tonight on board members it has to be a roll call vote so I'll start with Nate each and every time we have to have a roll call uh y or nay verbally Pam will say y or nay to us well she will go thumbs up nay or thumbs down for thumbs up for yay down for but we have to do a roll call because Pam's at

002home tonight with all the computer system that her and vaness has been setting up all day today course so welcome Pam we with you all right so adopting the agenda is there a motion to adopt the agenda so move by Jill thank you is there a second by Rob all in favor Nate hi Anette hi Rob hi Amy hi Jill hi Mike is I okay we're good to go on that way Pam oh pam pam you're behind me I don't see you make sure you yell at me Fam we got it okay all right so next thing up will be election of the school board officers we have the chair the vice chair the clerk and the treasury to fill tonight is there a motion for the chair a nomination I'll nominate mrar go ahead

003Amy I nominate Mr sirar thank you you is there a second okay thank you Jill all right got a nomination for Star any other nominations any other nominations third time any other nominations if not roll call vote mate hi in favor a Anette hi Rob hi Amy hi Jill hi Stars I Pam hi thank you all right and if we get you this time all right uh Vice chair oh problem so I think we can just do unanimous V and you don't have do the roll call there's no other nomination that be okay then you can do a unanimous vote but then the vote on that unanimous would have to be a roll call my readings today the chair can just say I think it's just because she's remote I think it's still unanimous there's

004no other candidates okay okay no other candidate unanimous someone have to meet that motion then when the time comes okay we can just all right that's good okay Vice chair so nominations for vice chair Rob Miss Miss still thank you any other nominations for vice chair Vice chair any other month nomination for vice chair not second nomination Clos Rob what did you say well it's just there's no other candidate so we can just be unanimous vote prove that a unanimous vote be cast for Miss Anderson okay now you go roll call after that nope you don't have to it really doesn't matter you know we can just do it either way but okay um I think the safest bet would be since there's a motion in a second you know that we just do the

005roll call and we'll just take an extra 30 not a second Anette Amy Pam hi Jill Stars I Vice chair Jill clerk nomination for clerk yes Rob Kelly for Miss Kelly thank you s second thank you Nate in the nominations for clerk any more nominations for clerk nominations for clerk if no nominations for clerk go ahead rob it all roll call Nate andette hi Rob hi Amy Pam hi Jill star clerk thank you are done treasure we need a treasure yes Nom Mr shro Mr shrock again treasure sh second sir second by Amy thank you call anate hi Anette hi bra hi Amy hi Pam I Jill and star treasury all four officer position have been filled tonight thank you very much for stepping up to do the job for another 12 months thank you

006very much all right School Board member compensation uh you seen your report there you saw it came out it showed over the last uh four years what school board members made 2021 was identical it went up a little bit 22 23 did the same for for two years now in 2024 to 2025 if there any comments to make about Schoolboard compensation do you know what the state comes up with is 4 and two is any comment made want to stay the same yes and that I think we should stay the same okay and that stays the same based on based on it you know do all right Rob last year was the same I would not like to see an increase this year you would or would not I would you would okay any amount

007um 2% 2% Amy I would agree it's been two years since there's been an increase we don't do it every year and I know we get people say oh they gave themselves an increase well it's been two years and I value this position and I hope all those in attendance value this and it's not that we make a ton of money but I think it's set in that we give our employees um increases that we sometimes although difficult do that ham any comments no comment okay Jill okay I was looking at possible 3% to split the two between four and two so 3% are looking at anyone else if not we go back to what Rob was saying too % okay so there's a motion on the floor from Rob Amy uh there's no motion

008yet on the Flor there's no motion no not yet on the I'm I'm fine with two or 3% the number isn't going to make that big of a difference but the smirks and the comments of H like oh my God they're going to get 3% when they're wanting 4% and 3% and wanting more than that and we haven't given ourselves one for two years and then the snarky remarks go ahead snark but you know we're not asking for what you guys are asking for asking for less and you're going to sit in here I ask you that you be quiet and but that is uncalled for and I'm fine with 2% I'm fine with 3% but we do there's many hours that I put into this and to Value those who sit up here um

009we need you know we are valued and I'm fine with two or three% any other comments from anyone Pam no comments no comments anyone else any comments so what percentage want to go who make a motion for two or three we go forward from there so it looks like in 2021 um we looked at for 2020 and 2021 it remained the same and then in 2022 and 2023 in 2022 we did a 2% increase right and then we stayed the same for 203 correct 2% yeah correct do I hear a motion from someone for a percentage two or three Rob I make motion all right is there second seconded by Jill okay all in favor for 2% pay raise Nate uh y Anette no okay I no Rob hi hi Amy hi Pam hi 2%

010deal hi star yes so 61 and that will go down in the in the rec get the rec for okay that part's done F we still have that's only one portion of the compensation the other portion is the negotiation meetings oh yeah yeah that's been thank you for that that's been 50100 for years 100 over two hours four hours 100 and then $50 for the two hours that's been the same for you go back year after year after year for that one for compensation do I hear any other number changes for it any changes someone make a motion and keep as is does who seconds Rob okay we're going to keep it the same as it was $100 over four hours $50 over two hours for negotiations and mediation meetings and so forth all right

011all in favor Nate hi Anette hi Rob Amy hi Pam hi thank you Jill and star all right so those two points are taking care of for us thank you very much next up is on the uh school board meeting dates as you see on here there's a few dates here throughout the year any questions any comments about the uh meeting dates from anyone Rob it's an election year this year November 12 is listed as a work session we need to cify the results wonder if that can be done during the work session change up regular that's a good point actually so it could and should be listed as a as a regular meeting and then we'll certify election results at that meeting to do it in 10 days was it uh 10 days yeah

012okay any other changes or anything anybody saw on all our meeting dates B your motion the meeting dates with the U with the change of the 12 yeah okay Rob made a motion who seconds so just understand we won't find our light but just take a look at what you have get back to me so we all our committee by next meeting we'll have this put together any questions Rob something else coming up all right just to go don't want to go backwards but on the first page it says secretary M to already changed it clerk if you go to the first election of school board officials or officers at the bottom it says secretary not cour it was already changed make sure not okay all right good okay next up 3.5 annual designation R

013annual uh information here update Revis any questions on all the information saw on your computer for that one a lot of information right there any questions about it your paper all the legal stuff the bond councel Financial the bank no questions all who makes a motion to accept who seconds than Amy any discussion forther discussion if not all in favor Nate yes nette Rob Amy yes ham yeah Jill hi and stars I on the uh annual designations okay good deal all right now ladies and gentlemen we have about 12 or 13 uh people who want to speak tonight you're going to have two and a half minutes to speak tonight at the twom minute Mark you'll see a card go up to show you have 30 seconds left to speak if you're not done speaking

014at two and a half minutes I would hit the gabble and say thank you for coming in please have a chair for those who are speaking for the first time here tonight we will not have have discussion with you after you speak reason being we may not have all the information to give you what you looking for we will get back to you at a later date to give you more information but we will not have discussion unless we have something given to us that is completely false information or misleading information myself or the superintendent may speak up to correct what false information we just put out that's the only time will have discussion after a speaker speaks so you can stay here as long as you want to stand here tonight everyone's welcome to

015stay as a speaker you can leave anytime you wish after you speak any questions about tonight again when you're speaking we ask everyone to please respect who the speaker is do not harass the speaker that's up there please support all the people that come forward his speakers it get very nervous some people sit out here and talk publicly so please support of our speakers all right so we start out tonight Barb Anderson Barb be our first Speaker well this is not about directly about probably anything in this room but yet it's all tied together there's a community garden that's off over on Jun 29th and there's a meeting this Sunday evening at 6:30 to encourage the community to participate in this community garden it's kind of died out over the last last few years but

016the reason it has to do with the school board is because we are all part of the same community and when we work together and we work on a project together or working in the dirt even together it it can be helpful right and it also sets a good example for our students and our children when we work on something um positive together so anyway I want to invite any of you who would like to come Sunday night to this meeting at 6:30 it'll be at the Methodist Church where the garden is is but it's a a garden for all so that's what that's all right thanks for coming in our next speaker will be Amy Amy on [Music] referendum thank you um school board members um my name is Amy pis and I live

017at 23318 Sal Street and I didn't know all the school teachers were going to be here tonight um um but I came today to talk about the referendum that did that or was it Levy I was get um that Levy um that was not passed and I just had a question um we had we tried to do a levy a few years ago and we always seem to do them on a not presidential election year and I'm wondering um would we have better success if we did them on a presidential election year and if so could could we do it again this year I don't know I don't know what the rules are on that um and if we can could we please try to put something back into it to put more security into

018our schools um I um have lived in a Northern Anoka County my entire life except for the four years that I lived in Littleton Colorado in fact I lived in Littleton on April 20th 1999 um and I lived one mile from paline high school and I have been here before to talk about that day and I I literally drove past Coline High School um about 15 minutes before that that day sorry I'm going to get a little upset about this and I I just really feel that we we need more Security in our schools and I I think about that day and all of the other school shootings since then and it came back to me um because of what happened last week in Perry Iowa Perry Iowa um has 7900 people that live there

019which is almost identical to how many people live in St Francis and I just really feel that we cannot afford to pretend it can't happen here we spent $80 million on our schools a few years ago and we did not add one metal detector we we we didn't why did we not add those we instead of making our building this is my opinion instead of making our buildings safer we added with big Open Spaces that didn't that didn't make our buildings safer um we added Windows to our classrooms and if we could please try to redo our levies our referendum whatever you call it could you please try to add back our our school resource officers or something to make our school buildings safer um and everyone here is going to talk about um the

020teachers please give these these great teachers a better contract um most of the teachers back here have taught my children your children um they deserve what they what they should get um that's my opinion thank you thank you for coming in tonight there will be discussion later on about the the lby tonight yeah all right next up we have uh Joel robinet uh topic is on contracts Joel good evening thank you very much for allowing me to speak tonight I really appreciate it my name is Joel Robinette and I'm in my 25th year of teaching and my 38th year overall in St Francis in fact there has been a Robinette either attending or teaching in St Francis continuously since 1977 I've invested in this District when I started teaching at the middle school in 1999

021I'm was so proud to tell everyone that I attended and now teach in St Francis this is a great place to work I remember being impressed early in my career that the district leadership vocalized their desire to have the best employees what a message to send the teachers union and the district leadership work together to ensure that St Francis was a destination district and I assure you that it was none of us got rich back then but the contracts felt fair then we endured a financial crisis with an understanding that when times got better that our contracts would follow since then isd15 has developed a reputation of asking extra of their employees without matching compensation when you are trying to hire the best employees perception is reality I'm a mentor teacher and have seen more

022than a few young teachers leave this district for more money elsewhere District leadership has a difficult but extremely important task ahead not only are we fighting an employee shortage we are also fighting our own reputation the contract that has been offered does nothing to address either of these issues this contract isn't about me it's about keeping our young teachers and trying to convince them to become our old teachers that's how you improve test scores you have an opportunity to make this a destination District once again I urge you to please take advantage of this opportunity thank you and good night thank you next up is Taylor Herz Taylor good evening I'm here because I feel this is the least I can do to speak up for some students in this District some of these students

023and parents may have already spoken on this topic but I know there is those that are unspoken on this subject I'm talking about bullying my full-time job is working on an ambulance that Services those District's area frankly I've had enough there is more and more calls for mental health of these young teens and it's coming back down to the bullying that they've been receiving at school I know families personally that I have taken their children out of this district for their child's safety and also don't want their kids riding the bus because of other kids' behaviors the nine-page bullying policy that this district has is a lot for anyone and to a young team it's just a lot of words on pages not all students in this District have a good family or Guardian support

024and those that might have support don't know when to speak up when is it enough enough how many students do we need to have self harm done to themselves or think about suicide or even suicide we are letting students down this District needs to have easily accessible Mental Health Resources available in the schools and I'm not talking about just giving them a 1 1800 number to call we need someone that can guide the parents or Guardian for long-term support for these kids I please ask that you review the current buling bullying policy and provide the help you students need let's not lose any we Havens already thank you for your time thank you Gaylor next up is uh Rick uh about the levy Rick or Rich good evening ladies and gentlemen I'm here to talk

025about why I believe the levy failed in November when I was at the last meeting here in November there was questions about why the levy failed well my opinion is it failed because fourth grade and eighth grade math and reading scores have gone down as well as I think science as well and you have people like the child protection League lobbying against it and scores went from about 50 or 60% down into the 30 to 40% while spending has gone up over that same time period and that goes for at least the last five years in addition to that I want to talk about covid-19 I have a covid-19 demographics chart one from 2020 one from 2021 and one from 2022 they show that from 0 to 19 in 2020 there were 16333 cases in

026Minnesota with one death in the 0 to 198e group in 2022 there were 22,8 47 cases and seven deaths total by that time and by there were 33963 cases with only 10 deaths in the 0 to 19 category on the contrary we go to the 60 to 100 category in 2020 we had cases and 1728 deaths 302 in 2022 I'm sorry 2021 we had 174 475 cases and 9,447 cases and by 2022 we had 258 335 cases in the Z 60 100 age group with 11,000 deaths covid-19 was much more difficult for the oldtimers than the kids all right next up will be Alicia prechool instructors Alicia hello members of the school board and Mr Anderson my name is Alicia hon and I am an early childhood teacher and preschool instructor at the Early Childhood

027Family Center I'm here today to ask you to consider our putting our preschool instructors on the teacher contract with all of the benefits and pay that that includes my my day begins on the north side of the building where I'm an early childhood educator this is where the youngest and oldest students in our district come to learn and grow the parents and grandparents in our program have the opportunity to learn from our parent Educators and children learn from the support of our early childhood teachers and staff when my morning ends I head down the hallway South to my second classroom where I teach preschool on my walk down that hallway I lose money with every step I am no longer considered a teacher I am considered an instructor and I do not receive the pay

028that I was receiving that same morning I want to also reiterate that our preschool instructors have more student contact time than everyone else in the building we are with the students from the moment they arrive and so the last student leaves to go home we do not take breaks we do not have prep time we do not have any other time away from the kids when they are at school we are their steady person who is with them the entirety of their time at school we have a state approved curriculum that we teach them and we are also being trained in a brand new curriculum that we believe will better help our youngest Learners to be ready for kindergarten we teach social emotional skills academics fine and large motor skills every minute of their time

029at school is a learning opportunity we do not waste a minute with our students we have half day and full day programs um classes in our program I want to leave you with with this we are teachers we teach the youngest Learners in our district every possible skill we can to help them be the best they can be we deserve to be treated as that thank you thank you Alicia next up will be Corbin welcome Corbin have some statistics here it's going to be a couple of numbers so uh prepare to keep M memorized uh it's been a issue for a couple years uh with students uh that go out of high school and some of them may haven't had their decision yet uh 7% of those are going decided the second that they leave

030high school when they go into college 5% of those are in a path dedicated to education that is out of course 100 or whatever so the 5% is what we're focused on as well the 7% that 7% is a margin that we could be incorporating to the five that we're missing out on mostly because a lot of uh schools ours included don't really have a big way to reach into that and encourage students to pursue education as a career most of them have a lot of misconceptions uh some of the most popular being paywise uh time wise benefits you get how it feels to be a teacher they don't have the best information going into this that you might get for other jobs that are explained or are School whether it be through futes prep

031classes we offer um emails we put out on the newsletter about job opportunities in our uh City and our area or classes that directly deal with trades that keep people more organized into it the most we really have is TA decisions which kind of help with organizing that and that's the only way really that we offer students that want something like that as a way to Branch into it so as a petition up here I wanted to put together maybe just a way to pitch maybe we help our students understand what it means to be in a teaching profession what it means to have a career what it offers um so more as like uh we have our career advisor obviously thisam we have our guidance counsel which all students can go to meet for

032further questions get more information which is a great way we can benefit talking about this whether it's just something you put up in the newsletter something on School news students will he once a week just so that everyone kind of gets a way to be used to this and maybe in a few years once these teachers that we've known and love for years eventually uh go out of the career-wise retire or whatnot we have a new influx of students that are ready for this have the information they need to take their place and keep your scores up and keep everything ready to go I'll leave it at that with free to thank you coring for encouraging kids to be teachers thank you next up will be uh Teresa teacher pay and retention Teresa hi everyone

033I'm Teresa Orin um I'm coming to you as a concerned citizen tonight uh I'm deeply invested in our schools and I'm here to express my apprehensions about the current state of teacher competation within our district having served as a m teacher in this district for 13 years I disheartened with witness the departure of experienced Educators to neighboring districts that are offering way better compensation the resulting dissolution of programs and classes is alarming I was talking to some teachers the other day about all the different teachers from the time that I had left until now that have gone and the programs have walked away with them we used to offer Medical Careers we had a wider variety of tech aded classes we had more electives within um major departments all sorts of things that have just

034as soon as somebody retires or left the district that program is gone um quite frankly that lack of programming that Exodus of high quality teachers is making my husband and I really consider the you the district um it's evident that morale within our schools is rather low I've returned to the high school after a fiveyear absence um becoming our building substitute teacher I've observed these struggles like I'm sorry I feel for you I sit in there every day at lunch and I listen to these de talk and I listen about how things have not improved since I left and quite frankly I was really hoping I could come back and St and maybe that would spark my to join this wonderful group again no I can't do it I can't willingly tell anybody else to

035come to San Francis schools anymore when I started here and amp qom was like the new thing and everybody was all passionate about it we were fired up about it and we were learning that we were in the top of the state when it came to P it was a big deal people came here they wanted to come to St fris and since then people just been slowly trickling out the door I completely went off script but thank you next up will be uh [Music] ol good evening chairperson star board members administrators students staff everybody in the audience my name is Susie olon and I've been a um a teacher for 39 years 32 of those years have been in the St Francis School District um tonight I'm here in as a dual capacity as

036a member of the teaching staff and a member of the licensed staff negotiating team I've been a negotiator for 10 plus contracts now I've negotiated under five different Human Resources directors six different superintendents six different Financial managers and one of the current board members has been on me with this journey in this 2017 18 school year the reserve fund balance was less than 1% at 7% the school board said that they could not give us a reasonable settlement due to the financial issues of the district at that time our negotiating team asked what would be the amount of the fund balance that it had to be to consider a reasonable settlement and they told us at that time 5% when the district reached that 5% mark and we started the negotiation process process again the

037board moved that amount from 5% to 10% when the district hit the 10% Mark again we went to them and asked um them to consider a reasonable settlement and they said they were not um comfortable at that time because a lot of the money in the fund balance was due to one-time funding due to co the district fund balance is now at 21% I started that Journey at 7 and now we're at 21 at what point will this current School Board honor what the teacher negotiators have been told for several contracts in a role and consider giving us a reasonable settlement does the word of the former superintendent human resource directors and financial managers and school board members not matter does it matter that the negotiators and the licensed staff had agreed to less than

038reasonable settlements over the years because we believe that we were told by the district administrators and Schoolboard members in the past that they would honor that sometime in the future thank you two and a half minutes thank you for your information next up Steve St so this is Addie uh Addie is planning on being a graduate from graduate from St Francis High School in the year of 2040 add's parents are both employees of the district and we're talking on behalf of the teacher contract as well we're one of the young families that live in the district and I don't know if anybody has any experience of moving in The District in the last five years and paying for daycare and taking your car over to PTL and buying groceries at County Market we're a local

039family we do all of that why because we appreciate the community and both my wife and I are Educators both of our contract or our paychecks are through isd15 in April 20 24 here in the next couple months add's going to be a big sister in the fall of this calendar year right now my wife and I with our current paychecks within isd15 we will be running into the red which means that every paycheck that is coming into our household will be going out paying for daycare a mortgage within isd15 School District boundaries and right now looking at all the other contracts around us or previous contracts that both my wife and I we've taught in different districts we looked at all the numbers and right now nobody wants to have a fun balance of

040negative our household in the fall of 2024 will be running into a red because we have to pay for two kids in daycare so that my wife doesn't have to we talked about it my wife has said hey I think what about me taking a leave and staying home well that means the district has to find another licensed math teacher and I don't know if anybody said and on that interview panel there's not a lot of High School Math teachers that are willing to come here I could stay home but that means that you're going to be looking for another football coach strength coach basketball table worker teacher at the high school running our five programs and running our strength and conditioning program that has seen the most numbers that it's ever seen at almost

04170 kids after school I strongly consider asking to relook at that cont contract so both my wife and I can stay here in isd15 and next up is Emily sens Emily while keep your retention thank you Emily my name is Emily s and I stand before you today not just as a sixth grade science teacher at St Francis Middle School but also as a proud 2004 uate of St Francis High School this is my 14th year teaching and my second year at St Francis Middle School a district I chose despite lucrative offers elsewhere I chose to come back to St Francis because of a deep connection to the community my own formative years were shaped by phenomenal teachers that I had while attending St Francis some of them are in the room currently sorry I'm

042driven by desire to give back that same nurturing environment to the Next Generation here I am not just an educator I'm some part of something bigger a legacy of fostering potential and igniting dreams the shared history the moments of connections with my students and colleagues the pride of the community these are the things that truly make St Francis home unfortunately my experience at St Francis midle Middle School paints a contrasting picture I witness daily the impact of insufficient funds on our students and teachers compared to surrounding districts we're lack with fewer resources open teachers and EA vacancies overburden Educators and a high teacher turnover rate this deficit isn't just about spreadsheets and numbers it's about the stolen potential of every child who walks through our doors they deserve a strong Foundation built on empowered well

043equipped Educators leaving St Francis area schools has become a painful reality that I face I love my job and I love my students yet I can't ignore the limitations imposed by insufficient support authors from my former school district and even career shifts are Temptations I can't dismiss St Francis needs to work on retaining and recruiting the best teachers we can get but why would teachers want to come here what do we offer that other districts don't many new teachers that I speak with are very open about their intention of leaving the district after the year is over it's time to reclaim that the values that build St Francis we need to prioritize adequate funding for our schools provide teachers with necessary resources and retain talented teachers by providing salaries that are competitive let's demonstrate that

044this community still embodies the spirit of support and Excellence that Drew me back two years ago thank you for considering my plea I believe in the potential of St Francis and I trust that you do too let's work together to make this a reality for our children thank you em and our last speaker tonight for consideration will be Dominic Dominic here there he is thank you sir come on up good evening here on behalf of my wife she can't be here tonight because she tutors twice a week one of these m is it financially support our family I wife has a bachelor's degree in behavioral strategist she has a master's degree in special education has several lers in such Fields she is a licensed practitioner in dyslexia with a curriculum you do not support currently

045I have a high school diploma we make the same she works in this District our student our kids go and will go to this district and she gave me a uh sheain a little note card to read off but uh it's clearly not on me I Bost my tail and I make a good Living For What education I have but I shouldn't have the same amount of compensation as she does currently I am in the Minnesota National Guard I a non-commission officer one of my main responsibilities is to maintain the welfare of my soldiers my junior enlisted I pride myself on that I pride on advocating for them every day even out of my uniform I'm doing that for her you know you guys one of your main jobs whether or not you want to

046believe it or not as an advocate for public education within your District your Educators and your students rely on you for that and to retain these Highly Educated professionals I ask that you help them I ask that you advocate for them because that's what I pride myself on the most because if I feel like I didn't I fail as an non commission officer I ask if you would feel the same way if you failed them and they started leaving like they are [Applause] so I'll just say a few words um obviously uh you know the school board deliberates in Clos session uh where we talk about strategies and parameters and so you know I'm limited as far as what I can say or what we can say but I can say that we've heard you

047I think that's really important um because I have conversations all the time with board members and community members about a wide variety of things and we have heard you so again I don't have a direct response about you know what the end result will be uh but we do take your your concern seriously so um also want to thank everyone who spoke tonight the students the staff members community members each one was fantastic I love it when students come up and uh give presentations I think that's uh great in his idea as far as uh setting up programming so that we encourage our kids uh to become teachers is exceptionally good and uh that's something we've talked about that and that we're hoping to do so again thank you for coming uh tonight for sharing

048your perspectives uh I will say that we'll move together and we're going to settle a contract somehow uh one way or the other not just for teachers uh but for all our employee groups because every employee and student is important here so thank you and also as your schol board chair I can't speak on behalf of the board members but School Board chair I have had a lot of behind the scene meetings with our superintendent and financial people to talk about finances within our district for all of our teachers all of our staff all of our bus drivers all of our EAS you name it we have talked about everybody so don't think that we're not concerned about our pay for the people in our district like many of you I too I'm a St

049Francis graduate I have nine kids go to St Francis so we know about St Francis and we know we have lost people over the years and it makes me upset when I lose a teacher to somebody else we can offer a $10,000 pay increase what we can offer them up here so your concerns are looked at please understand we 100% look at what's going on on our financial World here so please understand we'll do all we can and we have a closed meeting tonight again about finances so we understand where you all coming from so again thank you for coming in thank you for supporting all of our speakers tonight that came in tonight thank you much folks okay we'll let the crowd move out for a second and then we'll pick up on uh

050student counsel report Jack you be next agenda I mean consent agenda thank you it's a big deal that's what we do consent agenda in about 30 seconds folks I almost forgot my [Applause] password all right it's really quiet here we'll move on with the consent agenda is there a motion to accept the is there anything to be pulled from the consent agenda need to be pulled discussion who makes a motion to accept the consent agenda so move by deal second by aming discussion on consent agenda no I just will make a comment on thank you for some of the teachers who stayed because the audit's a big deal of our financial position and how we are and how we got to where we're at and where we're going and so I think it's really important

051and I'm glad some of them stayed to hear the financial audit the AUD absolutely so thank you to those who stay we have a motion and second here correct yes all right all in favor ex asenda all in favor the consent agenda roll call vote Nate hi hi Rob hi Amy hi Pam thank you Jill hi and star all approve the consent agenda of the Roll Call a report coming up first will be Jack from student council Mr Jack I apologize if I sound unn knowledgeable about what this document says Rachel wrote it up and I learned on Saturday that I would be appearing so all the eyes in there are talking about Rachel cop our student council president I'd like to thank everyone for having me here and for everyone here who is listening

052both in present and online and I'll get straight to it as the New Year came to a Clos we had a lot of success in the events that Rachel talked about last meeting St Francis High School hosted a community night on December 19th that brought the entire Community together with many different activities and events happening all in one night there was a basketball double header the Jazz B playing the Multicultural student union and deca made an appearance and many other activities were also there to Showcase themselves and help further bring our community together another event that we hosted at the end of the year was our food drive Rachel ran it and we collected just over 300 food related items from the whole school and now in the upcoming months we are going to be

053working on snow week which will be occurring during Valentine's Day during snow week we will have a Spirit Week where we will encourage students and staff to dress up to show school spirit we will sell carnations which are usually a very big seller for us we will host a petfest where we will Crown our king and queen from the senior court and show our underclass court and we will also hold a weekl long volleyball tournament that myself and Caleb shrock Rob's son will be chairing during Saints time all of these are usually very big hits when it comes to past years so we are hoping for another great snow we this year we have also been advocating for a snow day dance from our Administration but have had no such no such luck yet and

054that's all I have for you tonight questions Mr Nate what you're saying you don't have anybody want what kind of a dance are you talking about staff Mr Austin's doing a dance for you or something school dance we've tried for the past couple of years but it hasn't worked out usually told an overall school dance uh okay just another one to add on to more of them homecoming prom I know a lot of other school districts usually have like a snow week or home usually just another one just separate from that okay other questions concerns with Jack pepb sounded great the other night so it was good to see you there I know that girls and boys have been having good season so far 4636 for big win tonight atale and a win at home

055tomorrow that came first Lake all right anything else thank you for coming in tonight J again you can stay as long as you want or leave to go do homework I'm gonna go all right all right next up will be uh Aon from mmkr audit report all the financial information about our school district Mr Aaron now he says he won't be covering every single page in two documents and I'm going to kick it off here get evening chair star superintendent Anderson Schoolboard members we're excited uh to share with the school board and our larger Community the fiscal 2023 audited financial statements independent Auditors from Malloy monu Kowski and rosovich for mmkr which is a lot easier to say have been working with our business office since last summer to analyze the school district's fin finances

056for the 2022 2023 fiscal year ending on June 30th of 2023 before I turn it over to uh Aaron neelson from mmkr I just want to take a moment to remind board members that this last year had a number of unique challenges particularly with the transition of both the staff accountant and the business director I want to thank Josh brazinski and Pam Jensen as well as our entire Finance team for really their excellent work we as we went through the process over the last six months as you'll see in a moment the results of this uh of their efforts continue to place our district in a strong financially responsible place that can build trust with the community that we serve so with that I'm going to turn the presentation over to Aon neon who's a

057partner with thank you very much I appreciate the opportunity to be here this evening U I didn't get to ask am I running the slides well as mentioned my name is Aaron Neon partner with mmkr your independent audit firm and we have completed our audit for the year end of June 30th 2023 uh you do have two documents before you this evening the financial statement as well as our management reports that we use to summarize the results of our audit uh I won't plan to go through every page of the financial statement it is over 100 Pages along uh the PowerPoint presentation we use here is just to keep us all on the same page to the information we're looking at at the same time but if you have questions on anything I didn't include

058in the PowerPoint I'd be happy to try to answer so with that I'll make my way through the PowerPoint presentation there really shouldn't be any surprises for board members it's simply information I've pulled from our management report for you this evening so with that I'll make my way through our PowerPoint our role as independent Auditors to the district to provide that independent audit on that District's financial statement as well as the issue reports on the schedule of expenditures of federal reports so your district is required the additional testing for your federal audit because you're well in Access of the $750,000 threshold that requires that that audit is ongoing because uh with all the federal Co funds the mde has allowed that extension to go through March 31st so we've got several in that case and

059so we make sure that is completed by the March 31st deadline for the s c audit of federal boards uh with regard to the internal control and compliance reports uh with regard to the financial statement audit and then the Office of the State Auditors Leal compliance manual uh the state laws and regulations so with that we get with the results of our audit uh we have issued what is known as an unmodified or a clean opinion on the basic financial statements so uh in our testing of your trial balance the records that were provided to us and assembling the financial statements that financial statement document fairly States your financial position as of June 30th 2023 and for the year then results June 30th 2023 uh last year we talked about gasby on Lisas this year

060we had a new gasby standard your governmental Accounting Standards Board statement for uh SAS which is subscription based information technology that we have to work through with your staff this year when we look at the internal control and compliance for the final statement audit or an audit under government auditing standards we had just one finding this year uh that was new to the district we reported a significant efficiency for the segregation of Duties a lack of proper segregation of Duties and we do realize that was due to the timing and turnover of Staff this past year as we mentioned you had turnover in comp position during the year and then the financial position of the finance director shortly after the year end U that was filed shortly after that time moving on to the legal

061yes so was the deficiency that for a time we didn't have a financial summone in the finance I didn't I didn't understand what the deficiency so um with turnover that position there wasn't a proper timing and checks and balances over the audit process to put the information together this year as there had been in previous years timing so really I'm understanding we did the best we could but because of the timing of departure of someone that's what gave us the efficiency and and I would anticipate with you filling the position um with Ron and his team here I would anticipate that would be corrected by the time we complete next year's audit can't speak to it until complete that audit process thank you with regard to the Office of the State Auditors legal compliance manual

062there's actually seven broad categories of testing claims and dispersements Contracting and bidding in various other areas please to report we have no findings with regard to that area um in any of the areas for the legal compliance manual uh we did note in the management report does a common it didn't rise to the level of a significant deficiency but the importance of timely reconciliations and making sure that work is completed and again it's directly related to the timing and turnover of staff that you had this past year the rest of my financial slides or the slides I have before you are really showing some the information out the district's finances the student enrollment we include the adjusted ADM or average daily membership similar to a student sered this past year along within the resulting pupil

063units so after applying waiting to those ADM U for a change of 10 years that you can see before you just looking at the comp comparison to the prior year in 2023 you served approximately an ADM of 4,198 students and that represents a decrease of about 22 or about a half of 1% in changeing from the prior year when we look at the slide before you here we've got a 10-year history of the financial position of the general fund so the primary operating fund for the district and my next several slides are for the F your primary operating fund uh as you can see we show cash balance cash Investments the unrestricted operating fund balance and the unrestricted fund balance of the district alongside expenditures uh cash Investments unrestricted are typically used as measures of

064Financial Health while we use the expenditures as the size of the operation diving deeper into the equity components for District so this is a good slide to look at just the past five years of the fund balance for the district so uh when you look at the top portion of total fund balances that nonspendable represents dollars a essentially spent but they haven't been utilized so prepaid items and inventory of assets that you would have on hand to be utilized uh restricted fund balance represents those dollars that you've received that can be spent only for the manner in which you've received them recognized them a good example that's operating Capital long-term facilities maintenance basic still Scholars as you can see there was a decrease this past year from 7.4 to just over just under $6 million

065and what we noted there was largely a capital related uh restrictive components that change uh the assigned category are for internal assignments by the district that can be made by um the school board or anyone that the school board has assigned that ability to or approve that ability for and then the unassigned is the capture where everything else Falls so when we look at that fund balance percent unrestricted is capturing both the assigned and unassigned as a percentage of total expenditures for the general fund and then that unassigned category is the well as you can see unassigned fund balance of that same total expenditure is the general fund so um The District's current fund balance policy is 12% to hit a 12% strip to Main being a 12% Target and as you can see at

066the end of 2023 you're at 19% in relation to that Target and then just a couple more slides for the general funds so for this past year um we've got a slide before you here showing the major sources for general fund revenues property taxes State sources Federal all other categories uh for your District this past year total general fund revenues amounted to $ 57.1 million to you size of the organization so uh 57.1 million from the general fund this past year that came in over budget by about 3.3% and was about 2% over the prior year um when I look deeper at what some of those changes the comparison to budget this past year U we noted it largely in conservative Bud for federal sources and then what we're seeing in a lot of our

067districts is other count we saw Improvement in investment rates or returns that we haven't had for a long time and so many of the districts we work with are seeing an increase in that other category investment earnings in 2023 uh when we compare to the prior year your property tax as you can see were down but that was made up by increases in the other categories funding improvements in state sources and then increases and investment RS and then the last comment I gener to share with you is uh you can see the concentration where your resources come to finance the general fund operations for the district so you are heavily dependent on the State Minnesota and where you get your resources from a portion of that does come from property tax as well but there

068is a Formula that splits that between property taxes and state sources so for 2023 uh State sources amounted to almost 79% of the revenues of the general fund and Then followed by 88.6% in property taxes I have a similar slide here for the general fund expenditures a budget to actual to Prior year comparison or budget actual prior year uh as you work across the page here expenditures this past year were $ 55.6 million and I really don't have a lot to get into in detail of the general fund expenditures you came in very close to anticip iated amounts in total uh within 3/10 of 1% over budget uh you had some changes between categories salaries and benefits came in under budget um but an increase over the prior year salaries and benefits making up 76.1%

069of general fund expenditures this past year and not uncommon for that percentage to be the majority of spending wor at 76% for your general fund spending this past year um but that category coming in on the budget but setly some of the variances in other categories this past year my next slide will Shi yours a little bit for the other operating funds are quite a bit moving away from the general funds so two of your other operating funds of food service and community service special Revenue funds so I only have the one slide where we were talking about your general fund operation having $55 million of activity your food service and community service funds are very similar in size this pastor both of them had about $2.7 million of expenditure activity each of them individually

070um you can see their financial position with an improvement this past year and they both came in similar to uh that expense where Food Service expenditures are about 54.4% of their total expenses while the community services at about 53% of their expenses I believe just my last slide um just the comments within your financial statements the information we have included to this point is really focused on the short-term year general fund and the operating funds uh your financial statements also include a long-term perspective where we consolidate all of the funds of the district um when we look at it on the enemy wide basis we saw your net investment in capital assets so the capital assets net of their related debt increas in this past year so telling me you pay your bonds off a

071best rate than your appreciating your buildings we saw decreasing restricted category similar to what we talked about were restricted for Capital dollars this past year utilized and SP now and then the unrestricted some increase uh as we talked about for the general funds say improved fund balance there but larger uh Factor was the change in the pension obligations that impactation so with I know I went through a lot of information very quickly if there's any questions I just had a couple other comments after comment questions do you see anything that's going to impact our financial based on any new mandates coming from the state where that won't be seen until next year really lean towards your staff on not more so than than myself um always looking back CH start with the audit process but

072we're seeing was a 4% increase on theform 2% increase there's some improvements for special education that we hope will be beneficial to the district but um one of the challenges is always enrollment and where where we enroll because you're F follow enroll so um which I wouldn't have a very good grasp on for your individual District moving forward but uh that is a key to that for the audit how did our ROM look do we do we come pretty close what we projected and what you saw the got it um I for this past year I believe they came in relatively close to what was anticipated okay I think that was part the reason for a favorable variance conserv bud but generally okay Amy so we've seen big uptick in a sign FR [Music] balance

073any any um is it because of unfilled position is it because of I mean I need to have an understanding from the audit perspective as we go forward well what we did what you're yes I can I can speak a little bit to this year's audit it it might have got a little lost on the expense side when we talked about your expenditures this past year so um while you saw your expenses coming very close to budget uh part of the savings was in the salaries and benefits which I believe would have a bigger impact towards that unrestricted category whereas some of the overages that then balanced out where your expenditures came in was in the Capital Area and you saw spending of your restricted for Capital dollars this past year so um that would

074have a impact of while your expenditures were close to budget you'd see you could see that uptick in uh fund balance because the open position difficult F filling this uh another Factor it was the revenues that we talked about as I mentioned we've seen a lot of districts the investment arras has been almost zero the past few years for districts and this past year was we saw re with improved interest rates investment results and so we did see enough tick there so conservative budgeting for that category has not been uncommon so I think bable variance is there uh sometimes somebody want grants with federal funds and the MDB ring out dollars and new grants and trying to take advantage of them as much as you can has had some two districts it's a conversation we

075need to have is how much of it is Grants when you know the grants coming in how long are the grants for the UNF positions I've seen an uptick in the UNF as well as the Investments is that what I'm he is it a combination of all of that I think that is a fair conversation I would agree um you definitely always have to be cautious that there's one time dollars Grant dollars could be one time um I can't speak to where you're at even if you look at even if you look at unfill positions those positions become filled exactly it is one time dollars because if you fill the positions we don't have the increase in fund balance due to positions being filled right those positions may not be filled at this time so

076but I would know us presentation cor and then investment earnings again that can't change so over the course of the last six eight years since our fund balance was um very well and we've grown it over the last few years I know last year when you were here or was the year before I know this years get sketchy if I try to remember um she you made recommendations on where most districts are where you would recommend a district be for their Unice and I know in here doesn't talk about what we've set and it talks about what other dis what's been the state average for um the not the mign but other balances is there a percentage that you recommend or that you'd like to see districts at so we have and I know when

077we set 12% it's because we were close to 12% or we were 12% so we didn't set a a stretch goal there but I'd like to understand that especially since we're in negotiations and understand where where it's recommended we sit right um I want to speak clearly because as your auditor I got to maintain my Independence so I can't recommend anything um but I get that question a lot presentations uh what I can share is what I see common fund balance percentages rules of thumb often five to 10% are common rules of come uh using a lower fund balance percentage is generally used by those with a lot of various sources so you're not dependent on one source for them or you could have a significant impact in that one area um you can get

078by with a lower percentage but 5 to 10% is not uncommon or one to two months of operating expenditures is also U what I would say ASO the gfoa rec give away government Finance Officers Association and so that that's looking at between 8 and 16% what they would share some of their guidance that I've seen Thank you Pam any question M we don't want to lose you back here okay's good Nate I'm not sure if you know the details that might come on on this but under purch purchase services and supplies and materials um you know we over spend our budget on that what what are all included in that purchase Services is that Contracting is that what is you had a list of what all historically in that in those periods I understand supplies

079really purchase Services purchase Services can be contracted special education services at times uh sometimes it's Transportation costs that you can see from organizations um custodial Services custodial Services if you're Outsourcing those as well my hunch is at special education contracted services like for school psychologists for speech language Pathologists are a significant portion of that and and keep in mind because of some of the St that we had there were additional Contract Services in order to make up for some so that's why you see the difference in for a little lower contra any further questions comments but the audit is there is there a percentage that you that you can give us or that someone can give us is what a percentage is unfill positions of our fund balance increase I think that's an important number

080to understand for the public to understand we we continually see a balance creeping up and to have an understanding of what's going on why it's why it's going up um what can we do to not have it go up but yet also be in compliance let's say we have to if some of it's um employees and some of them fall into special ad we have to post those in order to be compliant with their programming that they have to get through special education so what how much of it is in not having that we're not filling positions do we know how much the increase is and is there a way to to figure that out again I think the variance that you saw in the salaries in particular the salaries portion is really direct results

081to to the unfilled positions okay the the thing to keep in mind is that even before school districts had unfilled position so it's not like it went from zero to what it is last year um but certainly there was additional open positions that we typically have the other thing that we um oftentimes will will'll do during the revised budget process is try to account for some of those open positions i' have to go back to the revised budget from last year to find out if some of that was accounted for but obviously you saw even between the revised budget and the final budget where we landed there was still VAR yeah I think noted the manager report that salaries and benefits were about 2% under what was anticipated in the% but that was that final

082budget so not mention adjust through some adjustments to budget adjustments here as well I did have just a couple other comments I wanted to share I forgot to mention yeah and it it probably is for our revised budget um discussion but I just want to make sure that you're tracking it um because great question Amy I think you know if we look at this it's like 0.9 7% with the adjustments it's at the 2% but that still doesn't give us how we got a 5.1% increase in the fund unrestricted fund balance that number they don't match so making sure when we get that um revised budget where did that extra you know 4% come from because on this slide we're in a deficit of about 300,000 so where did that increase come from if it

083wasn't the salaries with those adjustments and I know you might not have that right now but when we get that that's just something I'd like to see broke down into the percentages and it can be tricky to budget process doing where the budget what was the budget anticipating maybe for an increase in most components so one component another a break y but I agree with Nate I think those are numbers that I would like to know I think Nate wants to know I would say more than that about most of the board members up here now along with our employees because I want to make the sound decisions to keep this District financially sound but I also you know um was surprised at the increase in fund balance I'll just say I wasn't expecting I

084wasn't expecting that I don't think many of us in this room were and so it makes it hard as I sit here and I want I know I know education funding is complicated to say the least and I won't pretend that I know it that's why we hire individuals to audit us and you know to sit back there and give us guidance on where we go from here but um I'm a little confused that the increase and I'm I'm not comfortable with that increase I I would say a lot of the board members on as well course we know you're going to deal with the past so you understand that and I think when we have the discussion about the revised budget in two weeks I think we'll be able to have a more thorough

085discussion about those issues unfilled positions um new positions that we've added uh parameters for negotiations that'll all be included so I would say in two weeks we we'll have a more responses for you in that regard keep in mind it's a combination of not just the expenditure side but also the revenue side which we saw went up 3% um as well so there it's that combination that's how we added 3 over $3 million unsigned with that combination of addition revenues as well as expenditures and things like the r% and as we know for school Finance am's got 20 years on the board I got 12 years on the board and I learn every time I talk to somebody about Finance they said what and so it is a complicated it's been that way msba talked

086about it for years at our conference and the complication to run the districts out here y so all right any more comments concerns of the auditor all right sir I did um I didn't forgot to mention de service fund this past year you did Issue refunding bonds and had a refunding that was approved uh in an effort to reduce your tax levies for Deb service levies this past year um so that was accomplished your Finance team and the school board is looking at those on anine manner as well uh to make sure you're t uh making sure you're accomplishing those savings where you can um and I did want to thank the staff as Ron had mentioned ahead of time with the individuals Ron and his team Pam came out and helped assist to complete

087the financial audit and then Josh who was in a new position filling the whole open an accountant who had been here for many years so uh we do appreciate their assistance and getting all this completed okay well thank you very much much thank you all right next up we have our security Bond refunding Mr Steve on up I'll just get a quick intro and eron did a good job already of uh you know just talking about one of the important services that our Municipal advisor does perform for the district is to monitor all of our outstanding Bond issues um and then to alert us when there's potential refunding opportunities based on improving improving market conditions that potentially could save the tax taxpayers of our district some significant dollars so recently PMA did alert us to

088uh that very such thing of a potential refunding option and so Steve bumper the vice president from PMA Financial network is here to walk us through the potential option and give some option for the board to yeah thanks Ron um Mr board chair board members superintendent Anderson I just want you know I did not pay Aon to give this is going away comments about the fact that you just refunded last year reflected in your audit but in fact you did and we'll look at that as well um so I I'm was going to take you through I don't have too many slides here to go for but this is just for for board education this is a um just a chart showing you all of your outstanding um debt from from bonds that have been

089previously issued I'm not sure why it's not displaying on here it should have yours on the bottom I'm not sure doesn't hopefully on your um laptops is showing that okay um so showing you for you've got 19 years left of debt payments to make 15 years of those um or sorry 14 years of those are roughly at a $6 million um annual that's 11 your local taxpayers um to pay off that debt and then the last five years you can see it it jumps down a little bit so if you don't issue any more debt for the next you know 19 years eventually RTI that's unrealistic probably but this is just what your current situation looks like so um you have six outstanding issues that made up that chart on that last page the one

090that we're going to talk about right now is the fourth one down which is the 2018 a bonds um those were um some big bonds that you sold from your referendum that was approved back in 2017 um to do a lot of facility improvements and you'll notice the very last one um on that page the 2023a bonds and those were the refundings that we did last year that eron was mentioned in his closing comments and those saved you $2.2 million of refunding a portion of the 2018 a bonds and tonight if you go to the next slide um we're showing you that you have potential um chance to refund more of those bonds so that green section big block that those are the maturities that we refunded just refunded last year that saved you roughly

091$2.2 million the reason we didn't refund the rest of the bonds and the reason we're telling you our recommendation right now is not to refund the rest rest of the remaining bonds is because it doesn't make sense it's it's all a mathematical equation of what's the outstanding interest rate on each year of those bonds and you'll see that um the bonds that we're we're recommending to to refund I'll have a 4% coupon rate so that's what you're paying on those and then the last three years are down to three and a half% last four years sorry are down to three and a half% and those don't mathematically work right now to saving money it doesn't mean we couldn't do those in future years if the math works out based on what current interest rate Market

092is you know um in in years coming forward we'll to see but right now it makes sense to refund those five outstanding maturities of F at 4% right now so y go ahead clarification on saving us money y when we save money does that mean that we have more money to spend or does it mean that it's less money that we lovey the tax done great Point um and the second is what what it is the the savings that you receive so in this case if I'll cut to the chase here on this next slide our anticipated savings would be roughly $1.9 million um in today's market that $1.9 million means that you would Levy 1.9 million dollar less over the course of the remaining outstanding months so it's it's a savings to your taxpayers

093doesn't provide the district any additional funds to spend um or doesn't create any additional revenue for the district but what it does do is it eases the burden on on the taxpayers so again going back to one of your opening marks when you started the meeting you know you you you went up for operational Levy and so if you can reduce the debt that you're leving that helps you know your taxpayers on hopefully support an operational Levy because you know it's lowering the L that way is that is every very clear on that though yeah I was clear on that I just want to make sure might think that we we're going to have additional money thank you for asking that question this chart right here um is an estimated savings chart the First Column

094um well the First Column is of dates the second column would show um that would be our new issue the the new issue that would be sold um the column next to that says existing Debt Service would would be the remaining debt that's still on the 2018 P bonds and then we added two of those that would be your net new Deb service that You' be Ling on an annual basis you compare that to the second from the right column which is your existing Debt Service we call the old debt service and then you're subtracting that from the the colum to the left and that provides your savings so what it would look like is you would have 13 EUR worth of savings um when we put it in chart form the um the very

095small little gray caps on the first uh uh six years of that is just you know $30,000 worth of savings and then you you see some significant $350,000 worth of savings for The Last 5 Years um of those bonds going forward so that's what it would look like um if we were successful in in going to the market and and getting those savings for you as well um this is just a slide just to kind of show you how it would work as far as the dollar amounts we would be selling roughly $183 million with the bonds we anticipate um that when we go out to the market the person who would buy the bonds the underwriters would be paying a bond premium in this type of Market that's just what's typical so that we

096would uh have about $19.7 million that would go to refund the existing bonds um and then there's cost of issuance both for the underr discount and then the last bullet point would be fees that you would pay to your Municipal adviser that's the company that I work for um your bond counsel and your rating agency and paying agents in ETC um one thing I should point out I'm just go back here to the savings there is known on the bottom the 1. n65 and again that's an unknown number for sure but but you know estimated number that is shown after um you pay out your cost of inssurance so that is the real net number okay so it's not one nine and it's subtracted cost insurance that is your net savings for your taxpayers um

097the uh potential board resolution and actually the next page will show a calendar actually should have started this off we're not expecting or asking the board take any action at tonight's meeting meeting this is just informational and then the board can decide through your process of setting the agenda for your 22nd meeting whether you want this as an action item on your agenda or not so you know that'll be up to you but if so on January 22nd we would work with your bond Council we already have have you know started that process um to create a resolution that would proceed with the bond sale as long as it meets um certain um parameters and the parameters are listed below that the superintendent or the Director of Business Services um and any school board officer

098are able to execute all the documents that are necessary to execute on the date of the bond sale as long as you reach a minimum Savings of $1 million um we would establish a maximum par um amount of bonds to be sold and then that that resolution would expire um June 30th of 2024 so if we weren't able to achieve those savings within that time frame we would need to come back for the board to consider another resolution you know at that point in time what if if if we were able to achieve those um saving targets um then the full board ratifies um at their next schedule meeting after that date of the sale the one piece I did Skip on the top and I didn't mean to potentially is that the resolution also

099authorizes the district to participate in the State Credit enhancement program it's a free program there's no reason you would not participate in this and what that means is that if the district for whatever reason were not to um make a payment to the bond holders the state steps in and makes that payment and the reason that's really good for any bond holder is you know they they have additional security so you will get a lower interest rate back participating that program um and then I think my last slide here is just showing you a propos calendar um so um tonight January 8th we're just having this discussion and I'll certainly stand for any questions after this slide's done um January 22nd could be the meeting where the board would consider the parameters resolution I just

100talked about and if that were approved then we would get to work on issuing all the documents that are necessary to go to the market um we would have a rating call so your your bonds would be rated again um and then in February we we would anticipate um on February 26 which is also your board meeting date that that would be our sale date and then we come to so that Mee to for full gratification um on that night and then March 13th the bonds will close and we pay off all your bond holders in June and with that Mr chair I'll stand for any questions uh Pam any questions okay Pam's good anyone else Amy um you've come before us with this information how does this is this the same for all school

101districts or are there things that we have done to make it more possible that this that we're able to no it's is it just the market is it it's the market and and it has that it's an impact of of of your existing debt and what percentage those are still at and it's not like you have I mean a district who has a four Bond rating probably has a better chance to have a refunding because that meant their old their outstanding debt is at a higher percentage than a district that has a really strong rating but I mean it's something that District's doing it's just fact of the market so it's it's truly market conditions um with the recent there's been a downtrend Mark we looked at this and we were expecting to do this

102last fall but the market jumped up and then there was no opportunity for you receive it in savings now the market has come down to where there are savings so you will you will not be the only District ever talking with that has you know a possibility to do refunding it's really it's really very much market and last time we did our bond our rating went back went up didn't it we sold bonds last time your rating yeah exactly y it's very unlikely to have a rating go up twice in the in within a twoyear period or with the same year period of time but you know who knows we'll see and yeah how does this affect the stakeholders I mean I think the last one we did they end up seeing an increase on

103taxes is that correct there were two different uh Bond related issues one was a refunding and then one was uh capturing uh more money for the um U the building project that we had so there are two different issues the first one was very similar to What's Happening Here the refunding the second one won't be happening again so this one's only a decrease so then as far as the stakeholders you know their taxes and stuff they don't see an adjustment up or down this is just about the payout at the end people to take taxpayers they're the they're the ones who would see the decrease because because ultimately if you reduce your Levy your Levy um you know you're setting a certain Val collect from all the taxpayers will the dollar month is lower that

104means all your taxpayers would share to some degree in the in the savings because You' be loving less dollars so so this would bring in a decrease a decrease yeah this is absolutely a good thing for your ta 1.9 million approximately spread all property owners in our district see a small but I just want to make make clear that then that would be for 2025 it would it would start for taxes pable 2025 a very small decrease in and that 1.9 million spread out over 13 years and if you remember when I showed you that chart it's only the last four years where property tax owners are going to receive significant decrease because that's when you know it's going down by roughly 350,000 a year um the first um you know 10 years of 30,000

105yeah good question yeah how it's good for taxpayers all right any other question concerns Steve Nate yeah just a quick one from our last time we did this with the bond parameters similar no that's thank you I know that the board's had great discussion on this in the past so actually wrot the number down the parameter the only difference in the parameter was your savings parameter um when you did it last time um was $100,000 so um I know that the board had some discussion on whether that was the right amount or not the right amount and so this year what discussion was staff we raised that up to a million again stat g a 2.2 and one of the reasons that that some districts do elect to keep it that low you know 100,000

106it's because any SV is good savings um and so you know you're not always going to be able to have an opportunity to refund bonds and it's not like you can't refund it more than once if you if you need to but um I know that your your district has had some conversation about wanting doll more higher so you can be whatever you guys want I mean there's nothing there's nothing magical there's no State Statute that says you have to save a certain am but we're putting in a million dollars we truly believe and we're getting close now in today's there just was some Bond sales last week in Minnesota so now we have a really good idea what rates are right now now what could happen between now and February 26 things can change

107right for sure but um the projection that I showed you tonight is very realistic so I think a million dollars would be okay questions Amy how do districts get Bond ratings pardon me how do districts get their bond ratings you go through an independent Source you usually see their standards import S&P or mes you schedule call they have a call and they go through a lot of information we we generate what's called a prate official statement which has a lot of information for the that independent um company to review and then they subm because I know last time our bond rating was very high or it went up it went up and what was the basis of that an improvement usually it's an improvement on two things one is your District's financial position um and

108then the um what's happening in your community in other words are you adding housing are you adding jobs those are the two most um significant factors you know what your tax Bas like and actually sorry a third one is what's your exist outstanding debt how much debt do you have against what your tax is okay and again last question for me the more Mike I got a question go ahead Pam yeah so so I'm not sure if I heard that correctly but did is our position better now than it was the last time we went forward with this have we improved our position again could your bond reading be go up is that you're asking correct correct the the possibility is is yes um okay but like did I did I know I said I

109repeating myself it's unlikely for someone to move another notch that quickly usually the rating agencies wait to see performance over amount of time before they'll they'll they'll they'll make it come down real quick it's it's they just don't like to raise it too quickly so I I would be very very surprised just listening to where your audit position is that you won't maintain your existing rating um I would be somewhat surprised um that they would increase it okay thank you Amy so begs me the question when I asked earlier what have we done and you said well really nothing well we have done things to improve it because our financial situation in this district is very different than it was for many years so now our bond rating is better which is kind of describes

110it as someone having a good credit rating I'm trying to so that our public can understand the difference of having a good credit rating and so if you have a good credit rating and if you're doing well financially then you might get a better um you may be able to ref Finance your home at a better rate than someone who doesn't have a good credit score I'm trying to make it so that the public understands what a bond rating is where we've gotten there that this isn't just lock that that oh we're going to be able to save some more money we're going to save our taxpayers more dollars that maybe we could use on getting I don't know we're saving the money it doesn't just happen we've done things and things have occurred that

111we've got a better Bond rating twice in one year and now there's a point where I don't want to say what we're going to continue but some decisions have been good for this District financially to get us where we're at and we're not out of the realm of having a bond rating right now we're just in normal Bond rating am I correct where we used to stand years ago have a poor have a poor rating it might correct and saying that Mike you were here poor or a lower rating a lower rating Steve is it fair to say that um because we have a a larger fund balance now compared to a year ago certainly compared to 10 years ago that that helps with the rating completely okay yes for sure and I think that's

112probably what Amy's point is I'm just trying to give big circles to everybody I do it a roundabout way yes and I mean get the very very basic you have the lower interest you should on any debt if you're refunding or issuing new debt you should receive a lower interest rate a higher rate have and the more housing we have in the area that would help lower the cost for everyone because it spre to more home we got some big developments happening in East belal here pretty quick and that's going to help us Y and that helps you don't matter if you issue new debt or refund that or anything absolutely okay any further questions concerns all right so we'll have to work with Ron here to get things ready then and talk for discussion

113in the future very good thank you thanks Steve and just a followup what we'll do is we'll uh include the resolutions with at least a million dollars worth of of savings you know as part of it because I know that was a big issue a year ago I was on leave during the discussion so but I still followed it and so we'll have it as a mill million uh saving all right thanks for coming in uh next up will be location and graduation principal Austin is here Mr Doug hard this is easy for you thank you um so hopefully you had a chance to look over some of this there's a couple things I'll need to point out there some additional things I need to talk about um just a couple things for your the

114history since um in the last 10 years we did graduation on 2017 was outside and I think that was we decided to do that in 2021 we did it because it was the end of Co and we could not go inside because they still had some rules on so there's been two times in the last 10 years where we've been um in outside for graduation um a couple things um we do use a sound system I use it um through AV for you and this is to Mr carrier he takes care of that that on the technology side you get that it is significantly cheaper to do it in the gym because you're using what we currently have as far as a sound system the difficult thing is when you go outside so if you

115look at the cost there it's 4250 for inside it's 98 um let see 9820 so significant amount of money over the cost to go outside you might say why is it more expensive to outside first of all if you you can't use the PA system that we have at the stadium field because anyone that's done that if you're on the saving field you keep hearing yourself over and over again so it makes it almost impossible to give a speech I think Mr St prob had that opportunity to try that um when that happens it's really challenging so that's where the cost difference is also you have to bring a lot of equipment in so the rental cost get more expensive and things like that and I do have the bids um I looked down the

116bids here I can get those to you if you decide you want to look at this further but I'm just giv you Baseline information the information here is based on things that are that are it does not look at what we P for diploma diploma covers all those things expenses that I have money for I also have money accounted for the 4250 that goes to um cover the cost for the inside graduation I do not have the additional money to go up and above the 9820 on that amount just so you know we have some of that budget it's part of our budget at the high school to do graduation and you know also we some staffing things and things like that we also is that clear any questions on that okay so the big

117difference is that salary that we have between what it cost to be outside for the audio versus what it is inside it's a significant amount of money couple things the pluses of being outside we are looking at being able to have a lot more seats you're looking at students each family for each student having probably more like about six tickets maybe even a little bit more um when you're inside I'm working with Lindsay prer who does a lot of the stuff and hands out the tickets and takes care of that process for me and she's very valuable in that process we estimate um normally what we do is we give four to each student and then if people want more we go up to two for that moving forward but we average probably could give

118five out and that would be sufficient so there's a difference of like five for inside six outside it is a little can get a little cramped inside but we did put the AC unit a while ago make sure that we available to do that so those are some things that kind of keep in mind as you think about this process so um police expense I have that there I don't know that's one of the things that usually I pick up also but that would be something that we're looking at on both of them you might look at additional usually outside you maybe would get two or three more police officers depending on the situation also um we have to get the wonderful Porta poies that go out there we have enough of those and since

119it's May 30 first that's the end of the month so we probably can utilize those and we just move them around other parts of the district and and make it work easier to go outside just so that part um so a couple key points if you can scroll up there there was a all right I am going to um there go so I key thing I want to stress on there a little bit that first key point I want to talk about and once again I'll answer any questions you have after that that should read where it says outdoor graduation will cost 9820 because that's talking about the dollar sound system and I apologize for that that was a typle on my part I just caught it as I was going through this um and

120then it kind of works a little differently but initially it was going to be 6245 the difference between outdoor graduation the cost that would cost to go outside versus being inside now on Friday of this week I was informed that we would need to move the chairs it's really hard for our staff um our maintenance staff codio that does most of the setup uh that we would need to go ahead and probably get a thousand shares and for and cost about 1400 so from that 6245 it would go up to 7645 the difference between the two of them um that is kind of working um just I got that was informed that's proba what we need to do get a member this summer sounds like it's a quiet time in schools it isn't because you're

121doing a lot of the stuff you need to get out there and there's a lot of things I need to do to get ready for that part so that I was informed of that I didn't know that when I sent this out to you guys but just so you have that part of it all right um the you know I talked about the differences and how many tickets um students can get and obviously that's a positive for that um you know there's I have a point there of like can we do it both set up both outside and inside that's pretty challenging and pretty cost prohibitive understand we only have one stage that we can set up and that ends up being a big issue too as far as how that goes so realistically if

122you're going to set both sides that would be a lot more money um but here's the reality is we G have rainstorm come in at 3 in the afternoon lightning storm after that and then we you know we kind of we have to switch to a different date and you guys probably don't think about that but I worry about that pretty much constantly I'm a couple times I've done that and thinking if we can do because the last time for whatever reason we were doing on Saturday and we're trying to figure out to makeup date for it and all those sep things so to go through it it's a constant looking at that um you know it's just there's a lot of other issue comes in there's always concerns about the field new football coach

123or new coach soccer coach will be concerned about how that looks that's kind of a regrowth period of time in the summer those type of things so I gave you a baseline I just wanted to give you the facts that I know and questions you guys have okay concerns Rob yeah I know there's a student that brought this forward that kind of initially started this and buch of email in after that so thank you for putting this all together I appreciate it um as you know I've got a son that will be I notic that I think I've met him a few times so scored 31 points the last game i s play so I didn't bring this up this was no not on and you know once again I think you know at the

124end of the day it's always hard for me to recommend that we do it just because of the all the unknowns but in the past that it has happened it's us the board Society I mean we really need some additional money to be able to fund and take care of that EV so I think you did proceed to go that way Nate so you said we've done it outside twice in the last two years do we have 10 years 10 years I meant 10 years do we have numbers did we have an uptick in attendance in those two years compared to I know one was Co but do we have an uptick compared to our IND I would say with the co year it's really hard to monitor that in 2017 in 2017 I think

125we did probably have more s what I'm talking about the difference in between them also our class sizes were bigger at that time so um about in 2017 you're probably looking at 25 30 more kids per class we're starting to see our numbers go up you know a big question always comes up who's going to graduate at the high school well we're not only the high school but we have sa online s Academy of them want to be part of that ceremony so I kind of came up with an estimate for most of the facts about 322 12 people 12 [Music] staff Rob yeah the was a drive by so there was no no no not 20 was the driveby 21 21 we got told by the state literally about seven eight days before the

126graduation was going to take place because lot lot of schools are going inside and all of a sudden you can't do inside because of Co restrictions you could go outside and they basically let it open and if I believe like we didn't set up chairs for that because they brought their lawn chairs and did that so that but that that is not the world we live in so we have a lot of passionate seniors um from the emails we've received that would really like to see it outside are they passionate enough and would they be able to um do a fundraiser to help help set some CS I don't maybe Mr I mean that was the biggest the financial part was the biggest concern just Rob I asked some of them to come and they're

127not here disappointed so I don't know um I'll be honest with you it is a wonderful experience to be outside of not saying that there's just there's just big concerns and my job is I I will say in 17 i m being relatively hot and I also remember Mr Nelson watching the weather and kept telling me I had to hurry up and talk a lot faster we hit and but we saw the clouds were coming in on the horizon of course they got to stop there must been a Nelson wall that PR coming in on process but that was what happened but it's just nerve-racking on that piece of it I remember getting up early the morning to figure that out and stuff like that I mean ideally if you can do it you'd set

128up both sites and you'd have that but that is a tremendous amount and a lot of when you think about the cost is not only what you're bringing in with product and employees you also are talking about how much taking people away from other parts of the job need to get done to because basically ends up being a whole District situation on but like I said it is experience pretty cool go ahead Mr yeah I told first email that I would bring this up so bring this up so again thank you for doing this but I surveyed some of the seniors that are graduating this year it's not an overwhelming majority that want it outside so I would I you have a rough guest or talk to you know I they haven't went to me

129they they brought up when I was being interviewed in St Francis High School today they did a news conference with me and they brought it up there and I just kind of like kind of went through it at that time I didn't have all the cost parameters and those type of things I'm actually a little surprised how much it is to go outside versus inside um I me we obviously price that out a little bitly but I I really do feel like um there's some advantages to it there's another big issue is that becomes an issue for some people please understand we always live stream every graduation ceremony really from about 201 on I think we have and we also have the Pack open where it's AC commissioning in there so we have all those

130sites going forward and we try to do that so it's part of it but it's just it's the is the biggest issue um just wish I could guarantee it's my job to make sure because if I donate graduation on Friday night and you have your grad party on Saturday you're not going to change your grad party right so I mean it really need to happen at that time and that's the big risk you take and that's the risk I always been responsible for but it's also I'm to everybody here too if we decide to do outside because there is definely risk anyone know any about Minnesota the Le is always the most best unknown and so the challeng Mr super uh question for you I put this as an information item because I've always assume

131that this is a high school event and so the high school principal should make the decision so I'm going to ask you directly what do you want to do for graduation this year indoor or outdoor I I recommend doing indoor that just because of the unknown there I feel like we were able to get enough people into the gymnasium it's been positive that's my recommendation questions Rob so that group of students that emailed us they want to get together they can they send it they tend to buy me and unfortunately I don't like to say I'm the no guy but sometimes this time of year chall so I should R the dance thanks for bring it up I appreciate that I'm yes Amy well I do respect that this is your building your budget you

132spend the money I've had kids in outdoor graduations and I've had four children graduate and you made the decision for a number of did you make it for one of them I don't think I was I don't think your kids were stilling school it was so it was new B I know he was there but I don't know how he came up with the decision I think it was weather inclement it within the day or two that you take a 5050 shot and it's even underneath that wether if it's correct I can look at my weather thing and say it's not raining and I'm looking out going I see raindrops it's raining so this really needs to be a decision I feel strongly at um at the high school level this would be in my

133viewpoint micromanaging for us to say no he needs to have it in and out I appreciate you coming forth and giving this information so if anyone calls us this is great information to have on that but this is a difficult decision that you have to make of whether regards and sometimes you're not going to make everybody happy and that's just the way it is and you can explain it of why you made the decision and then um I respect you for sticking by that decision explaining why because that's your job to do at the high school and I appreciate the work you doing and say that you're all Pam any questions Pam no it's pretty clear it's pretty clear it would be it would be Mr Austin's decision even though it's fun to have it

134outside I mean it was fun because some of us got to participate with that outside it was a great time but um yeah I I agree with Amy and the rest of the board and I guarantee you if we just you know go with this decision it'll be the nicest day of the year that's what always happens and then the time we play Mr Nelson storm that was on the horizon any other questions Mr not on graduation but brought up earlier yes and Jack left school dance they want one this winter I know we discussed we went that's once again we unfortunately saying no to that um we have we have more that we moved up is on March 15th nor that we end the other big issue we run into and my biggest concern

135and there might be a few things we can work out with things like that but the biggest issue I see with it is just um we have a basically you know it's like once we start get in February you start having all the say tournaments and events going on and it's hard to pick which season you're going to say that it's okay to do it or not so that's the biggest issue that I have um I did I am open to maybe talking to the student council to do some fun events um maybe at one of the double headers that's coming up or something like that that looks little I mentioned that to you I think when we're talking about wrestling I be more than open to do that um dances are um you know

136prom PR war is available to every student it's 9 to 12 so our under classman do go to so that's part of it um if we were going to do it we probably would have need to put it on the calendar More so for this and they did ask me early on and I said no then too I'm not saying I never I don't want to be it's going to look bad for me and I'm come after tomorrow especially your son grp unfortunately that's my [Music] bad I want make you J any other questions all right so right stage with you and you're going to keep it indoors okay all right thanks m i goool tomorrow make sure all right uh next up will be oper Levy discussion 6.5 as you see in your uh

137um paperwork here no action will be taken on the levy tonight there was people here earlier talking about a possible Levy I told we'll be talking about it tonight my question is is there any interest this fall to have a levy again we won't be voting on it we just have a discussion tonight we have to do an action item on it later on but would be any discussion or feel about a levy during presidential time to go back and try it again Amy I want to say it doesn't matter to me if it's president or not president or election year or not we I make decisions based on needs of this district and if the need was there last year I going to say that the need is probably there this year so I

138think we should as a board discuss this um why we need it I think we need to make sure that as we talk about it we even had uh community members that came up and asked about the one that we just passed and you know if we can the levy if we can include um school security in on it which would not be possible because lovees are for learning and buildings are bonds are for building so we may be able to hire a resource officer but we wouldn't be able to do anything physically to the buildings but also we did do things physically to our buildings to make them more secure in what those are what they were I wish she was still here to be able to educate Miss fain's on the security that

139happened within the last Bond there were many things that were done at each building to ensure that our buildings are more secure for our students and staff um but I would say I think we need to talk about a ly and again move forward and start talking about it now and educate our public as our need didn't change because it failed correct it we need to talk about this and move forward and as we're negotiating contracts and why we're we're at where we're at and we look at our Levy compared to other districts and there's lots we need to discuss so I think we need to start talking about it now sooner than better and that's my whole feel on is that When the Levy went down I fig if we pass it it's going

140to be passed by a narrow amount but as it was it get whooped up on pretty heavy 61 38 yet the fact of the matter our knes have not gone down if anything instead of 325 go to 350 or 390 or 500 or something maybe even 700 but the fact of the matter is it won't cost us much more we do the the Flyers there' be no I don't think you have a survey we know what happened in the last time of the survey it's already part of the election in a way because it's presidential more people's coming out for it of course but we can get a lot of information put out uh sell it to a reason why what for how come and I feel we yeah we have to have another Levy

141now the question will be at what level and that's something I want to think about what level should we go to what would the community support at the levy out here in our area and as you know we're at zero zero and okah and Elk River is 13400 and we're at zero so how you wonder why we lose our staff I bear with you Pam wonder why we lose our staff why we're not competitive why we can't offer our staff all staff members a pay increase because we don't have the 11 12 131,00 on a levy that the school districts around us have so we struggle to keep up all the time we lost our German teacher for the first time since 19 71 we don't have German because they appear more noan we lost

142a German fature so yeah we have to I think seriously uh have an action item and go forward with the levy for next fall Pam yeah I I I think it would be advantageous if we took another crack at it and we looked at our vision for the technical aspect of of the of the uh routes that we want to go down so I think we maybe are could be by this next round better equipped to articulate maybe where we think we can go and within what period of time to head more toward some of those technical um Avenues that's my thoughts I think I think there's some great things we can do I just think we just need to put a little more time into it yeah and we talked about Pathways last time

143pathway can be pay with to LY here we had a gentleman here that talks about looking ahead to get people ready when they go out of school here how do we make them get ready for school it's Pathways Pathways will work for us yet we don't have the funding for it so what I think we need to do is like uh y'all been saying how do we educate the public on how we're going to use money and then and we do a good job we tell them what we're going to do we're going to do it we did our $80 million Bond and we told them what we're going to do and we did it and our L would be the same way we just have to educate the people why would forel come to

144do this Levy how we can be competitive because I am sick and tired of St Francis Area School District to be second class for our people we should not have to have how many openings do we have in our district 5560 we should not have 5560 openings in our district because we can't pay our people that come to work for us M Jill I'll come back to Rob I think we should put this on our agenda for our work session on February 12 we' got the discussion on the budget that night and um this is probably just as high of importance y so we're going to look ahead we don't have to have but I want you all thinking about it we have a work session it's ready to go rob and we do go

145forward with this I'd like to do it earlier or approve it earlier so people have more time to know about it ask the questions instead of waiting till the summer to approve it if we could approve it early this spring or even this winter that we're going to do it and then way more people know that it's out there because one of the big complaints is last one was they didn't know about it okay good we'll talk about that our work session coming up we get the word out what we want to do why what for how come out here to take care of our people and we need to get the levy to take care of our people we saw that all the time yeah if I could just add maybe a different perspective

146because the needs are definitely there I'm just not sure if the community appetite for something has changed so you know I think Pam mentioned the the vision or the plan certainly the timing you know certainly the need uh the passion uh but um I don't think this can or should be like a top down deal I mean I think you know we would need to hear from parents from community members uh from staff members that they are willing to share information about the referendum because otherwise we're going to lose worse than 6138 I that that's my perspective that's your perspective that's why I W have discussion Amy no you're right and I've talked about this that we can sit at this table all we want and say this is the number we need and it

147doesn't matter because they can't afford it or they're not willing to or whatever it is we can't sit in this room and because we're not the deciding factor and I will say I heard well the last one you passed you just passed it well we saw it was in 2017 how time flies the older I get the faster it's going but it wasn't just it was a bond it wasn't a ly totally bonds are for buildings that was what we did we did everything we promised we put in security into our buildings and we had a parent here saying tonight we need to secure our buildings Tom and I was frustrated because or further enhance you know we can't but we've enhanced them anyway we and I think the other thing Our Community member was

148frustrated on was they just said that school boards could renew for 10 years without um without approval of the public well they were mad they they all knew that I heard that over and over again you're asking for 10 but oh no it's going to be 20 and they're right that's the unknown until that 10year period and it may change law before me it's very frustrating though but frustrated from this because the public I don't know so maybe we need to say we're just going to do it for I don't know what the answer is all I know is that yeah we need to talk about it we need to include the stakeholders and we need to have participation um from more than just people in this room and I know it was last minute

149I'm not blaming anybody it's just I love this community it is the way it is but in order to move forward it needs to be different this time and I agree with you Mr all right last comment we'll move on Rob okay the work session we have the the work session for discussion on it all right Vanessa's got it under control she has it already 6.6 here coming up uh information here first reading stuff is a policy there 413 507 66.5 721 and 722 information on it is there discussion questions on any of the issues those policies yes ma'am andette um in the I sent an email today to regarding six which one was that I sent the email on um and the word Community is not defined so when they're using the word Community

150let me go back to my email quick can see what I sent um but when they use the word community in different aspects I'd like to see a definition because as community just the school district or is it are stakeholders in the school district is Does it include um teachers that live outside the district I mean so I'd like to know what community what what is defined as Community I think this might have to do with the district advisory committee which is supposed to consist of 2/3 community members okay is that kind of your question okay yep y yeah and so Brandon I know that um sorry for putting you on the spot but I've always thought it was part of a particular policy but after we researched a lot of those policies I think

151it's in a different policy do you remember what that policy is by chance I don't think that we're bringing that particular policy tonight I don't think that's the one she's talking about oh is there a different one that you're talking about or we haven't gotten 616s here that's right because we're still reviewing that yeah yeah thank you so the ones that are listed here any questions concerns about first reading on these policies right here next meeting we'll have a vote on it Pam yeah so my question um I'd like to have a further discussion maybe a work session maybe around the 66.5 with the Library resources I think that could I think we could really get in there and and do some um day and around and really talk about what that really means and

152how do we really attain what we think we need to have in the libraries and if that even you know does it connect up with the curriculum committee or does it not or anyway um I know there's been a lot of work that's been done by some community members and some questions are being asked so I think it would be due diligence for us to really kind of dive into that a little bit maybe during a work session if we could do that okay you make a note on that Vanessa then we'll have a discussion yep sure so if everybody would on 66.5 please read that policy get understanding of the uh of the uh Media Center information yeah so we have fully understand how that operates and that is a um a big ticket

153uh discussion and if I could just briefly real quickly um so the it has to do with with um people being able to challenge book materials in the media centers uh and so it's a national you know kind of movement you know there are a lot of requests to remove books and um the School Board Association just issued a model policy uh which is the one that we just talked about the 66.5 policy it's based on the mba's template just to let you know the timeline uh we received um the template on October 19th of course it was right in the middle of uh the referendum effort uh Brandon and I reviewed it on November 2nd and made some subtle changes uh and then it went to the policy committee on December 11th we received

154the the template of a form the very next day and then of course it's presented for first reading so it's been kind of frustrating I think for Brandon and me because we were ready to tackle it you know last summer but we just got the model policy in October uh and so I don't know how Amy and Jill feel about talking about it in a work session or if you'd rather kind of send it back to the policy committee or what your thoughts are yep uh before I go any further I will say though that it's been a hot item out there about book Manning and MBA seminar I went to August 7th of 2023 they talked about it it's a big publication here so they were gathering information and sure enough with October you

155finally got the policy so it's been this is a legal guide here on the legal side of what to do for book Banning or questioning policies procedures on pulling books out of a library or Media Center so it's been around for quite a while to be worked on and now it's finally all coming together for us which I I'm I'm a I like that what is what does our citizens parents have to do if they want to question a book de so I think typically when we've had questions on policy the feedbacks come to the policy committee and then we we look at the feedback and make a recommendation com the for don't I don't remember us ever going into a work session to discuss a policy and for the work session to to do

156work on a policy that's typically done with Brandon and the policy committee so I'm not in favor of it going to a work session and I agree what you're saying yet this one just a Hot Topic and it's so hot we have discussion and that the committee run with and we wish this one to delay maybe a little long time to get her done but it is a hot subject so let's have discussion and then let the committee you're on that committee right you and Amy yeah I'm on the committee so then let you all after you get our input from us and then bring your committee yes ma'am this has gone through the committee process we've had discussion on it I'm not in favor of putting this through we can have discussion here tonight

157at the first reading and we can even have it again at the second reading that's what they're for but to also have a work session on policy that's gone through the process of this school district which this has gone through I think that's I just because it's a Hot Topic okay well there's they going to come across lots of hot topics but I'll say it again we this went through policy now we're going through the procedure now it happens here now for the public to hear the public to see first reading discussion that's why we said is there a discussion you can pull it up I'm willing to answer questions Brandon's willing to answer questions tonight and you even have until next month or until next meeting anybody has questions you can call me me

158you can call Jill you can call Brandon you can call Carston and ask us or you do it in public I love it here because when the public hears exactly what we're debating but I'm not in any way favor of saying oh just because it's a Hot Topic we're gonna send it back we're gonna have a work session on it but that's what we're doing here now we can have discussion on it and then it is a Hot Topic I don't call it book Banning I call it making sure that we have appropriate level material for appropriate ages and we had a parent here last meeting that had concerns the sooner we can get this figured out and the sooner they can I mean I don't think we need a policy so that carsten can

159deal with library books I think he could deal with it right I would hope that you could deal with it today but this does help him so that it's set up so that and the public knows that this is what we're going to do if the public has a question on a book this is the procedure going to follow and sooner or later if there's disagreement it comes to the school board and we will make that decision of a book that you that they may or may not if I could give you a quick update there was um uh I you know I'm not a big fan of removing books from libraries but sometimes I I think it's appropriate and so uh there were some books removed from a fourth grade classroom because they were

160rated for kids fifth grade and above so those were removed uh at least temporarily maybe permanently uh and then Elementary principal did notice a a book that a second grader had that um you know was was not appropriate for a second grader so we made that change as well so we're doing some things um I'd promised to um Community or three community members that I would read uh one book this is last summer 600 pages I finally finished it I think on Christmas Eve as I'm going to Montana um and um you know I can see where some people would feel uncomfortable about the content uh but you know I still think it's appropriate for high school kids but maybe not middle school kids and um I'm I'm hesitant about making a change there U

161because as soon as I make that decision um you know it could lead to dozens or hundreds of questions about different materials and so that's why I'm taking kind of a cautious approach and um you know trying to go through the process and figure out some criteria so that we have something to go on so anyway that's kind of a but I did make some adjustments based on you know kind of feedback that I've heard from parents so I take and void my concern yet when the committee speaks I'm also flexible enough if you sell me on it I can go what the committee said whatever committee it may be on so if you two had a good argument there and I can I go along with your argument there you know I will I'm

162f for the change we hand up first am go ahead and if the board isn't ready to discuss it this week and isn't ready in two weeks to discuss it this one could be tabled and be and be discussed at the first meeting in February or the second meeting in February I mean we don't have to approve it immediately we could say we still want to have discussion on it and table it okay yes my whole goal is to um give Mr Anderson and the principles some guidance on where we go because it is very it is out to the public right now there is concern and I think the more clear we are at this table and the more direction we can give Mr Anderson um I think it's important that we give him

163that and I had a question on some of the books that I think Mr Anderson's aware of and you know because I've had contact with individuals and if it ends up at this board table I will give my um my thought process as to where they are and what they are and if they should or shouldn't be I will wait the process out but um I do think he needs something to be able to go okay so we have our reading tonight first reading we have a second reading coming up I read through it understand it Nate yep so I read through it uh I understand it I think we absolutely need to have this policy because it not only um gives our superintendent our principles a method for this but it gives our community

164a method and a process if they do have issues so it's not just superintendent having to to read books constantly and make a decision there's a there's a committee my only question when I reviewed it was that it talks about a library materials Review Committee but we do not have that committee listed as a Schoolboard committee but there is a requirement for school board member so I just wanted to make sure if that you know are we going to wait till it's approved and then make an amendment toward Schoolboard committee and make that decision or what that's going to look like that was my question to push back to the policy commit anyone here want to volunteer to be on that committee right now and we look ahead or we' probably want the policy to

165get approved first because we may or may not include a board member on the you know I'm not saying one way or the other but I think we'd decide that part first and then we could ask for a volunteer take that yeah okay any questions further on discussion here good second reading just have more discussion good point n one more I have to look at that in there does it have the committee members does it have it listed is that what you saw he does I'm trying to do my recollection of just what we put through in the recommendation and why it was one member of the School District administration one principal two teachers and immediate speci and immediate specialist but yet you saw in the red line that there was members and board members

166is that what you saw or is that the recommendation I'm trying to think annual basis the be a librar mats Review Committee one member of the school district admin one principal two teachers I read it wrong I read ad but if that's that could be a topic of conversation I agree with Mr star that if that's something the board desires this is our policy committee think about it maybe something you want to think about it now it could be a standing committee that someone rep placed up and it would then be called up only when needed I think we had a considerable discussion on composition and we intentionally left the school board off that committee um so I think if that was a recommendation that the board wanted to discuss I think it would need

167to go back through policy because we had a considerable discussion on how this committee would be comprised oh and that and some of it is I'm sorry the posting and the Brandon can you give a recollection of what all the reasons why we discussed of not putting it on because this discussion was during policy correct sorry I'm correct the open meeting line and just being efficient and being able to um make a good Thal decision in time man that was discussed and that's why we didn't place I was not recommended I honestly just read it wrong I was thinking school cour when I saw Administration on all right well we know we have to have some uh work on it discussion second goal round we'll have discussion again and then we'll vote year and N

168for it sounds good all right we'll move on uh admin report Mr superintendent my computer died and so I'm going to need to borrow somebody's computer here all right I'll make it real real quick hopefully the huskys are beating the uh the Wolverines tonight uh football game right yeah uh you can see the um information about the feminine feminine hygiene products that have been installed according to State Statute uh the location of T15 uh is a step further because the Planning Commission did support uh an interm permit for the district to use the the Oakland building uh towards the high school but there are a lot of more steps to go so in that area we got we've talking expend the parking lot possibly and other what what are we looking for the city to

169give us approval on yeah this we have to have those discussions to see exactly what they would expect for the parking lot and what we want to do with the parking lot uh and there's some other issues too that we have to to figure out uh the biggest issue is whether they would give a longlasting permit or if it would just be an interim for so many years uh and so we have to really look at that very carefully okay uh Mr Meyer has been working with this team on a revised budget and uh in addition to that he's working on a 5-year projection so you know he's only been in the district for four months but um you know he's making really good progress in terms of understanding our budget uh coming up with

170a proposal for revised budget for this year and those extra five years it'll adjust a lot with time but I know they're making very good project ress and then great news on Transportation routing software um and actually uh Ron suggested that we slow down the process because Peggy and I were ready to adopt a particular software package uh but because we slowed down we are able to to discover a relatively new package that gives us a lot more flexibility uh the transition will happen a lot faster because of Open Source mapping uh and we expect that we will be able to run the two systems concurrently uh this spring perhaps in April uh so that we are ready to go for next year uh and it's going to be a significant improvement over what we

171are currently doing so that's great news Peggy and I are very excited about that that's all I have unless you have some questions questions Pam I'm good I'm good thanks okay anyone else questions concerns issues if none then we'll move on to action items we have here just a few just uh number one consideration to accept 2022 2023 audit financial statement is there motion to accept Thank you Pam did second yeah thank you Pam discussion if no discussion [Music] Jill hi hi SAR is I Pam hi Amy hi R Rob and and okay 71 approved 70 70 everyone everyone said yes oh I yeah yeah yeah 70 I'm my paper is 7.1 go 7.1 for the consideration I I read that 7.1 7.2 immediate discharge of a teacher motion to accept Su thank you Jill

172second second Amy thank you discussion if no discussion Nate hi Anette hi Rob hi Amy hi Pam I Jill I star I 70 I like that 72 go because I graduated in 72 here at St Francis that's how old I am all right up giv meetings you see that on there any consideration issu you want to put on there topics again between myself superintendent give us a call we'll get you on there Rob has a question Rob I've asked a couple times so just about what um coaches so days when there's no custodial staff in there we are not allowed to use the building I'm not sure why there is an issue or why that can't be changed yeah we can add that actually in early February as Workshop topic okay so it it' be

173um use of facilities just say use of facilities okay anyone else right now okay uh School Board claric Amy are we um putting the lobby conversation at the work session on February 12 correct correct all right School Board member reports Pam I don't have anything to report thank you thank you good to see you Pam thanks guys Amy had the policy committing tonight and we're Ted we're went over some policies and they'll be coming forth at a future board okay Rob um looking forward to the msba conference later this week um somebody's going to get recognized so look forward to that that would be Amy Kelly that would be Amy Kelly um and then just a shout out to the pep B that was at the last girls basketball game they sounded amazing just amazing

174I mean how many kids were there and how they sounded um and then a shout out to my girls basketball team who played tonight that I couldn't be there but they nice good all right so maybe it's stay and that's I just wanted to go over some of the gifts that we received um we received quite a few so I just wanted to make mention of home um from the St Francis Elementary AP we received $416 43 cents to be used as needed American Family mutual insurance companies $65 for as needed again we received more funds from the St Francis Elementary AP for 9,299 to be used as needed Cedar East Buckle Lions Club 150 for school needs needs Charities Aid Foundation $70 for school needs Northland screw $5,000 for two $2500 student scholarships and

175St Patrick's women's group circle of clada $200 clothes gift cards hygiene items um for supplies for the carrying closet very generous um gifts that we were provided to be used um towards the uh school district and again a follow up on on on a net there do we send tank cards back to all these folks when they donate something the schools do and they're the building administrators or the secretaries do and they mark it off on the point they do something or the activities director depending on what it is anything else no Nate um was able to attend the show choir's pre concert before they start competing both Middle School and High School absolutely an awesome group of students and talented encourag when they do their post show for anyone to go and participate in

176that it's a lot of fun and you'll leave smiling and then the other thing in between meetings we've been tending a lot of negotiation sessions with teachers excited for the close session tonight to do some more discussion as I don't have anything all I have is the Union uh work on a big veterans program or Veterans Memorial here in Oak Grove and our class over here the welding class got a shout out here St Francis High School students in the manufacturing class cut out the steel Soldier Silhouettes and so they're doing the work here to put these two soldiers here male female soldier at the memorial which would now we set our date this morning for June 27th will be our Memorial dedic vaction date and so look ahead it's here in Oak bro it's

177the heck of a project these two soldiers here marine and army uh specialist five these are two St Francis graduates who went to the Army in ' 67 went to Vietnam in ' 68 they were neighbors uh lesy was killed on February 3rd 68 and Peter was killed on 9 February 68 so six days apart two of our high school graduates were killed and we're now finally doing memorial for these two individuals here in Old gr now St Francis manufacturing they doing a lot of our metal Workforce which could be on that Memorial out there so thank you much for high school Golding shop okay uh one other thing I have here I made a note to myself and I talked to a lot of our folks here uh AA Quail is putting a class

178on called trap chaos in the classroom Angie Bray Johnson Oak Gro city council woman she put a blurp out that joinan and Sheila will be Schoolboard members from St Francis and Noah Hanan I have no idea who the Sheila is I have no idea who Angie Bri is a lot of folks said they're not going they haven't heard about it so if you hear anything about it give me a call or Community people call you I have no idea what's going on but it was put out that we're going to this meeting and as far as I know we don't have anybody going know it so if you go no problem it just we don't want four people to show up but the problem was it was put out on not on the internet that

179we're going and nobody knows about this program from this Sheila coel orala whatever her name is I have no idea who she is yep Amy I received an invitation today via email I unfortunately I would like to go I'm always interested in opening up to find out what is going out in the community so I won't be able to attend I'll be working but if a board member does attend they could give an update on what the information yeah bring back there's no what's going on but just to make sure there's not more than four board members that correct at the meeting or not more than three or not more than three correct okay so three can go and no one's going to you can go I PL board members if they do go but

180just make sure there's no yeah it's also on Ms I just found that out today it's on msba uh first day the 11 so all right anything else for go to the meeting if not we do have a closed meeting what we're going to do is take a 5 minute break for this meeting now 906 has been shut down 5 minutes come on back for close [Music] session