001Let's go ahead and start. I think we're expecting a couple more people. Um Stephanie may join us online and I know DJ is expecting to show up. So, we will when he joins us, he can join us, but we'll go ahead and start the meeting. [snorts] Up first, we have personnel and benefits. Jason, thank you for joining us. And we have a social media policy draft to take a look at. >> You bet. I'll start off uh good morning everyone. I I'll start off just [clears throat] for an update on our implementation of the Minnesota paid family leave and then I'll ask Carla to join us when we're discussing the other policy on social media. But just kind of a quick update for the board. Um you guys may be aware, may not, but as
002of uh January 1st, it's a new state law that will be putting in place um paid family leave and medical leave for all staff, anyone who earns more than I think about $3,900 in a year for an employer. And it provides for um up to 12 weeks for an individual's medical condition and up to 12 weeks for, you know, family leave, bonding, uh care for family members. Uh up to a max of of 20 weeks total for an individual. Um we're getting letters. Uh the law requires us to notify each employee. We're doing that. We're getting the letters and posters that'll be up in by Janu uh December 1st. Um, we're going to be using a um an equivalent plan by the that'll be administered by the company that manages our LTD benefits. So hopefully
003we have kind of a a coordination of effort there. We also think it'll be hopefully a little bit of a quicker turnaround both for employees and the employer. Um, from what we hear, there's the state has hired like 17 claims adjusters to adjudicate the entire state of Minnesota. And so, uh, we think we'll have a little better turnaround time through a private plan. >> So, uh, we're just going to be monitor, you know, working on that to get that out to date and and answer questions, direct people to the deed website, the state agency charged with that. Um, and and then just monitoring the impacts of that. We we think it may have an impact on on attendance. Um but you know it's that is counterbalanced by the additional benefit that's for our employees and
004for all employees in Minnesota. So that's just a quick update. Just wanted to see check in and see what questions any of you had. Not that's okay. >> Right. Move on to the next topic if you're okay with that. want to come on up Carla. So yeah, I mean the what we've got in front of you here today as a first reading I think we have to go through three meet uh readings on our policy new policies here but it is a um social media policy and some guidelines as well and Carl I don't know if you can kind of give a little bit of the history of where that all came from. Um, I was asked to develop something. There was something actually in the works several years ago when I started in 2016.
005Never went anywhere. And then Kelly asked me, "Do we have anything?" And I said, "I [cough and clears throat] do." >> But it's um based, it's been reworked since I first initially did it. It's based on um Moreheads had a really good policy at that, but I looked at like I don't know, there was probably seven different, you know, I kept going back to other schools They've obviously had social media policies for years, guidelines for years. Um, and it was brought though just I think really the need was uh employees posting during their um work times and is there you know trying to address that issue as well. >> Yeah. And I'd say a lot of the stuff in here is is I think a lot of people would see it as as common sense,
006but sometimes, as you know, common sense isn't all that common. And it also gives us something from an administrative standpoint to kind of hang our hat on and just say, you know, uh these are the these are the rules we need to play by the boundaries that we need to to live within. Um not any particular instance that has brought this up. It's just we felt it's time to get it in front of the board and get something like this in place. couple couple questions. Um does this affect any other policies that we have? >> It really should be working with policies we already have. So, um like technology policies I believe and um >> the copyrights uh schoolboard policy on intimidation and bullying, >> bullying relationships with between staff and students like not blurring
007that line because social media like if you have a team >> a team page, a sports page and you know or anything just not bluring that line between >> and cell phone policy. Does it I think we have something in cell phone where we have uh no camera or no cell phone uh supposed to be no cell phones in bathrooms. Correct. >> Yeah. Bathroom. >> Yeah. Locker rooms >> specifically address that. But it does address also like hey if you're say you're a teacher and you take a picture of your students you shouldn't be posting that online. >> Yeah. >> Um a lot of students have an opt out. A lot of parents have opted their students out as well and we have a list of that but it's just yeah >> what if it's
008um taken like in the school you know it's a group of kids that were in choir or >> on their I'm sorry on their personal pages they should be >> they can still post on their school yeah you know or school Facebook pages and that kind of >> I mean if they have I suppose if they would have permission but it's just kind of a yeah there's a blurry line there. Okay. >> So, you're not just going to let anyone that works at the school post on the school's Facebook? >> No, we have admins for that. >> Okay. >> And yeah, there's specific people set up at each school >> that administer their page. So, this would be like their personal account. Like I know years ago when I was on Twitter, there there was
009a person, this isn't any anyone here, this is somebody who lived in South Dakota. She worked at a daycare and she was posting pictures of her little kids that she watched at daycare. [snorts] You can't be doing that. >> It's just not something you should do personally. >> Yeah. >> And then one other uh point that I have u wherever it said post in that new policy. Can we add two additional words to post? Can we add repost or share? That way people understand, okay, I didn't post this. I shared it. Well, no, no, you posted it. Um, let's eliminate that maybe problem and just think about think about think about that. Jason, >> don't even think about it. Just do it. >> Is that okay? >> What's the big deal? It's the same thing.
010What? Repost or share? It'sbody same. >> I mean, it's the same thing. >> Yeah. >> Posting something is re-sharing. Posting >> cover your book. >> It's good feedback. Thank you. We'll work that in. >> Okay. So, >> um, so I have a couple questions also. So, as I read the as I read the policy, um, it was pretty, it was kind of gray area to me about private postings or personal postings. Um, can you clarify that >> private as meaning your individual as an individual? >> I mean, as an not on a district page. I wonder if we should we should specify that. I mean, because when I read this, it says employees may not post images on any social media network of students or co-workers. Should we say personal or >> on your personal
011page? >> On a personal page or >> and then only district. >> Yeah. Or or even [clears throat] >> district admin or [cough] what the exact language is, but >> yeah. a thought. >> Yeah. So, there's a clear [clears throat] line between what's personal and what's >> And maybe even an example to play off of Michelle, [clears throat] uh, throw an example in there. For example, >> you know, uh, >> yeah, >> if a person >> I just I just think >> person does this on this on the school district page or if they do it on their own personal, you know, I I don't, you know. >> Yeah, >> I like that. I just think it needs to be really clear that um you know personal versus district um postings are separate, >> right?
012And and I think you know >> the other thing >> Sorry, go ahead. >> The other question I had is um has has the lawyer looked at this or have we asked MSBA if it if it's uh um appropriate? >> No, the lawyer has not looked at it. Yeah, it's a policy from what through MSBA and these varying school districts. >> Their own policy, you say. So, um they don't have a lot of feedback on it. >> That's why we some other districts. >> No one uses no one uses social media anyways, right? MBA wasting time on something like that. We only got 700. You wouldn't want to have one on something like this, >> but we can certainly run it by our attorney just to give it a good look over as well. >>
013It's just getting in front of your eyes. >> Yeah. Good question. >> None of this is unusual. >> If you were a nurse at the hospital, you wouldn't be able to just pop things on. >> The stuff that happened at work today. I mean, it's like >> think the police did it. Nice to see this one I got last night. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> It's like it's not this isn't unusual. >> Is there [snorts] a benefit to um having this go to John? I don't know how quickly he can turn it around before we have it on the actual board agenda. Was it gone for next week? >> Yeah, >> be nice. >> We got planned. >> Why do we have >> three readings? Three months. >> Yeah, I think we're I mean we we
014reviewed this with with Ryan and the rest of our administrative team and we didn't see any kind of glaring bright lines like we got to get this reviewed. But we it's always good practice and I think we've got some time to of course correct. >> Okay. Anything else? >> Good feedback. Thank you so much. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Yes. >> Get out of here to do that. >> Stephanie, are you [clears throat] >> I see that you've joined us, Director Ed. >> Yes. >> Oh, wonderful. Um, if you are with us, I apologize, but you'll have to have your camera on. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Well, she doesn't really need to vote. >> Yeah, that's true. >> That's true. >> So, you're all right. >> Yeah, that's fine. >> Okay. >> Yeah.
015I don't know if that's true. >> I'm not sure. >> All right. Well, we can do that. >> It's just a workshop. >> All right. So we will move on to our budget discussion. The first thing we have in this discussion is the community survey draft. >> Is it there? [snorts] >> Yeah, I didn't see any. >> It is now. >> Is it? >> So um as we were preparing to determine what we want to do with moving down the road on our budget discussion, we thought we should try and get a quick snapshot from the public. And that's all this is is really a litm test. And we we didn't create this on our own. We stole it from other districts and so forth. But if you look at it quickly, um the idea
016is to find out what would be the pulse from the community. >> Huh? >> That's this. >> No, it's >> it's an actual survey that would go out. >> It's not. Okay. >> And so it's got um starts out with do you live in the Brain Public Schools? Uh district boundaries. Do you have children in our schools? which best describes your relationship with the district and then some priorities that we would want to find out. For example, which are the areas of the district's work do you value the most? And we want them to rank rank those. [clears throat] Um, next one is funding priorities. In your opinion, which of the following should be the should the district prioritize for funding purposes? And that's a rank vote. And the the whole purpose though is just
017to get a snapshot of what the public might be thinking as we move down this road. Um it's something that can turn over quickly so we can have at least a database of and a idea of what the public feels especially those who are directly involved with our schools with their kids. Not meant to be a scientific one. It's just meant to get a quick snapshot. I like this idea. I like that it's a little more generalized. Um, and that it's quick. Would this be something we put on like the district website or >> we use parent square? >> Square. >> Yeah. Put it on our website. And the idea would be to get a quick turnaround so we can just find a pulse. How would we I I love that we're getting it out
018to parents, but I'd also love if it was out in the community as well in some >> It would be when it's on our website. >> Okay. >> It's not just directed to parents. >> Yeah. I just want to make sure. Don't feel like they missed an opportunity. >> Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. mentioned that we can pay a minimal fee for >> toatch >> their weekly newsletter or whatever. >> Yeah, there you go. >> Good. >> Can you see it? >> Okay. >> No, I know they're trying to fix that. >> One's from me, but I can't >> Okay. Yeah, we can't see it. So, they can't. >> It's not. >> Okay. Sneaky. [clears throat] >> It should be what? >> Okay. >> Yep. It's there. >> Wow. >> I didn't know you couldn't see
019it. [laughter] >> Yeah. We You're listening though. >> Yeah. Now, this is simple and concise. >> How many I didn't bring my I forgot my computer. How many uh questions are there? >> Uh there's three sections. Um the next page unless you fill it out. >> Five questions. Cool. >> Able to >> six. >> Yeah. >> Pretty quick. >> Good. >> Yeah. This will be on the agenda. Does this even need to be an agenda item? [clears throat] >> This is something the school's doing, I think. >> Yeah. >> Y decision. >> Love it. >> Okay. Great. >> All right. Next. Um, strategic plan. >> Okay. All right. Good morning. Good morning. So, I'm here um representing our our team uh to bring forward a potential tool to help with decision- making as we move
020forward with the budgeting process. Uh this came out of uh when we had our twoperson meetings uh a few weeks ago after some of those conversations. Sarah had shared um a a slide deck with some decision- making options. Um but then we t talked about connecting it to the strategic plan. So how do each of the items on our list align do not align with the strategic plan? So based on that that slide deck that was shared conversations um um we created a a rubric or a matrix whatever word you want to use of to help with the decision-m process. So just to look at a couple of items [clears throat] uh starting with the uh matrix itself. Let me see that a little bit bigger. So this is just a a sample of a
021draft. And so for example, um one of the items that we're we're coming back to today is the discussion around middle school activities. So that is in the far left column. That's the possible reduction and then uh the approximate budget savings based on that that item. Then um the next column column three that is the identified strategic plan goal area. So we had four areas um increasing student achievement, student and staff safety, fiscal responsibility, and student and staff well-being. And then the bottom uh item, community support, um put a little asterk next to that. that's not directly connected to the strategic plan, but that's been a a topic of conversation at the table of having community support um as as part of our decision-making process. So then across the top um the options are the
022alignment. So it's a zero to five scale. So, if I look at the possible reduction middle school activities moving to community ed, and then I'm going to look at how well does that align with our goal area of increasing student achievement. And I would give it a zero, a one, a two, three, four, or five across that that row. And then I would do the same thing with student and staff safety. So, the reason the strategic plan is is linked um those are those those broad categories, but our strategic plan dug into some of the details a little bit more. So, that's just there as a reference document. [clears throat] So, on uh page 14 of the strategic plan, I'm going to hop to that. That gives the the overview of the strategic plan recommendations.
023So again, um, looking at, for example, goal area number one, increasing, uh, student achievement, there were some items listed underneath that that digs in a little bit more about what that means. And then the same for item two, three, and four. And then beyond that um it also moves into identifying some of the action steps or the digging into the plan a little bit more and what measurements we would look for for that for that area. So for example thinking student achievement again uh that starts on page 19. So in goal area uh student achievement we identified or the the school board identified priorities. So for example priority one was increasing student achievement in reading and then there were some action items measures of success. Goal area priority number two increasing student academic achievement in
024math. Some action steps measures of success. And then priority three was uh providing high school students with authentic learning experiences aligned to their career and or passion. So those were those three priority areas under that broader CA category of student achievement. So then going back to the decision making, thinking about again our three priorities for student achievement based on the strategic plan, reading, math, and college and career readiness, I would say. So then looking at my reduction, how does that align to to those categories? That's the intent of this of this option. So, we would look at each item individually. You you could fill out this rubric for each of those items that come to you for consideration. And then, uh there's a a scoring page. So, I would put my score for each of
025those categories. I have my total as the individual. And then there's space for for notes or if you have questions or things, additional considerations. and then we can use that as as part of our potential decision making process to help navigate that conver conversation. So, it's just a potential tool um that that could be for you to use if that's something that would be helpful to to guide your conversation rather than just, you know, having the yes or no. It's it might help to to dig into that a little bit more. So, is this something the school board would use or is this something the leadership team would use? >> The school board. [snorts] >> The school board. >> I think this is you. >> This [laughter] is >> Yeah, I don't think we're going
026to use it. >> I mean, you you guys know all the ins and outs of all the different kinds of um potential programs that we might have to cut. I just I mean I think >> you don't want us doing it. [snorts] >> Sure she does. >> Well, here's the here's the deal then. You're Are you telling us whatever we bring forward, you're going to approve? >> No. >> Then you should be involved in the scoring [snorts] of the value of what we bring forward. >> Yeah, that's my opinion. >> All right. Well, [laughter] you you have an opinion. I get to have one, too. So, it's all right. You can have different opinions. Um, well, I don't know how anyone could ever say that whatever plan you bring us, we're going to be 100%
027behind. I mean, I don't know. Maybe maybe maybe it'll be maybe maybe I don't know, but I haven't seen a plan. So, it's hard to say yes, I'm for it before you bring it, but I would certainly support you. I would think I would think most of it would be fine. I mean, what if you said you're going to close all the elementary schools? Would I supposed to say yes on that? I think I'd have to be a no. So, that there you go. You know, it's like it's kind of a it's a tough one, Peter. >> Yeah, I know. Yeah, I'm behind you. >> But [snorts] I think the important part though is we need to know what you value as you look through this rubric of does this fall in line with this
028the strategic plan? Yes or no? Of what that document is supposed to support. >> Is the strategic [clears throat] plan like set in stone? Isn't the strategic plans? Aren't they supposed to move all the time? Because we did it three years ago now and it hasn't had any adjustments to it. So it just stay 23 to 28. It's supposed to be >> that's how it is >> plan >> cuz I'm looking at these things we're going to do and you know these literacy scores and stuff and our math scores are slipping and then I look at our how we're going to fix it and looks like we should probably make some adjustments to me looking through here whatever I can do this when are we going to do this >> I don't know this afternoon
029>> that's what the discussion is for [laughter] >> why can't why can't both groups do it >> well we could I think We have to be really careful here though. Um there's recommendations and then there's the drivers. Okay. You guys are the are the decision makers and the question is going to be are you expecting us to bring forward the things that we think fit into whatever the plan might be and either you're going to say yes or no. And you know to kind of cut to the chase then [clears throat] I guess my question really is for the board is on the original document we did with potential reduction ideas and so forth and then we colorcoded them and we did all that work. Are there items on that list right now that you
030say absolutely no? Because if there are we should know that so we don't waste our time going after those. >> We just filled one out. No, that was just Well, it's not consensus though, Randy. It's not a consensus. What what I'm talking about is, for example, if we're going to look, we'll just stick with middle school activities. If you feel that's an absolute no, we can't then let's quit bird dog in that. Okay, I'll give you example. So yesterday we met with um Josh and Jack and the concept [clears throat] of what we originally started out with we thought okay we can just move everything over to community ed was much more complex than that first of all fifth grade is more intural. Sixth grade becomes more um activity against others and then seventh and
031eighth grade is full competitive against other schools and that the dollars then change dramatically but all the dollars are all based on personnel for the most part. Travel a little bit and then you try to weigh the pros and the cons of do we want kids to be active? Yes. Can community ed manage a 58 program? probably not right away because that takes time to set up. And when we first the last board meeting, you know, we asked you for a charge two things activities for 58 look at the high school thing. Um that was 5 to one to do the charge. But as we dig into this, we have to have a commitment. Do you want that on the table or not? If you don't want on the table, that doesn't bother us. Take
032it off. And you because you say we don't want to take out activities at the middle school and move them over to community yet because it's >> it's either going to be too impactful and it's not going to be enough to make a difference or is it going to drive kids away because they don't have the competitive edge that we thought they were going to have that we want to have? Because as you know, seventh and eighth grade, those are the feeder programs for 912. So it goes from either what it is or it goes more to a kind of an interural thing and then see if the associations in the community are going to pick up the difference of competition. >> I'm just wondering if it's fair that we get this this um possibility
033move middle school activities to community ed, but we don't have the benefit of those other discussions. [clears throat] um and and yet we're still supposed to make a decision based on this. Th this just seems really um not the best use of our time. I guess I would prefer that the school, the administrative team who really understands the impacts of all these possible reductions brings that to us. I mean, one of the questions we were asked is, do we approve of reducing busing outside of the district? >> I don't even know what that means. Well, and my thought was, how many kids are we picking up outside of the district that are open enrolling into our district? If we reduce busing, what kind of impact does that have on our student enrollment? So, it this
034is this is complicated. And >> what would be wrong? What what just straighten me out, which I'm sure you will, is um what what would be wrong if let's just say that you came up with a plan. I understand you're kind of whatever the absolutely nos that makes perfect sense. Don't waste your time on it. >> Yeah. >> But >> the here's my question. What would be wrong if you guys came up with a plan >> and you brought it to us and there's 20 different reductions on there and everybody was perfectly fine with 16 of them and there's four of them that hey we got to make a different plan on these four. Wouldn't that help a lot? Be 75% done. >> Well, that's kind of what we presented already on that colored bar.
035>> It's really not. I mean, if you're asking me to vote whether I want to close uh building A, B, C, or D, I don't even know what the hell they are. So, how am I supposed to go with that? I don't understand what that is. It makes no sense to me. >> So, during the meeting, we said those are the lowest enrollment elementaryaries. And >> fine, I know I was at the meeting, but I mean, >> and I think [clears throat] not all of them have not everything on that list has the same impact. And so even being able to organize them by this, you know, this h is the furthest away from the student starting at the top and the least amount of impact all the way down to our recommendation would be
036to not touch these if we don't have to. I think, you know, we're we're not the experts in the room on any of that. And for myself, and I can only speak for myself, I I support the expertise that would make these recommendations. They're they're not anything any of us want to do. Um, a lot, you know, a lot of things on the list are are painful and I don't want to make those in a vacuum. I don't I don't want to when we've got experts that know what kind of impact that's going to make, I think we should lean on that. Can I just say so I think the reason why we went down this route is because every time that something new has been brought up here we've tried to address it. You
037know we want to see how it's prioritized. So we did that with the color coding and then you had brought up like it would be nice to have a decision matrix. So we're so we're just trying to get to a point where we can start getting some answers because we have a list. We we have ideas. We've [clears throat] presented them. >> So do you want to go through every item on your list and we all vote on it? Well, we've tried we've tried that. I mean, we've we went through the list. >> We tried that. What have we done that? >> When we [clears throat] did two on two, we went through the list, tried to get feedback. Some said what they cared for, what they didn't. But if that's what today, like if
038you want to go through the list and we go through and say this is what everyone feels and we're not going to move forward, that would be awesome. We're just trying to get to a point where we can have an idea of what you guys would support. So to clarify, if I were to look at that list, it's ordered from top to bottom. Here's top. These are the least impactful to bottom. These are the most impactful. And we that would be your recommendation. Like the the reductions on that list, if we were to say move that forward, we're good with it. >> We prioritized by the color was timeline. We need to have a, you know, a timeline on those ones that are like, we should have done this yesterday. [clears throat] >> But all
039of those things have been ideas generated from the team, right? They're not >> Yeah. My concern is that we're >> we got so much data and we got so many damn ideas come flying at us that I don't even know where to begin to be honest with you now. Um I'm kind of a a gut feeling type guy as well, but yeah, I like data. Um, I think sometimes we get too much data and then we just [clears throat] >> you're looking and >> like a deer in headlights. So, >> I like to get moving. >> I have Ry's, John's, and Stephanie's response to the things that we listed. >> I filled mine out this morning. >> I filled my >> Was it a day late and a dollar short? >> Well, you did. No
040one called me and told me it was in there. I'm sorry. I go home at 5:30 last night. What do you want me to do? >> But I'll just because that's the only ones I had on right away. I'll [clears throat] just tell you for example on building A was no maybe and yes if it's Westby um building B all no building C all no building D all no so if three out of the six are saying no on closing buildings let's take it off the books >> but no one knows what buildings they are Peter >> you're not you're calling them ABC D who does >> the lowest enrollment buildings in our entry. >> Well, that isn't enough for me. >> Do you know that you know who they are? >> Are you okay?
041Stop. >> Which one's it? >> Harrison, Garfield, and L. >> Doesn't matter. >> Yeah, it does. Doesn't mean >> Well, then you that's the direction you should give us is if it's >> Harrison. The answer is no. If >> but let's just go for a little bit of clarity. All right. Mhm. It [clears throat] really started out with four buildings, but we already know there's an inefficiency in operations for Harrison, Garfield, and L purely on population of students. In 2018, there was a promise from that board to keep neighborhood schools. Okay? I don't [clears throat] know what the populations were at that time and it doesn't matter right now but today matters. So the question is are you willing to allow those neighborhood schools to still operate even though their populations are shrinking and are
042you willing to wait to see does become a critical point at some time down the road that we will have to make a difference in one of those four schools. This was a kind of a outsider because it's way to the north and that probably doesn't fit into the picture, but the other three do. And they're averaging about 225 to 240 kids. You've got Riverside almost at 480 and you got Baxter almost at 500. Mhm. >> So in this concept, the idea is if you're looking for efficiency and saving dollars, are you willing to close any elementary school that is significantly lower in population than the other ones? If you're not, that's fine. But then let's get it off the let's get it off the board so that we >> put fifth grade back in
043those schools. >> You can't because it doesn't fit in all the buildings. >> What do you mean? >> Some of them aren't big enough. >> They're not big enough. They don't have enough room. How many are >> One or two. >> But can you see our confusion when we're asked to [clears throat] vote on that, but we don't really know. >> Let me let me just Can I clarify one thing quick? Yes. Go. >> So, what you're telling us is that we got a school built for 425. We have 225 kids in there, >> but we don't have room to put fifth grade in there. And so, how are we supposed to explain this to the public? How are you going to explain it to me? because it doesn't make any sense to me. I
044I mean, I'm sorry. I don't know. John, do you get it? Uh I I I I don't understand. You got 200 empty seats in the school and we we probably have what 50 60 fth graders per school kind of sort of. But what do you got 450 fifth graders? 400 fifth graders. Is that right? >> The six schools. I mean, am I thinking right on this? We're like 70 kids a school and we got 200 empty seats and we don't have room. Where do you where do you get the 200 empty seats? >> Right here. >> 185. >> I I asked for enrollment uh final enrollment uh uh for May of 2025. And just for example, and this based on blueprint 181 numbers, okay, building wise, not what the population of the school was, but
045we're going to build these schools and this is how many available seats we're going to have. I mean, even Baxter, the available seats is 625 and we've got an enrollment at the end of 25 at 512. Riverside 625 available seats. School enrollment 405. Now, that may have gone up a little bit. These are numbers from the end of 25. So, I mean, there's empty seats out there. And if if we're saying that there's one classroom that's got two kids in it, well, we're full. Well, that makes no sense either. >> Randy, go through the low. The ones we're talking about LOL, Garfield, >> uh Garfield is that available seats under blueprint 181 was 425 and we have a school enrollment at the end of 25 of 248. So, we have 177 empty seats. Low uh
046with an enrollment at the end of 25 of 357. So, we have 118 empty seats. Uh Harrison is at 375 available seats and school enrollment is 232 availability of 143 as far as empty seats. These are numbers provided by the school district. They're not mine. >> They're not mine. I didn't make them up. >> And you have to remember those were when they were being built, right? That's what they were being built at. But then we actually got in the buildings and we're using them. And that's kind of why also Peter has said go walk the buildings because then you can see how it's actually being used. Right. So, in other words, we didn't follow blueprint 181. >> Not saying that, Randy. I'm I'm saying walk through the buildings because maybe there's a different sped
047population now than there was in that year. I I I'm just >> And that's where I'm going because, you know, some people will say, "Well, our school building is full and we've got a couple classrooms that have two kids in >> because they're in specialized programming." >> Is that efficient use of of of space? >> We don't have a lot of choice in some of that, Randy. It's not always >> for the significant disability of the student and what they need, >> you know, and the other thing is my question would be >> because I wasn't part of that. >> Yeah. >> Is that based on today's present seat targets >> because one of the things we've we've worked on is especially for K3 is keeping them in the upper teens and low 20s. Okay?
048We've been trying to do that, but if we're going to address that as far as space within the question about raising seat counts should be yes and not no >> and that was I mean ad that was an adamant no do not raise seat counts. I'm going to also offer this. The [clears throat] premise of moving fifth grade back to elementary schools is based on the probability of keeping enrollment from students that go from fourth grade to fifth grade and not losing them uh to surrounding districts. We've mined the data from MDE. We have about 2% of our students that go other places from fourth grade to fifth grade. So, we're making big decisions based on 2%. When we could be talking about using the available space we have for increasing early childhood programs, which
049are revenue generating, >> but we're not even selling that out now, Carrie. >> Keeping keeping fifth grade in elementaryaries is not revenue generating. It's going to cost money to be able to do that. So, if that's the priority then and you're asking for information, this is the information. It's not likely going to generate revenue. adding early childhood will generate revenue. >> But we haven't answer me this. How many seats do we have for early childhood and how many do we have full? Because what I understand we're about 50 short. So what good do you what do you >> We are 22 short and it's based on space. If we had more space, we would sell those 22 spots. >> I thought you already had the space. And how are we short then we're back? >>
050Because we did not expand to Riverside this year. If we would have expanded to Riverside, we would have had more space. Welk is full. There isn't more space to add early childhood spots. >> And that's why that's why when I was talking to Jill at at Riverside, she said, "Ah, I don't want fifth graders. I want I want I want fourth I want the four-year-olds." >> And you should want that, too. They're revenue generating. Keep kids in preschool, they stay. >> But but but for me to walk around all the schools, I've done it. I've been there. I had a meeting with the people at at uh uh uh BLC. Spent a half an hour there. I learn more in a half an hour than I would walking around schools five times or longer. I
051don't need to walk around schools. I'm not saying I shouldn't, but I don't need to walk around schools to understand what's going on. >> Okay, just to to maybe back out of this [laughter] a little bit and bring us back to the original ask was, you know, this list of do we close do we close a building? And I think, you know, my perspective on that is, are we protecting student achievement by doing that? If I look at that laundry list of things that you guys put in front of us, is is closing a building less impactful than some of the other things on the list to student achievement. That's the lens that I'm hoping our administrative team is looking at and then making a recommendation. here's what we recommend that would have the least
052amount of impact on student learning and student achievement. I I would support that. I'm not going to say, "Yeah, I'd love to close the building or heck no." Because if in your opinion that is something we can do and still preserve the student experience and student learning, I am open to that. I don't love it, but I'm open to it. I personally am not in favor of closing any buildings right now. >> Well, except for maybe this one. Would you be in favor of that? >> Um, we're talking about the the elementary schools. >> Well, no, we're talking about building A, B, C, D. >> Yeah, I don't know. >> Peter said this is one of them. >> Oh, well, >> but he said it on his list. >> Yeah, >> he's one of them.
053>> Yeah. >> I mean, why don't we I mean, would would you be adverse to that, Sarah? I I mean >> if we can make this work with like the red house and then there's we got some empty spaces around make it make sense. Another thing I've noticed and Marcy's going to kill me but whatever. We got to get this over with is I don't see any administrative cuts. And if I'm in the public watching what's going out the school district, I'm pretty disappointed when every single thing is cut is got to hurt teachers, students, all the people that are working with the kids and then the people that are at the ivory tower for I shouldn't say that, but at Wesby there's there's I don't see the cuts. I mean, I saw one clerical
054cut. So, is that at a school? Yeah, it's at a school. So, there's nothing changing for our administration. >> And I'm just gonna [clears throat] respond to that. I presented, the auditors have presented. We are administratively thin. And so, yep, there may not be admin cuts on there, but it's because we are already thin. And >> why do you think that is? You think that's because we [clears throat] we're signed up for too many other outside things and take all this paperwork that you have to hire people to do, or what? What is the deal? We have, I think, gotten by with what we've had and not there has been ads throughout the years in admin. I mean, we talk about how HR never used to be a thing. So, but we're still low. I
055we just haven't been properly staffed. And so, I got that feedback from someone who went to the chamber event, too. And I'd love to go back there and say that information. I I got the feedback that why is there no admin cuts? I I will share data that shows we are admin like we are thin on admin. So sure we can throw an admin cut on there but then how do you expect people to operate like that it takes people in Wesby to operate the district? [clears throat and cough] Well, it's >> you know great the uh some of the other information that we've got from ISD uh FA um from um Andy Rangen uh from um the combination of those you know indicate um um some other options that I don't see addressed as
056well. And one of the things I'd like to say and matter of fact in in that report in those reports um it talks about admin costs. I think five years ago were about six million and currently they're about 10 million if I'm if I remember that exactly. I don't have it in front of me but um so that's one thing I want to say. The other thing I want to say is this. Um, we have a reserve fund. Um, and some people call it a rainy day fund, whatever the state calls it, a rainy day, whatever. There's a reserve fund. And, um, I'm personally I'm in I'm in support of, uh, a lot of what the other area schools are doing, um, especially rural schools as they are in a financial crisis as well. and
057they're re they're using their reserve um to try to balance until we can figure out a fair and equitable funding formula which may be miraculous but um you know how much can we go in our reser you know like I know that uh um you know Crosby's was is down uh under 7% or about 7% reserve um and part of their uh their success in their operating levy was to uh you know try to get it back to um you know what's recommended by the state. So Marcy, how much could we go? How much could we use of a reserve um to um alle to um help with the cuts because when I look at these cuts, I look at the big numbers. If we if we're going to nickel and dime this thing, we're
058going to destroy the the whole system because we can't do it that way. We have I have to look at the big numbers. To me, that's that's less impactful than doing nickel and dime cuts. So, how much what couldn't we start with reserve and say um okay, let's get our reserve down to what is sod when you when you have to go to sod is that under five >> two and a half% so 2.5 million. >> Okay. Two two. So, we got a long ways to go till then. However, um so let me just ask you that question. What what could we do to get to use the reserve in anticipation of looking forward to maybe a um a potential operating levy uh referendum um next year. Uh you know, we got to think we
059got to think in the future. I mean, that that's what this whole thing is about. And so for now, uh, the reserve seems to me that, um, need needs to be used, uh, rather than nickel and dime or impact student and staff anymore. I'll just leave it at that. And Marcy, maybe you can help help me with that. >> John, were you listening in on my office the other day? Because that was going to be my second point was if you could tell us what's off the table. And the other question I was going to ask is what is the board willing to dip into to make a difference in the reduction. So you and I are on the same page is how much of the reserve are we willing to use to soften the
060blow? And before you answer that question [clears throat] in the strategic plan under goal number three for fiscal stability examine opportunities for capital and operation operational levies. Examine opportunities with alternative facilities funding. Examine opportunities for increasing revenue for instructional programs and co-curriculars. Provide the board and community with information learned from regarding the above mentioned opportunities. And pursue financing options as prioritized. The district has not done any of those since 2018. >> That's not true. >> We just took we just got the facility money. What are you talking about? applied for that and got that. So >> that was because we went to 1.5. >> Well, we didn't have to take that. >> That was optional, >> right? >> So we have done some of those. Well, that's one. I'm just saying we didn't >> at
061the time we didn't qualify until this. >> I understand. But I mean, we weren't members. The deal [clears throat] was we were find out maybe we shouldn't take it and it was a you know. So here I know this is a this is not going to be easy and I've told all the schools this is going to be ugly and it's going to be uncomfortable and so forth but at least two things could help us all of us. What's off the table and how far on the reserves would you be willing to go? If you can answer one or two that's helpful. >> Well we went three this year. >> We're going three this year right? [clears throat] >> Yeah. >> Yep. So we went three. So we're going to be down to 10. Well,
062and we talked about, you know, we had typically come in better because we budget conservatively. >> So, you budgeted 36. >> So, I mean, it could be less than the three. Okay. >> And that's that's something you guys have to take into consideration, too, when we talk about how much should we dip into the reserve. If we end better, that's good. But if we don't, >> then it could dip into the fund balance that much. That's I expressed my concerns about that yesterday is if we say I'm okay with going into the reserve 2 million. Um but we typically end better. So I'm going to say 3 million but but we don't end better then we are going to dip into the reserve 3 million. So you have to think about all those factors. [clears
063throat] Well, and the other thing too, Peter, I think uh hit on uh hit it right on too, is we in the past, this board has talked about um capital capital levy um you know, we we've talked about a number of other revenue generating uh ways that we haven't that we haven't pursued. Um even if it's like uh Carrie mentioned um uh um you know early childhood being a um um money raiser for us and there's other um there's other ways to look at generating uh uh dollars significant dollars to uh that we haven't used. So that in my opinion also should be part of the discussion. >> What would that be, John? >> What do you mean what would that be? Well, you just got done saying there's there's other uh avenues to generate
064large amounts of revenue. What what are they specifically? Uh, one of the things that I've proposed and and and turned into all of us is that uh we we look at uh creating a um um both for the students and for the community. Um a daycare operation at the high school as a service learning class um run by students um and and uh would would would uh would serve as a source of revenue for us. I know I put that on my list, so you you've probably seen it. >> A couple other [clears throat] things that I I want to address, too. We talked about, you know, you guys have sent information that was from chat GPT or AI, and some of that information is not accurate. Um, >> restricted funds, I suppose. Well, and
065I'm not an expert on chat GPT, but I am sitting next to one who seems to be. >> But when we looked at some of that data, it I mean, it talked about a number of principles and assistant principles that we don't have. >> I talked to Andy, asked him if he'd be willing to sit down with you, and he said he would because I told him, I said, "There's going to be things that your computer isn't realizing. We can't just move that money from that person to that person because it's restricted, >> right?" which you know it's taking me a while to figure out >> and one of the documents shared I tried to look up the source doesn't website doesn't go anywhere and then I tried to look up another source and it
066doesn't even relate to the data that was presented um another data point that was shared it it it's just not accurate um it talked about administration and it had speech pathologists in that group like that to me is not administration I'm sorry but so >> it also listed administrators we my head since >> yes2 that information you guys are sharing there has been a couple of good ideas that has come out of it but I want you to know that there's also a lot of inaccurate information in there >> yeah and and [clears throat] therein I mean you guys are the experts that's why that information was shared so that you could >> why are you coding why are we coding uh teacher prep and admin >> we are not >> well that's what those
06727 people are because I dug into it >> it's all from MD >> people are we don't have teacher prep people. Yeah. >> Well, you're coding the expense to that. That's why everything >> So, a teacher, >> that's what MDE says. That's what the state of Minnesota. That's where the stuff came from. >> So, a teacher who's coded to math >> is coded to math 100%. There is nothing coded to admin. There may be data points where they're submitting what their time prep is and that's broken out. But coding wise, they are 100% math. They're not. Well, the answer I have is that uh a [clears throat] percent of school districts have all done this. >> Not sure why. >> And if we were >> not the only school district that's all of a sudden
068put this teacher prep in admin. >> And if we were that would mean that we were wolffully under an admin then. >> Yeah. >> Because we're already under an admin. So if we're coding teacher prep there then yeah >> I'd like to get back to what Peter had said earlier. We need to decide what is important on this sheet and what's not important. Uh my fear is that we're not going to move forward very fast. We're going to slow this down and somebody's oh well we can't do that now. We can't do this now. Can we at least do that? We don't have to vote on anything, but let's give Peter an idea of what's important on this piece of paper and Marcy and the rest of the staff. At least they have an idea.
069I mean, >> so I would like to piggyback on that. I I'm okay with saying these are things that we're not willing to discuss. We don't want on the table, but okay, moving fifth grade to an elementary I just learned today that only 2% of our fifth graders leave um if they don't go to So I that so there's so many variables in all of these items. I would I can see just getting our list of things we're not willing to consider and then maybe going back to the admin team to weigh in on the rest of the items that we don't have all the information but they can give us the information. Can you give a 2%? Can you give a number of students >> instead of a percentage? >> 2% of 400 students.
070>> It doesn't matter. Okay. >> That that's I mean Jason showed me these numbers the other day. How about the ones that didn't even [snorts] go to school in kindergarten here because they were already worried about it. Does count? >> Well, >> I don't know. 48. >> I was just curious what 2% was. So, okay. >> We lose a lot because they have different prek programs than we do. >> I don't know. If if we can just >> bring it back. The the very first two items on the charge was middle school activities, high school plan. Talking with Josh and Jack, um their concern is that if we would do that and move it to community, what would the programs look like different from what they are today? If they're not going to be if
071they're going to be non-competitive outside of the community, what's that going to mean to the activities that those kids would participate in? Would we would we want the associations to take over? And what would that look like? The 420,000 that we thought we could save becomes really difficult because we weren't clear about what does fifth grade do, what does sixth grade do. We kind of know what seventh and eighth grade do. They are revenue generators, but they're also expenditures. And the concern is, and we all kind of worry about this, if we moved it, are we going to lose kids or not? I've [clears throat] had four parents tell me if there's no activities from middle school, we're going someplace else. >> Yeah. >> Oh, no question. >> And I understand that, but is how
072>> Well, let's take it off the list. I'm >> Well, I'm for that. >> That's all I want to know. >> That's [laughter] all I want to know. I think you guys have to realize that >> multiple oh multiple items on that list we could lose kids. I mean that's the whole list we could lose kids. So if that's going to be your stance is there's a potential we could lose kids then does that mean the whole list is >> out the door. That that's our struggle. >> Why is it a take it or leave it? >> Not a take it or leave it. >> Well yes it is because it's either 420,000 or it's zero. How about we restructure how the Josh is doing his deal and maybe Josh has had another job plus
073that job or maybe Jack takes a little bit of it over. We hire somebody way cheaper and so we save a hundred,000. Is there is anyone look This is what's bothering me about this. >> So that's last month you approved us >> diving deeper and that's what we're doing. We're running data. We're trying to get this is how much the program >> So we really can't make a decision on that one. >> Right. Right. so on the same page, >> but you're in support of us going further. That's the whole point is like, should we be spending time on this? Our time is precious. We need to know what we should and shouldn't be spending time on because if we do all this work, come to the table, and it's like, I don't know why
074we even brought it up. That's the whole point of this. Well, we are all one big team and if we don't work together, we're going to have problems and uh we need to start moving forward, making some decisions. >> I agree. And I think that we can support you guys with [snorts] what you what your recommendations are. You're the ones that are here every single day. You know a lot more about than we do. Um, I would like to see some, you know, when we when we already know that our cost per student on like health insurance, Jason and I have talked about it, is $2,000 a kid and the state average is $1,000 a kid and we have 6,000 kids, that's $6 million a year. Where are the reductions there? Oh, that's negotiated. Okay,
075fine. Are you going to negotiate it out or are we going to cave? What are we going to do? And there's a lot of money there that people like me anyways I have a tough time getting behind a levy knowing that Brainard schools are spending six million. You know, let's say that the staff is pitching in third. Okay, so that's $4 million a year. So we're spending $4 million a year more than our neighbors are at $400 a student. We won't even go there. That'd be 10 million, right? So, let's just say that we're spending $4 million a year extra on benefits that our competition isn't. How do we go to the public and say we need more money? Like, I have a tough time. And that those are big numbers. Like, that that right
076there solves our whole deficit for the year. It's all gone just like that. Um, are we going to lock down? What is our plan with health insurance? Are we going to say this is the end of our contributions? The increases have to be passed off. Like, I know that there's contracts we're in that won't be up until next year. That's the way we have to go forward because >> Jason, how much was our health insurance renewal? Six and a half >> percentage or >> percentage? >> Yeah. Well, that's our 10ear average. >> Okay. So, 6 and 12% and the state gave us two and a half. We're backwards. So, what are we going to cut? We going to cut things for the kids? We going to cut students or teachers? Are we going to make
077the class sizes bigger? What are we going to do? This is simple stuff. like we can't continue to do what we did back in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, I guess, because it's gotten out of control. And so, we have to make these decisions. And I don't see those on the list. I can give you a solid yes on that, right? And I'll back you up until the burn the hulls down. You know, like, you have to do that. We have to stop this problem from carrying on. Um, you you didn't do this. You didn't get us in this boat. You know, it's for sure you didn't, Peter. I didn't either, by the way. Um, but we have to face the music and we have to deal with it. >> So, what you're talking about
078is in the blue category on the list. It is on the list. We just don't have a dollar amount that we can put towards it yet. >> Um, but everything on the list is what we are currently working on. And what we're telling you is where should we focus our attention? >> And same with closing a building. Like we're not saying tell us we're we're closing a building. If you are in support of us exploring that option, we can explore it just like activity. I >> think you have to. [clears throat] >> I think you have to. Don't you? >> Okay. So just an example. So Teresa, it's not for Don't write this down as forbidden. [laughter] Get me in trouble. I'll have to move. Um let's say we're going to close an [snorts] elementary
079school. Here's going to be the process. We'll go through the demographic stuff. We'll come up with the numbers and so forth. Say, doesn't matter if it's 6:30 or 4:30, whatever. If you say, "Okay, let's do that." You're going to have to have a public hearing to take input from community [snorts] first and foremost. >> And then you're have going to say, "Well, okay, if we do this, we have to redesign the boundaries because let's say it's Harrison. whatever the boundary is for Harrison, those kids are going to get absorbed someplace else. So then you have to redesign those boundaries and then decide where are those Harrison kids going to go because there won't be a boundary for Harrison anymore. And the that's you have to get that done ASAP because once you do that the
080other parts of that start to take place is got to start figuring out transportation for that change in boundaries. Are there other ramifications in the change of boundaries that impact walking, busing, um, classroom size at wherever they're going to get melded into and then getting those other two schools prepared for those other new kids and how we going to do it equitably so that let's say there's 200 kids at Harrison just to keep it simple. You're going to want 100 and 100 to split to keep it balanced. The [clears throat] question is going to be in this and the 100 100. What happens if there's four siblings in this that should two go here and two go there to balance. You have to be careful. So the hard part about that and it happens all
081the time. Closing schools is not new to anybody in the in the state of Minnesota. You just don't say fine close it. There's a lot of process that has to take place. What are you going to do? Then you have to look at where's the staffing going to go because you don't if you're not going to raise seat counts those staff have to follow the kids. Okay. And that's going to take time for us to understand and there will be elimination of some kind of FTE. Doesn't matter if it's administrative, secretary, custodial, whatever, principal, whatever. Oh, I said administrative. So the question is going to be do you want that to happen or not for us to investigate? If you say yes, we'll investigate. >> So, we all filled [clears throat] out this spreadsheet >>
082and when it looks at closing buildings, >> it was no. >> It was all no. >> When it middle school sports, three of us said no. Two of us said maybe. >> Right. >> Um, >> are my numbers on that? >> Your yours are on here. Sarah's are not. So, um, >> I said yes to everything. I think it's all on the table. >> Okay. You said yes to everything. Okay. So, I mean, is this document worth looking at? >> That's what we're trying to figure out. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Is it valuable to all of us or is it just a gut feeling? >> Well, like I said, the building thing, the building situation is [clears throat] I there's a couple buildings I think we should close and I don't know which ones you're
083talking about, so it's tough for me to answer when it's ABCD. That's I guess maybe my fault. I didn't realize that there was a correlation that equal those schools was this was A and this was B and this was C. But I mean I think you probably know where I want to go. But >> or do you want >> I would be yes. I would be yes on building >> or do you want to wait until it's critical because of the change in population? Because I'm going to tell you this right now. In 5 years, there's going to be a lot less kids in this district than there are right now if if the trends are accurate >> because Jason brought us some really good information. This year's kindergarteners are the first group of kids
084out of CO and we're downund and some kids since co that ripples through for 13 years. The question is going to be what's next year's kindergarten group count going to be? It could be if we got lucky could hold the same. I'm guessing it's going to be less because there were less babies being born coming out of 2020. There were less babies being born 2021, 2022, 2023 because we went from 2.25 to 1.85 household births. that takes 13 years to go through unless something changes again where younger people begin having children again or they don't delay their their decisions. But right now, we don't have a stream of revenue coming in because of our increased population. It's going the other direction. The 181 had no clue that was going on. They thought we were going
085to have another thousand students in what, five years. >> Mhm. we're going the other direction. >> So, the financial stability is out the door compared to what was thought of to what we are today. So, we have to re-evaluate and um do you do it now and maybe you should do a demographic study and find out really exactly where are our kids at for the next five years? Because if we're going to be down another 150 kids over the next five years, at $15,000 a pop, >> that's a ton of money. >> Yeah, it is. >> And that is going to force closures of something. So, do you want to wait until you get more data to do that? You want to say go ahead who go ahead and dig into one and see what
086happens? Because when you close a school, it is we can talk about the data side of it. It is 100% emotional >> because you're going to have some that say, "Great, I don't live in that neighborhood anyway." And others are going to go over my dead body. >> Correct. >> Yeah. And I think we've been through that as a district. And for me, it's not it's not [clears throat] in a vacuum. It's on it's on the table because for me, if we don't do that, then then where are we restructuring? What's the tradeoff? and how does that impact student achievement in student learning? >> And I don't know that >> and I hope your team does >> and I'm relying on and will support that recommendation. >> There is going to be some significant right
087sizing that's [clears throat] going to take place. >> Well, what you're saying Pet is it's it's >> the running's on the wall. We know what's coming. >> You know, it's like the hurricane coming. Are you going to go put the plywood up on your windows? You just going to wait till you see it out the door and then start running to the hardware store, you know? So, isn't it all the time that we should be going through everything and just getting lean trying to get rid of all, you know, frivolous spending? And does it make sense to you? >> Well, of course it does. I wrote down four things I explained to these this group the other day. Uh what financial decisions can we make right now that we don't need your approval? >> Yeah.
088What activities do we need do we do that are that cost time andor energy and money that we could stop right now? >> Randy, you mentioned the other day about a hiring freeze. Maybe that's what we got to do unless it's a critical position. >> And I put down freeze all budgets. Evaluate what is critical and what we can do without starting whenever. >> Yeah. We're already talking about for having Jeff look at how you know if we lower the temps in this winter months raise the temps in the air conditioning months how much can we save our goal would be 10%. I don't know how much that is because we're still waiting for the data. But there's some things we can do right now that we we can just tell, hey, this is over.
089But the the difference is going to be some people going to say, "What happened to that?" We're not doing it anymore. You know, it's the way it goes. We're not going here. We're not going there. We're not doing that privilege. Whatever it is, we can do that. You don't have to tell us to do it. We'll just come back and say, "Here's what happened. We stopped this because >> please, >> it's frivolous." Happy days to make you go. >> Please do it. >> Yeah. So, I want you to know this isn't >> the direction you can provide us at least for saying don't go there would help with all the other things we want to accomplish. >> You got our little chart. >> Y >> um >> can we what do you want us to
090follow? That >> I I would be fine with it. I I I >> because I that would make us all exhale a little bit. >> Well, can I clarify then? So only uh items that everybody agrees no on are the ones that we shouldn't talk about. Or is it a majority of board members that agree on that we shouldn't? >> It's just a more majority. >> I think it should be the majority. Yeah. >> Okay. Cuz that makes our life easier. >> Yeah. I I know for sure for me that those buildings that I put no no on I'm Yes. Yes. On a couple of them. >> Uh you you put maybe. I think. >> But I put maybe. That's because I don't know what buildings there. >> You put nothing. >> Yeah. It's a
091neighborhood elementary. I'm not liking it. >> Yeah. >> Oh, you're thinking about >> I'm thinking more like this building some stuff that we can maybe be on doesn't affect as many people. >> Did you guys have on that form how much fund balance you're comfortable going into or is that a >> that wasn't on there? We can put it on there. >> That's that's where we need to start in my opinion is how much money can can we >> No, >> that's No, I'm I'm talking about today's discussion. Can't we decide what we're comfortable with and using the reserve so that we know this is what's left to figure out? Marcy, that's what I hear you saying, Marcy, and I think she's absolutely correct is, you know, as a board, how much are you willing
092to go into the reserve and then figure out what we need to do from there? And the other thing is I want to say is everything you know like somebody already said everything that we do is going to be impactful and we continue to keep talking about losing the number of students. I know that there I know that there are staff that have and are going to leave depending upon what happens. um a and recruitment. Recruitment and retention is another problem is another issue that I think that um that we're going to have no matter no matter what what we decide here. So, it's not just about dollars and cents. It's about losing students, losing staff, kind of ret recruit, retain staff. It's a long-term kind of deal in my opinion, including revenue generating as
093as uh Carrie Rosa suggested and looking at those options. So, so what so I I from this board members perspective, I'm in favor of using the the reserve for the whole deficit from my from my perspective. Um and and then and then go from there. [clears throat] Marcy, tell them. >> I was going to say, so if everybody could fill that out, that would be great because >> Well, the deal is you predicted our deficit for next year is going to be five half million dollars. >> So, John, we got 10 million. You want to spend five and a half? >> It's not solving. >> You would spend five million of our 10 million reserve >> next year, >> right? You mean not? You mean you mean right now? >> No, next year. We're spending
094three million this year. Three and a half. Yep. >> Then Marcy's estimate for next year is five and a half million. So we have 10. So we'd spend 55% of it. Then we would be 2 million from bankruptcy or whatever you call it. SO >> so I feel like an [laughter] I feel like an so if it happens >> I'm not I don't want my name. [laughter] I'm not signing on that deal. >> Is there a second to that motion? >> No. [laughter] >> Good thing we're not >> I think we could go a million. I think I think you know you should set the goal at zero. I >> mean it's kind of like >> yes >> you know I mean that should be your goal and then if it's like boy it's really
095be pretty painful to get there. We got to spend a million and half our reserves then I guess we can do it >> you know but I don't think we should start out saying that we want to be at >> John we're not going to solve any of our budget problems. I mean for sustainability into the future you can't keep digging into a reserve. We've got to we're remodeling our house and we got cracked foundation. We need to fix the foundation in my opinion and if we have to go into our reserves a little bit um for it but not that should be the last thing we do. We need to structurally in my opinion get our budget in order >> and I agree sustainability. >> I I I to I totally agree. What I
096keep hearing is nobody talk or thinking about uh future revenues with levy opportunities or revenue generating opportunities. All we're talking about is cut cut cut. We've also got to take a um we also have to have the realization of yes, we need to to generate more revenue. And there's not going to be a you know, I I I I emailed some legislators yesterday saying, why don't we just take all of the money that's spent in education totally with every school district and divide it by by 333 and each school get whatever they come up with? That'd be a fair That'd be a fair formula, a fair funding formula. Well, you know what? That's never going to happen. We all know that. But my point is um we we don't have a fair funding formula. Um
097we do have opportunities to um try to raise revenue um with with the voters's help. And all we keep talking about is cutting cutting cutting without talking about okay part of our plan needs to be um some revenue generating. So I agree with you Randy. if I'm gonna if if I don't have the money to do to do my um uh foundation work, then I'm gonna go have to take out a a equity loan from the bank or whatever. I mean, >> we've got a lot of loans, John, >> big ones. >> And I do think this is a land, right? There's there's items of consequence that are on the table >> that are urgent and important that we need to address. And this is just step one. I mean, and whatever we decide on
098as that package of what the budget looks like, it's not like it's done. We can still come back and make adjustments, add things to it, delete as we learn more, but having a a something um to react to and work off of gives a is step one. And then step two is long term. How do we figure out long term how we stabilize our finances? And that includes, and DJ, you spoke to this and I agree with it, some sort of task force, budget task force that is tasked with, you know, maybe it's looking at enrollment and where where are kids going? How how can we retain them? Just a study on that. Maybe it's somebody who's doing operational audits. um you know within that task force helping us continue to keep the focus on
099being efficient and effective so that when we get to this position next year because we will we'll have to do a budget next year as well. It's it's not this monumental lift that it's some of that is already spelled out for us. But the task for today is we have to figure out because time is of the essence and some of these decisions are going to slip away from us if we don't make some here shortly. What are some of those major things we can do right now to set ourselves up for success for this upcoming budget? >> So to expedite this so we can get to the end of the agenda because you have another meeting coming up. I heard you say if it's three, if the majority is no, move on. Correct >>
100for right now. >> What was that? >> What was it? >> You could talk us into it. >> Switch some votes. I mean, you could >> John, I said information >> just to help expedite where we're at >> on the list of where if there's a majority of nos, don't go there. >> Move on. >> Yeah. >> And if there's a majority of yes, >> take aim at that. And if there's a maybe included with a yes, that doesn't eliminate it. >> Right. Right. >> Is that good enough? >> Yep. I think so. >> Yep. >> I'm just going to add a caveat to that. If there's something on the list that the administrative team thinks would be a real cost savings and we didn't have enough information to make our decision. Sure. I would
101like you to Okay. >> How do you feel? Good. >> Okay. >> Yeah. The other thing I think that is that that that list the other thing I think that list points out is that most of us want to protect the elementary >> um especially class sizes and and EAS and things and such. That's that's that's a priority for I keep hearing that's a priority from from my colleagues or whatever. The one more question I would have is as we talk about closing an elementary or whatever, what would be the possibility of uh trying to legislate a change in you Peter, you talked about school boundaries, what would be the possibility of changing the school boundary up in Niswah so that becomes the Pqua Lake school district and um then um uh you know uh
102then the rest of the school then the rest of the boundary is you know what we currently have. What's that possibility? >> What's the >> I didn't quite follow what you were >> want to kick the kids from Niswah to Peekquat. >> You want to annex Nisa into Lakes? >> Yeah. Change that school boundary. I think you have to do it legislatively, but what you know, is that a possibility? >> In my experience, >> why would you want to give up all that revenue? >> It's a very long process. >> Yeah. Holy moly. You'd have to propose a bill that would need to go through the legislation in the next session and then it would probably wouldn't if it was approved it wouldn't happen until 2728. And my question would be why would you want
103to forfeit a that community school? >> I I I wouldn't I'm just trying to brainstorm. >> Are you okay, [laughter] John? Tell it however you want. Hey, you even heard Stephanie on that one. >> We got a we got a direction to go. Okay, we appreciate that. >> All right, remember one thing, okay, is I've said this before. 81% of our expenses are payroll and benefits, >> right? >> You've got to pay attention to that. We can't just thing in the public, >> right? We got to kind of get right sided. We're just got a little off. Maybe it's too much vacation. It's whatever. You know, we talk about healthcare. All these different things. That's up to you. We don't need to talk about it. You know what I think. But it's not competitive. It's
104not competitive with our surrounding districts and it's not competitive with private industry. And you have to get more competitive because you're right. Peter's right. We're going to keep losing students. And if we get ourselves straightened out, which we have time because we have reserves, we can stomach some of this for a while. Um we'll be in a lot better shape in a few years when if this birth rate thing continues. The crazy part about it was there was of course Crosby's and Crowing Colony. So it's Pqua. There was like 650 first last year. You saw. >> Yeah. You got peek. >> Yeah. Peek. [clears throat] You got a >> Well, we're growing. We're just growing the wrong way. >> You got to remember >> get older. >> Yeah. >> Those those births that you referred
105to doesn't mean they're all in Crowing County, though. >> They're just born in Crowing County, >> right? >> So, they could have been from Cass County. They could have been, you know, the border lines >> because we got the biggest >> facility for hospitalization. >> Cass County. What's that? >> There's no hospital in Cass County. So >> people come here. >> I'm not kidding. >> There's not. >> Doesn't locker have a hospital. >> Kid got a clinic. >> That's why Staples. >> So I think also we want to add a line item. How much of the reserve we would be willing to tack into to help you guys? Um, >> you might not have to answer that right now, >> but as we keep moving forward, >> okay, >> we're going to come back in
106the next work session and say, "Here's what we know. >> This is what what do you want to do?" >> Okay? >> Because I think right now to tell us 2 million, 3 million, 52 is more emotional than factual. >> We should be shooting for zero. We should try to get zero. We've we've been deficit spending for three years. >> Every single year on the board is deficit spending. So the state, don't forget, we have a policy of we have 10% reserve and we're right there after this year, right? The state has the recommendation of 30%. >> So we're 20 million in the ditch from what the state would like to see. So let's say the state's crazy. So what do we want to be at? 15 20%. You know, look at this shutdown with
107the feds right now. Think if the state were shut down and they weren't sending us any money, how long can Marcy fake payroll? That's what that's for. That's the idea with that. So, we can't pretend like that's just funny money and someday we'll get it back. How are we going to get it back? We need to have a few years where we have excess money so we can stuff it away for a rainy day. >> Marcia, do we know the uh compensatory aid? Because it says on this sheet here was going to be based upon October 1, 2025 student count. Do we know what that amount is yet? >> So, it says October 1, but we do the submission as of October 1. reports don't come out until like December. >> Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. So,
108it's just the numbers based on October one. >> You got it. >> And the state is >> working on that. >> Yeah. >> Does anybody Oh, just one more. Does anybody have um information of how many Minnesota school districts went for an operating levy? >> 74. >> 76. >> How many got [clears throat] one? I think >> 53% >> 76 voted in >> depends upon if depends upon if they were metro or rural >> metro districts did well. Rural districts didn't do as well. >> Okay. >> And there was 96 there was 96 ballot questions from 70ome districts. >> Did Minneapolis pass there? St. Paul had one. Did >> I thought Minneapolis didn't have one? St. Paul was 6535 vote. >> Yes. >> Four. Minneapolis didn't have one >> and they need one. >> 75
109million in debt. >> That's a chunk change to them. >> I know because there's a [laughter] lot of people. >> It's a lot of people. I I get it. >> All right. Okay. >> Um All right. >> So I This is really difficult stuff, you guys. I appreciate there's a lot of emotion [clears throat] involved here. There's a there's a lot of people knocking on the doors and sending emails and um I appreciate that we're a team in this working on it together for the good of the students and and I love that this team at this table has come together around this. So, thank you for stepping up, stepping in and being attentive. Um, when we get back together, it sounds like you, your team would be willing to present a recommendation for where
110we are at right now and the things that we could restructure. >> And it sounds like the group at this table is is willing to support what that is based on your professional expertise. >> Um, >> do you want an update of what we're talking about with the high school >> or not? >> Right now. right now. >> Yeah. So, we've had one meeting with the high school admin um and we've talked um a wide range of possibilities. What we're asking them to work on currently is we've given them a dollar amount um that would be um the target for reductions. How would that look like in their current seven period day or would it be more effective and more efficient? um to go to a sixth period day, how would that impact um graduation?
111How would that impact electives? Uh all of the things that we've heard talked about in this room uh are things that we've asked them to put a finer point on and more detail on. Um we've talked about class sizes and minimum class sizes in order to run a course. Uh all of those things. Um and then ask them to define what the non-negotiables are. What are the things that we have to um continue to uh find a way to embed in our course schedule based on those items that have been listed in the strategic plan? >> So, we're Christina and I are meeting with the admin at um um DHS weekly. Um and then do you want to just talk about the data that we've gathered so far? >> Yeah. So we um [laughter] so
112the the first set of data we pulled um for the team to look at is current course enrollments for every class that's offered first and second semester to look at class sizes and where students are um enrolling in classes. We've looked at uh number of students enrolled in online classes, number of students enrolled as PSO, number of students that have an open hour, and the number of students that have a service center. So, that was kind of a broad broad data that we started the conversation with the high school team. And then um at our last meeting, we're going to have them look at by grade level, how many what number of students are actually taking seven classes during a semester. So, you know, thinking of the impact of if we did move to a
113sixth period day, how many students would that impact that are truly taking advantage of that uh opportunity to take seven classes, not not a study center, not an open hour and things like that. So, we're going to get that data, too. Um, so we'll have all that for our next uh meeting with that team. >> Good information. >> Thanks you guys. All right. [snorts] Um, we are going to adjourn the work session and we have a special meeting with Barb. >> I just want to say something about I wanted BLC on here. >> Oh, absolutely. >> The reason I wanted it on here is not to talk about the program. Uh, I think the program is fantastic. Um, [clears throat] I was invited to their uh to their meeting a staff meeting and I think
114I mentioned this. I found it very valuable. Uh, I've uh asked Jim at U Harrison uh he is going to send me information on their uh continuous improvement meeting. Um, and he said yes, we would like you to attend. I guess what I'm asking Peter is to let the principles know. I know they've a lot there's been a lot of emails going to board members and uh you know come on in and visit the school and da da da da da da da da. I'm just speaking for myself personally. I've been in all the schools before. What I'm asking for is is if if they want to extend an invite to any staff meetings or any continuous site improvement meetings. I think it's more valuable for the board to go to maybe a an hour
115meeting and we're going to get a ton of of good information than walking around. I mean, I'm not saying don't walk around if you want to. I've just I've done it. I've been there. I would much rather sit down and and uh cuz Jessica, I mean, they were very open and they shared a lot of information and I think it's great. So, if you could put the word out to the principles, um, hey, you know, let let the board members know if you have a continuous, uh, improvement meeting or just a staff meeting. Uh, I would I would much rather go to those. >> Okay. >> Just me personally. >> Thanks, Randy. [clears throat] >> Yeah, thanks. >> Um, all right. Well, we are going to adjourn the work session. Barb Dorne is going to
116join us at 10:15 and we'll restart um that meeting at 10:15 then.