001Good evening. I'd like to call this regular meeting of the Jamestown Public School Board to order. It is Monday, June 15th, 2026 and we're in the Thompson Community Room at the Middle School. Please note that we had a farewell celebration for Dr. Leck from 4:00 to 5:15 at the same location. I'd like to welcome all those in the audience this evening. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. >> [clears throat] >> Does the board have any new conflicts of interest? Any new conflicts of interest? Any new conflicts of interest? If not, school board norms. Jamie, would you be willing to read the school board norms? >> Yes. The board developed norms are to share and respect opinions and speak with united voice once a decision has been reached, execute all duties of the school
002board in compliance with North Dakota Century Code, properly prepare for meetings, commit to assessing board effectiveness and ensure high-quality governance for all stakeholders. >> Thank you, Jamie. We have no public communication. Moving on to our consent agenda, would the board like anything removed from the consent agenda or have anything clarified? Anything removed? If not, is there a motion? Motion by Melissa. Second by Steve. We have a motion and second for approval of the consent agenda. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I. Opposed, same sign. Motion approved. Moving into our regular meeting, we now have our spring athletics recognition. So, as your name is called, um please meet me over here, and then um we'll have have you stand up here and take a
003picture. Parents, please come forward right in the middle and and get a good picture as well. >> For baseball, Cody Busch, all conference. Softball, Maddie Hoff, all conference, all state. Avery Graves, all conference. Boys track and field, state champion 4 by 400 relay and WDA runner-up. Grayden Thorlakson, Heath Houpel, Ryker Stoddart, Aiden Skari. >> [applause] >> And we have Cody Berreth, third place shot put WDA and state, WDA runner-up discus, WDA third place javelin, all conference. And Grayden Thorlakson, all conference, state champ, and I Jared Sagaser, all conference, Heath Houpel, all conference, Aiden Skari, all conference, Ryker Stoddart, all conference. >> [applause] >> For girls track and field, uh Lena Hoffer, state third place high jump, WDA champ high jump, and all-conference. Hayden Olson, WDA champ, triple jump, all-conference. Addison Young, all-conference. CC Ramsdell, all-conference.
004And Claire Marco Marker, all-conference. For girls soccer, Hannah Adelson, all-conference. Briella Martin, all-conference, all-state. And Layla Becker, all-conference. >> [applause] >> For girls tennis, Anna Harunova, all-conference, state doubles third place. And Elise Roberts, all-conference, state doubles third place. Way to go. >> [applause] [applause] >> We have nothing under correspondence. Under reports, we have the food service report. It's a link for your information. And we have the finance committee report. Aaron, would you like to report on the finance committee? >> Yeah, so uh since our last uh report, we had a couple more meetings at the Quiny Meton May 26th and June 10th. The topics were budget review and prioritization, getting prepared for the 2026-2027 budget. Review the community eligibility provision. So, food lunch program. And then uh central office restructuring. So, with all the changes
005that been put in front of us um to go over that and and look at some of the some adjustments there. Um some investment and grant opportunities and then also we had a brief discussion about performing some additional comparative analysis uh to help uh apply some context to the salaries for the different positions and and groupings. Uh so, with the budget uh review and priorities, um it was kind of a just a a carryover from previous discussions and continuing to update based on latest information, uh incorporating the changes that we have talked about, addressing the priorities, uh listing the 15 different priorities that we've uh applied to the budget. Um and then from where we started uh last year with the you know, million and a half deficit approximately, we're at with the everything that
006we've been working on, uh basically cut that deficit in half. And [clears throat] that assumes that we fill all the positions. So, I think from a proactive um and addressing the deficit, I think we've done we've gone uh gotten significant progress on that. With uh some additional uh opportunities identified to reduce that deficit even further in upcoming years. So, uh I think we're on the right path to to getting closer to that uh balanced budget. Um in regards to the CEP, so Cindy Wall did a quite extensive financial analysis of that um based on request and you know is this an opportunity that we want to try to pursue? Her evaluation and analysis basically stated that we would be engaged in significant level of deficit spending as a result of that close to six figures
007so we decided at this point that's not something that we should be diving into. There's some other changes legislative changes that we decided that would be best to hold off see how that turns out before we engage in you know increased deficit spending. With the central office restructuring so you know with the new superintendent with the business manager's assistant position not being able to fill that we talked about shifting roles and responsibilities across multiple positions with the business manager the accounting supervisor and human resource generalist and with that the shifting of those roles and responsibilities you know what should the compensation model look like for each of those and so we reviewed those in detail and then which culminated into the recommendation that is on the agenda for action later on in the meeting here.
008>> [clears throat] >> And some of those responsibilities that we talked about were title nine administration several different financial roles in their communications and then also facilitating grants and investments and and how those are going to be taken on by the staff in in the central office. And then with that grants and investments Christie has been working with the with the local banks and and reviewing how uh accounts are serviced and she did identify an opportunity uh that would gain us with some additional revenue and with Dakota Bank and uh so we're uh putting that recommendation forward to the board as again as an action item to be able to open up those accounts and be able to realize that revenue. Um we did have a brief review of the clean diesel grant opportunity, but
009uh that was very preliminary at this point as just kind of put out there for something we're looking at. And then finally uh with the comparative analysis. So there's a a data um it's almost a database um of information that's put to out there by the North Dakota Department of Instruction. I put a link in the in the uh report. Um but there that financial data just gives us so much information um and allows us to uh potentially apply some additional context to what's administrative percentages in terms of salaries uh to the total budget to the teacher salaries. It just a different perspectives we can utilize and and look at. Uh so uh when we're making recommendations in the future on how we want to uh you know structure our district or uh consider different
010uh specific details, we can have that data to to lean on to provide us some information. So um we didn't really get into uh the analysis itself in our last meeting, but it's it was I don't know, maybe Dan already wrote up a spreadsheet or something I'm guessing, but uh um uh it's just uh the discussion was it's it's out there, let's use it and then uh start applying it for future discussions. And with that, any questions for either my Dan or for either myself or Dan or Heidi, I guess. >> Any Jason, go ahead. >> So, correct me if I'm wrong, the recommended salaries that we'll be voting on later, you and then that data you were just talking about, those two were correlated together and tell correct me if I'm wrong and then
011we're going to use that going forward for future discussions? >> So, the the data set from North Dakota Department of Instructions only talked about. It wasn't what we used for the salary recommendations was primarily a direct comparative analysis across other districts. Um and then we did look at some percentages of uh comparison to um business manager to um superintendent. Um we looked at just absolute comparisons. So, we did dice it in a I would say in a typical way for this recommendation. Uh that additional data set wasn't really dived into in depth um because it was just shared with us as this is something that is available to us. We can start using it. >> Yeah, I'll give a little extra context cuz I did dive into data after we did have that meeting. And
012so, all the all the numbers that we have are they're in the ballpark. They're all again, there's a lot of data to to parse through and depending on the district, you know, some favor higher central office uh staffing over ours, but when you look at our overall data, all all the factors kind of pointed to the recommendation that we have in there right now as being um I guess I'd call it fairly middle of the road. Uh and again, more of that data that we as we parse out more, we'll get more fine-tuned on all the positions within central office and teaching staff, support staff, and other expenditures in comparison to other other parts of North Dakota. >> Well, I I guess we can have some of this discussion too during the next part if
013that's more prudent. Um or >> If you have questions, go ahead. >> Well, another question would be the restructuring here. Um payroll and accounting supervisor and human human resource generalist. We have the HR generalist now. And then the payroll and accounting supervisor we have now or Did these are just reassignment of duties due to the >> I I can talk briefly about that. We had a position that we can't fill. Uh and so we are restructuring duties uh and to share those the key responsibilities for the position we can't fill to the to the HR generalist and and accounts payable positions because and the business manager because we can um we can fill that position with a lower level. Uh but we can't find the employee that we had. You know, uh so um at
014least that level of employee that we have. So, we're taking the uh data entry, making it more data entry, and then sharing those duties over with the other business office. Hopefully, that made sense. >> So, do we have Are there new Are there revised job descriptions for these positions? Are they attached to our agenda? Are they available? >> They are not attached, but we can make them available. Okay, thank you. >> Other questions from the board at this time? Okay. Aaron, anything else to add? Okay. [clears throat] >> No, nothing from my side. >> Thank you for um doing the report. Thank you Dan for assisting with that. We're going to move into Board Education and Strategic Plan Monitoring. We have a dashboard and Dr. Luck is going to We're going to look at goal
0155.1 close facility and 5.2 close facility funding gap and goal and increase staff well-being. And so Dr. Luck, take it away. >> Okay. So, you have the presentation in front of you that has the progress monitoring, uh the resource management planning. We have two separate goals, 5.1 and 5.2. Uh from 5.1, uh that is to close the funding gap. We're well aware on our 10-year capital projects plan uh that we have a significant deficit in our financial need versus our ability or our the revenue that we can generate during that 10-year span. Uh we can cover about a third of those needs. Uh and so right now the primary metric is to close that funding gap uh by 2034, but the metric to do that right now and I'll have a recommendation for this uh
016soon and and where we can start to shift this, but the primary metric is to look at the 100% of the annual building fund allocation uh and that we have uh devoted 100% of that to our prioritized facility needs. Um so, if you look at uh this next slide, our estimated revenue uh about 1.1 million. That includes the building fund, that includes special assessment. Uh so, a total of 12 mills. Estimated expenditures 1.3 million. So, that includes our summer projects of uh just over a million uh plus debt financing for the middle school green space and the Washington campus improvements. Uh and I did make a note on there just a reminder for debt servicing that that is uh completed in '28-'29. Uh and then 187,000 for the special assessments that are recognized in that
017two mills of special assessments. So, you can see uh we're pretty clearly uh spending over what that allocation is. We talked about that uh at when we approved our summer projects that we were that we were eating into that building fund carryover to address priority needs. So, if you look at the next slide in the deck, the priority needs, if you remember or if you spent a lot of time in the capital projects plan, you know that we have uh uh articulated each of those needs uh over that 10-year span, and we've categorized them into priorities. Our number one priority, facility availabil- availability and preventative maintenance. Our second highest priority, uh facility safety and quality. Next, we have facility and district efficiencies, and our lowest priority is technology and expanded capability. So, if you look
018at that chart, you see that 89% of that allocation is to our highest facility need, availability uh and preventative maintenance. 8% devoted to uh facility safety and quality, which is our next level. 3% to facility and district efficiencies, and less than 1% uh was devoted to our lowest level of facility needs, which is technology and expanded capability. So, obviously uh we are, as I said, overspending. Uh so, we're committing more than uh what we allocated or what our target is in our metric by about 18.5%. Uh but, additional work needs to be done uh to close the funding gap. We're looking at that year to year, uh but, there's a significant gap even if we spend 100% uh of our of our allocation each year, there's still a significant gap. And so, uh from an
019action step standpoint, we need to look at an annualized goal uh that projects the closure by 2034 Uh and not just that we're going to spend 100%. There's There's a quite a bit of gap that we're going to need to close and we need to do that. You know, we need to be a little bit more aggressive and I'll and want to talk about that a little bit, too, because the the reality is without some kind of infusion of capital, our building fund itself is not going to be enough. And so we need to start again re-exploring what needs to happen from either an expenditure standpoint or revenue standpoint to address those needs. So there's a lot of work still to be done. This is a a very simple goal as it's written with one
020metric, but it is a big issue to solve in this district. And so there's a lot of significant amount of time and resources going to be spent around this action step around this goal that we need to think about. One suggestion might be you know, we're we've had a lot of discussion around different strategies to address the facility gap. And how how we have our what we call our facility footprint and what the needs are. You know, while that may be a referendum, in the past we've asked our community where they're at with referendums and and with a couple different referendums and that has not been successful. And and I say that has been not the right plan and not the right time. But other things that we have to start to we need to
021continue to look at are what are other ways that we could look to address some of that facility gap. And I I gave one example of things that we haven't had a lot of discussion around yet, but that could be a solution to help us. And that just relates to restructuring our elementary. What if our elementary was K through 4 and our middle school was 5-3 8 and our high school was 9-3 12. That might match the footprint of declining enrollment in a different way. We did have that conversation at our enrollment facilities task force but that has not been an a solution that this board has explored. It might be one to consider moving forward. The next goal relates to resource management planning 5.2 and that is supporting educators sustainability and well-being through intentional
022planning and resource allocation. You can see there's a couple different metrics there. Two of those relate to the vital network surveys that we now have some trend data on that. That includes the staff survey at least in in those three subsections of that assessment and then what we call staying power staying power indicators. And the last one was you heard a board education last last meeting on exit interviews. And so that'll that's been embedded here as well. And I'm not going to read each of these metrics but again our our goal is 5.0. You're aware of that standard which we have set as a 5.0 in in all of our vital our vital network metrics. And you can see we are we have some varied results in terms of gaining to that 5.0 threshold. And
023there are some trends in which we are seeing some some declines in those scores from the last time we took this assessment. I will say the scores here compare from October from our assessment. So we're going to see a similar assessment in October a baseline and so you might see some shift from there but these are numbers that represent our October data points. Um if you go through uh workload management, you're going to see again uh some decline or or main maintenance there. Uh and um you know, one that has stayed relatively the same, but but some good growth opportunities as well. And and and some that are that are right on the cusp of being at that 5.0. But again, the concern would be seeing declining trends. You can see on the far right-hand
024side, you can see some declining trends from our baseline from 2 years ago to our baseline from this October. Uh in hope, uh that metric area you see a little difference there achieving above that in a couple of the different areas, and then again, just a little bit below those in other areas of this subsection. Staying power Staying power indicators, uh you see where we are at there. And again, if you're look if you use that 5.0 as kind of the standard, we're right at uh we're above and then right at that cusp for that 5.0. Staying power indicators for job satisfaction, you see where we're at, above that threshold and climbing. Uh and then in retention strategy, again, you see above that 5.0 or right at it. Uh and then one of those is
025climbing, the other two staying pretty consistent. I'm not going to touch on this cuz you just had a a Board of Education that outlined your your uh um your exit interviews that Mrs. Jabergard gave last last month last meeting. Happy to talk about them if you'd like me to, uh but that's where we're at with with um with the exit interviews. The key takeaways for me from a goal analysis standpoint, what I saw what I thought was interesting is is uh you know, most of our staff feel very positive about the school as a place to work and they would recommend working in that school. The sentiment is stronger and it varies between levels. We see significantly disparate responses from elementary to secondary. And I think there's something there's something there that we need to
026explore. And why is that that we're seeing such a difference in perspective of the same experience at different levels. So I think that's an area that we need to explore. Belonging and leadership were bright spots and they consistently have been bright spots as we've done as we continued vital work. But again, there's varying extremes at different levels and that cutoff seems to be elementary and secondary mostly. Staying power indicators again, they they vary by level and they vacillate between strong commitment and disengagement. So we're seeing not a lot of middle of the ground. It's either very strong or disengaged. So there's some there's some root there's some there's some exploration into the antecedent behind that that I think still bears some work. What the one that's not related to level was tenure. So staff with
027long tenure and those in mid-career most often described feeling cared for and empowered. But that band of 21 to 25 years and those that withheld experience cuz it's an option. You don't have to respond. But those two bands report more strain. So again, you're seeing a very similar response to a to the same environment and experiences. So they experience those things in different ways. So from my perspective in a And steps, we have a we have a great um mechanism to have these conversations and explore. It's the communications committee. And I would suggest that we monitor these areas closely, continue to monitor them in our next uh progress monitoring um cycle. Uh but that we also refer some of these conversations to our communications committee to get a little deeper into why is it that
028we're seeing disparate experiences uh in the same environment. So, from a recommended action standpoint, um we are either, depending on how you want to consider that, you you have either exceeded or met um strategic goal uh 5.1 uh and goal 5.2 is not met. So, with that, I would stand for questions. >> Any questions at this point? And I'll go I'll also accept [clears throat] a motion to accept the report. Dan? >> I move we accept the report report as presented. >> We have a motion. Is there a second? Second from Jamie. We have a motion and a second to accept the report on goal 5.1 and 5.2. Any discussion? And we will refer to communications committee. So, yeah, go ahead. Yeah. >> I was just going to ask um a reminder of when a
029goal is not met, what is our usual process? Is that spelled out, or is that kind of dependent upon what the not met is? >> Well, it would go but just to the strategic plan committee to review uh the goal itself, uh any mitigating strategies that we might want to consider. It goes to central office to look at um you know different areas we can intervene. But primarily it would go to the board's committee. >> Any other discussion? Aaron. >> I can just comment on that. I guess it it the response is it depends. Um it could be a metric that was put in place that's not achievable. It could be we're not doing enough to achieve that goal. So what is an uh an action plan that we need to engage in to close
030the gap. It so it depends on the the situation but it it basically drives us to an analysis and then um an action to do something. >> And we can also dive a little deeper into the the details as well of different levels and um maybe refer some things as well to different levels as as needed through it through working through administration to do that. >> And that and that's why I think the communications committee is the night the net the best next action step because you're looking uh having uh particularly because what of this what this goal is >> [snorts] >> uh that's the mechanism what we already have in place that's already an effective measure to have conversations about staff workload, staff environment uh staff experiences. So I think having that would be
031the next best action step that would inform the board and the administration on what else could happen. >> Any other discussion? Any other discussion? We have a motion and a second for to accept the report on goal 5.1 and 5.2. If no other discussion, all those in favor say I. I. Opposed same sign. Motion approved. Next on our agenda is the superintendent's report, and you can take as long as you want on this one. >> So, you have my written report. Um I'm going to start on page one with community eligibility provision recommendation. As Mr. Roberts had discussed earlier, we did uh have some discussion in the finance committee around the CEP. So, if you remember uh on April 20th, we talked about the CEP. Uh it is another uh pathway to support our families
032that uh that are unable to afford um food service. So, in a CEP uh as the cur- the current system is families apply, and if they reach certain income income thresholds, they're eligible for free uh or reduced meals. In CEP, if you become eligible for community eligib- eligibility provision at a building level, all of the students, regardless of income income threshold, would be eligible for free and reduced. So, what we did uh at our April 20th meeting was refer that to finance so that could be explored in greater detail. Uh not very many districts or schools in North Dakota are eligible for CEP. Uh it's one of those, you know, a great ideas, but we had to look at is this viable? And um the cost analysis, as Mr. Roberts had referenced, it's unfortunately not
033viable right now. I do think it's something that we continue to monitor uh cuz if that was something we could offer to our families, I think that would be great. Uh but if you look even at at every school level we Now, we did anticipate some gap, some level of deficit spending by building. Um I don't know that I expected it to be to this level. Uh, it really does become an unaffordable pathway when we already have a pathway to support the neediest families. So, that wouldn't change. Whether we go to CEP or whether we maintain our current the current model which the bulk of districts and the bulk of schools utilize, um, our neediest families still have pathways for free and reduced meals. Uh, it would just be what about everybody else? And, um,
034so if you look at that, well, you can look at deeper in the cost analysis, but I did break it down by building. Um, you know, at Gussner, uh, that would be -58,000 at Lincoln, -33, Louie L'Amour, -23,000, and Roosevelt, - almost 39,000. Um, so if you look at that, even if we funnel even if we did CEP just at three of our buildings, you know, that's still a 90-plus thousand-dollar deficit to what we're already doing, which is already in a in a deficit for food service. We already subsidize our food service department. So, this would be an additional 90,000 into that fund. If you add all of our elementary schools, which is what we initially had discussed as, you know, maybe as a potential option, you know, that puts it at a 100 150,000
035on top of what we already are deficit spending. And it's just not a viable option. I wish that it was, but it just isn't. Uh, I do think it's something that we should continue to look at. Um, it may be for not. Uh, there is a referendum that's coming in November for universal meals, which I know the board is very familiar with. Um, and if that were to be successful, my understanding is that all schools would become CEP schools. And that would be the the uh mechanism that the state would receive federal funds through through the CEP program. And that would subsidize what the state needs to provide for universal meals. So, CEP is still potentially on her on on her horizon, but regardless of what happens uh in November or if that were to
036fail in November, um I think this CEP is something that we should just continue to have uh and monitor. And at some point maybe that is the right fit for the district. I just can't recommend it being the right fit right now. Uh and like I said, if if uh if it does pass, then you'll become a lot more familiar with CEP. Um the next item is the CDL program update. Now, I'm showing this just because this is a this is a primer for something that might be coming later. Uh there'll be I wanted to just lay a foundation. You know, we have talked, we have expanded our CTE uh to include a CDL program uh for students. Uh um Mr. Gaylor, Mrs. Eckert have created uh a proposal for a full-time CDL training program
037that would not only serve high school students, but it would also serve the community. Um so, the the proposal itself identifies that we could provide one high school block for CDL and then two winter adult CDL cohorts that would impact 20 to 24 adults uh annually. Uh and then summer CDL opportunities for high school students. And then regional bus driver training, sub driver training, and then other uh potential opportunities for employer training and workforce partnerships. Um what this uh proposal provides, and again, you're not being asked to act on this because you're going to want to uh review the the presentation or review the proposal and uh you know, process the request and and you know, there there'll be time for a future action item on this. But what I'm really excited about this opportunity
038is that it takes us back to the '70s and and CTE when CTE really started expanding into public schools, there was a community aspect. Uh and as time has gone on the focus has become much more on students. Uh especially high school students and the community side of that has dipped and waned a bit. Um and what I like about this uh this proposal is it works to bring that back. Uh if you look in in our workforce needs, CDL is a significant workforce need uh in North Dakota, but in our region, in the egg fields, in um in industry, uh there's a huge need CDL for buses. Uh there's a huge need for CDL uh in our community and CTE has an opportunity to respond to that. Uh and so again, I'm just laying
039the foundation out there. Um and uh in a future meeting, uh I'm I'm guessing that Mr. Gallo will will be bringing a full proposal to you uh to consider that for the future. But again, right now, I am just looking as >> [snorts] >> uh to lay the foundation. Um from a board retreat standpoint, um uh that is that will be on June 25th at 5:30. Uh be on the lookout, you may have a special board meeting planned for right before that, so maybe at 5:15 uh there might be a special board meeting uh to act on an action item. Uh uh but that hasn't been finalized yet, but I think you can anticipate uh 5:15 special meeting. Um and then um encourage to invite Mrs. Mindy Skunberg as well to that um to that
040uh board that board retreat and have her participate as a newly elected board member. So, if you have any additional agenda topics outside of the guiding coalition and those discussions that we've already planned for the board retreat, make sure that you talk to Mr. Gaylor or Dr. Larson. Board committees, as I've done in the past, I include a draft and I put in all caps draft board committee membership. The board committees are not for the central office to decide, they're for the board to decide. But, what I do have done is is I just look at what's been done in the past. What what were the last year's committee memberships? And if we have a new board member, which we do coming on board in July, we just replace the outgoing person with the new
041person. That's just for planning. That doesn't mean that I'm suggesting or recommending these as committees. It is what the board wants to do and decide. But, if you have So, all of the committees that Mr. Tweeton was a part of, then we have Mrs. Skenberg is is listed for those. So, if you have suggestions on committees that you don't wish to serve on or those that you wish to serve on, contact Dr. Larson and there'll be plenty of time for that discussion throughout the next month and that will that is likely to be finalized in July. So, the last thing I have is the spotlight and I want to offer congratulations to Mrs. Mindi Skenberg for being elected to the Jamestown School Board and I also want to thank Mr. Tweeton for his years of
042service and dedicated service to Jamestown Public Schools and I know that he doesn't want me to bring this up, but I'm going to bring it up anyway. I want to recognize Jason Rohr. Mr. Rohr was reappointed to the State Board of Education by Governor Kelly Armstrong and this begins his second term. And I have great appreciation for those that fulfill these these types of responsibilities. They give our leaders in Jamestown additional insight and they give us voice in state level government. And so there is great time commitment to these and I want to thank you Jason for taking that additional responsibility and sharing our voice in Jamestown with that board. So with that I would stand for questions. >> And oh Jamie, go ahead. I know you didn't really touch on this, but I I
043wanted to talk about the new hire recommendations. I guess I was under the impression at our last meeting that the Dean of Students position would be open for Mr. For Adam's old position, but this reads kind of like that Jaydon Bryan will kind of be taking some of those responsibilities and Nancy would be backfilling their positions. >> That is correct. That is what So if I articulated that in the in a differently than what you heard that I'll I'll take that responsibility. But our intention was to do exactly that. To share time with the extended contracts that come up to share some of Adam's responsibilities. The Dean of Dean of Students position will be used to support Mrs. Anderson and Mr. Knox. And so it becomes a true Dean of Students position. Because they're working
044alongside two different administrators to gain an administrative experience. Yeah. >> Any other questions regarding the Superintendent report? I am glad we did take time to take our time looking at the CEP for the free lunches. It took some time and analysis and I'm glad we didn't act too quickly on that. I think it was something that we were hopeful that was going to work out and hopefully something um will work out in the future, but at this time it it's it's a very costly uh uh for us to to head down that road. Anything else from anybody else? Okay. All right. Thank you, Dr. Luck. >> We have nothing under old business. Under new business, we have nothing under activities, buildings, grounds. Under curriculum, assessment, and instruction, we have A, approval of the curriculum purchase
045for 2026 to 2027 school year. Is there a motion? Motion by Jamie. Is there a second? Second by Steve. We have a motion and second for approval of curriculum purchase for the 2026 to 2027 school year. Any discussion? Any questions for Mr. Gaylor? Okay. If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I. Opposed, same sign. Motion approved. Under [clears throat] finance, we have two action items and then two for informational. Can we do Do we have to do those separate, Christie? Probably Probably have to do these separate. A, approval to open financial accounts at Dakota Bank. Is there a motion? Motion by Aaron, second by Dan. We have a motion and second for approval to open financial accounts at Dakota Bank. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll
046call vote, all those in favor say I. I. Opposed, same sign. Motion approved. B, approval of agreement with the Village Family Services. Is there a motion? Motion by Steve. Is there a second? Second by Dan. We have a motion and second for approval of agreement with Village Family Services. And this is the same agreement that we've done. Would you want to comment? >> Provide mental health counseling for our students K-12 uh all year long, including uh in the summer. Our students are able to access. Uh this is funded through the behavioral health grant, so it isn't a general fund expenditure, but we have been able to access behavioral health grant to do that. No cost to change from the last couple of years. >> Thank you. So you have a motion and a second for
047approval of the agreement with the Village Family Services. Any other discussion? Jason, go ahead. >> Does that grant expire? >> So we never know from year to year but I think there's you know we're going to be able to find alternative sources to to fund. But >> Any other questions or discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I. Opposed same sign. Motion approved. And then the general fund balance in the monthly financials are there for your information. Any questions for Christie at this time? Okay. >> [clears throat] >> Under operations, review of draft board committee assignments. That is also there for your information so you can review those in your availability and send me any requests and we'll look them all over and and try to make sure that
048we have all of our committees covered. Under personnel, ratification of administrators revised master agreement for the 2026 to 2027. Is there a motion? Motion by Dan, second by Jason. We have a motion and a second for a ratification of administrators revised master agreement for the 2026 to 2027. Dan, did [clears throat] you want to make any comments on that at this time or or any questions for Dan or Jason? Okay. >> There was no change based on what we discussed last time. All the they just agreed to the same provisions so it's as I briefed last time. >> Thank you for your your work. So you have a motion and a second for approval of the ratification of administrators revised master agreement 2026 for 2027. All those in favor say I. I, opposed same sign.
049Motion approved. Approval of the resignation at the conclusion of the 2025 to 2026 school year. Number one, Cindy Wall. Number two, Tiffany Dawson. Is there a motion? Motion by Dan. Is there a second? Second by C. We have a motion and second for approval of resignation at the conclusion of the 2025 to 2026 school year. Number one, Cindy Wall. Number two, Tiffany Dawson. Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I, opposed same sign. Motion approved and thank you for your service to our district. C, approval to hire for the 2026 to 2027 school year upon a successful background check and appropriate licensure. Number one, Nancy Anderson. Is there a motion? Motion by Aaron. Second by Dan. We have a motion and second to approval to hire
050for the 2026 to 2027 school year upon a successful background check and appropriate licensure for Nancy Anderson. Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I, opposed same sign. Motion approved. Approval of extended contracts for the 2026 to 2027 school year. Number one, Teresa Olson. Number two, Bonnie Milkie. Number three, Heidi Eckert. Four, Brian Knox. And five, Jayda Anderson. Is there a motion? Motion by Jay. Second by Aaron. We have a motion and second for approval of extended contracts for the 2026 to 2027, one through five. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, >> [clears throat] >> all those in favor say I. I, opposed same sign. Motion approved. Approval of the finance committee staffing recommendations. Is there a motion? Motion Oh.
051>> I I would move that we consider each of these positions separately. >> Okay. >> How's the work? >> Sure. >> Yeah. >> What's that? >> You can stretch it out as you as you want, so >> I would I would move that we consider the the finance committee salary recommendation as business manager, payroll and accounting supervisor, and human resource generalist as opposed to one lump group of ca- of employees. >> Okay, we have a motion on the floor. >> Second. We have a motion and a second on the floor. For going through them and approving them individually. Any discussion? Jason. >> Yeah, I I guess I requested that so that we don't just you know, we can have a little bit of discussion on um I I'll I'll be honest, I'm going to have
052a hard time voting for these with um without and you know, um I would like to see a job description. I'd like to have more information about specifically how these duties are going to be assigned and and divvied up. I mean, again, this is nothing personable personal against anybody in these positions, but you know, a 32 to $33,000 raise for our business manager says [snorts] makes quite a statement to our community. I'm not necessarily saying it's not warranted, but I think we need to think about about that and and I I guess questions for the committee or or or whoever would have the info would be um we hear a lot about peer groups. We hear a lot about, you know, we want to make sure that our employees are within peer groups. I know
053Mr. Tweeton said that he per usual dived into the statistic or the data. Um I guess I would like to know who we are considering our business manager's peer groups for duties, for uh the overall central office structure compared to other districts. Um is there any more insight to that? >> Aaron? >> Go on. >> Yeah, so there was uh I don't know if it was eight different comps that we used for comparison uh with our typical districts that we compare against. Um the the roles of those business managers in those in those districts um there's just such a great um disparity between what we're doing and what a competitive rate is for that position. Um and then also um one of the reasons for grouping them and we don't have to, but a rationale
054for grouping them is there was in the discussion with the in the finance committee, there was a lot of this person's going to take on this, this person's going to take on that, and it was a a just a lot of moving parts, hence the restructuring aspect of it. It wasn't simply this person should get more money. Well, it's no, it's this person's going to take on Title IX responsibilities now from this person. This person's going to take on this financial leadership responsibility. And then so there was kind of a lot of moving parts to it. And that's kind of the rationale for the grouping. But I I hear what you're saying as far as yeah, if you want to do them separately, then um what that potentially might lead to is we can't simply
055readjust somebody internally then to do a certain position. We're just going to have to try harder to fill a position that we haven't been able to fill. Um just as a potential scenario unintended consequence there. So, um but I do understand that you what you're saying is we we did have the conversation on these are the roles and responsibilities that are changing. Um and we felt comfortable with the direction that we were going to go with, hence the recommendation. Um but it is a you know uh trust but verify uh situation. So, uh that would that's a I think a valid uh question there, but um yeah, so that's all I >> Go ahead, Melissa. >> Yeah, I I guess I'm having a little bit of a uh problem here, too, with with the the
056business manager position moving up in salary again. Um I realize that we're having more duties and it's it's not a personal thing. It it's just um 6 months into the job, she was given a significant bump in pay, which was unprecedent, you know, to do that 6 months in. And then she's been getting raises um each year. I understand she's doing more training and she's doing things and she's going to be getting um more duties. However, as I look at how much her salary has jumped in comparison to everyone else in the district, it is pretty significant. And I have a really hard time justifying such large um increments at once for one specific position there. And I too agree with Jason that it'd would nice to be able to see kind of what that
057um breakdown is of of those positions. Um and and then just kind of know where where they the other two positions were at and how much of a bump they're they're getting cuz I see what we want to give them, but I I was kind of looking through trying to find out what they're currently making and I I wasn't able to find it real quickly. So, even to have that information so I know how much of a bump there is in each of those would be helpful. Dan, go ahead. >> Okay, so just to clarify, the motion on the table is to separate these in the three separate motions. Is that the discussion point and then do we want to have a discussion on each one as you going through? No, it's a point of
058or do are you going to have a discussion >> do have a motion and a good point of order, Dan. We have a motion and a second for um separating them. And so, the discussion should center around separating them out, which you lean toward in your discussion, but um we're That's the motion that's currently on the table. Dr. Beck. >> It just as a, you know, a maybe a point of order, I'm not sure that you need a motion to separate these. You can just make a motion that separates. You know, if you want to have a discussion to say, um let's talk about this position, um I mean, you can have the discussion uh and then make the motion to to, you know, I mean, I move to uh support the Finance Committee recommendation
059for position A. And you can just make that rather than a separate motion. I don't believe that you would need a motion to separate, but >> And and that's fine. I just wanted to make sure that we weren't all or nothing kind of, you know, situation. >> rushed to make a uh >> Right. >> motion. >> Okay. >> So, we do have a motion and a second unless the motion is withdrawn. >> I will withdraw my motion if it's legal to do so with the understanding that um it's not just all or that >> We can we can discuss each position that was it wasn't it just that was the recommendation that came from the finance committee so that's how it was listed on the agenda but it can within that it can be dealt
060with. Melissa are you comfortable with the withdrawing? You're seconding, okay. So if someone would like to make a motion for letter E for the approval of the finance committee staffing recommendations. Dan. >> Okay. I'll I'll recognize your your statement. I move that we recommend we go ahead with the human resource generalist as as identified in the report. >> Okay. We have a motion for the human resource generalist as identified in the report. Is there a second? Second from Erin. We have a motion and a second for the human We have three positions so it's a human resource generalist position. Any discussion? >> I just want to say for clarity that's at 62,000 which is the recommendation for from the from the finance committee. >> Jamie. >> And do we know offhand what bump that was
061like Melissa had asked from >> She's currently at 57,505. >> Dan. >> And I can I yeah >> Can I just clarify that's with the that will be for July 1st salary. >> Okay. >> With the raise. >> And that was a conversation when we went through all of these is >> [snorts] >> is as we reshuffled things some went to more some more duties duties went to some people. And so the net total of all of them I think was a total raise of a what was I thought we had that number of something less than like 5,000. But the total the total package of work going to to these individuals was a net raise of about 5,000 total. If I recall correctly. >> From those two positions, yes. >> that three positions. >>
062Yeah. >> If I may just just a to make sure that everybody's on the same page with the payroll and accounting supervisor, human resource generalist, then we have the assistant business manager position. That's the position we've been unable to fill and we're going to replace that with a data entry which is a lower uh salary or lower wage position and that's what Dan is talking about between the payroll accounting supervisor, human resource generalist and then the difference between the data entry and the assistant business manager position that would be about 5,000. It was less than that. It was I don't know the exact number but it was something in that range. But I just want to reinforce that we're taking an assistant business manager position, making that a data entry position which that's a position
063we believe we can fill. >> And we have um people that already work in um in that area that have those skills um that we need for that assistant position. Um and so we're kind of divvying it up basically between the three of them is Jason. >> Yeah, referring back to and I don't have the uh board member 123 which was presented to us for this transition. Um with where we're with with what we've done so far and what we would like to do, do we have a new net cost to the district or net savings to the district? You know, we had it outlined we had it outlined to if we would if we would go with um an interim superintendent business manager or CT director shift. Um do we have an updated because
064my understanding would be the Dean of Students now that's only going to be a $20,000 difference? Do you understand my question? >> Yep. That doesn't change like the the Dean of Students isn't is there's no change. It's still 20,000 it was 20,000 in the in the proposal. Uh the difference would be uh what I had recommended for Mr. Gaylor's salary and what you offered uh in the motion. Uh that yeah, that difference was I don't know how much that was. I don't remember. Uh about 15,000. That would be the net change. Um between the business manager position and the assistant super or in the superintendent position. Um if you look at a about a $5,000 increase we didn't discuss those other positions uh in here in in there in the loss of the assistant business
065manager. So, I guess the net would be a $10,000 savings if you include all of what we've talked about today in all of those positions. >> From >> Jacob >> I'm going to come at this from a bit of a different angle. Um so, with the The positions we're are about um we're kind of dissolving a position, filling that with two two the three people we have we're distributing those and then adding a fourth, right? That's with the data entry. Yeah, yeah. Um So, a couple concerns comments um the additional roles that people are taking. So, we're compensating them for additional duties. Is that a viable long-term strategy? Is that something that those people are prepared to handle or to do the rest of their careers? Um is that are we risking a burnout? Um
066are we leaving ourselves the ability to remove those duties and apply them to a new role or to the original role that we're dissolving um in the future if we determine that this plan just didn't work out. How are these people who have now had higher salaries for however many years um going to feel when we take that away if we're needing to or how does that work with our contract structure? >> So, thank you for asking that question. Uh those individuals are aware of the duties that they are being asked to take on and feel they have the bandwidth to take to um accomplish those duties for the long term. That was a conversation that was held. For those particular individuals, the HR generalist, accounts payable, uh that was we we wanted to make
067sure that we had um their support to make those changes moving forward. So, expectation is long term. >> So, we have a motion and second on the table for approval of the HR generalist position as stated. Any other discussion? Christy, could we do a roll call for this? >> Jamie Bear. >> Yes. >> Heidi Larson. >> Yes. >> Jason Rohr. >> Yes. >> Jacob Meyer. >> Yes. >> Dan Tweeton. >> Yes. >> Aaron Roberts. >> Yes. >> Steven Bell Camp. >> Yes. >> And Melissa Gleason. >> Yes. >> Unanimous. 8-0. Motion approved. So, we have one of the three um positions addressed um in the Finance Committee staffing recommendations. Is there a motion? >> I move to uh approve the for the payroll and accounting supervisor salary to be 60,000. >> We have a motion
068for the payroll and accounting supervisor at as stated in the report, 60,000. Seconded by Dan. We have a motion and second. Any discussion? >> Sorry to sound like a broken record here, but this person does exist currently or correct? >> This person does this Sorry. >> The only position that has yet to be filled is our data entry position. >> And so, we will we will not we will no longer be looking for an assistant um >> Correct. >> business man. >> Correct. >> Thank you. >> Melissa. >> What is the payroll and accounting supervisor currently making and what duties have been added? >> So, while Christy looks for that, the um these are skills that with the open position, we were we we were needing someone who was some experience in this area. So,
069go ahead, Christy. >> So, her she is at 54,800. And she is taking on all of the accounts payable and accounts receivable in addition to payroll and quarterly reporting and all her other regular duties. And she also supervising the office assistant position. And yep. >> Audit prep would be she would take she has some responsibility for that now, but she would take all or the bulk of audit prep. That was the assistant business manager would would fall under her. >> Any other discussion? We have a motion a second on the table for the accounting supervisor position as stated. Any other discussion? Okay. If not, Christy roll call. Jamie Bear. >> Yes. >> Heidi Larson. >> Yes. >> Jason Rohr. >> Yes. >> Jacob Meyer. >> Yes. >> Dan Tweeton. >> Yes. >> Aaron Roberts. >>
070Yes. >> Steve Melkamp. >> Yes. >> Melissa Gleason. >> Yes. >> Eight zero unanimous. Motion approved. So, we have two of the three positions in the finance committee staffing recommendations. Is there a motion? Dan. >> I move we approve a salary of $140,000 per year for the business manager. >> We have a motion on the table to approve the business manager salary at 140,000 a second from Aaron. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Melissa. >> Same question. What is the current salary and what duties are being added? >> Current salary is 107 I don't know, 300 something. >> Dan, go ahead. >> We discussed this significantly during the the finance committee discussion and how do we First of all, how do we set the baseline when we first hired? And um you
071know, I was I was part of that discussion and when we first hired it, we were looking at you know, generally speaking, what was it the the market looking at like at that point? I think we came in on the low side at that point and once you come in on the low side, you don't have a lot of room for recovery. And looking at the market right now and the and the ratios uh both from a business manager to the size of the district to the ratio of what teachers pay is, this this the 140,000 was actually you know, pretty much right where we needed to be. And that's kind of where um the idea was okay, we may have had it wrong back when we first opened up the position. This is a
072chance This is a chance for us to make it right. Now we have got baseline um numbers for all of our folks that we have from our salary basis. Um now we've looked at that from from teachers, support staff, uh administrators. Ev- every cycle we've made some improvements on the catch-up. I think this is one of the years that we catch up on the business um business manager. >> Er- Erin. >> Yeah, another justification we looked at, too, was you know, what is this position worth, not what we can get away with. Um it's with uh the changes in the central office and taking on the the leadership role of finance versus a supporting role. Um, facilitating the the grants and the investments. Um, so this is where, you know, Christie's gone out of her
073way to take on those additional duties and get us that additional revenue. Um, so that's there should be recognition for uh that level of activity as well. Um and just, you know, if we were to having if we had to uh open this as a new position it's going to be probably something north of 140 to get a quality um person in place. So, this is a a realignment in my opinion. >> Any other discussion, Jason? >> I don't know. I'm sorry. Uh there's still just not enough here for me to be able to justify this kind of a raise and what I struggle with most and it's nobody's fault. It's like peer group, you know, in this side of the mouth it's peer group, this side of the mouth we're talking about, you know,
074market value, um those kinds of things. I just really struggle. I just really And again, yes, I I I'm not sure how much value I'm able to put into okay, we're down one person at the central office, but we're realigning duties. Um and of course, nobody wants to shortchange any employee. That's not what I'm saying. And I don't want to just base it on district size. But you know I just can't justify paying our business manager the same as a district that's two and a half times our size like Dickinson or Mandan. I just I just struggle with that. And again, I'm not saying it's not worth looking at again. I just have a real hard time being able to justify that to um to our constituents. >> Aaron. >> So, another point that we
075discussed on this as well is it to your point to some of the larger districts um they have significant support staff along with that um whereas we're somewhat limited on the support staff, so there's um there's some of that that that plays into the recommendation as well. >> Jason. >> I looked into some of that too and we're very comparable to some other districts our size as far as the number of people our business manager supervises and total staff. Now, everyone's job description is going to be different and I'm not I'm not denying that Chrissy's going to have more to do and I'm not denying that she deserves a somewhat substantial raise. I just I just can't justify this kind of raise in one year. >> Jason, are you looking at the raise itself or
076are you looking at the position? >> Well, I'm looking at both. >> Okay. >> Um and again >> Cuz I'm with you. I'm with you on the raise part, but also looking at that position, even looking at that position even in the midst of you know, even if we look at our administrative levels where per day, you know, so those are some other things on top of and there will be some additional We're going to have one less administrator in the central office now, too. So, there's going to be some additional responsibilities just with that as well. >> Question I forgot to ask the number of days don't change, right? It's 2 >> Correct. >> 240? >> Correct. >> Or 260? 2 >> Yeah, 260. >> 260. >> Yeah, yes, correct. >> It doesn't change.
077>> Okay. Dan, go ahead. >> And and I'll I'll bring up that that comparative analysis I'll try to bring up that comparative analysis that even that rough one that we started doing which there's a lot more data to go parse through on this one. But even just the raw the rough numbers comparing across 16 different uh districts um we're our ratio of general admin to the total instruction is probably in the bottom third of the districts that we compared. There are some districts where we have literally three times as much central office ratio to instructional personnel as we do. Uh that was one of my kind of deciding factors when looking at this saying this yeah looks like a lot right now but this realigns us and it does it in one shot so we
078don't have to go back and look at it and re- revalidate it. So for for me personally that was a a very important part of trying to get um a realignment as fast as we can so we know what we're dealing with in the future. >> So could you say that first part again? >> The yeah the first the first the the ratios of the look at just the central office versus those who are are related to that uh the instructional. Um that ranges anywhere from like 8% to 26%. Uh actually it ranges from like 5% to like 26%. So there's a pretty wide range in how people structure the duties to run a district. Now we'll parse through this more but just even the rough raw numbers are I think in that ballpark that
079says we're not out of bed with other other districts uh in terms of our administrative staff. >> With the recommendation. >> Yes, with that recommendation. >> Melissa. And again as always it's it's not that I don't think people in the district deserve money. Um I'm just really struggling with this is the second or third time within the time frame that that Christie has been hired that we have adjusted the salary to try to to bring that up and I realize we're adding more duties and I realize that she has gone through additional training and things, but I just really have a hard time adjusting all at once cuz we've never adjusted everybody. I mean, we're talking about a 30 $33,000 jump here. And we have not done that with anybody else in the district. Um,
080we have moved them up over a 2 or 3 years or or something like that, but this is this is a huge jump especially when we're talking about um not being able to give raises that we're really wanting to give raises to teachers and staff and everything and then to to give this huge um salary. I just I have a really hard time justifying it. I don't have a hard time justifying giving a raise, but this is to me is it's it's too much at once. Any other discussion? Jamie, go ahead. >> Um, I don't I know Melissa had asked this question, but could we get a list of like additional um duties that this position will take on? >> I'd like to yeah. >> Well, one thing I I wanted to add um to
081the conversation that we haven't touched on yet is originally when the these positions were shifted when when Christie was brought on board, if you remember we used to the our idea originally was to take a lot of the HR function off of the business manager position and shift it to the HR generalist. The reality of administrative the function of HR though maintains with the business manager position. We weren't able to decouple them completely. It just isn't going to work that way. We would have to pay an HR generalist well, we wouldn't have an HR generalist. It would be a manager. It'd be a director and and we thought we could decouple those and make those two positions separate and more stand alone. That's not reality. I think we underestimated the responsibility that would maintain to
082the business manager position and I there to your question Jamie there aren't a lot of significant responsibilities that are going to shift in in this position. We've talked about the the big shifts that are coming from the the responsibilities of the assistant business manager and those other two positions that you approved already. What were new responsibilities do come online is as Dr. Larson had referenced now there is going to be two full-time central office administrators at central office and not three. So this year somebody could come to Mr. Gaylor they could come to Christie they could come to myself and now those responsibilities are mostly going to be shared between two people Mr. Gaylor and Mrs. Grounds. And so there's going to be responsibilities that are simply added. The finance responsibilities Mr. Gaylor is is
083a highly intelligent very capable administrator. He hasn't had as much he's going to catch up really quick. But he is not as he doesn't have the level of finance background and budgeting background that we have had. And Christie's going to have to then Mrs. Granz is going to have to take on much more of a leadership role in those areas. Uh and that's going to be a shift from what we have right now. Um and I'm going to advocate this is the recommendation that I provided in the past. Uh so of course I support it. Uh but I I would say into Melissa's question uh and I completely understand. I I understand the trouble that you would look at from one number to another number and say boy that's sticker shock. I I get it.
084We had those internal conversations, too. This is about placing the appropriate salary uh on the position. And Melissa, you're right. There has been a number of times in which we have looked at this position but we've never gotten it to the place that it needs to be at. And you know you can do that over time or you can do it at one time. Uh but the reality is is no matter how you structure it it's less than what a peer should be and it's less than what um is deserved for the position and the responsibilities that we're asking of the position. Uh if you look at the uh proposal that I had provided on the realignment in the past, you'll see this you'll see the the districts and this goes to to Mr. Roers's
085question. The the comparisons that we were looking at, some larger, uh some smaller, and some in our range. We don't have a great comparative. There there isn't a you know it's very difficult for Jamestown to find a comparison that we can look to and say that's it that's it. Now that used we used to have some of those. Dickinson used to be a great comparison. Valley City and Wahpeton used to be a great comparison, but they aren't anymore. The size discrepancies makes makes it a really hard comparison. That's why I think you do two things. Uh one that we provided that comparison of salary and we had eight, nine districts, Bismarck, Fargo, West Fargo, Minot, Grand Forks, Mandan, Williston, Dickinson, Jamestown, and Devils Lake. Those are the ones that we looked at. But it's also
086just as important to Mr. Tweeton's analysis of looking at well, what is the district's what what not only is a salary comparison to one position, but what is the whole department's comparison to us at a percentage of our budget? And that's where Mr. Tweeton is is sharing that in reality the recommendation and all of what is put together in central office puts us right at the mid-range. It doesn't put us high, it doesn't put us low, it puts us in the mid-range. And to me, if you look at the recommendation that exists, it does put you at the midpoint. And what would you be hiring huge financial risk, right? As a district, huge risk to look at succession planning and what would we do if we were hiring that position right now? I think you
087would have to be in this range. Because the reality is is we tried to split those positions and it didn't work very well. And those a lot of those roles maintained on the business manager position and they have to. That's the way we're structured. We aren't large enough to have an HR director. We can have a generalist that takes on a lot of duties, but it is not um we we can't separate from that position. They just she's going to have to maintain those duties as a business manager and HR director. That's just, you know, I think it's a better recognition, Jamie, of what we actually are asking that position to do more than a restructuring. The The restructuring was the other positions. This is a recognition that you have now two administrators instead of
088three and that those responsibilities between the three of us uh have have shifted just a little bit and and the responsibilities are greater than they were a year ago. Just one last point, if you look at the daily rate, the daily rate is really to me where if you're looking at the comparison piece that Mr. Tweet did a great job of showing or telling us that we're at the mid-range in terms of total outlay and commitment for administrator percentage of our budget. Um but I do think the daily rate tells quite a story. In Jamestown that daily rate 41295, if you go up to the highest end of that, that's 80796. If you go to the midpoint of those 10 comparisons, it is 56538. So the gap there is about $150 a day. And that's
089the difference between um the midpoint and where the business manager position is in Jamestown. That's a big gap. And I think if you're going to do it, you're either going to nickel and dime your way to get to where the position you need to be is or you're just going to say this is where we need to be and we're going to, you know, instead of dealing with this every year or every couple of years and having the same conversation around well what should the right salary be, just get it done. Um So that's my thoughts on the matter. >> Jamie. >> Yeah, just kind of build on that a little bit too. The the historical context when we opened this position and and ended up and hired Christie, from where we were at, you
090know, there was a $30,000 difference sitting right there from the day one. So from the word go, we were 30,000 behind. Um and so this is yeah, we've done we've done some incrementals but this just gets us into where we need to be. >> Jamie. I guess my concern is I know that we're trying to right-size and I I get going there. I just find it difficult to put this out when we've been trying to right-size support staff and starting teacher wages for the last several years and that hasn't been done all at once. It's been in increments cuz that's what our district could afford. So, I just worry that this gives um like we value admin over our supporting staff to our stakeholders. I I feel is just what is that? >> Dan. >>
091And my response to that one is um business manager is the last to table at this point. The the realignments that we've happened happened over the last couple of years, they've gotten priority, but we've uh kept the business manager in in till kind of the end. >> Aaron, go ahead. >> Yeah, and just to Dan's point that we we've had made targeted adjustments to those other groups as well. We haven't done the entire support staff at once, but we did this priority group and then we moved on to this priority group and then we've done that with others as well. Uh and then back to Dan's point, we just now is the time for the business manager. >> Dr. Luck. >> I would just draw attention to two things to um in uh in Mr.
092Roar and Mr. Tweeton could speak to this well, too, but if you remember a couple of years ago, uh there was a realignment in the salary schedule uh for our teachers. You know, you're asking specifically about, you know, different groups and that was done because um when the freeze occurred a few a number of years back, there became big differences or compressed differences between teachers and and uh the negotiations units uh came together and and and really pushed a lot of dollars towards creating appropriate uh levels between each of those positions. That was very very costly. Uh the other fix that was made was uh some of our fam- uh some of our teachers came into the district at a 10-year cap. We didn't have a cap, then we created a 10-year cap, and then
093we removed the 10-year cap. Uh and so that was giving those teachers back any years beyond 10 that they weren't granted initially. And those were some pretty significant, I can't remember the total numbers, 16 18,000 dollars for some. That was you know, to right-size based on that change. Um the other uh thing that I haven't heard yet, and correct me if I'm wrong, uh there is a recommendation that you acted on earlier uh to change that finance committee uh had discussed and it was in Mr. Roberts' report. Uh but uh some of those financial and investment recommendations that have come through have netted the district significant amounts of dollars. Uh the one that would tran- that would the transition from where we're banking now to the recommendation, I think the net impact of that is
094like 23 24,000 dollars. That's just in one individual doing research and and talking with institutions and making making that change for us. And that doesn't include the investments that come that are up We we approve and we look at the those uh those changes. Um well, the finance committee looks at those changes and makes recommendations for length of of certificates deposit and things like that. But you're talking significant amounts of revenue that have come in uh that we weren't getting in the past. I mean, we're talking probably in the last four years a hundred plus thousand dollars of additional revenue that's been brought in. But but those are the expectations that we have and I just wanted to make sure that we reference that as well. >> So we have a motion and a second
095on the table for the business manager position um with the finance committee staffing recommendations. Any other discussion? Any other discussion? Jamie, did you have any questions about the staffing alignment adjustments? Okay. Any other discussion? If not, let's do roll call. Christie. Dan Tweeton. >> Yes. >> Aaron Roberts. >> Yes. >> Steve Belkamp. >> Yes. >> Melissa Gleason. >> No. >> Jamie Bear. >> No. >> Heidi Larson. >> Yes. >> Jason Rohr. >> No. >> Jacob Myer. >> Yes. >> Five to three. Okay. Motion approved. Looking at our policies and procedures, we have approval of policies. Is the board okay if we do all these together at one time? Okay. Anyone you want to pull out for questions? Okay. Number one, amended policy AACA. It's a section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 with the
096attached amended AACA-AR section 504 evaluation standards and procedures. Two amended policy DDCA legislative political leave. Three amended policy DDBC bereavement leave. Number four amended policy ACDA technology use policy for students and staff. Five amended policy BGA board communication with the public. Six amended policy BEC school board evaluation. >> [clears throat] >> Is there a motion? Motion by Melissa. Is there a second? Second by Dan. We have a motion and a second for approval of policies one through six. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I. Opposed, same sign. Motion approved. Under tuition, approval of tuition agreement for the 2026 to 2027 school year number one Yellowstone. Is there a motion? Motion by Melissa. >> Second by Jason. We have a motion and a second
097for approval of tuition agreement for the 2026 to 2027 school year number one Yellowstone. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I. Opposed, same sign. Motion approved. Under other, [clears throat] there's the election update. Christie, did you want to comment on that or questions or >> Um just Mindy Skungberg is our new un- unofficially our new board member to replace Dan Tweeton. And it will become official once the canvassing is completed on the 22nd. And then once that's completed, we'll welcome Mindy to our July meeting for the transition. Any items for future agendas? Jason, go ahead. >> And to the board retreat, also. >> Oh, yep. Yep. Oh, yes. Yep. Yep. We're We'll get to that here. Yep. Any other items? Any other items?
098Okay. Meetings to be scheduled. We have the GED graduation, which is this Wednesday, June 17th at 6:00 p.m. at the Career and Technical Center. Facilities Committee meeting on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. in the District Office Conference Room. We have our School Board Retreat on Thursday, June 25th, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. in the District Office Conference Room. And just a note, thank you to Jason. Rory's going to be Mindy's new mentor. And Mindy An invitation has been A formal invitation will be extended to to Mindy for if Obviously, they're all open to the public, but Um, a formal invitation will be extended if she'd like to join us um for that retreat. >> [clears throat] >> And uh connect with Jason at that. Um we have a school board meeting on Monday, July
09920th, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. in the Thompson Community Room at the middle school. We may have a special meeting before the the board retreat. It We'll just see how things come together and so it it'll be very short, like 15 minutes before and so we'll look at the timing of the scheduling of that, but we'll just do it right before and then move into the retreat. But I'll keep you updated on that. Um we also there's a good chance we may have a finance and a strategic planning meeting prior to the July board meeting. Those have not been scheduled yet. We're have to get some doodles out with people's vacations and those kinds of things trying to find a find a day and time that might work. Um you do not have to do the
100monthly superintendent evaluation today. Um and instead I'd like to take the time to um and and we did um have a reception um a farewell reception prior to the meeting. And we like to thank Dr. Luck for all of his years of service to our district. Um you know, we've done a lot of things um under his administrative leadership. We have a strategic plan, we have financial priorities identified and we're really making a lot of progress in our district and and um through his leadership and and through the board's leadership, I think we have something to be very proud of and we're very grateful for everything that he has done um and and Sadie as well for our district and so we just want to take this time to >> [applause] >> Anyone like to
101make comments? Jamie, go ahead. >> Yeah, and and I know I've told you this before Dr. Luck, but not only the work that you've done for our district, but what your family has brought to our community is invaluable as well. So I appreciate that. I I do I I Yeah, I've said this before, you know, 13 years in Jamestown Public Schools. I do think that we have done wonderful things. I think that we have made great strides. There's still many things to do, but we have made great strides. I know that we're on the right trajectory regardless of who sits in a chair has a certain title. I know that we have you know, a a wonderful trajectory, and I want to thank everybody in this room for everything that you have done for me.
102That's been a blessing to be the superintendent of Jamestown Public Schools. It's been a blessing to be part of this community. And as far as the community is concerned, I hope they uh um recognize the great board leadership that you have all provided to the community. Sometimes we take boards for granted. And they are just there, and they are making decisions. You had a a great example of what boards are supposed to do today. You had very tough conversations. You had differences of opinions. And throughout that conversation, you could have that those that level of conflict and disagreement, and you could come to a decision, and you can move on. That kind of leadership we take it for we might even take it for granted. It is not typical all the time. And I hope
103that the community understands the kind of leadership it has in this board. And you have all done wonderful work, and you will continue to do wonderful work. And thank you for your service. Because it is tough. Your jobs are really really challenging. In the in the community, the district is fortunate to have you. So, thank you, and thank you for everything. I've learned something from everybody in this room. I've learned something from everybody that served in the Jamestown Public Schools before you. From our our support staff all the way through board leadership. I thank everybody and I will miss you all. I will miss I like board meetings. I don't know if you could tell that cuz I don't ever stop talking, but I like board meetings. I look forward to them and some of
104that is just to working with all of you and just the work that you do. So again, thank you very much. >> And thank you. There being no further business before the board, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you, everyone.