001Um, she hasn't been told. Thank you all for coming. I'm Lynn Foreman. I'm the uh president of the Anna Senior Center board of directors and uh we hope to be doing more of this type of thing in the future. I think uh it's important for seniors to have the opportunity to hear um what's going on with the school and um I personally believe strongly in um our children are our future and so I think to be engaged and learn is a good thing. So, I'm pleased to have three candidates who are running for the board and um they will have three minutes each to uh speak to questions that they've been provided in advance. And uh allowing time, we have some paper and pencils. If people want to write down their own questions, we will
002take those as well. So we have Peter and Justin. So we will start Maryland. Okay. What is your vision for the future of schools, our schools, and how do you plan to address the unique challenges faced by a small rural district like Edison? Okay. So, part of my vision is like any vision, it's a little bit idealistic, but later on it has to be filled in with practicality. The idealism part of it is a long-term goal which means we maintain the the excellence in education which we now possess and we possess that because there are a large offering of activities that I mean uh courses core courses at either end of the spectrum. I think we have to consider that um in a long-term goal that's important because it reaches every child, gives them an
003opportunity to perhaps reach their potential. We also um probably in a long-term goal have to look at the idea of bringing in more trade classes simply because that's where everything is going now with AI at the white collar end. So I think that's part of my vision. Um in practicality then short-term goals are everything that we're probably doing right now to make sure we ensure that we will have to probably enhance more offerings keep um checking and targeting you know going after probably tracking I should say tracking our academic level so that it remains the same these are all part of it um and part of that was challenges correctly So part of the challenges in a small system are being able to offer more simply because we have a smaller student body. So we
004have fewer teachers and then that means that um the offerings are kind of shorter. Um, also one of the challenges that a lot of small districts have, we really I don't think notice so much because we are able to within our own um community offset some of those. For example, the course offerings, we do have uh for the upper end, we do have the dual credit classes. And down at the lower end, we I shouldn't say lower end, those who um are more specific towards skills, we have a lot of practical skill classes offered. So, we're already addressing some of those, I would say, challenges. And the last challenge I will talk to then just quickly would be uh financial assistant assistance for community which oftentimes in smaller communities is a problem and here again
005we have very generous community for scholarships or other items that uh needed. I think my time is up so that's yeah um I agree with a lot of what Marilyn said. Uh I have a slightly different twist on it though as I usually do. Um the I think NS has a lot of resources to offer. Um you know there's a we're a small town but there's some a wealthy part of our of our district. There's a lot of um you know retirees that move here and other things. And I think we we do have a lot of fiscal resources to to bear for the amount of people that we have. I think what we have to do to get to again one of the things that Marilyn just talked about is like some long-term growth
006being able to offer a lot of different programs whether it's academically, sports, music, whatever the case may be. I think we have to get to a current state where we are fiscally stable. Um right now it's kind of a year-over-year battle. Um, you know, some some people are doing great things like, you know, Ginger and the board are making sure that the teacher, you know, bills are or the teacher budget and and a compensation budget being getting paid every year and trying to put some headroom in there to cover those things. But it's still a fight we have to fight every year. And that's not necessarily going to change, but I think we can start planning a little bit more longterm to get to a place where we're stable first. After that, then we can
007start looking at some of those growth things, right? like more taking on more sports, uh creating more elaborate classes, maybe doing some of the things that require a lot of material expenses like tech classes and things like that. So, I'm very cognizant of not spreading the district too thin fiscally. Um where, you know, right now we do have a lot of sports programs for, you know, the amount of students that we have. That's not to say that wrestling or softball or whatever, those are bad things. I think they're a great thing. a huge sports guy playing what sports, but we also need to be careful like but in my mind I think we need to focus on teaching the classroom first and then how do we off that and that needs to be a conscious
008decision not something that we approach one meeting at a time right like what where do we want to end up a year from now all right so uh I think one of the most critical institutions in our community is the school and I think that because uh we need to have parents who um work in our businesses, own businesses and all that to support our community. And if our school isn't isn't um you know well funded and um operating to a high level that parents want to be here, then that's going to affect the support to our community. Um my vision uh is one that allows us to continue to provide high quality education while supporting growth uh teacher retention and adequately funding the school. I think one of the unique challenges for our community
009is uh the fact that we have about 40% of the tax base is retirees on fixed incomes. So having surprise levies is not something that we want to continue to do. And how we can avoid that is kind of like what Justin is saying, having having some long-term strategy and plan so we can uh have a measured um ways to address growth uh funding and to ensure that our our school continues to be um high achieving. Thank you. I'll start with you. Okay. How do you plan to support and retrain re How do you plan to support and retain quality teachers and staff while ensuring competitive salaries and professional development opportunities? I think the STARS Act that was just passed is going to go a long way in supporting our our teachers. I think teachers
010are consistently um underpaid. Um, but this act is going to increase the base salary to around 41,000 from I think I believe it it was 36. So, and then there are additional um incentives in there for um longevity. I believe the the school district has already negotiated a contract that provides a 2% pay increase every year for all students and then every fourth year they get another 4%. Um and then we have some longevity payments as well for those that are here for 10 or 20 years. Um and then on the uh professional development side um the stars act also um provides incentives for additional um college education or certifications that will enhance their pay in addition to uh if someone gets master's degree for example they get an additional bonus. So I think all
011that is going in the right direction to support teachers. Sure. Um I agree with a lot of what Peter said there. Uh one thing that I would add is I think there's some room to look at the teacher contract and provide a little bit more structure in there with some questions and some things that came up recently. Um, and I think actually Amanda made this point at one of the board meetings a couple months ago, but I don't know. I look at my job in the commercial world. It's way my retirement plan is structured, the way that I leave a company or whatever is is all pretty well laid out and articulated. You know, what your fees are if you cash out of a of a a retirement fund early, things like that. I think
012there's some room in our teacher contract to maybe structure that a little bit more clearly so that when things like buyouts at the end of career come along and and things like that. It's not kind of a what are we doing this month again like kind of the same thing I said last time what are we doing this month or this year 5 years from now 10 years from now this is what this is going to look like. Um, and again that that's not just something that the board decides, but I mean obviously have to buy into that too, but I think there's some room for some looking at those kinds of things which gives some longevity and kind of a longer view to hey maybe I do want to say that the next 20
013years or another 10 years, excuse me, so that because they know what's waiting for them at on the other side of the rainbow so to speak. So um I think that's that's another aspect in addition to this. Okay. you can all skip everything I was going to say about the stars act because I think it's already um but another way we can help out our teachers in fact all of our staff which means maintenance and um transportation etc we have been working on for the past several years and that's providing housing for them because we all realize the cost of living in this particular environment right now in this community and so providing housing we have eight units right now. Providing that housing helps bring someone in, helps keep someone here for while um they're
014allowed to live in our housing for in either of any of the units for 5 years at a time and the rent is much much less than it would be if they were trying to find rental situations in other places. So housing is another way. I think another way to help the teachers is to uh do exactly what we've been doing classroom sizewise. Try to keep our classroom size below what the state levels are. So one-on-one teaching is so much more effective. It's very helpful to the teachers. It's very productive and much better for the students, too. And I think that's another clear way that we can keep helping the teachers out. For professional development, we um it's been opened up instead of just using the October state-led workshop days. Um teachers can do workshops
015that maybe are more pertinent to their particular field or their grade level in the summertime and use those instead for that teacher development. They're also the the school is also very good about professional leave during this the school year. I know one individual just took one day for a two-day workshop last week for grant writing and came back extremely excited about it because there are even small grants like $250 or $500 grants for individual classrooms and there's a lot of money available out there and already has a couple other staff members on board to help. So the the school is very cognizant of professional development. I feel Thank you. Peter, what role do you believe parents in the community should plan in school decision making and how would you encourage greater transparency and communication? Well,
016I think there's four stakeholders um in any school district and that's the students, parents, uh district staff and the community. Um I believe the board members have a responsibility to inform the public um and be that conduit between the public and the school. Um and that includes parents. So being available to ask questions or or feed anything intake any concerns from the public is important I think for the board to do. Um, and personally I would commit to uh having regular regular hours each month at the library or some place where community members can come and ask me questions or I can take in concerns that help guide the decision making on the board does have. Um, another idea is uh just publishing our our minutes more. I know it's on the website but a
017lot of people in the community know where to look. um the school I grew up in, they would put the uh the board minutes in the paper and maybe that's something we could look at. Also, put posting on social media would also increase the communication. Uh thank you. Um I think uh again agree what Peter said. I think the community has the parents and the community both have a large role obviously in the school, right? Um the community benefits from school like I look at it kind of as a system you know students come in you know the school educates them and kind of on the way out they put them back into the community as well educated well-rounded young adults and that cycle continues to perpetuate itself over time. So it's in that system
018the community is getting out of the school what it puts into it. Um you know another big aspect of that is money right. So, one of the stats that was earlier, I think with Peter, it was like, you know, 40% of the community is uh retirement age, they, you know, I I want to get to a point if they don't feel that way already, particularly retirees that may have moved into the area as opposed to the ones that have been here over time, that they feel that buy in so that when we do go ask for a levy or something like that, they understand kind of how that how that self excuse sustains itself. within the community. Um, as far as communication, I think like one thing, sorry, I'm going to point to you again.
019Like the friends of Venice schools that's been stood up. I think that was a great that's a great thing, right? Like we need to comm consistently communicate not just to parents or like grandparents who have children in school, but the other community members that is not just, you know, a Facebook post or whatever. uh friends of of schools is like, you know, doing a lot of proactive communications with the entire community because at the end of the day, right, like they all vote on the no levy. They're paying that bill um that we're asking them to do as it passes and if it does. Um vote for, please do. Um but the that kind of communication that is consistent and not just related to to people that are directly involved with the school is a
020wonderful thing. So I strongly encourage that and I think if we can even expand that more then that's something we should definitely look at doing going forward. I also believe that parents and community are vital to the school and often times a lot of our decisions are group decisions. We have committees that are partially comm community members, parents, students, staff, administration, and all of that works well together because in a smaller community, a smaller district, everyone is so closely connected and the school and community and work as one so often. So that works together. And I I also do believe and I think it's probably proper to say I believe in parental rights. I think that they need to know what's going on in the school system and I think we're very open about that.
021We have open board meetings. We are videoed at our board meetings. Um we also have um an open door policy and I think that should be highlighted. All you have to do is call the school and make an appointment with one of the principles or the superintendent and um they welcome you to come in with questions. I know a lot of people don't do that and so um the friends of the school again headed by Amanda and there are a lot of people working with that and we thank all of you. I know she spends hours at the school either with the clerk or with the superintendent getting facts down and for some reason I think it's kind of like a parent child relationship. Um, children don't necessarily get their answers from mom or dad.
022If somebody else tells them, it works better. And I often feel this is what it is with the board and the superintendent. Somebody from the community, maybe they're more willing to say, "Well, that's bad. We believe that." And it is not that we have anything hidden. It isn't that we're hiding anything. It's that I just think sometimes it works better to get that communication coming from one out of the public. And I again thank all of you for doing that because it has been tremendous. Justin, how would you differentiate the role between an elected school board member versus the superintendent and principles regarding day-to-day operations and long-term strategic planning? Yeah, to me there's a pretty clear line there. I mean, I think the administration is going to be the first line for the day-to-day activities.
023The principles, the superintendent, they're they're going to front that stuff. Um and I go back to last year when I ran there was a very clear line of like you know if there's a student a problem in the classroom the parents first recourse if if the parents involved should be the teacher you know go on enough to change to principal superintendent only if you get to a point where a day-to-day activity cannot be solved at those at those levels um or there's a broader implication for the strategy of the over small school or it's going to affect the school uh the district broadly then it should be brought to the board. Um I think the board has a lot of responsibility not solely but a lot of the majority of responsibility for planning there's going
024to be a lot of input from um the administrative staff into that um but I think that the board has the majority responsibility Yes. Okay. Um we are as a board um limited I mean we have a governing body too. It's the Montana School Board Association. And so our rights, our rules and our responsibilities, it's not what we think we should be doing. It's what they tell us we should be doing. And two of the keys there are policy which means that we help with uh forming policy if necessary and we approve policy. to give some input. And then the other one, of course, is with approving the budget. And again, we don't figure out the budget. We have access to input, but the budget is formulated by the clerk and by the superintendent. Um,
025the school board association from Montana, the legal part of it has an expression they use quite often when referring to the dayto-day. And that is that school boards govern at 10,000 ft. Superintendent governs on the ground and then the principles. And that's very much what you were referring to and that's how it's laid out for us. you know, we're not um a helicopter par. Okay. Trying to think of something we might be able to allude to there. We are um a board that has specific and and it is a when you're in a public um election or when you've been elected to a public office, there's a public trust to follow. You know, we have to work in good faith. And what does good faith mean? Well, it means that we need to be loyal.
026We need to have integrity. We probably need to uh come to big decisions with a lot of caution. There are certain and impartiality. There are a lot of little things that go along with that. And I think that is key that each one of us remembers that we are a positive force for the school. Um not a force that should be putting out negative information. I think if we have um something that we need to appeal to the superintendent or to the principles about then we come in and do that and we work through that process. But I think we are considering the the public positive force for the school. I believe the role of the school board is to oversee the finances in addition to policy mentioned but and also to the supervisor superintendent
027and uh be a conduit between the school and the community. I think that's a big role for the board um and to uh help inform the public in addition to friends schools uh but also intake feedback. Um I think with that when community members or a parent or someone comes to a board member to try and solve a problem, the board members should ask if they work the teacher first or the lowest level first and then work their way up. The board members I think should be the last um and that goes into uh as far as day-to-day operations. I don't think that board's role superintendent principles that should be managing the school. Um, and then in terms of strategic planning, uh, similar to what Justin said, but I think it's definitely a board level
028committee, but you should have input from the four stakeholders that can actually produce students, parents, uh, teachers and staff. um as well as community representatives really developing some kind of district level strategic plan that's going to go over a number of years. All those people should have a voice and inform that um that document. Lyn, could I interrupt just a second? Could we go back? We skipped number three. No, I was going to go Okay. Sorry. Didn't want to. I was just testing. Okay. So, Marilyn, okay. What steps will you take to improve student achievement and ensure that all students regardless of background have access to high quality education? And before we talk about improvement, I would like to just throw a couple of items out there. Uh our graduation rate for the last two
029years has been 100%. Uh during COVID it went down a little bit but we're always in the high 90s. We have an excellent school system and I think that that graduation rate shows it. And another stat that goes along with that is that um from 20 I think you did 20 to 24 um we've had 80% of those students go on to some form of higher education. Now it doesn't necessarily mean a 4-year college. It might mean a community college. It might mean the military or an apprenticeship of some sort. but it's where um we're able to track that because it's where a transcript has had to be sent and so I think that's a very good statistic also. I think that um we can improve we always look for improvement that's for sure and
030one of the ways we can do that is um and one of the ways I think that we are doing it because you mentioned for all students so again we look at not just the upper end but those who are down at the other end and our springtime hybrid schedule allows teachers to come in and many of them do on Friday morning to work with students who need that extra help. They'll come in and when you're sitting in front of an entire class, sometimes that's very difficult because you're teaching everybody. You may be able to give them a certain amount of time, but you can't get them all the time. And that improves that end. It brings that end up down. And those kids are just as important as any other. We do have um
031our special needs because we have the special ed program. We have a title one program where if kids need help or because let's say an accident for certain circumstances, they can use that too. So I think we're looking at all of those and helping. We have aids in all of those programs. Aids that can come into a big classroom also. The problem is with funding sometimes that's what gets cut some of those aids. But that's one way we can keep improving all of these scores. Also, I think one other um point is keeping the classes small because there's better one-on-one teaching and the students all profit. Um I believe all students should have access to high quality education. That said, and education's not just in the classroom. So, one of the thing, one of my
032ideas and something I'd like to explore or support is to set up some kind of work study or internship program with some of the local businesses. We have a lot of careers and types of businesses in this community which is really unique to a smaller town. Um, and I think there's a lot of opportunity that we can help students that are in maybe 11th or 12th grade getting ready to enter the workforce or go on to educ higher education to have an opportunity to see well what are the other what what career fields are there out there that they may want to explore or be interested and I think we can leverage the community to help support them. I have talked to some business owners around about this idea and they have been pretty receptive.
033So that is something I would like to see. Um I agree a lot with with what everyone already said and I will reiterate what Marilyn said is I I think the school is actually in a really good spot in terms of education and making that education equable across the board regardless of students working family situation. Um, so I think we're at a really good spot when it comes to improving and there's a sports program or something else. Those are hard decisions and there's no right answer. Um, but I think the classroom has to be at the center of that dis that decision and as long as we're asking the right questions towards that end, I think that's how you continue to improve. Thank you. So, I'll start with you, Justin. I was wondering when my
034[Laughter] turn has all those signs up. So, you take it back. With the district operating on a hybrid 5 day week in the first semester and a 4 day week in the second semester, how do you believe this impacts student, learning, teacher retention and operational cost and would you support maintaining or changing the schedule? So, I did a lot of research on this one. Um, cuz I'm one of those guys that likes to like look at studies and find numbers where I can. Um, you know, there's there's a lot of points here. I think like, you know, most districts we reported saving 1 to 2% in costs by going to a 4-day um schedule. Uh teacher retention, it was much higher in schools that had a 4-day schedule. Um education levels was kind of a
035mixed bag depending on how it was implemented. It tended to actually trend down um or be neutral. Um that didn't look like there was a whole lot that went up. I guess the thing is look taking everything that I just saw into account is that it's what's right for the district. And even in in the declining like the educational level studies that I looked at the programs that were successful in a 4-day uh were ones that it wasn't just because it was 4 days. It was contact time in the classroom with students. It was are are you using the time? Is it structured well? Is it like all these other things? Some districts did it great. Others did it terribly. Some were somewhere in the middle. the the takeaway that I took from that was
036it all kind of depends. So coming back to the board and inputs from administration and teachers and families, all of those things come into play. And I think this balance that we have right now is good. Like I don't think I think it gives a little bit of both and you get to realize some of the benefits of teacher retention, but um you know there it can still be a drawback on the first half and I honestly do think that uh elementary students probably would be better off with more time in the classroom. Um and you know maybe middle school and high school they could probably be a little bit more in control of their lives and you know realize that that for any time off a little bit differently but um you know we
037have practical limitations to consider and I think the four five balance that we have right now four balance what we call it is a good starting spot. It's something we love can continue agree more. Um I like what you said for the most part and I would like to kind of quote our principal Brian Hilton from the lower end. Um our hybrid is becoming a model for the rest of the state. It is working so well that and and I feel the retention is a part of it. Now, I know we really haven't had a chance to say that about retention except that we have heard from a lot of teachers when they thought maybe the hybrid was on the line that they might start looking elsewhere if that were the case. So, I guess
038retention is part of it. I think that and I did um I'm going to address some other things but I put down um just briefly the OPI's smart smarter assessment for 2023 and we have ours for 2024 when I don't have the state this compares and against the state and in the ELA which is the English part of it um we were at 56% the state was at 38%. Um we went up in 2024 to 69 65% of EL the math for ENIs was at 55% in 2023 and the state at 45% and we came up to 59%. So we see growth. So what I say is that it's still a little young yet. You know you have to assess every year but at this point the balance looks good. And I did go in
039and give a whole bunch of information, but sometimes too much is too much. So I just brought one sheet that compares us. It's uh the entire K through 12 district report card and it shows the district compared to state. It has graph lines so you can see where we're falling in all of that recently. And I think sometimes again showing is better than telling. And so that's why I brought that along just so we understand that I we have not regressed and again it has to be assessed agreement. We do understand that. Um, and I prefer to think of what is, in other words, what is working for us. And when they did the um, you know, the poll with the teachers, the survey with the parents, with the teachers, with the students, they're largely
040in favor of what we're doing. And I think they're the people in the trenches. They're the people we need to listen to. It's what works for us. It's not the whatifs. There are whatifs in every situation. So when whatifs get there, then you address the whatifs. But right now, it's what is working, what? And I think it looks good at this point. I would um like to say that, you know, some of the larger uh studies that have been done also have some inaccuracies in them. For example, when we had one that came out that showed um an average of $200 more. Can I say just one brief little thing? Um we are going to try and put a co a roof on the the building this spring. That has nothing to do with 48.
041Okay. Um I'm a proponent of the hydro because uh It's a good compromise between the different fashions. Some want 5A, some want 4A and like Marilyn mentioned, some of the surveys came back. We know like the majority of parents support personally I do as well. um my family, but I do think that um our decisions should be tied to testing how our kids are performing. She said like Marilyn said, we're early on in this um in this experiment our schedule and we just need to when but if the community support especially the parents and teachers continue um I think there are some additional benefits that won't mention where it's just students are more refreshed you know when they have a 4 day and teachers as well um with that additional day rest. Um I'm not
042sure about operational costs if we're really saving that much with the school kind of shut down on an extra day. Maybe some but yeah, like I said, I'm Thank you. Um are there any questions that anybody in attendance would like to ask? We have a silent majority. Is there anything? How about if you did a closing comment on something you would like to share that you had? Well, I'll start, I guess. Okay. Um, and thank you for allowing us to do this and again, thank you to the friends of the school because you've been a great asset. I would I guess just like to say that um having taught for 40 plus years and having taught in this school system for 29 I will say that it is the best school system I have taught
043in. And so um I just think it's key to know that because I feel that I have fairly high standards and those standards are being met constantly. Uh yeah, see two things. One, like I said, I think the school is in a great spot to start uh at least from an academic perspective. So that's first and foremost in mind. When we get to money, I know there's been a recent change with the SB260 that's out there. Um or it's pending, it's been amended, right? Or not hasn't passed anything yet, but don't get lulled to sleep. Um, all that does is give you more runway to or more rope to hang yourself with, I guess, depending on what analogy you want to use. But, you know, if that moved everything out nine years or whatever the
044the length was, I think it was 9 years. Um, you still have to figure that stuff out cuz the day is going to come. Um, so better to do it with one hand on the wheel and do it proactively. Um, just to reiterate, Maryland, I think our school does do a really good job. we have a lot of opportunities that um I came from a rural school district. I didn't have a lot of the things that um my kids are able to do here. So, and and as well as the small class size, I really like that. So, we want to maintain that. Um the concerns for me are just our planning aspect and the future. So, we've had a 27% growth in student the student body over the last 10 years. If that continues,
045we're going to have another 100 plus kids. what are we going to do that this facility is not going to be able to support that many more students. So, we need to have a a long-term strategic plan that addresses that. Also, we don't want to surprise our constituents with levies. So, the communication piece is important. If we have um big maintenance needs in the future, we need to make sure we're we're communicating that with the public. So, I think that that goes back to um the board members playing a role in supporting that communication. Thanks. And if I could, I I just might add to that when we talk about um this levy that's going out right now. It actually, you know, it's probably been a long-term process, but there were other needs in place,
046I think, is what happened along along the way for years and years and years. And when we brought this group in, McKinstry, to do an in-depth study, that's when we were notified of how bad so many things were. And so that just it's a surprise because that in-depth study was just done, but not really a surprise. I think it's like an older home. You know, eventually things are I know we've had um maybe I'm talking too much. I have one more thing I want to say because I know one of the uh questions out there was about yes things were going bad then why in a couple years ago did we buy another bus and I and this bus is for transportation for extracurriculars and just so everyone is aware of it of course everybody
047knows we have different buckets that everything I think everyone does know that to be honest so monies have to stay in certain buckets and That's the way it is. But at any rate, it's a safety issue. Just a week ago, we had um some students coming from the other side of Missoula. It's a combination of a softball team called MAC and they broke down at Cardwell. And before Brian could get our bus and get going for them, what happened? The parents came by and they put the kids in the parents' cars and they brought them on up. Now, I know it was the fastest remedy, but it could have also been the fastest liability. And so, safety is an issue with buses. And when old buses I was on a speech, drama bait bus one
048time in the middle of the winter going to Dylan and we broke down and we had to sit there and wait. So, it is a matter of of safety. I think you know sometimes we don't consider there are different aspects that uh dictate when certain things have to be purchased. Speaking of safety, Linda, do you want to transition to the facility Q&A? Yes. Is now a good time to do that? Okay. I will chat for a little bit. Any other questions? Anywhere that people want to go? Howard, you got any? Yeah, here we go. On grants. You know, there's a lot of money out there for tech grants. And I'm on a board where I get to see where you can apply for that. And it's amazing to me that the number of school boards
049that don't even apply and I know they can use the money. There's no doubt in my mind. But a lot of them just I don't know what happens. They don't want to fill out the grant application or they don't I'm 99% sure they know what. Well, so what about So as a senior center, we did a grant. John Heckler wrote it up. It took him months and months and months and I don't know how much hard work, but we ended up getting the grant, but we turned it down for the building because it would have cost us more than double what it cost us to do this. Yeah. And it would have taken like years and we did it in months. Yeah. I'm not talking about it depends on what kind of grant. We did
050get a grant though from the uh Lions International Foundation that that you matched which was um you have to be careful and if I can interrupt I would like to how would I like to have Tanya address you because she um has mass hospital foundation so she has more experience with grants and she is co-chairing her committee so I think she'd do a great job at this one you know I know school got a Yeah. And the grant was like 4,000 bucks number years ago. Another company matched that. So they end up getting $8,000. And what they did is they give that school $8,000 with the understanding is give to the superintendent administration and teachers. Here's $8,000. It's up to you how to spend it wisely. Mhm. And they it took them I guess 6
051months, but I did see the results on paper and they spent it wisely. They they got a deal with Dell. They went out here and wheeled a deal and they they got a lot of stuff for that money which was great. Yeah, grants can be a bit of a black hole. They're all structured differently. They all have different timelines, different requirements. Um for I would say the infrastructure needs that our school has and the timeline of how fast and how urgent they need the money. there isn't a grant that's going to do a significant take a significant financial portion of that off of the plate. So unfortunately from my perspective I don't think a grant right now if you want to focus on grants you're going to be looking at what you need 3 years
052from now not what we need in the next two years and that's the unfortunate part but it is a portion of the mix that we do need to be focused on for the future technology grant I know it takes time but it doesn't take three years not for technology I'm thinking infrastructure but technology that's and that yeah different a different portion of the galaxy here, the Grand. Yes. Um, there are ones out there and I'm sure we could do it. They all have strings attached. Technology hasn't been our focus for the this building reserve levy, but I think you have a strong point that we do need to be looking at grants that the school could potentially partner with the grant writer who is who knows where buckets of money are, especially tailored for schools.
053I'm not proficient in that because that's a whole another part. Um, but I think that it is an area that our school needs to grow into. It is something that I think we are well positioned to request money. They are out there. I know they are. And just in perspective, Tanya, Howard was on the Three Rivers Board for many years, which is why he's so well versed in tech funds. Yes. I know. I know Three Rivers does. They do. And they go to uh UA the loan companies and they'll match it. So if they were to get five loan company match it so you end up with 10 if you're the top winner of of the application. Yeah, matching grants are great. I think we need to define we need to define what our needs
054are and that's step one is defining what our needs are and the timeline of those needs and then we can search for the grants that fit that. You need Yeah. Yeah. Because technologically we're in pretty good shape. Yeah. We have the new Yeah. Yeah. So not like our top priority, but technology is changing at a rapid rate. It is. That's one of the most expensive things ever is because it does change so rapidly and everything about it changes, not just the expense. But you're right, but I think grants are a a phase two for our, you know, type of committee focus like Amanda was talking about. We are very passionate. I don't think we're going anywhere. Sorry, Jerry. You just open up a can of words. I just he just brought it up. You know,
055it's a very fair point to bring up. And same with same with teachers applying. You just got awarded here and a teacher for thousand bucks. I don't know if you knew that or not. Yeah, you did. I was probably inside from the Three Rivers. Great. Yeah, you did. And they give like three different stages in there. Uhhuh. And it's amazing. you sit down and and hear reports and a number of people that don't even take the time to apply. Yeah. And well, and I think that's that's the key. It takes time and it takes knowledge and the information gathering. Um I mean it sounds like John had quite the undertaking to do the grant that was successful. It does take time. That's um fully agree it but and the staff time to do money. Yeah.
056The money to to hire it out for the teachers. It's up to them to do that. Of course. And am I wrong in saying that this is kind of unchartered territory for other schools because we always have money. We've never had to work so hard at talking people into supporting the school. I mean, I know people from my generation are kids. We never they never had to pay to be in the sport. We never had to pay for a meal on any of their trips. We never had to pay for anything. The school had the money and was able to I mean, I don't know what's changed besides CO and maybe those bond failures. I I don't know for sure, but I know that, you know, people in our groups are like, well, then with
057everything, there's, you know, consequences, right? How you spend your general fund money. Um, again, neither good or bad or positive or negative is what it is. And then we invest more money in some things like I know what has it been two years that we really fought for some teacher. Um so you're going to have to on both sides right um and money also from the state is frustrating. So the money the money coming in from the state has not helped us with the expenses salaries or anything like that. So it's like kind of went at this trajectory as far as what the state was giving us and what the expenses salaries and what it cost to run your building has gone this way. The state has not kept up at all. gap has grown
058significantly in the last 20 years. Yeah, that's great. It' be a good one to get out, too. I mean, regardless of the election, I think those that's just really good information to share. What other questions do we have? I know we're getting close to the lunch hour. Um, I guess one thing I'll finish on, and it's something I hate to finish on, but I do want to bring up, you know, I always tell my kids there's consequences for their behavior. Like, if he doesn't unload the dishwasher when he comes home, like there's going to be no screen time the rest of the day, right? Everything has consequences. there there are consequences to not passing the levy and it's nothing we want to talk about but we want to be open about. Um so there are
059consequences. We do have to come up with a loan payment because the roof has to be replaced this summer. You cannot replace the roof when kids are in school. So it has to be redone this summer which means we had to take out a loan to get the roof done. So if the levy doesn't pass, we do have to have a way to come up with that loan payment. Coming up with that loan payment only addresses the roof. It doesn't address anything else on these phase one and two three needs. So you are still at risk for disruption to the school, disruption to learning or complete shutdown where kids are going to have to go to remote learning. Um and to me that's my biggest concern is how my kids learn. Um very passionate about
060education. So to me that's the biggest detriment. I mean there would be cuts that would have to be talked about. None of that would be decided. But just to make sure that that is out there and known. Any other questions? Lynn, you got anything or you want to wrap up or No, I I think this was good. I'm glad people came. Maybe next time we can get some more coming. Um we're really um interested in partnering with the school as well. Uh the fifth grade classes came on two different days at lunchtime and read poems and they had pictures with their poems. If