001It is [clears throat] >> Ryan, you good? >> I'm good. >> Okay. It is 9:00 a.m. We will call this meeting to order and we'll start with roll call. >> Michelle Breen >> here. >> DJ Downinger. >> Stephanie Edman >> here. >> Randy Hidman >> here. >> Sarah Spear >> here. >> Don Ward >> here. >> Thank you. All right. We'll do the pledge of allegiance, please. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] >> All right. This meeting of the Brainard School Board is being conducted in accordance with Minnesota statutes 13D.02. This meeting is being recorded. Access to the recording is available on the school district's YouTube channel. I
002will look for a motion to approve the agenda as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> We've got a motion by Director Hidman and a second by Director Ward. Any discussion? >> If not, we will do a roll call on the approval of the agenda. PJ Doninger, >> yes. >> Stephanie Edman, >> yes. >> Randy Hidman, >> yes. >> Sarah Spear, >> yes. >> John Ward, >> yes. >> Shel Breen, >> yes. >> Thank you. >> All right. Public input. Due to this being a special board meeting, there will be no public input allowed during the meeting. we will move on to the one item we have for action which is um the approval to offer an early retirement incentive to eligible certified staff. And we'll talk a little bit about this, but the the
003reason for the urgency on this is just so that we could [music] get this out to staff so that they can make their decisions um in a timely fashion. And we've got Director Olsen joining us. Thank you. >> You bet. Thank you. Well, before you hear today is a um memorandum of understanding between the district and the education Minnesota brainer, the teachers regarding an early retirement incentive. There's uh early retirement language and currently in our collective bargaining agreement. This would be in addition to that and and really our our hope and goal is that through that pro this process we'd be able to you know recapture some salary and benefit savings either through you know turnover of staff and being able to hire replacements at at less of a salary or if we have any
004positions that are eliminated that are you know part of this group uh as part of our overall you know kind of transfer and reassignment process for the next school year for staffing. So, we've got uh 26 individuals on the list that we've uh managed to work through with EM and um just be happy to entertain any questions y'all might have. >> What did you say? You have a what 6 >> 20? We have 26 individuals. >> Oh, so 26 is how how many are eligible? >> Yes. >> Who are eligible? Okay. in for this early retirement incentive, we have I think close to 70 um teachers on staff who meet the requirements in the collective bargaining agreement of, you know, age 55 and 15 years of service. So, this could potentially there could be more,
005right? That's another one of the reasons that we want to get this out sooner is to have a a target date for these to be turned in by I think January 15th or 16th. January 16th so that we understand from this group of teachers how many you know are in this bucket and then on February 1 that's the retirement notification date for the other uh staff members who would qualify for the overall retirement incentive and so that's that's kind of part of the urgency or why this is being brought forward now. Um you know for other groups we're still looking at at that in terms of if it makes sense to offer um an incentive. I mean, it's always kind of the the balance between trying to um look at some financial incentives in terms
006of being able to turn over your workforce a little bit, but then also um the reality of will we be able to backfill uh vacancies that end up being created. So, this was this conversation was the result of many many many hours of conversation about balancing those those two needs. So, is it like a two-phase process here? >> This first group who qualifies at this level and then [clears throat] determining if you're going to extend it or >> Well, I mean, that's always a consideration for us. But, uh, in terms of that two-phase, really looking at February 1st, the retirement notice date that's in the collective bargaining agreement for anyone who qualifies under the the normal rules in the in the CBA, >> the normal rules of retirement. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> And we
007have to have a minimum amount of participation. >> Yeah. We have identified 20 um, you know, as a as a minimum for this group. >> Why is that? um really from the incentive or the the concept of trying to make this uh a viable financial move for the district. >> Yeah. >> I noticed uh the speech and language was kind of carved out of what's what's with that? Why why isn't it just why is speech language separate? >> Sure. That that was really one of our greatest challenges was looking at um people who have that speech language certification. um that is probably the hardest to fill um position type that we have in the district and we have some speech language positions that have been posted since the spring and and are still unfilled. So,
008um really trying to create some creative incentives there with we we believe there's a couple uh who are interested and would would like to retire and would, you know, retire regardless, but others who are maybe on the fence. So, we wanted to create an an additional incentive for those who are certified in speech language to to stay long enough so that we can, you know, fill these positions over time versus, you know, like trying to replace four speech language [clears throat] um certified people right now. >> So, if they take early retirement, do we owe them any other benefits after them taking early retirement? Yeah, it's it's identified in theouou that um individuals in this group would would receive all the benefits that are in the collective bargaining agreement. This is an additional incentive. >>
009Gotcha. So, at minimum, it's going to cost us 600,000 >> cost us. Oh. Um yeah, in terms of the uh obligation >> the obligations. >> Mhm. >> Got 20 people 25,000 and two people at 50,000. >> Mhm. [clears throat] >> Okay. So, Okay. Cool. So what's the possible savings? >> Well, I mean that's to be determined based on Yeah. I mean we've we've >> somewhat to what? >> Sure. Sure. I mean the average uh teacher salary in this in this group of individuals is around $90,000. >> So they're mostly at the top of the scale. >> Yeah. >> Yep. And so any kind of backfill at less than that, you know, I mean we're being conservative and say maybe 20,000 uh as a turnover. Um, so that could be what you know another 500 600,000
010and and you know like well that the money doesn't you know that that doesn't net out but they're they're two different buckets of funds right our oped funds are a separate entity and not part of our general fund not part of our overall you know budget cut process for the general fund >> the uh we don't identify the actual teaching positions. Do you guys have a limit set on how many teachers you're going to take from this particular group of teachers like in social studies or English or [laughter] or is that not a concern? >> The the only um the only certification factors we placed into this group was related to the speech language folks. Gotcha. >> Yep. >> Any other questions from the group? Otherwise, we'll look for a motion. >> Thank you. Thank
011you. >> Move that we adopt the that we adopt the resolution for early onetime early retirement incentive. >> I'll second. >> All right. We've got a motion by Director Ward and a second by Director Breen. Any further discussion? >> If not, we'll do a roll call vote. >> Stephanie Edman, >> yes. >> Randyman, >> yes. Sarah Spear. >> Yes. >> John Ward. >> Yes. >> Breen. >> Yes. >> DJ Doner. >> Yes. >> That's it. That's what we had for today. So, I'll look for um a motion to adjurnn. >> So, move. >> Second. >> We've got a motion by Director Heidman and a second by Director Dondinger. Any discussion? >> If not, we'll do a roll call vote to adjourn. >> Randy Hman. >> Yes. Sarah Spear. >> Yes. >> Ward. >> Yes. >>
012Breen. >> Yes. >> Don. >> Yes. >> Thank you everyone for um jumping on this short notice meeting and being available today and wish you all happy holidays. >> Merry Christmas you guys. >> Thank you. >> Merry Christmas. >> We are adjourned. >> Awesome. >> One piece. >> Now I can go spend some money. are eligible for. >> Yay. Finally. >> Oh, no. I I I wrapped presents yesterday. You found >> I wrapped my own. >> They look like it, too. [laughter] Okay, that is it. So this gentle