001[Music] JJ M really impressed. JJ had of course all eyes on JJ really impressed. JJ have the same s anticipation and Good evening. I'd like to call this special meeting of the Jamestown Public School Board to order. It is Thursday, June 5th, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. in the Thompson Community Room at the middle school. Thank you everyone for taking time out of your evening to come tonight. On our agenda, we have um any conflicts of interest to declare for this agenda? Any conflicts of interest? Any conflicts of interest? If not, moving on to our agenda. Um, we have a a uh payment of unpaid bills for JB Career and Tech Center. Is there a motion? Motion by Aaron. Is there a second? Second by Dan. We have a motion and a second to approve payment
002for unpaid bills for the JB Career and Techn Technology Center. Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. And our next item on our agenda is the survey review. And Dr. Luck, you want to lead us off and then we have some folks joining us online behind us. Sure. Uh, as you're well aware on the 26th was the formal date of closure for the school of perceptions survey. School perceptions is here uh online to provide that report to us. Uh, and Darren is here from school perceptions. He'll walk through the results of the survey. Some disagregation at any time if we have questions. Just um call Dr. Larson and and call for Dr. Larson to to recognize you so we can
003ask that question and Darren will be happy to follow up and I'm sure I will have some feedback as well as we go along. But with that, Darren, I think if you are ready, we're ready for you. I am. Great. Uh good evening everyone. Um, and thanks for having me. I'm excited to show you your survey results. My name is Darren Severs and I'm a project manager with school perceptions. Been doing that kind of work for three years. Prior to that, I was a superintendent in suburban Milwaukee where we were a district that was a customer of school perceptions. And so that's how I got familiar with the company and ended up accepting a position with the company to cover Minnesota, North Dakota, and Iowa regions for the company. Um, so is that showing up,
004Rob? The on your screen. Yep, we do see it. Okay, great. All right. So, let's go through the table of contents for my presentation. We're going to give you a brief background about the company and then we're going to dive right into your data. And please uh stop me at any time with any questions so that uh I can address them in and make this as conversational as possible. Um we'll do a results and analysis and then we'll take any closing questions at the end for as long as you need. So briefly the background about our company is our mission in school perceptions is to help educational leaders gather, organize, and use data to make strategic decisions. We're an independent company. We've been doing this for 23 years. We've conducted over 3 million staff, parent,
005student, and community surveys for school improvement in all 50 states and five foreign countries. And we've helped over a thousand districts across the country with referendum planning and strategic planning just like the project that we um we supported for you uh these last few months. So, let's talk about your data. So, as Rob outlined, the due date was May 26. that was the deadline of the survey. Uh quite honestly, we we never really shut your survey off. Um several surveys came in after the deadline. We want as much feedback from your community as possible because there's always mailing delays and things of that nature. Sometimes we get them a few weeks after the deadline, and that's just fine. So, you had 1,173 respondents for a response rate of 14.1%. Um, and within 1,173 responses, we
006calculate a statistical margin for error of 2.92%. Uh, the more responses we get, the lower the margin for error. Um, and um, as we project out what we think your voters would say if they had to vote on this question today. Now, a couple things to point out about the response rate. Our company average is 18%. So, while you're slightly below our company average for responses, um this is still going to be very reliable data for you because of two benchmarks. As a company, we've tracked our data over the last 23 years. And we find the reliability becomes very sound once we eclipse 500 respondents. we could have a 25% response rate in a district in northern Wisconsin. Um, and that might only be 220 voters. Uh, so we're glad to see 1173. That lowers
007your margin for error. Another benchmark we use as a company is a 10% response rate. Uh, ideally, would we have met the company average? Sure. But 10% and higher um is very reliable. In fact, I lived this in my district when we did a community survey of our buildings. Um, I I tracked the data online and it did not change once we hit 10%. It was all the way up to 22% for our district and the data was basically the same from 10 all the way to 22. So, I have confidence that the numbers we're going to project tonight are are going to be very statistically reliable for you to plan around. So, while our process is completely anonymous, um, we do ask respondents to give us some demographic information about them. We like to
008track ages because that helps us understand what different um taxpayers are thinking from different age ranges and that is because uh certain age ranges have certain biases. The 35 to 44 year olds tend to be parenting ages and they may have kids in the school system and so we like to know how they're feeling. And then we we lock we watch very closely the 65 plus population. um they are retired, generally living on a fixed income, and they're very sensitive to any new taxes. They also tend to be uh very reliable voters. So having a a high response rate from that population helps us with our predictability, which is really why you hired us is to give you a prediction of what the projects you are considering would do if we put them on the
009ballot. Another way we disagregate data is by are you a resident of the Jamestown public school district. 97% of respondents um said that they are uh residents of the district and thus they can vote on any referendum. 2% said they are not. And to explain that population that would be staff who would work for you but don't reside in the district. That could be open enrollment parents because we did send the survey to every parent in the system and um that could be property owners, people that have a second property uh that that do not reside in the district, but maybe they have a mailbox at their property within the district. Going forward, all of our projections will be based on the 97% of survey takers who can vote. Also, we do like to break
010out the survey respondents anonymously by municipality. And we do this because we want to be sensitive to the fact that um different townships may have different projects going on independent of the school. Let's say the township of Midway is considering putting in a new ambulance center or fire hall or something of that nature. We would want to know that and be sensitive to that because those taxpayers are getting hit with um the the potential of a couple of different tax increases on their property tax bill. In talking with Rob um over the course of our our um project, uh it sounds like this is a very accurate representation of the population within your school district, majority of them being city of Jamestown. Next up, um I want to talk about this slide a bit. So
01114% of survey takers identified themselves as being school district employees. We really like to see a high response from the employees. Um we know that working conditions and facilities are a big retention factor during a time when when um talent in the field of education um is harder and harder to to come by. and we want to attract and retain as many top employees for Jamestown public schools as possible. That being said, that's an over representation of their percentage of voters. Less than 1% of eligible voters in Jamestown are actually employees. So, we'll need to correct that and weight it more accurately when it gets to the point where we're projecting voter support. The same also goes for the parent slide. Do you have children attending a school in the district? 39% of survey takers
012identify themselves as being parents. We studied your census data and actually 20% of voters in the school district are are parents. So that being said, we will correct that as well to make sure that the over representation in survey responses um is reflected in how we adjust and weight the amount of voters that could vote for the project, yes or no, when or if it goes on the ballot. All right, next up, uh just an interesting data for you. uh the those that said they are parents, this is the percent of the of where they said their children attend the school and it will add up to more than 100% because they may have children in more than one building and also a communication question on the survey. We said how do you like to
013receive school and district information? So the blue bar represents parents as I said they're about 20% of voters. The purple bar represents non-parents, non- staff. They are 80% of the voting public. 80% of Jamestown public schools residents don't work for the school and don't have kids in school, but they'll need to support whatever the plan is going forward by the board and district leadership. So, the parents have told us their preferred communication would be in the form of an email first, a school district newsletter second, then followed by the website, Facebook, and the Jamestown Sun. Parents, excuse me, non-parents, non- staff, far and away had a different um allocation of communication preferences. They go to the Jamestown Sun uh for their school news first. they count on a school district newsletter second followed by the
014website and Facebook. So, um that gives you some valuable feedback not only on day-to-day operations, but also when whenever you decide what your next steps are going to be with these projects and your plans, this tells us how to most strategically connect with those people. And we're seeing a a strong comeback in all of the projects we did this spring and early summer in terms of them valuing something mailed to their house, a newsletter. I think there's a signal that maybe folks are over inundated with e-news and they like to have something that they can they can hold on to and grab. And we've gotten good feedback about the fact that our survey is something they can page through and write on and and mail back and and look through like a booklet. So, let's
015talk about the survey. Uh, this slide shows the the facility planning um that the district closed Washington Elementary to save operating money and there you're looking for f feedback on what to do with the aging elementary schools, potentially replacing them with a new building as part of a long-term plan. This leads us to the first question on the survey. And this question does not have a price tag attached. We call it our permission slip question. It's a question we ask before there's any tax dollars accounted for just to take the temperature of the community and see would you be willing to do anything um to address the aging buildings and and to replace them with the idea of a new building. So, as we look at the results, this is how respondents responded to that
016question. 81% of staff were in favor of the plan. 51% said they were they were in favor of doing something and 44% of the non-parents non-staff said that they would be in favor of of doing something. Um so early indications were not as strong as we would have hoped. Um but that's also because um somewhat attributable to the fact that hey we don't know the cost yet. So there's a lot of uncertainty as you look at the not sure our company average of not shures is around 10 to 12%. Well staff were in that range but parents and the non-parents non-staff were well above that. So they're waiting to hear a bit more before they decide yes or no. So that's where we went with the survey. We laid out for them your two facility
017options. One would be to close um Lincoln and and then build a new Washington school for the Lincoln students within the new boundaries at a price tag of $23 million. The second option was replacing Lincoln and Louis Lam more and build an even bigger Washington Elementary School um for the for the cost of $29 million. To give as much transparency and and awareness of the costs, we provided a property tax increase grid for the survey and outlined for them what it would cost uh for the type of property they own per year on an annual basis for each of the options. And then we asked them to pick which of the options they would support through a referendum. Now, as we wrote the survey question, we asked them, would you support option one? Would you
018support option two? Would you support either? Are you okay with either option or neither? And not sure. So, as you can see, now that we have the price tags attached, the not sure decreased significantly. Um, we have more support for option one than option two, and there's a large percent that are okay with either. So in order to give you a perspective of where the the support was for either option, we combined option one with the eithers and option two with those that would be okay with either to give you a summary of where the support landed. Option one, 68% of support from staff, 48% of parents, 42% from non-parents non- staff. Option two, 54% from from staff, 38% from parents, and 30% from non-parents non- staff. And then we have a percent that weren't
019supportive of any of the options um put in front of them. And in a state like North Dakota where you have a supermajority, this is where our concern about the data um started to emerge. So what we did on the next slide is we took the support levels for the parents. Now I'll remind you navy blue bar staff are less than 1% generally about 7 to 8/10en of a percent of voters. Very important to have their opinion so their working conditions reflect what they would value as voters and as employees but they don't move the needle on the data much. So, we really need to pay close attention to the light blue bar and the purple bar for each of the options. And I present our projection of support on the next slide. So, as
020you can see, option one, we would project when we take into account a 20% representation for parents and an 80% projection for non-parents, non- staff. We would predict if the ballot question were asked today, 43.2% 2% for option one and option two we project would be around 31.6% each of those with that plus or minus uh two to 3% um on the vote. I'm going to pause right there and see if there are any questions about how we arrived at those numbers. Does the board have any questions at this point? Okay, maybe Darren, could you talk a little bit about how this is really a very conservative the the 40 plus percent is really very conservative because of how you deal with the undecided. Could you talk about that a little bit? Yeah, absolutely. So,
021I'm going to go back a slide now as a company. Let's look at the notures. So, you see 14% of parents were not sure and 11% of non-parents non-staff were not sure. Prior to co there was a time where we would have projected in this formula one-third of undecideds coming to the side of yes. So as we look back here we would have predicted close to 5% of the parents coming to the side of yes and 3 to 4% of the non-parents non- staff coming to the side of yes. So right now every not sure is counted as a no. That was a formula we used in this formula of waiting prior to CO. We stopped using it several projects into the postcoid years because the formula was not holding up. If we would have
022done that, we would have been able to add roughly four, five, 6% to each of these numbers potentially and get you closer to 50% on the option one and closer to 40ish on the option two. Unfortunately, public sentiment postcoid became more negative towards education even though the closing of schools was not uh within anyone's control. it was a nationwide uh directive. Uh things did not support using that formula. But that being said, what these projections show right now would be counting every undecided or not sure as a no. So these are what I'm saying is these are very conservative numbers. And quite honestly, if if this were not a supermajority state, I would be tempted to say you're still close enough to put it on the ballot and let the voters decide. We've had Minnesota
023projects where they're a few percents away with the margin for error of being at 50 and they've still put on the ballot and done some some ed further educating to grab as many of those not shures as possible. What changes the us this for us as a company is the fact that as you are well aware being a supermajority state makes that um extra 10% that you need to to uh uh have in your favor extra challenging. I have a question on uh the voter demographic there. Is there any consideration or any counting on likely voters versus uh um you know the demographics that responded to the survey considered a likely voter versus unlikely and how that population is represented. Yeah, thanks for asking that and we've tracked that with our districts pretty closely and
024what we are finding is that we are shocked at how close the number of votes cast has aligned with the number of surveys returned. Now, there's always going to be outlier communities. Um, but there were there were several projects recently um in Minnesota where we do the majority of our work is Minnesota and Wisconsin. Um, we also cover Iowa and Illinois. Um, that's the core of our business is Midwest. So, to answer your question, we're finding more and more that the that the number of voters is very similar to the the uh number of surveys that we process on behalf of the school district. So there's fairly strong alignment. So with that then would the demographics of the survey respondents be representative of the actual voter response? There's there is that possibility sir. Yeah there
025is that possibility. Again that's where where it gets tricky for us. Um we we want to give you we want to project things on your census data for potential voters so that you're going into this based on your community distribution. But to your point, um, I'm going to go back several slides and remind you that 40% of your parents responded to the survey and and they would be they would be motivated to to support this. And as we look at their data, they were more in favor of this than the non-parents, non- staff, but still shy of that supermajority level um, of 60%. But closer. That's a great point you make and something that that could be discussed and accounted for at the board level. You bet. Go ahead, Jason. Yeah. Uh Darren, thank you
026for all the infold. I'm not sure of the slide number, but it was on the municipality. Um you know, 84% live in Jamestown. And then you mentioned you kind of keep or you you try to monitor or track other initiatives in like some townships maybe or I get that concept, but do you take into account any other economic um factors or indicators within a community such as the number of capital campaigns going on, you know, just any other stressors on what voters might consider, you know, their limit. Does that make sense? It does make sense and that is where um we we really need to partner with you and and leadership in the community to be aware of those things. Uh we are not aware of anything else going on in those communities, but we
027we do have we can break the data down by township for you and say uh for example, I always say you're just getting a first report from us. You're far from done with us. So, as the board assigns me work, I am glad to break out and say to you, okay, this is a support level in Township of Bloom. Um, this is the support level in the township of Midway where you have, you know, 4% of your populations. Would it make sense to dive deeply into Township of Windsor where there's 4/10? No, it's not going to move the needle much. But some of those other municipalities, um, we can study the data. Our software is is is very powerful and I can look at at what the support levels were in any one of these
028municipalities. In fact, there's a a a school district in Minnesota where there were 27 municipalities, very scattered um uh as far as their population. So we had to study down about 22 of them just so they understood where the support was strong, where the support was weak, so they could do a little bit more community listening sessions and informing of what was at stake for the projects. They're just asking for new roofs, new boilers, new chillers, secure entrances. Um, so they wanted to take their show on the road and make sure those residents understood what what the ask was about where their support was lowered. That makes sense. Dr. Darren, a question I didn't think to ask you before. Now, uh, your projections, I'm assuming, align to a special election, correct? Uh, they do. So,
029we have a law that recently passed August 1st. Um, after August 1st, uh, of this year, any referendum would have to go to either a primary election or a general election. And Oh, yes. And maybe I'm putting you on the spot here, but how would those projections change based on that assumption? No, you're not putting me on the spot. We've researched that. Um, I'm blessed to be on a team that has a full-time research uh director and he studies he studied our projects for the last 23 years and studied trends like you're asking about, Rob. And so I would tell you I I don't know that we have enough of a body of work in North Dakota to predict. However, Minnesota and Wisconsin have been the majority of our work and they contradict one another.
030So, I'll tell you what what our research has shown. Passage rates are higher in Wisconsin the higher the voter turnout. meaning presidential election. We we doubled our company record for the number of surveys we did in the spring of last year because all the Wisconsin districts that were even thinking about putting something on the ballot were pointing towards this presidential election because they've gotten our newsletters and they know the higher the voter turnout, the better likelihood for success. However, we've studied the formula in Minnesota, which is our second biggest uh business sector, and it's the opposite. you cross the river and the lower the voter voter turnout, the higher the likely passage rate. And so they a lot of the Minnesota districts have been pointing towards specials elections versus generals and primaries knowing that um
031they think those that are motivated to say yes are more likely to turn out um in Minnesota for that for that type of a election setting. And that brings us back to uh the the the the gentleman that asked the the very good question earlier about well is that 20 and 80 really hold up um or is it going to be more just those same survey takers are going to show up the polls because they're very invested in this yay or nay. Um, that could be the case in North Dakota because we do know it to be the case in Minnesota. And quite honestly, that has been the case with some projects that are not that far from you. We've done projects in um on the far western side of the state where that data
032has has uh shown itself to be the case. Um, and so it's not a huge body of work, but in totality, Minnesota, lower turnout, higher passage rate. Wisconsin, higher turnout, um, higher pass passage rate. So that's what we what I can do to answer that question. We've done a few dozen projects in North Dakota in our 23 years, but we've got hundreds in Minnesota, Wisconsin that we can base the research on. Any other questions from the board before we Okay. Yeah. Okay. You can continue on with the rest. Great. So then as within the survey, we didn't just want to ask for feedback on buildings and tax increases and remodeling concepts or new buildings. This is a good opportunity just to ask the taxpayers for feedback on how things are going. And so we we
033have four questions that we ask on every community survey we give. Um unless the school district just absolutely does not want them or they've already done an activity like this. And we've had a few school districts in Minnesota where they've said, "Oh, we just did a survey just like this. We don't need to ask this again." However, we did ask all of your voters and taxpayers, parents, and and staff members to rate the district in four areas. delivering a high-quality education, keeping the public informed, managing funds appropriately, and building pride in the community. The rating scale went from four points for great, three for good, two for fair, and one for poor. Meaning the true median middle score is a 2.5 on a 1 to four liker rating scale. So, what as we looked at
034the ratings for the four areas by staff, by parents, by non-parents, non-staff, we'd be looking for hoping for as many scores at or above 2.5 as possible. As you can see, all the staff ratings were above a 2.5. As you look at parents, uh, two of the areas were at or above 2.5, two of them were below 2.5. managing funds appropriately and building pride in the community were were below the 2.5 median threshold. And then when we studied the data for the non-parents non-staff um two areas were below 2.5, but it was keeping the public informed and managing funds appropriately. So what we did is we combined all that data to give you a composite score for all of the survey takers. And the first column is the percent of survey takers that gave you
035a good or a great rating scale of three or four. And you see the percents there with managing funds appropriately being the lowest rated area. And then as we average all those results together, this is your composite score across all survey takers with managing funds appropriately being the one that dipped below 2.5. And then our closing question and the question that we ask on every survey we give because we trace it to referendum success and that is our 0 to10 rating scale our net promoter question. How likely would you be to recommend the district to a friend or family member. I'm a person personally a very big fan of this question. The former principles former superintendent to me feels like that's one of the greatest compliments a district can get is just word of mouth.
036Um people saying it's a great place to to send your kids. you should send your kids there. Well, as we look at your data, there's a couple of things we we try to look for. We try to look for is there a huge uh influx of data in the unsatisfactory range, the zeros, ones, twos, and threes. Well, there's some down there, but nothing that just jumps out. I've I've reported this um this like scale where we've seen 7% at the zero or 8% at the one. And that tells me the district really really taxpayers are very upset about something. Um my boss who started the company back in O2 refers to it as is there a big group of people that have a B in their bonnet and are upset about something. Um there's some
037dissatisfaction down there but not a huge spike at any at any of the ratings. Biggest response is neutral 31%. That tells me within that 80% that don't work for you or don't have kids in the system, they're just not sure. they maybe haven't been inside the schools for 20 or 30 years. Um, so they just gave you a five. What was encouraging is there's there's higher percents in the 10, 9, and 8, and seven range by far than there are in the 0, 1, 2, and three range. And that's important. Those 8, nines, and tens in particular, we've tracked them and and they are not just highly satisfied and would recommend you. They're your cheerleaders. They're your ambassadors who are going to be the people to say, "Vote yes." They're going to tell their neighbors
038when they're wheeling their their their garbage can to the curb and say, "Hey, that referendum on on Tuesday night, you should really vote yes. We really need that new elementary school because the other buildings are aging." Unfortunately, as we add those percents together, they're at about the 30% range. If you pull in the sevens, they're in the 40 to 45% range, which still isn't quite in the in the range where we where we'd like to see it as far as getting to that super majority. But as far as feedback for the district, it's nice to see far more happiness than than than lack of a recommendation when it comes to the distribution of rating scales. Um, as we average all them together, knowing that 31% um, 3 and 10 gave you a five, the scale
039average of all the ratings came in at a 5.89. So, with that being said, um, our data is is is in front of you tonight. I I'm still glad to take any questions we have about these percentage projections, these rating scales, or anything in the survey whatsoever that I can do to to better serve this board and district leadership uh so that you can determine what next steps you have. And as I wind down my presentation, I did want to give a big thank uh thank you to Rob. don't know that I've ever been on a project in my three years, and I've done hundreds of projects in the last three years where I've had a superintendent so proficient in all aspects of the costing um of the projects, the operational expenses that are in
040play, and then the tax implications. Um, we as a team were blown away by Rob's um, handle on all things Jamestown Public Schools. And then we would be lost in a project like this without the expertise of of Kyle and Icon um, and Travis at Icon. Um, always a great partner so that we can understand the dollars that it's going to take to provide the facilities that you're seeking and then ultimately the tax impacts that correlate to that. So, this has been um while the data isn't what any of us probably hoped it would be for support um there's great expertise around the table to help us write the best survey possible and get you the best projections possible. Erin, go ahead. So, this survey also contains some uh uh inputs for comments. Is there
041anything interesting in those comments or anything that would uh indicate a trend at all? Yeah. Um, ultimately we always start with the data and I have skimmed the comments and uh, they are something that I can make available to the boards. What we generally do as I told as I said earlier, you're kind of not done with me. We start with the data and then I typically take direction from the board going forward. There's a couple of different ways we can go with the comments. I've read them um, and and Rob has had access to them as well. If there's any theme there, it is is just ultimately it's a tough economy. Uh taxes and and and within the economy, there's a lot being asked of the taxpayer these days. There's a lot as of
042the property tax bill these days and there is just worry about one more tax increase quite honestly. Um and and that has been a theme across the Midwest. Doesn't matter if we're in rural Wisconsin or suburban Minneapolis. property taxes and taxes in general are a worry for voters right now. Um that being said, um I'm able to provide the comments and there's a lot of them. I mean there the we give the opportunity uh for people to comment and and there there were hundreds of comments in the system. Um a couple of options the board has is is we can provide all of them to you. I would just caution you. Um, it's it's it's a it's it's a large activity and it and it's an activity that can maybe not be the most pleasant
043because I think the average person taking a survey tends to vent more than they applaud. But I'm glad to be transparent with you and provide those comments if you want them. Another thing we we do as a company is we we provide we offer a a new report that we just developed this year with some software upgrades. we are able to do a a um frequency analysis for you and it it takes a few days but we could do a theme analysis for you that um it's an additional report but it would tell you the the top five or six reasons that people are not supportive um for of the project but I would tell you having skimmed them um largely it's it's just affordability um and and the tax increase Um and and Rob,
044I I don't want to in turn put you on the spot, but is there anything else that jumped out at you that you feel is noteworthy for the board to be aware of? No, I would have suggested similar. Uh the only other thing that I saw that came up quite a bit was uh related to um you know, concern that uh the district wasn't spending or allocating dollars for building upkeep enough. uh that it was uh you know it may be a misunderstanding of our capital projects plan or how much money we are placing in there. But that was a theme that came up quite a bit that I looked at too. Maybe, like I said, I guess I would categorize that as as a maybe a misunderstanding of how much money the district has
045put forward to facilities and it may be an assumption that it isn't putting enough or hasn't put all of the money it could towards those facilities, which as a board we know is is not accurate, but there's power in that knowledge that that that feeling is out there. And the trick is um there's never a good time to ask for a tax increase. And in in Kyle and Icon's world um the the challenge is that as as time goes on um construction cost goes up, materials cost goes up. Um labor, all that projects costs do not go down, they go up. Um and so if you that's that's always the the challenge. Do you put something on the ballot that doesn't show it has support? Um, we we would say right now this wouldn't our
046our prediction rate is is 94%. That means if we predict something won't pass, we're 94% accurate. But if we project it will pass, we're right 94% of the time. Um, we've always there's that 6% where we've been wrong, but the data right now is not is not looking favorable. but also the clock is ticking um on on the needs of the buildings and things of that nature and that's where the board has some further study and discussion to to undergo. Aaron, yeah. So, I guess I' I'd like to see some analysis on the comments because so you know these questions that say um you know we're not managing the funds well for the district. So, I'd like to see some analysis. I'm guessing there's some information in those comments that would give us a theme
047or two as to how we need to uh maybe address those things. Um sure, either with information or with action. So, u yeah, I think there's some value to that. Aaron, I think you have a good point. And just to further that, I think if we can get a little more detailed like is there certain um demographics, age groups, townships that might have a more comments of a certain that lean a certain way too that might be just helpful for us as far as Sure. the communication meth methods um that people prefer so so that we can get communication out there. So, thank you, Erin. Okay, Jason, we will conduct that for you then by all means. Yeah. And to um echo some of Erin's um comments as this was being rolled out and and
048the data is great, but to me the meats and potatoes of of getting any referendum cross the finish line is going to lie in the comments. And even though we may see something that may not trend highly in a themed, that doesn't mean it's not out there as a thought. it's just that one person may have put it on or and and the folks didn't uh fill out their survey, what have you. So, I think that's invaluable information that is going to be what drives our our goals um in our our communication going forward. We will work on that and get that turned around for you and as efficient of a manner as possible. By all means. Um again, we we consider the comments kind of the seasoning on the hot dish. so to speak.
049I mean they start with the data. The data tells you kind of the big picture but we will we'll deep look for a deeper understanding by by starting by uh doing an analysis of the comments. Um and I appreciate your direction on that on that matter. Any other comments from the board questions? I think we're leaning toward more just aggregate um themes um of those um and we appreciate you doing the analysis on that. Yeah, there and there may be within within 1170ish replies. Don't be surprised if there aren't seven or eight themes that emerge for your board to digest. Okay. It's a lot of information to digest also. Um and so if there's um if board members have other thoughts or um you know please let um as we move through our agenda here
050also but um let Dr. L or myself know and we can reach out to see if it's something that they're able to do with with the data that we have. Okay. All right. Are we ready to move forward in our agenda? Dr. Le, do you have any comments before we move forward? No, I think it all wraps into the next agenda item. Okay. So, moving on then in our agenda under C we have buildings and grounds and under number one um under resolution discussion. So, this is just a discussion. We have two A and B um $23 million referendum um with for potential action or a $29 million referendum with potential action with a subsequent initial resolution and the resolution calling for a special election if we so choose. Yes, Dr. Le. Yeah, I would
051just lay this out. these options uh were included uh in this discussion for potential action just in the event I can assume uh what the board wants to do in in my mind uh there's there's really three options. The one is uh you know move forward uh and I can outline the procedure if you would like me to do so. But if the board chooses to to uh move forward with a referendum, you'd need to pass an initial resolution uh and then a resolution to call for a special election. Uh whether that be the $23 million option which was represented in option one or the $29 million referendum which was u represented in option two in the in the survey. Or you could say um it isn't the right time to move forward. Uh from
052my perspective um and I think I shared this perspective with the majority of the board as I read body language and and your questions. Um I now does not appear to be the time um to make this particular request to the community. Uh we have uh reached out to the community and said we want your feedback. I think it's important that we listen to what that feedback was. uh in the in the feedback was I'm not so sure it's not one of these plans isn't the right plan, but it's certainly not the right time. Um I look at a few different uh points that came out. Um one is the conservative nature of the survey projections. Um, I think that we were pushed to, um, you know, have this particular discussion maybe a little bit
053earlier than we would have liked to because of law change that's happening on August 1st. I would much rather have had this be a launching point for greater conversation and build some more understanding uh within our community uh in a in a a referendum sometime later in the winter or uh you know pushed into the October, November or maybe even January time time period. Uh but we didn't have that choice. we either had to move forward before August 1st or at a primary or a special or a primary or general election. So, I think we had to expedite our timeline a little bit. Uh but I think there's really good data in here. uh also uh in the uh the feedback that Darren mentioned at the on the last slides with uh you know a
054lot of neutral 31% uh in that neutral category that to me says that there there are some leverage points and communication points that maybe we haven't um u fully accessed. Uh and I think that there's maybe some folks that just don't have enough information about our district and about our plans yet. Uh, and I think that we could do a better job there and that would take some time. Um, you know, I I think the community was pretty clear that option two wasn't the preferred option. I I do think that option one still has uh some potential if we could go out to our community, talk, gain get a little more perspective. Um, that might still be an option that I think we could move forward to at some point. Um, but I don't believe
055that the time is now based on our community's feedback. And I, like I said, I do think we need to listen. Uh, when we ask their opinion, I think we need to listen. So, our agenda item is resolution discussion. So, let's have some resolution discussion. Erin, go ahead. Yeah, I I kind of agree. I don't think it's uh the time now to to push forth with a resolution. And I think we have some homework to do uh on the board side to uh evaluate this information, possibly put out other options um and take into consideration the uh the data uh that they have that we have been provided here. So um I don't think yeah option one option two as it's defined today is is the way to go. Um and yeah and again we
056just need to further study that and whether we want to start that with either a facilities committee meeting or if we want to do a board retreat. I think that's probably more the direction I think we need to go for next steps. Melissa um I I agree that this is this is not a a good time. I think there are so many factors um in play. Not not only is Washington school being retired very fresh in people's minds um but there's also the fact that there are a lot of unknowns um in in the community right now with what's going to be happening with different different things. Um there is also um the fact that um the community has made it very clear for quite some time now that there is a trust factor there
057with the funds that we have already been given. Um and we need to be doing a better job of um I think showing the community where those funds are going. I know we've been showing them over and over and over again, but obviously that message is not getting to to them or it's not being received. Um, so I think there needs to be a little bit more homework done there and and getting that message out. And I think too, maybe people are kind of in a wait and see mode. Okay. You've closed one school. You say that things are this the school district is uh the the students are becoming less and less. Let's see what happens. And so I I think it's just too soon to be to be making this decision. And um
058the information is good to have. And I think maybe another reason a lot of people didn't fill out a survey is they're like, "I'll let you know when we go to the polls what my decision is." We've been there several times and um even June during the primary election um gives us more time to to do some of those things. So Jamie, I just want to clarify now this would be our last shot at a a special election, correct? Going forward in the future. Okay. I wish we had about nine more months, but um yeah, I would echo the theory. I think we need to obviously communicate with the community in a way that they're receiving and hearing the knowledge that we have so far. So Jason, yeah, and and the referendum um discussion aside,
059some of that other data we got about just some other improvements we can make within the district in terms of communication I think are huge for us. Um cuz you know, we obviously have not made our case yet. I mean, I I'll just say it and um if any, you know, if anybody uh this is great data um that we need to review, but I'm I'm confident and optimistic by these results because I, you know, it it really this really does echo I feel what the community is is thinking and until we're able to digest that and process that fully, then we can um move forward. And um no, I it's what I'm trying to say is I think it's the perfect time for us as a district to reflect as a whole on on
060communication and and um how we're perceived by the community. Seems like everyone's thinking there's a lot of a lot of information in front of us and and more information that we've requested to come to to dig deeper I think um further on this. Go ahead Jason. Would the board prefer like Erin was saying a facilities meeting versus a retreat or what are we thinking? Yeah. what are for so during our discussion um yes we can give some direction also as part of this discussion of of um you know I think we've everyone's echoing um you know not a resolution but a plan um to further dig into this so um my thoughts are both actually but um because it's going to take more than just one Um so um is the board comfortable with sending
061it to facilities and then scheduling a retreat um later on once we get the the the the next report here that we're waiting for. Is that seem appropriate? Okay. And that may take a little time to get this. But now we aren't like I said today was today was the last day. It's my understanding today is the last day that the reason we're having the special election is with the legislative changes. Today was the last day for us to call a special election um in a in a timely manner that would everything would fall into place. With that, we've now been given a little time here. And so once we get this report back um facilities can take a look at the at it initially and then um we could um then come up with
062a retreat format that might help us um digest this a little bit more. So no no it's just a this is just a just a discussion was on our agenda. So, yep. There's no um and and to review the information um you know, so the public sees the information as well. Yeah. I guess I have one more question for the school perceptions folks. Sure. So, in they have a lot of data points if they're still there or they're not there. No, I can relate. Yeah. Okay. But just the in their experience, they have a lot of experience in a lot of different conditions and just wondering um you know they get that 94% rate on uh success and failure lining up to the surveys, but that only happens if a referendum goes on the ballot
063and gets voted on, right? So just wondering if they have any any experience or analysis on what happens when a board listens to the survey results doesn't put something on the ballot and how do they move the needle and what are the what are the strategies if there's any um behind that and then what does it look like to measure that again? uh do we need to do the same survey strategy to to show that we've made we've moved the needle on that or are there other softer ways to to go about that? I can follow up with Darren and asked that question and I I will with with icon as well. It looks like Darren is still on. I don't know if he's able to respond. Maybe not. Uh I would just add just
064from our perspective, this is Kyle Kavami with ICON, that you know, listening to what the survey says is is critical and moving forward. I think the important thing for me is that you do have some valuable data and to not ignore that. And to see 31% of your community potentially being neutral, you know, that's a a a vastly superior thing than an additional 31% being negative. But I think for me that's a huge target of, you know, if I'm thinking of the lowhanging fruit, it's how do we get a third of your community engaged, informed, and feeling like they, you know, have some sort of opinion one way or the other about the school. um you know that's that shifts the narrative you know to you know I would say a huge swing you know
065for the better or for the worse but at least not a third of your community being neutral thank you and thank you and thank you for your okay thank thanks for your question and we'll definitely follow up with that information and um if there's and I I think all of us probably will h as we digest this more will have more questions and and we can just pass those along and and get those those responses um and to use for facilities committee or the you know retreat format as well. Um anything else from the board before Dr. Dr. Luck has some comments here, but any else before we are ready to move on agenda after that? Go ahead, Dr. Luck. One consideration that I wanted to bring up and then just maybe some final comments,
066but you know, one thing that we didn't reference is there's still a lot of questions, not just in our community, but across the state about property tax reform. We just came out of measure 4 and a lot of conrnation related to property tax and now the roll out of legislative action and how's that going to feel for people? we know those amounts, but that hasn't been realized yet. So, there's still maybe a little bit of hangover from that. And so, I don't think timing has been great uh for us to be asking this question right now, even just from that lens of property tax reform and still the questions about that. So, I I think that's something that we need to consider as well. And I think Kyle more articulately put, you know, my where
067where my head was at with the 31% where I think there's a leverage point there. There's a lot of people that don't have much of an opinion uh about our district one way or another. And I would, you know, one of the questions I'm likely to ask Darren is how does that 31% play into all of these other factors? Um uh and and I'd like to drill into that 31% and how they reacted on the rest of these. You know, are they mostly in the un unknown or they don't know? are they mostly in the nose? I think that's a that's an important group to get a handle on. Uh the last thing just kind of my parting comment on it is, you know, I want to I have great appreciation for our community. 14%
068you know almost 1,200 people came out and and shared their perspective uh with the board. That's pretty enga that's a that's a nice slice of our community that took the time to fill out the surveys so we could have the data to make the best possible decision. And I want to thank everybody that took uh took their time and completed that survey uh because it gives us some valuable data to start with. I would love for this to be the place where um we have a decision to uh that that we know the direction but this is still a pretty good launching point. Um, I would like to be at the end of of this this uh, you know, this continuum for a decision, but we're just we're still at the beginning, and that's okay.
069Uh, but I again want to thank our community for coming out and and giving us a lot of information that we can we are certainly not um in the dark on what our community uh, feels. Uh, I think we're a little bit closer than we were a year ago. So, that makes me feel good. Uh, and I thank the community again. Aaron, I'd just like to point out one other thing, too, is um this was what was put on this survey is it was a solution to a problem. Um the solutions weren't wellreceived, but we still have a problem and we got to solve it. So, whatever that looks like, I don't know. That's what we got to figure out. Yeah. Thank you, Aaron. Anything else from the board? Okay. Are we ready to move
070on to our next agenda? Is okay. Under D, under personnel, we have approval of the resignation at the conclusion of the 2024 to 2025 school year. A, Amanda Lee, uh B, Linda Herkhorn, and C, Natalie Schrader. Is there a motion? Motion by Melissa. Second by Dan. We have a motion, a second to approve the resignation at the conclusion of the 2024 to 2025 school year A through C. Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I oppose. Same sign. Motion carried and thank you for your service to our district. Number two, approval to hire for the 2025 to 2026 school year upon successful background check and appropriate lensure. Um A, Aaron Drown, B, Steven Hyde, C, Janet Bredesen. Is there a motion? Motion by Melissa. Second by
071Jason. We have a motion to second for approval to hire for the 2025 to 2026 school year upon a successful background check and appropriate lensure A through C. Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote, all those in favor say I. I oppose. Same sign. Motion approved and welcome to our district. On our agenda, we have possible executive session to discuss negotiation strategies. Is there a motion for that tonight, Dan? You got it. I got it. Okay. I believe that discussion with our negotiations and developing a strategy relative to the school board's position in this matter in open session would have an adverse fiscal effect on the negotiations position of the board. Therefore, I move that the board enter into executive session and that the following members and negotiators be identified as present.
072Schoolboard members Jamie Bear, Melissa Gleason, Heidi Larson, Owen McKenna, Jason Roar, Dan Tweeton, and Steve Velcamp. Superintendent Robert Le, Adam Gayler, and business manager Chris Christy grounds. The date and time are June 5th at 6:35 p.m., but the only topic will be dis uh considered is negotiation strategy. The legal authority for this executive session comes from section 44-04-9.1 of North Dakota Century Code. Uh also the executive session would be recorded. Second. We have a motion and second. All those in favor say I. I post same sign. Motion approved. So once we are the executive session is completed um we will return back to um this room to uh adjourn and close out the meeting. The only things that will be discussed are what was part of the motion. Hey, hey, hey.