001for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. This meeting of the Brainer School Board is being conducted in accordance with Minnesota statutes 13D.02. 02. This meeting is being recorded. Access to the recording is available on the school district's YouTube channel. We will entertain a motion to approve the agenda. So move. Second. We've got a motion from Director Breen and a second from Director Ward. Any discussion? If not, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I oppose. The same. Motion carries. Next up, we've got recognitions. And we've got a whole bunch of them tonight. And I don't know if we've got anyone back there that wants to come and help us out. Otherwise, we'll just take a few and hand them around. Sound good? Sure.
002All right. I'll start us off and hand your direction. Uh, congratulations to the following Harrison VFW Illustrating America Patriotic Coloring Contest winners. They were presented with awards and or certificates. At the May 13th VFW auxiliary and post meeting in grades K through two category, we had Piper where was in first grade first place. Piper's entry won first place in the grade K through two category at the district level competition. It'll be sent on to compete at the state level competition. Dale Stapleton in second grade took second place. Hannah Hubling in kindergarten took honorable mention in fourth place. And then in grades three through five category, August McGillis in third grade took third place. Corbin Ericson in third grade took honorable mention of fourth place. Congratulations to the Warrior girls softball team for winning the class
0034A 8 section championship. Congratulations to the Warrior Girl softball coach Shane Jordan on being named the section 84A coach of the year. Congratulations to the Warrior boys golf team for their section runnerup finish this season and to Brady Oseland and Aiden Dovas for qualifying for the state tournament. We'd like to welcome Jason Olsen, the new director of human resources for the district. Jason, you want to stand up so we can see who you are? Everybody. Okay. Yeah. Welcome in. [Applause] The best part about it, I'm no longer the HR director. Scattered applause. And then congratulations to the 21 Warrior track and field athletes that qualified for the state tournament in the following events. You want to read? Yep. Girls 4 by 800. Maddie Miller, Brooke Wentz, Sophia Blancc, and Anelise Baird. 4x 100 and 4x
004200. Avery Dur, Macy Castle, Kennedy Pollson, and Ava Looney. 100 um 100 meter hurdles. Natalie Smith 100 meter dash Ava Looney Discus Isabelle Plof Boy 4 by 800 Ben Stadium John Cowell Mullen Bratney and Carter Milky 4 by 100 Austin Asher Jordan Davis Travis Alrech and Kyle Peterson and 110 hurdles Kyle Peterson triple jump Ty Nelson pole vault Joe Smith, 100 meter dash, Austin Asher, and 300 meter hurdles, Preston Miller. Madam Chair, yes, there's one that didn't get on here that was just announced today and and putting off probably wouldn't be as big a recognition, but um my was selected as the Gatorade State player of the year. So from girls softball. Wow. Awesome. Thanks for adding that. Yep. All right, we'll move on to public input. A member of the public can address the
005board during this time. Comments will be limited to three minutes. Complaints or allegations against students or employees may not be discussed due to data privacy. Complaints or allegations must be submitted in writing to Superintendent Grant. The board of education and/or superintendent will not converse with guests to address the topics discussed at this time. No visuals or props will be allowed. All right. We've got quite a few today. So, we'll kick off here with Kevin Boils, please. Good evening, Superintendent Grant, esteemed board members. Um, I'm going to be honest. I'm as frustrated as I've been in six years living back in this school district, and that includes four years sitting at that table where you sit now. I never thought in this time that I would have to show up for this meeting and tell people
006to do their jobs. But that's what I'm here to do tonight. I'm here to tell seven of you to do your jobs. Mr. Grant, your job's the easiest. No, it's not. It's the hardest. You have to come up with a plan on what happens in this school district from a fiscal perspective if and when there is an operating levy or additional funding from the state or whatever that looks like. And you have to produce two plans. You have to produce one that says what happens if there is extra money. One that that states what happens if there isn't any extra money. But the public deserves and is entitled to those plans regardless of what you decide tonight as it relates to uh putting an operating levy on the ballot in November. To the other six
007of you, your job is really easy. Respect the voters's rights. Let us speak on the issue of an operating levy. I'm not here to advocate for a levy or against a levy. I'm here to advocate for the voters of this district who want a chance to make a statement about how they feel about the future of the school district one way or the other. That's a simple request. Several of you were really good at sending out pretty colorful, well-th thoughtout, well-designed marketing pieces and mailers when running for school board. And one of the phrases on those pieces that really jumped out to me was parental choice. Well, now it's time to put your mouths where your money was and give us a chance to choose because if you don't, you're going to leave the district
008in limbo and when you go in next November and you're going to look to who's going to replace Mr. Grant as your as your next permanent superintendent, I don't suspect you're going to get the greatest applicants on the planet when they have no idea what they're walking into from a funding perspective. So, a no vote, yes vote, either one is better than not letting us vote at all. Thank you very much and have a good evening. Thank you, Kevin. Next up, we have Heidi Han, please. Good evening, Chair Spear, Superintendent Grant, members of the board. Um, after almost 30 years serving in Briner public schools and after 54 years of being connected to this community, I've learned that this is a highly engaged community. What I learned from my grandparents who made Briner Lakes their
009home is that this is a place where if you get involved, the community is going to embrace you and they're going to create avenues where differences can be made. This community is unique in its engagement. When we asked for the input, they respond. In my role, when we asked about buildings, they responded. When we asked about strategic planning, they responded. When we asked about a portrait of a graduate, they responded. They are willing and actively engaged, and it's made us better for the services we provided. I worked 18 years as an administrator for Brainer Public Schools. Every year minus one, we cut. We've been cutting for almost two decades. There's a reason that over 70% of districts have an operating levy. This isn't unique to the state of Minnesota and it's definitely not unique to
010us. It is a reason again that we need our community to lean and engage and if we ask them to, they will. We need to give them that voice. One of the reasons this board chose Superintendent Grant was because of his experience with operating levies. This board asked Superintendent Grant to stay another year because of his experience and his expertise. Lean into his experience. Lean into his expertise. The job is to develop a plan. What happens if an operating levy passes? What will happen if an operating levy fails? Your job is to create that plan, not to not to decide whether our community gets to vote on that plan or not. Please get to work and create that plan for our community. Thank you. Thank you, Heidi. Next up, we have Steve Nukem, please. Superintendent
011and board members, my name is Steve Nukem. I'm one of the pastors at First Congregational United Church of Christ and the facilitator of the Lakes Area Justice Table, which is a coalition of grassroots faith organizations and civic and cultural groups. And one of the things that the Justice Table is uh profoundly committed to is public education. And we've got folks um from the various grassroots groups that sit around the table that have been attending board meetings for decades in support. And on January 19th, uh our group had been meeting and talking about how we could be more supportive of the school district. So on January 19th, 2024, we had a meeting with uh Superintendent Han um who said um and shared with us that uh in her experience of teaching that staff and teacher morale
012was at the lowest she had experienced in her career. And we were really concerned about that. So that was January 29th or January 19th. 26 days later, we raised $1,000, designed an ad, and place this in a dispatch as a halfpage ad. Just so we could very publicly say how much we appreciate the teachers and staff of the public school district. We not only put that ad in, we also sent uh individual valentines to all the department directors, the principles, and each of the board uh members. And I'm sure those of you who are on the board a year ago have that Valentine on your refrigerator to this day. That was just the beginning. That was the first um act of uh really public support we generated for the public school district. We now have
013a team um that meets with a team from the school district on a monthly basis and continues to come up with ways for us to support students and teachers and the community around public education. This is the first project we did and one of uh my colleagues from the justice table who's on your docket to speak, Pat Dixon, will talk about the most recent project that we're doing. Thank you so much for your time and for your service to the school and community. Thank you, Steve. And that's who we have next on our list. Pat Dixon, please. I had a bag of props, but I guess I can't use them, but they duplicate what you have in the bags in front of you, which I'll talk about. And I want to back up and say
014good evening with thanks to Superintendent Grant and all the directors observers gathered here and in Streamland, the Growa Heart staff, Carrie Ross and her team and Lakes Area Justice Table's public education team. You have the power to make a heart grow. Wow. Many months ago, the book Grow a Heart was discussed as a potential project focus for Lakes Area Justice Table and ISD 181. Carrie Ross asked if anyone had heard of One Book, One Community. Shared ideas evolved into the offering of a class for preK through fourth grade this year. The class, One Book, One Community, Grow a Heart. Stephanie Dere, author of the book, is a graduate of BHS, taught preschool for the district, and now works for Brainer Public Schools Foundation. She is very excited about this project. She created the flyer that's
015in your bag, content outlines for the sessions that are in your bag, wrote a midweek week motivator article, and has designed games and activities for each of the three sessions. Andrea Lond, a Peekquat music teacher, has set words from the book to the tune of Itsybitsy Spider to compose the Grow a Heart song. Funding for this free class is through grants, donations, and contributions of those involved and it's being offered through community ed. 20 children, nine parents, and 16 volunteers are signed up. You've received the Grow a Heart book and a bag containing information and some of the items that'll be used in the sessions. There's a cape, a mask, and a slap bracelet. You know, if you have a superpower, you need to have a cape, right? And the capes will be decorated as
016homework assignment uh for the first session. And then the next session, they'll parade the capes to the tune of grow a heart. There's also a tin of tiny wooden hearts, and you had a single one sitting in front of you when you came in. Uh, and the word love is engraved on them, and a small notebook, a pencil, and a heart-shaped squishy with a face. Bingo winners will receive one of the squishies when we play bingo in the second session. Hearts will be used as bingo tokens, then collected to be given away before session three. Experiences about what it's like to give away a little heart. Both what you feel and what somebody else does when they receive it uh will be recorded in little notebooks that are in there. And uh then children will
017share those in the next session. This is just a glimpse of the fun ahead. And I've talked to a number of the parents who are coming and they are so excited. Thank you, Pat. And thank you. You all have the power to grow a heart. The class is free. Growing a heart is priceless. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Bob Nestrom, please. Greetings, superintendent, esteemed board members. Uh, so good to see you. Um, I served on this board from January 2002 to October 2021. And in that time, we had a lot of decisions that we had to make. I'm also a lifetime member of this community. Um, I know the history of the district really well, and this district has always had a strong history of supporting education initiatives. I have to tell
018you that I I would not be where I am today without the education I received at Brainard High School. I came from the poor side of town and for me if I wouldn't have had strong teachers that supported me and pushed me I would have never been able to go to pharmacy school and and have the life I have today. So I want to strongly encourage you to vote um for the authorization of the levy. I know this is a hard decision for some of you. However, um I'm asking that you vote for it to allow the the voters to vote either yes or no. Give them the chance just like previous generations have because ultimately we represent the kids and we have to show a unified front in in supporting initiatives and I am
019afraid of the cuts that would be made. uh there would be major cuts if this referendum does not pass. And so please uh give that choice to the voters of this community. Thank you. Thank you, Bob. Next up, we have Ruth Nelson, please. Good evening, everyone. Um, my name is Ruth Nelson and I'm here to talk a little bit about the upcoming vote on the levy. Um, first, thank you all for your service. I was on the board for 17 years and it it's a lot of work. It's a tough job and it's a ch tough job now especially with all the decisions you have to make. But I will hope I hope that you will reconsider your initial thoughts on approving a vote for an operating levy. Let the voters decide. You spent $25,000
020I think about for a survey. You have Superintendent Grant here to help you figure out how to do a levy correctly because he has good experience. Why would you spend $25,000 on a survey survey that came back positive? The majority of the people would support some type of a levy. I'm not sure the exact amount and then not give it out to the voters. It's that's a misuse of money right there. If we just keep cutting, which you're going to have to cut more. I've followed enough and I was on the board long enough. You're going to continue to lose students. You're going to have to cut not just the ancillary stuff, but programs, sports. People don't want our school district to go downhill. So, please reconsider what you're thinking. We need a good school
021district to attract professionals and workers to our community to have a vibrant community. Um, also, one of you said something about you wouldn't support a levy unless we had 90% approval. Well, I mean, think about that. What election? What what what do you know of anybody that's received 90% of the vote? I don't think so. So, if you have a positive, which I think you had about 60%. You have a good opportunity to get some additional funding for a school district that desperately needs it. And if you're concerned that we have a lot of waste, why a few years back I was hoping someone would be here to talk about it and maybe uh director Camp or Mr. Campbell will um we had a community budget committee and it was just different local community members
022that came and looked at the budget and looked at what we could cut and what we should add. And one of the things, this is kind of off topic, but I think you need to look at is adding some additional EAS into some of those classrooms that are really struggling right now. Um and that's one of the things that could be in your plan for a referendum. So, I just really hope that you will support letting the voters decide on operating levy. Thank you. Thank you, Ruth. Up next, we have Charles Black Lance, please. Good evening. My name is Charles Blacklance. I am a community member. I have three children in our school district. I have a soon to be senior, soon to be sophomore, and a soon to be freshman. Uh I've been in
023this community for about 22 23 years. And uh to be very clear, Katherine, my wife, and I had some decisions to make when our we found out we had Olivia, our eldest, on the way. We needed to decide where we're going to go to school or have them go to school. We had some decisions whether we go small outside the area or here in Brainard. Um because of the the efforts of our community um and the history of this community building into its school districts through uh passing of referendums or uh the leadership that they chose to to run our school district. We felt that this was the best decision to make. Um, one of the reasons we also chose our children uh to stay in the Brainer Lakes area is that they are followers
024of Christ and we wanted them to be in a place where they could make a difference and build into this community as well. Um, but my point is that Katherine and I had a lot of decisions to make early on. Um, our children as part of our parenting model um are taught to make decisions. They have to make decisions about friendships. they have to make decisions about about their effort in school or athletics. Um and then most importantly they have to have make decisions sound decisions about their future also um we feel that it has been a challenge for this community um and the school district as it relates to its fiscal matters and we need to make sure that our community once again has that opportunity to decide about um what decision um you
025all make as as a school board and uh it's important that we allow them to have that decision to vote in this country is a great equalizer. It makes a difference. It crosses many different cultures, economic um guidelines and uh and crossing of different types of people. This cannot be about some community, some of the community's wealthiest people refusing to give taxpayers the opportunity to decide on an operating levy. I challenge you, you all board to to get beyond your political ties and to allow the community to decide on an whether or not they approve of an operating levy. Thank you, Charles. Up next, we have Daryl Peterson. Please. Good evening, Superintendent Grant and schoolboard members. My name is Daryl Peterson. My wife Jennifer and I moved to Baxter in 1989. Uh, thank you for
026giving the public the opportunity to speak at this uh meeting and all the meetings. I deeply appreciate the service that you give to our community, schoolboard members, Superintendent Grant, uh the teachers, the staff, everyone who's been a part of helping this district to be the excellent school district we discovered when we came here that continues to this very day. Our family came from a tiny town in the northern border of Minnesota, coming from a school district with an average of 25 students in a grade to one with an average about 5,000 or 500 in a grade. We were worried that our kids might not fit in, might not have a chance to compete and so on. We were wrong. We found out that this large school district offered so many opportunities, so many choices for
027our kids that they were able to excel in areas that they were well seated to. Our oldest daughter, Leah, excelled in band, Spanish, and AP courses. Our son, John, excelled in cross country running, and skiing and helped start the new uh boys soccer team. Sarah excelled in choir, art, and theater. They all did well in their classes. We believe they're wellprepared for living in that great big world out there beyond these doors. and being students here helped to affirm what we taught them and that was that their lives and their actions could make even just a little bit of a difference to make the world a better place. Shortly after we moved to our referendum was offered to build a new auditorium for the community. We were excited about it uh supportive of music and
028theater and school and community events and eagerly voted yes to raise our taxes in order to make that possible. It failed I think by about 30 votes and it was about 30 years before I get a chance to vote on an auditorium again. and uh not only an auditorium but the construction of muchneeded building updates. We gladly voted yes. The referendum was approved by I think a sizable majority of voters. And now we join the thousands of students, families, community members, and and central Minnesota citizens who come and enjoy the beautiful Gitchy Zebi Center uh to everyone's benefit and also the beautiful school buildings the voters supported. Over the past more 150 years, this school district has worked hard and earned the love, respect, pride, and support of this community. I'm convinced community loves this
029school district. I hope that you give this community the chance to vote to maintain the high quality of educational opportunities that have for so long marked Brainer is surely one of Northern Minnesota's flagship school districts. Please give us the opportunity to vote and make a difference. Thanks again for your service. Thank you, Darl. Up next, we have Tim Edinger. Please Members of the Brainard School Board, my name is Tim Edinger and I live in Nisa. Thank you for the opportunity to share my perspective as a community member, retired public school teacher of nearly 35 years and parent of two BHS grads. I also want to thank you for your service to the community. Since my retirement, I've kept close tabs on the day-to-day work and happenings of the school district. Two developments have brought me
030out to speak tonight. The cuts that have already been made and the school board's discussions regarding operating levy. For 30 of my 35 years as classroom teacher, I watched and listened to school districts deliberate making cuts. The notion that there is any more trimming to do at the classroom level is misguided. Any additional cuts will further directly impact our students and thus their parents. Cutting staff and therefore sections increases class size which adversely affects the ability of teachers and students to meaningfully interact. Cutting course offerings at Forest View and BHS offers students fewer opportunities to connect with their school. Both of these actions impact student and parent comfort with and support for our school district. Why do retail sales and service businesses put so much money and effort into keeping their customers comfortable? Almost all
031have very nice waiting areas with free coffee, magazines, comfy seats, TVs, and yes, often free popcorn. These businesses have learned comfortable customers are content, and content customers come back and do business again. How do making cuts to staff and course offerings make students and parents more comfortable? Right, they don't. Therefore, they exercise their options to seek education elsewhere where they feel they'll be more content. This results in fewer students in ISD 181 and less state funding. It's been a neverending cycle for 30 years. School districts don't become healthy by making cuts. The legislature should provide additional and more stable funding, but they don't. However, they give us an opportunity to go to our community and ask for help. a local operating levy. I can't see why hiring a consultant to do research on community support
032for a levy is then not followed up on when those findings indicate a levy would likely be successful. Certainly, the school board researched the consultant and hired them due to a good track record. Why not follow their advice? Some members of the board have indicated the desire to make more cuts before asking a levy question. I suggest asking the community if they will support an operating levy to allow things to continue more normally rather than making more students and parents less content. Thank you, Tim. Thank you for your time. Up next, we have Justin Bareric. Please. Okay. Good evening. After reading a summary of the May 14th work session where community results regarding a potential operating levy were reviewed, I'm concerned that this school board is divided and not operating as efficiently as our children's
033educational needs necessitate. Here's a potential compromise item for your consideration. Change the name of winter break to Christmas break as this seems like a very harmless change that could shake loose some cooperation from some of you. Here's a surgical cut that I communicated to the school district facility ground staff this morning. Change the parking lot manual light timer north of the old Baxter Elementary School to stop turning on the lights at 6 p.m. when the sun doesn't set till 9:00 p.m. Our educational system is suffering now from recent budget cuts, not years from now after we make every cut possible, resulting in a loss of more students to other districts and more stress on our valued teachers. Some of you want to have the district double down on academic focus and I fully support a
034move in that direction inclusive of the following. Scrap the half days from the school calendar. Capping the amount of classroom movie time that's allowed. One of my kids watched movies the last seven of eight days of this school year. Schoolisssued devices need to have limited time use and monitoring and blocking of content for all ages, not just 5th through 12th grade. Third graders are playing Fortnite in your classrooms. It is not the shininess of the classroom or the 2018 bond referendum that makes this quality education in the district. Rather, the quality and the number of teachers in the classroom and whether they have the tools and district support to keep children attentive and focused on learning rather than being sad or mad in the classroom. Here's an example of what should have been an entirely
035educational day that my then 10-year-old child instead had a sad, mad, and scary day. On April 25th, 2024, my fourth grade child received the following message on his schoolisssued device. I know your location and have a knife and will break your skull 20 times. Beware. Do any of you think my child was able to focus for the rest of that learning day on learning? This disruptive behaving students with repetitive behavioral issues in the classroom should not get endless bites at the apple while the rest of the classroom and the teacher suffer. I assure you that the district is losing more students funding because of well- behaved children leaving to other districts within the area than they are retaining by not effectively dealing with the disruptive children. Has anyone asked the 980 district students enrolled elsewhere
036why they aren't attending Brainard? The classroom chaos has to come to an end. 30 plus children per teacher in a classroom is not what it used to be with this classroom chaos of today's children. In summary, I'm asking all of you before this meeting concludes to identify at least one way that you're planning on compromising and moving this district forward. Thank you. All right. Up next, we have Reed Campbell, please. Good evening and uh thank you Landon Grant and school board members. My name is Reed Campbell. Um, lifelong resident of Brainer 2. I'm uh, uh, celebrating our 50th or Bob Nistrom and I are celebrating our 50th reunion as class of 1975. So, uh, we are products of this great school district as my four children are too. They all graduated from this great school
037district and and very proud of uh, you know, the education that we received and that my kids received. So, we want that con to continue. Um, and again, so I'm here uh talking about the levy referendum and and uh getting your support to put that up for a vote. Uh, very important. Uh, I'm not prepared with that budget talk that maybe Ruth thought I would have, but but anyhow, I was around when we had that first rounds of cut. I remember superintendent Rididlo spending days and weeks and months down in the war room. it was called making cuts and cutting programs and teachers and staff. It was just very very hard to take and and watching the district go down like that on cutting that kind of programs and things like that. So do not
038want to see that happen again. So again, my short and sweet is just again put the uh vote up to the public. I've always been impressed with what this community has has done to support the the school district and uh keep that going. let them let them do the voting on it. So again, thank you for the time. Thank you, Reed. Up next, we have Katherine Black Lance, please. That's okay. Hello, Director Spear and directors. Um, my name is Katherine Blackance and I am a mother and in the and a community member in the district. Um, as my husband shared a little bit ago, we have three children in Brainer High School now. Our um, our youngest is graduating into the high school, so we're excited about that. And he shared a little bit about
039our path in making a decision to come here to Brainer. We both were actually products of small schools um, coming from out of the area. And so the big school seemed a little scary, right? But um, we were so drawn in by at that time the teachers and the principal at Baxter Elementary. and we have never looked back in that decision. We've been so thankful for um the education our children have had. Not only the teachers that have been really dedicated to helping them, they've had some teachers that have really empowered them in different ways. Um the rigorous courses is part of the reason we stayed, you know, we chose Brainard and we've been really pleased with that. And of course, some of the extracurricular um activities and they've thrived here at Brainard. We're so
040thankful for that opportunity. Um, with several of you running your campaign on parents choice, I am asking you to allow the parents and the community to have this choice and to vote on the levy, the operating levy. Um, my question is why wouldn't you? You know, this community has always been so supportive of our education and of this district. And so I just want to ask you that that this not be about political grandstanding that this is really about supporting our children and it's about the future of our community and future of taxpayers, right? The the children that are going to be our future in Brainer. So just asking you to allow the community to vote. Thank you, Catherine. Up next we have Amy Ao, please. Good evening, Chair Spear, members of the board, and
041Superintendent Grant. My name is Amy Ao, and I'm a proud Brainer graduate, parent of two Brainer graduates, and a Brainer educator. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm here tonight to urge you to vote in favor of putting an operating levy on the ballot. not to decide the levy's outcome, but simply to let our community have a voice in the decision. Our schools are the heart of our community. When we face funding shortfalls, it doesn't just impact test scores. It impacts students access to support services, extracurriculars, class sizes, mental health resources, and the stability of the staff who work tirelessly every day to support our children. These are not small things. They are the foundation of a healthy functioning school system. The board hired a company to survey survey a portion of the community
042in order to guide them in making a decision regarding whether or not they bring a levy to the voters. The results of this survey and the recommendation of the company was to move forward with the levy. Why pay a company to advise the board if the board is not going to move forward with the recommendations? This decision isn't about politics. It's about democracy. If the board chooses not to place the operating levy on the ballot, the community is denied the right to weigh in on something that affects every student, every family, and every staff member in our district. Let the voters decide. Give the community the chance to stand up for our schools. I ask you to trust the people you were elected to represent and vote to put the levy on the ballot. Thank
043you for your service to our district and to our community. And thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. Thank you, Amy. Up next, we have Melissa Schmeck, please. All right. Good evening. I'm here as both a teacher and parent, and I'm speaking for many staff who care deeply about our district's future. Tonight, I'm asking for one thing genuinely and hopefully that you listen. We all want what's best for our students. Right now, our educators are facing huge challenges that make it increasingly difficult to give students the support that they need to thrive. Over the years, we've seen key support slowly taken away, particularly educational assistance. What began as reduced hours in second grade eventually became complete removal from regular ed classrooms, including those with our youngest learners. We shared our concerns at every step.
044We weren't trying to be negative. We're trying to protect what helps students succeed. Today, many of our elementary classrooms have 25 to 30 students and just one adult responsible for everything. Teaching all subjects, managing behavior and emotions, supporting social growth, and staying positive for families. All with fewer resources and rising expectations than ever before. Years ago, we raised red flags. We said that removing classroom support would lead to lower achievement and more behavior challenges. We said that without adequate curriculum and intervention tools, more students would slip through the cracks. We said teacher burnout would grow if things didn't change. All of those things are happening. And now some are discussing cutting electives. These are not extras. For many kids, they're the reason school feels meaningful. If we remove those opportunities, we risk losing even more
045families. Some are discussing cuts to our mental health professionals and programs. This comes at a time when we know that student mental health is one of the most critical issues we face. These professionals help students manage anxiety, trauma, behavior, and emotional well-being. If we remove them, the work falls to teachers who are already stretched thin. And the students, the ones at the heart of all of this, will feel the loss most. We know enrollment is down, test scores are struggling, morale is low, but we also know why these things are happening. and we believe they can be turned around if we commit to restoring the foundation. Strong teaching, essential resources, meaningful support. This isn't about blame, it's about solutions. Our educators from early childhood to transition plus have ideas, expertise, and passion. We know it
046works, we want to share it, and we want to be heard. We believe in this district, but without change, we are losing not only the trust of families, but the very people who show up every day to keep this district running. If a levy is what's needed to do that, then let the community decide. It should not be the board's decision to deny voters the chance to weigh in. Our families, staff, and students deserve a say in their future. So, please listen and work with us. Let's do better together because our students deserve it and so do the people who serve them every single day. Thank you. Thank you for your time and thank you for serving. Thank you, Melissa. Up next, we have Bonnie Kha. I don't know if I'm getting that right. Yes,
047I'm Bonnie K. I'm a resident of Baxter, retired special ed uh assistant director in 2008 and I love this district and I'm had quite a presentation prepared, but I most people have said what I want to say. This district is strong because of the options that we give students. It's strong because of all the supports and we start chipping away and cutting away and we are going to lose. we lose badly. And um I lived through the cuts of 2008. That was my last year as um and I was we had to make many decisions that were very hard to do. Upset lots of pe folks. But one thing that helped me get through that was that our board in 2007 went for an operating levy and they worked hard at it and we worked
048hard at it and it failed as many of them failed. Half of them fail. But what helped me get through the next year when we had to make I at least knew that the board had our backs and were looking out for us and it helped to it helped it just helped to know and I can't imagine today if I was working and you were going to make massive cuts and then um I would have to carry out some of those and it's kind of like and the board didn't even bother to ask the community about those cuts. I tell you that would be add an insult to injury. And one thing you have to think about is today we don't have the luxury. Back in the day we had many many it was not
049real many many applicants for positions. It wasn't so hard to find special ed teachers. But today it it's different. It's very competitive to find good people and retain good people. And morale is important. So for many reasons, one of the reasons is you need a very high morale staff and you need people to know that you are backing them with looking for every resource possible to make our district great. So thanks. I hope you do the right thing. Thank you, Bonnie. Next up, we have Sarah Carlson, please. Hi, my name is Sarah Carlson. I'm married to my husband, Mike, of 21 years. Um, we have three kids, two girls and a boy. They're all three sport athletes. Um, one that tacked on music just to keep us on our toes. So, we're very busy parents.
050Um, I'd like to request the Briner School Board amend our participation in all Minnesota State High School League's girls sports so that they would not be allowed to so that um we would not allow any Briner's girls sports team to participate against a team that has a biological male on it. This evening, I intend to flush out why this is absolutely necessary as it seems our state of Minnesota is unable to use common sense to understand that we need to protect our girls in girls sports. So, I'd like to start off by reading the National Institute of Health's stance on this very subject. This comes from the article entitled The Biological Basis of Sex Differences in Athletic Performance, a consensus statement for the American College of Sports Medicine. Biological sex is a primary determinant of
051athletic performance because of fundamental sex differences in anatomy and physiology dictated by sex chromosomes and sex hormones. Males are typically stronger, more powerful, and faster than women of similar age and training status. Thus, for athletic events and sports relying on endurance, muscle strength, speed, and power, males typically outperform females by 10 to 30% depending on the requirements of the event. These sex differences in performance emerge with the onset of puberty and coincide with the increase in endogenous sex steroid hormones in particular testosterone of males which increases 30fold by adulthood but remains low in females. Biological males have physical, hormonal, and biological differences when competing as a girl in a girl sports. This makes it inherently unfair, unsafe, and robs girls of future opportunities. I doubt there's anyone in this room that hasn't heard that a
052biological male from Champlain Park pitched all 42 innings during the Minnesota State softball tournament last week to lead his team to win this class 4A state championship title. Because the pitcher controls a majority of the game in the circle at every single age level, this team had a huge advantage over other girls only teams. Teams within the section 54A were robbed of the opportunity to even compete because Champlain knocked them out. Namely, Rogers eighth grade phenom pitcher Annabet Bell Wald who led her team to win state last year out of their section. She didn't even get a chance to get back because of the unfair biological advantage Champlain Park had. This is not just an isolated case for a concern that there's just just a few incidents. Take track and field. There are a known
05384 male athletes who took first place finishes from over 1,289 girls podium spots. If we're talking about the top three finishes, there over 2,000 um that placed in the top three. In 2011, there were 93 biological male state place winners, mostly overseas. 2019, this jump number jumped up to 260 63. And now here in Thank you, Sarah. Thank you. Next up, we have Charles Johnson, please. Good evening, Superintendent Grant and board members. Uh, my name is Charles Johnson. I've been a resident of the Briner School District since 1977. Our two children graduated from Brainer School with a fine, fine education. And it's no secret that Brainer School District has been one of the leading districts over those 47 47 years that I've been here time and time again. And over those 47 years, there have
054been 28 board elections where the people have spoken. The chairs you are sitting in have been filled by so many other people. people like Jan Moran, Lou Hudson, and several of those who've already spoken to you tonight. The people spoke who their leaders were to be, and the people spoke, and Brainard continued to be a fine and excellent school all the way from that time on. Also, over those years, there have been various referendums, and you've heard some of that mentioned tonight, how some of them passed wonderfully, some of them totally failed, some of them were squeakers, but the people were the ones who voted. They were allowed to be part of the magic that is Briner School District. They're part of the reason the Briner School District is such a fine and strong district,
055not only locally and regionally, but across the state. So, it is my challenge to you to honor that history that you have that you're sitting in the chair of that you honor that history and put aside any personal feelings over this subject, that subject, or any other subject. Let the voters speak because they have shown in my se 47 years here that they care and will be part of the solution. Thank you, Charles. Up next, we have Marcia Ferris, please. Greetings. My name is Marcia Ferris. I live in northeast Brainard. I am here to speak um in favor of letting the District 181 residents vote on a whether we want a levy or not. Um I certainly do. We are in a minority of districts without an operating levy. I read that in the May
05612th dispatch and 70% of school districts have one. We need to maintain class sizes which I think are already fairly large and avoid more cuts. Even though my husband and I have no children or no grandchildren in school here right now, we have three children that have come through this school district district and they're all as different as as they can be. Um they all got what they needed here, which is kind of remarkable when we look at that. Two of the three of them are in the area and taxpayers. Um they got what they needed. We want to make sure that other children get that and we're willing to pay for that. um the referendum for building upgrades and the performing arts center all passed. We need to reain a school district where people
057will be willing to move here for. It is one of the considerations when people are looking at areas to move to uh for employment or starting a business. We need good schools. Thank you, Marca. Up next, we have Michael Smith, please. My name is Michael Smith and um I've been in the community for 40 years with my wife Carol and all of you I think received a letter from uh us. our um my wife was very very concerned about this levy coming up, this referendum and uh so I just wanted to say my two bits saying I fully support your effort to have this operation levy go forward. Um I am very active in American coral directors and whenever I go to conventions they say and if I mention I'm from Brainard. Oh you're from
058Brainard. That's a wonderful school district and you know makes me feel really good but it's the truth. It is the truth. And uh the old adage goes you get what you pay for. And and I think it's up to the community to decide this is important and and if you give them the opportunity, I think they will support this and we will be a much better district because of it. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Michael. Up next, we have Josh Zabrowski. Did I get that right? Zabroski. All right. Good evening, guys. Um, I'm just here uh kind of to tell my story a little bit. Um, I'm married and I have three kids. I have a eighth grader, a second grader, and a 2-year-old. Um, so we're really good at family planning. Um,
059so basically, um, we're in it for a long time. We're going to be in this district. Um, originally, uh, if you would asked me nine years ago, had I planned to stay in this district? Um, no. I I'm not originally from the area. I came here for a job and I was very much ready to do my time and move on. Um, however, I got married and um, you know, a kid started coming in the mix and we just started questioning like, okay, if we're going to make a move, we should probably get close to doing that. And, you know, in that time I was feeling kind of defeated in the area. Um, that there was the talks of the Gitch Zbe um, being built and I didn't have much faith in it. Um, and
060at that time we were very close to saying, "Yeah, let's let's pack up and head out." Uh, we tried. Um, but then to my astonishment, the community voted for it and you know, and actually just this past weekend, I got to be Elvis and I danced with my kids on stage at the GI Zebie. Um, so it's just it's been really awesome to have family come up. I'm even in the works of trying to talk my sister uh into bringing her kids up and enjoying this community. Um, however, you know, I'm a little concerned that there's potentially a few people that are going to potentially block the voice of the community um, in order to help the schools and vote for a levy. I can accept if it doesn't pass, but I cannot accept that
061we won't even have the opportunity to vote on it. So, I just ask that you guys make that right decision and let the community vote. And and guess what? You guys still get a vote. You can vote no if you'd prefer, but just give the community a chance. Thank you. Thank you, Josh. Up next, we have Ed Shaw, please. Hello, Superintendent Grant. Uh, directors, names Ed Shaw, resident business owner in Brainer. Have two kids at Forest View. And regardless of one how one feels about a levy, pro, con, undecided, the voters need to decide. Everybody ran for office. We're for the people. We represent the people. We support the people. Well, the people want to vote. The people want a choice. Please give them that choice. There is no valid argument to not allow the
062voters to decide here. Thank you. Thank you, Ed. Up next, we have Ruby Shaw. Hi, I'm Ruby Shaw. I'm a student and of our district and I believe that voters of our district should be able to make the decisions about their children's education. Thank you. Thank you, Ruby. [Applause] Up next we have Lane Larson, please. Very tough act to follow follow. Yes. Chair Spear, Board of Education, Superintendent Grant, thank you very much for allowing me to come today. I had the privilege to serve as your superintendent of schools from 2016 to 2022 and I must say that I am so proud of the work that this district does each and every day on behalf of our children and so I thank you as well for the work that you've done. Thank you also for having
063the survey this past m this past winter where people could decide if they thought that they were able to support children their their children through an operating levy and 59% of the people came out and said that they would support that if we brought it forward to the public. As your past superintendent I'd like to share some just a little bit of information about Minnesota levies. In November 2007, Brainer Public School lost a major operating levy referendum that has affected our school district for 18 years. As I recall from the time that I was superintendent, we have cut every single year except for one during that period of time. Our budget reductions have included, but are not limited to not filling positions due to retirements and attrition. We're 19 district level administrators short of other
064school districts our size. We no longer have classroom p professionals. They've been eliminated. Elementary sections have been modified while middle school and high school reductions have have had to be have had to occur. Early interventions such as reading recovery, accelerated reader, and more have been in eliminated instead of increasing these best practices for our kids. We've had to reduce class sizes or increase class sizes and now we're looking at electives and career and tech technical education and we are also starting to use our fund balance that we have worked desperately to increase. For 18 years, we have cut and we have cut and we have cut to a point where we can cut no more without directly impacting our classrooms, our programs, our activities, and so on. This will continue to have us lose more
065children. There are 327 school districts in Minnesota. In the seven county metro area, which is the same size of school as Brainer, only four of 44 school districts do not have an additional operating levy or capital project levy authority. The per pupil operating referendum of some schools in the cities, they get $1,400 more per child than we do by not having any operating levy at all. In greater Minnesota, 115 of 197 districts have additional authority. Tonight, I encourage you, I beg you as a mother, a grandmother, and so on, please let our constituents provide the guidance this November, putting our students first. Thank you. Um, and last, we have Wade Hajokei, please. One more and I'll bring it up to you. Is that okay? promise. Thank you. Well, good evening. Um, I just wanted to
066update you guys. Um, Lincoln Education Center, that's where I work. Um, 25 years in education. Again, my name is Wade Hapajoki. We just had, um, the end of our school year. We had almost 20 graduates or students that came to the end of their, uh, Brainard High School journey. And it was great to see some of you. Um, we did have our carnival DJ. We did have the dunk tank. Put it down May 21st. It's warm water. Trust me, it'll be okay. So, we're going to get you in there. I promise. Um, you 56 times I got dunked, so it was perfect. You'll love it. I w I was that was my lead in, but then, you know, there's been so much talk about referendums and stuff. Um, I'm just going to throw this out.
067Um, you were elected. The lowest number of votes for you was 7,500. The highest was 11,000 over. Miss Ederman, you got the highde. She beat you. Yeah, just barely in total. So that being said, okay, that being said, the platform that resonated with the community, okay, the platform was parent choice. Okay, parent choice. And you guys know and and I'm I'm talking to the What's that? parent choice and whatever. Oh, same thing. Yeah, you're not supposed to talk to me. You're not supposed to talk to me. Um, we can talk after like we always do. So, but what I'm saying is let's give that to them. Okay. Let's give that I'm going to read something for you cuz DJ, you like when I do quotes. All right, here we go. You ready? Because you can't
068talk back. Leadership isn't avoiding risk. Leadership is handing the microphone to the people you serve and listening. So tonight, I ask you not for money, but for trust. Put the referendum on the ballot and trust those voters that voted for you. Thank you. Thank you, Wayne. And finally, finally, we have Tina Herren, please. Hello. My name is Tina Heron and I have not done public speaking since probably high school. So I am here because um first I am a Brainard High School graduate. I live in the district with my husband who is also a high school graduate from here and we have two daughters that attend here in the Briner school. I am here today with my group of fellow parents and we are here to say yes, approve the high school league membership that
069you are approving tonight, but we would like a clause saying that our girls teams will not play against teams with biological boys. Let's take a lead in the Minnesota Section 8 sports teams and keep girls sports safe and equal. I believe biological boys should not compete in girls high school sports because it's simply not fair. Biological males on average has physical advantages in terms of strength, speed, and endurance due to the testosterone and muscle mass development, especially after puberty. Girls deserve a level playing field and a chance to win based on hard work, not biology. Girls train just as hard as boys and they deserve the chance to compete on equal terms and not to be overshadowed by biological differences they cannot control. Let's support girls by protecting the spaces that were created to give
070them opportunities in sports. This isn't the matter of hate. It's the matter of fairness, safety, and respect for all athletes. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Tina. All right, that concludes public input. We will move on to the approval of minutes. First, we have the SK special school board meeting from May 12th. Motion. Second. Got a motion from Director Donninger, a second from Director Edman. Any discussion? If not, all those in favor, please say I. I. Oppose. The same. Motion carries. And then approval of minutes for the regular schoolboard meeting on May 12th. So moved. Second. Got a a motion from Director Heidman and a second from Director Ward. Any discussion? If not, all those in favor? I oppose the same. All right, moving on to the consent calendar. We've got um some staff
071changes, donations, and grants. We have the resolution for the Iowa in there. The joint powers agreement for our parks and wreck work with Baxter audit services contract with CLA SRO agreements and our Northern Pines contract for next school year. I make a motion we approve the items on the consent calendar. Is there a second? I'll second. You might as well. I mean, the deal is you guys I was late, so I missed the agenda's been approved. We could still we pull something off. I think we should pull that SRO thing. Okay. Do you want to pull? Yeah, I'd like to see us pull I make a motion that we approve the consent agenda and we talk about the SRO contract. We we already have a motion and a second, but we can still pull that
072to the end of the meeting and add it as new business. Okay. You want to do that? Okay. So, we will pull the two SRO contracts to the end of the meeting and we will add them as new business after um the final new business. Kelly, are you following? I don't see a number on that, but we'll add it down there. Okay. All right. So, we've got a motion by Director Breen and a second by Director Ward to approve the consent calendar. Um, moving the SRO contracts to discussion at the end of the meeting. All those Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor say I. Please. I oppose the same. Oh, it's a roll. Apologize. I need a roll call on that one because we have a resolution in there. Yes. I was
073going to say I Stephanie Edman. Yes. Randy Hidman. Yes. Sarah Spear. Yes. John Ward. Yes. Michelle Breen. Yes. Thank you. Up next, we have a presentation on our spring screening data with Christina Lungren. Please. Welcome, Christina. Get this pulled up. Okay, so I am back again with the spring fast bridge screening data. This again is just a broad overview um of the the data from spring. Um just a reminder this year is our first full year of implementation um in the assessment from K12 and really our primary goal for year one was that fidelity of implementation. Um as we talked about at the last meeting um next year when we move through the second cycle in addition to the overview summary data I'll include um trend line data as well for each grade level cohort.
074So, at the at the top, um the first box, this is just a district-wide overview of the proficiency data for each of the three categories. Uh so, reading proficiency, we had an increase of 2% from our winter to spring screening window. Math proficiency, we had a 1% increase. And then the the Sabers, the social emotional proficiency, we had a 3% decrease. So that's across all grade levels as a summary. The second row of data um we have the percentage of students that completed the assessment. So again our our goal was um again that 90% in math and and reading. Um so we did meet that for that spring screening window. And then uh next to that was the breakdown of the uh sabers the social emotional risk data um where only 3% of our students
075were identified as high- risk. The next uh section, this is looking at the proficiency, the percentage of students proficient uh by grade level over the three screening windows. So looking at the data, the orange bar represents the percentage of students that were proficient in the fall screening window. The blue bar represents the percentage of students proficient during the winter screening window and then purple represents that uh percentage of students in the spring. So again this is uh this first bar uh first graph is representing reading in grades K through 10. We did not include the 11th and 12th grade on this uh set of data because we have a what's called a diminishing model for screening for the high school. All the students take the assessment during the fall, but because our uh juniors and
076seniors do not take the MCA test in in the in the spring for reading, uh they exit out of that screening as we move through the school year. And then the same would be for math. So our our juniors take the math screening but not not our seniors in the spring. So underneath that we have the the same uh style of data for our math proficiency. So again uh going through that orange bar represents the fall percentage of students proficient. Blue is winter and purple is spring. So that's our our math data. So again going through K through 10th grade and then the bottom bar graph um that represents the the growth um that students had and I just want to go to that. So comparing uh from our winter data looking at that that
077typical and aggressive growth um the teal color kind of blue green uh that bar represents the growth of the reading assessment. The orange bar is representing math. And so uh for reading the typical growth increased 8% uh number of percentage of students increased by 8% from the winter to spring. And then for the aggressive growth category we had a decrease of 2% winter to spring. For math, uh, typical growth, we had an increase of 6% of students winter to spring. And then, uh, for the aggressive growth, we had a 1% increase winter to spring. Okay. So, does the test get harder? Uh, I mean, just straighten me out on this. So, let's just take fifth grade math. Oh, let's just take fifth grade reading, right? They started out the year at 63 in the fall.
078They're 64 in the winter. They're 63 in the spring. Does that mean they're the same as when they came in or is the test continually to get a little tougher? I'm just confused. Shouldn't they go up? That that is the goal at the end of the year. Yes, that is the goal. So, so that the tests don't get any harder. There's It's crazy. So the the proficiency is that the number of students that are meeting those grade level benchmarks. And so the the test is so if I think of the look at the math test um for our grades 2 through 10 students uh there's two components to the test. So there's a automaticity um which is a time test and that's um kind of like the the number sense the math facts basic operations
079um just whether that's automatic for you and then the second component is called it's called a math which stands for adaptive math. So for that um the the test actually adapts to how the students are responding. So depending on whether they're getting questions correct or in incorrect, it will adapt. So, you know, it might give them harder questions over the course of the test. There's 30 questions, or it might keep them at grade level. So, that one's an adaptive test for that. the early math and early reading uh for our K1 students. Um there are different uh composite tests that they do um over the course of the year. So um for example um in the fall in kindergarten they do something called concepts of print. It's how text and images are laid out on
080a in a book let's say of how that's laid out where they don't do that in the spring. So, they've moved on to another level of reading test. We can give them a break. Yeah. So, I'm just saying that's how it's designed. But, but yes, the the the goal would be to increase the number of students that are proficient from fall to winter to spring. So, yes. When will we know uh Christina uh all 11 and 12th grade? Are we ever going to be doing a fast bridge assessment for those folks or not? We we do. So we do in the fall and the the winter um just not in the spring. And part of that too, especially with the juniors and seniors, there's a a cohort of students that are PSO students. Um and
081so it it is hard to capture those students to to take that assessment. And um and so because they're not, you know, like our seniors, we're not preparing them for um like an MCA, let's say, um we we decided to not have them assess in the spring, but we do collect fall and winter data. So that's why they're not included on on the spring screening data, but they'll be on the fall and winter. Okay. So we will be collecting data. Correct. Because correct me if I'm wrong. I believe under the Read Act. Yep. Kids are supposed to be proficient in every grade, right? Correct. That is the goal. That's the goal. Okay. Mhm. And you think you'd have a little fall off. You know, your senior year, I don't know about you, but my senior
082year, I don't think I took a hard class and it was kind of more fun and taken all the math that was available and everything. So, it was like there wasn't that much left. I'm sure I was a little rusty after a year of not doing it. Yeah. depends on the student and and again it's it's one moment in time. Um so there are all those other factors um that happen but yes the goal would be for we're going to increase the number of students proficient. If you were in the predicting business how do you think based upon the screening data from BSbridge how do you think our MCAs are going to turn out? I don't want to be in the Okay. Okay. But I think maybe as we gather more data over a period
083of time in a number of years, we're going to be able to make some of those predictions. Yeah. Because this is new. I know it's new. Yeah. And I think too the the trend data that we talked about by cohort um over time um we're we are just on kind of step one this year. So I I think yes, we'll be able to to do that. I mean, it's pretty obvious that they're learning something because otherwise it would be like, well, second grade they were at 60%, third grade they were at 50%, fourth grade they'd be at 40%. They just keep going down if they weren't getting more. So, it's just kind of hard to believe that, you know, if you look at them, they're actually getting better the older they get or the scores
084are getting better. I don't know if they're better people or anything, but the scores are getting better. So, you've got to think that they're learning something. Yeah. I mean, I I think when when our team looked at it, there were um areas of I think celebration and then there's areas of all right, we've we've got some some work to do here. So, yeah. Are we going to see any year end? Did did the different buildings do goals again this year? Yes. And when will we see that information? Because this is just assessment for Bas, correct? Yep. So, that'll be in the fall again. So they met with their so that's the continuous improvement planning. Um they met with their uh whole building uh did some work on June 5th and then they also met with
085their leadership team to do some planning. So they were looking at site level data um and to look at goal setting for next year and then we'll meet again in August. August 4th will be a whole day for those teams to meet and do planning. And then um we'll follow a similar timeline that we did last fall. So we'll bring it to DAC um kind of this the whole and then we'll do by site over the course of a few board meetings. Do they use do all buildings use EMCA data to determine their continuous improvement plan goals? Most of them actually shifted to FastBridge last year um because it's more actionable and it's not just that one moment in time. And two, we get that data in the moment rather than we, you know, we
086have embargoed data for MCA in the in the summer, but it's not, you know, public until fall. So, okay. Everybody getting comfortable with Aspir? I think so. I mean, there's there's definitely digging deeper into the tools, the progress monitoring tools and things of that nature, but I think um as uh as the adults, we've had a lot of growth in our comfort level with with this tool this year. Yeah. It'll get better every year hopefully. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. All right. Any other questions? Thanks. Thank you, Director. All right. Uh, new business we have for action. The first item is approval of the administration recommendations to issue a 2526 contract to the following certified staff members resulting in the granting of tenure. You want me to read these folks or do you want Pardon? Should we
087read these folks or you want to Okay. We've got Blake Alolome, Barbara Bingham, Anne Campion, Jill England, Nathan Herfendall, Claudia Keller, Patrick Maguire, Emma Peterson, Tracy Potvin, Travis Linger, Amanda Sleen, Hannah TR, and Leah Wheeler. Congratulations to all of them. I make a motion that we approve the um granting of tenure to those folks that were just listed. Excellent. Second. We've got a motion by Director Breen, a second by Director Hedman. Any discussion? M. Madam Chair, do do we know how many of these on this list um were formally tenured? I know when you when you change district and you're tenured, you got one more. You got a year and then you're tenure. I don't know that data. Okay. You don't are most of the we do we know if most of these are newly
088I know one of them that moved here. So I know one it's not all of them that started here. Okay. Oh yes Sandy. Five five. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Um so any further discussion? If not all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Oppose the same. Motion carries. Up next, the approval of unrequested leave of absence resolution presented by Peter Graham. So, um, part of the reduction process is that some staff um lost their positions. The resolution is placing G Ascard, Allison Bullard, Nidra Henland, Clare Horn, and Bobby Crutchen for unrequested leave of absence. Whereas the school board of independent school district 181 adopted a resolution proposing placement of G Ascard, Allison Bullard, Nedra Henland, Clear Horn, and Bobby Crutchen on unrequested leave of absence May 12th, 2025 on the
089grounds of discontinuence of positions, lack of pupils, and financial limitations. And whereas Sid written notice of the proposed placement on unrequested leave was received by G Ascard, Allison Bullard, Nedra Henland, Clare Horn, and Bobby Crutchen on or about May 12th, 2025. And whereas said written notice of the proposed placement, an unrequested leave contained a statement setting forth the reason for the proposed placement as well as a a statement that they were entitled to a hearing before the school board provided, they make a request in writing within 14 days of the receipt of said notice and that if no hearing was requested within said 14-day period, it constituted acquiescence by G Ascard, Allison Bullard, Nedra Hedland, Clare Horn, and Bobby Crutchen to the school board's proposed action and whereas no written request of any kind was
090received by the school board or superintendent of schools or if received the request was withdrawn in writing from G Ascard, Allison Bullard, Nedra Helen, Clarehorn, and Bobby Crutchen for a hearing as of May 26, 2025. And whereas said failure to make written request for a hearing within 14 days after receipt of notice of proposed placement and unrequested leave constitutes acquiescence by Gaxard, Allison Bullard, Nedra Henland, Claire Horn, and Bobby Crutchen to their placement and unrequested leave. Be it hereby resolved by the school board of independent school district 181 that Gar Ascard, Allison Bullard, Nedra Henland, Clare Horn, and Bobby Crutchen be and hereby are placed an unrequested leave of absence as a teacher of independent school district number 181 on the grounds of discontinuence of positions and financial limitations effective at the end of the
0912425 school year and on June 30th, 2025 pursuant to the Minnesota statute MS122A. 8.40 subdivision 10 along with applicable portions of article 7 section 2 subdivision 1-6 of the current master agreement between the school district and the exclusive representative without pay or fringe benefits. Be it further resolve the said placement on unrequested leave of absence is not the result of the implementation of an education district agreement. Be it further resolved that a notice of placement on unrequested leave of absence together with a copy of this resolution be forward to the said teacher and then an affidavit of same be placed in his or her file together with a copy of the notice and resolution. Thank you. All right, we'll look for a motion to approve. I'll second. We've got a motion by Director Heidman and
092a second by Director Edman. Any discussion, Madam Chair? Yes. Um the initial ULA list, I think, had 11 or 12 people on it. And this is six. Is it seven? I think what I think it's six or seven. So did the other did the ones that were on the initial list but not on this list are they were they called back? Yeah can tell you that okay and these folks that are at ULA the ULA um as we discussed before um can be will be can be considered for a job in the future. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for the question. Any further discussion? If not, this is a roll call vote because it is a resolution. Stephanie Edman, yes. Randy Hidman, yes. Sarah Spear, yes. John Ward, yes. Michelle Breen, yes. DJ, yes.
093Thank you, Kelly. Up next, we have a presentation on the 2526 preliminary budget with Director Marcy Lord. Welcome, Marcy. Good evening. You skip the coupon. Oh, I don't have that. It's further down, Peter. Okay, it's coming. Go to your seat. So, uh, in the board packet is a budget document that is a lot more detailed. The presentation is just a brief summary that I'll go through, but if you guys have any questions on the document that's in there, please feel free to ask. So, when we start the budget process, we start with the 2425 revised budget. We had a projected deficit of about 2.8 million in the unassigned fund balance, which is unrestricted. We take that, roll it forward, and then put in our budget assumptions. So for this upcoming year, there was an inflationary
094factor from the 2023 legislation, and they came up with 2.74% with that factor. As of right now, that's still a thing. So that is in the budget. And then we had a we have a projected decrease of 121 students with the enrollment projection model that we use. um compensatory was a change in the formula from the 2023 session as well. So that was a decrease and then the levy increase is from uh adjustments. So we put out a levy and if the enrollment goes up or down there's adjustments with that and the levy is actually increasing because of some of the adjustments for us. Marcy, could you please explain that uh why there's that drop in uh compensatory revenue? Is that because of the read Act? It was. So during the legislation, they actually changed
095the formula and with that formula, that's where we saw the decrease. Is it for the free lunch? Yes. Yep. Oh, is this free lunch? Okay. Okay. Okay. That's And on a future slide, I'll I'll talk about there is current talk right now of doing hold harmless. So there's a question mark there, which I thought I saw we were on hold harmless or something like that. Yeah, not yet, but there's talk. There's a chance. What is that? Hold harmless means they will not change. They'll keep us where we're at. Instead of reducing. Yes. Exactly. Marcy, this doesn't um this isn't related to the end of the session right now, though. This this can all some of this could change. Correct. And that so these are the what's set right now in statute, right? But if right
096they close the session out then we'll have to make those changes in the budget revision. Okay. We haven't heard anything what they did today. I saw at 3:00 they' done five things. We weren't one of them and there was 14 to do by 7 a.m. tomorrow. Been there, done that. So, we do use an enrollment projection model from Ellers and we are projected, as I said, to go down 121 to 5,751 um this next year. Those students or ADMs? adm um and I just wanted to share I started this last year the birth year 2013 there was 609 95 in Crowing County and in 2023 there's 624 so there are less births happening in the county you know when we talk about declining enrollment yes there are people who are leaving but part of it
097is there just are less students something crazy which I don't know why I'm doing this but I'm doing it is uh I think when they showed the first baby born this year. They talked about it and I think St. Joe had 370 first last year. So, I was like in a panic. So, I'm happy you got the real numbers, but I'm surprised that you know I suppose people are going other spots and some of them are having them at home. So, I don't know. But it's only like 370 which is shocking to me. So, what was that? What were those figures again? So in 2013 there were 695 births in Crowing County and in 2023 there were 624. So 71 less. Okay. Or and that's that's just births. You know we don't know if they
098left or they're still here but could have been your vacation. John. Yeah. Yes. This is true. Um so then we look at our expense assumptions. So the uh student enrollment is the big one, right? expense assumptions, uh, salaries and benefits is a big one for us. So, we look at known and projected increases increases, i.e. settled contracts versus ones that were in negotiations. Um, we also updated the OPED draw and then added back CARES positions that were funded through September of 2024. As you guys know, those funds are no more. So, then all that has to go back into the unassigned. Uh and then we moved salary and benefits of some tech and instructional staff to spend down the operating capital uh compensatory and learning and development fund balance. And as we talked about at
099the board retreat, that's a one time only. Like once those funds are gone, we can't do it again. So 2526 only. So, the preliminary budget um starts with or that is being presented tonight has a $2.2 million deficit in the unassigned uh the learning and development as I said. So, learning and development um basic skills, operating capital, all of those show a deficit in decreasing that fund balance on this summary sheet. And then also I wanted to note the LTFM. So, this is the year then that we see that increase because of the 1A funding. So in 2425 our allocation was about 1 million. We see that go up to about 4.6 million in this year's budget for buildings. So we can use that on repairing our buildings. So can I ask um so when
100we were at the airport and we had the meeting on May 14th we are at 1.3 to 1.5 in a deficit. Now we're at 3.2. two. Why? What's the difference there? So, the 3.2 is down at the bottom, right? So, it's summarizing all the accounts. Okay. The 2.2 references that that same talking point that we were talking about unassigned. Okay. So, it's not as big of a difference. And then also, we did update our assumptions with um estimated increases. So, the because I remember that too, Steph. So the one when you were talking about you're getting on a 1315 I'm I'm still a little lost on how so we we picked up another 17 based on these expense assumptions that you have above here which are like previous contracts and Yep. Yep. And we'll um
101that's another like 1678. Yeah. Okay. So then um looking at the unassigned fund balance, that's what we primarily focus on because it's not restricted. The school board policies 10% with this uh budget we will be going to 9.9 and that's an estimate that could change when we close out 2425. If we don't have as big of a deficit with we have more kids than what we had projected, expenses come in less. that will impact this because if we end the year better then we will probably be above that 9.9% projection if we're if we're doing better. Yep. And then what assumptions are you making on some of the contracts that aren't settled yet? Um are you taking estimates in there? You have to tell me what they are. Okay. Thank you. I'm not going to
102get into that business, but I mean are you building those or is that just going to be added on if there's They're built in there. They're built. Yep. And so we would see a change if they are higher than what I had built in there or lower. Yep. Yep. Good question. So looking ahead, uh the there was that proposal that I got shared with another business manager shared with me and it showed a projection for Brainer of having an additional 1 million for compensatory if that proposal moved forward in the legislature. So just an FYI. Um, and then like you had just said DJ, actual versus estimates in expired contracts that could affect the budget revision. And then updates on state aids. So the aids listed were just carried forward from last year. No changes
103at this point. I don't know. So if anything changes with that, those would be updated with the budget revision as well. And then I just threw on there the potential operating referendum. Um, just because with those one-time uses, I'm just going to remind you all that $1 million then would be added back to the deficit starting in 2627, which is a so we're already starting with another deficit, large deficit. So, in the other funds, um, fund two was carried forward. Same thing with no no known changes at this time. So, we just carried forward the budget. Fund four was updated based on programming um by the director of community service. Fund six is our construction fund. So, we're just using that as projects come up. Capital project requests were put in. And with us getting
104creative with capital, we did put some of those projects to the construction fund instead of capital. Uh debt service was updated to reflect our levy payments and then also debt service payments. The OPED was updated based on our current year projections. So we're we're seeing a slight increase in the retiree payments that we're making. So the budget was adjusted to reflect that. The debt service fund is just interest and we'll need to be talking in the future about closing that account. So we've made all those debt payments and now we're just the cash is just sitting there earning interest and we can close it out. So the the the OPAB trust fund. Yep. So can you just give us a 10,000 foot on that? Yep. Back in the day um back in the day we
105had like 26 million in there. Yep. The district was allowed to levy for projected um OPED expenses. So they did an actuary study, figured out what that magical number was, issued bonds for it, and then we've slowly drawn down those expenses as they've come. Eventually, it's going to be gone, right? Like it there's no going back and redoing it. So once it's gone, we can add it to our levy. Yeah. Once we spend all it, we got 14 to go. Yep. And we're spending about two a year. And we have done awesome at the interest earnings on that. Like that was supposed to be gone a while ago. What is the interest cost? Oh, that's those bonds. Um, so the that'll be gone next year. Yes, those are we won't have that expense. They're all
106gone. They're all paid off. Well, that's a bonus. Yes, like 800. Big deal. So Marcy, that that additional revenue that we qualify for because we have X amount of square feet in our district, what is that called again? Um for uh 1A funding. 1A funding. Yeah. Alt facilities. So does that additional money can that only be used for facilities? That can only be used for facilities. Well, it's not just facilities though. It's football fields. Yeah. All roofs, parking lots, but not for not. It can't go in the general fund, right? Can't go for whatever you want. Yeah. Okay. I just go for new computers. I needed clarification on that. The only personnel we could pay for out of that would be like a HVAC tech or electrical electrician. Okay. Otherwise, a lot of those on
107the payroll apparently. Okay. And correct me if I'm wrong, we we get that money, but we we we've got about $49,000 of bonding that we did. We got to pay that interest off, and that's where some of that LTFM money is going. Correct. Some of it, but now with the 1A funding, we have that new door. Yeah. But but there in lies the issue why um if we were to close a building, then we would not qualify for that funding. Correct. Um, we did find out more information that the building could be closed and dark. We could still own it and it would still be count towards our square footage. You're digging, huh? You're sticking outside the box and we can lease it. We could lease it out, right? I got today. We could lease
108it out. I had a somebody that's got a little knowledge on this deal and we could lease that baby out. I did not confirm that. I did not confirm the renting out part, but I if we own it, it could still count. It would be no different if it was darker if we owned it, except that think of the savings and if we can rent it out a little bit, even if we rent it out for not very much, keep it up and take care of it and Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Um and then one thing that Oh, and I did want to touch on that LTFM when we talk about the referendum. That's one that we could potentially lower to lower that tax impact. So, just keep that in mind, too. that. What do you
109mean? What was that? So instead of 4. Yeah. So instead of 4.5 million on the levy, maybe it's 3 million on the levy and then the referendum could fill in the difference and so it wouldn't be as big of a tax impact because those are two different funds. You we're talking Okay. So we're talking about taking less on the guaranteed money to go for the gamble. The deal is is I think once you pick your number I don't think you get to go back up is what so we can what Matthew told me from Aaylor at that meeting we're at when we do our levy in the fall we can do full LTFM like we are planning on not having a referendum but then we can revise it and reduce it down if the referendum
110were to pass. Okay. You have to make your final decision and it's December, right? Yep. Um, and then one thing I did miss on my notes too is uh, so the 2.74% made the gened formula go to 7,481. And then if you add the levies, we get about 11,000 per student. So just taking the all the money we earn from the state divided by our ADMs, it's about 11,000. How are they coming up with this comp? Well, I hopefully they'll fix this compensory deal, but I mean it's like how where are they coming? I mean, if you go free lunch for everybody, why would anybody take the time to fill out the form? And that's what based that on in the past. What are they going to do about the title one schools? How are
111they going to keep track of that? I don't know. That's there's so many questions right now. They make all these crazy rules and then they don't think about all the that was the unintended consequence. No one no one no one knew about. Well, these guys all did. I'm sure I think his mind using county systems to help identify some of that. that deal because we have that information through the county. So, I think they were trying to partner on that. Yes. Figure that out. Yep. Having people fill out paper additional paperwork. Yes. But one thing just to do a comparison, Marcy just said about $11,000 a student. St. Paul getting $33,000 a student. Wow. How much? Well, don't because they have a broader tax base. They happen to be next to the capital. What's their
112debt? Oh, probably 29 million in the hole. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're in big trouble. But they can they just keep flying. They just keep adding fuel to the plane. And I wonder if the students can read or do math any better with spending that much on them. I bet they can't. And they've lost about 10,000 students. turn to a sheep. Wow. Any additional questions for Mercy? Thank you Mercy. Not we'll look for a motion to approve the preliminary budget for 2526. So move. I'll second. We have a motion by director Ward and a second by Director Breen. Any additional discussion? Yeah. One last question. Mercy. What? Okay. We don't do we don't know what our current year debt is yet, do we? What we owe for payments? No. No. What uh looking at our budget?
113Yeah. How much are we in debt? Um I could So, if you look at our debt service fund, that's those are Oh, I'm sorry. I'm saying it wrong. I'm saying it wrong. Are we are we shown in Are we in the black or are we in the red? So we are in the red on the unassigned on the unassigned unassigned. Yep. So we're start we're ending two of the total in debt. In the red. Yeah. Spend it in. We're not to go in debt. We're taking it out of our reserves. Understand? Understand. And obviously we don't know what the beginning budget is for 2526 or 26 27 whatever the next school year. Right. There we go. Yeah. Okay. This finance stuff is I don't know how the people down in St. Paul figure it out.
114Neither do they. I don't know how Marcy figures it out. Yeah, thank you, Marcy. All right. I think we should I think we I think we I I think I think we need to um I understand. I'm going to try to act like director Ward over there. It's a wonderful job and I know you've been working your tail off, Marcy. Um, I know everyone here has got good intentions and has really put some effort into this, but I think we need to find another million and million and a half before I'm comfortable voting for this thing. We are on a, you know, we're just sliding down the hill. It just keeps on going. We did this last year and we don't know what it came out at yet, do we? I won't. We won't know
115until when? I I So, typically I don't get everything closed until almost October. Yeah. And so, but you've always been it's always been lower. You know, I remember Heidi Han told me that you guys are real conservative about it. You do a nice job. So, every time we've thought it was going to be first we thought it was going to be 1.8 and it came out to be 1.2 and then we thought it was going to be two something high twos and it it it came out about two. Um, so this year we were looking at three, right? And I just don't know how how long we can continue to kick the can down the road on this $3 million upside down thing. I mean, I almost like to, you know, like you guys talked
116about, I can't remember what the last thing we were doing where taking another swing at things is maybe we throw a little, you have to have this in by June 30th. I mean, we've been looking at this for a couple months, but I was a little stunned when on Wednesday that we're back up there again when we were just out at the airport three weeks ago and it was down to one and a half, you know. Um, that's a big I'm I'm all about one and a half, one six, seven, whatever. I know you can't perform miracles. I think we need to start looking in different spots and different, you know, we can't put any more kids in the classroom. Um, one thing I've been thinking about and maybe I'm all messed up on this,
117but you know, been at this for two and a half years. I've been paying attention. I think you know, I'm worried about these kids. I worry about the people that work here. I worry about the whole deal. It's not like I'm the big bad wolf like I was like I heard this today so far. Um, the deal is is that if we had 7,000 students and 1,200 employees, I was informed on Wednesday that we still have 1,200 employees. Not saying that's accurate. Could be,72, could be 1,220. I don't know. But I heard it was 1,200 and we've gone down to 6,000 kids, right? That's a 14.5% decrease. If you just do simple math on that, times 1,200 employees, we need to get rid of 170 people. Is that easy? No. And I don't think it's
118teachers. Um, and you know, the other deal is the person I was talking to today about some of this stuff was this building stuff, which we all decided together that we couldn't do that because we'd lose that other dope. But now we found some more information out. And I'm just wondering if it's like we got to make some hard choices. And it's not about firing. I mean, it's just what we have to do. We can't have the same amount of people working for 50. If you have 15% less uh students, then you got to have 15% less staff. And if you really got right down to the nitty-gritty, you should probably have 15% less busing and 15% less square footage, right? I mean, I know we can't get all that done by June 30th. I
119don't I'm not looking for miracles here, but you know what I'm saying? It's like we've got to start looking at different deals there. I talked to Sarah about a little bit on Friday. Um, you know, I mentioned to you grant writing, right? I thought we had grant writers. You straightened me out and said we don't. I believe you as I'm sure you know, right? But you said mentioned to me that teachers write the grants. Well, do they write them on weekends? Do they write them at night or do we pay a substitute to go in and write why they write those grants? Because we didn't pay a million six in substitute teaching last year, right? So, we've got to somewhere along the line, we got to start going and saying, "Hey, we can't afford to
120do that any longer like we used to." Um, you know what I'm saying? I wonder if we should just if I don't know how to go about this. You got a you got your motion and you got a second. I guess we could just try to vote on it and then we could go at it again. But I I would almost like to see us have like a special meeting in like 10 days or 12 days and see if you can't find a million bucks. Well, here's here's where we're at. This is a preliminary budget. We will have an opportunity to revise this. And I think the revisions you're asking for probably take more than the week and a half that we have to to put together and to put into place. Um I don't
121think any of us are comfortable with this budget. I I would never recommend spending $3 million more than you have. I think it's also um you know as we've seen the last few years we are conservative. We don't know what we're getting from the state yet. We're making a lot of guesstimates and without real numbers we're not making a real decision here in my mind but we do need to find that out and we do need to make some real decisions. So when do we make when when when do we I mean I remember how this budget goes the way I remember it is we do this we get that to the state then we look at it again September and we kind of oh it changed a little bit and then we get to
122December and that's our real budget right that's that's the final of this 2425 but this is kind of your roadmap for your goal of how we're going to start the school year so once we start we really can't I anticipate for this year that's going to be very difficult and I would also say Um, it's going to be a very difficult year no matter what happens here. But if we don't have an operating levy, this is going to be a real effort and I think that decision probably needs to be made first before we decide. I know it's I agree with you. Yeah. I mean, if we start working on the real budget next week after we pass this preliminary one, I guess that's what we do. And that may be the direction we end
123up going. Well, here's the other I hope it's not. But here's the other scary part is so we're this budget that Marcy brought us is the only information that she has, right? There's nothing she can do about it. Is a 2.74% increase in funding for education. And the rumors that we've been hearing um are Peter, you know the most about it. One and a half. Yeah, maybe. Maybe. Maybe it's one. So if that's another 2%, how much is that? Is that two million bucks? So 2%. Not quite. Yeah, I was going to say not quite 2 million. Maybe 18 on seven. Less than a million, I would say. Oh, less than a million. Well, what is unassigned balance then? Where's that all come from? It's all So it's Well, the 96 million or 98 million
124for next year. Where isn't that from the state? I was going to say, so you're thinking 1% of our total budget, but it's 1% of the per pupil amount. Yeah. Isn't that our total budget? No. No. So, it's 1% of the 74.91. Yes. You got it. And 6,000 kids. Y I'd like to uh be honest. I mean, I'd like to I'd like to kick the can down the road for about two weeks and I'd like to sit down with I still don't understand all this budget stuff and we're starting it so late I think in the game. Uh I I feel I cannot make an informed decision and I believe in my heart that we have some real quicksand in our budget and it's not based upon our budget. It's based upon how we spend
125the money in the budget. And I would like to sit down with staff. I would like to propose two board members going in and sitting down with Peter and and and Marcy and whoever else and ask some ask the questions and then come back in two weeks have a special meeting and take a look at uh doing what we're doing right now because do you guys understand all this? Michelle, do you understand it all? I don't. And I'm not picking on you. I don't I don't. Do you understand it all, John? Not all of it. And you've been in the legislature. I was a a vice chair of the finance committee and I don't understand. So, so he doesn't understand. But I don't know if that's helpful. I don't know if delaying it is helpful.
126I don't either. Um, but it's tough to vote for a three. What's wrong with two weeks? Huh? We've been kicking the can down the road for how many years? And I'm not blaming other boards. I I could I don't know what happened with other boards. I'm not here to talk about that. I'm here to talk about what we need to do today and going forward because we're in a quick we got quicksand in that budget from a spending standpoint and it needs to be addressed. I I'm not sure what you're talking about but quicksand. I just visited 11 schools schools in the last 3 weeks and um saw and witnessed and observed that uh I I didn't see any waste any kind of thing that we can cut anymore. I didn't I heard tonight uh
127of people talking about you know the 18 out of 19 years we've been cutting and cutting and cutting. I to me um we need to move. We need to move and we need to move now. Period. Period. It's my opinion. I think there's opportunity Randy if after this you want to meet with Marcy and Peter and talk about what Absolutely. what you'd like to understand better about the budget. I think that that's I'd like all six board members to meet two at a time so they understand what's going on because I don't think we all know what's going on. Well, I will say this, Randy, is like you said, you know, I've been involved in finances a little bit and I will never never understand it. No matter no matter if I take another two
128weeks or I just will not understand it. I would she's Marcy's is probably the only one that really and Peter and maybe other administrators that get it more better than than us or whatever. Um we we I trust what I'm what I'm hearing. I trust the information I'm given as an elected official and um and I guess that's the bottom line is I put my trust into this admin administration for giving us the numbers that we need to make some decisions. Oh, I'm not disputing Marcy's numbers. I'm not disputing her job at all. One thing though that is not talked about what's in the budget. You talk about quicksand. I looked at the our budgets and expenditures since 2016 and um I just looked at one budget item and that was special education. Um in
129since 2016 to 2023, the gap in revenue versus expenditure has been as small as 5 million. The last one's 8 million. Um there's nothing we can do about that until the feds who have been promising since birth was made that they would do 100%. I what are they at 42? Mhm. So we have a responsibility to serve all kids. The difficult part is those kids that need the most service, we're getting the shortest nickel possible. Absolutely. and um local, state, and federal. Everybody knows that, but nobody's changed it. So, we're 3.2 down, but there is 8 million sitting there because of we're not getting enough revenue to service the kids that need that kind of service. So, it's going to be to me it's impossible to fill the gap without some magic. And um you
130know that might come at the end of this meeting, but um it it's impossible, Randy. I mean, I don't know what else we're going to eliminate that can cover $8 million of expenditures. Right now, we're looking for three. I know. But that means that then it's five. I know. That's my concern going forward is that what's next year going to bring? What's year after that going to bring? Like we're broken. We've got to get rid of some of these costs and these hard costs that we have. We have to think about this different. John, you don't you don't know where to look. I don't blame you. I'm a business guy. Did you know right now we have groups that can start out in day one you have 20 days of vacation. That's not that's not
131that's not realistic. That's not competitive. That's doesn't happen anywhere other than government. It's it's just this isn't even real. Uh I was looking at the Department of Labor. You know, it's like wages here, benefits here, time off here compared to everybody else, right? Union doesn't matter, right? It's not competitive. It's like we have to dive into this. This isn't because of us. It's not because of you, Marcia. You and I have talked about it, Peter, and anybody on this board and and and the previous boards. We've seen lots of board members, and I knew every one of them actually. Uh it's it's this just has built up over time. It all made perfect sense when it was designed this way 40 50 30 40 50 years ago. But now everything's too expensive and it's not
132working. You can't sustain it or this if the state would pay us more. I guess we keep going. But that doesn't feel like that's going to happen. Um, so I just feel bad that we're gonna I mean, if we've only got this much money for so long, we should try to preserve we should try to save some money someplace. We're not going to be able to fix the stuff like I just talked about. You're not going to fix that in two weeks. It's possible, right? I mean, but we need to think about that going forward that some of these things have we have to have some changes. And I think that's that's where we would love feedback, but we're not going to be able to get it done in two weeks. We need time. So
133if it's some of these changes that you guys want, you know, we can look at and but we need time to do it. The forest view change that was a year in planning. I mean, that wasn't that wasn't just in a month or two weeks. Yeah. Well, Superintendent Grant is absolutely correct from the standpoint that um you and I started teaching in 197273 um we didn't have the special ed numbers in or we had them but very very few I mean when they passed uh PL94142 and 72 or 73 you know they that set the tone then you know we're going to give you 40% reimbursement and they still haven't been near even near 18% or whatever but and our numbers have exploded uh exploded. And in my opinion, in today's world, they're not going
134down. No, they're not going down. I mean, there's a the legislature um this year set up a uh or potentially has is going to set up a special ed committ blue ribbon committee special blue ribbon committee that looks at all special ed kind of stuff. And guess what? There's not going to be any change. the the feds say here's the here's the law except huh plan is to cut transportation aid. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. By the state. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and the elf in the room is a is a special ed. That's right. I mean and I'm I support that. I support, you know, all of our kids having a fair and adequate and equal uh all kids educational journey. But that's the elephant in the room. No question in my opinion. And
135we're not going to change that in two weeks either. No. And we we're spending about 20 high 20 millions on that. Is that kind of the deal? That's where the the disconnect is between the 96 million and 124 million. I don't know what the total is. Well, this year it's 1249. I know what it is. What are you talking spec spent? Money spent. So, what's the difference? We got our oh this is our budget is is 96 million then guess what for real we come to these meetings and we're like oh you spent 12 million last month or 11 million what's the deal what comes out at 125 million 124 million. So is the spread there is that what you're talking about is is is the special ed money that we're and that's where we're
136getting stiffed out of the 8 million absolutely cross it's called cross subsidy we got to go to our general general ed money to pay for um special ed fin services. So I think in 2023 um cost was $18 million and the revenue was 12 point something and that's that's just the you know we're not Vegas those numbers aren't fake. No. Are we subbing most that out? Pardon? Is this that where we get reimbursed? Are we subbing a lot of that out or how's that work? Well then why isn't it on our budget? You want like a line force bed special ed? I don't understand how I can look at your budget and it's this last year was 96 million. This year it's 98 million. When it's all said and done it'll be 125 million. So
137where is the other money coming from? What is it for? Where did it go? Why is it in your budget? Which like um which line items are you looking at? Well, not the ones you sent us today. Okay. Let's look at the one at the end of the meeting. Okay, sounds good. You know, another thing with um uh just the revenues, there's a thing called third party billing, right? Okay. And that means that for services, we can we can bill medical facilities or um insurance insurance companies, health insurance companies or whatever. And this district has done a heck of a job with that. I mean there I remember being told uh two years ago that the Duth school district wasn't doing that and I'm going you're losing millions of dollars millions of dollar. So there
138are districts that don't do it but it's you it only accounts for you can only do so much of that and it's not going to make up but this district has been on top of it period and um hopefully they don't ever think of taking that away or whatever. So, did you look at your financial report at the end of the meeting? Uh, I don't have it handy, but Sure. So, you see the revised budget? Yeah. All right. That's your 2425 revised budget. 127 million. Yep. Okay. So, how did it go from 96 to 127? Where's the 30 million? What's it for? So, that's all the other funds together. Well, I know, but that's so that's part of our budget. It's just not part of the general. This is all the unrestricted. Are these the
139restricted funds? Gotcha. So, our real budget is 127 million. Yes. I don't have any magic pots of money. Sorry, DJ. I wasn't saying that it was magic money. I was wondering where it where it comes from. That's all. Got a motion on the table and a second. Any additional conversation? If not, all those in favor of approving the preliminary budget, please say I. I. I'll say I. I. I. Yes. Oppose. The same. You got to do any. Thank you. Moving on to approval for the 20 liability workers comp insurance renewal. And that's also you. Thank you. That's easy one. This is good news. Great news. So overall, our um work comp liability only went up 1%. Which is awesome. And no changes. We didn't change deductibles. We didn't change anything. So that was a very
140uh bright spot in the budget. We'll take it. Yes. Who wants to make that motion? I'll make it. I'll second. All right. We've got a motion by Director Donalder, a second by Director Edman. Any discussion? If not, all those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I. Oppose. The same. Motion carries. Moving on to the approval of the Brainer Public Schools handbooks for the 2526 school year as presented by Director Londren. Okay. So, the draft of the handbooks was attached to the the agenda and to the memo. And just again a few items to note. Um there weren't any substantial content changes. The primary content change was there was an addition of a communications section um that was added to each handbook which provided an overview of our shift to parent square as the
141communication tool for uh families and then uh information about the district website and social and media accounts for each of the of the schools. Um some of the other changes uh across the different handbooks, we we added and removed a few things to provide some consistency across the different schools. And then most of the other changes uh were some language updates, removal of things that weren't pertinent anymore. Um and those were indicated by the red font changes or the strikes strikethroughs that were in the in the edits. Um just a couple of things to note. um with the staffing changes uh especially for principles. Um once those changes are made, there would be updates to the principal letter or the welcome letter at the beginning and then the uh directory information in the front will
142be updated once all the staffing changes are made. The other change um that will be made to all of the uh board policies are linked throughout the handbooks. Uh those links will be updated once the new website platform is is live in the summer. So those will be updated um after after today. And this did go through committee, correct? Correct. Yep. So it went to the um curriculum instruction and staff development committee. Yeah, we talked about you Yeah. Do you want to talk about what your suggestion was with in terms of um 100% of our students will read at grade level? Um so that was in the the kind of that district goals. Um we don't have goals anymore. Now we have priorities. Well, okay. Yeah. Um that was your a deal at all. Committee
143adjustment. What we what we did is we had a district's priorities. I guess you want to use that term. We I just felt that it was all students will perform at grade level in reading each year. Well, it is that a priority? Well, yeah, it's a priority, but thing is it I've kind of reought it a little bit and said to myself, well, should really be a goal and I'm not trying to confuse you. I'm probably going to confuse myself, but I mean I I just thought remember in the discussion that all students will perform at grade level. Yeah, we we want all students to read at grade level, but What is that? Is that a wish? Is it reality? Is it a goal? Is it something we want? Well, yeah, something we want. I
144mean, I don't think anybody would debate that, but I I don't know. I've kind of now I'm kind of Well, we changed it to district strategic priorities. Y because I know he's They are the district strategic priorities from the strategic plan and I think under the student achievement category right um after our conversation yeah under one specific category of the strategic plan. So if we change that we're changing the strategic plan just FYI. Change what the wording around that priority. Well that's not going to change the strategic plan. Well, I mean, still be a goal. We still need to be 3% of people set goals. Just to let you know. Yeah. 97 97% aren't successful in if you don't have goals, you ain't going anywhere. Even criminals have goals. Most of them. Some of them
145they do. Okay. Anything else out of the committee? No. No. Any Is there a motion and then we can discuss? I'll make a motion if we change it back. Can we change it back to goals? Is that a big deal? Is that gonna bother everybody? Well, my goodness gracious. Look at the John, you're a sports guy. Lou Holtz talk about priorities or goals. Goals. Yeah. What did Winston Churchill talk about? You know, I mean, it's there's no options. It's goals. Like, let's set the goal. Let's do it. We're going to get this. We're going to do that. They all do it, right? And I think that for 127 million bucks, we should teach kids about having some high goals and set some standards and let's go and good luck and we're going to help you
146and support you. Hang on a sec. Yeah. So, you're making a motion to um approve the handbooks with the exception of adding the word goal and striking priorities. Is there a second? I'll second. Okay, we've got a motion and a second. Let's discuss. So, then is our goal to increase student achievement in reading or is our goal that all students will will perform at grade level in reading each year? What is it in the strategic plan? Prior prior to our meeting, the curriculum committee meeting, it was a district strategic goal is that all students will perform at grade level in reading each year. And if we are going to go back to goals, then I think I'd like I would prefer that we keep that all students will perform at grade level because that is
147our goal. Okay. So, amen. I'm right there with you. Remember, I think goals for a school district are different than goals for a sports team. What? Okay. Because if if we want to go if we want to go with goals, then we've already set the goals for all the buildings. All students are going to read at 100% grade level. Not 40, not 50, not 60%, but 100%. Or am I missing something? Come on, coach. help me out. You coached wrestling for how many years? I mean, maybe it's they're not they're not applicable the what you're talking about. Um, is it realistic to say all of our students are going to read at third grade level in the big picture? Yes. Realistically, no. Because they're every student is not the same, right? So the goal is
148to have them achieve reading at the grade level, but can they do it when we we test them? That's a totally different thing. Oh, isn't the state statute that says Yeah. I mean, the state statute takes precedent over Well, we don't want to break the law. That's the last thing we need to be doing. But that's grade level, John. Yep. That is that's grade level. Yes, that is grade level. Okay. So, I'm looking I'm looking at the strategic plan. We don't have to follow this, but just so you've got we're being consistent. The first goal is to increase student achievement. And the three kind of pieces of that are number one, increase student achievement in reading, increase student achievement in math, and number three, 100% of high school students will experience authentic learning experiences aligned
149to their career or passion. Those are the I believe those are the three statements that this is based on is achieving that goal of increased student achievement. Okay. Yeah. I thought it was Ry's fault. I can go in. Do we do we achieve that by changing the world the word goal or priorities to goal? Those are the three priorities under that goal. make a motion we go back to the way it used to be. We could just say district. There's a motion on the floor. So, there is a motion on the floor. So, we've got a motion right now that says um we're going to approve this uh and also change the word priorities to goal. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying I. Can you repeat what you just
150said? I want to make sure. Are we gonna Are you suggesting the motion is what is in red here? The motion is the the word the motion failed. Let's start over. The word priority. Michelle, make the motion. Do you want to um amend your motion? I'd amend my motion that we go back to what we previously had. We go back to goals and then we say our goal is to have all students perform at grade level and reading each year. I understand exactly what Peter's saying and I think that's probably fair. I just think that it's just this is just for the school. I mean you could have individual goals for this class and that class and this teacher and that teacher and it doesn't have to be but the school's you know the intent
151of that is broad. Yeah. coming from that that whole page is based on the strategic plan. So the items at the top were based on the portrait of the graduate um characteristics and then underneath is the kind of that summary of the goals varities under the student achievement section right as as broad and then yes each individual site would create specific goals for that site based on data which is part of their continuous improvement plan. I just want to be consistent. I don't care what it is. I agree. So, one last point that I'll raise. You want to go to goals, that's fine. But please don't call them smart goals then. It's a wish. It's a desire to dream. Yeah. Yeah. Which is okay. Okay. I I can deal with it. You dream a little.
152I can deal with it. So, all right. What is the motion again? Well, I think Dr. Edman, would you So you seconded that motion. Would you second it as it is amended? And it is amended to say approval of the Brainard schools handbooks for 2526 with the um change to go back to what that section read before we made the changes. Yes, I will second it. Okay, we've got a motion and a second. I hesitate to say any further discuss any further discussion. No. No. All right, one more time. Let's try this. All those in favor of the motion on the table, please signify by saying I. I oppose the same. Did it. Okay. Before Before I exit, I just want to clarify. So, we're saying strategic goals heading goal one all students will blah
153blah blah blah goal two all students blah blah so on and so forth. Is that correct? Just the opposite of what we had. Okay. which is cool. I don't have a problem. Sounds good. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Long. Appreciate it. Sorry. All right. Up next, we have a presentation of the annual AC comp TDNE report from Sandy Tes. Welcome. Thank you. [Applause] Okay, this is um AC comp and the teacher development evaluation program. Um in the state of Minnesota, the districts, not all districts do both programs and those that do both programs have merged them into one. Um and we took a big step in that last year um as we pulled everything together. Um it's designed to help our teachers um and to support them in their classrooms to be the
154best selves they can be for their learners. Um there's a portion of it that is performance pay for performance which is the AC comp part of it. Um and then the professional development part is both TD& and AC comp. The focus of both TD and AC comp is to improve instruction and then to improve student outcomes. Uh this is an agreement between the education Minnesota brainer and department of education and the school board. You are our third wheel. the four state requirements um in the teacher development is like the peer coaching mentoring um administrative support that they give um PLC's and then there's a performance pay and salary stipens for different leader positions um and then the career ladders uh with trainers and different things like that what's career ladder um peer coaching um Danielson
155trainer curriculum leaders Um, every we have curriculum leaders that lead like English or science and they do work throughout the year to make sure that they are in line with the standards and um helping with the instructional practice as part of the career ladder as part of career ladder. That's a position is a curriculum leader or or a professional PLC leaders. Those are career ladder positions. Um what this looks like in our district um in the AC comp part of it, teacher observations, they have peer coaches or mentors depending if they are a probationary teacher, they get a mentor. Um otherwise, everybody is assigned a peer coach. They have anywhere between three and five conferences um or observations throughout the year. And then last year we implemented that all teachers had to do a reverse
156observation. Um feedback that we got was very very successful on that. So, that's going to stay in. Um, that component is twothirds of the AC compensation, which is about $1,200. The administrative observations is part of ACMP and TD& um where they teachers are on a three-year rotation um and have conferences, observations, postconferences, and then end of year to see where they were at with their G uh goal and how they progressed on it throughout the year. the PLC's um is part of both ACOMP and TD&E. Um groups meet weekly or bi-weekly dep depending whether it's 45 minutes or 90. Um they look through student data um and adjust their instructional practices by the data that they're looking at. that compensation is $1,600 or $600, sorry. Um, and then the site level goal, each building goal,
157um, is set at their continuous improvement retreat, um, which Christina had said earlier will be August 4th. Um, so this year's actually don't get determined until they have their results in the fall and then we pay that out the following year. um they changed that component to be less than 1% and only to be a dollar because sometimes it was hitting the budget so hard or not at all. Um it was really fluctuating the budget. So the total compensation for participants is 1801. The difference between the two programs is TDN all teachers must participate. It's a state mandate. Um in AC comp it's choice if they want to do it or not. do it right. Um, all but one. But one So the max between the two is 1801 is the total that total. Yeah.
158That they're eligible for. And they have to make sure that they do all the requirements. Um, and that's checked up between principles, myself. So, um some of the updates to the program, there's three components that we needed to update uh due to a statue that's coming out on July 1st of 25. Um one of them is the rubrics. Uh we needed to make adjustments to make sure we were responsive with methodologies so that we're fitting all our learners. We had to have three levels of performance. um we do have four, so we'll meet those. And then we have to make sure we're um we have everything based on the professional learning standards. Um and those were some of the components that we utilize to update our rubrics. Um we also had to update our questions
159in the pre-observation questions and postobservation questions to reflect the broader planning of methodology to support all of our students. um making sure the achievement is there and that their engagement is happening. Um we focused on a little bit more towards the post observation questions so that we could increase um teacher reflection um and really looking at what was their classroom environment like, what was their instruction, how was the engagement in that to um help them improve in their classrooms. The third component of that update is our surveys. Um we based our three questions is all we did on our survey. We based them on three different categories. One on learning and academic growth. Um another one on safety in the classroom and then the environment. Teachers are going to have a little more flexibility. We've
160we've in the past had a standard survey. These are the questions, no questions asked. Um but teachers can add some questions to fit their classrooms a little better. um whether they're a music teacher, the gym, or maybe a science lab, something they're looking for, they have some flexibility to add some questions. So, those are the three components that we updated um to meet the statute that's coming out in July. And these are classroom surveys. So, these go to the the students. They go to the students. Yep. Um, and at the like at the high school, I know they do like certain hours so that a student doesn't get three surveys in a day and then another student not get any. Um, so that they have all serve all students being surveyed just once. Um, and
161then the elementary and that are within their classrooms. Yeah. And they're all educators. So special education would also be doing that. Um, early childhood has their own. They all have their own everybody has them like PE teachers, music teachers, all of them. So great. seems simple. So when you talk safety, yes. What safety are we talking about? Um how safe they feel? Do they feel safe in their classroom like elementary kids? Um maybe procedures that are happening in their classroom. Are they are they feeling safe within the environment that they're in? So we just had the questions. We have elementary level. We have a middle school level and another high school so that the verbiage adjusts with the age level. Does it seem like the safety questions help like the kids feel better about it
162or I think it'll be helpful for the teacher with the exam. Oh, so you'll realize that it'll go into play next year. We didn't use we didn't use them. These will be for next year. The environment is the environment in your classroom. In your classroom. Okay. Does my Does my teacher help me feel safe? So the environment has to do with safety. I know what's that. So the environment has to do with safety as well. So we got one about academic growth. We got learning and then safety and environment. Gotcha. Thanks. Yep. You're welcome. Um the team is made up of three teachers, one from each level and then three administrators that are appointed and then there's also ex officials of the TNL director Christina, myself and then Misty Joe. They do meet once a
163month um to make sure things I guess are progressing um and deal with any questions that people might have out there. So um this year we did bring back an editing team. I'm not sure how long ago it was. 12 years ago. Yeah. When the original team was together. Um, and so we elected to bring back TD& team to help update the rubrics and those questions and that um, and to have a couple of the original members there. Um, and so this this was the committee that was brought together to update the rubrics, those pre and post questions and the surveys. There was a presentation given to all teachers and principles uh with the information that I've shared with you. Princ principles did approve the program um and then teachers uh voted and approved all
164of the changes to the program. Also, here's a breakdown of the career ladder positions. EJ, this is a little bit what you were talking about. Um we have about 100 105 peer coaches and mentors to um assign to different people in the district. We have 57 curriculum leaders and 67 PLC leaders. When do they do all this work? When do they have time to do it? Is this like overtime or do they have days where they're in school and they don't teach? They just work on this stuff. Coaching and mentoring. We didn't have a ton of money towards subbing. I wish I would have looked at it before I came here because I just took care of the main budget. Um, they do most of the peer coaching on their preps, all the right. Yep.
165We I tried to assign people within their building kind of within their craft and they travel there during their prep time. Um, and then curriculum leaders, we have meetings three times a year from 3:45 to 5 o'clock. five times a year. Yeah, I forget about the August and then we added one. Um, and so it's just an hour and a half early after school that they're taking that time and then they lead their groups on our staff development days with the work that they have to do. Gotcha. And PLC's are from 3 to 3:45. So they're still on contract time, but that's once a week. If it's bi-weekly, then it's they go three to 80 to 90 minutes. Y but they are not paid for the extra time. Um this is how our um program
166is funded. It's $260 per student. Um 169 in state aid and 91 in board approved levy. And that money pays the stipens for those leaders. Um, and then our trainers for those career ladder positions and then part of the AC comp and secretary salaries. The projected um budget for next year, we should have about a $70,000 carryover um with an estimated 1.4 expenditure. Um, you can see the salary pay portion of it is a is the big chunk of it. Um and then the career ladder positions, the program coordination and then any professional development time. So total expenditure is 1.5 um continue direction for us with through the MTSS next year um instructional practices and meeting the needs of students in general education and then the structure and tools for our teachers and having that
167discussion around datas and what instructional practices they want to adjust. Any last questions on the way? Yeah. So, how do you think this is helping us students learn better? Um, as teachers work together and collaborate in adjusting some of the things they do, um, it helps them to like present things maybe different to to students or change how they're even doing their whole method. Um, last year I had the opportunity to get into a few of the classrooms um, and teach the teachers how to do something. We had some literacy people. I grabbed onto Melissa Cornneia, our legacy coordinator, and um we helped the science teachers for example in how to teach the kids how to read science, not just read for pleasure, but how do we read science so they understand science? Um and
168so we showed them some of those strategies. We worked with some small groups in some of the elementary schools. So trying to help our teachers to be better with different different methods to teach something. Sometimes we all get in a rut of doing something the same way. And so and that's where the reverse observations really helped also going in and seeing how a teacher does something different than what how I do it. And it's like I could do this in that unit and I think I'd have much more success. Any questions? Do do is the cost of the school district a million five or is the cost for the program million five? The pro Oh, the school district pays 35% of it. No, no, it's funded by the state. It's funded by the state. It's
169all funded through the the money. Well, it's fine. I'm not I'm not saying I want to get rid of it. Just we have to opt 91 per student based on board approved levy. That's the 35%. So everybody's in except for one. Cool. Was the state considering getting rid of this? Well said it. Um, I can say the governor had proposed it and it was one of the first things taken off the legislature this time. So, it's back in. Yeah. Cool. Do you know how many districts in Minnesota? Is it not everyone? Not No, I know it's not. It was an application system at one point. Once you got in, you were in. And if you leave, someone else will swoop in and you're out for Okay. And they had like a one last time sign
170up. And from that point on, then and then if you ever drop, you can't get back in. Right. Got it. Okay. So, forever's a long time. All right. We'll look for a motion. Thank you. Yeah. I'll make a motion. I'll second. All right. We have a motion by Director Heidman and a second by Director Edman. Any discussion? This is a resolution because it um is a state program. So, we'll do approval by roll call, please. Randy Hman, yes. Sarah Spear, yes. Don Ward, yes. Breen, yes. DJ Dunl, yes. Stephanie, yes. All right. Moving on to the approval to renew the 2425, should that be 2526, resolution for members membership in the Minnesota State High School League as presented? You want me to read what Jack wrote to me? So Jack couldn't be here tonight, but
171this is what he wrote that he would like um for the board to understand. The Minnesota State High School League resolution for membership is an annual action each member school must complete to participate in league sponsored athletic and fine arts programs. By adopting the resolution, a school and its board formally commit to following the league's founding purposes, mission, and beliefs that promote educational opportunities, sportsmanship, and student well-being. Membership enables students to compete in state high school league sanctioned events at the subsection, section, and state levels and provides um access to training, leadership programs, and support services. Without this resolution, schools and their teams would not be eligible to participate in state high school league competitions. In addition, while the league collects membership and activity fees, schools typically receive a year and credit based on league
172revenues, which helps offset costs of the participation. Last year's credit for membership um districts was the cheapest it has been in 30 years. Thanks, Jack. Great. All right, we'll look for a motion. I'll make a motion that we renew the um membership for MHSL. Is there a second? Second. All right. We have a motion by Director Breen and a second by Director Ward. Any discussion? Yes, ma'am. Um I would like to see us add language to our contracts. I mean, uh, I I did not know this, uh, but when we play, like for instance, we we in baseball, and I'm sure it's the same in other sports, we played, um, Duth and East and we played Denfield and we had a contract with them. They're they were the home team because I asked Tom, I
173said, "Is there a possibility of cancelling this this weekend?" Because it was supposed to be really bad weather. and I didn't want to have any players get injured because the uh section playoffs were starting on Tuesday of that following the week. And he said, "We have no control over that because we're not the home team. And in addition, we have a contract." So, I would like to see us consider adding a clause into contracts that talk about discrimination and the fact that there are team participants need to feel safe. I think it's, you know, I I don't believe that it's something that is part of this resolution for being a member league, but I I want us to strongly consider that uh as part uh of our total discussion as well. Is that relevant to
174tonight's discussion to approve the resolution or is that something we can bring back to a a separate meeting? I don't think that you can sign if you sign an agreement with me and then want to come back and negotiate later. I'd be like I'm Are we not is would we ever not sign the Minnesota State High School? Well, no. Resolution. I think you're talking two different things. We are. one, um, you really don't have a choice to be part of the league, otherwise you can't participate. Well, that's speech and music and everything. Correct. I know it's a bad deal. Yeah. The second part of it is more of a a gender issue, transgender issue, such a policy issue in the school district. And really, when it comes down to when you're the host school, it's
175different than being the visitor school because when you're a visitor, you agree to the terms and conditions, whatever they may be. when you go denfield or duth east when we're the host though we can determine what those criteria are going to be um I don't know if there's anybody that I've heard of at least in the state high school league in Minnesota that has made a stance um it's been more of a um an individual performance uh decision example if uh Champlain Park had the transgender pitcher at their tournament. Um, any team could have said we're we forfeit and that would have been all they had to do. I don't know, Randy. I I we'd have to probably talk to legal about are there conditions we can set as a host or I suppose we
176can tell other teams we won't come if we have this being part of our agreement dealing with that issue but um probably you're going to find yourself either narrow down to who you can compete with and who you can't based on that condition. Um, until it gets figured out in DC with Title N, Minnesota's going to stay where they're at. So, it would be an individual district's decision. The high school league part of the state, huh? The high school league is not part of the state, is it? Yeah. I thought it was I didn't I didn't think it was a state agency. But they have to abide by they have to follow Title N. They have to abide by state laws. Yeah. So, that's not what my question was. Are they are they a state
177a organization? No, they're affiliated though by state law to follow state criteria. So I'm affiliated with the state then I have to follow the state law too. I have to follow the speed limit and I have to get a driver's license and so I'm affiliated with the state as well. I never thought about So anyway, Randy, I think that would be a discussion that should be um separate obviously from approval of this one and then determine how what kind of a stance does this district want to take. It's happening around the state. Yes, Prior Lake's doing it right now. Elk River is going to do it. And unfortunately, it would for the most part it would probably depend on what the Central Lakes Conference wants to do because you're a member of those also. And
178then of course section 8, you're a member also. So it's not just we can hold our little campfire here. It's going to it's an uphill battle, but I I understand what you're saying. Someone's going to light the match, but that would be something totally separate from what you're asked to do. I get it. I get it. All right. Thanks for bringing that up. Um, we've got a motion on the table to approve this resolution. Motion by Bre, second by Director Ward. This is a roll call vote unless there's further discussion. All right. Sarah, yes. John Ward. Yep. Yes. Dunlair. Yes. Stephanie Edman. Yes. Randyman. Yeah. Thank you, Kelly. All right. Next up on the agenda, we have the approval to renew the membership with the Minnesota school boards. Excellent. We like that. We've got a
179motion. Is there a second? Any discussion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Same. We're in approval to renew membership for the MEA for 2526. So move. Oh, sorry. Yep. Yep. I'll second. Peter, did you want to give us a presentation? Oh, you says you're going to give us a presentation. We don't want to cut you off early. I don't mind. You were moving along. Let's keep it there. Let's keep it going. We've got a motion by Director Ward, a second by Director Edman. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Oppos the same. Excellent. Approval of the second reading of policy 512, which is the school sponsored student publication and productions by director Lundren. Welcome back. Hello. Hello again. Uh so this is the
180the second reading. Uh the red lines were cleaned up um and added to the linked policy. So again, what we had talked about at the previous board meeting is moving to the uh MSBA recommended language. And then moving two sections from our previous or current policy to appendices. they were procedures uh which were moved to appendix C and appendix D. So any look for a motion? I'll make a motion that we approve the um policy 512. Second amendments be we've got a motion by director Breen and a second by Director Heidman. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I oppose the same. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have approval to change board committee meetings to regular scheduled work sessions. There was a proposal by some folks to make some
181changes so that we don't have um separate committee meetings that we move them all to one day and use them also as a work session. And so there's a proposed work session schedule in there to keep them all on the same day. Can I have a uh two-minute break? I mean, you can just keep on going. We're going to hash this out. So, do you have your passes? I'm affiliated with the state. John need a pass. I'm not talking about your driver's license. All right. I think the room would probably appreciate All right, we will pick up with we are talking about the approval to change board committee meetings to regularly scheduled work sessions rather than committee meetings and work sessions. Do you want to speak to that, Randy? I know that was I mean
182it was something that I had brought up. I mean, it just seems like we, you know, we have uh all these these meetings throughout the uh the year with committee meetings and understand I trust my my board members to get the information from them, but sometimes it's just nice to hear it yourself. So, you you you better understand what's going on. And I do do know a lot of districts do do work sessions uh as a second meeting. And uh uh I thought it was something that we could do and we could incorporate whatever topics would be discussed for that committee meeting and or any other topics that would be of importance as well. And uh students would be uh invited just like they are now to committee meetings. I think that's I mean the
183one committee meeting that I was at where they I thought it was very valuable. I mean they had some some good thoughts. So that was where that's where I was at with it is really all it was is and if you can't make can't make the work session you can't make it. But I just thought uh it was a another way of operating that's all. Mhm. And chair so um in in the schedule I looked at the schedule and it it it actually looks like there's two committees at each work session. Am I correct on that from what we Okay. for most of them though I think it's two committees um and I'm glad to hear that the students are will participate as well because I think it's very valuable still that no matter if
184it's committee or work session or whatever I think it's valuable to have them there so if it if you're not we're all assigned to two committees if I'm not assigned to committees that are going to meet in the work session am I still if I am I still expected to be there or not is this a you understand what I'm saying is this a um You know, like when we come in here, we we have roll call and you know, so we don't vote on anything in these. No, I know that. Is that how that would be then? If it was a work session, we were all there. We just we wouldn't vote. You would not vote? No, retreat. Are we expected to be there if we're not on those committees? Well, yeah. I think
185you should be there personally. I mean, that's what I want to make clear. I want to make Sarah Sarah said in our finance meeting, this is the way I took it. you said is that if like Sarah's the chairman of the finance, right? Well, then she would always be at the finance workshop where I'm the second and you know, I'm the underling. So then I don't have to show up. You don't have you're on that. Well, I probably would, but that what she said is that if you're the head of that committee that you're always going to be there, right? Isn't that what you were saying? And I think it's kind of because it's the same thing like Michelle remember the first year we were both on LTFM. Well, did we go to one meeting?
186We both made it that first year. I think I made most of that. Did you? Yes. Yes. Sometimes I sat in for you, but that was okay. Well, okay then. Michelle can be at all of them. I think Ry's intent was though to help communication between it is board members in the committees. questions about curriculum policy. I've never been involved in any of that. I don't understand how it works. And it would reduce the amount of times your committee is constantly being on the right pedestal. So we took whatever committees were meeting that month and put them all on one day and then said if we're going to meet from 8:30 to 10:30, that additional time would be work session. There could be additional items that we put on the agenda just for that. I
187didn't see time. So, it is 8:30 to 10:30. I think so. Were there times? I didn't see times on the schedule. 8:30. There's times on it. Yeah, we should put an I'm looking at it. Well, there are times to the rate and it says there's a time when I look down. Oh, I don't see the time. That was all crossed out. That's why I didn't It's got the U. Yep. Just like the committee meetings we have now. Just like the work sessions we have now, they would be public meetings. We would have agendas for them. They would be announced. They just all would be stacked in one meeting instead of three or four different ones in the month. I I just wanted to clarify if you know if you're if we're going to be expected
188to be at all all of them, no matter if we're on that committee or not. That's what do you prefer, John? Well, I I think it's a I was on another governmental um agency that we we operated under work sessions as well, Baxter City Council. Did you like it? Pardon me. I did like it. I did like it. It allows um discussion without action. Yeah, that's what we kind of liked with our regular retreats. What do you think, Stephanie? We're good at that. Yeah, I I wouldn't mind it. I mean, what do you want to do, Michelle? Yeah, I'm I'm I am in favor of it. I like I would like knowing some of what some of the other committees are discussing. At first I didn't like it, but I'm fine with it. That's knock
189her out. You got a You got a motion. Motion. I'll make a motion. Make a motion that we have uh work sessions and eliminate the uh separate meetings as far as the uh committees. And this would be effective July. And I think we have dates through the end of December. So we'll we can re revisit that at the end of the year and see how that's going. Yeah. So we can we can put these on our on our schedule right now as solid dates and everything and I can I'll send invites. Okay. Okay. Well, let's finish our motion here. We've got a motion by Director Heidman. Is there a second? I'll second a second by Director Breen. Any further discussion? Yeah, one one more question. Um, how are the students going to be notified? Same
190as you. Paul's been notifying them. Okay. She's been sending that invites. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. All right. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Appro um oppose the same. I almost said approve the same. Oppose the same. All right. Motion approved. uh approval of authorizing the school district to proceed with preparations for an operating levy referendum to be held in fall of 2025. Um, Superintendent Grant, do you want to? Yeah. Um, first of all, I I appreciate uh staff members and community members reaching out to me and uh giving me their um viewpoint what they think should be done and what should the option should be. I think we all know that there is no sustainability with state funding. Um it it proof is in we get $11,000 a student, St. Paul
191gets $33,000. That's proof in itself. So as every two years the legislature determines how much money they're going to give out to schools, it is not sustainable then because one year you can get 2%, one year you can get 0%. I've been through zero four years in a row and it um it places an un ungodly financial burden on the business department to try and figure out what are we supposed to do when we don't know and how do we how do we set a target that is moving constantly and um it's just but it's the nature of Minnesota. Other states are a lot different, but it causes us to have to be creative and it's not always about asking for money. Sometimes it's about how do we spend the money we get and u
192but your creativity is going to be only controlled by really what the assets you have to work with. Um it's just like everything else. So, as I've been struggling trying to figure out really what do I want to say to this board, um I know that this problem is cyclical. Maybe 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, public schools in Minnesota find um operation of their finances difficult depending on what's going on in St. Paul. And um it happens routinely. Um and I gave you all data about what years the highest number of elections are and what years the lowest number of elections are for let me referendums. So as I'm trying to figure this out, I just happened to look up what was going on in this community in 2016 2017 and it was interesting
193that you had an intern superintendent Bob Gross. He came back after being here for quite some time and um the sitting superintendent made a quick decision to go out to South Dakota. Um and Bob just happened to be available and he said, "Yeah, I I can do one year." So he was interviewed by the Brainer Dispatch and this is what he talked about. He says, "There's so many state and federal regulations that require more administration to address data requests." And it's no different today, except it's probably more. So, when we think about who's going to get this stuff done, you got to find people that can do it because we're constantly being asked to s, you know, give data back to the state, whether it's Minnesota or the federal government. After 15 years in private
194sector, he was surprised by the amount of data the state and federal government needed uh for various programs that public schools offer. And it's special education, it's title programs. Um, we got ADSIS, we've got this, we've got that, we've got school lunch. Um, we got free and reduced lunch, we got compensatory aid, we have, um, we have to report on the number of kids who might get suspended, the number of kids who are in fights, the number of kids who skip, the number of kids who come to school, the number of kids who are gone, and so forth. So, the data request keeps going on. Public school finances right now are difficult to balance. The number of students with special needs has grown, especially with increased needs to serve from birth to age five and
195really now today it's birth to 21 22 22. So, we're expected to do more for kids that are in our community from age from birth to 22, but the money doesn't sit there for waiting for that to happen. So, this is what he says at the end. He says, "When I came back, I wanted to get a better handle on the district finances." This is 2016. With the benefit of hindsight, I thought I knew, but I overestimated the ability to address the district's deficit spending. But here's a man 30ome plus years in administration and he overestimated in his experience, he overestimated what it would take to change it. And in the end, he says, "I thought it could get done in one year. It's going to take a longer period of time to turn that
196around." So, one of the um most astute superintendents in the state of Minnesota, also named superintendent of the year, also named superintendent of an international program that he was over in I think Japan or someplace in Asia. He comes back for a one-year stint and he says, "I can't figure it out in one year. It ain't going to happen because it's too complex and um it's not the same as it used to be." So for you, six board members. The importance tonight for your decision is based on why you were elected to serve the district. provide governance, support a financially solvent district, and uphold state laws and board policies. That's the only reason you're sitting here. That is the only reason you're sitting here. You were elected by the voters of the school district, Brainard,
197Baxter, Niswah, and I know there's other smaller towns, communities, and so forth. So, as we try to make a decision tonight, and I did let you know that June 9th is not the cut line. Technically, it's August 12th, but that date starts the election tech clock going. and you uh if you're going to have a campaign that's going to have success, you don't want to make that decision on August 12th because that's going to be um pretty short cutings when you have to vote in the first week in November. So, as you guys support your your rationale, I'm not here to argue with you. I'm not even here to persuade you. you have the data that I've given you and um since I've been here that seems to be one of the criteria you value
198most data and Peter Leatherman gave you data. Um is there wiggle room on that data? He said yes 3 to 4% either way. But he gave us data that we paid for it because we wanted to know the pulse of the community. You got the data. Um it's a tough decision. The last thing as a superintendent I would ever want to do is go to the public and say, "I'd like to raise your taxes." How do you feel about that? But we're the only governmental entity in the state of Minnesota that has to do that. The city, the county, and the state are the only governmental agencies that represent the people of Minnesota that don't have to ask you for permission. They can do it until the sky turns red. So, the difficulty here is
199to ask the community, would you pay some more taxes to help us? And it's not an easy question to ask. It's not an easy direction to take, but you are elected as the board and um the ball is in your court. So, I would like to make a motion that we approve authorizing the school district to proceed with preparations for an operating levy recommended referendum to be held in the fall of 2025. We have a second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Yes. I've got a couple things that and Superintendent Grant, thank you for that for all the information that you've given us. The other thing I want you and you're absolutely correct that townships, cities, there's all the other governmental agencies don't have to go to the voters to
200raise a levy. The other thing I want to make clear is two or four years ago, I don't remember which one it was, the state of Minnesota, the legislature of Minnesota also approved if you have an operating levy. You don't have to go back to the voters again to renew it. So that has also presented a fiscal disparity between the halves and the have nots. And I'm sick and tired of being the have nots. I I mean we've heard we've heard um great testimony tonight about letting our constituents in the school district um have a choice. Yes or no? period. And we often talk about cuts. I was just reading something about school cuts the other day that said we got to stop talking about cuts and talking about what we lose. We cut our
201hair. We cut different things like but what are we losing? The cuts the cuts that we have are more significant than just cuts. They're losing they're losing um staff. They're losing extracurricular. We're losing extracurricular. We're losing class manageable class sizes. We're losing students. And you know, we there's a very variety of reasons for that, but I'd rather talk I'm going to start talking about what we're going to what we lose rather than what we cut. because we're losing a heck of a lot for our kids when we don't at least try to say help our kids, help our district, help our staff, help our community to prosper and bring it back and and move it forward um like we always have done. Um so I want to make those two points. Um I I we
202need to move ahead. We need to allow our constituency the opportunity to say yes or no. So, thank you. A couple questions, Peter. What would it Do you have any idea what it's going to cost to put this election on? When you do a standalone election, it depends on the size of the community of the voters, but it's about 10,000. Oh, I heard it was 50. No. Would we spend any money advertising that we wanted people to vote for it? Well, the rules are this. The district is responsible for the publication of the ballot. That's it. That's it, Ellen. You cannot spend one nickel on telling people to vote yes or no. That is not part of the uh statute for elections for school districts. You pay for the ballot. Um you're going to have
203to pay for lawyer fees to approve the ballot. you're going to pay for um financial advice from like Ellers who will tell you exactly um they would for example what they'll do is they'll put up a a ticker and you can put in the value of your house and it'll tell you exactly what your increase is going to be by address and so forth. So the the board itself, the district, that's the only expense you have. Well, then you have to pay for um the voting machines and stuff like that from the county, but that's probably $10,000. Then you can pick and choose where your voting is going to occur because it's a special election. Well, here's the deal. Thanks for that information. Uh I just want everyone to know that I'm voting no. I
204didn't sign up to be on this board. I didn't take it lightly. It's important to me. Um, Peter, I appreciate everything you've told me and I agree with everything you've said. It's kind of like you told me, you can't really argue with me and I can't really argue with you. But I would feel 100% better if we had this on a normal election. I think as a lot of other people do that we're sneaking this in on in November when there's no other thing to vote for. And we know because we've been told by Leatherman and told by all kinds of adviserss that our chances of it passing are way higher. Well, if everybody wants it so bad, then why do we have to sneak around in the dark to do it? Number one. Number
205two, we're down a thousand students. Talked about it for two and a half years. The changes have been minimal, if any. All right, we sat here today. Our budget uh we spent 127 million on 6,000 kids. I'm not going to get down to the pennies, but it's for sure 20,000 a kid. That's $20 million. All right, we're $3.2 million upside down. We don't get the money for two years. By the time the two years rolls around, we're going to be $5 million upside down. So, nothing's going to change. I hope we all understand that. You know, we've talked about, oh, we're going to get EAS back in the classrooms. No, we're not. We're already 3.2 million. If we could possibly get five million by the time the two years is up with the increases, if
206we give zero increases to our educators, it cost us a million8 on Marcy's budget. So next year's going to be another million eight. So Peter, if they give us zero increases, we've now we're at the 5 million. So what have we accomplished? Somehow we've got to scale this thing. You know, I was I was uh telling Kevin Bole at the break, my break that that we had 7,000 kids. Now we have 6,000 kids, right? That's just right under 15% decrease. I did the math, if uh what's our new our new HR person, Jason. He told me at the meeting on Wednesday, I'm sure he's just estimating, guesstimating, we have 1,200 employees. We had,200 employees with 7,000 employees or kids in the school. We have 6,000 now. Do the math. Simple math. Take it times 14
207and a half%. That's 175 people we have to get rid of. I don't think we've done that. All right. I I I don't see it getting any better. We've chased these people out of the school. John, love you to death. What'd you tell me at the airport? Did they just drop out? Is this even real? One of the principles told me the same thing a couple weeks ago before graduation. DJ, what are you talking about this thousand kids? It's real. Marcy can give you the numbers. It's it's like it's it's it's a real thing. They're they're they're scattered all these communities around us. Why? Why? I heard tonight how great this school is. I heard how money is going to fix the problems. You know what? Mississippi has got higher reading scores right now than
208Minnesota does. We are the top of the United States. 10 years ago, no one had anything for us. We're always one or two. Now, Mississippi has passed us. Did you know that Minnesota is 50th out of 50 states in black reading scores, 50th out of 50 states in Latino reading scores? What are we doing following MDE? That's what we do here. Whatever MD says, we love it. We hop right on the bandwagon with them. I can't stand I can't go to sleep at night feeling like if I don't do this again that we're not going to be financially stable. We've got to scale ourselves for what we've got going on. You know, John, you're in the insurance business. Michelle, you guys were in the clothing business. We all been in something, right? You can't have
209a building that's three size, three times as big as for what you sell, right? Because you can't afford the rent, you can't afford the taxes, you can't afford the heat, can't afford the light bill, right? You can't afford the payroll. So, that's where we're at. And does it stink? Yes. We can't go put more kids in the classroom. I agree with you all of you 100%. I don't want more kids in the classroom. We just have to get rid of some of this ancillary stuff. We saw some of it tonight. I don't want to pick things out because last time I did it, holy cow, it turned into a big deal, you know? I mean, it's a half a million here, a half a million there, a half a million here, a half a million
210there. I'm thinking that I could that with putting our heads together, as smart as a lot of us are in this room, that we could figure out a way to save three million bucks. I'm not saying that Marcy hasn't tried. I'm not saying Peter hasn't tried. I'm not saying there's anybody here with bad intentions. It's just sometimes you got to upset the apple cart and I can't with a I can't feel good about myself to just throw more money at this problem because I don't think it's going to solve it. I think by the time we got the first dollar, we'd already spent it all and then we can extend it for another 10 years. Well, what the hell? It would be nothing. We'd have to go for a new one, you know? I mean,
211think of the inflation and how fast everything's going up. Like, we're in trouble on a lot of fronts. But I appreciate it. I hope everybody understands I'm not out to get the school. I wouldn't have done this if I didn't love this school. I mean, the school is I I I didn't finish college. This school is pretty much what I have. And uh my father was the same deal. In fact, my mother was too. And so, we all seem to come out okay coming out of Brainard schools. They're great schools and they always have been. But we've got some work to do. And if that was done and we weren't down a thousand students, we wouldn't have the financial problems. And if the kids came back, I could feel a lot better about it. If
212it was like, well, the kids are back. We don't have I wouldn't be happy if we had 500 kids desenting out of our schools, right? Then it's like, we could go do this and we could get some EAs and we could have things be a little better. Well, I might be able to get on board. But at this point right now, we're just making up for all of our shortcomings. And are we going to blame it on everybody that's here today? I don't think so. And I'm not going to blame these guys. I'm not blaming anybody. But the situation is what the situation is. And money's not going to fix it. So, that's my two bits. I promise I won't talk anymore. My uh my thoughts are I'm going to be voting against it as
213well. Everyone in this room probably can afford the $20 a month or whatever it's going to be. Well, how about the have notch in this in this school district? It's getting bigger. It's it's expanding. And you know, we talk about $15, $20 a month. That can mean a big difference for a family. Putting food on the table, maybe taking their kids to the Dairy Queen once during the summer. And I think what we're doing, we our foundation right now, and I've said this in different meetings and in different workshops, it's on quicksand. And we got to fix our spending first because we're going to be right back at this in three, four, five years. We're going to be looking for more money and we've got to get our spending under control before I can go
214to the public and ask them for more money. And I am not against the Brainer School District either. I mean, it's just I I can't do it. I'm not there yet. But I'll tell you one thing. in two three years if we can get our spending under control I'll run through a wall to pass an operating levy if things don't change but I don't think we everybody talks about cutting I'm not talking about cutting cutting in the classroom I think there's things around the edge that we can we can still do and I don't know someone had made a comment and I know we don't comment to the person making the comment in public comment That That was a word salad, wasn't it? We've had budget committees before made of community members. I mean, I
215know the job dead date is we don't want to wait until August. I understand that, but and there are things coming up that I think will hopefully impact our budget and our spending. And um you know they state came out and and gave us this windfall spending man it was the biggest in history. What I would like to know is I'd like to know a breakdown of within the whole state as well as our school district what we spent that money on. What do we spend it on and how much did we spend? And I I can't deal with percentages anymore. I'm gonna start asking very blunt questions. How much are we spending? I don't care what percent is. Can we, you know, I always used to ask the question, can we afford that in
216the budget? Well, hell yeah, we can afford it in the budget. You know, it's how we spend the money. And I I just think we're going to be right back at the trough asking for more money. But we got to get our house in order first before we can go to the taxpayers and ask them for more money. Why? Why did we have $49 million in bonding? I mean, I was told the reason we did is because we knew that if we added that money to the referendum, it would fail because we'd be spending too much money and the taxpayers wouldn't pass it. So, what did we do? We had it added some more bonding, some more levies and whatnot to make it look good. I I can't do it at this point in time
217right now. And I'll just say it one more time. Everyone in this room probably can afford. Everyone can afford the 20 25 whatever we're going to ask for. And I think the ask is going to be, you know, if you don't go high enough, we might be back in two years instead of five. I don't know. But we can afford it. I can afford it. Everyone in this room can afford it. But what about the have nots in our school district? What about those people that live paycheck to paycheck? Why are we deciding what those people are willing to do or not do? Shouldn't we let them decide if they're willing to to take $15 out of [Applause] I'm willing to bet you the people sitting in this room right now don't know much about
218our budget at all. Hell, I don't know much about it. You know, about the spending, how it's the budget, yes, but the spending, that's that's what that's where I'm at. And I'm just, you know, and you know what? I'm up for election in a year and a half. And I told John this when I got elected. I'm not going to make decisions on whether or not I'm going to be reelected to this school board. And if I don't get elected come around, so be it. That's fine. But I just don't think in my heart I cannot go and ask the have nots in our school district. Ask them to pay more. That's all I'm going to say. I'm done. I want to ask uh DJ, you commented about a higher success rate of passing um
219in in uh an operating levy passing. Oh yeah. Higher rate of operating levy passing. Yep. When there's another um factor in the election. No, it's better odds when it's like by itself like this. Right. Right. Okay. Okay. I mis I misunderstood you then because I thought I heard you say I feel a lot better about it if it was a big election and there was school board election, sheriff, governor, all that kind of stuff and we put this out there where everyone's concerned and everyone's paying attention. This is how these always go or this is how the public feels. This is how I mean this is what I hear. Okay. All I'm saying is that the the data shows that you have a higher success rate in passing an operating levy when it's a when
220it's a single issue and it's an odd number a year. Why do you think that is? Cuz nobody shows up to vote. Well, cuz no one whatever whatever the reason is. I I I I just wanted to make sure that I heard you correctly. No, you me I you and I are on the same page. I understand that it's a higher there's a higher success rate on these other years, you know. All right. Um the other thing I just wanted to ask um you know my colleague my colleagues that are saying no I can't do this. What else do you want to lose? Be specific. Tell us what you want. A comp. Let's go with AC comp. Let's start with ACMP. Then I mentioned that we have the collaborative workers in the elementary schools. Not
221sure we need that in elementary school. So there's a million. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Uh, there's not supposed to be comments out of the audience. Chairman, please help me. Um, so those are so I don't know if Peter says they have to stay, they stay. I'm not going in like I'm the hammer here that I get to pick these things, but I'm coming up with some ideas. How about we close some buildings? How about we've got uh Forest View's got a whole pod that's empty, right? We thought that we were going to be in trouble about that rule with the LTFM money, which by the way, does anybody realize that the public's giving us another 4 million a year that we weren't getting before? Does that count for anything? I
222mean, we talked about it tonight. We get the 4 million in LTFM money, right? So, our buildings are going to get all spiffed up. We shouldn't have any problems. The high school needs a roof. Forest Fuse roof is 22 years old right now. I used to be on a committee. So is Michelle. We both know these things. we can get all that stuff spiffed up and in good shape the next couple years because we were only getting 775,000 a year in LTFM money and now we get 4.6 million. So that's a pretty nice shot in the arm that the state gave us. Right. So there's there's there's John there's groups that start out I don't want to say their names in here because it's not fair that the day one they get 20 days off.
223You could work for me for 50 years you don't get 20 days off because I can't afford to be without you or I wouldn't hire you. It's not realistic. Some of these things are going to have to be walked back, right? It's going to be tough. It's going to be ugly. I understand. But it has to be fixed. And when it gets fixed and we stop with all this things we're doing in the school, I talked about it in the deal. It's been in the paper. All the woke stuff that's chasing all these people out of here. You know what? Then maybe we don't keep losing all these children. I mean, we've got I hope everybody understands that. You take a thousand kids at 20,000 a piece, it's $20 million. Makes this referendum look like
224a little spark. 5 million from 20 million. What if we got half them back? It's 10 million. We don't have a problem anymore. Plus, by the way, we don't need to get rid of a building. We don't need to get rid of a thousand or a 100 people. But right now, we do. We can't keep pretending like money's going to fix us. We've got to face the music and start to We can't be everything to everybody anymore. I don't know how else to put it. I hear all these things. Brainer schools are the best. They were. They're still great. Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't be on the school board if I didn't think Brainer schools were okay. You know, why am I here? I don't have any kids in the school. I don't have
225any grandkids in the school. Why am I here? You know, it's like, well, I thought I could help. I'm trying to help. I think we can fix this. I think it could be okay. I'm kind of on Ry's deal. Two, three years from now, we get all this under control, we quit losing the kids. I'm not expecting those kids to come back. I really don't think there's any way to get them back, right? But if we could quit losing them, kind of like the Niswah school experiment we're trying this year, pretty good idea. 24 kids, uh, Carrie Ross told me that we're keeping, that's a lot of money. 24 kids times 20 grand. What's that? Is that 500,000 bucks? There's a half a million right there. If we'd have lost those kids to Peekquat, it'd
226be another half a million would be down. So, it's like I think there are ways we can do this. We're talking about Peter's talking about Carrie Ross is talking about keeping them in sixth grade next year at NISWA. Maybe we can keep them another year. Well, that's, you know, that's a million bucks for the two years for 24 kids. So, I think that we can do this and and I don't appreciate, you know, I get what I get. I'll take my my medicine. This whole vote thing, this is a republic, not a not a democracy. We were voted to do a job. I'm on the same page as you are, Randy. If I don't get reelected, okie dokie, right? I'm not going to just vote so I can get the job back. I It's, you
227know, it's important to me, but it's not important in my life of experiences that I got beat in an election for the school board. So, I feel this is the best decision for the school. I don't think that Marcy Peter Heidi Han told me the same things. Kevin Boils told me tonight the same things. I don't think these people aren't very smart or anything. I just think I have a better way and you're stuck with me. So I think we can fix it. I think it's doable. Director John Delunger, I feel like in two years that's going to be too late just because a lot of us didn't have the luxury of being here intimately with the budget the last 18 years. We can lean on the fact that there have been cuts. We have
228lived intimately in the budget the last I've been with the last three superintendent line by line by line. There there are not $500,000 bogeies hiding anywhere in that budget. I we we've gone through and taken $10,000 here, $5 there, 1,500 there. That's where we're at. I'm not saying some creativity couldn't help, but if we make this decision tonight for the voters that they don't have a say in it, our next step is to change what this district looks like and the trajectory of this district forever and not in a positive way. We are going to have to cut programs and extracurriculars. We are at that point where it isn't $10,000 here anymore. It's going to be have have to be wholesale. I can't be a part of that without the voters getting a say in
229it. I will not be a part of it without the voters getting I said I wasn't going to say anything. I got one more question. How many school districts have operating levies and they're still in financial straits? I don't claim to say this is going to fix everything for us, but it sure as heck isn't going to destroy our district the way it would if we don't go to voters. How can you even fathom the idea that we wouldn't let voters have a say in this and then destroy the district? We're not destroying the district. I mean, can't we still work on rightsizing our budget in conjunction with letting the voters decide if they want to keep what we have right now? I absolutely think we are not giving up on doing that. I think
230this is the time to do it when we have the voters support and let them decide that we are still going to have to make hard decisions even with a levy. Yep. That will not solve the problem. And I think we are all in agreement on that. I've been putting out suggestions to stop the bleeding of students for two and a half years and I haven't gotten one of them across the finish line. I guarantee this will not do it. Cutting programs. I guarantee that I'm not going to trust you that you're going to get this through and then you're going to go fix the budget because I haven't been able to get nothing. zip-dah. So let's just we just vote. But remember, director Don Linger, we are a team. We don't do anything individually.
231We we are a board. And so if you want me to change the budget, that's us changing the budget. That is all of us. I was just trying to stop kids from leaving for crazy new educational ideas that we have that have snuck into our buildings. Again, I'm ready for the vote. Chair Ste for for me it's not changing the budget it's how we spend the money within the budget that's where I'm at where I'm at how we spend the money and that's based on our strategic priorities correct student achievement staff and student well I'm all about I mean I've been pounding and harpering on on achievement and uh scores and whatnot since I've been on the board I know and And director Dinger mentioned Mississippi and we know exactly how to make that happen.
232What happened in Mississippi? They added to their budgets. They added to the formula. They've got EAS in every classroom. They've got intensive reading specialists. Yeah, we could do that. Not with five million bucks. We know how to do it. We not going to do it with five million in a not going to do it with five million bucks. No, you're going to need about 10. We are going to be able to stay where we're at today with five million bucks sadly. But that's better than the alternative. And it still comes down to what I mean. We're not doing this in the dark. we're doing. We will be very transparent about what we're asking for and and what what we need to maintain are our the goodness of our district. But at the end of the
233day, why do why are we the ones that that have to choose or are choosing to choose? Why aren't we letting the community decide? Well, maybe we should ask them if we should fire the teachers, the ones that we had to get rid of today. Why don't we have them all decide? That's what you got voted for elected for. It's hard. But my I was voted by my community to be transparent in saying we are struggling financially. I have sat with this budget for two and a half years. No, I don't know everything, but I've sat with it and I've I've seen the cuts that we've made and I've seen what is left, which is nothing. And um so I'm elected by my community to say, "We're struggling. We need to ask you, can you
234help us?" And if they say no, then we know then we know that we where we're at. But if they but if they don't say no, then that gives us some some cushion. that gives us some possibility to continue to to do what we're doing right now and maybe even a little more. But if we don't even ask them, we don't get to find out. And I agree, Michelle. We shouldn't be. We I mean that's arrogant of us to say we're going to decide whether or not we're we should go for an operating levy referendum because we think that there's there's um line items in the budget that we have not been responsible for for the last 18 years. So, I'm going to punish the district for the next two years um based on the
235fact that we that the budget isn't what you want it to be. And I don't think this is a referendum on giving up on stewardship. I think it's both and this is a us we want to maintain the programs we have and we got to figure it out. There's still stuff we got to take care of and get creative about. some of your suggestions DJ absolutely we should be looking at those but it's not one or the other it is going to have to be both and you know the other thing too that I that I want to mention is um you mentioned cutting a comp you mentioned cutting collaborative workers I'm not saying we should I'm just saying there are just let me finish and you heard the response I heard the response we
236all heard the response I don't profess to go into your dealership and tell you how to run your dealership cuz I don't I excuse me I don't know squad about it or finances Randy like you're in finances and Steph what you're in I but I do know a little bit about education and I know that cutting uh Q comp a comp and collaborative workers and losing losing losing losing eventually ends up with a lost district period and lost students and students that don't have a future and I don't think it's fair to say um to decide for those that Randy as you say can't afford it. Let them decide if they can afford it or not. That that you you're you're making it econ you know socially economically um against them. You know that they're
237they're looking at maybe my kids have a better future because we are investing in education. Maybe I maybe we maybe we we not maybe we struggle. We struggle financially, but my kids are going to have a better future because I'm going to invest in education and I'm going to do what I need to do to make sure that happens. I don't think it's fair to say I can't afford it. And you know what? The only thing that's going to happen if we don't take care of this now rather than later, in my opinion, is create a bigger uh have and have not um situation for us here in Brainer. Um I I just can't emphasize it enough. Some of us know business world, some of us know the educational world a little bit and we
238have always been able to work together to understand each other and I respect that and appreciate it. However, this is critical. This is life saving. This is like um I I I can't even I mean it's life- saving and it and it's important for the future of our students and our children and our grandchildren and our great grandchildren. It's important for them for them. Um I just ask you to reconsider because it is critical and we can't wait. um the gravity. I've been through the I've been through the cuts um that we that we have had before. Those of us in education have been through those zero and zero and zero um four years of 0000 and I had a program that that I that I that I taught in service learning and that got
239it was one of the best programs not because I had it but bec I still get I still get kids coming back and say Mr. Ward I learned more in that program and I've heard you guys say those are the things that we need more. Well, how can we do that if we don't have the resources? If we don't have the resources, how can we provide some of that? So, I ask you to please reconsider. I think the gravity of this is, and it's not dramatic, that should we say no to this tonight, we are about to embark on an endeavor to change the trajectory of this district and to change the landscape of this district and the opportunities for the kids. Not for the better. Madam Chair, I'll call the question. All right. We
240need a motion. There is a motion. There is a motion. And I made a motion that we approve all the John had made. Just made a motion. I just called the question. Called the question. There's You have a motion. You have to have a motion. You're the only one that wants apples of orders. Yeah. You're the one who wants to quit discussing this. Michelle has be a motion. Okay. I thought we were I thought you guys made a motion. Yeah, she made a motion. But you made Didn't you make another motion, John? No, I I just said I called the question, right? And that to bring it to a vote. That needs a motion and a two-thirds vote. I don't I don't agree with you on that. Oh god. That's that's not Robert's rules of
241orders and we're under Robert's rules. Parliamentary procedure. But if you got other things to say, let's hear it then. Yeah. Let's hear it. Tell us what Tell us what you want to lose. No, you you're calling the question. Mhm. That you know, I'll vote I'll vote for it, but it takes a motion and a second and a twothirds vote to call the question. Call the question. Yeah, I I'll vote right now. Yeah, I don't have a problem with that. But we have to follow the rules though too on the call of question. Yeah. Okay, I'll second it. Okay, we've got a motion and a second to call the question. Any I ask for all those in favor with call the question. I oppose the same. Okay. All right. Let's vote. The motion on the table
242is to approve authorizing the school district to proceed with preparations for an operating levy referendum to be held in fall of 2025. All those in favor signify. Oh, roll call. Roll call vote. Sorry, I John Ward. Yes. Michelle, yes. Dinger, no. Stephanie Edman, no. Randy Hidman, no. Sarah Shear. Yes. Motion fails. All right. Moving on to SRO contracts. We pulled those off of the consent agenda. And Director Dondelinger, you wanted to speak to those a little bit on the SRO's? Yeah. Um well the only thing I thought was that wait for the commotion to die down is that uh Brainard gave us a 3% increase and Baxter gave us a six and I thought maybe we could go to Baxter and say hey because you know Brainard's going to go and say they want to
243have six next time and it's just like you know uh 3% of $100 is different than 6% of $100. So, it just keeps on going and I just I think it's an easy deal. But couple phone calls, I could do it for you if you want. That's based on their salary schedules. So, it's in their contracts. That's what I thought is I didn't understand why they'd be different. I mean, the two of them could kind of chip in together. Did you see the value they put on the on the officer? You see the value they put on the officer? 168,000. That's probably benefits in the whole package. I'm sure it's a car. I just wonder if it's not for the whole year, not for the nine months we need them. Or do we use them
244also? Also, we take them all. Well, it's not like burn the house down deal, but it just seems like we Yeah, we asked the same question. We found out difference. They get they wouldn't help you out on the increase. I mean, it's kind of like, you know, you're going to buy gas. You know, I'm not going to argue at the pump. Give me a No. What can you do? I'm with you. All right. Well, let's try. All right. So, we'll need a plus. I just want to say that we have such a really good relationship. If I thought they were ripping us off, we would be doing something about it. So, I just don't like the difference because I know what's going to happen. I don't I you know, Brainard's going to be pissed that
245they should have went for more. All right. Um, we'll entertain a motion to approve the SRO contracts for Brainard and Baxter. Motion. We've got a motion. Is there a second? Second. We've got a motion by director Don Dolinger, a second by Director Edman. Any discussion? Not. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. I. Opposed the same. All right. Moving on to committee updates. Curriculum committee meeting. Chair Hegman. Uh we talked about the read act and the training that the teachers were going through. Uh we had 276 K through six teachers and 20 administration people complete the OLA uh which is the training module. Uh and 27 uh EC teachers completed the requirements of module 4. Um we talked about Forest View Middle School and some of the uh schedule changes and the
246curriculum impacts etc. and uh all seem to be uh in pretty good shape from that standpoint. It's I think there was a concern about music classes. I think that got resolved, right? Yeah. So, uh and then we uh reviewed all the student handbooks as well and uh we talked about that tonight. So, end of report. Great. Thank you. Uh next we've got the finance committee meeting and a number of those the things we talked about in finance were on the agenda tonight with the exception of the postsecondary enrollment options contract. Otherwise we talked about OPED the audit um and the preliminary budget which we approved tonight. All right up nextformational meetings we have Brainer Public Schools Foundation Director Edman. Okay. So, the scholar um scholarship recognition night was a huge success. They awarded over $220,000
247to 172 graduating seniors. They are collecting gently used warrior gear at the Washington Educational Service building until the end of June. The sale the sale of these items will begin mid August at visit Brainard. That's pretty much and then we are taking a break for the next couple months. All right. Thank you. The wellness task force update. Dr. Breen. On June 5th, approximately 12 secondary health educators, counselors, and special education staff participated in project 11 training, smiles for Jake provided refreshments for the training. And on June 6th from 8:00 to 9:00 at the get you ZB Brainer public school staff participated in advocacy training and an introduction to project 11 provided by the previously trained Smiles for Jake leadership team. All staff present received a continuing ed credit and a Smiles for Jake advocate t-shirt
248and our June meeting is scheduled for June 23rd. What's a continuing ed credit do? Oh, because they have to get trained every year. All right. Business services report. Director Lord. Uh so in your packet is the financial report. If you look at the very bottom, you can see that we're about 74% through the budget. Um we do have two months left. So that math doesn't seem to add up, but it's because in June we do pay the teachers for July and August. So that will that's why it looks like we are um not on track for the year. Um and then one other thing I just wanted to talk about. So when you talked about the 20,000 per student DJ the each fund um has different resources. So general fund is where all the money
249goes when we get paid per kit. So food service generates its money by the state and whatnot. So, it's um when we talk what if and gened aid, it is really just the gened. But if we got a thousand kids back, our food service fund would go up. If they were eating. Yep. It's the same thing. And then the community service fund, it's all driven by um the revenue generated by the programs. Like we don't get paid by the state. It's not a perkid thing. Same with building construction. That's the proceeds from blueprint 181. So it's it's not which is done, right? Yeah. Yep. We get proceeds or we just have reserves. Um we the proceeds came and so now it's just reserves left and then debt service is based on the levy and then
250the oped trust fund is levy too. So really getting paid per student is just in the general fund that top section. Marcia, let me ask I I I want to make sure that I understand this long-term funding mechanism. Uh with our buildings, we're going to get about four million, correct? How much of that is used then to pay the bill for the previous levies that were approved by the board? So all of that comes out of the debt service fund, which is the fund seven. So none of what hits the general fund is paying for debt. It is all going towards buildings. So, we have $4 million that we're we'll be able to because at one point I thought we said of all this money that we had, we only have 775,000 left over. We
251did, but that all changed under this new formula because we qualified for the square foot square footage. So, I don't know what Jeff has to say, but I asked Reed when Reed was still here and he said that the industry standard is three bucks a foot. So, if we have a million and a half ft, we should have 4 and a.5 million. It's not like we're rich. Remember, if somebody accidentally smashes a glass door on the way in to Forest View or the high school, that comes out of that money. Uh painting, roofs, football fields, bleachers, parking lots, you know, I mean, it's it's it's everything. So, we're kind of back on par where we should be. So, we're we're cool with the LTMF that all that stuff because we qualified. Okay. I just I
252wanted to get that in my head because I always kept on thinking we only had 775,000 of the 4 mill. No, before we had 3 million, right? Oh, it was two and a quarter went to debt service. I was going to say only 900,000 was going towards actual buildings this year. So, okay. It's significant increase. Correct. It's a good deal. Yeah. No, no, I'm right. It is. Yeah. No, I get it. Um, and then one other thing too, the AC comp, just so you know, if you look in that budget report, there's a separate line for assigned Q comp. If that program was to go away, we can't use those funds for other things. It can only be used for Q comp. So that there's no savings there if that program went away. But we
253wouldn't get any money from the state. Nope. Really? So there's I mean that big idea, right? Just I want you out of that. I was at a deal that showed that we paid at 35% and they paid the rest. But I suppose that's true, but they're still paying us to pay the rest. Is that what you're saying? So I'm saying the money that comes in is strictly for QC comp. If we don't have QC comp, that money does not come in. It's gone. So we can't spend it on You think they're paying 100%. That's what you're telling me. The state and um it's levy and aid gets paid and if if that program goes away, we can't spend it on anything else. It just goes off falls off the levey and the aid does not
254come in. There you go. And and that's the same for um our collaborative workers. They don't come out of our general fund. Well, you guys aren't very good salesman. I did up to you a month ago. No one told me that. Whatever. Let's keep on trucking. That's an ADS grant, correct? Yes. the collaborative workers. Yeah. So then if we don't get I know we've talked about that. Any questions? Thanks Marcy. Thanks Marcy. Marcy, you can walk away. But just just a reminder what Marcy had said earlier that the 4 whatever million is we would get in LTFM. We could adjust that levy. Yeah. And if we went to a public vote for a levy referendum, it could be a zero for the public. It'd be a wash. So the person that can't afford $15 a
255month, they might not be paying anything. Explain that a little bit more. Well, because it's a levy, okay, we can reduce the 4 million. That would lower the tax impact of a levy ride, levy vote. Taxes would go down, right? Taxes would go down. So, some people wouldn't pay anything. It wouldn't be a change for them. Taxes are going down with the four million. Believe it or not, some people are like, I think $7 $7 a year. Yeah. Well, and we had debt fall off last fall. That's what we replace with the And I thought we talked about some of the debt that we paid off that we were going to maybe use some of that money. That's the same debt. Is that what we're talking about here? So that um could only be used
256for buildings, but it still is a tax impact. It just can't be used in general fund. Just remember in September Marcy will come forward and she'll say here's our proposed levy and you always in September you take the maximum but then you can change it by December before you approve the levy. and we took the max this year. And the difference is by lowering the LTFM, you can change what the levy is going to be to the public. And for some people, it'd be a wash on a vote. They wouldn't see a difference in their property taxes at all. So, we take 2 million, let's just say we take 2 million out of LTFM and then we go for the referendum and it passes for 2 million. So, we're still getting four million, but there's
2572 million we can spend on whatever we want. And there's other 2 million that has to be spent on buildings. Other things to think about Chromebooks, those computers that we approved for 800,000 that can all come out of the 4 million out of LTFM or what the capital levy. So at least they're going to go closed. Yeah. Do you have a um superintendent report you want? Well, just one the smiles for Jake was really pretty cool. First time I've seen it. and the I was I didn't know what to think but the auditorium or the arena whatever the theater was packed so it was really really cool and um I thought that those who are running Smiles Jake did a great job of explaining what it does and how it can help and so forth
258and then of course you know the other thing is we got 18 kids this week going to state track that's pretty cool that's really pretty cool because uh thought it was 21 hasn't been the greatest spring for weather and to have them accomplish what they didn't and I I saw where in some of the events all eight finishers qualified for state in this section. All of them from Brainard. No, all eight finishers section school in section eight. Really? Wow. Because they beat the qualifying time. So you're talking about a group of athletes that were pretty pretty good. That's great. Yeah. Impressive. Yeah. That's it. That's it. All right. We've got future meetings on there. We will make an update to the committee meetings going forward. So that will change on the calendar. So watch for
259that. Um and otherwise we will go into closed session. If I could get a motion for that. So moved. Second. Got a motion by Director Heidman. Second by director Dondelinger. All those in favor say I. I. Oppose the same. All right.