001All right. [Music] Good evening. I'd like to call this regular meeting of the Jamestown Public School Board to order. It is Monday, September 15th, 5:30 p.m. in the Thompson Community Room. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> We'd like to recognize all those in the audience and thank you for joining us today. Moving on to our schoolboard norms. Jason, would you read the schoolboard norms? >> The board developed norms are to share and respect opinions and speak with a unified voice once a decision has been reached. Execute all duties of the school board in compliance with North Dakota Sentry Code. Properly prepare for
002meetings. Commit to assessing board effectiveness and ensure high quality governance for all stakeholders. >> Thank you, Jason. We have no public communication. Does anyone wish to declare a conflict of interest? Conflicts of interest? Any conflicts of interest? If not, moving on to our consent agenda. Would the board like anything removed from the consent agenda for better clarification or questions? Dan, >> I do have a question on uh H1 home education report. >> Okay. >> Would you like it removed or is it just a clarification? >> Uh just a clarification just how how that how those numbers are those are self-reported numbers from the families or >> No, those are those they have to fill statements of intent to home educate forms and that's just a representation of that. Okay. >> Thank you. Are you >>
003whether they are full-time home educated or home educate a course? >> Oh, that's a good that's a good clarification. >> Meaning, correct? >> Yep. Anything else, Dan? You would like it removed or is it okay to stay within the consent agenda with that clarification? Okay. Anything else with the consent agenda? If not, is there a motion? >> Move to approve the consent agenda. >> Motion by Jason. >> Second by Dan. We have a motion. A second to approve 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. Now, moving into our regular agenda, would the board be okay if we move um considering the timing and our budget hearing that is scheduled for 6 PM? Is
004the board okay with switching um D and E around? Is that okay? Okay. So, we will just do those and those reports. Um >> and you want the superintendent report before that too, right? >> If if we So, depending on our timing at six o'clock, we'll have to start our budget hearing no matter where we're at. I was hoping um to complete the strategic plan process monitoring to have that done and possibly the student superintendent report depending on timing. Is the board comfortable with that? That way um our board education can maybe be also included in that six o'clock time period and may also help answer any questions um that anyone may come with. Okay. All right. Okay. Moving into our regular agenda then. Um under recognition, we have a thank you for the remembrance
005from the um Graves family in need of Fry under correspondence and reports. We have a student council report. Could you please come forward, state your name? Thank you for coming tonight. >> Hi, I'm McKenna Pettis. I'm a senior at Jamestown High School. Our president couldn't be here, so I'm the executive vice president. Um, at our meetings, we've just been talking about homecoming, planning for our pep rally for the parade. We, as student council, we decided we're not doing a float because a lot of kids are already busy, but other than that, we're just planning homecoming. Any questions? >> Does the board have any questions? >> All right. Thank you. >> Sounds good. Thank you so much for coming. We appreciate it. Then we're going to move into as we move the agenda around E. Strategic
006plan progress monitoring dashboard and focus goal 2.1 guaranteed and viable curriculum. Mr. Gayler. >> As Mr. Gayler gets set up, I'll just draw your attention to the dashboard. Uh Mr. Gayler's going to as he gets set up, he'll have a little bit of information on uh on a presentation. I'd also draw your attention to the two highlighted goals uh ensure a guarantee and viable curriculum which you'll hear a progress monitoring report on and then maintain rate of chronic absenteeism uh as well. So if you look under that dashboard and then the corresponding tabs you'll see additional information that Mr. Gayler will talk about uh in um with some charts uh under 2.1 and then a little bit of information if we have time that I'll touch on just kind of uh early indicators for us
007in chronic absenteeism. We're not going to report on that till later, but I did add the the early indicators for us too. So, if we have time, I'll touch on that. But if Mr. Gayler is ready, you can go ahead. >> Thank you, Dr. L. Uh and I'll be reporting on guaranteed and viable curriculum. So, our metrics within this um rely on self-reported data from our teams that are really invested in this work across the district. So, over the last couple of weeks, they've been uh for each course and grade level subject. They've been filling out um some surveys as a discussion within their team uh collaboration just to get a sense of where we're at. And then um it'll be nice to have the same metric to be able to measure against in future
008years. So uh the first level that we'll look at is elementary with priority standards complete. And you can see that we're at 82.8% of our elementary courses or subjects have priority standards complete. Um the ones that make up some that are only 50% complete would be things like science and social studies which they're still really in process with. And those that are not started include interventions as well as uh things like cyber security which does have uh state standards but that's something that goes across the um K continuum. When it comes to those that have proficiency scales for those, you can see that we're still working through that process in our PLC's. Um, some of those courses and subjects, again, I'd point to science, social studies, math, and ELA are fairly um 100% in place,
009although they did have some adjustments from last year that they made. When it comes to reporting proficiency on priority standards, you can see that the vast majority are able to do that uh with pretty strong confidence. Those that aren't started yet reporting would be special ed courses in which they get pretty robust uh report from their progress monitoring that they do as part of the IEP process. And so we haven't asked those teachers to duplicate any of those. Um and then some of our intervention courses as well as cyber security um would be on that list. Middle school um has priority standards complete 100% uh across the 30 responses that we received on that. Um proficiency scales quite uh strong performance at the middle school there as well. uh 75 or sorry 60% are 100%
010complete with all their proficiency scales. A lot of elective courses and again intervention courses that don't have those specifically completed for um those quite yet. When it comes to reporting on proficiency, um core subjects are able to to u report on proficiency, but um not the full year is developed on that yet. So that's why we see some of those responses that uh we see there. But again, the vast majority fairly uh high completion of the middle school and um elementary, high school, not as far in the process yet, but still pretty strong u background in standardsbased learning and 63% are 100% complete with their priority standards. Uh when it comes to scales, that's something that gets uh complex as you heard in the board education last time. it gets complex and then some courses
011and subjects and teachers teaching multiple courses and subjects. So you see a little uh lower completion but they're also farther out on the the time horizon with that. And then as far as reporting proficiency um some of our courses are able to pull uh produce reports proficiency by student by standard and uh some are still you know labeling that as not started yet. It's not an expectation but they have the ability to do that is kind of how we asked that. Uh that's all uh for the metrics that we have that were the primary metrics. There's a secondary metric as you saw within um this goal as well that has to do with schedule configuration and that's just so that uh we can u maintain the opportunities that we have within our guaranteed and viable
012curriculum and that's something that will be ongoing throughout this year as well. So, I don't have any specifics to report on that, but I'd stand for any questions. >> Do you want to just briefly talk about Peg Portchellar and what we're doing with analyzing that schedule and and, uh, building some capacity and understanding around that potential that could help with that secondary metric. So, um, we have a a outside consultant that's coming in to be able to do an environmental scan to help us understand a little bit better what are the opportunities that we have in place, what's working for our kids, what's working for our staff, what's not working. Looking really holistically at things that have been discussed at the board level. Everything from our working and learning environment to the opportunities that we
013have. Um and you know talking to kids, talking to department chairs, talking to to uh staff, doing classroom observations, uh talking to central office staff um in this environmental scan in uh the end of September and early October. Then moving on to what are the professional learning and conver and process conversations that need to happen to make a good recommendation uh to be able to support um improving working and learning learning environment guaranteed and viable curriculum um and uh as well as maintaining opportunities that we have and looking at you know long range enrollments and um changes that might need to be recommended for the schedule. So it'll be a helpful process and we appreciate uh Peg's guidance and expertise in that. Um pretty renowned across the nation in fact has done this process with
014multiple school districts and had good outcomes. So >> any questions from the board? >> I'm just going to if I may I just may add briefly if you look into the um in the dashboard under goal 3.3 uh just wanted to touch on chronic absenteeism. I'm just adding this in. It originally was scheduled for progress monitoring here. Uh we don't get that data unfortunately where we haven't gotten that data from the state. We pulled that data from Edgic Climber uh which is a a portal that we use internally. It's not a exact uh it's not exactly similar to what you'll see reported by the state. Uh their metrics are or their their calculation for chronic absenteeism is a little bit different. But what I included in there is is just kind of a a look
015ahead and what I anticipate seeing based on what Edgeclimber is telling us. Uh so I would see very similar results to what we saw last year when we do progress monitor on this and that was our our goal is 12%. That chronic absenteeism is 15%. So while that's you know 5% below this the state's average that's not going to meet I'm I'm not anticipating that we're going to meet our own target as a district. Uh we are anticipating a an increase at the high school level, a de decrease at the middle school, a decrease at Louis Lammore, a decrease at Roosevelt, an increase at Lincoln, and a decrease at Gustner. Uh but that, you know, as a whole district, you can expect about the same results. At least that's what our early indicators uh lead
016us to believe. So I just wanted to share that because we had originally scheduled uh chronic absenteeism at this time, too. But questions on either of those goals? >> Any Aaron? Go ahead. >> So, as you're we're working through this progress, do you see anything uh any roadblocks or any uh challenges, risks in in achieving the goals from from what you see today? I guess the only the big challenge will be the timeline um and working through from where the high school is at now to where um that timeline is set a couple years out. Um I think that um definitely up to the task. What's unique about the elementary um in that structure that we set up there, those those um SPL leads or those lead teachers then they have a platform to go
017back and work with their full team. So really we've got you know seven minds working on the on um each grade level and supporting that and PE has multiple people working on that. The middle school has common planning time embedded where uh currently they can um meet with their grade like so seventh grade ELA for example can get together a couple times a week in addition to PLC and that structure doesn't exist as much at the high school and then you have a divergence of um you know multiple preps that increases at that level too. So, I think that that that would be one of the big challenges is where we're at now, where do we want to get and um having sufficient time or just rethinking time um to be able to meet that
018goal. Um but I'm I'm really encouraged by all the progress. I mean, there are there are very few levels um that don't have some legitimate reason that they haven't started on that. Uh everybody's clearly working as hard as they can at at this time. Owen, >> the a data collection question for the the stuff you just showed us. Um those responses is that the groups you're talking about are the group leads. Is that the points of contact or was this >> So at elementary the group leads filled that out. At the middle school level, we use the team lead structure. And so there's they're they vary in content, but they were to ensure that everybody in their grade level and subject areas uh responded. And then at the high school, the department chairs distributed that
019amongst their departments. Um cool. >> So we'll be able to go back through um we updated those again this morning, but um because they're linked to that data set. So the charts you're seeing are up to date as of this morning. Any other questions from the board? >> Okay. >> The only other comment I would make is just on your dashboard, you'll notice that the high or the bolded area, this still shows a goal in progress. Our time horizon is in a future school year. So, we're not assessing our uh where we're at other than or if we completed the goal or not. It's still in progress because of the time horizon, but just pointing that out. All right. Thank you, Mr. Giller. We appreciate it. >> Now, as we moved our agenda, switch our
020agenda items around, we're going to move into superintendent report here. You have 10 minutes and then we can start on the budget hearing. At that time, >> we have my written report here. I was asked to include a little bit of additional information in as far as enrollment reports. We do a third or fourth Friday report. Uh we've done it uh in the past a fourth Friday enrollment report, but you can see where we're at. Um still showing that decline and you can see and if you have questions about those any of those specific numbers we gave our elementary last year or last month or last meeting uh and this includes the middle school and high school as well. Um next item in the communications committee updates. Uh we've uh there's a couple of areas
021that we um deferred from negotiations into the communications committee. So, we set up a structure for how that communication is going to work. Um, we have a workflow plan uh throughout the course of this year and and I've outlined that running agenda and the notes from the communications committee so you can see that process. I think it's this encouraging start uh and we'll just keep working uh through that process right now. Happy to answer questions if there are any. Uh you have a schoolboard retreat poll. Just a reminder, if you haven't had a chance to respond to that poll, please do so so we can uh bring a a recommendation for a schoolboard retreat date. Um the booster groups uh community partners notifications uh and a virtual bulletin board. Uh in the past uh we
022have been used very often for notifi notifications from community groups. Uh we ran into some challenges with policy issues of solicitation. We our response to that was completely draw back and focus only on school uh notifications uh for the solicitation reason. But also what we were seeing in our own data is that families were opting out of the notification systems because they were getting too many uh and that hurts our ability to communicate emergency situations and and necessary school things. Uh so we pulled back on that uh in the last year. However, we've seen there's still a need for community groups to leverage uh whether they are the PTO groups or community groups uh to leverage the fact that we have a lot of uh school age students obviously uh at JPS. Uh and so
023there's still a need to leverage. So we uh we shifted and pivoted just a little bit. Uh so we changed our practice from absolutely none to some getting one per year of a notification if they are a PTO group uh or a booster group uh parent organization uh that uh they may have an opportunity to send out one through a notification system uh and then we have a virtual bulletin board. Now uh we can't I can't take any credit for that. Stacy Jamgard uh came up with that idea and set up the criteria. So now what used to go through the notifications now goes to a virtual bulletin board and as long as they meet our criteria for notification that's where we place them. So we would still not have any solicitations for example uh
024those would still be inappropriate because it's it's you know we have policy related to that but other groups or other things that used to go through and stuffing backpacks or sending out through the virtual notification system now those would go to the virtual bulletin board and you can check uh that's just a Google drive you can see the types of things that are in there now I think that's a great um that's a great middle ground and I think that we're seeing the results results that we need to see. Uh but our community groups are able to leverage uh our capacity to communicate with families too. Uh and you can look at the steps there. So if anybody does want to um can be considered for the virtual bulletin board uh or if you are
025one of those groups that's eligible to send one notification per year, uh give give Stacy Jamgart a call at 2521950 and she can talk you through steps one through four that are listed there. Um, moving on in dual credit and advanced placement, uh, I took the opportunity to share in 20 in the 2425 school year, uh, the number of students that were in AP classes and dual credit classes. So, um, you know, that is approximately, um, you know, 244 I think it's 244 students that either took an AP uh and or a dual credit class last year. That's a high percentage of our high school uh student body uh taking advantage of AP and dual credit classes. So a wise investment uh from the district in those courses. Uh and I also included the pass
026rates. Uh if we're AP classes, so if if the pass rate is considered a three, four or five on the test. Uh and so a high high percentage of those students uh then you can see the individual courses there. But um 89 out of 106 who took the AP course received a passing grade. So really pretty high uh overall um in there. And then dual credit uh that shows you know another 138 students over 10 classes were taken last year uh by uh Jamestown High School students and you can see the courses that were listed and the number of students that took advantage of those opportunities. And then I've also included uh the dual credits so far for the 2526 school year. And you can see the AP classes uh as well uh you know
027follow a similar track actually they're a little bit up overall uh with enrollment for those two areas. uh the seek innovation grant um we are seeking out uh an innovation grant uh through SEEK uh that's a fund that they by its name they support innovative projects that are happening across uh the SEEK schools uh SEEK is our REA or regional education association I think there's 42 schools that are collaborating with uh together under SEEK under this umbrella of SEEK uh and they do an annual grant $125,000 a here uh we're part of a package to provide uh to use AI to develop um dashboards uh if we can improve on our strategic plan dashboard and help to draw more real-time data from existing sources instead of just using the Excel uh strategic plan dashboard that
028we have developed if we can make that more in real time. Uh we wanted to take that and and explore that look. Uh there's a few potential uh add-ons to that depending on how many other districts uh want to participate in that. So that'll that'll somewhat depend. Uh but in my mind, it is uh it is a it's a turnkey opportunity. So if we participate in it, there's not a future subscription cost to it. We will have developed the tool uh through this grant and to be able to use it in perpetuity. So really no risk, no cost to the district. Uh if that grant is approved, which I assume that it will be. Uh the last thing that I had for this is a spotlight. I want to recognize Mr. Jerome Wagner. Served our
029district for 29 years. Uh recently he has uh turned in his retirement and so he will be retiring um at the end of this month. uh and we want to recognize the really great service that he's provided our district uh in facilities uh and you know grounds as maintenance and grounds director for the past 29 years. So thank you to Jerome. So with that I would stand for questions. >> Jamie, um with the virtual bulletin board, um I like the idea. I think it's great. Is that going into effect already? And how are we communicating that to the families? So, we did ask that um our uh administrators and activities directors shared this information out with those groups that um uh that have traditionally accessed notification systems or asked us to stuff backpacks. We also
030will get them when they call in because there was always a process to get those approved and so that's with Stacy Jamgard. So, when any individual calls, Stacy will give them the options that they have. we can't stuff them in backpacks or they are eligible and she tracks that of how many times those are done uh and uh and refers them to the to the virtual bulletin board. >> And then what about like our families so they know where to go to look for, you know, if they have a question about ice skating club or whatever. >> Yeah, it we'll send out a notification for that as well. Uh it's still a little bit new for us, but it will be posted on our website. I don't I think that it's up there already, but
031I need to check. But I but I do think once it's in place and that's the one-stop shop for everybody to go to, I think our parents will greatly appreciate it rather than trying to rifle through uh the different notifications that are in the backpack. Or maybe that was just the le kids that had a lot of stuff in their backpacks all the time. going. Yep. >> Just with the enrollment report uh down what 98 I don't have the demographer report in front of me, but how how off this first year I think it's fairly consistent with what the what we expect to see. Uh I do think it's important uh to remember all the factors that go into those things. you know the the demographer looks at uh they simply just do calculations uh
032based on the homes and birth rates and those things. They can't take into account to the you to a complete degree um open enrollments and you know competition in space for public and private um you know any of the school choice options that they have open enrollments all those things vary a little bit but I think it's pretty close >> that that was actually more of a decrease than I was a little bit more than I was expecting to see. Um, any other questions this time? Okay. Um, I'd just like to just a shout out to Mr. Jerome Wagner. A lot of uh institutional knowledge there um that he has with all of our buildings and grounds and and just appreciate the work that he's done for the district. So, with that, um, I'd like
033to open the public budget hearing. It is 6 pm and if anyone has questions or would like to address, go ahead. >> Okay. So before um you know if there are individuals that are watching online and and would like to come and attend and and provide input um I'm going to give just a brief uh I have a a board memo uh to kind of lay some foundation and outline the the process that we use. Uh but in terms of a a budget, our finance committee has met uh over three different meetings, May 12th, July 15th, September 8th. Uh and the purpose of the hearing is to afford the community a chance to weigh in on our budget. Uh the the budget is not set for approval tonight. It is set for approval on October
0346th. That's structured to ensure that the board and central office can consider any uh feedback that the community provides before we adopt a formal budget. So there are there is century code related to the hearing requirements. I've outlined that. It's 57-15-02.2. Um the board as a board um you'll allow a period of time for public comment if there is any and there may not be. Oftentimes there is not. Uh but um provide that opportunity to share perspective. Uh it isn't a question and answer session. There may be uh opportunity to provide clarifications. There may be an opportunity for a future budget. item, but it generally speaking is the board has a responsibility to hear those perspectives uh as opposed to a Q&A session. Uh, one of the areas that I wanted to talk about was
035House Bill 1176, a pretty impactful bill uh for school district budgets. And so, just a handful of things that I want to talk about there. um for the public and in the board uh if you want to discuss these in any greater detail uh especially in the public I am happy to have a conversation 2521950 uh I am happy to walk through this uh memo I'm happy to provide any resources that I can to help clarify uh one of the links that's in here that I will refer to a couple of times is linked in the levy worksheet and so um if I when I reference that I'll just ref reference that it's part of the attached levy worksheet Um, one of the big changes in 1176 is and that people might be aware of
036two things. The primary residence tax credit and the 3% tax limit are both uh were both included in House Bill 1176. Uh, it is important to recognize that the 3% tax limit refers to some of our levies and I'll talk about that, but it's some of our levies and it's it incorporates new property growth. So when we talk about the total tax impact that could be higher than 3%. And so you know sometimes when that's been communicated out uh you know when when we look at newspaper articles or you know summaries that can mean well how can a district be higher than 3%. Well I'll show you how but that is only some levies and it incorporates new growth. So I think that's really an important part for anybody to understand. Uh the other piece
037of that is the primary residents tax credit that is applied as part of the total tax statement that is not applied to individual taxing entities. So you aren't going to see a reduction on the school portion based on that tax credit. That all happens uh through the auditor's office when they when they provide the total tax statement. So there is a primary residence tax credit but I won't talk about it. Um and um you know just when we show that taxes from the school are on on the same um valued home is going to be the same, we don't account for that tax credit. So there's a pretty significant pro uh property t or primary residence tax credit that I'm not going to talk about other than to say it's there and and primary residents
038are going to receive that. So as it relates to the 3% tax limit that includes the general fund, we call that the 60 mills in the general and the board discretionary that together uh relates to the general fund even though we have to separate it for you know the confusing um gap funding calculation but um but most most people will consider those to be the same part of the same 70 mills. The miscellaneous is governed by that 3% tax limit, the special reserve and the building fund. Those are all governed by that 3% tax cap. Tuition, special assessment, and syncing in interest and judgment are not subject to the 3% tax limit. So along with that new growth being incorporated into that 3% and that sum are not governed by that 3%, that's how it
039can be greater than 3%. And ours is greater than the 3%. I'll show I'll talk about that specifically. Um oh maybe we can do it right now. Um, just let me bring this up. So, if you look to So, if uh the public, if you'd like any of these documents, again, I'm happy to share them out or email them and talk you through what they mean. But, I'm going to draw to the second tab in the worksheet. This compares the dollars levied in the previous tax year and what we're proposing uh in the current tax year. You can see that 3% limit at work in the general fund because last year uh we levied 60. The maximum that we can levy now 59.89. The maximum we can levy in in the board discretionary 9.998 instead
040of 10. The maximum we can levy um in the miscellaneous fund 11.98 instead of 12. Um so and then the building fund 9.98 instead of 10. So that's where you see that 3% at work. uh you see in the blue cells tuition and special assessment that those are not governed by the 3%. So you see how they can deviate uh from that amount. Um and I'm going to talk about the tuition in just a little bit and the special assessment, but that's that second tab. So you can see the percentage change uh in dollars is from the 9.6 six uh to about the 10 million uh and that increase of $369,4.15 cents that equates to 3.82%. So hopefully I've commun I'm just going to pause to see just to make sure there aren't any questions
041about the 3.9 3.82% as opposed to the 3% and that everybody understands that or if we need greater clarification. >> Any questions from the board? So from a current request and historical comparison uh we have levied 102 mills which is uh continues to be what uh what the finance committee and our preliminary budget has identified 102 mills. Uh that has been consistent for a number of years since the 2122 uh school year budget. Some of those levies are changed a little bit as you can see identified in that second tab of that worksheet. Uh but the total mill levy is the same. Uh and I say this every year and I think it's really important that we remember this is not this isn't considered reassessment of property. We're just making an applesto apples comparison about
042a home that uh was was valued at 100,000 last year and is valued at 100,000 this year. How homes are reassessed all the time. We're just making an applesto apples comparison of the same value of home. Uh so last year the re on a residential home, $100,000 home, the school tax impact was $459 because that tax levy is the same. If that home was assessed at the same value, it would still be $459. So there's not a difference at the residential, commercial, or average egg property. So, uh, it would continue to be $459 on the residential property, continue to be $510 on the commercial, and continue to be $510 average crop land acre as well. Again, if those are properties are reassessed and they increase, that that's going to increase. We're just making a a
043straight apples to apples comparison. Um, so if you look again at that levy worksheet and go to the third tab, which is the property tax generator, and again, I'm happy to visit with the public if they want to understand what their tax impact is or what it might look like in different circumstances. This is a really nice tool to be able to use. You just put in the value of the either residential, commercial or average crop land acre uh in the blue cells at the top and that'll calculate the tax uh impact from the schools portion. Again, that it does not include any primary tax or primary residence tax credit if that applies to your residential property. But I'm happy to talk to anybody through that. But that's the third tab. uh if any member
044of the public wants to work through that and again I'm happy to talk with anybody about it um but that's what we're seeing assuming no reassessment on property I think it's important to look at the historical context uh from a school district we have been the mechanism and the vehicle for the state legislature to decrease property tax 185 mills to 110 mills was 185 mills used to be our cap then it was 110 then it's 70 in our general fund So you can see that impact go down, we we sometimes look about our we look at our tax impact just from year to year. Uh and you can see on that $100,000 home, uh the taxes from the schools portion of taxes has has decreased significantly. uh back in 2008 2009 on on that $100,000
045home. Again, not talking reassessments, just talking a apples to apples comparison, uh the portion of the school portion of property taxes on that $100,000 home would be a,6380. Now it's $459. Of course, homes are valued higher than they were in 2008, 2009, but in that applesto apples comparison, it's just intended to show that the percentage of that proportion of of the school's impact to tax has decreased significantly. So, I think that historical context is important, but you can see 2008 2009, we were still at 185 bills and 2910 we went down to 110. And since um you know in the last how many years 10 years it's been at um it's been at 70. So you can see that decrease that's come down. We have not seen a mill increase um since 2122 that has
046consistently been at that 102 mark. So, in the preliminary budget, uh, I see there's a handful of changes. I want I want want to draw attention to really three areas. The levies that are impacted by 1176, which I talked about, a slight increase to high school tuition, which I I want to reinforce and talk about some more. Uh, and then uh the the decrease in our special assessment levy and then the increase in that high school tuition levy. So, if we can go back to uh that worksheet on P and tab two, I've already talked about the the different levies that are impacted by the 3%. You can see that as the general fund, including the board discretionary, miscellaneous, and building fund. Those are the ones that we levy in that are impacted by the
0473%. And so, you can see that impact has decreased the mills compared to last year. If you look at tuition though, I'm going to draw your attention back to the first tab. In the first tab, we have taken all of the applicable expenditures that we've had uh related to that are eligible for the high school tuition levy and that comes to 13.77 mills based on actual expenses. We use what we expended last year uh in each of these areas. uh draw your attention specifically to the center for distance ed. So a couple of sessions ago um the legislature provided um a uh an unfunded mandate for schools and that is that parents could request center for distance education courses and school districts then had to pay for those courses. So even if we had um
048already offered geometry and a family wants to take an NDC course, even though we're we have four sections of geometry, we would still have to allow for an NDC course upon parent request. But these are unfunded mandates. Nothing is free. It might be free to me registering for the course, but there is a cost. And so for us last year that was 115,000. And so, as is often the case with unfunded mandates, we need to look to how we're going to recoup those costs. And that's where the increase to the high school tuition levy came from. So, we as a finance committee, we looked at what that cost was. That equates to about 1.17 mills. It's it changes a little bit when our valuation changes. Uh, but that's what our recommendation was based was based
049upon was trying to recoup those costs for that unfunded mandate of NDCDE courses. So it is important to remember that even though it's free to me, uh there is still cost uh associated to to an unfunded mandate like like that. Um so that's about 1.17 mills that was an increase. You saw about.17 mil decrease and that comes from that 3% uh in the general fund, in miscellaneous and in the building fund. So that additional 1 mil of decrease then has come from special assessments. So as you can recognize from the second tab, the dollars levied to the proposed dollars. Um in special assessments by law, we can levy what we need to to pay special assessments. So the special assessment we received um that um cost was lower than it was last year. So we're
050we levied three mills last year. We're levying two mills or proposing to levy two mills this year because that's what we need. Um I'm just going to pause talked a lot at the board and see if there's any questions or need to clarify anything if I was unclear. >> Any questions on any of the tabs on the sheet board? >> So um I've included a lot of other information that I think is pertinent. The board has heard this in the past. Uh again, if there's from a public standpoint, if people want to talk with me more, I'd love to talk about this. So, give me a phone call at 2521950. I'm happy to talk you through it. The one thing I want to bring attention to, though, is on page four of six. It is
051the calculation I do every year when we talk about what we actually receive from the state. It's a misnomer to say what the that we received the state per pupil guarantee. People talk about that number, but that's not not the number that we receive. That's the number inclusive of the local commitment as well. So 11349 is what the state has determined is needed to provide an adequate education for every kid in North Dakota. We have some deductions that take place that are equity measures that allow that have us pay our fair share of that 11349. So I do a calculation every year that shows well what do we actually receive from the state and what is our actual commitment. So out of that 11349 uh 253 of that is our state assumed local contributions. So
052the state deducts 60 of those 102 mills from us in our state aid. So even though we levy that 60 those 60 mills that amount is deducted from our state aid and that equates to about 253 uh per pupil uh and I say per pupil it's ADM but just simplistically we'll call those students per per pupil. The contribution from other local revenue uh is much smaller. That's only $61 per pupil. So actually if you add up those deductions uh our actual state per pupil is not 11349. What we actually receive from the state is 87.85 this year. So I wanted to point that out make sure that we're clear on what that is. And I also went through in a paragraph and talked about the common schools trust fund. I I think that's another really
053important thing to remember that we have a common schools trust fund. It was part of the enabling act. So, one of the things that North Dakota had to do to become a state, uh, we and we wrote into our constitution that we would have a common schools trust fund to support public, uh, K12 education and every year proceed from that fund are siphoned off to pay part of the per pupil payment. So, part of that 8785 that the state provides uh, is siphoned off from the common schools trust fund. That is increased exponentially. When I first became a superintendent 20ome years ago, that amount was about $200 per pupil. Currently, it's 25 where where did I where I missed it now? 258. So, pretty substantial growth in 20 plus years from the common schools trust
054fund. So, what that means is out of that 87.85, what's actually coming from the state versus what's coming from a constitutionally required fund is actually only 60 6573 per pupil. And if you can do the math, you'll notice that's less than what the difference between the growth from last year and this year is less than what the growth from the common schools trust fund was. So we actually went sign we went backwards again. Uh the general fund commitment is never um it never stays the same. It always decreases even though our foundation aid increases and our enrollment increases. the commitment from the common schools trust fund pretty consistently outstrips our growth. So you see that recognized again. So we're actually seeing a decline from the general fund, the state's general fund to fund public education.
055So I always like to look at that. To me it's a measure uh that we need to look to. Um so future considerations I'm on the last uh the bottom of page five uh and then the top of page six. just future considerations, things that as a board you're well aware of. Uh I think the community is well aware. Uh we have declining enrollment and and it was referenced in the superintendent report. It's been it's pretty significant. We saw pretty low incoming kindergarten class, smaller than we even anticipated at 110. Uh and when you're graduating our largest classes and incoming classes are even lower than we anticipated, you see that gap. Um, so declining enrollment, aging facilities are still two areas that we need to look uh for shortterm uh that that are short-term and
056long-term challenges that we need to work through. Um, even with some of those facility changes, you'll you'll notice in our budget, and um Mrs. Grounds will talk about this when she does the executive summary uh to our proposed budget uh in a little bit, but you'll see approximately a $1.1 million decrease to our expenditure budget. So, we are making change. We've closed a building. Uh we've seen some FTE change. That is $1.1 million in some of from comparison from last year's budget to this year's budget. And that's substantial, but it isn't enough. We need to be looking to rightsize even more. That's never anything that people want to hear, but it's the truth. Uh we need to look to what more do we need to do to rightsize our budget to our enrollment. So our
057our our students needs to what we can provide. Uh so additional work needs to happen even though we've already decreased our budget by 1.1 million. Um our finance committee has established a process to look uh through all of our expenditures through a categorical lens. So looking and prioritizing from the core all the way down to what we call priority 4 um areas. And so we'll look at those and create different uh packages to analyze our expenditures even more. Um and um you know we need to look to how does that impact for uh that declining enrollment? How is that really going to impact us in the long term? And so we can um create a budget for the long term uh that is um supported by what we can do. Um right now so a
058lot of factors go into declining enrollment which I've touched on but decreased birth rates aging population within the community tied to that those decreased birth rates increase in competitive local options so that school choice uh and then continued access to statutory options of tuition agreements and open enrollment. So, we will need to find solutions both, like I said, in the short term and the long-term declining enrollment and aging facilities. Uh, but again, I don't think that's anything that uh is surprising to the board or surprising to our public. It's something we've talked about for quite a bit. Uh, but with that, I would stand for questions or >> uh open up the >> any questions from the board at this point. Okay. Um at this part of our public hearing process is that we open
059the floor for um public comment for a three to five minute comment. And so the floor is open. We'll just wait a moment in case someone started watching this and decided to to join us. Any other questions from the board while we wait? Dr. Le, any additional comments at this time? >> Just to reaffirm 2521950. If anybody wants to talk through that memo, get a copy of that memo, uh talk through the projections or our proposed budgets, I'm always happy to talk about uh these areas. So, if you're watching this um on replay and you had some questions um feel free to reach out to the central office and and we can happy to share some information. But thank you Dr. Le for putting this all together very very neatly um and a lot of
060information a lot of good information for for our public close. So we've had no public comments. So, at this time, I'm going to close the public budget hearing and move back into our agenda. We are still under regular agenda, letter G, old business. So, we have nothing under old business. We're moving into H under new business. We have nothing under activities, buildings, and grounds or curriculum assessment instruction. Under finance, we have A and B, general fund balance, and monthly financial reports. and we've completed the C public budget hearing. Under D, we have review of pre preliminary 2025 to 2026 budget and the included executive summary. Christie, >> yeah, I was just going to walk through the executive summary and you can follow along on the general fund budget if you'd like. Um, Dr. Le spoke
061to a lot of these things already. Um as you can notice our I have included also the 2425 budget and 2425 actual for information for your information for each fund and then the 2526 budget. So salaries are the largest expenditure um although there was a decrease total of $534,000 due to the closure of Washington and then also including the negotiated increases and the board approved increases for support staff and non-eing professionals and then the 200s are um the FICA taxes retirement for teachers and um support staff health insurance, life insurance, workers comp, the employee assistance program. Um, this year the board did approve an extra $100,000 as you know for health insurance. So that is included in there, but also due to Washington closure um it's a decrease of $116,000. Uh the 300's professional and
062technical services. Major costs for that are with um due to James River Special Education Cooperative. We um contract with them for personnel and case management for our students. And then the remainder is legal, nursing, school resource officer, which we're hoping to still fill, and our audit decrease there is $358,000. uh purchase property services are the 400s. All the utilities and um leases of copers, iPads and Chromebooks, we had an overall decrease of 56,000 500s other purchase services or student transportation, internet, advertising. The big part of that is the tuition. Um tuition budget for 2526 is 3.45 45 million which is partially reimbured by the state and the increase there is 86,000. Uh the tuition is really variable. So I just look at the past four to five years and base it on an average. Um
063for the 600s that's instructional supplies, technology, custodial um books and textbooks. there was $48,000 increase. Um, a lot of that also has to do with what curriculum is on the schedule for that year. Uh, property and equipment is the 700s technology and I have very limited furniture and fixtures included in that $19,000 increase. 800s conference registration dues, background checks, software fees, and licenses. and we had a $62,000 decrease there. Um, so then looking at the revenues, Dr. Le talked quite sign significantly about that, the $550,000 overall reduction in revenue and um, locally we increased $515,000. Uh, for the county there was no change. That's just the um coal conversion state foundation aid um that was an increase. I guess I don't have that listed what the total was there. And then uh federal funds, the
064change in title allocation from the North Dakota DPI um that was $110,000 impact and then losing the CLSD grant was about $315,000. So overall we have a projected deficit of 1.025 million. But um just as a reminder that assumes full 100% staffing, 100% revenue collection. Um and typically that is not the case. So um it's usually around 93%. So >> and it includes spending all >> right and spending all the appropriations. So, and um right now we have 12.25 FTE openings. So, we're doing actually really good as far as um filling open positions. Were much better than the last two years. Um other than that, the JBCTC a significant difference because we're just coming to the end of a lot of big projects there in the last >> year. Yeah. So, any questions? Any questions
065of the board at this time? Jason, >> just just a general question. the the finance committee's work in um categorizing the core four I think >> term priorities >> prior um is the purpose of that to continue to find efficiencies or to get us to maybe wrap our brains around our expenses better or both? Yeah, I you're looking at both and and I can give you my answer and if finance committee members want to share their perspective as well, but it's it's an it's an analytical exercise. Let's look at how we let's look at our spending uh through that lens of priority and then determine well is there are there areas that we can find greater efficiencies? Are there areas or there's going to be areas of need and higher need and what would uh
066some change to that to to that overall expenditure if we're going to have to cut additional expenditures. We want to make sure that they're the right expenditures. Uh so it's just a process to go through and analyze what those needs are. Uh like I said through that different lens. I don't know if there's other >> Dan go ahead. You want to comment? I was just going to say it's basically it's basically a bang for the buck calculator so that when we make decisions like you said >> uh we don't want to cut arbitrarily. We want to make sure it's it's aligned with our strategic objectives and and uh what's good for the district. Erin, >> yeah, it's basically going to start with just a deep dive so we know what all do we do we
067have um in the district at a at a detail level and then giving us a way to do some scenario planning. What if we did this and then how do we group that up and what's the impact and quantify it um you know including good ideas, bad ideas, whatever. But it's a it's a way to to quantify those whatif scenarios. Good question, Jason. Any other questions from the board at this time? Okay. And right now, this is just forformational. Um, next meeting, we'll bring this the final back. If you have any late night thoughts u between now and the next meeting, feel free to pass those along to Dr. Le or and visit with Christie. Okay, moving into operations. Um approval of a is approval of school compliance reports and submission of the LEA compliance
068report. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Aaron, second by Dan. So a motion, a second for approval of school compliance reports and submission of LEA compliance report. Any discussion? Any discussion? Dr. Luck, do you want to comment? Just a reminder, these are what used to be uh uh school approval processes. It's it's asurances to make sure that we're following state law uh and we've met all criteria for accreditation. >> All right. So, a motion second. Any other discussion? Any other discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. >> I oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. um b the approval of the 2024 2025 the Wilson and Eagles arena agreement um we're going to postpone that just we we need to get a little more clarity on one of the terms
069and so we'll just bring that back to the next agenda rather than trying to change things later so we'll do that number six nothing under personnel seven policy and procedures nothing under that tuition approval of tuition agreement a number one Montpielar is there a motion Motion by Jamie. >> Second by Jason. We have a motion, a second for approval of tuition agreement on Peelier. Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote. All those in favor say I. >> I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. Um under other the North Dakota School Board Association conference update is there for your information. Any items for future agenda? If you have an item, please let Dr. Luck or myself know. Under meetings to be scheduled, the superintendent evaluation committee meeting on Tuesday, September 16th, 2025 at 5:00
070pm in the conference room. Thank you for those that volunteered for that. The schoolboard regular meeting Monday, October 6th at 5:30 p.m. in the Thompson community room. The North Dakota School Boards Association conference October 9th and 10th in Bismar. Are we missing any meetings? Okay. All right. If not, your monthly superintendent evaluation section 3 human resource management and section five community relations. Please complete that. There being no further business before the board, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you everyone. Hey, hey.