001is encouraged in the Lord Ral School District all meetings of the board will be open to the public except provided by law scheduled meetings of the board may be recorded audience members May address the board during public comment for non-agenda interests or during the discussion of the relevant printed agenda item your attendance is welcome if you plan to speak to the board please look over the information on the agenda complete a public comment card that's located on that table and provide it to myself to address the school board members I'm going to ask that you come over here stand identify yourself you might have to scream because this is the little item that we're trying to pick up everybody's voice on and briefly State your concern public participation is a right that carries certain responsibilities
002such as informing oneself in advance of the issues being discussed voluntarily being as brief and Germaine as possible not unduly repeating remarks others or you have already made and showing respect at all times for the right and opinions of others whether citizens board members School District employees or students thank you for your involvement in Laurel Public Schools do I have any public comment for non agenda interests sure yes sir TR can you stand I'm sorry Shan yeah we're gon we're gonna Mark you as the first one to stand over there and Shout um just just a quick informational update for you guys we did have our bits today for West I'm sorry for South we did very competitive bidding we had a number of bids um it's it's one of the better bids that I've
003seen lately so we've done very well we will be bringing forward um a GMP for approval for you guys at the very next board meeting once we get through betting of all the subcontractors and then a second note is for West um there was three three pieces of work that we kind of took off the table at the very beginning because we were obviously concerned with budget in the existing school one was looking at the flooring in the uh existing School redoing all that painting all the rooms and then removing all those lockers those old lockers up and down so we did have uh language go through uh bidding exercise so we got painting numbers we got um flooring numbers um we're in good shape budget wise so just want to let you know we're
004going to be moving forward with those three um both stre line items so we will be getting new new flooring um in the existing school as well as new paint as well as getting rid of those lockers and finishing those HS that was pretty much it it was good news today so definitely wanted to make sure we shared that with you thank you very much appreciate that anybody else for non-agenda interest all righty moving forward thank you Shane moving forward through that um we do have an appointment of a new trustee Kelly Anderson so Kelly I'll have you come over to Julie all right Kelly if you will repeat after me raise your right hand I do solemnly swear or affirm I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support protect that I will
005support protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and defend the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Montana and the constitution of the state of Montana and that I will discharge the duties of my office and that I will discharge the duties of my office with theity with Fidelity all right I can you [Music] that is it Wonder all [Applause] right all righty welcome aboard thank you you're welcome all right okay let's move through our agenda down to our correspondence um once again our community has I mean given so much to our school district uh go through those European porta potties uh of course always helping with our sports facilities and activities we do have them supporting our practice field for some of our student athletes the Laurel
006booster club uh giving some donations to our drama team so thank you for that the Montana Justice League with an enormous donation to are we the people for their trip to DC so thank you so much for that as well shal's Billings provided some donation to our cheer team AJ Blain foundation and the Laurel Ace Hardware again donated uh to our we the people so that is an amazing donation for that group to head to DC um coming up this spring so thank you very much Community for all of that presentations we do have uh several people in our audience for um a couple of our presentations we will start with our Benjamin project can move the flag yes you may yes you may just don't let it drop there you go okay so I
007want to bring uh Mrs Cala or Mrs Miss James up front uh she will start it up I have a presentation here and so I wanted I want to I want to start off that so do you want me to just watch you want them to just kind you want to flip through it really quick so we can see or is it on a loop or how are you how do you do the loop why don't you just click through it so they can take I can just sit here and click through it going to be let me talk about what it is and then if you would just show the pictures of the kids okay yeah so my name is Amy James and I take the kids to uh DC every year in eighth
008graders um through the Global Travel Alliance and they also have a charitable arm called uh Global doing good and and they have a program that I was lucky enough to get chosen to do I'm on their Advisory Board and so they allowed all of us on The Advisory Board to be involved in the Ben Project which is they gave um each um participating School 10 $100 bills to give to students to do good and there's not a lot of rules basically um we can decide how we want to select we had the teachers nominate and we basically gave them scores based on the number of nominations we chose 10 students some of them are here today they're given a $1100 gift card and they could either grow their $100 or they could just donate the
009money or they could do like make a project and donate and so we had some really cool um cool ideas that they had and they ended up earning about $3,500 with $1,000 that we started with um and they're very much encouraged to do however they feel like if they really wanted to get after it and earn money and grow that money we had two go uh grow over $1,000 and one grow about $500 um and but and then others they took that money and they bought um materials to buy thing or to make things for different participate participating groups so I don't know if maybe we could just look at the pictures and how the kids come up they're just going to talk about what they did with their uh who who they benefited with
010their $100 gift so this is when they first found out they were doing it I think I'd like to say that it was it was quite a privilege for the students that were picked um and uh because they did have to get nominated so that was all always really cool and they'll come up and kind of talk up a little bit about what they did but I think it's kind of neat to take a moment and look at the pictures before they do those also need that so A couple them picked our school to put the money back into our school as well and um this has fed me and my family for a few meals that's the last one so if those students could come up and um to the group really wantful and
011share how participated in the start us yeah just talk to so my name is D Eck and I'm in seventh grade what I did was I donated some tools to the wood shop at the school and I enjoyed this because woodworking is one of my favorite things to do [Applause] um my name is Abby ker and I made freezer meals for the staff and teachers at my school and um I gave my money to Angel courses and they help um or they save animals from the slaughter and all of those animals are therapy animals and they help um special needs kids cancer patients and the money that I gave them is going to help their donkey Blossom and help her with her her [Applause] hope U my name is Finley and um I'm in fifth
012grade I uh rais my money to give to the Mason Mo foundation so that they could raise money to give to law enforcement and that stuff and I like this because I like helping others also just before we go to the next I've been showing their projects that they did right behind so when you get done if you want to turn around and see what they did it's right behind there thank you Justin my name is Macy tman and I'm in e8th grade and I made baby BL get um for the Inner Mountain Health niku um the niku is um it helps with premature babies and babies in need of intensive care and I really enjoyed this project because I could give back to some someone something that helped me and my [Applause] family my
013name is Liam maror and I decided to to our school's special education Community I chose this community because I have a special place in my heart for special needs kids and I love this one kid who has been in my classes for three years since kindergarten in third grade his name is Jackson you might know him he's one of the wheelchair kids and I really like this Foundation because I can make new friends instantly [Applause] my name is Claire Anderson I'm the seventh grader and I grew my money for CA and CA vone county is a charity that helps kids in the ad or kids in the Foster system given an advocate and I really like this because I got to see how many people actually wanted to help and how many people knew about
014CA and I just learned about CA from this charity or from this um project and I would have never known about them [Applause] hi I'm Alexis and um I am in seventh grade with along with four other seventh graders three eighth graders two sixth graders and one fifth grader I'm pretty sure and um I used my money to buy 3D filament and like a bunch of like cookie supplies and rice krispy supplies and we sold them at games of at Laurel the one at the middle school one at the high school we did it at the wrestling match and the basketball match and we um we did all this and we raised about $500 to um donate to the food pantry of the Laurel and Middle School food pantry I um I decided to donate
015to these guys because they their food pantry has a really good pool for a while and I enjoyed this experiment experience because I learned how to fundra and how to sales and like to help um do something for a like a like wait what is it called a uh foundation and um this is really fun because I got to do it with my friends in so this was our second year doing it and I just what I love the most about it is that the kids are outside of themselves and they have to think about what's important to them and how they can help other people and I wish that every kid could get $100 and do it because it was really fun to watch them and and some of them like struggled they didn't
016know what they wanted to do and they really had to think about while others were like all over it but every single one of them made a difference and I just loved um seeing them Blossom and some of them are going to be on the radio so we're working to get them on the radio uh at a Morning Show here next month so uh thank you guys so much for letting us come and present [Applause] well thank you to all of our students um it's amazing to see what you guys did in the community that you love and serve so congratulations to every single one of you okay the next thing I'd like to honor uh Mrs uh Schwarz the Schwarz uh come on up here um she and I have on the back there
017is also posted on the uh uh LMS Facebook page then we sent it out to all the teachers but she got speech and drama educator of the year for the state of Montana which is pretty incredible [Applause] so a lot of obviously one of them and I wanted to Showcase her tonight so she's nice enough to come here she's also coming I heard next board meeting so she blesses us twice with her speech and drama team because uh they went to state you five time state [Applause] champions you know why she's speech and debate uh educator of the year in the state of Montana so really lucky to have her and um just wanted to take this time to celebrate her so thank you Liz thank you thank you so much for the recognition I
018just want to say every single one of you kids on the Benjamin project you spoke so well I really hope I can thank you very much congratulations look behind you that's a picture of her getting the award so that's pretty incredible very all right so uh we're gonna just go around real quick and uh Wayne's GNA give a tour of the no I'm just kidding Wayne and I will give a tour of the middle school it's not going to be a great grand tour but it'll be just a couple different things so if anybody wants to follow us we can the board will of course uh go around listened to what's going on at our Middle School um so but you are more than welcome to come if you choose not to that's fine you're
019more than welcome to hang out and we will be returning than e e e those levies are going to be discussed and there's many reasons why those will be discussed after reviewing some of our things through our middle school so moving through our agenda uh I have the consent agenda do I have a motion a motion to approve the consent agenda motion to approve by Chris do I have a seconded by Jenny trustees any comment questions not seeing anybody from the trustees comments questions from public audience okay uh consent agenda to be approved by Chris seconded by Jenny all in favor say I I all opposed say nay motion carries Donnie uh yay or nay thank you okay thank you Julie motion carries action items we're going to go down through the action items start
020with a the non-tenured tenured administrative contracts do I have a motion I make a motion to approve the non- tenured and tenur administrator contracts I have a motion by Renee do I have a second second seconded by Jenny comments questions from trustees yes ma'am re that's the only comment I would have is that we don't we're approving the contracts um but we don't have the contracts I guess it would be nice if we're going to have contracts to approve that we actually have the contracts attached okay so I don't know if we should because they're currently under a current contract right now this is for does that answer your question you'll still get a copy yeah I guess maybe this shouldn't be called approving their contract that I mean I think this is a little
021it's a bit misleading I guess in the title of it if we're just approving their hiring then there should be another agenda item for contracts later where the actual contract is attached I mean I I guess I'm fine with it I just think maybe the wording needs to be well it's not spelled right for one but um maybe we should work on that wording moving forward okay I make not of that write that down any other comments questions from the board okay comments questions from public audience not seeing any I do have action item a I'm sorry Donnie did you were going to say something okay just making sure I didn't miss you um action items for a for the non-er tenured administrator contracts hiring motion to be approved by Rene seconded by Jenny all
022in favor say I I I all oppose say nay Donnie yay NE I thank you motion to approve um item action item B I would like to remove that for tonight's meeting that contract was sent to our attorneys for review and some language did get um reviewed and some uh conversation had spurred up and I apologize that it came in late but without pushing this through I'd like to take that back and discuss that if everybody's okay with that I think we'll have to it's an action item so we have to table it well I can pull it from an action item but if you'd like to motion to T I don't think you can pull it from an action item the board has to make the Antion take action on it okay well then
023if you'd like to take action I'm going to then ask you I'll make a motion to table the superintendent contract motion to table Bri Renee second seconded by Chris any comments questions from the board since I do have a motion on the table comments questions from public audience okay motion to table by Renee seconded by Chris all in favor say I I I I'll oppose say nay motion carries to table I'm sorry Donnie yes yay or nay I'll get it I promise I only have a couple more I promise I'll get it okay action item C for fall activity coaches do I have a motion a motion to rehire the activities coaches for the 25 26 school year is listed motion by Chris to approve do I have a second second second by Renee do
024I have any comments questions from the board not seeing any comments questions from public audience all righty action item C for fall activity coaches approved um motion to approve by Chris seconded by Renee all in favor say I I I'll oppose say n Donnie motion carries action item D the high school February book list do I have a motion I move to approve the high school February book list motion to approve by Jenny do I have a second I will go ahead and second that do I have any comments questions from the trustees comments questions from public audience okay High School excuse me action item D High School February book list approved by Jenny seconded by myself all in favor say I I all post say nay Donnie thank you motion carries action item e
025for the ballot language of building Reserve levies do I have a motion do we would like conversation just had one like a small question yes sir it's okay no that for for both I'm just curious if we wanted to specifically mention the SRO as part of building Reserve I just was curious about that um safety resource officers that are in there that's that's an allow expense coming out of the building reserves and it's for safety um the Safety and Security issues and facility maintenance yeah that was just the one that I was kind of curious about and then some of the specificity of the high school ballot okay do we do we think we want to be that specific about we will I mean I I 100% agree we need to make some repairs to
026the high school auditorium but is that something you want to apply with that specific of of language I mean but it also does say other repairs as they advise yeah I just didn't know if we because you remember when we I just remember when we went through the building of the schools that we did try to keep it pretty bague I mean that's still pretty bague but it was there a reason we specified the High School auditorium as opposed to projects that we know we have to do what that like yeah like the gym ceiling Matt do you have any input on that did you so I guess is it I mean go ahead Donnie so I guess the question is though is this are these the fun are these the projects we want a
027list for the community to see or do we have other ones that we want them to truly be aware of I think it might be important to list the TNI B I mean or CTE building I mean I think that's a I think that's important to a lot of people and if we're going to be doing some work up there yeah that we acknowledge that I don't I agree with you Renee I think that's a big one for the community the CTE building might be a smart one to include if we're going to include some specific projects projects here Chase so I was just going to add the uh that we should probably something that isn't I guess we want the auditorium to look pretty and that's I mean a lot of it isn't just
028looking pretty but the auditorium is not the biggest problem by any means and so if you went with something like the uh CTE building or the those are a lot more important I think than the auditorium so maybe list the more important projects over the more cosmetic I guess projects well our chir and ban might argue with you about that and to be fair the roof is falling in the auditorium too wooden panels say roof but yeah I mean you know like root for there's a balance between wordiness and yeah if you're really specific then we can only use the money for those I see what if we are repairs and something else comes up we canus Auditorium but and not to say that we're going to misuse the funds but it does give us
029the ability to shift if something does arise within those do we think it's too wordy to add leave High School auditorium and then add CTE that would be my only I'm okay with everything on there if we could just add CTE and then is it CTE or is it the ti building TI building would the community probably be more trades and Industry I think is pretty self-explanatory but so is CTE and shop and egg is pretty clear maybe shop and egg building is just more plain language and less jarg building yeah I think more people will understand that plain language so it would read which includes payment for Social Security resource officers and new exit entry driveway for safety reasons repairs to the high school and shop and Ag and High School auditorium repairs to
030the high school auditorium and school shop and AD building yeah and then the other all other repairs as arise yeah that's on the high school did anybody see that anything on the elementary that they felt was missing needed or were we okay with the general language in that one that one's hard unless you want to include well there is some BO the boiler system at the middle school but that's probably the most specific project in the elementary or maybe structural repair to beams that might get people going wait structural PA I'm okay with this one as is yeah you're okay with this one as is I think people are going to find find the Elementary District how do we trustees how do we feel I'm hearing everybody's okay Renee you're good okay so we had
031discussion first I do not have a motion on the table whoever makes that motion please make sure to also list the additional verbage in the high school building Reserve election ballot language Julie wrote it down but please make it in your motion as well do I have a motion on the ballot language for building Reserve levies I'll motion to approve the ballot language for the Elementary District and high school district with the addition of uh a mention of the shop and egg building to be included in the verbage under the proposition motion to approve for the levies with the additional verbage from Chris do I have a second second seconded by Jenny any other conversation question from the [Music] trustees any comments questions from public audience okay I do have a motion um to approve
032for the ballot language of building Reserve from Chris seconded by Jenny all in favor say I I I all oppose say nay Donnie thank you Donnie motion approved moving down to an administration building byy cell extension Amendment um I did ask uh George warmer from Coldwell Banker Commercial to come in and kind of give us the reason for the amendment as well George would you like to just kind of come up and before I ask for a motion on the table just so everybody can understand he does have our buyer with him as well and Paul and McKenzie uh the buyers have come tonight all the way from Clinton which is a good 4 and a half hours away I thought if it was all right with the board I'd let Paul uh give us
033an update first on where they are in the process and some of the rationale for the extension requests and then I'll be available of course just talk about the buy sell and any follow questions bo be good with that since we do have that Amendment on okay wonderful Paul thank you so my name is Paul Nelson with we can do it LLC and my wife McKenzie is joining us as well tonight briefly wanted to do an overview of the work that we've done with the city with the neighbors and of course with the school and the brokers in trying to bring this project to fruition over the last year I I sent a document to the Brokers and I I hope everyone has received that yes okay and I apologize to the public as I
034was leaving the house this morning near Missoula I thought I should probably bring 20 copies this is when I send this to the Brokers to go to a school board I consider public document we started out uh with Environmental Studies on the building uh and just very briefly that was done by Northern Industrial hygiene I spoke directly to the gentleman that was in and and did the testing and crawled through all the spaces in the building and he said it actually wasn't the worst building he's ever been in no I'm not sure if that's a positive or not not building there were obviously asbest and lead and some of those things are of concern we uh asked saf Tech to come in and and give us some estimates on the cost of the removal so
035we understand what those costs are at this point concurrently we were working with the city with collaborative design Architects and I kind of lay these out line by line but understand some of these lines represent 35 phone calls 50 emails discussions meetings etc etc this is a kind of a slow moving process in one process that we had with the City and The Architects the city recommended that we go around and meet all the neighbors and explain to them what we were doing and that wasn't something that I envisioned myself ever doing but I put on my smile and a nice shirt and went and knocked on 85 or 90 doors around the school and listen to the concerns closely that those neighbors had okay I was then able to bring those back to collaborative
036design Architects and try and bring forth a project that addresses the con concerns of the city um and still promotes what we're trying to accomplish as well as what the school would like to see done I have to say a deep thank you I know Christopher was at the zoning meeting Brittany I I I don't honestly don't remember if you were there or not it's okay were you there thank you you're welc and and I'm not sure what other board members but we've had tremendous support from this school board as well as the Brokers this isn't something that we've just done we've had tremendous support from you all and we appreciate it that house was packed that night and not everybody was necessarily happy about the project on the other hand the idea of a
037vacant building in their neighborhood isn't a great option either so we do feel that that we made Headway uh we were unanimous unanimously approved for the zoning change um then there's another span of time 45 days or so and we went back before the entire Laural City Board again had Brokers and different members that came and collaborative design Architects were there and we actually received unanimous approval from the city board for the zoning change there okay so that's Mountain number one anybody that climbs a mountain knows when you get to the top point you see the next 10 so we we have some things yet that have to be done uh with respect to a site plan possibly some green space u making a decision on the old gym building uh and then eventually the
038next real Mountaintop is a building permit but we are We Are One Mountain Top away at least we're that far down the road just one statement here at the end I just like to read a couple of sentences because I believe this is important and it it conveys what I'd like to convey personally to this board we believe that we've made great strides with both the neighbors the city and The Architects we have a lot of momentum toward bringing this project to truition including some Publications and some Med Med both television and print we would ask the school board to carefully consider what we've accomplished so far our goal is and will be going forward to create a project that reflects positively on the Laural Community the school district of Laurel the city of Laurel
039and the Neighbors in that neighborhood those are the things that's the tight loope we're trying to walk on this project and and so far with unan approvals in two different boards we feel like we have some agreement on that so we are asking for an extension maybe the biggest reason on that the very first thing we have to do is the hazardous material mitigation in that building and that simply cannot be started until the building is vacated so I and I don't know what all the logistics are on year end but a building has to be built and somebody has to be moved and then somebody else has to be moved we're asking for an extension till the p in November and I will allow George to go over those details with you if there's
040not any other questions I'll do my best to answer have any questions I just say thank you for coming and being here and answering being willing to answer our questions and be a part of this process because it's I think it's important to all of us on this board but it's mostly important to our community for sure um because there's a lot of um sentimental value to that building to lot of people in the community and so I think that's been very important and I thank you welc thank you is there anybody from the public okay and understand there's there's some things that are simply not in our control I don't know the fate of the old gym building but there's some folks on the zoning board that feel very strongly about Green Space and
041in order to get green space the old gym building may be a casualty of that so there's things we don't have control over and the the gym build is teetering by a hair thank I just I just wanted to say I think it's exciting of what you're doing I think it's a preservation of History my my dad graduated from that high school I don't know any others in there uh so I just I'm pretty excited for we are excited we are excited with you we work professionally in schools throughout a seven state region and this may be one of the greatest buildings I've ever seen there's a High School in Casper Wyoming that would replicate this but this is a cool building my vision just very briefly to share you I I would love to
042see that grand entry remain a grand entry now we're going to have to put an elevator in for Ada access and that type of thing but the grand entry we're going to try and leave alone and then you go upstairs and you go downstairs and there's all those Lockers in that huge Dynamic walkway and at some point I'll hit the school up and if you have old pictures that you'd like forever preserved maybe we can put those above those lockers um just to maintain it you know schools somewhere you have boxes and boxes of stuff but I I Envision that at some level as an old school and and some of that type of thing to stay with the project but that's down the road thank you very much all righty so um the amendment
043that you have is just uh an amendment to the buy sell that we already currently uh are under just asking for an extension to November first uh Paul is willing to put an additional $10,000 of non-refundable earnest money and then of course he will get it back on the closing date as a you know credit to him so any questions from what we have in our possession okay do I have a motion then do I make a motion to approve the amendment to the byy sell second sorry thank you I was trying to push down my computer U motion to approve on the amendment number two by Renee seconded by Jenny now that I do have any motion on the table trustees any comments questions to that any discussion I think just it also relieves
044us of having to move out before South is finished so it does help us as a district as well any comments questions from public audience Deon um does it impact the money that we have available to pay for the South project or how would that work um to what Shane said at his last update was that they felt that that budgetary item was being already kind of looked at with numbers and everything so he wasn't too concerned of where they were sitting on the impact of that with this building being Happ to be funneling of some of that money this is what I was understanding and I believe I any other comments questions from the public audience okay so right now for action item of the administration building Bell extension amendment number two motion to
045be approved by Renee seconded by Jenny all in favor say I I I'll oppose say nay Donnie thank you motion is carried um action item G the recommendation to approve the resolutions to open new schools uh Julie just quickly so you understand why we're now looking at this again is Julie sent everything in to the state and the state said oh we need just a few minor little details would you like to touch base on those basically they just need a resolution on both of them and uh so I missed that in the law so so anyway they helped me with this these resolutions because it's kind of a new thing you know so anyway so there's one for the elementary and one and the request open the schols again cuz I just had to
046tweak a couple things on those um on from the first time the uh I had to put new instead of reopening you know and that and then the other thing I had to mark that the school is located more than 20 miles beyond the Incorporated limits of the city excuse me located in the district so they wanted me to put no there and those are the things that they they you know wanted to to change on those two documents so I changed those so those are different and then resolution okay so for item G the recommendation to approve resolutions to open new schools 1 through six do I have a motion I make a motion to approve the resolutions calling to request to open an elementary and intermediate school as well as the other requests
047and petitions listed thank you R motion to approve the recommendation 1 through six by Renee do I have a second second second I Jenny comments questions on all of that clear as mud forging new information I have a question yes ma'am um on number two does it not need to be answered number two of which one which of the open request to open or reopen request to reopen for the elementary yeah actually on both of them one and three have an answer but number two doesn't oh because it doesn't let you do it in the form and only let you do the one okay so since you did number one you're lock that's the one they want it marked okay yeah because it doesn't let you check the you can't do both you have to
048do one or the other yeah okay good question good question thank you okay anybody other questions from the board questions from public audience okay action item G recommendation to approve resolutions to open new schools motion to approve by Renee seconded by Jenny all in favor say I I I all oppos say nay Donnie very much motion is approved um going down through our informational items we do have our student rep report we're excited to hear what you three up to this week so this week was supposed to be our student climate and culture where we went around the schools to uh interview different students uh unfortunately that didn't happen we were pretty busy this week uh tons of different activities um just that kind of stuff um but we did end up getting some rough
049draft videos done for the board on uh the differences between bonds and levies uh the kinds of things um and these will go out to the public eventually um just to kind of inform them so yeah let's see it oh come on oh stop stop T okay hi I'm Chase and I'm Michael and we have the student body representative to the school board today we're going to be talking about Bond lety and common questions to help inform the loal community about the bot that is up hey Chase did you hear about the upcoming vote for our school yeah but I have no idea what the differences between a bond and a levy don't worry Chase I'll break down for you so a bond is like a loan that the school takes out for big things
050like building new classrooms fixing the roof or upgrading technology it's like when your parents take out a loan to buy a house oh so it's for major School improvements exactly voters approve it and then the money can be used from our property taxes over time okay so what about a levy a levy is for everyday stuff like teacher salaries Sports school program it's money that the school needs to operate every year oh so bonds build things and levies run things yes the best way to remember is bonds are building levies are for continual learning got it bonds equals big projects and levies equals learning you got it now let's make sure our families vote Michael the school needs new boilers for heat but I heard that they just bought new buses why didn't they use
051that money for fixing in school great question schools have different accounts and each one can only be used for certain things because the federal and state laws so they can't just move money around NOP it's like if you have a gift card to a shoe store you can't use this by video games Transportation fund for examp the money is only for buses Fuel and drivers if we need new buses we can use that money but if the school's roof is leaking they can't use Transportation money to fix it exactly that has to come from a different account like a building Reserve so schools have separate accounts for things like Transportation maintenance technology and even lunch programs yep and the government follow specific rules so the money is spent exactly where it's supposed to be so
052next time someone says why can't they use that money for something else you tell them it's against the law good to know now let's get to class before we need a tardy how's that different from other LS good question not all levies are the same a building Reserve Levy is only for maintaining and improving School building things like fixing the rout upgrading Heating and Cooling and making sure our classrooms don't fall apart so it's just for keeping the school in good shape yep unlike a general Levy which covers day-to-day costs like teacher salar Sport and a building Reserve Levy is strictly for longterm maintenance and repairs so if the gym floor needs fixing that's building Reserve money but if we need new textbooks that's from a different lby exactly it's like having a savings account
053just for home you want to use it my groceries that makes so much sense so if people want safe updated school they should support the building Reserve level you got it it's not about building a new building it's about taking care of what we already have so next time someone ask why don't they use that money for other stuff you tell them it's only for building maintenance got it now let's go before this building he needs to fix the door we just slamed Michael I heard there's a on the ballot this what does that even mean fall apart so it's not for new building no this m is Curr building functional and in Montana voters have to approve it every 5 years wait don't we already have this ly actually we don't our district doesn't
054have a building now which me there's FS these okay but what about taxes how much are we talking great news even if the ly passes most homeowners will actually pay less in taxes overall this is because older School B from the Middle School in the stadium will be paid off this year if the ly passes the total tax impact would actually decrease of about $883 per year for estimated $1200000 well so even with the new Levy people would still pay less than before exactly because old bonds are going away it balances out all right so the building Reserve Levy is just for school maintenance you don't traveling right now and if it passes most people's taxes will actually go down you got it that is why it's important to know the facts before voting in
055May good to know now let's go before this school needs another repair now CH and I are going to go over a couple of things that could get fixed if a building will serve to pass so one of the issues we're having is the auditorium ceiling is sort of falling apart and this is something that can be solved with a building Reserve Levy another thing that we could fix with the building is none of our Windows n schol our in currently which makes H really cold and with our struggling boiler makes H environments cold and hard to work in another thing that can be fixed through a building Reserve ly are our filing doors which all have n taxes and letting snow in during the school day what are you voting for in May what
056are you voting for in May what are you voting for in May what are you voting for in May what are you voting for in May what are you voting for in May what are you voting for in May what are you voting for in May what are you voting for in [Applause] May awesome sweet guys so those are our videos that's one long clip but there'll be uh those are actually like four or five different videos put into one um so we'll make adjustments whatever the uh Mr toric or the board things needs to be edited um and then uh those will be sent out to the public and posted on the internet and then uh because we didn't get to climate and culture uh this week we thought we'd uh go over the
057questions we'll be asking um and then once we actually get those asked up we two weeks for how do we feel about the videos I love them did good absolutely you explained well very good natural perfect I like how it starts broad what is it leving what is the bond and then it goes the specific issues so that's very good good job guys we could release them like episode one and then this week we chase you know like be waiting yeah this week this week with Chas Mich okay Jay Jay please tell me you're running the camera though right I want she actually wasn't there that day uh but we it was during class time you could kind of hear some things um but we just did it during one of our mtda classes and
058okay so she's just keeping you two in track I should add some like Graphics or something well and we we plan on adding um that tax information as text on the screen because I know it's difficult to hear in that point so yeah we should put um close caption cuz some people don't actually click on the video they that and then one of the videos have really bad audio quality we'll probably redo that one because my microphone was muted so it only it only picked up what Chase's microphone could hear so I love it I love it okay so what do we have for questions okay so uh we're going to go down some different sections okay so um for grades uh 6 through 12th grade we have like more um I don't know how
059You' word it um complex questions um for the younger grades it's going to be like uh simpler for them to understand and answer um so for General School experience we have what is your favorite thing about school uh is there anything that you would change uh to make school better uh how do you feel about like what makes you feel safe at your school um do you have an adult you feel safe with at your school uh how do students treat each other at your school um what words would you use to describe your school's atmosphere like friendly stressful or boring um and so uh then we're going to go into student and staff relations um what do your teachers do that make you feel cared about at your school uh if you have a
060problem at school do you feel like there's an adult you can talk to um how often do teachers and staff ask for student input on school decisions um and then we'll move into bullying and inclusivity um have you ever seen or experienced bullying at your school and how was it handled um do you feel like other students are included and treated fairly regardless of differences and then do you think students feel comfortable being themselves at school and then next we have school engagement in activities it's do you feel excited to come to school most days why or why not what kinds of activities or events make school enjoyable for you are there enough opportunities for students to get involved in clubs sports or other activities and then we have academics and learning environment questions so
061what challenges or motivates you in your classes what helps you learn best at school and like examples we've talked about this before group work hands on activities by time um do you have access to resources you need to succeed do you think your school helps prepare you for the future why or why not and what we're thinking now is that we want to get four boys and four girls from each grade to interview so it's easier for us to really kind of dig on into certain answers and then the questions we're going to ask the younger grades are going to be less complex um we're hoping to start them next week but if you have any recommendations on new questions that we should or change some then we're open for that too can you ask
062the younger ones if they're excited for the new schools oh yeah I remember we would ask them last year like are you excited to go into the next school and they'd be so happy right yeah yeah so we we'll we'll include uh the new schools into that as well like how do you feel about going to a brand new school nobody's ever been to before sure see psyched you're all psyched well then third third and fourth and fifth being put together how do they feel about that because that is going to be a little bit of a transition for those students too so Mrs robera so you you talking about you're only going to get to like four girls and four boys from each grade so I kind of think you should do everyone we
063would if we had the time uh but realistically if you did like a Google form and then let that compile your results I think it would be interesting especially for like your upper element or older Elementary and high school kids it would be nice to hear I think from more represent yeah yeah that's a good recommendation um we'll probably consider sending out a form to everybody but we really do want to get that in person um because I know like at least for me doing Google forms and I know for the high SCH for the high school we would always send out a form to everyone and then last year we would visit every classroom so we're kind of fig figing out how to manage that right now Dr BT I was going to say
064the DT is working on some surveys that would go to everyone in the in the elementary that cover similar topics to what they're talking about so yeah we'll probably we'll try and uh include Google forms um but we really like to get those personal like I like your personal questions and I know the DT has surveys but I feel like their surveys are at a different level asking for very different items than what yours are and yours are I don't know I just felt like every voice should be heard um versus you know how they feel about moving into a new building and stuff like that I mean that's that's a huge piece but there could be layers too I mean we could start with the small grouping and then move to a bigger group
065see how it compares to the bigger student yeah that's um so probably as a compromise between the two is we would probably send out a form um and it would be like easier to answer like one through five and then like maybe explain yourself but then still doing some interviews with the students to still get that um personal level with them so one I think that traditionally the students have done the personal interviews because they've done it more than once a year with the same students right J am I so it's building that relationship with them to get some kind of open honest um answers that are more in depth over time with the same students and um being able to gather that information yeah it's good it's all good all good discussion so principles
066watch your emails we're going to be hopefully going to some of your school soon all righty anything else any questions from you guys any questions that's awesome I'm excited to hear what they come up I stole your line sorry you were just fine you want to take the seat too all righty hey there's always future um okay moving through our informational items uh we did uh receive the enrollment numbers for the 2024 2025 from Julie so um going through that I'll just kind of pause not seeing anybody like shooting their hand up for comments questions so I'm going to keep just moving through I mean do we have this information her I know that because I in order to see like which you know like what the Kinder over time you kind of have to
067stair step your way down do we have graphs that show like the class of 2025 how they're cuz in looking at this it looks like what would be the junior class now really fell off this year and is that normal that like going into a junior year we're we're seeing declines like that over time or is this a unique situation with this class I guess would be my yeah I did build one last year so I could just update that okay just to look I mean I don't know if it needs to come kind of like that CTI one that remember that show just so that we can kind of see I think this was just kind of yeah and this is fine and you could I mean I could obviously figure it out but
068I just found it interesting cuz that junior class I think it's a loss of 40 yeah students over the last year or from yeah last year do we know uh if the students like why they left whether it was just leaving the district because of moving or if they just dropped out go ahead Dr we do have a a list that goes over you know while all the various students and the junior class it seemed uh like even at the beginning of the year it was just a smaller class so it's um there's not one prevailing reason we we know that we have had a number of students that have opted for to go online but we've also had some transfer of State we've had some just go to other schools a few home school
069but that's not specific to like the junior class um that's kind of all over the board and I think we were seeing a little bit more of that in some of the freshman and sophomore well I was going to point out even like we're part of the junior class and we've noticed the difference um I mean our classes our freshman years seem way different like you just would see the people you were used to seeing but now it's not near as many people and why are so many going online and what is the reason behind it those are questions that would be to get to the bottom of it at least in my experience like you're almost enticed to go online you know you get friends who go online and they're like oh it's so
070cool you get a cheat on all your assignments and go hang out for the day and then uh I mean I even get ads on my phone for online schools and it's they would they're trying to get their enrollment numbers up so they're taken away from us I I know that the high school admin team has been very concentrated and that's another reason why we have been attempting to try to do our online and charter school as well to to try to capture those students that various of reasons of why they're they're bailing on different programs or homeschooling or stuff like that so they have been diligently working to try to find out what that looks like and do an application with the help of Charlotte and everybody to just to try to figure out
071how we can move that Charter School to keep some of those students um various of people and I I okay Charlotte um I was just going to say I think that we also have to look districtwide because if we look at our kindergarten class two years ago we had 165 kiddos in that kindergarten group two two years ago and then that number like dropped significantly by about 30 kids by the next year or two so it's not just our high school that's losing kids we're also losing I mean when we lose 30 kids out of class I mean and they could have left for a variety of different reasons out of that young age but that was a really large group two years ago in Kinder and we typically run right around 127 125 in
072Kinder and then that year that we had 165 we were like what so I I think it's a districtwide um picture that we need to explore and examine good with that for now exit look at all all righty uh superintendent report resignation report discussion items um with our newest member Miss Kelly joining us I um have already discussed I'll probably be putting her on the District Operations I think she will be perfect fit for that Committee just with her history and where she um uh was within our district at one point so that'll be something that will be nice for that added of course I will do the floating still around if um that committee needs a second Fe so we can make sure that things are getting done and handled through those committees uh
073future discussion items um busing has been a discussion on District Operations that's coming down the pipeline um hopefully by next month I was looking for you year around um any other future discussions that I've missed that you need to bring up back up to light for me okay I'm not hearing any going once going twice if not I'll adjourn the meeting thank you very much thank you everybody