001Okay, we'll now open the March regular school board meeting called to session. Uh 1.1 roll call. Let the record reflect that all school board members are in attendance tonight. Uh recognition of visitors and guests. Uh, thanks to everyone who is in attendance tonight. 1.3 pledge of allegiance. Everyone stand, please. Pledge of 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. Um, we did have one request for public participation, but that did get cancelled until further notice. Um, 1.42 recognition of student, staff, and community. And I'm going to let Lori do that. Okay, we have a nice long list here. Um to start with we have congratulations are in order to
002the Prairie Elementary and Intermediate School students who raised $5,498 through their annual coins for cancer fundraiser and donate the money to the children's miracle network of Sou Falls. Congratulations to Alandre Leon Flores as a recipient of the president's regional for forensics speech scholarship from Southwest Minnesota State University. Congratulations to our Trojans's gymnastics team who are awarded the section 3A academic champion team with a GPA of 3.97. Congratulations to Worththingington's wrestler Chase Burn who earned first place in sections and advanced to the Minnesota State Wrestling Tournament. He was also named to the Big South Conference wrestling allconerence team. Congratulations to Leslie Hernandez Herquez, a second grader at Prairie Elementary in placing second in the Wilmont VFW auxiliary annual illustrating American art contest for grades K through 8. Congratulations to the first place winners of the Intermediate
003School Science Fair who will advance to the regional science fair in Mano. First place winners were Katherine Standifer, Brady Schultz, Annabelle Kramer, and Clara Heatbrink. Congratulations also to the Warthingington Show Jets dance team members who have been named to the Big South Dance All Conference. Uh that conference for jazz all conference is Zoe Martinez, Kaylee Garcia Seaffort, and Elizabeth Anderson. And for kick all conference, Rosalyn Castillo Loza. Congratulations to the following Worthington High School Business Professionals of America members that competed for the past few days at the Minnesota BPA state spring leadership conference in the cities. Uh Pierre Hatu, third place, advancing to BPA Nationals in Fundamental Desktop Publishing. Martha Garcia Verskra, a Warthingington Middle School eighth grader in the BPA middle level division, first place advancing to BPA nationals in business communication skills concepts
004along with placing second in word processing, business math concepts, and computer literacy concepts. Martha will be competing in all events at the nationals. Also, Ka Thai Ble, fourth place, advancing to BPA Nationals in Advanced Deskto Publishing. Alandre Leon Flores, second place, advancing to BPA Nationals in administration research project individual statesman torch award winner. Alexia Fuente, national runnerup in fundamental desktop publishing administration team of Lauron Flores, Katy Blé, Pierre Hatu, and Edgar Menddees Ocha. They finalized and will be a national runner up. And final but not last um congratulations to 56 music students who participated in the music contest. There were 47 entries which of those 47 entries 40 received superiors and seven received excellent ratings for those total of 56 students. Congratulations to all these students. Okay, thank you Lori. Oh, you're welcome. 1.4.3 presentation
005on learning center vibe program by Spencer Winnicki, learning center principal. Thank you for allowing us to join you guys tonight and present on two of our wonderful programs um Vibe and the learning center. Uh I am here with our wonderful de of students Katie Peterson. Uh we're first going to discuss VI. Currently we have about 647 students who are enrolled in our public online school which is known as Vive. Um primarily we service are a large chunk of students who are in the lower grade levels. So like the um second grade peaking our top enrollment at 83. Um and then as the the grades go up the grade bands just kind of shrink. Um that's just depicting kind of where our enrollment is. and approximately 27 students who live within the Worthington School District are
006on by. Um, and then we all just want to thank our our staff. Um, they're they're truly awesome. So, these are our online staff who are our teachers of record or to you'll commonly hear. Um, and these are our group of sixth through uh kindergarten through sixth grade, excuse me, teacher of records and they live all across the state of Minnesota. and as well as our um 7 through 12 teachers, their teachers of record and then our um MTSS coordinators and our uh VI administrative assistants um as well as the in district people who service us a lot such as our assistant director of special ed. So what does Vibe look like? So five for K through 8 students. Uh they part or they complete your content areas, math, language arts, science and social studies.
007Um they have modules that they complete weekly. Um they also have first semester they participate in our PE and health elective and then second semester they uh which is right now they participate in heart. Our high school students follow our WHS and board approved graduation requirements which is 30 credits um to graduate along with all of the required and then elective credits. Um it does mimic a block schedule. So an average student in Vibe has a um four period day or four block day. Um giving you a little update on our intervention and MTSS process. So during the first year that Vibe was back open in 232 24 um our administrative team completed a self assessment of our MTSS processes. Um and just so you're aware MTSS Minnesota MTSS is the multi-tiered systems of support.
008Um we went through this uh self assessment and we found wonderful strengths that we do well in but we also found areas that we need improvement and need growth. Um so what did we do to start this process? We hired a a part-time Minnesota MTSS coordinator. And what she does is she um assists in the progress and monitoring um and then the data collection along with um implementing our MTSS processes and procedures. She also assists and provides individualized training to all staff, PLC's um and then individual teachers as well. Um we wanted to just kind of share out where our students are who are receiving our intervention services. Um if you remember our enrollment was um very heavy in the lower grade bands and that um marks true with our intervention services are really being
009met in those um first second and third grade grade bands where the higher enrollment was in our total number. Um but it just shows that we kind of are very diverse in the students that we are serving in intervention. So, as I said, we've made really good progress, right? Um, but there's more to do. There's more to continue to go. Um, so to to prove that that proc or progress that we've made, um, this year alone, of the five students that we have um, identified as having potential need for special education services, all five have qualified. Um, but what's next, right? Because we're going to continue to grow in this process. Um, so what's next is we're going to continue to network with other online schools. um and throughout the state and the country along
010with the Department of Education. And then next year, we're going to hire a full-time interventionist to serve these students um to meet the needs of those tier 2 and tier three who need more of those intervention supports. Um this person will be able to support uh those interventions. Moving on to the learning center. Uh currently our enrollment at the learning center holds 134 students. Um this is graded 7 through 12. Um we wanted to kind of showcase how many of our students are which grade level. Um a lot of people ask well how many kids do you have there? What are their grade? Like who's there? Um and currently we have 74 slated seniors. So these are students who are supposed to graduate at the end of this year or have returned to hopefully graduate
011in May. Um, and so they are the majority of our students right now, which is a huge number. Um, we also have 10 mid-level students. So, these are seventh and eighth graders. Um, and we've had nine students graduate already this year, whether they were returning students who needed to finish their degree or they had different circumstances to make them able to graduate early. And these are our um team. This is our team. And we just again, if you see these people out in public, thank them. They do a lot of great connections with our our students which you can see that high number of seniors need that high level of support. Um students who come to the learning center take five classes a day. Um and within those five we have an additional connect class.
012Um at the high school here they offer four classes in a day which is the perk of a credit recovery program. So each day at the end of the quarter they will earn a class back essentially. So they get an extra class that they can earn. Um, the connect class is an opportunity to build that relationship with their teachers, but also provide an opportunity to make up work that they're missing or get that one-on-one time reteing moment with the staff. Um, and they have that every day. And it to be referred to the learning center, they don't just get to come. Um, we go through meetings such as we call them transition meetings and they have to fit one of these categories. Um I would say 95% of our students hit in the credit deficient
013category that make them um applicable to come to the learning center. Um however we do have students almost in all of these categories that we service. Um we also service students um for the surrounding districts. So for instance like Folda, Adrian, Ellsworth etc. Sometimes they come to night school which is a whole another conversation. Um but we currently are serving someone from fold up right now who is attending the learning center during the day school. Um part of our work at the learning center is we over the past several years we work with the regional center of excellence. Um and our person that we work with is Sam Trader. Um we are working towards these three buckets. These are our three goals that we work towards. So access to core instruction. So that's kind of
014planning our schedule um and what that looks like. connectedness support for students and early warning systems. Um, our staff does an amazing job of that. They do an amazing job of of meeting the needs of the students, getting to know them and connecting with them and then overall our instructional practices. So, this um line graph that you see here, this is the uh graduation rates over the um past several years. And as you can see, we are trending upward, which is a great trend to see. Um, and we work with the regional center of excellence because we were identified because of our um, graduation rates and where they were at. Uh, and so we need to, in order to not be identified, you need to be at a rate of 70%. So, we're getting to
015that point, which is amazing. We're shooting for the stars. So, what's next for both of our programs? We've got a lot of great things coming up here. Um, one of them being our learning center and five advisory board meetings. uh that will be here in April uh April 7th at 8:30 following the instructional meeting at the learning center. Um we hope you all can join us. Um we have our end of year cookout. I'd like to also highlight that and thank um Mr. Whitboom and the Rock C Rock Cats Association for donating their time and supplies. Um we have our big graduation. We hope you can all be there. Um that will be May 29th at 6 PM at a learning center. We have our credit recovery summer school. So, one of the other programs,
016a couple of the other programs that we are um we do at the learning center is our night school and then we do summer school through the month of June. So, that will take place in June and then we have a track and field day for our five students uh in June. The date is yet to be determined. Questions? Thank you for letting us move. Thanks for coming, guys. Okay, moving on. 2.0 approval agenda. We got a few changes to make to the consent agenda. Um, take 4.3.2 off of the agenda. uh 4.5 which is a service co-op contract. Move that to 5.11 on your main agenda. So I would need approval of agendas with modifications. Move to approve with changes. Motion by Matt. Second. Second by an all those in favor of the consent
017and main agenda say I. I. All those opposed same sign. Motion passes. Uh approval of minutes. Approval of the February 2025 school board meeting and the committee meeting minutes. Need a motion to approve the minutes. So moved. Motion by Lori. Second. Second by Matt. All those in favor of the approval of the minutes say I. I. All those opposed. Same sign. Motion passes. Um consent agenda with the modifications. Once again, I need a motion to approve the consent agenda with changes. All moved. Motion by an second. Second by Aaron. All those in favor of the consent agenda with changes say I. I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Main agenda 5.1, the financial overview. Uh Carmen, you guys should have the um revenues and expenditures um for the month ending of February. Um
018our eighth um month of our fiscal year. Um oop sorry loud enough. Um we're in the eighth month of our fiscal year. Um our collective revenues are running very close and we um as we were to last year um currently we're at 65.47% compared to the 62.4 last year. Um at the same time um and our expenditures are also on track. Um we're currently this year at 60.31% compared to 62.96 last year. And um when we talk about these expenditures, that's compared to our budget. Um you know, if you guys are ever wondering like what what we're comparing these two, um it's our budget numbers and then where we're at expenditure wise. So as we kind of go um Ryan as we're paying bills and getting our revenues in, that's what he's comparing that to.
019Okay. Any questions for Carmen? Okay. 5.2 two approved second reading of policy 522 sex non-discrimination policy grievance procedure and process. John um this was presented at the instructional committee. It's the second reading. No changes were made. Again, this is the model policy presented from MSBA and their recommendation as well as the instructional committee to approve the policy. I move approval of the second reading of policy 522. Motion by Lori. Second. Second by an. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor of the second reading of policy 522 say I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. 5.3 approve the tax abatement resolution. So we held the hearing before this regular meeting and this is for lot one block one of Glenwood Heights edition Sterling Avenue with a parcel ID of 311860-5 and the
020request is coming from Melani and Nancy Johnson and from the committee the recommendation was for approval. Motion to approve tax abatement. So moved. Second. Motion by an seconded by Lori. Is there any further discussion? And this is a roll call vote to Lisa. Miss Dudley I. Miss Aard I. Miss Shudy I. Miss Mills I. Mr. Bloom. I. Mr. Parish. I. Mr. Woodboom. I. Okay. Motion passes. 5.4. Approve first reading of policy 704 development maintenance of an inventory of fixed assets and a fixed asset accounting system. John, so this policy was updated and the change comes in section three um where it defines the cap capitalization level um equal to or exceeds $5,000 and the total threshold of $25,000. this would be a change for the district from where it has been. Um it is MSBA
021policy and their recommendation for the change. So the recommendation was for approval. Okay. And this is first reading. Yeah. Yep. Need a motion for first reading of policy 704. So moved. Motion by an second. Second by Matt. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor of the first reading of policy 704 say I. I. All those opposed same sign. Motion passes. 5.5 approve Trojan field impact testing agreement. So the this was presented to the instructional committee. It's impact testing on Trojan field. When you have a turf field annually, you should be uh impact testing it so that it ensures safety on the field. Um, this would be a three-year agreement with IEA. And the cost of the agreement, let me find it here. [Applause] Oh, okay. I'll look there. $3,510 and the recommendation was
022for approval. Need a motion to approve the Trojan field impact testing agreement. So moved. Second. Eric. Motion by Eric, seconded by Lori. Any further discussion? All those in favor of the Trojan field impact testing agreement say I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. 5.6. Approve budget reductions. So both committees actually looked at this information in relationship to this. Um, you were provided a revenue and expenditure sheet which is a quick look at where the district is heading in the future. Um, we did update the 2425 numbers. Um, the enrollment numbers weren't originally this document never showed vibe revenue or expenditures. They weren't rolling forward like they were supposed to. Mr. Swanson did a lot of work to get go through the the spreadsheet and and all the things that connect to it. So
023there was an adjustment from 43.9 million to 45.7 million. As that flows through, it shows you basically between the revenue and expenditures that in 2026 27 um there is no it's basically a balanced budget at that point in time. Um he also created a second sheet that showed um if you were to make the 1.5 plus million reduction, how that would affect the overall budget. And basically making that reduction would actually show you that you would move the um balanced budget out to 2028 29. So it put the district in a better financial condition. So with that the budget reductions um the principles all provided uh possible reductions out of their building. Um they were given a target which was approximately 2% of their current budget. Um and each one of them provided that some
024of these reductions listed on this sheet have already occurred. Um such as a high school Mr. Hastings was proactive and did not rehire for PAR positions um with the board's re the um approval of restructuring the district office. That was a savings that already has occurred and so on. So out throughout this document there are some of those things that have already occurred. Example, another example is with the service co-op contract we were able to reduce the number of psych contracted services as well as SLP contracted services um due to being able to hire those as in-person positions. So with that, the total of reductions um is $1,567,920. Please remember the community ed is not you would need to take that number off because they are in the fund for so they're making a few
025reductions to kind of address some of the additional PAR support they have. So with that, the recommendation from the administration or I'll say from myself uh is to approve the reductions and ensure that the district remains fiscally healthy. Mr. Chairman, move to approve the budget reductions as presented. I'll second the motion. Motion by Matt, seconded by Lori. Um all and is there any further discussion? So I can start. I know there's others that probably have some questions as well. Um when I look at this list, um my biggest concern is that we asked for a 2% cut across the board. um without necessarily a need for that cut in some places. So I am 100% behind doing things that are fiscally responsible where we're looking at cost optimization and doing things to put us in
026better shape so that we can either save money or we can reinvest our dollars in the teachers and the staff that are with our students every single day. So I would be supportive of moving forward with some of this list also knowing that some of this list has already moved ahead. The concern I have is any position that is on this sheet that directly impacts student success and student support. And I think we have to look at that at a more granular level building by building and not at a full 2% rate across the board. I think there are opportunities to get leaner in some buildings but not all. So those would be my concerns with looking at this as an all-in vote across the board. Yes. I feel like when John asked administrators to
027go to their buildings and look at their budgets, this is what they came up with. So people in the buildings are recommending things that they although it's difficult recommending that they feel like they can, for lack of better words, live without. And and you got to remember a lot of these positions that were put into place was because of Esther funds and I know that was before you were here and we knew going into this no nobody enjoys doing this and with those ESR funds now depleted this puts our back against the wall. It was good but now it's almost like it's evil and It's hard, but talking with all the leaders of the schools, it's nobody likes it, but it's easier to do it now because yeah, some of those positions or retirements haven't
028been filled, could be resignations. I mean, I understand the student success part, but you know, I'm hearing from about the Paris and that's in the second grade and I understand that it it's a great thing, but I I find it's a difficult decision, but it's an easy decision now to move forward and doing it, I feel, instead of when it's in a really difficult position and it could really affect other lives. And some of these positions, what's nice now is they can be moved to another job, which is kind of an asset in doing this right now. And like I say, it it's too bad the funds put us in this position, but it was great. It was to help us get students caught up. Hopefully that's happened. It's just it's tough to make everyone
029happy in this position. And for many years, Prairie operated with half the number of paras or half the number specifically at grade two. Uh paras were shared between classrooms and they were having great success. Uh Heidi was able to create a schedule where students were able to get services. um takes a little more work on Heidi's part and on teaching and Paris staff to make sure that it's all coordinated, but Heidi and I had a long conversation here, gosh, probably been a month back and and she feels confident that she can create that schedule. Yeah. You know, and who knows, someday maybe we can bring these positions back. This is just for the time being. I mean, that's what the unknown is right now. And and and I agree with Ann. I mean, this this
030request was by John to the high the school leaders and I I think they've done a good job and we're not really going to affect too many people, if any, losing a job. And I I guess I'm somewhat proud of that. It troubles me that we're continuing to have a conversation about how this is not affecting anyone that's working here and no one is having a conversation about how it's affecting the students in the classroom and what that's going to look like in terms of um I mean we're talking about 15 pairs, five licensed staff and how that is going to affect student learning, student performance, etc. I understand that there are things on this list that we've already approved and that there are cuts. But what I still don't understand after two months of
031asking these question is why are we looking at reducing the budget when our I mean well part of the problem is that I've had three different dollar amounts with in front of me in in the last week. Currently, the dollar amount, the total fund balance estimate is $38 million, which is well over half of what our um expenditures are in any given year. And so to sit here and say that this isn't affecting a person that's hired, I completely understand that. But when we're looking at a 24 27.4% 4% reading at grade level. Uh statistic in third grade, our goal is 40 and the statewide average is 46.6% at reading at grade level and we're talking about removing two pair of professionals and two interventionists in our prairie in our intermediate building. I don't understand
032how that's value. The idea that we're cutting 2% in each building is is a valid concept in terms of let's make a list and let's make a goal. But those dollars are not equal. A reading interventionist at Prairie is worth more. It's going to pay per capita more for that student in the long run than many other positions in this school. and to cut that position. I mean, for me, it's really about these seven pairs and two interventionists in the lower levels. I think that's those are studentf facing positions. They're addressing our students who are in most need. It's addressing a goal that we are failing to meet. And I I am really struggling to understand how that is worth keeping $2 million in our balance in our um fund balance. You know, putting money
033in the fund balance is taking money away from our students in the f in the now. And we might be saving money in the future, but it's taking money away from our students right now. And to bring it back to the numbers, in the beginning, the goal was 1 million. We're sitting here looking at a list that is close to 1.6 million. If we addressed and kept the pairs and the interventionists in the lower levels, we would still be over $1 million in cuts. We would still be doing our due diligence and doing the right thing from a fiscal perspective. I get that there's a lot of unknowns out there, but we don't have to go this deep across the board given what we have in front of us from a numbers perspective. And I'm
034with Eric. The numbers have changed a lot in the last five weeks. Actually, I we had estimates for 2324 five weeks ago. Now we have actuals. Those actuals show us at 4 million plus more in revenue than what we thought we had five weeks ago and a half a million dollars less in expense than what we thought we had five weeks ago. That's four and a half million to the good. So the numbers are a little fuzzy at this point in time and we're making deep cuts and we're impacting students at these lower levels. I don't think we have to do it. I I mean the cuts here are a solution looking for a problem. To me, we can keep going with these folks at these levels. The the assignment to cut 2% came before
035we found this additional $4.5 million on the on the budget sheet. And and so I feel like while it's important to be proactive, it's important to be very mindful of this budget, I think that these cuts are a bit premature and speculative based on variables that we don't quite have a firm grasp on. I think we should continue the conversations, um, promote efficiency, examine our operations and our true needs, but I'm I'm just not seeing the immediacy of this right now. Well, we have a motion and a second. So, yeah, I'm just This is good fiscal responsibility at this point. Uh, back to Eric, taking fund balance and moving it to the operations of the district. The operations that's ongoing every year. So, you're going to every year then be taking fund balance and moving
036it to the operations part of the district. Um, I don't want to have to come to the voters in two or three years and say, "We didn't do our due diligence right now and now we have to increase the operating referendum." Nobody wants to see that. Right now, we have this across the board 2%. I feel like it every dollar is always going to hurt a student. It just is. But this is good fiscal management to do it now. We don't know what the legislator is going to do. We don't know what that funding is going to be. We don't We have negotiations coming up with our largest bargaining group. We don't know where that's going to land. So, we can always adjust this or come back or rehire interventionists or rehire um whatever we
037need. But at this point, this is just good fiscal management. So, I'm in support. I know we're unique obviously in many levels. I was reading a story this afternoon of the metro districts that are a $280 million shortfall. St. Michael Albertville has a $3.3 million shortfall. St. Cloud has a half million shortfall. That's right now, you know, shortfalls are happening throughout our state. We're in a a situation that is projected to worsen. I think I'd like Mr. Langard to explain a little bit more about the projections. We all do cash flows and projections in our personal lives and we know it's a fuzzy moving target, but based on what we know now and the numbers we know now, the longer range projection is dire. So yeah, when you look at the sheets and again um
038this is a one moment in time just like the test scores um they're one moment in time. You have to take them for what they are. It's our best estimate of what the revenue will be and our expenditures will be. We're still dealing on the expenditure side with um double digit increases. so larger which creates a larger um inflationary factor that we have to deal with. But what it does show is again if you make the reductions early at the end of this um estimation which is 2930 you potentially have an $8 million swing in the fund balance over an 8 million. The good news is, and I can tell you this doesn't happen in every district, when you make reductions and have to lay nobody off, that's a good thing. That doesn't happen very
039very often. Again, I I totally get your concerns about the interventionists or the paras and the academic support. Um, but I don't believe our principles would have put those forward without some careful consideration. And again, our test scores aren't moving. I can tell you, I'll tell you right up front, I'll say it to anybody. Our teachers do a great job of growing kids. They excel. Our kids are growing. They're doing what they need to do academically, but the MCA is not, in my view, a good representation of the success of our teachers and our students. And if you bank a reduction decision on test scores, in my view, that's wrong. And if you look at the preliminary data that the financial model showed from Barrett, um it will tell you that we are higher than
040the comparable districts by substantially in the student support area. you currently, even with these reductions, will show you're spending at a higher rate for pupil support than comparable districts. And everybody wants to point to our pop student population. Yes, that plays a factor, but that's not the total factor. And quite a in my view I'm frustrated with we cannot continue to blame our student population on why we need all this support. We have to do a better job of addressing each kid as an individual. Okay. We had a motion by Matt and a second by Lori. Is there any further discussion? Can we can we pick this apart and try to hit the 1 million that was originally asked for? Do we have to do this all in one fell swoop and not look at
041this more closely to hit the 1 million target? That was a fine target a month ago, two months ago when we started looking at this and it still be our target. It's my understanding that there's 600,000 here that's already been approved and cuts like that in in in terms of the district the district office the service co-op etc things that are happening. Can we find $400,000 more that has the least amount of impact on our students? I just think that's going to be too subjective. this is just equitable across the district and we asked our principles admin team to do it this way. It's sort of kind of how it's always been done in the past. I want to keep bringing up the past since I'm the past board member, but this makes sense to
042me across the board to do it this way. Otherwise, who's going to say, well, that's less of a cut or doesn't impact as much or you know, again, I don't think that's discernable. So, I just assume do the whole thing and then come back later next year or two years when we know some more of what the inflation's going to do, what the legislators going to do. Again, the things I said the first time around, what our bargaining units are, what we'll have a better idea of what where we'll be with those crystal ball things. Yeah. I mean, administrators didn't do all the work to have a governing board pick it apart. administrators did the work that they were asked to do. They know what's happening in their buildings. They see the work every day.
043They see the possibilities. Um, nobody likes cuts. I don't like cuts. I was a budget cut as a teacher many years ago and it stinks. But if we are not smart about it now, the cuts that we're going to have to make in the future are going to be even more difficult. Okay, we got a motion and a second. All those in favor of the budget reductions presented say I. I. All those opposed, please raise your hand. Motion passes four to three. Okay. 5.7 approve city maintenance and scheduling agreement. Um a couple years ago we started the maintenance and scheduling agreement with the city of Worthington which has been an outstanding partnership. Um they presented it again this year and the maintenance agreement cost for next year would be $12,826. Um it is an increase
044of 15%. Um but well worth the money spent. It's been a great partnership and um worked well. So the recommendation from the operations committee was approval. Okay, I need a motion to approve the city maintenance and scheduling agreement. I'll move to approve the city maintenance and scheduling agreement at a cost of $12,826. Motion by Aaron. Second. Seconded by Matt. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor of the city maintenance and scheduling agreement say I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Okay. 5.8. Approve turning over a playground area to the city of Warthingington. John, so back when we sold property, roughly 3 acres to um Smok for their new um facility out on the Prairie Elementary site. Um during that time it was recorded that also the property that the playground is
045on um was turned over to Smok yet they have no deed. They have no it's not part of the purchase agreement. So I believe there was a recording error at that time. I have talked to them. They do not want the property. And so what this is, it was discussed at the operations committee. I would need your approval as a board to say we're going to turn it over to the city and then I'll work with Smok and the city to get that accomplished. And of course, the city would pay for that to get turned over to them. And it probably be through a quick claim deed for that parcel of property. It's a little over an acre, I believe. That was on operations. That was on operations. Yes. Recommendation was to turn it over
046to the city. Okay. I need a motion for turning over the playground area to the city. I'll move to approve turning over a playground area to the city of Warthingington. Motion by Aaron. Second. Second by Lori. Any further discussion? John, is it actually is the playground and that is that part of that tennis court? Old tennis court there? It's the playground the tennis court which the city resurfaced here a year or two ago and then there's some grass area just north of the playground area. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. I do have a map if you really want to see it, but it's kind of a re rectangle piece of property. Okay. Thank you. Have a motion and a second. All those in favor of turning over the playground area to the city of Warthingington say
047I. I. I. Those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Okay. 5.9 approves approve lease with the city of Warthingington. So the um facilities group from the city and the school um have met and talked about creating some opportunities of collaboration with that. Um the conversation with the group at least to excuse me address this summer would be to create some soccer fields at Prairie Elementary. the city of Warthingington is willing to come in and um create those fields and then work to improve the fields and the conversation was leasing that to them for a dollar. Now, there would be some upfront costs by the district for seed and our share of seed and fertilizer and helping with the goals. it would become a public community access point for soccer. Um, again, I the first year costs
048are going to be probably 25,000 top end. Um, is kind of a rough guess. Soccer goals aren't cheap, but um there's some equipment involved. The school would be responsible for the garbage cans and the pora bathrooms that exist and then the city would do the mowing maintenance of the field and their goal is eventually to make some nice soccer fields. They are currently looking at three fields with three adult fields with two youth fields. So trying to get five fields to start out for this summer and they would like to start working on that as soon as we can put an agreement together. Wouldn't that take up most of the area prairie that's out there? It take up a good chunk of what's east of the building. So yeah, and it was recommended by the
049operations committee to move forward. It' be a little less maintenance for us too, right? Yes. And just to clarify, one of the benefits of renting this to the city is that then the city assumes liability if there were injuries if someone twisted their ankle because of un uneven ground or something like that. Is that that's right? Yep. Okay. Absolutely. Thank you for reminding that or bringing that up. Okay. Looking for a motion to approve the lease with the city of Warthingington. So moved. Motion by Lori. Second. An is that you? Second by an Is there any further discussion? Mr. Chairman, if Mr. Langard could clarify that there this will be primarily summer use, but to lessen any risk of congestion in the parking area, bus area, parking lots. Don't see that as being any concern
050for the the building itself. No, it's summer and after hours is when it'll get utilized. Um, already there's a lot of what I'll call pickup Sunday afternoon games out on that site. This just actually gives them a hopefully much better area to play and it does move some of it closer to Pleasant. So there would So from the parking during the school day, I don't really see an issue. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor of the lease with the city of Warington say I. I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. 5.10. Approve health insurance bid selection. Will that be Carmen? Carmen. Yeah, Dina can join us here too. Okay, so we had um 11 um carriers respond to our request for the proposal. Um six sent us bids
051and five declined. Um currently the board has our recommendations in front of them. Um is there any questions on the plans that we proposed? Is that who we're with now? Right. Yes. Y the insurance committee's um recommendation would be to um continue with Sanford due to continuity of care as well as the cost savings. um they're looking at a total maximum cost of 6% um for this fiscal year and then the next school year 2627 I believe um would be a a cap not to exceed cap at 126% or 12.9%. Okay. Need a motion to approve the health insurance bid. All moved. So, just one second. So, in the in the insurance committee's letter that we requested to um the board make a motion to transition to the $1,000 deductible plan, a 1650 HSA non-mbbedded
052plan as well as the 3500 HSA plan. Um and then that recommendation would be contingent upon the pending union vote to remove the $500 deductible plan. Okay. Um do we know when that vote will take place from the union? They say we are hoping um by April 2nd. So that our projected open enrollment for benefits this year will be um April 17th through the 28th. Okay. So April 17th is open enrollment for the correct committee did ask in the motion include would that include there? Yes. I'm I'm looking at what Dena's talking about right now. Okay. And if I heard right, Matt, yes. Seconded it. Yes. Okay. So motion by an seconded by Matt. Mr. Chairman, y um there is union representation at the meeting and they were saying that that date is not achievable.
053Okay. April 2nd. It's not going to happen by April. Okay. That have an impact on it before open enrollment, but we can't guarantee So, I mean, we're going to have to have a date because I mean, we have to have it done and then send it back to Sanford, get all of our stuff in place. So, I mean, do you guys have an idea? This was part of the discussion with them. I don't want to give us time. So the other option is to do it Friday remove the contingent on a vote portion from the motion. Yeah. So if the teachers union since they're our largest union group um they have to vote to remove the 500 plan. Um if they would vote against that then we would just go back to our current plans
054which are the 500,000 and the 3500. cause a restart. When is the district's deadline to respond to Sanford? I mean, they need two weeks. So, I mean, basically, that first week of April would be our deadline, and that's cutting it kind of short. Um, unless we want to push back our open enrollment, but then that gets a little messy going into May. So, um, it deals with, um, employees getting their updated insurance cards and stuff on time. In the operations committee meeting, we we really dove into this pretty deep and, you know, realized that there is a significant cost savings to the district if we can eliminate that $500 deductible plan and shift those folks, those 60some folks on the $500 deductible plan to the $1,000 deductible plan and eventually move in the direction of
055HSA. Okay. So, if we can, you know, facilitate this vote with the union, I think that there's there is a potential significant gain to the district. So, I I think we should try and be flexible, but also work work together with the union to see if this is possible. I think if we stayed with the um 500, 10,000, and the 3500 plan, um it would be 6%. However, if we moved to the $1,000 deductible, 1650 HSA and the 3500 HSA, um it would be about a 4.2% increase. And we were projected to see a 37% increase this year on our health insurance premiums, not district budget. that's based on the usage of um our premiums that we pay in versus um the usage and consumerism of our of our plans. So how this affects like
056our budgets? I know one of the questions that we were asked is do we budget that 37? So the 37 would be like the total premium and then the district has the district share. So controlling our premium cost also keeps that district board chair level reasonable. Um and then also allows us to still offer a decent wage. Otherwise, if we keep growing, if our insurance rates keep going up, either we're going to have unaffordable health insurance or you're going to put most of your negotiations to insurance and not salary. So, like Aaron had said, our conversation is really like we got to also figure out how to educate our um employees on how to the um better ways to um use their health coverage and um help us keep our cost under control. Um obviously,
057an HSA plan helps do that more than just a 500 deductible plan. So, what do you think? I'm looking at a calendar. And it would also depend on if if the board is interested in looking at anou about insurance ahead of time. Our team hasn't had time to even talk. So, it's we we've talked a little bit, our negotiations team has talked a little bit. In the letter that we sent to the board, we said that we would be interested in anou incentivize those HSA family plans, especially because they're so expensive still. So, if there was a way that we can incentivize folks moving to the HSA, maybe that would help our members to make that kind of decision, too. So, I think Becca has a letter of intent to bargain to present to Adam
058tonight. Maybe she did already. So, I don't know maybe before I it would be good to to visit with the negotiations team to see what your thoughts are about if there's a possibility to possibly something before open enrollment which that's aight contract. Yeah. Um, you know, we could look at the option of changing our open enrollment, pushing it, you know, later either into April or that first part of May um to give the union time if you think that would work. Carmen, do you want to set a firm date so we know so we're not in limbo here? I I think we have to I think it would be um preferable to set a firm date because we already have um all of our vendors set up to come. So um so it would be
059all of our vendor carriers. So WEX, um Delta Dental, Ammeritas, um Sanford, um that way we can u move and ship that date back and give them a specific date and time when they can come. One of the reasons that we did the April 17th date is it's an early out. So, um probably I don't know five six years ago, I had um started doing like a benefit um fair to really educate our employees and having our um vendors there to share the information with our employees. That actually went over well. Um that really is the only date that we have open. So, if we don't if we move our open enrollment date that then we won't be able to do that. Um and then um part of the thing is that it's good for
060our employees to be able to talk directly to the people that they're buying their insurance from or ask questions if they have claim questions. Um so that that's a a plus for that April 17th date, but um I mean I I we can move the date, but I kind of need the union to give us like we can meet date and if that's I guess my my feeling is if that's tied to theou I don't feel like that's probably going to happen. So then we maybe just want to stay with where we're at this year and think about next year. Well, if you got a cost savings going from 6% down to 4.2, that's huge. That's and insurance is fully costed in the percentage. Why wouldn't we try to get that done? Yeah. Just looking
061at it, it's it's not it's not shooting for the movie. It's a small a I think that could be just No, I I agree like we've had conversations with the union and with um our insurance committee. We are all in agreement with coming up with like um a HSA amount that goes to single and an HS amount that goes to family because our family plans are extremely high for a lot of our employees. So, I mean I think that is a really good um benefit that we need to offer our employees. Um, currently what you guys do is basically you set your your district amount and the difference of that all goes into a single HSA. Um, so you would have to adjust that to like maybe the single wouldn't get quite as much in
062there. Um, a lot of districts just put a flat amount into their HSA plans and that's what they negotiate. So that's an option, but I think all of that if we have to do anou before the union wants to vote on it that you guys are really um crunching days and I'm not sure if that all can happen. I mean, I would like to be able to figure it out, but I'm not sure that that's we're going to be able to do that. And I don't know what the um board you I position is as far as having anou before you actually negotiate the contract. So, I'm not sure cuz that's usually part of the overall negotiation. So, I mean, I I think that's up to the board if you guys are willing to do
063that. I I'm Dean and I are all for it. we will more than willing to work with the union and come up with that. We've already had some pretty decent conversations. I think it's definitely um I think that's where we should move. That's our recommendation, but I'm not sure we can get there. Is the concept behind anou to offer a finan like a onetime financial incentive to those folks on the $500 deductible to move to the 10,000 or like what? No, I think it's really overall. So, I think it's like let's just let's basically let's look at that um benefit health insurance amount and figure out what that's going to be the district share and then how much is going to go to single and how much would go to family um across the board.
064So, anybody who currently has either HSA plan or has you know the 500 or the thousand that want to switch to an HSA. Dina, do you have those amounts in front of you? who is or how many not who but who how many are on the $500 deductible now? Yes. Um so we have 91 employees on um the 500 plan 35 are teachers. I don't Basically, we're waiting for a date or else we got to amend this motion. I would imagine Jody, what do you what is your do you think April? Okay. I mean, if they can do a April 7th, I think we can stick with the April 17th date and then still move forward. And we will I mean, obviously, by the close session, you guys will talk a little bit about the
065negotiations. That's what we're discussing. And then maybe have a meeting with the union. We might need to change. Oh, might change meet and confer date. Posser is supposed to be April 7th. So, we might need to We're gonna do that. Okay. Okay. And that's so that's okay with you guys. Anything? Okay. So, we got a motion. We got a second to approve the health insurance bid selection. All those in favor of the health insurance bid selection presented say I. I I All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. 5.11 is the Southwest West Central Service Co-op contracts for the 2526 school year. That to John. So this was presented at the operations committee. Um, as you go through the overall contract, we uh have switched the environmental services. Um, we used to be through McNeel, now
066we'll be through IEA. Um, last year's contract was for a partial year, so the full year number is there, which is a little over 13,000. the business services. Um we're seeing the contract go from a little over 46,000 to almost 56,000. Um in the technology services area, we're going from 83,000 to 97,000. um technology integration support uh almost 202,000 to the new contract would be 225 thou almost 226,000 and then excuse me comprehensive with cy cyber security went down from 36,000 plus to 336 and then uh the student data privacy program is $1950 $50 for next year. Where the changes um come in the contract additionally is in services under the special education. Um school psych we reduced to one FTE of school psych services versus the two FTE since we were able to hire.
067Um that dropped from 246 to 128,000. speech language pathology we dropped from 116,000 to 46,000 in change. Um that was due to we were able to actually after four years hire a district speech therapist. Um and then the teacher visually impaired actually dropped from 38,000 to 31,000. um occupational therapy and these are kind of all cart type services that based on the student needs we have. So they went through the other one um where the change came was in the uh special education administration services. Um, last year we had an amend amendment on the contract so it didn't show the total salary and that is showing a big increase from 158,000 to 351,000 but that only showed one administrator. So in the total contract based on changes and what we did the proposed was1,226,38.95 and
068through making adjustments we went down to 1,156,283. So the recommendation would be to approve the service co-op contract and that if you make any changes to that that has to be done by March one technically right. So if we are not going to example um have any psychology services, yes, we have to notify them prior to March 1st and this contract is due April 1st. So I guess in the future then I mean your time you is done in July but like Josh and Carmen maybe next year we could start the conversation a little sooner. Actually I think we have to start it even sooner. So there's a portion of this contract that the notification has to be done by July 1st if we want to make changes to that particular portion a full year
069and a half ahead. Right. And I don't know if we'll get that, but I say that's something for you guys to keep into consideration, too. I think let's talk sooner. And if there's any other recommendations or changes you guys feel, it'd be nice to know. Just a quick question. Our student count went up by nearly 600 students between 2425 2526. Is that is that's our projection to go from 33 um 900 Yeah. What happened was they weren't originally counting the vibe students. Okay. Now they're counting the vibe students. Okay. Okay. I need a motion to approve the service co-op contract for 2526. I move approval of the service co-op contract for the year mentioned. Okay. Motion by Lori. Second. Second by an Is there any further discussion? All those in favor of the Did you
070have something? Um, I was just going to suggest that when we have our next work session meeting, I think it would be good to have a conversation about our usage of the service agreement. Um, given the fact that we do have to make projections like a year and a half in advance if we want to continue some of the services. So, um I I just wanted to make that request to have that placed on the agenda for the next work session or one in the next coming months. When are we scheduled, Lisa? April 9th, 8th. That a night meeting. Night meeting. Okay. Do we kind of have a big agenda already? Yep. I mean, we could put it on there, but if we don't get to it, it have to go to the next. Okay.
071Okay. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor of the service co-op contract for 2526 say I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Okay. On to report. Superintendence report. Um I just want to mention I did get a print out um of the compensatory revenue today or this afternoon. So under the current hold harmless and then we're at about 7.8 million. The current law shows that we would be slightly over 5 million. The governor is proposing 8.3 really. So it's kind of that harmless effect with some increase. The impact of the current law is that we would see a reduction of 2.7 under the governor's proposal. It's 505,000 increase. Again, um where that lands there's got to be a lot of conversations regarding compensatory revenue. um and they have minimal
072dollars unless they cut other areas to shuffle the dollars around. Um I just will tell you compensatory revenue is a big impact to this district. I do know they're on Thursday having a hearing on compensatory revenue um of which I know um there will be some superintendents testifying related to that and uh they have to find a fix for this. This was all related to paying for um for meals for all students and what happened was the direct certification has created this disparity that's occurring. So, um they have to address how they're going to handle this because there's a fundamental flaw in what's going on. So, more to come, but at this point, we're looking at a $2.7 million reduction. It could change by the end of the session. Question for Mr. Langard. Different subject
073though. Is that okay? Yeah. Um, I believe last month you attended the superintendent conference in New Orleans. How was that? And what did you learn for our district? Um, so it was a nightmare of flying down and back. That was horrible. Um, and my wife got sick while we were down there, so that was a double whammy. But I did go to the conference and attended a couple what I thought were really good sessions. Um, one was actually on crisis plan and crisis management and a plan. And there's a school district that I've actually asked Dena to connect with. I brought back some things. They are well ahead of most schools. So, they're a good model to kind of borrow from to update and we're working on that has to happen in our district. So,
074that's awesome. Um, one of the other ones was that I attended was um talking about belief leadership and value leadership and um fortunately what I saw I think a lot of our administrators are there but I do plan to share that with everybody as we wrap up the remainder of the school year and talk about your belief in value leadership that's there and then Um, another gentleman I listened to and it was really good. He talked about the history and I got to go back and review his information because he talked about in history a turning point in our country's history was 1963 which was the assassination of Kennedy as well as some other things that really changed what was going on. It's great information and I want to recapture what he had in his
075presentation so I can share that as well here the remainder of the year um because he had some great information. What it really comes down to whether it's the ble value leadership or this other gentleman and his presentation of the connectedness we have to our students and to the to the staff that we have and how we connect and how we work together and how we can benefit kids in the long run. Um so really good presentations. I got to grab those so I can share some of that information both with the administration and then they can share with staff. Thank you for the update. Yeah. Can I can I do a different topic too? The you testified I think last month um at the capital about clawing back up to $2 million in taxes
076paid. Any movement on that that you've heard of? No, I haven't heard anything. Just curious. I'm thinking that will get wrapped into the tax bill depending on what they do. They did lay it over for consideration. So, yeah. Okay. Anything else? Nope. That's it. 1.2 instructional committee report. Um Ann We've covered everything good. Okay. Operations. Anything else? I believe the majority items were covered. Uh, one item I'd like to bring up that was not discussed at our last meeting per se, but is the ongoing attempts to do a drainage project at the uh, Crashine property and the continued struggle to get that uh, to move forward. The watershed has been dealt uh, setbacks from the DNR. Um, they've invested $250,000 in engineering for a project that is not getting approval from the DNR. The Bowser
077group does support the idea. And I would like to suggest we as a board write a letter of support on behalf of our watershed that goes to our elected officials and to our appointed DNR officials. that's uh penned by our superintendent expressing our disappointment with the uh use of or $250,000 that could potentially be all for not because um for whatever reason they did not know four years ago they didn't support the plan. So, and there's potential. I think eventually it's going to be on us to be uh responsible land owners and take care of a problem if and that if we're not able to get state fund to to do so. So, I'd like to uh bring that forward for a discussion and encouragement to have that letter drafted. Anything else? good. I can't
078remember if it was an operations or city county school, but um we talked a little bit about having uh a new stop, three-way stop at Crlshime and Oxford. Um I think that's going to go into the works shortly. Is that going to happen before the end of the school year? April, right? I think April. Early April if I remember correctly. Mr. Chairman, are we okay with the letter being written or bet? Okay. Yes, Langard. That's fine. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Other reports? Um, anybody else got anything? I did talk with John. I'm going to bring this up. Friday, March 21st is World Down Syndrome Day. Please show your support of wearing blue or yellow or your mismatch socks. It's a half a day school and I hope we show support for those kids.