Jamestown School Board Meeting May 04, 2026

001Good evening. I'd like to call this regular meeting of the Jamestown Public School Board to order. It is Monday, May 4th, 2026, and we're in the Thompson Community Room at 5:30 p.m. We'd like to welcome all those in our audience this evening. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Olen, would you be willing to read the schoolboard norms tonight? The board developed norms are to share and respect opinions and speak with a united voice once a decision has been reached. Execute all duties of the school board in compliance with the North Dakota Century Code. properly prepare for meetings and commit to assessing board effectiveness and

002ensure high quality governance for all stakeholders. >> Thank you, Owen. Moving on our agenda, we have no public communication. Does the board wish to um acknowledge any new conflicts of interest? Any new conflicts of interest? If not, moving on to our consent agenda. Would anyone like anything removed from the consent agenda or clarified? Jason? >> Yeah. Um, I would like to call out item E, Health and Human Services Rural Health Transformation Program Grant. And I guess my only question would or as a district, have we, you know, grants are very good. Um, as we're going through some of our efficiencies and our staffing and and whatnot, um, and also future funding, have we established a practice as far as analyzing some of those things as part of our grant process, application process? >> Sustainability, you

003mean? >> Sustainability and also from a a like a staff standpoint is um more taxing to current staff members. Um, is that thought through? >> Yeah. Generally speaking, so sustainability, that's always a question that we ask. Um, like you said, grants are fantastic, but what are the long-term implications of the grant? Um, and so we look at sustainability every time we we seek out a grant. uh and either that means there's a short-term window in which a grant is available that we do certain projects or there is an understanding that this there may be larger district contributions with the grant that are necessary in the future. So we do consider those things. Um as it relates to u staff impact that's something that we look to as well. Uh our our focus isn't to add

004additional burden to to people. Uh it is to positively impact the student experience and the workplace experience. Uh and so normally when we bring forward a grant uh like this, you know, we feel like it is um something that's either sustainable or we've had a greater conversation around how we're going to sustain uh and that it presents a positive uh impact to staff and students. >> Does the board or Jason do you wish to have that removed for further discussion or are we ready to move forward? Okay. Any other items on the consent agenda you'd like have a question about or clarification? Okay. Any other? If not, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> I move to approve the consent agenda. >> Motion by Jason. Is there a second? >> Second by

005Jacob. We have a motion, a 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. Oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. Moving into our regular meeting, we're going to get to our recognition. And Jacob, if you could read the winter sports and read them slowly so I can have time to hand out the the the gifts and then we'll move on to drama and music. Jamie, would you be willing to read the drama and music and we can just do one um after another and then we'll have everyone line up here um for a photo. I do want to note that there is a choir concert tonight. So, some of the music students um will be coming next meeting

006also. So, we may have some here and some not, but we'll read all the names um both meetings to make sure we don't miss anyone. All right. And students, when your name is called, just meet me right over here and then we'll have you proceed to the stage. And parents, feel free to come right up in front and take photos. >> For boys basketball, we have Edison Walters, all conference for girls basketball. Macy New Miller, all conference. Hannah Aden, all conference for gymnastics. Sutton Van Gilder, all conference all state. Fourth place in all state allaround. Brooklyn Waldy, all conference all state. And Brie Carlson, WDA and state coach of the year for boys hockey. Braxton Burkett, all conference all state defenseman, and Parker Rolma, uh, all conference forward for boys swim and dive. Finn Moer,

007200 free, WDA champ, and state second place, 500 free, WDA champ and state second place, and all conference all state. and Ben Smith, WDA and State Coach of the Year. Moving on to fine arts and drama, we have Sophie Hassen. Um, outstanding actor award, state one act. Aiden Loren's outstanding actor award, state one act. Students selected for the NDMEA allstate band choir and orchestra. Mia Tyson, Aaliyah Tyson, Finn Moer, Joy Taylor, Sierra Pearlyberg, and Ella Lean. State Stars in at orchestra WDA solo and ensemble contest. Senior ensemble. Mia Tyson. Autumn Roberts. Bella Shustrom. Patience Brderick, Luke Lefir, Hayden Olsen, Marissa Moltson, Mckenzie Stoddard, violin duet, Mia Tyson, and in cello bass duet. Joy Taylor and Aaliyah Tyson. All right. Congratulations to all of our students that received awards and again we'll have music um some

008additional music awards next week as there was a concert tonight. Moving on to our agenda, we have no correspondence under reports, health insurance report. Dan, would you be willing to just give a general overview for health insurance? >> Sure thing. So, I'll start with kind of the current state. So, right now, we're we're hold at a balance of about a 1.87 million, which is about 2.9 times what our defined minimum before we have to start cost sharing per the contract. So, uh from that perspective, it's it's it's holding well, but uh we don't have any risk of going into that cost sharing clause of the contract here. Uh right now the district are covering about 2 uh 675 million as a baseline with 100,000 that we added last year. So right now the the 2.775

009million is about 78% of the total cost of the plan is covered by the district and the rest covered by the employees and um and and other income by the by the fund itself. The right now the fund is operating about 14% under budget. Um but looking ahead with we've got some expenses that are running a little hot right now that are probably going to run a little bit above projections likely probably pretty going to hit pretty much right on this year's budget as far as what we allocated for the spend. So u our ending balance is going to be probably very likely the same as what we had last year. Um the claims this year are probably a more reflective of what a normal year would look like. last couple years there were the

010first couple years after we made the fund fund changes the plan changes the performance was was really good because we had some unusually good years had relatively few claims and uh the claims that we had weren't as as extensive right now our our claims are probably considered more along the lines of normal but much more than what we've had in the past still under budget but uh again just setting expectations about relative to what we've done in the past Looking ahead, we have started our renewal process and looking at what that would cost. So, it's it's um that's going to be done by June. You know, what kind of plan changes and decisions have to be made by then. Uh right now, the very rough estimates and we're we're looking at second opinions about what

011can happen with those. We expect an increase to the total fund of about 46,000. Uh so that's about 11 11.4% increase in the total fund cost. Um how that's divided up between the employees and the school district is yet to be decided. That is actually a negotiating point with with the within negotiations right now. But uh we're looking at a total pile of about $46,000 increase. Um with that fund balance of about $1.87 million, we can absorb it um with without doing anything different. We're obviously going to look at, you know, what tweaks we can make to the deductibles, what makes things we can do to co-pays as part of that health insurance committee, which, you know, the board u and and the staff and the teachers have uh all have a say in within

012that committee. So working that out over the next month uh will be part of the process to determine what's going to be a fair kind of a fair um plan design to uh keep people involved in the plan but also to keep costs under control. So um any any questions or comments any further information? >> Jason, go ahead. My only question would be in terms of like usage uh around the district when when you're going through the that um is you know increasing usage or is usage viability discussed at all like do our consultants feel that we're at a good level for our size of plan and all that. >> Yeah, that is that is part of the conversation. So we do keep track of how many people are in there who and who's relative

013to previous years. We're very cognizant of of of of that uh as part of our discussions. >> Erin, >> so what is the uh period for renewal? How how often do we need to >> Oh, it's every year. >> Okay. >> And then it's in June. It's coming up, you said? >> Yeah. Um I think I it's in June when we have to make some final decisions and that'll roll out in like a lot by August. >> Yeah. We usually get pretty close to what we're going to do with maybe a few tweaks and a few questions answered by the midmay meeting. Okay. >> And then I think it's the 6th or 9th or something of June, we have to have it so that it can be put out into a into a plan. So

014>> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. Any other questions? The committee works very hard to um make sure we have a a good product. Um health insurance costs are rising everywhere. Fortunately, we've been able to keep the increases percentage of our plan under what like the national average has, but there there's a lot of moving pieces to it. Um a lot of levers and and there's a lot of a lot of pieces um because we want to make sure it's affordable also for our for our staff and teachers. and it's um it's an important benefit. So, it's it's something that the committee takes very seriously. So, and thank you Dan for for serving on that. If not, we'll move on to the next item on our agenda. We have board education activities, updates, and review. Mr.

015Waldson, would you please come forward? Good evening. Thanks for having me here tonight. Um I would like to uh share some things here basically u related to four main topics here that that I have to present tonight for you. One is participation numbers and costs. We'd like to share some information and answer any questions that you might have based on that. Uh talk about our administrative supervision and the process for that and how much time goes into that. Um, also, uh, an item that was asked about was our our coaching salaries and we we're looking at answering, you know, how they're determined, uh, and what is the process for payment of coaches and so on. And then last thing I'd like to touch base on tonight is just our future fundraising opportunities and other items

016or possibilities that we might have or in the future going forward or questions you might have. I apologize. It's probably tough to to read where you're at, but uh what I shared with you here is just our athletic participation numbers. Um I did neglect to uh give you like the our fine arts numbers and so on. Um those are a few uh programs and I can share those with you here uh tonight roughly or at a later date if you would like to as well. Um you know, it's kind of a catch 22 with our our fine arts. there is a difference between what's curricular and what is extracurricular that evolve around the activity side of things. So, you know, right now currently, uh, as an example, our our our, you know, band and and

017choir, our numbers there roughly on the extracurricular side are probably in the 60s. Now, not everybody that's in band or choir part also partakes on the extracurricular side. And uh so that's kind of why I I maybe shied away from that a little bit tonight and and probably hitting more just on the athletic side so that you get a a larger picture of of what u our larger numbers are right now. Okay. Um our overall participation numbers seem to be consistent from year to year and that right now even even though our our enrollment has I'll say fluctuated a little bit, we've been fairly consistent. uh going forward, we're probably going to see some changes as uh we um hit to some declining enrollment uh numbers and so on, but for overall um we're we've

018been fairly consistent and that's both on the athletic side and in the fine arts. Um some differences that we saw this past year, football um was in a situation where we were down numbers and if you take a look at that our our numbers were roughly around 65 and we typically carry about 80 to 85 in those situations. What what that we kind of attribute to is we we had a a little bit smaller freshman class come in uh as far as what their numbers were compared to what we had been carrying. And then of course just some residual of the other upper grades too having a few fewer kids and so on. But we do anticipate those numbers for next year to increase back to um the 80s with the class that's that's coming

019uh up our freshman class and what we expect to uh re regain and and retain. Um gymnastics is a sport that we've seen a decline in numbers not just locally but around the state. Um if you take a look at Fargo public schools um this past year um they were they were down to probably about three girls at one time and then at at towards the end of the year they were down to two and chose not to compete at the uh end of the year um Eastern Division Conference they they had no EDC meet because there weren't any teams over there to compete other than WTO and a few girls from Fargo. So fortunately our numbers right now um we we had about 10 girls roughly this year. We're graduating five. So we're going

020to have a very small squad next year. But the following year is if everybody that is that we're anticipating that's in the club system uh comes out and we retain what we have, we will again start to grow back into that 10 to 12 uh participant range and hopefully continue to grow that a little bit more. Um, girls swim numbers is also a um, one of the programs that have maybe dipped a little bit here in recent years. But if you take a look at what we have up there, the chart, there is grades 9 through 12 and there's some uh, some of our groups are basically 7 through 12 type programs. Uh sports like tennis, uh golf, uh swim and dive are are examples of our seventh through 12 programs that we encompass everybody.

021Um where where we're, you know, in some of these other activities were able to um house seventh and eighth grade separate programs here at the middle school. Uh boys golf is an area that we've seen explode here for us this past spring. Um, right now we're sitting with over 50 7 through 12 boys golfers and we're probably uh going forward anticipating having to separate into a separate JMS program next year if we can um to take those numbers and and uh allow for for those kids to participate and and be in a group appropriately um and thereby separating a 912 program on the on the boys golf side and uh looking at retaining and and probably trying to run a program that's about that we would keep about 16 to 20 JV varsity golfers. That's

022kind of a sweet spot I think with with boys golf and being able to get them playing time um in tournaments and and and uh attention with our coaches and that kind of a thing. Also um the number of uh students that we have out there practicing with our local courses too is we need to be sensitive towards that. So, uh, some other things I want to just highlight quickly on on those numbers. You can take a look at, you know, softball, I believe on girls softball, there's an asterisk, uh, in 2223. In 2223, girls softball was a 7 through 12 program. That following year, we split into a true middle school program and a 9-2 program. You can see where our girls softball numbers are are still very healthy even after that split. So

023right now I believe the middle school is running two soft two middle school softball teams and uh on the the high school side we're running you know roughly about 26 girls there. So uh boys wrestling is also a situation that's reflects a little bit different here. Um this was the first year that boys wrestling uh we kept as a 7 through 12 program. In the past the the middle school had their own separate program. This year we brought everybody together. So that is the the difference and the reason probably that you're seeing an upswing from 20 students and 24 25 uh to 37 here this past season. Now with with that that there's still growth within that. It's just not all obviously due to middle schoolers uh being part of the the wrestling program. So,

024uh, before I I move on, any questions regarding the participation numbers or where we're at with with our activities? Mr. Roar, >> could you just clarify? Um, like some of these are listed 9 through 12 and 7 through 12. >> Yeah. >> Um, and I realize there might be different circumstances for each one, but why do we include 7 through 12 in some and 9 through 12 in others? >> Numbers. numbers and uh just the the overall nature of the uh activity. As an example, swimming. There's no other uh middle school programs and in swim and dive around the state. Um so in order for them to to compete that they have to compete 7 through 12. Um that's that's one reason. Uh sometimes it's been our numbers too. as an example, we opened up

025uh so girls soccer specifically was one of the first ones that we opened up 7 through 12 in in that sport just to retain numbers that if we did not do that, we wouldn't have had enough girls to field a junior varsity team. And without having those girls maintain that junior varsity team, we were probably looking at a couple years down the road of not being able to have a program at all because there's no feeder to it. So that's probably the one of the main reasons why we have opened it up to 712. Um I think best case scenario if we can have a separate middle school program that's what we all want but it's it's not always feasible. Again finding finding games, finding contests, putting together a schedule um and again just practice

026partners all all those kind of things kind of come into play. >> Any other questions? Jamie, go ahead. So when we go to like a 7 to 12 program, some of the feedback I'm hearing from like the middle school is that transportation aspect as these kids can't drive at this age and then just getting them to the high school for practice is not always feasible for working parents. Are we looking into any sort of transportation that would be viable in those situations? >> At this point in time, I we are not. And do you think that will hurt our numbers going forward if I mean if a a student isn't going to be in wrestling because they can't make it up to the high school more than likely when they're in ninth grade aren't going

027to continue in that sport? >> Yeah, I do think that may prohibit some or maybe be a reason why some some may not. But I also, you know, we we've also been in a situation that in order for us to do this, this is what we've needed to do. And and if also if as an example uh if you want your son or daughter to golf, you're going to have to transport them to either Hillrest or the Country Club and get them out there. So that's that's kind of with uh some of these other opportunities. That's kind of where we're at and what we need to do. Um we we don't own our own busing to be able to do that. >> Owen, did you have a question? Go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah, you mentioned

028you mentioned with the kind of the volatility or walking through some trends specific to different sports, but like football for example, you kind of attributed to potential uh enrollment swings. Uh moving forward, we've been looking at, you know, from all the way down to the kindergarten level seeing that that declining enrollment. Um, are there things that if if that's a factor for kind of influencing the numbers of enrollment activities, have there been exercises of looking for what that might look like down the road and how to sort of be proactive in planning for that? That's actually something that our coaches council is currently working with and have just kind of started to to take a look at that and and looking at where our current numbers are at our youth levels and our feeder programs

029and what those look like and what we can do to make sure that as as we do continue to decline in enrollment that that we keep participation numbers or even try to grow what those participation numbers are. Um so we are cognizant of that. I think right now where we're at, I think we're in pretty good shape, but that's something we still need to continue to keep an eye on. And and we're very fortunate in the community of our size. We're offering everything that any other public high school in the state of North Dakota offers as far as athletics. Now, there's a few things on the activity side and fine arts that we don't that other schools do um because we've we've chosen as as a district um with with low numbers of interest in

030there not to have those. >> Um but o overall I I think we're still in pretty good shape. Jim, do these the numbers that you have um on the screen, >> is that just our j are blue J Jamestown high school here or is it also include cooperative? >> I believe that those also include cooperatives. Those are the numbers that we have reported to North Dakota High School Activities Association ba based on our um our end of year report. >> Okay. >> And that's that's also the numbers that were taken off of the superintendent report annually. Okay. Do we know like the cooperative number the number of students that are in cooperatives that are on the screen? >> It would be hit and miss. I mean we could we could dig those up if we

031wanted to. On average we only probably have a couple per per sport if any. >> Um hockey is one of our larger ones I would say with the boys from Valley City and that can fluctuate anywhere from you know a handful to up to 12 13 students. Thank you. Yep. >> Any other questions so far? Um, okay. Thank you. Okay. >> And just and Jamie, just to kind of get back to your question a little bit too as I'm going through and and and thinking, you had asked about the the transportation and so on. And that is one of the reasons why too that we do try as much as possible if we can have a middle school program at the middle school. That's a huge reason too to try to keep those those things

032local or in within their building because we do understand that those are potential issues. >> Yeah, I I agree. And also I'm just thinking maybe we could put a little bit more effort into like connecting parents at the middle school level for car pooling purposes that I mean >> Yeah. >> to to help kind of keep those numbers going. >> Yeah. And and that is something too that we can probably maybe bring awareness more to our coaches too in their their preseason meetings that they have with the parents to to maybe offer that maybe that's an opportunity at that night for other parents to to find out who who they can work with. So we appreciate that. Uh the next slide I'm going to share with you are are co are how are our costs

033shared? What how do we what do we pay for? How do we pay for it type of thing and what why are we fundraising? What do we fundra for? Um, you know, kind of a quick synopsis, our JPS budgets, we're covering our our coaches salaries, the transportation and travel. That's are probably our biggest chunk of of what we're paying for right now. Um, all of our officials that that we we have to pay for um that we contract out there, our game management, our our PA workers, our our table workers, our our ticket takers, all those people. Um, our our equipment and uniforms are all something that are are very important for us to cover within our budget. I I feel in in my role and as as a district, it's our responsibility and it's

034our duty that if we're going to have these activities that we're making sure that we provide the proper and safe equipment for our students and and that needs to be a priority and of what we do when we we do our budgeting. um uniforms. That's also I feel a responsibility of the district and you know we may not have the flashiest uniforms out there but we get we do a good job with what we have. We get good uniforms our wear and tear on them. I I we keep an eye on. We try to find the uh the brands sometimes that we can maybe reuse or if we need to uh you know pick up a few here or there as a few get uh old or torn or whatever throughout the process of their

035life expectancy that we can replace them fairly easy. Um, we have some coaches that have gone above and beyond in in taking care of the uniforms and and laundering them and and so on and making sure that that these things are are taken care of for a long time because a lot of times, you know, we're our usual uh life expectancy of a of a uniform is anywhere from four to six years. Four to six seasons is what we currently are operating under. Uh our rental fees as an example are you know we don't own our own hockey arena. We don't uh we have to also rent from the gymnastics center those places. So those are all part of our JPS budget. Uh entry fees for for tournaments that we partake in. Um you know

036uh high school activity association uh dues and and coaches association dues for for our coaches. That's also something we we pay for for our head coaches. Um, and and it's very important, I think, that we continue to do that. Um, one of the perks of of being a a member of the North Dakota High School Coaches Association um is that it carries a million-dollar life or excuse me, not a life, but uh a million-doll liability um insurance um for that coach and and and helps us with that should um we ever need that. And then also subscription fees. Everything's web- based now. There's so much that we have to do with, you know, weight management things for our wrestlers, um, to entries with our our track teams, our cross country teams. They have to go

037on athletic net, athletic.net to put in their things and and we've got to maintain subscriptions in order to be able to do that. So, those are a few odds and ends, too. So, those are typically what we all cover within our our JPS budget. Now, above and beyond that, what do we expect out of fundraising? What why do our teams fund raise? What do our boosters help us with? Those kind of things. Meals on the road is is a big one. A lot of our coaches, the fundraising that they will do, um, you know, whether it's some kind of a card sales or a calendar raffle or something like that or selling ads within their programs, a lot of those coaches are are feeding the kids on on the road. And I think that's one

038of our best uses of those fundraising dollars for those teams is to make sure that when we do go on the road that these these kids are getting a you know a proper meal hopefully after uh each event. Uh some other things additional equipment wants. You know there's some things that that we don't aren't able to provide within our budget that maybe aren't completely necessary but they're really nice to have. An example of that would be um like video um video equipment for a football team. Okay, we don't necessarily budget for that, but that's something that's very useful for them, helps them out greatly. That's something that they can go to their boosters for, um fundra for and so on. uh team camps. Um if our coaches want to take on some additional uh attend

039some clinics, those kind of things, that's where a lot of that fundraising comes from. Uh athletic and team apparel. A lot of times the teams will do a like a pullover, a team pullover or something like that. That's also uh what these fund fundraising dollars are used for or the boosters donate and so on. Okay. Um along with that, you know, how do we how do we get all this? You know, acti activity fees for us have basically remained the same for quite a while. Um $75 per high school student for for an activity is what we um charge. $40 for a middle school student. Um it's been that way for a long time. And we're not on the low end of things uh when we talk to other schools. Um but we're not the

040highest either. I mean, we might we might edge towards that, but uh some of these schools that we're talking about too do not have the transportation uh bills that we probably do either. So, um that's one of the things I' I'd like to share is that, you know, as far as activity fees, you know, that's a quick one that people always jump to to try, you know, to raise revenue, let's just charge more fees. And I' I'd like to try to discourage that as much as possible. You know, if if I could get away from our kids having to pay fees and participate, that would be a a perfect scenario. We want our students in activities because we know what that means. We know that they're going to be more successful in school and uh

041be be connected better. So, um gate uh receipts too are something that uh we're dependent on. Uh right now, um our admission prices have increased slightly here in the last couple years. Again, we're very similar to what other schools are are paying and uh it's helped, but uh you know, we want to continue to try to keep the the cost low for our students as much as possible. So, currently we're at $8 for an adult, five for a student, and I think I think that $5 for a student I'd like to see there for a long time. Um the last thing I'd like to share, you know, something to maybe if we need to in the future take a look at at revenues and so on, our co-op fees. our co-op fees with other schools.

042Right now, um the schools that that are able to come in and compete with us, uh we charge $300 a year per school per activity. Doesn't matter if you have one student or 20, they pay $300. Okay? There's other models that we could look at going to if if we ever choose to do so. Um, I'm not saying I'm encouraging or telling you that that's what we have to do going forward. Um, because I I like the relationships that we've had with with our schools that that we are currently in in co-ops, but also um there are there may be other opportunities going forward that we might need to take a look at what we're doing there. Do you guys any questions? Yeah. So the the fees I just want to remind the public that

043they that you mentioned families can apply that meet free and reduce they can apply for reduced >> cost to >> Yes. We do use a sliding fee scale based on free and reduced lunch. So at the high school level $75 per sport. But if you do qualify for um a reduced lunch your fee is lower. And if you qualify for for free lunch, then it then it's suggested as well. >> Dr. Le, >> more of a comment. Um Mr. Rolson, you and I have talked about um cooperatives in general and and you referenced >> um maybe looking at other models rather than a flat >> fee for cooperatives. Uh, and just so the board is aware, we've had the conversation that if we there's an opportunity here, if we're looking at a shift to what

044that cost sharing is, and if we're doing something different, it's also maybe an opportunity to do a a reset on cooperatives. Uh, generally speaking, cooperative agreements are put in place and then they're just held. you know, we might have one student participate from Barnes County North uh in hockey 15 years ago and we continue to have that cooperative agreement in place whether we have that one person participating or not. uh and if we do a sharing or some different model for participation uh in a cooperative uh this is the time that we would want to have a reset with those with those communities and those other schools to say okay here's the new model is this something that you're interested in do you have u participants that you'd like to you know and you'd like

045to consider this cooperative arrangement u so I think there's an opportunity there uh that I mean historically we've haven't looked at a lot of cooperatives uh once they're established. Uh but this would certainly be the opportunity to do that. >> Um Jamie, go ahead. >> Um just to kind of clarify between booster club fundraising. Um, so those booster clubs work with that club on their wants or needs when they fund raise. But those clubs that don't have a booster club that are also fundraising, how does that how do those monies get tracked and does it roll over to the next year if it's not all spent or how does that work? >> That is a great question. I apologize that I didn't share that with you and for for education purposes here. We have also

046we have budget accounts that we operate under and we also have what we call our revolving or fundraising accounts as well. So, as an example, if if I'm a a basketball coach, I've got our our budget, but if I do any fundraising as a team, we also have our revolving account or our fundraising account that we can put those dollars into. And that account then stays with that program. So, a program that doesn't necessarily have boosters still has the opportunity to fund raise and to house their their money within the school district. And then we we do keep balances on that and they can have expenditures through there um or add to that more deposits. >> And just for board awareness, those you know revolving accounts are district funds that are audited also. Yeah. >>

047Yeah. >> Y Owen, >> uh I had a question. You mentioned with transportation that uh in kind of comparing to other school districts our size that we have a higher transportation cost issue. Um is has there been looks into what transportation logistic savings would be if we move to the east? >> Do you want that now? I I just in in joking, yes, we've we've done that through the years. I mean, we we do have that and that is something that um that we know that that would provide us opportunity to cut some of those expenses. Um but that's not necessarily our choice or our decision. That's actually something towards the end of my presentation here today that I was going to share with you as well is that uh there there are some things

048that have are changing within the complexion of the state and as an example uh girls hockey now is a has gone to two divisions or excuse me two two regions. uh with the addition of two more schools, uh high school activities association now has decided that because they they have over 12 teams and enough teams that they are able to break those east and west um that they have now assigned schools to those regions and Jamestown will currently starting next year being an east region school in girls hockey. So because of that and some other things that are happening, I do think the timing may be advantageous for us to maybe take a look at that again and and pursue that maybe uh once again to to remove back to the east. We've had some

049very basic discussions with with some people within um we do need to visit a little bit more with our coaching staffs on that to to share with them and and get a little bit more feedback. But um yeah, there's there's some thought to that and there's actually um some rough drafts ready to go. One comment I was going to make with transportation, uh we we contract for service uh for busing service. So there's a premium that we pay. Uh and uh we have had internal discussions and looking at some financial modeling around uh if we had a couple activities buses, what would be the short-term and long-term payback uh on us running activities for some of these especially for the longer ones. So that's another cost savings that could come just by owning buses, just

050an upfront cost. and and the the fact too that the last few years we've been able to operate with a couple 14 passenger buses. Those two those two buses have saved us >> incredible amount of time but also have been uh very fortunate for us to be able and appropriate for us to send certain size teams or activities or groups um you know around the state to to help cut down on those costs. It's also helped us within the district too during the >> the normal school day too to transport students within uh the community. >> I'm just going to add on and just one second. I'm just going to add on the transportation. Aaron from the finance committee has asked for like a breakdown of of how it's savings and also >> if it's

051our bus it's we it's available to us right for the for the time being. So, I think those are some things that we're going to have to continue to to look at and budget for and plan for for and saving us over year after year after year. So, um Jason, go ahead. >> Back to cooperatives, are those agreements, are those available for non-athletic activities also? >> Um, it's a good question. Um the cooperative agreements basically stem then that is that is through North Dakota High School Activities Association. So we have co-ops in place through them because we have to in order for those to compete. There are other things that we do that we could have a co-op or decide that we want to share resources and do without having to maybe even go through

052a formal co-op as you do with high school activities. But I think it would be prudent to do something similar or have a memo of understanding of some kind in order to say that yes, we we're going to share the costs of of this, whatever that might be. Yeah, I I think an example would be like dance, >> robotics. Yep. >> So, >> any other questions at this time? Aaron, go ahead. >> Yeah, since uh it was brought up uh the east west thing. Um I think that should be a broader topic that I think we as a district need to address. Um and just to, you know, review it. Are we in the right spot? and uh or should we try to push for a change? Um because it's not just the cost, the

053transportation cost and other cost to to do it. It's the opportunity for the parents to to go see their kids play and and then also um the academic side, you know, having these kids go on a what could be a one-day trip turns into a multi-day event because it's half it's across the state, >> right? Um, and it and it, you know, having a kid come home at 3:00 in the morning and then say you have to go to school at 8:00 and you have to be prepared and awake and all that. That's just it doesn't it's not a good academic fit. >> And so that's why I think it we need to just challenge the status quo and see if you know is there a better opportunity for us to be in the the

054east district. >> Dr. L. I was going to add this has been a topic of conversation really in the 13 years that I've been here. Um, and something we've continued to look at procedurally. I think what Mr. Rolson has has uh outlined uh is maybe the first step is making sure that we're engaging with our coaches in terms of what the impact would be to programs. Uh, and then there is a request that would have to go. We don't just get to say we would like to move from the west to the east. We have to be approved. uh by activities association and their board of directors to be in whatever division they place us in. We can make a formal request uh to be moved but it's up to their board of directors to

055determine and what Mr. Rolson is the timeline for that for a future year. what what I would envision if if that's something that we would like to do um as an example, I've if we're going to make this move, I've kind of in my own mind targeted the 2728 school year as an option. We would need to get that ball rolling here probably by this fall. >> And I would um say in the third, you know, I said in 13 years this has been a point of of conversation. There's probably never been a year in which our point is stronger or our leverage is stronger than now to start engaging in that conversation. When you look at uh the development of schools across the state, um there are opportunities that make sense uh to consider

056a move to the east that didn't exist five six years ago. you know, when schools like May not North or Mackenzie County um start, you know, moving up uh or either opening or or moving up levels where I think now it makes much more sense uh for that to be considered than it would have been seven, eight years ago. I think now is the time to start having that um making that request. >> Yeah. And I guess my point was I do recognize that it is isn't within our control. It's not in our decision. uh but we can influence and and um you know provide some uh some inputs to it that I think have a little bit more teeth because if it comes down to a point of viability you know is it if

057a sport isn't viable because we we can't afford something the whole portfolio and we got to start making I would not I'd refer rather have a discussion on east versus west than do or not do. >> I agree 100%. >> Absolutely. >> Well, thank you. >> Any other questions, Jacob? >> Regardless of east or west, wherever we end up, um how are schedules determined? Um you know, at currently in the west, um occasionally we're going to have to go to Willist. Um is there a way that we can work with the state with the activities um to make sure that we're not going to Willist on a Tuesday? you know, can we say any, you know, have a state policy >> um that says any travel over a certain distance has to happen on a

058weekend as opposed to >> there is no such thing right now in the state and the high school activities does not mandate schedules. >> Um at this point in time they do ma mandate that you compete in a region for postseason. Um but you have your your divisions themselves. And for an example, um the larger schools choose the EDC or the WDA. That's our our divisions. The WDA, we control our own schedules and we typically we do try to do that. So you'll you'll take a look at our schedules and most of the time you're going to see if we're playing Watford City or Willist, we're trying to do that on a Friday or a Saturday. And if at all possible, we try to piggyback games too, so that we are knocking out two trips

059on a Friday, Saturday, and and returning home. That's not always possible, especially when you get to the point where you're dealing with 14 different schools and different schedules that everybody else has, too. Um, but for the most part, we try to do that. The downside of the WDA is you're going to have to travel, period. I mean, you take a look at Dickinson, you're going to Dickinson, you're going to Minot twice, you're going to Watford City, you're going to Williston. Um, so that's that's the unfortunate side. We actually have uh tried to put um when we've had to a May not um sometimes on a Tuesday uh if we have to do it during the week and one of the reasons why we've done that is because on Wednesdays at at the high school we

060have a late start. So that does build for those student athletes that hopefully it builds in at least one hour for them um versus what it would be on a on a Thursday night. But we we know it's not ideal, but we try to work as best we can and work with the other schools um and and trying to keep those long distance ones uh to Friday and Saturday, but it's inevitable sometimes. I we will not go to Wilson on Monday or Tuesday unless we absolutely have to. if it's a makeup or something like that where we have to get it in for conference standings. So, >> it never fails. We always have a blizzard or a reschedule, too, and then then at basket upset for the whole schedule. I've >> It's almost like spring

061sports, you typically have two sets of schedules. It just it's inevitable. >> Um, >> any other questions? I'm going to any other before we move on here because this is an important slide. I I will say of any questions I get from parents or patrons, it's information from this slide. So it this is really good education for all for all of us and the and the public. So thank you. Any other questions at this time from the board? Okay, go ahead and move on. There we go. Okay. Um, one of the questions was brought up too was just administrative supervision. You know, how much time do the administrators um spend supervising events after schools and and different activities? Um, you know, just very quickly, and I apologize too, I I had a link to to

062our our home events I didn't didn't share with Mr. Lex. So, I I apologize for that. But um just to give you an idea, this past winter, the winter season, December to the end of February, there were 131 um total hours for activity supervision. Now, that does not that's just 131 hours from, you know, we have a basketball game. So, okay, we're going to start at 4:00 and we're going to end at 8:30 or 9:30. There's four and a half hours. That's that's one. Um, and then we'd do that for I did that for every sport or different activity that we had. Um, one thing I didn't do and just and then I broke it down into days too. So, six Tuesday nights, uh, there were eight Friday nights and 10 uh, Saturday night or

063days that we had activities on that that we were working uh, during those times. Now, with that, there's also multiple administrators at different events. So this 131 is a little skewed here too. As an example, on a boys and girls basketball night, we need three administrators. We have to have one over at track where we play some subvarsity games at. Um, and that typically will start at 4 and then the last game starts at 7:30. So there's probably about, you know, five hours worth of of supervision there. And then we typically for boys and girls basketball have two at the school as well at the high school um with our our sub varsity uh girls there and our our girls varsity and boys varsity. Uh hockey is another example that we typically have two administrators

064there. Most of the other activities we can we can do with one one uh administrator there and and do. those other ones, like I said, the basketball and hockey tends to be the um the ones that we have to put e extra staff on. Um I want to say this right now too as far as the supervision and and reason for being there and and managing it and overseeing our kids from JPS are awesome. very very little do we ever have to deal with our students and their behavior or uh or things that we need to correct there. And if there is something we need to correct, they typically do it uh with without too many problems. As administrators, our biggest issue right now is adults. We really struggle with adults at games and contests.

065And we're in an unfortunate and a sad time where we have to worry about adults at at children's games. Um, as an example here, just to share with you, um, this past winter we had, um, as of the winter, um, I don't even know if we had gotten to postseason yet in the winter sports, but I think there had been like 32, um, fan ejection statewide in North Dakota at that point. This winter we had two ejections in in our winter sports. One was one of our local fans and the other one was a visiting fan. So these are some of the things that as administrators that are supervising that we're you're having to deal with. It's not just about worrying about the game management anymore. It's worrying about what's happening in in the crowd

066and and around the the facility and so on. Mr. Sorry, I was taking and is the high school activities association looking to address that in any way? >> They're trying they're trying to that's that's why they have the ejection policy. So, right now if if if an adult or anybody is ejected from a game, they are they are prohibited from attending any other game for two weeks. And it's sad to say, but um are they looking at any any adult education, any like reminders of uh I I mean just >> there there's there's some things, but that's more on our shoulders locally, unfortunately. But but there is a process also with high school activities um that we share with them who who the offenders are and so on. And if it comes down to um

067something at a a state tournament or a regional tournament where we might have somebody that that is not allowed to u to attend, we might let the tournament management know. >> Dr. Luck. >> And we have used fan education uh as a requirement as part of our if we do have an ejection to return. That is something we've used before. >> Yeah. >> Owen. >> Yeah. talking about this as a statewide issue um and the administrative supervision. Um are there other have you talked to other uh of your peers and other places to see kind of how they different models of how they um assign kind of time or supervision or is this a pretty >> Yeah, I think it's pretty standard >> um as far as who's who's doing that supervision, how they do

068it. Um, different places do it differently. Um, as an example, some districts might might be paying their administrators to do it, others don't. Um, that's something to take a look at. Maybe it's it's maybe even a I don't know if a comp time thing or not. But the other thing is employing other people to to do that as well. You know, that that's a great opportunity for us as well to have, you know, like our school resource officers present. uh periodically if if we have them available. Uh we work with our law enforcement locally and there's different times too where we just say, you know, come on in. Come on come on in. Take a walk through and get you a cup of coffee or I'll get you something at concessions, but just come come

069on in. Come on through. I've done that with tournaments, too, that we've had at the at the civic center at various times where I'll let the officers on duty know, hey, we got this going on. Come on through. We got a hospitality room. We'll even feed you. So, >> I'm glad you gave more clarification to 131 hours because when I was reviewing the information, preparing for the meeting, that stuck out at me is like that's not well, yeah, a lot. But I do know those longer like like you said even a a basketball it starts at 4:30 and it goes till 9:30 10 >> and with especially if you have four teams playing at different locations and >> and so that that kind of helps clarify that. >> I think probably the biggest drain on

070administration is you take a look at what night of the week. You know, a lot of times you might be you might be going Tuesday, Thursday that you've already had some games. Now all of a sudden we're also doing Friday night and then now you're you're also doing Saturday. If you take a look at at 10 Saturdays from from December to the end of February, there's not a lot of Saturdays that you're open. >> Yep. >> So >> other questions? Okay, move on. Okay, last slide I have for you guys is our are our coaches salaries. Um I take that back. I got two left. I apologize. Coach coaches salaries. How are they determined? I apologize that this is taking a while. Um how are they determined and how do coaches get paid? Um negotiate

071agreement. That's the first and and foremost step is is our coaches are paid by the negotiate agreement with the JA. That's the document that we operate from. Okay. Um, how do how did those all get determined? This is my 23rd year here as AD and the current uh structure that we have was developed prior to me. Okay. So, this is a structure that we've had for quite a while now. Maybe some tweaking has done to it been done to it here or there, but the groupings of of the different levels kind of have have been in place. um longer than 23 years. And a lot of that is based on uh the number of weeks that a season uh holds. Uh there's other um things that come into play as well. I believe when they

072originally put that together, uh, some of it, some other things might be the the type, you know, the involvement in in safety equipment that you have to do, the nature of the the sport or the activity, is it a specialized skill that you have a tough time finding somewhere else? Um, the liability that's there that you have to cover. I'm sorry. Yeah, >> Dr. that I'm >> just going to add with the weeks. Um can you clarify too uh in some districts um there's an additional stipend if you go into postseason our weeks if correct me if I'm wrong but our weeks assume the full length from the very first practice all the way through the state tournament. >> So there isn't an additional stipen to make to advance into a top tournament. It's assumed

073>> right >> in th in those weeks >> we we do not offer any um I don't know what you want want to call it but incentive package to make the postseason we have that expectation that our our coaches and advisers are working with our students from day one to the very end of the season because even at that even if a team does not end up in a state tournament there's still things that they need to wrap up in the end of the year. There's still inventory to be done. There's evaluations of assistant coaches to be done. Uh hopefully they are attending at those state tournaments and finding out and watching find out this is what we need to do to get better so that we're here next year. Those kind of things. >>

074And I wanted to and just to clarify too, I didn't mean it as an incentive necessarily, but more as just a recognition of the time. We assume the time from the first available practice all the way through the end of that season, which is the completion of a state tournament. uh just because you may ask, you know, because in some districts they do recognize that time if there's an additional few weeks that go into a state tournament that they're paid and you might hear that and that is one difference. We just assume that right into the initial number of weeks. >> Y so that's kind of how the groupings and and the levels have have come to come into existence. Um yeah, I guess that's kind of a nutshell. That's really how how they are.

075And then also dependent too and you know our our middle school programs are are figured into that too and and then so on. But the process for paying coaches are are end of year. >> Yeah, that that's what I was going to ask because I just if you want to walk through that. >> Yeah, I can do that. So, typically how our coaches get paid, um, our fall coaches typically will get one-third of their, uh, stipened um, at the preseason time. So, our district pays them a third of their paycheck prior to school starting because they've gone through preseason. Okay? Then what will happen at for our fall sports is at the end of their season once all the paperwork has been done by the head coach and assistant coaches inventory has been done. Uh

076I have end of year exit meeting that we have to do with with each head coach and do their evaluations and so on. Once we get all that signed and turned in um then they are to receive the other twothirds of their their stipen or their pay. Um, and of course there are too within this slide it talks a little bit about the timeliness of things. So because that we're on a ten the 10th of the month and 20th of the month payroll the fi the fifth of the month and the 15th of the month are very important dates and where they land on the calendar because if you don't get all that done by the fifth and you want to get into the 10th payroll. There's times where if you miss that date now

077you're not getting paid till the 20th. and and very similar where if you don't make that 15th deadline, you're not getting paid till the 10th of the next month. And there again too, that's provided that all the paperwork is done, you've done your inventory, we we've gone through budgets with with myself, um all of our little checklists that we have um needs needs to be done. um winter coaches very similar to the fall where they get one-third prior uh at the Christmas at Christmas they'll get a third of their pay their stipen at Christmas time and then a lump sum at the end of the season after they complete all their um things that they need to do at the end of the the winter season. Spring is different. Spring we don't have a third.

078spring is so short that we do one lump sum payment at the end. So I don't know if there's any further questions or anything more I can kind of go into detail on that for you or >> Jason go ahead >> whenever I hear something's been in place for 23 plus years of of course you know the groupings and whatnot. Is that still adequate? Is it still what other districts do? Do you feel that deserves a revisit or we're we're good there? I I think overall it's it's good where we're at, but I think having a look at it again doesn't hurt anybody. I I think it's necessary for us to continue to do that and and relook at what we're doing. I'm Yeah. Yeah. I've been in this role for 23 years, but one

079of the worst things I hate is we've always done it that way, so that's what we're going to do. No. No. >> Yep. >> Owen, >> similar question on process. Are there are there's a there's a lot of moving parts here. Um are there processes or updates to processes that you've considered uh to kind of streamline some of this stuff? >> We we have um but at the end of the day the budget tool that we use I think is a good tool. It needs to be done. Um, I think our evaluation piece that we do is is been good. Um, I think it's pretty thorough rather than just a a circle yes or circle no type of thing. We ask for reflections from our coaches to do some, you know, introspective and especially the

080head coaches. They meet with me and we we discuss that and uh go through um their goals for the upcoming year, what their goals were this past year, what they had for goals for and I think that's real important to do with the head coaches. And that's that's usually what takes up a lot of the time. And it's a matter too of the timeliness of that coach having their stuff ready to go and into me that allows me time to process what I need to do as well. But then also depending on the time of year, um, if I'm managing a state tournament, it can get tough on my availability to sit down with a coach. You know, they might be ready to go here today, but it might I might not be able to

081meet with them till next week because that's my my calendar. And I I try as much as possible to get those as done as fast as we can because I know what's we've got people relying on that on their checks, especially sometimes two assistant coaches are out there waiting on on head coaches to to complete this process. But in answer to your question, I'm sorry, are there other processes that we could use? I I think there is some potential and I would be open to it if our if our coaches uh were able to come up with something. I think that's something that our our uh coaches council could could help us with here down the road as well. Um but ultimately I think what we do have and what we try to get done

082at the end of the year is valuable and um and that yeah I think we could tweak it but I I think what we do is pretty good. >> Were you going to talk more about the coaches council or just curious how often that meets or kind of what the goals of that are? right now. I I can give you a brief synopsis of that. It's something that we've implemented actually within really within the last year again here. Um there's five coaches that are head coaches that kind of served as a as a an overall group that I'm working with to try to determine what are our needs for our coaching staffs, our head coaches, our assistant coaches, and so on. Um you know, what what do we need to do for professional development? what

083what are areas of of needs that we we have that we want to take a look at? Um, you know, as as we talked earlier about our numbers, um, enrollment numbers and participation numbers. That's something they're trying to work together on to try to figure out what do we need to do going forward to make sure that we don't end up as in, you know, we get the declining enrollment that we don't uh have a negative spike in what our participation numbers are. Anything else that you guys >> any other questions? Okay, go ahead. >> Okay, last thing I have just future fundraising was the last slide. Um, you know, is there opportunity for ai unified or activity fundraising specific efforts? I think there is. You know, for some big ticket items. We've had some

084discussions with a few people that are outside of our coaching staff and so on that um are tied into some of our booster groups. I think that would be very supportive of some things as an example. Some big ticket items that you know we've talked about motor coaches or or people movers that we might need to to go forward with or be able to utilize. I think we could get some help with that. Um it's just a matter of getting the the people together and having a common common goal. And that's again that's a prime example of our coaches council where they could play a valuable role in that into what they feel our actual needs are from their perspective as as coaches. I have an idea of what I would want for as an

085AD but what they want to travel versus what I think is what we need to travel sometimes is a little bit different. Okay. Um, the other thing, you know, facility improvements. Again, that's always the battle. You know, from from day one when we built that school, it's an awesome facility and we've had some some pretty special things there, but it's over 20 years old and some of that is starting to show its age. Our pool is, you know, ma maintenance nightmare sometimes. Um, but there's also things that that uh we we need to kind of take to that next level. We got Earthstead Field out there, which is a great facility that's helped us with with practice space and and done some great things, but we need to take that next step. Um, you know,

086we're lacking locker rooms, um, availability, bathrooms, concessions for our soccer field out there. If we're going to be looking at utilizing Earthstead Field as more of our junior varsity and subarsity football um field, we're going to need to have facilities there that allow us to do that in the form of again locker rooms and and and bathrooms and and concessions and storage and and those kind of things. uh Jerry Meer Arena that floor needs needs an overhaul and that's the last quote I got be and we haven't been able to do it but that last coat I got was about 85 grand to strip it down all the way repaint it and redo it all so it's not not some cheap u things to do but timing system in the pool area doesn't do aquatics

087anymore and that's the timing equipment that we're using so we've we've got something we're working towards here right now to try to try to make that next step into purchasing a a different timing system. And I think we can get the help with with hopefully some of our our our booster and our parents, but also the University of Jamestown that's utilizing that facility. >> So anyway, I I apologize. I I took a lot of time here for you, but >> No, this is good, Jim. Thank you. I think that we get, you know, we get a lot of questions. Go ahead, Dan. Go. >> Okay. I do I do have a kind of an overarching question. And I think I thank you for acknowledging at the beginning that this was very athletics oriented >> and

088I think and you hit the nail on the head. It's there's kind of a jump ball between okay how where does where does the the non-athletics activities come in here? Who kind of has jurisdiction for that leadership over that? And I think that's a great opportunity for us as a district to kind of help maybe realign those and kind of uh treat them as know how do we kind of give it the same importance as the athletics and kind of balances an entire picture. Yeah. >> under activities versus uh that's why I do thank you for kind of doing that. And Dr. Le, I think it's a good opportunity for a larger discussion. >> Yeah, they're they're important. I you know, the fine fine arts that we have, our music department is awesome. The kids

089that are involved in that do a great job and and there it's fun to see them grow and so on. you know, our drama numbers are are are good and and that's one of the things I've encouraged a lot of our kids to do in the preseason meetings that we have with the students prior to the school year starting is that get involved. Find something, you know, you're young once, take some risk, do some uh try to do something that's out of your uh out of your realm. I I did that as a senior in high school. actually took part in a play and that was the last thing I was probably uh adept at doing, but I I took that chance and what a great experience it was and uh want to see our

090our our kids do that kind of thing too. film. But >> and Jim, you did mention um with, you know, obviously I I think everyone recognizes um facilities across our district are are things that we have a capital projects plan >> and you know, with goals um with with some of these very specific athletic things, are you are you having conversations with booster groups? are you have because it's I'm just kind of curious where you know some some of these things probably have has to happen sooner than later and some we could plan for down the road but I just was kind of curious as to >> how how >> honestly we need help. We need help. We're very we're at very infancy on some of this because we've got we've got so much going

091on and and everything else where you know in order for us to accomplish some of this it can't be just one person. And it can't be a small group of people. We need we need a variety of people that are willing to step up and say, "Hey, I want to help with this." >> Thank you. Any other questions, comments? Aaron, go ahead. >> Yeah, I just say this is very informative and and thank you for this and then uh I I appreciate all of your efforts. Okay. >> Thank you. Thank you guys. >> Thank you. Okay, moving on our agenda. We have strategic Oh, Dan, go ahead. Sorry. Yeah. Yep. >> Yep. You go. Yep. Thank you. Thank you, Dan. Um, strategic plan progress monitoring. We have the dashboard. Adam, and then next, superintendence report.

092Dr. Luck. >> Thank you. You have my written report. Um the first item I'll talk about is a schoolboard self- assessment. As you're all aware, policy BEC has a self assessment. Uh we have uh digitized that and I have opened that uh board self assessment through May 13th. So um if you want to please uh take advantage uh of that uh and complete that before May 13th then like I have done in the past we'll uh synthesize results and share those with you uh as well. Uh but again May 13th is a deadline for that and we'll share that with you in June. Um there's a couple different trainings or or workshops that I'm going to reference in this uh in my report. The first is uh some furpa training that we're conducting with uh

093Jamestown Police Department and JPS administration. Uh and I'm sure the board realizes and I just want to reaffirm uh what a great partnership we have with Jamestown Police Department. They are wonderful to work with. Uh very uh they are wonderful partners for the district. uh they continue to keep our kids safe and our students and our our staff and our students safe and they're just wonderful partners. Uh one area in which we want to get some additional uh training uh is as it relates to the implementation of furpa. Uh we're I know you're very familiar with furpa and student confidentiality. Uh and so we want to this training is going what it's going to do not that there's concerns that we're trying to address but it's more um just to ensure that we have compliance

094with FURPA uh while we also maintain appropriate access to student information so law enforcement is able to do their work to keep us safe and and to keep our students safe. Uh and so we're bringing in Meredith Buc. You know Meredith, you've heard her speak to this board before. uh from Pierce Durk, at least now uh for the for now uh with Pierce Durk uh to talk about student confidentiality for specifically for school resource officers uh and for law enforcement. We have an MOU that governs that work and that partnership between the law Jamestown Police Department and the school district. If there are any changes that come through, uh, that training, uh, you Meredith would be a part of that as legal counsel to review. Uh, and, uh, that would come before the board if

095there were any changes, uh, I don't anticipate there would be, but, if there are any changes, uh, that would come through this board. There's a question. Oh, okay. Um, I wanted to skip to one other, uh, training just a little bit further down in my report. Uh I was able last week to attend the AASA state leadership conference in Atlanta. Uh as always I appreciate the opportunity to go to these things. I they're so valuable to learn about what's happening across the country, what's happening in other states. Uh and just to reaffirm uh the costs were covered by the American Association for School Administrators and North Dakota Association for School Administrators. It did there was no cost to the district to attend. So I'm fortunate there. But I do appreciate the opportunity to attend through

096professional leave uh to take advantage of opportunities like this. Um, I've listed the different topics that were there and I will tell you it was a fantastic uh couple of days. Uh, and probably my biggest takeaway related to uh the new K12 federal tax credit program was able to hear from if not the uh most in touch or um the individual with the most applicable knowledge to what the the tax credit through the big beautiful bill will mean for public education. Uh, and that in itself could be a board education uh, probably even longer than Mr. Rolson's uh, board education that we just had. Uh, and but but I look forward to sharing a little bit uh, of that information with you uh, specifically to that tax credit. Uh, but again, appreciation for the ability

097to attend those types of things. Um, moving back up, uh, in my, uh, written report, awards presentation, um, on May 6th, so Wednesday at 2:00 in the James School, Jamestown High School auditorium. If you have never been to the awards ceremony and you have an opportunity at 2:00, please stop in. Uh it's I I always love to be a to uh see our students get these awards, but also our community coming together uh in this forum to give these awards uh to kids. Um so a total of 65 scholarships given this year and that's $67,500 of scholarships that are given just this year. That's pretty close to the average u in terms of the total value. Uh it's increased uh every year. Uh just to give you a sense, uh when I first came to

098Jamestown, there was about around 40 to 50 average scholarships given. And when I first came, those scholarships were $500. Now, we've added another 20 or so scholarships, and now they're all at $1,000, and some are more. Uh that's where you get to the 6750. Um the only way that happens is with uh a great group of dollars for scholars um a very very dedicated board of volunteers u and they're amazing to work with and I want to give them a lot of u of uh you know attention to the work that they do and I'd like to bring them uh in in for some recognition sometime in the next couple of months. Uh but they do a great job in building those funds that were available to give to kids. Uh those those dollars don't

099just come from investment income. Uh and they do a great job of managing that, but it's securing new commitments going out and being being active in recruiting additional endowments. As an example, we had uh a strategic plan just like the board has a strategic plan or the district has a strategic plan, Dallas for Scholars has a strategic plan already met their goal. uh you know they had a 2030 goal for endowments. They've already reached that in one year. Uh they're just really hitting the pavement uh and making sure and going out and getting those endowments. An endowed scholarship to give $1,000 in perpetuity is $20,000. So just to add five in a year, uh that's a that's a huge commitment and and these individuals are working uh really hard. Uh I'm the chair of the

100scholarship committee and I I do think it's valuable to bring the board and and the greater community uh some understanding around how that process works. So we get there's a lot of different criteria that go in it is very scholarship dependent. Some scholarships say it they must be going into a CTE field. Some say GPA is the biggest indicator. Some say community service. They're all over the board. kids go to a portal uh and they complete these uh this application and then they're matched with scholarships. Okay. So, we might have a scholarship uh that's matched for 20 kids. And so, as a scholarship committee, we need to determine who receive who then receives that scholarship. Uh they are all done based on the criteria. Um they get points associated with each of the criteria and

101it's all done on a student ID number. We don't know that who receives scholarships until they're awarded. I mean before they're awarded at the banquet, but until the completion of awarding those individual ceremonies. So, it's all done based on the merit of the application. Uh but I will say one of the things that we've talked about uh in the last few years is getting to a point because we knew the trajectory of dollars for scholarships with getting to a point where we could award or award a scholarship to every submitted application. This is the first year that we've been able to do that. So we had 65 submitted applications and we've been able to give 65 scholarships. Hopefully I'm not, you know, stealing any dollars for Scholar Thunder there two days before their award ceremony.

102But that's a big deal. Uh and um we would hope that we can continue that kind of trajectory to make sure that every student that applies and submits uh is able to uh get a scholarship. And like I said, I I want to be able to bring um this board in and get recognized because they have done fantastic work uh just in the decade or so that I've been here. It's it's grown exponentially. So, really exciting things. >> I also just want to add at the award ceremony, it it's it's all all scholarships also. There's other community ones and as well. I just want to say that on top of the the dollars for scholars. So, it's a it's a pretty neat event for seniors. >> It would be well worth your hour uh to

103see students come and and get their $1,000 or $1,500 or $2,000 scholarships. Um later on in the agenda, you'll have a resignation from Sydney Larson. Uh you may remember there was anou associated with Sydney's uh Miss Larson's employment as a resident teacher. And I just wanted to point out that there is a prrated payback like we have on all of ourus, but that will be deducted from the James River payment or the annual amount we pay to James River. Uh it'll be deducted from that amount just in the event that you're wondering. Uh, and then the last item that I had it, you have three different spotlights, all in food service. Um, Cindy Wall, uh, was named as the North Dakota State and Mountain Plains, sorry for the misspelling there, Mountain Plains region food service

104director of the year. She's also president-elect uh, for that organization, and she's going to bring 200 food service staff here for uh, in 2027 for their state conference. Uh, also Liz Zinc at who works at Louis Lamore has been named the school nutrition association's employee of the year and Jennifer Ericen who works at the high school has been named as the state manager of the year and I want to recognize them for their great work. So with that I'd stand for questions >> and if you're if you are on or follow social media they're they're worth a follow the the food service. Any questions from the board on the superintendent report? Any questions? Okay. If not, um, moving on our agenda, we have nothing under old business. Under new business, we have nothing under activities,

105buildings, grounds, curriculum, assessment, instruction, finance, operations, or p. And then we get to personnel number six, a approval to hire for the 2026 to 2027 school year upon successful background check and appropriate lensure, Jenna Barson. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Aaron. Is there a second? >> Second by Jacob. We have a motion and a second for approval to hire uh for the 2026 2027 school year upon successful background check and appropriate lensure. Jennifer Barson. Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. >> I oppose same sign. Motion carried and welcome to our district. B. Approval resignation at the conclusion of the 2025 to 2026 school year. Number one, Kimberly Cart Carpenter. Number two, Elizabeth Wilkin. Number three, Sydney Larson. Is there a motion? >> Motion

106by Owen. Is there a second? >> Second by Jason. We have a motion, a second for approval of the resignation at the conclusion of the 2025 to 2026 school year. Kimberly Carpenter, Elizabeth Wilkkey, and Sydney Larson. Any discussion? Any discussion? Yes. >> Um I think one of these gave us some valuable input. Um, a lot of times with these resignations, we just we don't get a lot of feedback from the teachers and why they're leaving. So, I think it's important that we take a little bit deeper dive into that. Yep. And then also, well, we'll move on. Any other discussion? I want to Kimberly Carpenter who has taught in our district for a lot of years. So, appreciate her her many years of service as well as service of the other two teachers. So, And

107we do have our exit survey uh and exit interview process too. That gives us valuable insight. >> Taught math for a few years. So any other discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. >> I oppose. Same sign. >> Motion approved. Under nothing under policy and procedures, tuition or other items for future agenda. We have teacher negotiation meeting on Tuesday, May 12th, 2025 at 4:30 p.m. in the Thompson Community Room. In the middle school health insurance committee is on Monday, May 11th at 3:45 p.m. in the district office conference room. The transition program graduation on Thursday, May 14th, 2026 at 11 a.m. in the Thompson Community Room. Schoolboard meeting is on Monday, May 18th, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. in the Thompson Community Room. JPS High School graduation on Sunday, May

10824th, 2026, 2:30 p.m. in the Civic Center. And we have the senior awards management at 2 p.m. Wednesday, May 6th. The next item is possible executive session to discuss negotiation strategies. Uh yes, I believe that the discussion with our negotiations uh and developing a strategy relative to the school board's petition in this matter in open session would have an adverse fiscal effect on negotiations position of the board. Therefore, I move that the board enter into executive session at the following members and negotiators be identified as being present. Jamie Bear, Heidi Larson, Owen McKenna, Jason Roar, uh, and Superintendent Rob, and Adam Gayler, business manager Christy Grounds. and that the date and time are Monday, May 4th at 7:03 p.m. Um, and that the only that only the following topic will be considered in executive session,

109negotiation strategies, and that the legal authority for the executive session is section 44-04-9.1 of the North Dakota Sentry Code. And the executive session will be recorded. >> Is there a second? >> Second by Jason. Yep. >> Aaron. >> Procedural question. >> Yes. >> Um since you don't have a quorum to vote on this, can you vote? >> I I believe we can um because there >> there's only four voting members available. >> Um Yep. But we started the meeting with five >> and you have a cor and then you have a quorum based on the number of people here. So I believe that is correct. >> Even though some are not able to vote, you still have a quorum. >> Okay. >> I think we've run into this one other time. Similar situation, but good

110good point to question. If someone thinks that's not correct, please let me know. But that's what I remember from previous times. So and so Jason has a second. Any discussion? Any discussion? Assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carried. Please note that we following the executive session, we will return to um finish out the meeting and adjourn the meeting and the only topics to be discussed were the ones um mentioned in the motion. Thank you. Hey, hey, hey.