001All right. Good evening. I'll call this meeting here to order on June 8th at 700 p.m. here. Uh, Mr. Kosher, could you please take attendance? >> Johnson here. Olsson >> here. >> Skelton >> here. >> Boss Ward >> here. >> And Wineer is absent, but we have a courtroom. >> Oh, wonderful. If you could please rise and join me for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> At this time, any visitors who wish to address the board may do so. We we ask that you sign and when you enter the room and please list the topic. If you have not done so, please approach the podium
002and do. And I ask that you refrain from listening any student by name or any personnel by name. Is there anyone who would like to address the board? And as a reminder, no action will be taken this evening. Um, as I see no visitors tonight, we'll move on to tannager happenings. Are there any tanager happenings, director? >> No, there's not. >> Wonderful. Uh, next up here, we'll move on to approving our agenda in our conflict disclosures. First up items. Are there any um agenda changes? >> There are not. >> Wonderful. I would take that a motion to approve our agenda. First by Jacob, >> second by Carol. All those in favor say I. >> Post same sign. Motion passes. Next up here we have our indication of conflict of interest per South Dakota codified law
0033-23. This is Rachel and I have none. >> This is Carol. I have none. >> This is Jake and I have none. >> This is Ryan. I have none. >> Wonderful. Um we'll move on here to our consent agenda. Uh we have approval of our minutes, resignation, new hires, open enrollments and bills. Uh, first up here we have minutes from our May 11th meeting. Resignations, we have Taylor Davis, fifth grade. Hari Kardeshian, assistant voice soccer, new hires, Kate Boing, sped aid, Lacy Stanger, counselor. Alexandra Riddle, administrative assistant to the principal. Olivia Hento, sped aid. Stacy Larson, special ed teacher. Elizabeth Jorgensson, sped aid. Alex McCabe, full-time nurse. Charlotte Krell, summer school substitute. Cole Figgan, summer school. Audrey Job Job, summer school. Jen Ashley, summer school. Kaden Elder, assistant football. Dylan Fishbach, sped aid. Andrew Innings,
0049th grade football. Did I miss any from that list? >> Uh, we had one more that was just added this evening in front of you, and that would be Curtis Lee from uh PAR professional at the elementary or middle school. And I as you're uh considering those uh I would also remind uh that Taylor Davis has the liquidated damages of um $1,000 for uh the breaking of her contract. So thank you. I see that included in there. Would anything like to be co pulled from the consent agenda or any questions? Seeing none, I would take a motion to approve. >> First by Ryan, >> Second by Carol. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Poll same sign. Motion passes. Next up is unfinished business and we are not in need of any unfinished
005business this evening. So we moving on to new business. Uh first up here we have approval of the business manager to allocate special education interest in the best interest of the district. Mr. Kosher. >> Yes. This is uh one of the items that we look at every year at this time. Um we've done it both ways. Similar to last year, we are recommending that we move the special education interest back into the general fund. Um, and mostly that is based on the fact that we are penalized right now with an excess fund balance in special education, although it is getting much better than it had been several years ago. And we [snorts] are less concerned about the funds in the general fund as far as the excess fund uh cap there. >> Any questions for
006Mr. Kosher? We can keep moving along then and talking about the transfer from general fund to preschool. >> Yes, this is another item that we look at every year. Um our preschool program uh is um most of it is is self-sufficient but we do have a uh small amount that we transfer in from the general fund every year. Um this this year it's a little bit larger. It is the maximum that we had budgeted um at $24,000. Um, we also had uh taken a little bit of the teachers salary and benefit of one of the teachers out of general fund this year as well because of the low numbers uh in the preschool program and the fact that we did not have one section there. [snorts] So, uh we would recommend the transfer of $24,000.
007Uh we're hoping that with our partnership with the Boys and Girls Club planning for next year and the higher numbers that we already have um registered for that program that uh this will look a little bit different uh next year. Wonderful. Any questions? Uh, moving on then, the approval of our Medicaid administration agreement. >> This is another annual item here that um any of the Medicaid reimbursements that we submit as a school district, we partner with the um Southeast Area Co-op for that. And uh for the administrative portion of that, they get 6.5%. Uh that has been the uh constant uh percentage for the last several years. So this agreement really doesn't look any different than it has for several several years and it's a good partnership. >> Yes, it is. All right. Uh moving
008on then we have a approval of our capital outlay flexibility cash transfer to the general fund. >> Yes, this now this is a new one. Um the we are bringing forward this. It was a part of our budget this last year for $300,000 cash transfer from capital outlay fund to the general fund. Uh a couple different reasons for that. Number one is uh the um the loss in revenue in our general fund. Uh this will help uh ease some of that and we feel like we've got the money um that we can allocate to that from our capital outlay. But the uh primary reason for this um even before the student uh enrollment decrease, we had sort of planned for this because during the years of ESSER when we were bringing in those additional reimbursements
009of millions of dollars, uh we still had in place a cap on our general fund fund balance. So we paid about $1.5 million in either or expenses uh that were traditionally would have been capital outlay expenses over a few years. we paid those out of our general fund. So, this is a way to slowly bring bringing some of those funds back. Um, we we have a higher capital outlay fund balance right now than we had anticipated after our building project and this is one of the main reasons uh for that is we had to limit the uh general fund fund balance. So, this slowly brings some of those funds back into the general fund. By law, we can take 45% of our uh tax dollars uh that we bring in every year from Capital Outlay.
010Um that 45% would be $1.3 million. That is where we would be capped. We would never want to approach anything close to that just because then we would be um constraining our capital outlay budget so much. Uh but we feel like 300,000 is definitely manageable based on where our fund balance is currently. The other nice thing is those that have served on finance over the years, finance committee discusses this and this is flexibility that's allowed to all South Dakota schools by state law. And uh schools use it at varying degrees. Some use it to its full capability and maximum and others try to keep their funds in their original purpose in place. And a lot of us are right in between. They're just using it to make sure you've got good balanced budgets. So uh
011we intend to use it uh just sparingly and and use it as necessary. So >> and is the max over the course of an entire year like your fiscal year? >> Yes. Yes. The max would be in one year. So for us this would represent right around 10%. >> Wonderful. Moving on then u we have approval of our official school board election from canvas item E. >> Yes. I will bring over the documents to you from the the bag here that we were the last uh the the county has already canvased. The city has done their canvas as well and now we will do ours for our school board. Ryan will have to sit this out as he was one on the ballot. Um, >> I'll sign Mark. [laughter] >> You'll take take a look
012um and you'll be able to see the the sheets that they tabulated at each of the uh polling places, each of the precincts there uh to show the total number of votes that were cast. I do want to u point out the fact that this is this doesn't run like one and we have a standalone election and you can tabulate hey this is how many voted this is how many votes were cast for us here since we have so many voters that are in the county that are not in the Vermillion school district uh the numbers don't be quite as clean that way but you can see the number of votes cast in the schoolboard election and the under votes as well so I will bring those around And uh it also has a a
013document that has the full um we should have one that has full register there. And in the past, some of you uh have seen us pull out the uh canvasing books, the big uh books, and unseal them. Uh if you voted in this election, you noticed that they were almost like on iPads where everything was electronic uh at the uh polling station. So uh a little bit different look. uh when we have our own standalone election at sometime in the future, uh because it'll be such a small vote, we may still end up using the paper ballots and the the books like you're traditionally used to. So, this was the city and county's first first try out. So, >> do you want to thank all the election workers as well that helped? >> It's a
014long day. It's a long day for those guys. Yeah, absolutely. >> So, what time did things get wrapped up? wasn't around 9 9:30. >> We were done counting at about 10:00 or so. >> Oh, wonderful. Great job. I think we've gotten by. So, these are the recap sheets. These are the ones that they um count the number of ballots that they should have here. And then these are the vote total. So, you have got the rural ones there, I believe. >> Okay. >> So, those people that are watching at home are are what the board is looking at is the precinct votes and uh the ballots that were casted at at those locations. And then we have a tally sheet that shows the totals. And so, um again, some of those folks only were allowed
015to vote for one or two things on the entire ballot. And some people had ballots that had all four or five different items on them. Uh so depending on your precinct and your if you lived in the district or in the county, you got a different ballot. >> Yeah, I heard from multiple people who told me that yeah, the school board race was the only thing on their ballot. So we appreciate them voting. >> Pretty easy when you've only got a couple of things and then somebody flips it over and they've got two pages of things to consider. up. >> It's hard to hard to get them out sometimes like that. >> I'll give you one more. >> Okay. And then this must be here the uh what used to be the pole books. >>
016This one would have the entire list here for >> if you want to inspect that at all. >> So 20 is it 25% voter turnout for the school district this year? Is that what our summary sheet looks like? Y >> and compared to years past about average. >> Yeah, >> that yeah that was the same percentage that we had in the last combined election and I believe the last standalone election we had it was about 20%. So which is still a strong number for a standalone election >> and then I believe by law then we have to post this online as well to our website. Is that correct? >> And the pre the all the canvas sheet uh has been posted since the uh Mr. coacher got the results at the district office. So folks
017that maybe were asking can come see those at the office at any time as well. And I guess while we're filling some air time, we could just want to thank all those folks who put themselves on on the ballot um to be uh up for an election and and and and actually going out and doing public service cuz it's a calling and to see people do that is it's uh awful nice and we certainly appreciate it. And congratulations to Ryan for um for that and Bill for putting his hat in the ring and uh for all the other candidates that that have served or will start to serve. Uh we'll be working with all of them between the county, city, and um school board. It's quite closely connected when we get down to business with
018things. So, we look forward to that. >> I don't know if anybody wants to see that, too. If anybody wants to see the whole do we have to sign anything or do anything on >> once you have >> okay >> completed that one they'll all say sign the same one correct >> correct >> it's different than the pole books isn't weird [laughter] >> but I hope it made everybody's job easier by the sound of it. Yes. >> Good. That's good. Did I give you one to sign, Carol? >> Um, just have the one to sign. Oh, there you go. >> Okay. Yep. Make sure that one gets to Kevin on top. Wonderful. Thank you all. Thank you, Mr. Goer. Anything else with any of the canvas? >> Wonderful. Uh, next up here then we're going
019to move to item F, which is approval of our surplus items. We have um just uh want to thank our librarians. They've spent a considerable amount of time this year weeding and going through things. I just gave you a quick example of some things that Michelle got out of the high school, but they had uh she she was able to go back and get about 780 books out of the high school library. And um uh Liz and Lisa down at the elementary library had 672 books. Uh so most of those at the elementary level were all given back to teachers and kids uh and and once they're surplused and then also recycled mo as you saw from just some samples of the dates from the books at the high school publication dates there. Those books
020uh some of the criteria we used that they hadn't been checked out for 10 years or more and or you know 1940s '50s60s vintage books. So, uh, she I just gave you a sample of some of the things that she had gone through, but we're working with the city closely to get all those recycled and cleaned out and making up space for some new books. So, thanks to those folks for a job well done. >> Wonderful. Next up here, item G, we have approval of our FY26 budget supplement. Uh yes, this is uh the fourth, but all of them have been considerably smaller than in in previous years with um all of the different things going on in in the prior years. This one is solely for our what used to be in our negotiated
021agreement as a return early retirement program. It had been grandfathered in with a number of employees uh coming into this year. We had five more that were on there. Um we have two of those retiring now. And so we don't budget for this every year because we never know for sure when those are going to come in. However, we do have a line item on our balance sheet that uh it carves out from our fund balance and holds uh these funds separated from the the unrestricted fund balance. So this is where those funds will be paid from. And uh for this year it is $50,900. And um then we will have three more individuals that will be on there for future years. >> Wonderful. All right. You're taking this meeting today though. >> Yes, bro.
022Sure. [laughter] Approval of payment for workers compensation policy premium for July 26. Looking at this, it looks like we're getting I think some great rates here. >> Yeah. >> Not a steep increase at all. >> Correct. actually the rates somewhat are going down. It is the uh the the payroll portion of it that is actually increasing. So uh that offsets the decrease but uh uh very close to uh to being flat on this. Uh so that's that's better than we have been in several years as far as work comp. Uh the reason we bring this forward as just a standalone item is normally it would be just included with the bills list as you normally see it. this one. Every year we run into an issue where we need to pay it in the current
023fiscal year. However, if we wait until the July board meeting, we're going to be late on our payment and then we'll be receiving letters that let us know that um we're going to be canceled on our coverage if we don't make payment in a certain period of time. So, we like to make this right away as early in July as we can, which means that we get prior approval from you. >> Yeah. And just for FYI, you know, our usage has and claims have have really responded well uh lately. But whenever we do have a usage claim, um we work with with our providers to try to find education pieces, videos, slip trips and fall hazards, things that would be common sense that we um ask our staff to participate in and and remind us
024that when it's icy out, we all have a responsibility to tell the janitors it's icy out and we go out and clear or salt things or if it's, you know, not standing on a chair with wheels and all the things that sometimes people do. Uh, and our staff have done a really good job of just taking care of themselves while at work. So, that's good news. >> Great job. Uh, next up then is approval of your ELO uh, audit for FY26 for July. >> Yes, we do have this on the schedule for uh, July, the third week I believe, of July, which is normally when we have it. Uh we don't have the actual engagement letter to present tonight but uh want to get just this approval to move forward with ELO uh in plans
025for that audit here coming up in about a month and a half. >> Wonderful. Next up here then we have your FY27 budget update. Uh not a lot to update honestly from last uh meeting. We went through that a little bit um at a pretty high level. Um the the actual budget document that you uh will will be presented next month at the budget hearing has not changed at all. Just some of the uh uh numbers underneath it have uh on the capital outlay budget. We did had some additional work that we want to do at the middle school with our entrance area there. that was not part of the original capital outlay plan uh for this current year or I shouldn't say that it was it we didn't quite have enough budgeted for that.
026So to be able to budget additional funds there we are taking away from some of the other line items that now we have better numbers for that we know we can allocate less there and more towards the the middle school uh entrance. And so that is is really the only change from what was presented last month. And then of course we'll have a finance committee between now and the next uh board meeting and uh much more detail at the budget hearing in July. And just uh a reminder for folks listening in that you know this time of the year we're always working on these budgets uh and getting them ready for approval at the 6:30 budget hearing on July 13th. But it's really a work in progress with the committee work that's happening behind the
027scenes at the at the district. Uh folks in have heard us talk a little bit about our declining enrollment and how some of that has impacted our staffing. Well, this year uh we had staff that ended up taking positions in other places or had retirements that came into place and we have just chosen not to fill those positions and and save those dollars through attrition. Um those are great ways to be able to do balancing of the budgets. Um hopefully this n fall we'll have really resilient numbers with our enrollment and our staff uh student numbers will will stay steady which will allow us to um you know create that budget and move forward. I think we are at 1280 was is that what we're basing our budget on? >> Correct. >> Uh 1,280 students.
028So if any students that we have above that, obviously that's really great for your for your budget. If if that the numbers come in below that, then that's when we have harder decisions to make and we will be coming before the board at some point and sharing what those numbers are and what that looks like. But just uh just kind of a reminder that sometimes those budgets are uh easier to balance because things just happen within the districts naturally through retirements. If we end up finding that happens again next year, we'll we'll see where the finances are at that point. But right now, we're just uh building this budget based on a 1,280 student um I guess number that that's what we're projecting to come in at. >> All right. I'm happy to see the
029line for the entrance at the middle school. So, is that something that will be kind of planned this year and >> yes, >> will be coming >> be done this summer hopefully. Yes, >> that's that's a project yet for this summer. >> Yes. And hopefully basically what it will do is uh for those people that come into the middle school, they they have the outside doors locked and you have to stand in the cold until you're e, you know, invited in through that. We would like to make that more of a vestibule like the high school and elementary schools, which allows you to step into a warm vestibial hallway area, but you're then locked into that area and not able to go progress into the building. So, the the idea will be to replace the
030doors at the middle school interior vestibule and then um allow the outside doors to remain open where families and kids can come in. They'll be buzzed in through the um through the the door just like they are at the elementary and the middle or high school. um and through the camera system. So, it's going to be a nice addition for the middle school and and allow a little bit more safety for the the students and staff naturally. So, all right. Any other further questions on any of the items A through J? Not. I would take a motion uh to approve items A through J. Actually, A through I because I don't think we need a budget update, right? A through I. >> Right. >> I'll make a motion to approve. >> I'll second. >> All
031right. We got a first by Carol and a second by Ryan. All those in favor say I. >> I. Same sign. Motion passes. So next we'll go on to superintendent report with no budget items to be included in that. Dr. Eldent. >> That's right. Uh a quick thank you to the board members, you know, and our staff and our all the speakers who participated in our Native American honor ceremony on August 13th. It was a great day in in the park and just a a really nice celebration of the uh the accomplishments of our senior students and our eighth grade Native American students this year was which was a new addition. Also, thank you to Tony Armbrust and the ministerial society here at Vermillion for hosting the senior balorate night, the same night. It was
032a busy day uh on May 13th and again a nice cookout and a great message on um for our seniors that last week of school for them. Um and one of our projects that we're doing this summer is an addition to the uh uh high school concession stand at the uh football field and we're adding a set of restrooms up there. We wanted to thank the athletic boosters for partnering with that and giving us a $40,000 donation towards that project, which is going to go a long way to getting that ready for the fall when we have students back out there using the facilities and um and having a much more inviting uh environment for our guests who come to watch our activities there. Uh summer projects are ongoing. Most of you have maybe driven
033by and seen the the parking lot at the high school and that was a project that's been completed now about a week. Really nice project and the kids uh are now parking on it again and and it's just going to make a nice uh smooth transition uh to the fall for us. Also, just a few other things, the big ones that are going on. You'll you'll notice a a big crane probably starting tomorrow outside the middle school where we're taking off uh five of our rooftop air exchange units um with a giant crane and putting five new ones on. We'll replicate that again in next year uh because we'll have all of the I think there's probably eight se uh six left or so that will be on that roof and then those the air
034intake systems at the middle school will all be brand new. And while we have that crane there and we're lifting those off, we're having the rest of the middle school roof completed. So that project, which we've been doing now for two summers, will be done and the uh middle school have a whole new roof system as well. >> Will that will that fix the exchange stuff with the whole gym court and all the dust all comes in the gym courts gets dusty within 10 minutes? >> That that that particular air unit was not the one that came off this year. We they basically Johnson Controls uh gave us the life expectancy of the units that were up there and they got the five worst and that's the ones we took off. So next year we
035will get to that one that's blowing dust on our on our gym floor. So >> thanks. >> Uh of course then we're doing the uh that restroom project we talked about. a lot of normal maintenance things uh and just again uh lots of neat little projects that will make our our schools just ready for kids to come back here in a couple months. Uh just some calendar items that we'll bring back for the board at the July meeting. You know, we're talking a little bit about what the homecoming parade will look like in the fall. We we'll have homecoming on September 25th that week. Uh we're we're debating on what we'll do with an early dismissal or if we'll have parade run its traditional uh the way it's always been run. Uh we'll have a
036little bit more talk after the uh administrative team gets together um on the 23rd of June for a little administrative retreat. Uh talking again um about Friday, February 12th. That was the Friday of parent teacher conferences. this year you allowed us to um only have the spring conferences on Thursday and with the assurance that we would make sure that parents had the opportunity to talk to staff and you gave us a work half day on that Friday which the staff really found valuable. So with your permission we will make that a practice again this coming year. The fall we would have both the Thursday and Friday conferences which are more well attended. Then on the spring conferences, we would just have our normal conferences on Thursday afternoon, Thursday night, and Friday, we would make it
037a staff work day. Uh I'll have more details for you next month, but that was really wellreceived by the staff, and we'd like to move it forward with you again if we could. And then we're uh also just talking about making sure that we uh we'll make sure we get our PLT days finalized. On your original calendar, we approved in January. We had a PLT date scheduled for Friday, September 25th for an early dismissal staff workshop. Well, that's homecoming day. Now that we've got that confirmed through the state, we'll have to massage that calendar a little bit uh with that date, but that'll come next month. Uh number four, there was we're talking we we were talking some dates for finance committee and policy committee. Uh there's just we haven't settled on a good date
038yet. So, uh, I'll continue to work both the finance committee and the policy committee to have those ready before the July 13th. We had scheduled tried to get them done before the 4th of July and it wasn't very conducive. Uh, so we'll still have almost two weeks into July there to get those things accomplished before the um July meeting. Uh, preschool numbers, as of a couple days ago, we were sitting at 31 students at the with the Boys and Girls Club. Uh, that's a good number. uh we have the capacity of 48. So that's what we'd like to to shoot for is to have four sections, you know, two mornings, two afternoons, uh and get that both of those filled if possible. Summer food service program. Um we're we're working a little bit here. We
039haven't talked with the Boys and Girls Club in person yet. We just have had some conflicts there. attendance has uh been down because the Boys and Girls Club have currently this last week been feeding their kids at their facility and and not participating in the summer school lunch program. Uh we're going to find out if that's the long-term plan or if that was a trial. Uh but we we just have not been able to connect with the with the club's director at this point. Uh middle school summer school experience, thank you for allowing uh Becky and the the staff there to to work on that. Uh right now they've had nine students that have been assigned. Six are attending regularly and making good progress and uh it's really kind of met the hopes so far
040of the goal of trying to get um kind of a fire lit and get some students uh some of the skills that they might have not gained during the school year. We'll we'll be able to give you a better report in July when it's complete. We've got a couple weeks left yet. Uh but we'll have some hard discussions with the folks that have decided they weren't going to attend the summer school program. Um then we'll have those discussions with those folks when school starts again in the fall. And schoolboard retreat uh date we're considering Tuesday, August 4th. We can confirm that next month, but basically it's uh the administrators are back in in the their full work schedule. That's a couple weeks before school and we've typically met for about 4 hours. uh some of
041that time with those folks to to hear what's going on in the buildings and the rest of the time for the goal the board to to produce some goals that they would like us to consider for the year. So uh maybe put that on your calendar and see if it works and we'll get confirmation somewhere down the road here. So but yeah, things are going uh going good at the school and a few weeks into our summer break, but uh we're doing real good so far. any committee reports for the school board? >> Uh yeah, the public schools foundation met on May 28th and just a couple of new new items that they discussed. Uh one, they're exploring the possibility of some new kind of mini grants for teachers and this would be modeled after
042something that the Sou Falls Schools district is doing. It's actually someone someone with their foundation has a connection to someone with our foundation. So they got the idea that way, but kind of a they call theirs a refresh the classroom and just sort of a you know small grant for you know I need this or that for my classroom. So sounds like that's been wellreceived there. So looking at doing that here potentially and also looking at providing uh some packets to new teachers um as sort of a welcome to Vermillion kind of thing. I understand this is something they did in the past and then maybe has kind of lapsed for a while but I guess it was well received when it was done. So I believe the plan is to resume those. I don't
043know if that would necessarily be with this school year or or not, but that's something that they're looking to do. Think Carol or Jacob? >> No. >> Perfect. I think you'll have quite a bit of the budget coming up here in July. Um [laughter] I believe we had a meeting there in May um where we reviewed some of these prelim budget items. them. Um so seeing we could probably move on to our financial reports for the um item A which is the funds. >> Yeah, not a lot to uh report on the funds. So that then uh the reports are in the packet there. So I'd take any questions you might have. Then a part B uh right along with that um would be authorization to pay FY26 claims through the end of June. Uh
044our fiscal year runs July through June. So typically at this time of year we get this authorization that we pay bills with another badge at the end of the year just to be able to wrap up our fiscal year with uh approval then at the July board meeting. >> And we do appreciate that. So we don't have to have a separate meeting like we used to. So are there any questions? If not, I would take a motion to approve items A and B. >> First by Drake. >> Second by Carol. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Post same sign. Motion passes. Are there any future agenda items? >> Perfect. Hopefully just a staffing update to see where we're at with some of our openings. Obviously, we talk about that generally, so just
045to see how we're sitting. Hopefully, everything's closed up before we get into August. Um, we are not in need of an executive session this evening. Uh, we do have a future board meeting on July 13th followed by August 10th. And I would take a motion to adjourn here at 7:36. >> I got a first by Ryan, >> second >> and a second by Carol. All in favor say I. I. Both same sign. Motion passes. Thank you everyone.