001Okay, we'll now call to order the monthly regular June board meeting for district 518. 1.1 roll call. Um, everyone is present except Ann Mills is absent. Um, 1.2 Two, recognition of visitors and guests. Welcome everybody. And 1.3 will stand for 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. Okay. 1.4 correspondence and recognition. Uh we've had no requests for public participation. 1.4.2 recognition of students, staff, and community. And Lori has that. Okay. The recognition items that we have for tonight, uh congratulations to six WHS track members that earned a trip to the Minnesota State Track Meet. They are Lbaka Mor, Vanel Walde, Grace Bates, Tetuch Gach, Tete, and Caleb
002Meyer. Caleb tied for third place in the boys high jump. Also, congratulations to Hannah McNab and Bailey Panto for being named to the Big South Conference black allconerence team for softball. And not least, but least their congratulations to Chase Burn and Dawson Savaland. Chase was named to the Big South Conference black allconerence team and Dawson was named to the honorable mention list for baseball. Congratulations to all these student athletes. Okay, thank you Lori. 2.0 the approval of agenda um the consent main agenda. We do have two additions to put in the motion uh 5.20 and 5.21. So, do I have a motion with the additions? Move to approve with additions. Motion by Matt. Second. Seconded by Lori. All those in favor. Could we have what the additions are to the agenda? Well, we have them
003here. The It's the salary and benefits. Oh, okay. Sal benefits for Yeah. the community ed director and then community ed coordinator is the 2.1. [Applause] Thank you. Okay. Do Okay, I got a motion and a second. All those in favor of the agendas say I. I. I oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. 3.0 the approval of minutes 3.1 and 3.2. So, the May school board meeting and then the last committee meetings. Do I have a motion? I move to approve the school board minutes from May this June special meeting and the additional uh committee meetings. Second motion by Eric, seconded by Matt. All those in favor of the minutes say I. I. All those opposed? Same sign. Motion passes. 4.0. Do I have a motion to approve all the items underneath the consent agenda? So moved.
004Second. Motion by Eric. Second in by Lori. All those in favor of the items under the consent agenda say I. I. All those opposed? Same sign. Motion passes. 5.0 main agenda. 5.1, our monthly financial overview. Carmen, um you guys have um in front of you the revenues and expenditures ending May 31st um 2025. The revenues are tracking a little ahead at 96.55% compared to last year's 95.35. Um basically what this is showing is that um we have received the majority of our revenues for the fiscal year 2025. Um, and remember as we talk about these this time we did that approved we approved our budget the amendment last um in April. So now we have a clearer picture of kind of where we're at overall because he we had a better idea of all of
005our revenues to date as of April and then what the expected is for for that and same thing on the expenditure side. Um and the expenditures are 82.56% compared to 85.54% last year. Um, as we get into the month of June and in the year, we have summer payoffs and stuff. So, that's why there's a little bit of a gap there that we hopefully don't go over what we have projected on that. Any questions on questions for Carmen? Anybody? Thanks, Carmen. Okay. 5.2. Approve education identity and access management board resolution. John. Um, this resolution is uh for what's called the Iowa proxy roles and it's something that is part of doing a lot of approvals in the uh MDE website. Um, this would be for Mr. Hikamp. So when he walks in the door, he's
006already approved and things can get started. So with that, we'd recommend approval. Okay. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the Education identity and access management board resolution? So moved. Motion by Lori. Second. Seconded by Aaron. Is there any further discussion? This is a roll call vote. Miss Dudley. I. Miss Agard. I. Miss Shy. I. Mr. Bloom. I. Mr. Parish. Hi. Mr. Wboom. I. Okay. Okay, motion passes. 5.3 approve the initial 202526 annual budget. Would this be Carmen? Um Mr. Swanson had presented this at the operations committee um last week. Um, one thing that you'll notice from what was shared there to um the one that was in the board packet um the prairie roof um project we he had um we were told that it would be done in June. It's not going
007to be. So that got moved over. So if you look at the capital um expenditures um that actually increased um a little over two 2 million there it was um when he presented it at operations it was 2.575 um and now the new expenditure is 4.295. based on that project not getting started and getting done by the end of the fiscal year. Um I I believe at the um meeting he had said that we it was like a 4.4 decrease um in the revenues in the overall um guideline that he presented. Anybody from the operations committee have anything to add to that? Mr. Chairman, just a question. anything uh new regarding legislative actions potential impact. Um so these haven't been updated based on that. We we check daily and the numbers haven't been updated yet.
008So we're still kind of just holding where it's at and hopefully the next month or so we get more clarification and then um like we um talked about at the operations meeting, we will be doing a revision of this as soon as we get some clear um numbers on the revenue side. Expenditures I think he's um pretty confident with. We kind of went through all the different departments um and where those are at based on the information we know. Obviously the um EMW negotiations will play a big part in this cuz that's a a large percentage of our overall expenditures um salaries are salary and benefits. Um but as far as the revenue side, it's um he updated it on 617 and based on what was um given to us at that time from the
009state MD. So that's where we're at on that one. Um, no. As far as legislation, the only thing we kind of know is compensatory at this point will probably be holdless for one more year. They put together a committee to address that. So more than likely a year from now I would if I've got any kind of crystal ball I suspect there'll be a reduction for the district and compensatory ed in the future but it won't be a 2.7 probably it'll be less but it'll be a pretty good reduction I'm guessing unfortunately um you know there's uh some meal reduction reimbursement there's some um literacy aid or literacy uh not aid reduction is not a reduction but um library aid is what I was getting at uh and then some transportation reductions that are in
010here as well. So, um, tomorrow there is a MSBA is putting on a a webinar or Zoom to kind of run through everything. What you we've received now is really it's trying to give you the information and I can run through some of that, but it's a little preliminary. So, this budget will need some updating once it usually takes about a month to a month and a half before you get real clarity to what they actually passed and how it's truly going to affect you. The numbers here for revenue, correct me if I'm wrong, when it was presented to us, the hold harmless was not in here. Correct. On the correct reduction already. Okay. Um, I believe based on what I'm looking at right now, I think Mr. Swanson might have addressed that, but I
011I'm not 100% sure. Yeah. The the report that he had run from um MDE um it was showing the um like 5 million for commits ed compared to our 7 million last year. So, show that like I think it was like 2.5ish difference in that. Um and that was still what he had on the 17th. So, it hasn't been updated yet. And um like Mr. Langard said, there's a committee put together to kind of figure out how that's going to look and um how that money is going to be divided up. So as soon as we get that, that will be a big key to those revenues as well. So that's really the difference in the number between our revised budget and the new budget. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And so the recommendation is to approve
012this because by the time you meet again, there's bills to pay. So this is the preliminary budget you'll need to approve and then from that point there'll be updating. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the initial 2526 budget? Move to approve initial 2025 2026 annual budget. Motion by Matt. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Aaron. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor of the initial 2526 annual budget say I. I. I. All those opposed same sign. Motion passes. 5.4 would be approve our tax abatement resolution. Uh tax abate uh abatement resolution is for Mr. D. brochure and it's lot one block 2 of Cecilia edition with the parcel number 311068-010 and uh he's provided all the required information for addressing the tax abatement. Do I have a motion to
013approve the tax abatement resolution? So moved. Motion by Lori. Second. Seconded by Eric. This is a roll call vote. Miss Dudley. I Miss Hagard. Hi. Miss Shudy. Hi. Mr. Bloom. Hi. Mr. Parish. Hi. Mr. Woodboom. I. Okay. Motion passes. 5.5. Declare band equipment as sir plus property. So, this didn't get presented at one of the committees, but it's excess parts and pieces from the uh drum portion of the marching band. Um, it's things that are no longer used and again, parts and pieces that they can't use that we need to get rid of. So, with that, the recommendation would be for approval in declaring it surplus. Okay, I have a motion to declare band equipment as surplus property. So moved. Motion by Eric. Second. Seconded by Matt. All anyone further discussion? All those in favor
014of the band equipment as surplus property say I. I. I. All those opposed? Same sign. Motion passes. Okay. 5.6. Approve student handbooks. this instructional. So, all the handbooks were presented at the instructional committee. Um, most of them were minor changes. I know they made a couple after the instructional committee, but the recommendation would be for approval. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve student handbooks? So moved. Motion by Lori. Second. Seconded by Eric. Any further discussion? Okay. All those in favor of the student handbook say I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. 5.7 approve staff handbook. Um same thing. The this was at the uh instructional committee. It was presented. Everything was gone through by um Miss Johnson. So it should be ready for approval and the recommendation was approval by the
015uh instructional committee. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the staff handbook? So moved. Motion by Eric. Second. Seconded by Matt. All those in favor of approving the staff handbook say I. I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. 5.8 approve student teaching agreement with Winona State University. Um this was presented at the instructional committee. It's this exact same agreement. It's just updating the dates. Um the old agreement ran out and so it would be dates in updating and a new agreement. So the recommendation is for approval. Do I have a motion to approve the student teaching agreement with Winona State University? So moved. Motion by Eric. Second. Seconded by Aaron. Any further discussion? All those in favor of a student teaching agreement with Winona State University, say I. I. I. All those
016opposed, same sign. Motion passes. 5.9 Discuss. approved the notice to the Southwest Cooperative Service. Um, this was a discussion item based off our special meeting about if you wanted to send a notice about services at the time. So there was talk of us sending a notice that would how would that go? No services at the time based off on any evaluations. Was that correct? Is that something we're interested in or that is what we would need a motion if that's what you guys want to do or discussion on how you want to set this up or move forward. I I think we would need to submit this notice if we wanted the flexibility to adjust our alocart choosing of what services we use with the co-op. Right. But basically, in order for us, we have
017to send this notice that's going to state to them that we're dropping services, right? It's going to be all services until we decide based off those evaluations. Correct. Correct. Is that what you guys So there's that timeline there. Yeah. And we have to make that decision by July. So the the way the contract's written, if you are considering dropping any services, um, and you can be specific to what service you might drop, but um, that has to be provided to the service club by July 1. Um, by March one, you have to identify any changes in staffing that you would do. And it doesn't mean you have to drop any services with the service co-op. Um but uh you would have to be specific when you get be prior to March one what you would
018drop if any. So would it be satisfactory to just write uh give a notice saying that we reserve the right to drop some services from the agreement and that we would Yeah. It' be a simple by letter before March. Yeah. Well, Mr. Chairman, I also I I think we also have to include the verbiage of an ad because we might find additional services. I I I'd like to see us. It's all about how you word it, but I don't support dropping anything without additional information. And I think that's what we're going to achieve with our evaluation. So, I would move to approve notice to the Southwest West Central Service Cooperative regarding use of service. Okay. Motion by Matt. Um, this notice achieves our intent to do something different. Okay. Do I have a second? Seconded.
019Seconded by Darla. All those Well, any further discussion? I I'm a little confused. So, it's going to say use of service. That's pretty vague, pretty broad or what specifically? Well, I just assume that there was a procedure to do and that's what we're doing. So, regardless of what we do, it's still going to be suspending services. This is the intent, right? It's the intent of potentially eliminating part or all of the Southwest service club. And I'll go on record. I disagree with you on this and I'm not in favor of you doing this. I'll just tell you that right up front. Do you guys want all areas? Is there certain areas? I I think we should leave this generic. I believe other districts give notice every year just to have that flexibility. Well, and that's
020what I was trying to achieve, Mr. Chairman, was flexibility. I mean, I like I said, I don't favor us dropping anything, but I I do favor us doing a comprehensive review of a major program that we haven't done for 15 years. I don't see remember the years, but and so I I think in the end, nothing may change, but if we don't take this step, we're not able to change anything. So that's so the next step would be we're going have to figure out what you guys want to evaluate what what service areas we get evaluations on then. So okay, we got a motion and a second to suspend services or send a notice to suspend services to the service co-op for the time being. Mr. Chairman, further discussion and Mr. Languard in the the
021letter, the notice. Can it be described of the district's intent is to evaluate the program, not just a simple one sentence, we're going to be gone. I think it's fair to be open and upfront right now that we're evaluating this process. That's what I would intend for the notice to serve, not a vague sentence of threatening. I'll I'll have a conversation with Mr. Cardy tomorrow. Okay. Okay. So then we'll come back and discuss 5.10 after this that we want to have a evaluation. Do we need the first one to have the evaluation? In my opinion, I don't think we do because we don't know what the evaluation is going to be. So then you're opening it up. It depends again how soon we're going to do the evaluation. You mean the 5.8? Um well the
0225.10, that you know the next item on the agenda is just just discuss the evaluation right so we don't they're kind of one and the same I mean basically right now we're just stating that we're making a motion to send notice and then give intent to like Matt says to for evaluation right so then is 510 to discuss evaluation process. That would be that's what I take it as. We got to have a motion to do what we're doing, but then we have to talk about evaluating services, right? That's your goal. Yeah. Is that clear to Is that clear, Lori? That's clear because I can't think you have to approve five in the affirmative before you can have 10 with based on the timeline if it happens within the next year. Correct. We have to
023be able to give the notice to change something before we can change something or add, right? Well, in ch in my opinion, change is an ad, right? If we're going to take something away or add something, we cannot do anything currently. So, we need to provide this notice so that we can make a change. There's if we miss this notice period, we can't do anything until after the 26 27th school year for some of the services that are provided to us. We in certain programs we add or subtract all the time. We did it this year. Um, it's really if you want to quit using, I'll use the example. If you want to quit using the business smart services, you have to give notice now. Doesn't mean you have to follow through with that, but
024you have to give notice now. But as far as subtracting or adding, if we wanted to in the business service, we just have to provide that notice or explain that to them at March one. So the July one is really we're good. You're giving them notice. You may withdraw from some service they offer. That's it. And the scope of it would be like the an entire department could could be an entire department. And I can tell you example, if we pull out of using the business services because we're one of the larger districts, it could have a fiscal impact on the other districts that utilize that. That's why they want notice early. It's just sending notice, not meaning we're going to do anything different. Correct. It's all we're doing to them. So, we got a
025motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Okay. All those in favor of the motion to send notice about services to the service co-op say I. I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Okay. Now 5.10 discuss and approve an evaluation of the service co-op services. So now is when we would want to talk about areas we maybe want to evaluate. Correct. Yeah. If you are looking to do an evaluation example, if you're doing business services, it'll be one consultant. If you're doing special ed services, it's probably another. Nobody's going to have the expertise to do all areas. And again, I'm guessing the cost is 10 to$15,000 per area that you want to evaluate. Mr. Mr. Chairman, is the correct approach to do this over a a couple of years analysis and to
026vet the entire program within the second year or the intent to try to accomplish everything within this year. I feel that the whole whole thing should be vetted, but that's a lot of taking apart and finding the right. So since we were talking doing some parts now and then next year at this time sending another notice or not necessarily I still think we have to keep them separate because this is our internal evaluation that has to do with where we're getting the services. I think a lot has to do with what Miss Johnson's finding for potential people to hire to do this. Is there do we have any general idea of if we have any even anybody even available? So I I had a couple names um still trying to reach out to them. Um
027one of the names is actually a former special ed director that worked for Worthington. Um he's retired but they said he kind of did this on the side. So I did get a contact for him today. Um one of our past employees had his Facebook contact. So, we reached out to him that way to see if he's interested at all in doing that. Um, I know some of the service co-ops provide that service. So, um I know like Marshall does obviously, but my guess is you want somebody different the people that you're trying to get away from. So, we can look into um some of that. Um it also has kind of um basically if you're looking for a review um and want one of the recommendations is that we contact um MDE and maybe
028they have a list of names or um consultants that are out there. as well that other districts have used. So, I mean, there's a couple of things out there. I do have another email out, just a broad one asking um other districts if they've if they know of anybody or if they've done it before. So, I guess, Mr. Chairman, I would favor taking no action this evening and allowing more time for administration to come back with potential scenarios, potential cost, and a potential time frame rather than action on it tonight. That's what I'm wondering. Do you guys want to do that? And then is this something you could bring to instructional committee means it's a service or would that be operations? You guys want to bring it to committee or do you want I think
029both committees should hear it Mr. chairman if it is going to be discussed that way and then okay maybe bring it to the committees next month and Carmen you get some more ideas for us and then bring it to the committees and then bring it to the board the whole board that next month I do think as a board we should discuss tonight what department or what area of the contract we want to in direct leadership to find consultants for um you know in our last meeting we discussed evaluating the special ed department because it's been 15 years so I feel like it would be an appropriate step tonight to direct leadership to explore um consulting services for evaluating the special ed department looking at the contract I agree with Aaron there's two distinct parts
030to the contract there's the administrative piece which is more of the technology services and the things that come with that um for the district and then the second piece is the educational solutions which is in the special ed space entirely. So I would agree with the second half of the contract which is also the more expensive portion of the contract for the district as well. Mr. Mr. Chairman, point of clarification. Is the evaluation of the contract with the service co-op and those services specifically, or is it an evaluation of the entire department and with that piece, how it integrates with what we're doing? What what are we evaluating? Well, I would assume you're evaluating what's a part of the service co-op, correct? because isn't all of it under the service co-op, especially special ed and
031um well the the special ed is our program what we contract from business administration the service co-op is some of our support services whether it's directors or uh speech or psychology services so you're really evaluating the program and then you are evaluating what may need to change in that program. I think it would be hard to evaluate the educational services portion of the contract without evaluating the entire special ed department for context. I agree. Okay. Is that the direction everybody wants to go? Well, I'm saying again the timeline it might not be next month that this comes to. It might be two months from now. I mean, we've got a lot on our plate. We have a new administrator coming on board here in a few week. And so, this can happen, but I don't
032know that it can be happening at the July operations or July instructional meeting. Is the idea that proposals from consultants would be presented to the board? I mean, is that's something that we would need to maybe vote on? Maybe. Well, and what is and Carmen, what's your what would be the next steps from from the board? Yeah. I mean, I think once we get some um names or companies that we want to use, we would have to look at that and then um then you guys would probably have to vote on have them present possibly. What So, does some of these companies evaluate more than just one? Sorry. Yeah, they can do I mean they can do business services, they can do special ed. So, and some of them are specialized in special ed only.
033So, that would be another question. Obviously, if that's our first focus, we might look at a different company than we would at an overall um there some of it. I mean, it's different parts of special eds. is like kind of like what our goals are, what what are what areas we want to evaluate, you know, cuz it could be like the whole process, but I mean, if we're looking at specific things that might be a different company might provide that better than another one. Um, you know, I know there's even some audit firms out there that can come in and do kind of an overall review and that might be more on a financial level, not so in-depth special eds. I mean, MDE usually does our special ed um emails and our processes, make sure
034that we're following laws and we're compliant. Um, we have that and and we've passed those. Um, so I think it's just really determining exactly what we we want them to eval. And if it's the structure, which I believe that's maybe the direction you guys want to go, um, that could be I mean a different um specific type of a consultant that can do that. Mr. Chairman, a question for Mr. Langard. Do you recall the 2011 um analysis that was done and if that was effective and a good model to to provide answers that were sought then? Yeah. So when we did that 2009 or something like that, um it was a great evaluation. Um I would tell you based on that report about 75 to 80% of the recommendations were followed. Um and it it
035just provided a good roadmap for the program at that time. Uh so uh it was very worthwhile. I think it cost us about $10,000 to do that and about it took about a month and a half roughly. What kind of entity did that evaluation? Pardon me. What kind of entity did that evaluation? It was a single individual um a retired special ed director that did that. So, who you're going to find or what you're going to you're not going to find probably some company that has three or four people that's going to come out unless some retired individual has started something. It's more like an individual that served as a director somewhere who does a little side work and that's probably what you're going to find. I mean that that seems appropriate. I think someone
036who has background in special education in public schools is important um so that they have background to evaluate and they evaluate the whole structure. They would take a look at I would recommend take a look at the program which includes everything performance structure administration all of it. No. Okay. So we want to go that direction for that Carmen? Yep. Everybody agree? Okay. Then what other parts? Think we start there. Yes. Start there and then we can always look at more. that everybody wants. Okay, that's the direction we'll go with that process for now. Um, let's see. Okay, so we'll move on to 5.11 511. Approve organizational charts. Um, these were presented to I believe the instructional committee. Um, you've seen most of them. were just minor changes and so it gives you this structure to
037function under till you make a jump uh further changes or what may happen when Mr. Highamp starts and some of the changes that he might like to see. So um the auditors always ask this for the audit. So at this point the recommendation is for approval. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the organizational chart? So move second motion by Matt, seconded by Lori. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor of the organizational charts say I. I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. [Applause] Okay. 5.12 approve resolution relating to the termination and non-renewal of teaching contract. So, this is a part-time teacher that held another position in the district in which they were um terminated. So, we're recommending termination and non-renewal for the AB teaching portion. Okay. Do I have
038a motion to approve the resolution to termination and non-renewal of teaching contract? So moved motion by Aaron. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Lori. And this is a roll call vote. Miss Dudley. I. Miss Sagard. I. Miss Shy. I. Mr. Bloom. I. Mr. Parish. I. Mr. Wboom. I. Motion passes. Okay. 5.13. approved to declare agricultural equipment as surplus property and I believe we got that list the other day. Yeah. So you should have the list. It was discussed at the operations committee. So recommendation was for approval. It's equipment that's no longer utilized. Okay. Do I have a motion to declare the agricultural equipment as surplus property? So move motion by Matt. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by Aaron. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor to declare the agricultural
039equipment as surplus property say I. I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Okay. Um 5.14. So 5.14 through 5.21 is all approval of salary and benefits if you guys have looked through them. My question is to you, do you want to lump some of these into one motion if you agree with them? And if not, is there one you want to pull out? Or I mean, John can discuss some of can discuss these, but I'm just looking if everybody agrees maybe we could do this in one motion so we're not making so many motions. So, is there anything you would like to discuss with them, John? Um, most of these fall within the parameters you discussed when these were put together. Um, a couple of them are one-year agreements to get them realigned
040with a group that they better affiliate with. So, we're doing it so you'd be doing them in the future at the same time. Uh so if you noticed a couple were one-year agreements and with that then uh these were all done in the last couple weeks. So um what it would leave for you is a couple um coordinator positions and the EMW group to finish up. So, I would recommend you approve these. And if you have a specific question on any of them, I can answer. But if we're talking about lumpings 5.2 and 5.21, I don't think I have the details for those agreements. Um, that was I I can tell you, but yeah, they were Lisa sent them out, I believe. Okay. But anyway, um the recommendation is to approve salary and benefit for
041community ed director. Um it's a one-year agreement, 4.82%. And then the salary and benefit increase for the AB coordinator, that was a 2-year agreement, 4.16 and 3.41% for 7.4 over two years. So they're all pretty much in alignment uh between that seven 7 and a half%. Some may be outside the bounds a little bit for a variety of reasons, but they're all pretty close. Okay. Would anybody want to do a motion for 5.14 through 5.21? So moved. Motion by Lori. Second. Seconded by Aaron. Is there any further discussion? Okay. All those in favor of approving the salary and benefit increases for 5.14 through 5.21. Say I. I. I. All those opposed? Same sign. Motion passes. 6.1 John's final report. Yeah. Uh I was going to cover the uh legislative stuff, but a lot of it
042isn't really too pertinent. I'm I'm really not going to give a final speech to you or anything. Um, other than I'm going to tell you, um, it's been a good, my 22 years here has been a good, um, run and I do thank all the previous board members and you as well. Um, I would encourage you to find a way to help address what's really going on, not just you, but others in the country in relationship to respect and the transition that um, all positions need to be respected. You can have disagreements. Over my years, there's been a lot of disagreements. Um, in my job, you have a lot of acquaintances, a few friends, and a few good friends. And over time, some people don't agree with the decisions I've made. And it not only
043affects you and your relationship with people, but it also affects friendships. And I think in this country, there needs to be a whole new level of respect that's shared. And so as board members, I really encourage you and I hope that you can find that level of disagreement but level of respect and share that with others because I can tell you over the years um I've been here all my kids graduated here. Um it's not always fair to your family. So I can tell you that I've worked with roughly 70 to 75 school board members in 34 years. Somewhere close to 700 to 750 regular school board meetings, special school board meetings, somewhere about 5,800 graduates and I've had only one graduate in all those years not shake my hand. level of respect needs to
044be addressed. So, I thank everybody and I appreciate it. Okay. 6.2 instructional committee. Um, Mr. Chairman, everything's been covered. Okay. 6.3 Operations Committee. Everything was covered, I believe. Okay. Other reports. Does anybody have anything? Okay. 7.0. Other business. Now, um, after our meeting, I ran into Josh Dale. Josh is here tonight. If anybody has any questions on turf situation, middle school stuff, now's the time to direct your questions to him being he was so kind to come here tonight. If not, then Avery is here as well. Oh, sorry. Avery, you're here as well. Sorry. Um, so if you guys have any questions about the softball field, the middle school stuff, direct your questions to them. Now, um, I just like to ask Mr. Dale just a little bit about the difference between artificial turf and
045grass. and um I brought it up at the meeting and just want to make sure that I didn't put words in his mouth as I said what I thought he thought and told me earlier. So I just like some clarification on that difference as we're going to go out for both beds on both of those. I would just I would just say the biggest difference is where we live in location and our springs can be very difficult with snow yet and rain weather conditions um with natural surfaces especially clay or acre line um once that gets wet it's very difficult to play. Whereas if you have artificial turf um it could rain 2 inches that day and you can get out on that field and and play that event. Um, this year would be a
046prime example. I think a coach would say they had eight games in one week there or something like that and that that would have happened if we were able to get out and play on those fields. And it also gives you the opportunity to play within the rain as well. Um, but once those fields get saturated, it's very difficult. So, in the Midwest, um, that's where the trend is going to that artificial turf. Um, I know Avery's played college softball at NDSU for four years and I think probably I think we're talking 90% of the field she played on were artificial turf for that reason. Um, obviously college is different than high school. But if you're going to put in a new field um just like we have with our last projects um let's do
047them right the first time so we don't come back and second guess why we did the way we did. Um the other piece of it is I don't know if if you did go natural grass obviously or you'd have to look at a uh you'd have to do look at watering it and how you do that and water wheels or however you do it don't evenly do it but if it's uh artificial grass you don't have to worry about that piece of thing. So I just strongly recommend moving to the artificial turf. So, um, if you look at Trojan Field and the amount of use that that has, um, that's used daily, um, that would be the same thing with the softball. Um, in the spring, it would be our teams on it. Um, if
048we can collaborate with Minnesota West, that'd be another avenue there. I do not think they would go in on us if we didn't have artificial turf. They might not either way, but that's not an option if we don't go that route. Um, and then all summer long, our high school teams are still playing on clubs along with the youth activities that can be used on it. I also talked to a former AD who's in the turf world now, and he suggested um on a softball field, you could put some youth soccer fields on if you wanted to utilize it for some soccer as well for some youth. you couldn't get a full-size high school field on it, but you could utilize it in the fall or times it's not being used for softball um with
049some soccer, some youth soccer on as well. So, it would get used um daily. So, any other questions on anything? Are you able to speak to the safety of artificial turf? Um I'm asking from a point of naivveness. Um cuz my understanding is that uh turf is damaging to uh bone development and young um people who are growing etc. I can't speak to numbers on that. Um but I mean you're always taking a risk anytime you play any kind of sports athletics for a chance of injuries. Um I think maybe Avery could speak to that a little bit more as she's played at a high level and like I said 90% of her games have been on artificial turf. So, um, I would say, you know, you take your risk no matter what you do.
050Um, I don't know if there's a higher risk or lower risk. Um, I mean, we put it out there on Trojan Field and we're playing soccer, football on it, which are probably higher contact sports and softball is and there's probably more cutting and stuff like that in soccer and football than it is in softball. So I mean if you look at we already did it on one field what you know why why we can go back on that then I guess is what I'd say. So but I don't have statistics. So do you guys want Avery to speak on any of her experiences playing on it? You know we had talked about the heat things like that. Is that a concern? Do you guys want to hear anything from her or are you guys good
051or I have a question for Mr. Dale. Mr. Chairman. Okay. Could you speak uh Mr. Dale on how we're our programming now. Where do our kids practice? Where do they play? How else are those our current facilities used? You're talking softball. Softball only. Correct. Yep. Softball only. Right now, our middle school practices on one of the middle school fields right behind the middle school. There's two fields back there that are in rough shape. Sorry, I'll throw that in there. But, uh, one is used for middle school softball. The other one used for middle school baseball practice. Um, we have it set up so if there's games, softball's on the road, baseball's home. Um, depending on numbers, sometimes both those fields are used for the the games. Um, like baseball this year we had sidebyside games.
052So that depends on numbers yeartoear. Um, our JV um and our varsity practice over at Centennial Field. The JV's on what I'll so call call a slow soft pitch field fall field where the fences are deeper. Um, and then the city was nice enough a few years ago to move in the fences at I'd say the it'd be the south field there. So, it's more of a regular fast pitch softball field now. So, so we really have no truly maybe have one truly regulation field. Correct. Of all of them. Yep. And I'd say four years ago or right before COVID somewhere in there, um, we had three. We our numbers are big enough. So, we had a C squad team, a JV team, and a varsity team. Our numbers are a little lower right now,
053but hopefully in the future, we're back to those three teams. Um, and that's what you'd like to see is growth there. So, and the fields are used during the summer by other organizations. It'd be used by our youth softball association. It could be used by our uh baseball associations for some of those lower level games. Um, I talked to Dan Bruns who t for the city and takes care of all the fields and he says all our fields across town are used daily. So, we're we're stretched to the max on our fields the way it is. Okay. Is there any further questions? Do we have any idea how many districts in the state have softball fields that are turfed or middle school football t um fields that are turfed? I don't know that. Um, I'd
054say in the city's area, it's probably more common than outstate. But part of that is is a softball field once you do it is around for many years. And if you probably went around to the area softball fields, they're probably a lot of them are in rough shape. So I'd say once once people start upgrading it, they're going to go to all turf, especially with softball because the dimensions of it are a lot smaller than like a baseball field or a football soccer field. So the relatively cost isn't as high as maybe it is in baseball or football, soccer. A lot of times in baseball, you'll see them just turf the infield um and not the outfield just for the dimensions of it all. Are there any softball fields in our district that are turfed?
055Uh in our district or our section? Yeah, there's some in Mano that the Mano schools play on. That's in our section. But in our conference, no, not that I'm aware of. Upperly. Upperly. They're not in our They're in our section. Not. So there's out of our section there are some in there. Austin probably has one too, right? Yeah. So in our section, over half of them have them, but in our conference, there is none. Okay. Any further questions? Okay. Thanks, Josh. Thank you, Josh. Okay. Is there any other business? Uh, Mr. Chairman, following your lead on acknowledging previous months uh, celebrations, I'd like to wish everyone a happy pride month. And to our students and staff who are members of the LGBTQIS2s plus community. We see you and we are happy that you are a
056part of our district. Okay. And then myself, I uh I've been on this board 6 and 1/2 years and I just I'd like to thank John. It's been a fun little run for me and I've enjoyed it. And like I've told you before, not everybody gets me as their last chairman, so you should be excited. Looking for your autograph. Um future business Joel, our future is here. Wanted to say hi to you. We'll see you in July. Um, do you guys have anything else? Okay, meeting is ajourned.