001[Music] Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting of the Jamestown Public School Board to order. It is Monday, May 5th, 2025, and we're in the com the Thompson room of the middle school. Please note that we had a standard space work session at 4:30. So, as you saw us all walking in tonight, that's where we were we were at and that was in the central office conference room. I'd like to welcome all you all of you to the meeting tonight and thank you for attending. We will get to all of the student announcements um fairly shortly into the program and we'll have some instructions for you to come up over here and get your award at that time. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the
002United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Are there any conflicts of interest this evening for the board? Any conflicts of interest? Any conflicts of interest? If not, moving forward to our consent. Oh, we forgot schoolboard norms. Jason, would you please read our schoolboard norms? The board developed norms are to share and respect opinions and speak with united voice once a decision has been reached. Execute all duties of the school board in compliance with North Dakota sentry code. Properly prepare for meetings. Commit to assessing board effectiveness and ensure high quality governance for all stakeholders. Thank you, Jason. Now moving to our consent agenda. Is there anything the a board member would like removed from the consent agenda? If not, is there a motion?
003Motion by Jamie. Second by Jason. We have a motion, a second for approval of the consent agenda. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote. All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. Moving into our regular meeting, we're going to have our recognition. We're going to do this in three groups and then we'll take a photo and I'm going to have some um small gifts over here for each individual. As your name is called, please come over here and meet me. Parents, feel free to come right up in front and get some very good photos. Recognizing for speech the WDA champions, we have Aiden Laurens, storytelling. Khloe Smith, speech to inform. Matthew Machinenbucker, impromptu speaking. Emma Hoke, speech to entertain. State Champion Emma Hoke. Speech to entertain
004the CST A&D Allstate Award. Sophia Bilawith and Matthew Machinenbucker. Under drama, the NDHSAA one act play. Outstanding actors CC Maldin and Sophie Hassenberger or Hassenber, excuse me. [Applause] Are you doing choir? Okay. Okay. For choir, we have All State State Choir Awards. Uh Eden Ellison, 10th grade. Samuel Pearlyberg, 10th grade. Shelby Dunwy, 11th grade. Grace Bowith, 12th grade. [Applause] All right. And for class A state vocal music, outstanding performance, Grace Bowith, Abigail Bow, Sophie Bratton, Ivy Cordell, Eden Ellingsson, Emma Fleath, Margaret Godbolt, Joy Taylor, Sigret Tweeton, Aaliyah Tyson, Maya Tyson, Annabelle Webster, no [Applause] Class A state vocal music star rating Grace Vawith Abigail Bow Sophie Bratton Ivy Cordal Eden Ellingsson Emma Flee Margaret Godbolt Joy Taylor Singer Tweeten Eliia Tyson Maya Tyson Annabelle Webster Aiden Lawrence Brilen Gert Gertis Kayn Roarbach Samuel Pearlyberg again.
005No one here. Okay. For orchestra, All Street Orchestra, Aaliyah Tyson, W Day Orchestra received state stars. And those members are Aaliyah Tyson, Maya Tyson, Maggie Stegmiller, Addison Marker, Autumn Roberts, Bel Shustrom, Amber Linds, Anna Ana Lenhard, Noah Sagaser, Emily Trevik, Nicholas Wellelbborne, Brody Ziggler, Luke Lefever, Hayden Olsen, and Marissa Molen. Go inside for a better picture just a little bit. Here come One more. Sorry. We also have some band Allstate awards for Olivia Krishna, all state band. Keen Roa, all state orchestra. Maya Tyson, all state orchestra. Also, WDA outstanding performance for Keen Raa. Um, outstanding performance on trombone solo. And Olivia Carr and Maya Tyson, uh, outstanding performance on clarinet and flute [Applause] duet. Congratulations to everyone. Moving on in our agenda under correspondence, we have a thank you card from the family for Rimmers
006from the family of Shelley Anderson and we also got some nice treats. So, thank you for those as well. Nothing under reports under strategic plan progress monitoring one strategic focus one culture of learning goal three and four. Dr. Lick. So, in this uh you have the progress monitoring report. We do have two goals. uh they're very similar goals if you remember. Uh these are two of our goals in which we've inventoried uh separate activities. Uh we categorize those activities but then we specify and we're trying to improve specifically on a handful of those activities in particular categories. So, I've given you a lot of data, even though I'm not sure I'm going to expound on each of these slides, uh, rather than just to say there's a lot of activities that our staff, uh, is
007in our in our different buildings are committing to, an awful lot of activities. And that's recognized even just looking at slide six for example at the elementary level uh across our six different categories that we've made for engagement you know 26 activities on average per building so 180 total. Uh that's just one example of a lot of the different engagement activities that our our staff and our buildings are doing at every level. But we are specifically targeting on um parental engagement events and cultural engagement. Those were our two two activity areas or two categories I should say that we were uh our goal is designed around having at least one of those per quarter. Uh at all levels they exceed that. Um you know if you again you look at elementary that's about a little
008over 16 uh different engagement um strategies per building on average. Uh if you look at the middle school, they also show they've meet that they've met that with nine different activities inventoried uh for uh engagement engagement events and cultural engagement. High school inventory again you're seeing meeting those by quarter 31 total uh or I'm sorry 31 total and then eight uh in parent engagement and cultural engagement events. uh and I'm going to talk about the overall progress monitoring when I when I touch on the wellness as well. So the wellness identifies five different cate area of categorical areas. Our focus is on belonging. Uh and so we were again you'll see kind of a similar trend if you in the elementary level about 24 per building or shade under that for uh overall wellness activities
009uh and for belonging uh over that one per quarter and this was about uh 9.4 per building. So about two per quarter or two and a half per quarter. Uh at the middle school you saw the 13 uh activities around wellness and one per quarter. They're right at the goal uh for belonging high school very similar as well 20 and then four per quarter. Uh overall uh you certainly met these goals. I think uh from a central office perspective, I need to be a little bit more prescriptive on how I'm defining what those categorical activities are, what criteria they should meet to make sure that we are uh honing in on those particular activities. Uh they're certainly meeting them. These things are happening. I think at the building level from me they need a little
010more direction in terms of what do I you know define as an activity to support belonging uh parent engagement activities. What are those criterion? Uh certainly doing those uh but I think I can be a little bit more prescriptive in terms of exactly what I'm looking for. Uh they do a great job in inventorying. I'm appreciative of all the things that the schools are doing. Um, and if we want to continue to build on uh enhancing activities that support uh belonging, parental engagement, cultural activities, uh like I said, I I feel like I need to be a little bit more directive in terms of uh specifying exactly what we're looking for. they are doing a fantastic job though uh certainly overachieving uh well beyond what our expectations are uh and making a huge commitment to
011engage uh and to build um a system for uh wellness within our student body. So with that I would stand for questions if you have any or a action to any questions the board. Okay. All right. And then we'll probably have a strategic planning meeting also coming up in the next four to six weeks here with schedules. And if there are no questions, is there a motion for approval? Motion by Melissa. Was it second? Second by Owen. I heard it coming from that direction. So we have a motion, a second for approval of strategic focus one, culture of learning goal three and four. Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote. All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. We have board education next strategic competency partnership with the
012art center. Mindy Schmidz, please come forward. I was ready for the new business. Not right now. So, well, first off, thank you so much for having me again. Um, we appreciate definitely appreciate our partnership with Jamestown Public Schools and we're looking very forward to next year when we have the culinary kitchen and are working with the with the students from the career and tech center. We're really excited about that. I can't pass up an opportunity to talk about our campaign, so I'll pass out the new campaign booklets. I'm not quite sure if I have enough for everybody, but um I'm gonna keep one for myself. In the book, in the booklet, it talks about our timeline and it talks about our our partnerships and um how much money we've raised. So, so far to date,
013we've raised almost 1.8 8 million and our goal is now 2.7 million. So, we've got a little ways to go, but we're chipping at it as we go. Uh, every day we get a little bit more surprised by who's doing donating and how we're getting some money in. So, um, we've gotten a lot of uh, response from our our partnership with Jamestown Public School in the in the kitchen and then also with our art therapy grant that we got. I'm not sure if you saw that, but we got a $235,000 grant to do an art therapy program. And so we've part we we're doing a pilot project right now with some students from Lincoln and Washington that's actually going to end on Thursday. And so that's pretty exciting and that's going to be in that
014space too during the day. Excuse me, I got a frog in my throat. So um the if you haven't been by there, you should drive by. The two big windows in the corners are going to be 10 foot windows. Now I was like I didn't realize they were going to be that big, but they're they're really going to be big and it's going to be a lot of fun to look at. And so, um, that's just a quick synopsis of the campaign. Any any questions? The any questions from the board? The culinary space looks like it is mostly drawn out there. So, well, that's good. So, um, while I'm here tonight, we're we are entering an agreement hopefully again with Jamestown Public Schools to offer our artisan resident program. So what we do is we
015offer we we find an artisan resident, a professional artisan resident that we license and ensure and all that and then that like that that professional artist goes into the schools and teaches right now they teach um at each school five to six weeks and Dr. Le I haven't talked to you about this but we might revamp it a little bit and do it more like library hours. So, she's in each school two or two days a week or something and instead of just that, but we've talked to other some of the principles and a lot of the teachers and they like like that idea, but I have a proposal for you about that, but I wasn't quite ready. Um, anyway, she goes in right now it's Anna Brock and it's going to be her third
016year. Um, that's as as many years as we really want an artist and resident to be because they get a little bit burned out. But, we did sign a contract with her for again next year. and she's a 3D artist. So, she does clay and she brings it into the into the schools and they do uh tactical clay uh projects. Um we do she visits every K through fifth grade student at in in every K through sixth grade classroom in Jamestown public schools throughout the year. And right now she's just finishing up at Roosevelt. So that's that's why here it's our agreement again. It's a our agreement time again. And I think you have that in your board packet. And if anybody has any questions about that, I would entertain them. Any questions from the
017board? They seem to be really scouring the campaign material. I like that. Oh, yes, Aaron. Go ahead. Just wondering how uh how the culinary arts how that whole program has has matured over the past few months here since the last time you came and talked to us. Well, I don't have anything to do with the program. That's Adam. Um, but as far as the the space and all that, it should be ready. Uh, we we had to sign a line of credit, but we should have the space ready for equipment delivery hopefully in July. So I I think the equip equipment is we did some a lot of collaboration on what the equipment selections are to meet our needs uh and then for the program and then obviously to uh for their needs as well.
018That's all ordered. Uh install is to be scheduled upon uh when the room is ready. We just to make sure that there was sufficient time we scheduled for next spring semester. So, January would be our start date um there. But everything's still looking like it's on time and everything's ordered. It'll just be in boxes for a while until the room is ready. Right. In in a few months or a few meetings ago, you had a personal hire form. Uh we did hire a teacher and sometimes you get lucky. Uh, and we have uh hired a teacher uh who's going to take care of uh egg ed for us and also has culinary arts uh as uh you know, like I said, every once in a while they get lucky. Uh but I think she can
019do marketing and and a few other things, too. We're going to need to ask her about the CDL program. Maybe she has that in maybe she has that too. Is she going to teach this culinary arts or just manage it? She's she's uh Yeah, culinary arts one and two. Great. One and two. Yes. So, I wonder where she wants to work for us at night. Yeah. But not very often you can find people with multiple skill sets like that, but felt very fortunate to have uh Amber Crop coming in and that was a higher form a few meetings ago. And just to follow up then too with that, um what kind of have you had any uh community interest outside of the the JB? Yeah. Can you kind of just elaborate a little bit on
020that? Well, there's people that do cottage kitchens that are cottage what do they call them? cottage farmers, I guess, and they make like bread or salsa or something like that and they want to rent the space so that they can sell it to the frontier village. Like we got a $25,000 grant from tourism because they could see the advent, you know, the advantage of having local people promote their local products at the Frontier Village. So, we've had a lot of those. is we've had just people like, "Oh my gosh, I'm so interested in culinary kitchen classes and just a lot that's that's been a big big turnout for people that are interested in in our new project. It's really been a lot of fun. And then of course um it'll open up into a green
021space so they can have that space for receptions and all that kind of stuff which will also open up into our gallery. So it's just going to be the matter of finding teachers, but they always seem to come up from the woodwork someplace there." Or somebody says, "Hey, you should do a class on this." Well, hey, you should teach it or do you know someone that does? And they usually do. Any other questions for Mindy? Again, we really appreciate our our partnership with JPS and um look forward to next year. Thank you, Mindy. Moving on in our agenda, we have superintendent report. Dr. L. Uh you do have my written report. Before I go through that report, just want to recognize that it is uh teacher appreciation week this week. Uh I want to make
022sure that we recognize our amazing teachers. We had uh three teachers and an administrator in the standardsbased learning uh workshop here just, you know, starting at 4:30 today. uh and I can't speak for anybody else that was in there, but I was absolutely absolutely blown away. Uh the quality of professionalism, uh pedigogy, knowledge, ability to apply care for students, uh and I think they those three as well as Mr. Mr. And Mrs. Anderson, our our principal that was in there just great representatives of the profession. Uh and and a great representative of all the uh teachers that work here for Jamestown Public Schools. Just amazing. and just want to thank them for their work that they do every single day, not just on teacher appreciation week, but every week uh and all the time that
023they put in. Uh as far as my written report, the facility survey and community meeting, uh I I kind of misstated the the purpose of that meeting when we have uh coming up at 6:00 in the Thompson community room next Monday. So, a week from today at 6:00, uh we'll have a review of the survey that is going out. So, it came out to staff already. Uh later on this week, it's going to come out to the community and that the purpose of that meeting is not to review the results because the results won't be finalized for another few weeks. Um the purpose is to review the survey itself. You know, walk people through, well, this is why we're asking this question. This is why this is structured this way. Make sure that we can
024answer any questions uh if they have them before they fill out their survey. So, that's the purpose of that uh that meeting. Uh but that'll be coming up and encourage anybody that's interested to come on May 12th at 6 o'clock right here in this in the Thompson community room. Um I've included in as an action item a letter of support that's been requested from the city of Jamestown on the uh extension of the renaissance zone. So this has happened a few different times uh in 2000 originally a renewal in 2015 and then another re renewal in 2020. Uh but what this does is it is uh incentivizing redevelopment and um uh redevelopment and and reutilization within a certain uh area of the community. It's 31 blocks around central Jamestown. Uh and this has been in
025place for a number of years. Uh essentially it incentivizes through an abatement, a tax abatement. Uh we have supported those in the past. My recommendations have always been to support these in the past because even though we are um seeing a temporary reduction in that taxable value, there's a long-term benefit uh to revitalizing those properties. Uh and so I I would continue to support uh the expansion of the the extension of the renaissance zone program. Uh I do think that uh you know although there are some downsides such as the you know reduction in the in the temporary uh I think the long-term impact certainly outweighs that. Um and it's identified since 2000 uh the program has increased taxable value by 400,000. Uh so again we don't see that in the short term but we
026do do see that benefit in the long term. And just with that I'm going to pause if there's any questions on the renaissance zone. Any questions on that? It's on your agenda under new business. Okay. Continue. Okay. Very quickly in the legislative updates, we have finished legislative session. Um highlight just a few different areas. Uh what has uh come from the you know a lot of different bills related to school choice. Uh the school choice uh option that has been successful through the legislative session uh is Senate Bill 2241 and that is expanding options. Uh North Dakota was one of two states, I believe, that did not have charter school legislation. So, that's a public school option uh with a little bit more flexibility. Uh that that bill did pass. Uh but bills related to
027education savings accounts, vouchers, uh those were all defeated uh or vetoed. Uh 1369 is our K12 funding formula. We were very very hopeful that uh we would be at a 3% 3% uh with some formula changes. We knew that that was going to be unlikely after crossover. Uh when that came to two and two uh with all of those formula changes uh out, we were again hopeful that we could um advocate successfully for declining enrollment schools like Jamestown and try to get the three-year rolling average. Uh those were all unfortunate unfortunately uh declined at this time. Uh but uh what came from conference committee uh was ultimately 2 and a half% and 2 and a half% so less than what we hoped. Uh but um still seeing an increase there from the per pupil uh
028as well. We're going to continue to fight for threeear rolling average. uh whether that's as impactful for Jamestown public schools uh moving forward in the future or not, it is still the right thing to do for North Dakota education. Uh and I think we need to have a greater protection for those schools that are representing that are seeing um uh that are seeing a declining in enrollment. One other area that I think is important to recognize the the uh the property tax reform reduction bills uh have come through 1176. Uh one of the areas that we need to be mindful and monitor uh in 1176 relates to the 3% limitation in dollars. Uh we think in mills sometimes because we levy mills but this is 3% limit in dollars. Okay. Uh so that's going to
029be a a a pretty significant change when we already have caps in what we can levy. So the general fund has a cap. You know the different levies levy authority have caps. Now there's going to be limits on the increase of dollars in in a in a year. Now that does exclude new growth and that gets a little more complicated. Uh so there's a new growth component. I'm a little bit concerned about that because that's going to flow through auditors and auditors interpret things in different ways and so there the state's going to have to be really clear about what does that new growth calculation mean. Uh so that excludes new growth in that year but uh that 3% limit on growth when you're talking a two and a two and a half% uh increase
030on per pupil uh on our funding formula and you're seeing declining enrollment. Those are those are trends that we don't like to see. Uh so we're going to continue to advocate for declining enrollment. We'll continue to advocate for those weight changes and factor changes that we think are important. Uh but that is where we are at for the next two years. Um the last bill that I would that I'm going to reference is 1160. Uh and that was uh the cell phone bill or what was uh discussed as the Delta Bell uh ban on student electronic devices like cell phones. Uh and so we're going to have legislation uh moving forward that's going to institute that. We'll have to develop policy uh and um make sure that we have protocols in place to continue to
031support a positive learning environment. Uh the spotlight I have this week is one of our own, Mrs. Douly, Tiffany Douly. She teaches at Jamestown Middle School. She was named the 2025 middle level student council adviser of the year. uh we want to make sure that she is recognized for really a great honor. She works very very hard to make sure our students at the middle level uh get an outstanding experience uh in student council. Uh we know that it plays an important role for our students and their leadership and we want want to make sure that we recognize uh Tiffany for doing a great job. So with that, I would stand for questions. Jason, the um community meeting, do we plan to live stream that or have it recorded for people to view? That is
032something we are we would have to work through how uh we are going to do that, but it's something we've talked about. If we if we can, we certainly will try to record. Any other questions? Okay, not moving on agenda. Nothing under old business under new business. Nothing under activities, buildings and grounds. Curriculum assessment and instruction. Number four, finance. A request for letter of support for Jamestown Renaissance zone. Is there a motion? Motion by Aaron. Second by Steve. We have a motion, a second for request for letter of support for Jamestown Renaissance zone. Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote. All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. Moving into five operations. A approval of the artists and res residence program. Is there a motion? Motion Melissa. Second.
033Second by Jason. We have a motion. A second to approve the artist and residence program. Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote. All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. Number six, personnel. Approval of the resignation at the conclusion of the 2024 to 2025 school year. Number one, Jennifer Redburn. Is there a motion? Motion by Melissa. Second by Dan. We have a motion, a second for approval of resignation at the conclusion of the 2024 to 2025 school year number one. Jennifer Redburn. Any discussion? If not, yes, Tammy. I just wanted to thank Mrs. Redford. her um ability to make connections with our student was just invaluable and we'll miss her. She's great. Thank you, Jamie. Yes. And thank you, Mrs. Redford, for your service to our district. We
034have a motion, a second for approval. Any further discussion or questions? If not, assuming roll call, all those in favor say I. I oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. B. Approved to hire for the 2025 to 2026 school year upon a successful background check and appropriate lensure. Number one, Kathy is Clement. Clemens room. I want to make sure I pronounced that correct. Is there a motion? Clemens. Motion by Jamie, second by Jason. We have a motion, a second for approval to hire for the 2025 26 school year upon a successful background check and appropriate lensure. Kathy Clemens. 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. Number seven, policy and procedures. A do does anyone mind if we
035do these one through five together or is there any you'd like to have pulled out? Good. Okay. Together. Okay. So we have number one amended D GGA professional development amended FGDB student handbooks three amended KACA patron complaints four amended KACB complaints about personnel with subsequent amended KACB-E personnel complaint form number five amended K A policy weapons prohibited on school property is there a motion motion by Melissa Second. Second by Aaron. We have a motion a second to approval of policies 1 through five. Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming Oh, no. Okay. If not, assuming roll call vote. All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. Under tuition, we have approval of tuition agreements for number one Jamestown student. Is there a motion? Motion by Melissa. Second by Steve. We have
036a motion, a second for approval tuition agreement for Jamestown student. Any discussion? Any discussion? If not, assuming roll call vote. All those in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion approved. We have nothing under other items for future agenda. Does the board have any items for future agendas this time? Okay. If not, please let Dr. Leer and myself know. We have a few board announcements in future meetings. So, I'll read through these. We have the Washington open house on Tuesday, May 6th, 2025 to 5 to 7. And thank you to the teachers that are are planning these events at Washington School. B. Teacher negotiations meeting on Wednesday, May 7th, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. in Thompson Community Room in the middle school. C. Administrator negotiation meeting on Thursday, May 8th, 2025 at 4:30 p.m. in
037the district office conference room. Health Insurance Committee meeting on Monday, May 12th, 2025 at 3:45 in the district conference room. Community meeting for survey results on Monday, May 12th, 2025 at 6:00 in the Thompson community room. Washington fair welfare on Tuesday, May 13th, 4 to 7. Administrator negotiation meeting on Thursday, May 15th, 2025 at 4:30 p.m. in the district office conference room. And school board meeting on Monday, May 19th, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. in the Thompson community room at the middle school. JPS high school graduation on Sunday, May 25th, 2025 at 2:30 PM at the Civic Center. Are there any that were missed or any other committees that were missed? Okay, very good. Thank you. Moving on our agenda, possible executive session to discuss negotiation strategies. Yes, I believe that uh discussion within our negotiations
038and developing a strategy relative to the school board's petition in this matter in open session would have an adverse fiscal effect on negotiations position of of the board. Therefore, I move that the board enter into executive session and that the following members and negotiators be identified as being present. Uh, the school board members, I should read those off to you. Jamie Bayer, Melissa Gleon, Heidi Larson, Owen McKenna, Jacob Meyer, Aaron Roberts, Jason Roar, Dan Tweeton, and Steve Velcamp. Superintendent Rob Le, and business manager Christy Grounds. And that the time, the date and time are Monday the 5th at 6:10 p.m. Motion. Second. Second. Second by Dan. Any discussion? Yes. And then yes. Oh, are there any com? Yep. Go ahead, Aaron. Two conflicts. Okay. So, I I do have a in perpetuity conflict of interest
039that I believe is still open and needs to be voted on prior to me participating in the executive session. Okay. Same conflict of interest. I would move that we allow our conflicts to enter into executive session at their um will motion a second. Okay. Do we conflict? Okay. So, Christie, you ready for that? Okay. So, at this time, we um have two complex declared. There's been a motion and a second to allow the complex. We will do a roll call vote because there has to be 100% um yes on this and then we'll do the executive session vote next. Go ahead, Melissa Gleon. Owen McKenna, yes. Jamie Bear, Heidi Larson, yes. Jason Roar, yes. Jacob Meyer, oh, he doesn't vote. Sorry. Dan Tweeton, yes. And Steve Belcamp, to 6 to Z. No, there's one. Yeah.
040So, yep. So, that motion failed. Now, we're going to vote on Yep. And now we're going to vote on the motion for the executive session that was stated by Owen and seconded by Dan. Okay. This doesn't have to be him. That's right. So, all those in favor say I. I oppose. Same sign. Okay. Motion carried. We will move into executive session. Please note that the board following the executive session, no decisions will be made. Um the topic will be as stated and the board will return here to um finish up the rest of the remainder of the meeting after this. Hey, hey, hey.