001Good evening everyone. I'd like to call the meeting of the regular meeting of the Rockford area school district board meeting to order. We'll start with the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you so much. Uh Madame Clerk, would you please call the role? Jamie Hilstrom here. >> Uh Chris Morgan >> here. >> Jessica Johnson >> here. >> Eric Gordy >> here. >> Kevin. >> All right. Thank you so much. Uh Dr. Idaho Hoover. Agenda is in good order. >> The agenda is in good order. Yes. >> Thank you. I'd appreciate a motion then to approve tonight's agenda. >> I'll make a motion to approve the
002agenda. >> Thank you, Miss Presca. Can I have a second, please? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Morgan. There's first and second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by I. >> I. >> Opposed. And tonight's agenda carries unanimously. Public comments. Looking to see no public comments. So, we can close that item of our agenda as well. Consent agenda is provided for your review previously. Um, apologize for that. And I would appreciate a motion to Yeah, just checking a thing. There was a thing. Yeah, we're good. I appreciate a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda. >> I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Thank you, Miss Hilstrom. Eric Gordy. Second. There's a first and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor of approving tonight's consent agenda, please signify by
003I. >> I post. >> And that does carry unanimously. Moving on to number five, superintendent report. Dr. Rylehoover. Thank you, Chair Gordy. Well, we made it to December uh before Mother Nature finally decided it was time for winter, but here we are on our winter wonderland snow and cold. Um but along with this, our students and staff who have been working hard all year are ready for a welldeserved break. Uh time for um them to spend with family, friends, and hopefully a lot of rest and relaxation. Uh with tonight being our final school board meeting of the year, we'll follow both uh statute and recent tradition. Uh I will be introducing shortly um Rockford CFO Bridget Peterson. Um they'll be doing our truth and taxation in a few moments and some other uh presentations and
004information related to our annual financial audit and final levy certification. But before we get into those items, I want to share some happenings from our schools. Starting with the elementary school at RES, winter fast testing in math and reading took place in early December and they are currently reviewing the growth data. Uh, one grade level per week is honoring one student per class who is consistently showing RTR, what they call respect, trust, and responsibility. These students are honored all day and get to have lunch with the principal. A launch your future. joined the uh Rockford area schools magnet experience night took place at RES on Wednesday, December 10th from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. First graders had their concert on the 11th of December and kindergarteners had theirs last Friday on the 12th. Uh students will
005be sharing their talents during a terrific t Thursday performance at school on the 18th and new third and fourth grade sections are set to begin January 5th. If you remember, we had kind of a hybrid section at third and fourth grade uh for financial reasons and it's gone well. Um but we did tell the families and the teachers over at the elementary school that if the levy were to pass even though the money doesn't come for uh another little while um we're going to reduce class size and we did. So information went out to our families just the other day and they're excited about that as well. Um at the middle school PLC's PLC's are in a state of refining action steps towards their goals of instructional design, student engagement, and data back student support.
006Built is completing their December update of the uh school improvement plan for their review. And as principal Warzeka said, the hills are alive with energy as they wrap up 2025 with dressup days uh and uh staff surprising students with different kind of attire they'll be using for the 67th day of school. Um, that'll be fun. You might want to come and hang out for that one. Uh, we're preparing for winter fast testing in January. An to see how the students have progressed. Um, hopes of exiting some ADS students who are showing some significant progress. Uh, CIC Jamie Madson is leading the team in their RNR process as they collect classroom examples of effective learning practices that highlight their building theme. Uh, they will have 18 to 24 students approximately taking CAPY screener tests per the
007read act. They wanted to express gratitude towards the ed foundation uh for their sound system that is coming to their cafeteria. Minnesota statute requiring all grades four through 12 students to implement mental health curriculum. That's starting next year. That work is well underway. I also Swanson has um now completed three pop-up choir sessions with students in fifth through 8th grade during boost as we look to continue some progress towards choir in 2026. Jessica Lappy, a parent volunteer who employed with Lando Lakes, was great just to present students in grades five through eight who wanted to learn more about career pathways and companies like Lando Lakes. They had some speakers there for that. Uh student support team is meeting with students who are showing um some struggles in school with missing homework and some grades that
008need improvement. And given the snowfield December, uh they have uh followed on a similar road of a snowplow naming contest that we'll be [clears throat] having here at the middle school. You might have seen at the news um one of our student advisory groups Bill suggest a name for our day custodian. Um they wanted to name him. So he's Howie Brooks Shovel. Um IB World School. Um our at the high school our winter activities are full steam ahead according to principal Manard. Some great early successes there as well. Um uh Mr. Manard, Mr. Rosa and Miss Madson continue to meet in order to establish aligned procedures and expectations for grading uh grades 5 through 12. AVID students in grade 11 visited 8th grade social studies to teach them more about uh the benefits of considering
009AVID and the programming associated with that. Uh Miss Bloom and Miss Angstrom counselors met with students grades 8 through 11 to discuss registration. and we'll continue to be polling at the high school individual students uh from the 12week grade check to discuss their performance and how they can improve as they move forward. And they also ran launch your future night on December 10th. 100 people came to learn about 15 different pathways. That's a pretty good turnout for that night. I know some of you u made your way over there as well. And the last week of December features the holiday dressup days, ugly sweater potluck, a unique way to celebrate everything they've accomplished and to send people off in a merrier fashion for the holidays. Um, outside of the school happenings, operationally the last couple
010of weeks, we've been focusing on our finances. So, our fiscal audits being presented this evening as well as our final levy certification for 2025. Again, Rockford School CFO uh Bridget Peterson is here with our team of auditors to share those um that information momentarily. Proud to share the results once again show excellent fiscal management and a strong stewardship of district resources. On the human resources side, I did mention that a new teacher has been hired to reduce class size at both third and fourth grade. and we are starting preliminary steps of staffing already for 2627 that will start taking place mid January to early February of 2026. Uh we've also been engaging a tremendous amount of outreach with the intent of sharing all the great happenings occurring in our schools. That includes work with I
011contact Media who did some work with our levy as well um for some digital platform work. Magnet night events again were happening at both Reams and the high school last Wednesday uh with purpose to encourage enrollment of both residents as well as those interested in joining us through Northwest Suburban or the traditional uh open enrollment route. As a reminder of the community, we will have here um our annual meeting with local dignitaries, city managers, mayors, legislative representatives on Monday, January 5th after the board of education's annual organizational meeting. From an instructional standpoint, the outstanding work of our educators has continued with datadriven conversations occurring in our PLC's as well as our built respective built meetings and our curriculum review work uh in mathematics. Additionally, the district instructional cabinet met this week, and I just wanted
012to go off script a little, but that was a wonderful meeting of our district leaders from across um all three schools and also here at the district office uh to talk about preliminary planning for uh next year and to finish up strong here in 2026. I also recently attended meetings with friends and colleagues from staff, MEA, AMSD, and MASA. I also engaged with our Northwestern partners uh with some work recently around our ANI plan that'll be due to be submitted in mid-March. I also was blessed to attend a recent event sponsored by the Rockberry Schools Apex which was on December 1st down at the park. And in closing, I would like to express my continued thanks and appreciation to our wonderful school board, our talented staff, our dedicated families, hardworking students, and the entire community
013for what was an absolutely incredible 2025. And that concludes the December superintendent report. >> Excellent. >> Thank you. Any questions for Dr. Ridlehoover? >> What day is the this or that day at the middle school? >> I got to go look it back up now. Let's see. >> Yeah, that's all right. >> 67. >> Yeah, this or that, right? >> Last >> Friday. >> It was last Friday. >> Um dress. >> Last Friday. Gosh, right. Darn it. I would have shown up. broke broke out some some clothes that have that number on it. >> And my name on the back. Just saying. Dang it. >> All right, I guess next time. >> We might hit that. >> 67th day of school left we can do again. All right, we'll move on. Thank you so much.
014Uh, stewardship of resources. Looks like we have a financial audit report and we'd like to call Bridget Peterson, our CFO. and a guest, Ryan Schmidt. >> And a guest. Good evening everyone. I am here this evening with Mr. Ryan Schmidt from the auditing firm of Schlenner. He is a partner with Schlenn winner and he and lovely other staff members conducted our annual audit here back in September. And so I will turn it over to Mr. Ryan and let him update you guys on all of the amazing things in our audit. >> All right, sounds good. So, I'm going to walk us through the results of the FY25 audit. Um, of course, we've given you the full audited financial statements and the report to members of governance, but we're going to focus on the presentation which
015uh we pulled together here. Yeah, I passed out hard copies for everyone. So, oh, and we've so I'll click along as we go. All right. So, I always like to start out with a brief reminder of what exactly we do during the audit. [snorts] All right. And what you know what's the purpose of an audit? Um so in a nutshell an audit consists of us obtaining your financial records and information from throughout the past year FY25 and basically performing the types of procedures that are laid out on this page. You know inquiries with people inside the school your financial management team various analytics where we compare actual results to either the budget prior year trends etc. But then lots of sampling and detailed testing where we're looking at the supporting documentation behind the transactions that
016are in your accounting system, whether that be invoices or reports from the state or bank statement activity, etc. All for the purpose of being able to express an opinion on whether or not we feel that your financial statements are accurate. So the opinion that we've given you this year is what's called an unmodified opinion. And that's a clean opinion. That's what you're hoping to achieve. Next page here, just some other required communications just talking about how the audit process went. So yes, you got the clean opinion, but how did it go? You know, did we have any difficulties getting the information we needed? Did we see anything unusual in terms of accounting journal entries or any transactions that stood out to us as you can see, nothing along those lines. Everything went smoothly. Um the
017one new item that we have on this page this year down at the bottom there was a new accounting standard that you were required to adopt this past year related to compensated absences which is just another way of saying employee leave balances. So if you're reading through the reports and you see some discussion about additional liabilities that were added for compensated absences. This is really just an onper change in the way that we account for these employee leave balances. So there's no change in your actual practices or policies. It's just that we have to record additional liabilities to reflect the balances that are being carried by these employees. Next page. Uh as part of the audit, we also look at your internal controls and the processes and procedures that are behind the numbers. Um we
018don't have any internal control items to report this year. So uh that's good news. You know, I I always like to talk about audit adjustments a little bit. you know, during the audit process, if we do come across errors or something that needs to be fixed, we help [snorts] make those adjustments. We help make the corrections so that we can still give you that clean opinion. But we really didn't have any significant adjustments here. The numbers were clean. They were solid when we started the audit. Um, and we didn't have any other issues that we came across with internal controls. So, everything was good. Next page we talk about our review of your compliance with Minnesota statutes. So the state gives us various checklists each year uh where we have to look at these statutes
019in the categories that are listed here. Contracting and bidding uh conflicts of interest claims and dispersements etc. Um we did have a couple of items this year under the contracting and bidding area uh related to two separate contracts. Um the first one noted there relates to carpet replacements that happen during the year. Um so the idea here is that whenever there's a contract that's over 175,000, there needs to be a formal sealed bidding process for you to publicly solicit those sealed bids. And I believe uh quotes were used instead. So it's not that there wasn't some competition happening, it's just the process wasn't quite what was supposed to be done. The next item there relates to performance and payment bonds. Um so also for contracts that are over 175,000, um there's supposed to be performance
020and payment bonds executed to protect both the district and the contractor. Just making sure you know everything holds up there into the deal. There was a a separate contract for those. Next page here, uh the single audit. So this is the uh federal program compliance audit that happens in in conjunction or simultaneously with the financial statement audit. Um so this is because the district receives over $750,000 of federal funds. Um which next year that's going up to a million, but don't you'll still be over the threshold. Um we have to review the federal programs through which you receive funding and just review your compliance with the terms of those programs. Um, so the program under focus on this year was the food service or child nutrition cluster and we did not have any findings. Everything
021you reported looked accurate. No internal control issues. Everything looked clean related. >> Can you go back a page? >> Yep. >> So Bridget, I'm gonna have to ask. So Mike, I'm going to have to ask. So for the carpeting we used previous bond money for that correct and then so seal process what so explain the bottom part for me >> the second >> yeah what what performance and payment bonds so we had a bond issue to cover those costs those are separate than this type of bond >> yeah yeah this is separate so I think this was related to a a paving contract um and actually it usually happens during the bing process when you when you solicit bids. Then with those sealed bids, they usually submit um performance and payment bonds, which basically means
022for the performance bond, let's say that the contractor didn't they maybe did half the job and then they just backed away. You'd be able to draw on that bond and get get funds in order to cover the cost of getting someone else in there to fix it. And then payment bond is just the other direction where let's say the district didn't pay the contractor, the contractor could draw that bond. >> Okay. >> Think like a cashier's check. That's exactly what it looks like when they present them to you. >> Yeah. >> Insurance say yes sir. >> Thanks. One of the things that we were told during that process of of bidding was and maybe this was we were told wrong by the folks we were working with that if it was a state contract we
023did not need to go out for bids. Is that erroneous? No, that that's correct. That's correct. If it's so the the state has certain contracts where they've already gone through a bidding process at the state level and then I believe there's a a state website that you can go on and you can select from those pre approved contracts and you can bypass the bidding process >> which is what I thought that we did but perhaps >> was that done for the for the carpet or >> for certain it was done with the paving. I can't speak to the carpet. >> So the so even though it's done for the So that's so there's kind of two issues here. is how did you go about soliciting the bids? Um which with you can do the state
024contract and you can bypass the the solution. >> So that is that is accurate still. >> Yep. Yep. And then and then even if you do a state bid, you still need to get the performance and payment bond. >> Thank you. >> Y thank you very >> two separate issues. The dollar threshold happens to be the same. >> Just happens to be Got it. Okay. Yep. That's probably what's top one carpet, bottom one paving. You got it. >> Thank you. Yep. All right. Move into the numbers. Starting with enrollment trends over the past five years. And as you can see, very flat. Um I think the change was an increase of six students from FY24 to FY25. So very steady. >> Still more. >> That's that's true. [laughter] >> With that, we'll move into the
025general fund. Uh the next few slides here focus on the general fund since that's where the vast majority of the district's activity lies. Um here we have 2021 through 2025 uh fiscal years and then that FY25 budget on the right hand side there. Um really big picture revenues exceeded the budget in the general fund by about 836,000. Expenditures also exceeded budgeted amounts by about 553,000. So you had budgeted for an increase for the year of about 535,000. Your actual increase was 818,000. And >> thank you guys for fixing our deficit spend from previous years. So I just want to point that out. Our deficit spend from >> 21 22 and 23 is rectified in four and five. So thank you. Appreciate that. >> Thank you for doing that. >> It's all of us. team, >>
026but it's Bridget. Yes, >> it's a lot of work and everybody doing a lot of work to make that happen. So, thank you. >> Yeah, thank you, Bridget. >> All right, next couple pages here. Still looking at the general fund. We're we're looking at those same revenues and expenditures now broken down into smaller categories. Um, so starting with the revenues on this page, as you can see, the vast majority of your revenues of course come from state sources, which are driven largely by enrollment and then also changes in state uh legislation. Um, here you were just slightly over budget, about 270,000 um but down from the prior year. The next page, same layout, looking at expenditures. um just focus on a few of the larger categories here. Uh you can see regular instruction is where
027your your your largest largest expenditure category here. You were down a bit from the previous year um but over budget about 415,000. Um exceptional and vocational instruction. This is mostly special education costs. Here you were over budget about 285,000. Um instructional and pupil support services over about 354. and then sites and buildings and fixed costs. There you were actually under about 569,000 which looked like part of that might have just been to changes in the way that costs were being classified or allocated between programs. Moving on to the next page, we have the unassigned fund balance. Um, so I'm actually going to skip ahead for a moment. I like to do these slides in a different order. Um so I'm going to look at this slide first where we look at the fund balance of
028the general fund at the end of the year. And here we have uh you know the the bars are the fund balance in aggregate at the end of each year and then the color coding is the breakout of [snorts] the classifications because portions of your funds are restricted or assigned for specific purposes. Um so you can see that the restricted balances which are restricted basically by state statute and the assigned balances which you just decided to set aside those amounts in total. So what you've set aside in total has held pretty steady from FY24 to FY25. Um it's the unassigned portion that's changed from FY24 to FY25. So with that in mind, going back to the previous slide here, looking at the unassigned portion of the fund balance as a percentage of your annual budget.
029Um, so you're looking at just that green bar as a percentage of your annual budgeted expenditures. And you have a policy to have this be a minimum of 12 to 15%. You can see last year you were just under 15% and this year you're up to 19%. So that has moved in the right direction. All right, move on away from the general fund and we'll just talk briefly about each one of your other uh funds here. Starting with food service and community service. Um food service revenues were very close to that of the prior year. Expenditures were up on the other hand. Um looked like a series of items driving this. Contracted costs went up. Um indirect costs that were allocated in food service increased. and also just some equipment purchases there as well. Decrease
030in fund balance here about 133,000 for the year. Uh community service very similar to that of the prior year overall decrease of about 25,000 for the year. >> Yeah. >> And food service you can only have so much in your fund balance. Correct. So having a little extra expenditure isn't that big a deal because we need we can spend that down to make sure we don't >> Yeah. And now that you say that, I think we discussed this last year [laughter] now that you said that. So, >> so this is a big thing we advocated for down at the capital too was being able to do something with >> those funds as well. So, I just want to make sure it's on record that it isn't that we're >> overspending in that area that it
031was >> Intentional because you can only have so much in that fund balance and >> required by statute, right? >> Yeah. Required by statute. >> It was planned spending. Exactly. So, thank you. All right, move on. Uh, show the cash in both of those funds over the past five years. Um, you can see that plans decrease in the food service fund cash balance and then community service held pretty flat in comparison to the prior year. And the next page, uh, your last two funds, debt service and building construction. Debt service. The activity here was very standard and typical of what you'd expect. revenues from property taxes and some state funding and then new debt service payments. So an increase about 199 year building construction, not a whole lot of revenue activity here, most investment earnings.
032Um but then project expenditures about [snorts] 1.3 million for the year as you're spending down that remaining cash. See the cash in both of those funds over the past few years. um you know you had that decrease in in you know you are spending down the cash but yet the the cash balance for building construction held steady that's because we had some inter fund borrowing happening last year between the general fund and the building construction fund um which got repaid so it's it looks like it held steady and it did but that's because there was a repayment from the general fund okay move on to just a few slides here looking at the district as a whole. This has everything wrapped together now, all of those funds and then also capital assets and on the
033next page, long-term debts, all those non-current items. Um, looking at things big picture, you can see overall your assets just decreased slightly in comparison to the prior year. Um, mostly what's happening here is just that your assets, your capital assets get depreciated on paper every year over their assigned useful lives. Um but really not a whole lot to change here. Next page we have liabilities. Um same layout here. Uh the biggest change if you just ignore that green bar, pretend that's not there for a moment. Um you do have a decrease in your non-current your your debt. And I wanted to mention that what's also included in this debt, this non-current balance this year is that new compensated absences balance. Um, which is actually around $3 million that was added this past year. So, it's
034it's a little bit not as comparable as as you would hope because we didn't retroactively restate all the previous years. Um, and you'll see that as we move to the next slide here. You know, last year. So, so this slide is showing those same assets in blue from two slides ago, those same liabilities from the last slide and then the green is the net between the two. So, on a net basis last year, you see that increase and this year you would see that same increase except we added this extra liability for compensated absences. So, that's what's causing it to flatten out this year. It's really just a change in accounting policy that we didn't retroactively apply to previous years. And then just one final slide showing your debt balance for actual debt over the
035past five years. >> This excludes the >> that excludes compensated absences. Yep. This is just actual debt. All right. Any questions? Any [clears throat] questions from the board? >> Um, procedural question though. >> Are you required by statute or anything or just your company to provide hard copies? >> I am not. No. I've gotten into a practice of doing it simply because I have a hard time remembering when when I have a nice screen like this and when I don't, you know, and then also it gives something, you know, people something to look at other than me. Just a not that we're paper adverse, it's just >> No, no, I can make a note for >> No, no, it's it's totally >> Yeah, I don't need it if >> Okay. >> Um, and just like
036and I appreciate Mike and Bridget and Jeff truly appreciate this is again positive news, right? Two years in a row, we've gotten really nice information from our audit. And I just want to call out your lifts haven't reduced at all. But I do want to call out that our administrative costs have gone down by 13% from last year to this year, which okay. And I just want to make sure that we are getting the work done necessary, and I know we are, and we're not killing the people having to do it. Getting a 13% reduction in administrative cost. Amazing, right? But on the backs of what is my concern, just saying. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank Thank you. Thank you. All right. Um I just need to call that out. Um that it's not
037just staff teaching classroom that 13% is a huge reduction. So appreciate all of that work. So all right, no other questions then. Very good. Then we can move on to the approval of the audit. This is an action item, so I would appreciate a motion to approve the fiscal year 2425 audit. >> Motion to approve. >> Thank you, Mr. Morgan. There's a first. Can I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Miss Hilstrom. There is a first and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of app pro approving tonight's audit, please signify by I. >> I. >> Post. And that does carry [clears throat] unanimously. Thank you so much. Moving along then to stewardship. >> Nope. Moving on to truth and taxation. We're just going to shuffle. >> Oh my
038gosh. It is exactly >> 6:30. I was [laughter] watching the clock. I was watching the clock to make sure. So >> that's amazing. >> And after 6 p.m. So we're okay. >> Yeah, we're okay. That was 6:30. >> No. Uh so >> you'll hear that. >> Miss Peterson, again, appreciate you joining us. >> All right. >> Thank you. All right. I'm here this evening to present our truth and taxation. All right. So, we have a little agenda for us. I will review the meeting requirements for us, do a presentation of our current school year FY26 budget. We will talk about our proposed property tax levy and then at the end of my presentation, we will open it up for public comment. All right. The requirements of a truth and tax taxation hearing. The meeting must
039be held between November 25th and December 30th at 6 PM or later. Um, it may be part of a regular scheduled board meeting like we are doing this evening. The presentation must include a discussion on two major items. Our fiscal year 26 or our current year budget and then our proposed pay next year FY20 or FY27 but residents paying 26 proposed tax levy. Um and then we must allow for our public to comment. All right. >> Minnesota school funding. So public school districts are funded by our federal government, our state government, local fees, local property taxes. Um and then with the state of Minnesota being our largest funding stream. So just kind of high level where where do schools get their their money from? And with that, we move into the budget and how we
040budget knowing where we get all of our resources from. So, our school district is required to use fund accounting. So, you just heard our audit and approval of that. Thus, we account for our revenue and expenditures using six separate funds. So, I've highlighted them for you this evening. Please note the asterisks next to the funds are the funds that do have a tax levy component and those will be would be the general fund, the community service fund and building or the debt service fund. All right, budget overview. You can see um I have our our five funds we just discussed or I just told you we we operate I guess and then um I've listed for you in total um high level our revenue and our expenses. And then on the far right side you
041can see there I have our surplus and deficit. I will talk on the next few slides about the general fund. But I just do want to note because this is a large number for um those individuals listening or watching reading later the construction fund. We are not really spending $2.2 million of deficit spending. That is a spendown of fund balance and all of the bond funds. So, um, the other deficit up there, the general fund that you do see, I will talk about that one, but just need to note that that building construction fund is not us misusing funds and overspending by $2.2 million. All right, the general fund revenue by the source of funds and where are they coming from? Just a pie for your visual eye. Sometimes that's a little easier to read
042for um people. So you can see the bulk of our revenue does come from our state and state aid um dollars while the property tax portion is about 15% of our budget and then federal and other the other remaining 4%. So um and then as it relates to expenses same um kind of visual for you a nice pie that shows the various programs. Those are the programs um used by the state of Minnesota across all school districts. So, if you were to talk to another school district and say, you know, what percent of your budget do you spend on elementary and secondary regular instruction, uh you can see there Rockford does spend 38%. Well, others may spend more or less depending upon all of the things they have going on in their pie. But for
043your eyes, you can see um exactly how our general fund expenditure budget does break down by program area. Moving into the required property tax levy component of our hearing this evening. So every owner of a taxable property pays property taxes in our state to various taxing jurisdictions. So those taxing jurisdictions in the state of Minnesota could be a county, city or township, school district or special taxing districts uh in which the property is located. So then each taxing jurisdiction sets its own tax levy often based on limits or state laws and then the county for us and on behalf of since we're talking about ourselves this evening sends bills out and they collect our property taxes from the owners and then they distribute these funds back to us. So, one note here, school districts are
044the only taxing jurisdiction that doesn't have to um discretion on how much we levy our taxpayers. All amounts for us are either voter approved and or set in statute. And I'll talk about that a little bit more, but again, I just want to highlight that that others have a lot more flexibility than than school districts do. All right, our summer or um my head flew off there, but we're looking slide that shows um the school district's tax levy timeline. So you can see that this process extends many months. Um I start working on this in the summer and gathering data for our state and then as we move into September the board certified a preliminary levy and then November we hold elections. Um, this can cause our levies to fluctuate. And then, as you heard
045me kick off our meeting, we have to hold this hearing between November 25th and December 30th. And then in calendar year 26, we collect these taxes. So, that's the timeline of a school district levy timeline and the work that staff has to get this levy done and presented for you this evening. All right. How does a school district levy work? um primarily off state limits. So the school state limits us on what we can levy and that's statutoily defined by formulas that MDE calculates for us. Uh you can see there the levy limitation formulas are driven by many data points pupil units or student count specific eligible expenditure types. Uh so think like a career in tech levy for instance where we have to prove that we really do have teachers that have certain lensure
046um and they're qualified to teach in certain areas. Uh it's also based on our population order authorization and other things. So basically that's the information that I provide to MDE and [clears throat] I want to note that I don't provide or I don't calculate these amounts. MDE calculates these amounts for us. The legislature sets the statutes and says what those limits are. Uh so basically um we can levy in 40 different categories but we don't have any say over them and we don't have any control basically over them because again remember it's state law, state statute or our voters have to approve our resources. All right so moving on to our property tax levy. Um the final pay 25 uh revenue is for the 2526 school year. So that those are the taxes that our
047residents just paid. This proposed levy that we're proposing this evening will be payable again by taxpayers. They'll pay them twice, these property taxes twice in calendar year 26. And that will be revenue to us in the 26 27 school year. So, we're still out a ways from when we get to recognize this revenue, but overall property taxes for this school district is increasing this year about 18.7%. Um, and then on the next slide, I will talk to you guys about the significant changes. But you can see here is a nice little summary of where we were in 25, so the current school year and where we're headed for next school year. All right. The biggest change for us and why that tax increase changed from our proposed in September to our final now is the
048successful levy or referendum approval that we have. That approval is netting us about 1.1 million approximately um of voter approved general education dollars. So this added about remember $633 per pupil. So that is the biggest change pretty much in our our levy this year from last year. Um and also from the proposed to where we are today. Um we also had a successful capital project referendum that will yield us $250,000 annually. Um that successful vote of course just this past month. U the other thing that's happening is our reemployment or unemployment levy is increasing some and it's not necessarily that our costs are increasing. It's just this has never never been adjusted in past years and it was getting adjusted through adjustments. So Bridget is trying to eliminate the adjustments and get us flat and
049caught up so that we're not bouncing around all the time. So that's so it's not really like I said an increase. It's just I'm marrying the cost estimates better with the timing of the levy and when we think we're going to pay these expenses. So that's just kind of can we call it just a correction maybe. Um and then there you see the bottom box the prior year adjustments that are netting about $90,000. Um that's exactly what I'm trying to fix. I love prior adjustments that are zero. However, I don't have a crystal ball and I never know what our enrollment is going to do. So it's inevitable. I'm gonna always have adjustments, but trying to keep them as minimal as possible is exactly my goal. But the bulk of that this year was out
050of my control. It was a tiff cert descertification from one of our cities. So that's the bulk of what that 90,000 is, but getting us closer, you guys. Uh you'll see that when I show the the levy as a whole. So those are our major changes. Um, and then the other thing I want to talk about is, you know, how this levy works and when property owners open their property tax statements and what do they see and what what does that mean and what's happening to all of us. So the first piece for the tax levy that the district has is is and how it relates I guess I should say to the budget. So a percent change in our tax levy does not equal a dollar revenue change to our budget. So some levy
051increases are offset by reduction in state aid while others um may have no additional revenue for us and so on. So what am I talking about? So think operating capital, long-term facilities maintenance, QC comp achievement integration. All of these are combined state aid and tax dollars to us. And what's happening is they're shifting all the time. And so it makes it hard sometimes to to budget obviously um because the aid in the levy split is determined based on how our net tax capacity compares to the state average adjusted and some of those other different things. So in other words, if our adjusted net tax capacity increases more than the state average, we receive less state aid and then our residents see an increase in the tax levy. So again, we can't control that because we
052don't control tax capacity and we don't control values and we don't control a lot of those things. So the bottom line again is these things are changing and moving with not a lot of control for us. And so these changes in levies don't always equal the same change in budget and revenue. Sometimes in other words it's coming from the one year it's coming from levy the next year it might come from aid just based on what happens with those values. All right. And so here's a timeline for our taxpayers when they get these statements um for this past year for us and then even into next year. just I won't walk through that but you can see again uh they have a little bit of a different timeline than we do but um needless to
053say we we both have timelines. So dividing our property tax pie. So a little bit about values here as I wrap this up. So property values do not rise uniformly across all properties. um and the burden of these levy and these these changes shift from taxpayers with lower uh increases to those with higher. So a higher increase equals a larger piece of that property tax pie. So again I'll try to visualize for you guys what what I mean by that. So, the impact of value on a homeowner, if we pretend like our district only has two homes in it and our tax levy is $100. And you can see there on the far left hand side, we have two homes, both valued at $100,000. And remember, our levy is 100 bucks. They each get 50%.
054And then we move to the right side. And so home values are up equal to 20%. So, both homeowners see a 20% increase. And so, now both of their homes are worth $120,000. They both still again share in the same amount of the pie. Okay? But look what happens when the value changes. And we have the same levy, but we shift the tax burden. So, again, on the left, two homes, $100,000, $100 levy. But when I go to the right this time now and one home is going up 40% and the other home is only going up 10, you now can see what we have on the right side. The green minty house is going to pay $58. The home on the left is only going to pay 42. That's exactly what we're seeing when
055we talk about the pie here and that property values do not rise uniformally. we live more in this slide two and on the right side of everybody even though their neighbors are different and so that's where we we still might have the same levy but we're shifting burden in as we divvy out the pie I guess I shouldn't say we but the way the property tax system works is shifting that tax burden so all right and then here I just included a slide um with some various resources. I can double triple check to be sure that these are all still valid programs um for individuals that are looking for property tax relief. Um and then I did add the website there as well. And so um just a good resource as we're talking about shifting
056burden and values and increases. Um, and so with that, that does conclude the presentation and I will open it up for any comments, questions from members of the public. >> Any questions from the board first? No. And since our public option is open and just looking at the two people [laughter] in the room that don't look appear to be ready to talk, we will now close the public comment portion of this meeting. Um, this is an action item to accept the truth in taxation presentation. I would appreciate a motion to do so. I'll make that motion. >> Thank you, Miss Hilstrom. There is a first. Can I have a second? >> I have a second. >> Thank you, Miss Johnson. A first and a second. Any discussion? >> Seeing none. All those in favor of
057accepting, please signify by I. >> I. Post. >> That does carry unanimously. Thank you so much. Moving on. A certification of 25 payable 26 levy. Continuing on with our guest of honor, Miss Peterson. >> All right. Thank you everybody. All right. So attached for you in your board packet this evening, you have our final levy certification for taxes payable calendar year 26 and revenue for the 2627 school year. So this evening, I'm asking for the board approval to set the levy at 10 million $92,000 $324.7. This is an increase of about 18.7% from last year's levy. Um and then as you just heard and we just previously discussed in this meeting, we held the property tax hearing for the taxes payable in 26. Uh the presentation of that levy uh provided the required information on
058this levy that you are being asked to certify. Uh we did discuss the budget for 26. We discussed our payable 26 property tax levy and the reasons for the change. Um and our public was allowed to make comment. And so, uh, I guess I would just ask for your approval this evening to approve this 2025 payable levy or payable 2026 final levy. Um, and you have all the details again in your packet. If there are any questions from all of you, >> any questions? And just to reiterate, the uh percent of increase is greater than in past years because of our two successful referendum from earlier this fall. So just needed to point that out that it's just not an increase. Okay. So thank you so much. So I would appreciate a motion uh to
059approve the tax levy 2420 and payable 26. Please. I will make a motion to uh approve the 2025 payable 2026 levy. >> Thank you so much. There's first. Can I have a second, please? >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Prosca. There's first and a second. Any discussion? >> All those in favor, please signify by I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> And that does carry unanimously. Thank you so much. >> Thank you >> for all your work. >> Very easy to consume. Thank you. Appreciate that. >> All right. Moving on to number seven, policy committee first review. Dr. Ridelver, >> we had a robust conversation with respect to policy and we covered a lot and they are in your board packet for a first reading tonight >> and we will come back in January for a
060second and hopeful approval for these policies. So those are up for renewal. Number 7B, the Iowa designate approval. Dr. Ad Hoover. >> Yes. Um, in the event that I am not able to get on to the site which is the education identity and access management site um that's considered OWL or Iowa. I guess you'd say Iowa. Um Courtney um Nyber, my executive assistant, um will need access to that site on occasion and tonight I'm asking for approval for her to utilize that site as needed when I am unavailable. >> Excellent. Any question on that? Something we do annually. This is a resolution. I would appreciate a motion to approve. >> A motion to approve. >> Thank you, Mr. Morgan and Eric Gordy will second. And madame clerk, would you please call the role? >> Miss
061Morgan, >> hi. >> Eric Gordy. >> Hi. >> Jessica Johnson. >> Hi. >> Jamie Hilstrom. I >> Beth Prasa. >> I. >> And Kevin Shadine absent. And that does carry unanimously. Thank you so much. Moving on to contributions and donations to the district. Dr. Hoover. >> Yes. Thank you. Um, as we do every month, I would like to express thanks on behalf of the school district and school board for the wonderful donations of both items and financial assistance from our community. We have several donations from families as well as um the education foundation. And I would like to point out that Handover Athletic Association is providing a thousand sort of what they call guardian caps for the football team which they will be purchasing here shortly for a little extra safety uh for the football
062season. whether they use practice and or need. >> Perfect. Thank you so much. Uh with that, I would appreciate a motion to approve. >> I'll make a motion to approve the resolution as stated. >> Thank you, Miss Johnson. There's a first. Can I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Miss Hilstrom. There's a first and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, this is a resolution. Madam clerk, please. >> Jessica Johnson. >> Hi. >> Jamie Hilstrom. I Beth Prasa. >> I. >> Eric Gordy. >> Hi. >> Chris Morgan. >> Hi. and Kevin. >> Excellent. That does carry unanimously. Moving on. 8B district employee, sorry, district all employee holiday event Wednesday, December 17 at 3:20 at Clay's restaurant. Regular meeting of the board of education organizational meeting Monday, January 5, 5:30 in the district office
063boardroom. And after that, the the mayor, city administrators, and legislative roundt will be at 7 o'clock in the district office boardroom. and very much looking forward to having our elected officials uh for our area come in and hear about the awesome things happening in our district and us to ask them a question. >> So last year we did that timing and we were done before six o'clock with our organizational meeting. Do we want to adjust time frame there for any of that? That's a really good question because with the way that the board is set up now where you all decide the or stuff way ahead of time, I think we could move that up. Um, and now is a good time for me to let those folks know if the board would like to
064move up to say, I know a 6:30 start. >> Yeah. So, if their calendars do allow that, we could move that up and we would publish that out >> um in advance of that meeting as well. Thank you for the question. Yeah. >> Yeah. I just know that we sat for an hour waiting. So, >> it would just be nice if we could. >> Moving on to board committee updates. Anyone interested in going first. >> Yeah. Miss Johnson, you made a noise, so you get to go first. [laughter] >> I haven't even looked up my >> All right, then. I'll go first. Fine. >> All right. Um, there were a couple Northwest Suburban meetings. We decided as a Northwest Suburban group to get together to work on some um important work for the Northwest Suburban
065Board because previously there was always a feeling that there was some disengagement and not understanding about what was going on in Northwest Suburban for a lot of the boards. Um there there was commitment from the board members to come in on that snowy night. So, thank you all for showing up that night. Um and we focused on ourselves. um really about how we can lean in and do our job better to better support the mission and vision of Northwest Suburban. There was some first initial conversations to talk about what do we need the executive director to do and what do we need the superintendents to do, but we thought it better for us to lean into ourselves first. Um we did decide that we should have more work sessions to allow us to be more
066fully engaged with what the work is of Northwest Suburban. One of the coolest things that happened is one of the board members suggested that we host our work sessions at member sites. So instead of just at Northwest Suburban or virtual, we would go visit some of the elementary schools, middle schools, high schools to see how they're actually implementing that thing, which I think is a great opportunity for us to lean in and understand. Um, we'll continue then to have other conversations with the superintendent to know how we all can work together to make that organization better um and support everyone um and make sure everyone's voice is heard rather than the loudest twins. So um so that was several meetings um in the last month um inside of their uh Dr. Iver was an AMSD
067virtual meeting I think >> with Yep. So, I did that and then we had board prep, >> which I missed. >> That's okay. [laughter] We talked about you. Um, and then, um, lastly, I was able to walk around the high school and visit, uh, several classrooms u for the launcher future and listen to uh, Mr. Manard um, share the cool things that they're planning. And I know that there was at least one new family to the district just exploring, which was a nice thing. So that's me. >> Awesome. >> All right. Who's next? All right, Jessica. Thank you. >> All right. So, we had policy meeting December 1st. Um I missed the board prep meeting. Um our Masiko November meeting got bumped to the following week because of weather, the snowstorm that came through. Um
068and what was really cool, so I'm on the negotiating all the negotiating teams in Maso because I'm the chair over there. So, um, we got done, uh, negotiating with Ed Minnesota, Ed Minnesota union and approved their new contract. Um, and we put together, uh, highlights. So, I can share that with everybody if they'd like it. If you just I can point out a few things. Um our uh administrative team did a lot of um compensation data comparisons prior to negotiations and um we noticed that um our maximum salary at the end of the pay schedule is was $9,000 below the average of comparable organizations. And so um we discussed trying to rightsize that a little bit and how to do that. Um so we ended up doing that. Um which does mean that the the
069teachers received a larger increase than I would say probably almost every contract in our cooperative for teachers. Um but it was purposeful in trying to make sure that um these teachers are getting compensated properly for the job that they're doing. Um so through negotiations there was their first request was their package first request was over 15% and we went back and caucused and put together some other options and came back and we went back and forth and their overall over two years was um 10.98%. Um but that is with that right sizing of the pay. Uh there were some requests that they had that we finally um and I was given the task of doing this but it was to say you know we would love to give you everything we can't right now. We're
070trying to rightsize this and we're going to do our best with health as best we can but we can't give you what you want in health. We can give you close but not what you want and we're not able to do the longevity and we're not able to do these other items because we have to keep our percentage down um as best we can. So, um, that's where we ended up and they they were, um, very receptive to all of that and understood all of it. Um, and so I feel like we came out pretty good in negotiations there. Um, I know the percentage seems a little high, um, in comparison to our district and other districts, but um, hopefully in the future here, we don't have to sit in right size because we just
071make sure we keep up with it. Um we start off really well in MSGO for pay for teachers but um those teachers that choose to stay with me go [clears throat] over the years um they just weren't getting compensated what they should be getting compensated for the job that they're doing. So we um [snorts] we adjusted all of that. So um and then I have Maso again tomorrow night and more negotiations for supervisors starting tomorrow. Anyways, that's very >> Thank you very much. Any questions for Miss Johnson? >> Would anybody like a copy of this? >> Okay, I can go. >> Mr. Brasa, thank you. >> All right, so the um let's see, the policy committee met and then I joined the MA meeting last week and I put this on the Google doc if
072you want to read it. It's the there's a lot of legislative platforms. I don't know if they all agree with each other. For MA, it's sustainable and adequate funding, improved levy fairness, funding flexibility, and safe and secure schools. So, nothing that we haven't been talking about for years. >> No, that's it. >> Thank you so much, >> Miss Hilstrom. Um I had a policy committee meeting um and then I did a copy and conversation with MSDA and then um SAP just last Friday. Um and that's in here. Um they're kind of changing how they're trying to the platform to talk to legislators instead for equalization to do um education equalization credits which is kind of if you know like egg to school where they actually you'll actually see them on your property tax statements. So,
073the idea is hopefully it'll get legislators more on board since we've been trying to work on equalization for so long and haven't make it happen. >> That's it. >> Awesome, >> Mr. Morgan. >> Nothing interesting. >> Perfect. [laughter] >> Excellent. And with that, we have come to the conclusion of our agenda. And I'd like a motion to adjurnn. Pleaseot. >> Thank you, Miss Johnson. Eric Gordy second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by I. I >> oppos. And we are done.