Lead Deadwood School District January 14 2026 Special Board Meeting

001to order please. >> Yes. Vote >> here. >> Lots here. Madson >> here. >> Campbell >> here. If you would please stand and find 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. I don't think there's any addition. I'll second. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. All in favor? >> Great. Thank you. So, the two items on the Can you guys hear me or no? >> No. No. >> The two items on the agenda tonight are under new business school development overview and action to date. And then we're going to do kind of a town hall style discussion. So, it'll be um you know, raise your hands, do that kind of thing. We'll go

002through it. I have a statement that I kind of put together before the meeting just so I wouldn't forget to say anything. Um I'm going to kind of go through that real quick and then we'll have a little bit of presentation with this and then um Dr. Pearson might go through a couple of things as well if I forget anything. So just kind of bear with me and then after that we'll go ahead and uh go through the meeting. So, um, so tonight we are having this meeting for an opportunity to review the land use committee's recommendations to the school board and just kind of how we got to this point. Uh, we have held a few coffee sessions. Some of you guys in the room have been to those ones and then tonight's meeting,

003we tried to do that because some people can't attend in the evening, so they want to do, you know, more of a morning time or vice versa, obviously. So, we try to hit all sides. Um it looks like pretty much everybody signed in when they came in. We're just asking to have that for attendance. So that's good for us to know. And then um as we kind of go forward tonight, you know, like any meeting, just be respectful. Uh we're hoping to have some open dialogue. We'll go back and forth. Raise your hand if you want to talk. We'll go ahead and, you know, address you. We kind of want to have it more of that style versus having like a two-minute time limit and kind of go from there. Uh we do ask according

004to the meeting will be ran according to our VDDH policy which is public participation of the board meetings. Um we always like to kind of remind people, you know, if you have a complaint about a staff member or anything, we're not going to address that in this setting. That's not what we're here for. There's a proper procedure to follow with that. So we just always kind of like to remind you of that. Um, like I said, normally we would have a twominut time stamp for speakers, but we did decide to be a little bit more free on that tonight. But we just ask, you know, if you're if you agree with something that your neighbor just said, go ahead and just say, "Hey, we agree with those things." Um, we don't need to, you know,

005repeat everything. If you have something new to add, yes, we want to hear that. Um, you know, we ask that you speak to the board. That's what you're here to do is to speak to us. So, just just kind of speak to us and then we'll go from there. Um, we wanted to start or I wanted to start just with a little bit of background because I know I've had a lot of questions about, you know, when did things get started, where is it at, that kind of stuff. So, I went through my notes um over the last three years. I didn't go all the way back because I got lost at three years. I'll be honest with you. There's been a lot of it, but I wanted to kind of, you know, go through

006that. So if um anybody looks at our 2022 to 2025 strategic plan um that is approved every year in September the school board meets and we go through that strategic plan and we try to decide which direction the school is going to go. Right? That's what we do. Um and with that strategic plan the document um specifically talked about the the land use stuff that we're talking about tonight. One of them was housing recruitment staff retention. that was a line item in the strategic plan. Also, beginning construction or acquisition of staff housing as a district recruitment tool. That was also an item in our comprehic um important to note that the land use committee was formed and approved by the school board. The first committee meeting was held in April of 2024 is as far

007back as I could find that first meeting. Um as a committee, they met once a month or as needed. Wasn't always once a month. it kind of depended on where they were at within the process. Um, and the idea was the mission that was approved by that was to advise the district on leveraging district and community resources to the district's advantage in order to positively impact student enrollment and recruitment of staff and that was the mission of that um committee. Now, how committees work is they are just giving a recommendation back to the school board. The school board has to approve whatever items are on that. So with that um how the process worked is each committee we would meet sometimes throughout the month you usually an hour or two specifically throughout that um the

008group would talk about ideas and things that they thought maybe would work with this land and then we did invite specific land holders um or we'll say stakeholders you know Black Hills Energy um we had some land developers come in and just kind of give some ideas of you know what do you guys think of We we started with that project and then from there uh we decided to go ahead as a committee to go back to the board and say okay this is what we've come up with. Where do you want to go from here? The board decided to go ahead and start putting money toward that. Um we did go through you know the budgeting process. There was items budgeted for each year of certain expenditures. There was some land sales to help

009make this work. If you remember, we had some property in the city at Deadwood that we sold to the city. Um, and they used it for I believe most of that got put in with the full room project that they did for the trail system. Um, and so that that happened first. Some of that money was spent to go towards this project and then we've been in discussion with Black Hills Energy on some property as well. That still has not come to fruition. It's still in discussion, but we don't know what's going to happen with that part. So, that's kind of the the shortened kind of background because I know I've had some questions about that. Um, and then if you remember, I don't know, it's been probably a little over a year ago now.

010The original idea that was kind of presented to the public that they saw was a 50 plus or minus lot development the school district was looking at doing. And as part of that, the due diligence came about. The committee started looking at, well, what about sewer? What about water? what about the terrain? What about all these things? And we started meeting with um city people, you know, related to the water, the sewer, and all of that stuff. So, that's kind of what happened there. Um there still has been no specific decision made on that because we were doing our due diligence before we started going through, you know, real big projects. Um and so with that, trying to think where I'm at. So after those meetings took place, um I attended I think I only

011missed a couple of those committee meetings. I was at pretty much every one. Dr. Pearson was at all of them. And then Dr. Pearson or myself would give an give an update at the very next school board regularly scheduled schoolboard meeting. It was usually under um the Dr. Pearson's kind of administration report because it's an admin report. Um, sometimes I would give it, sometimes he would give it, sometimes we would talk back and forth just of things that happened at those meetings. So that was the normal process of that. That's kind of how those committees work. Everything has to go before the school board. So that is what did happen. Um, with that kind of a real quick overview, the district owns 185 acres. So that's the total acres that the district owns. That came

012about many years ago prior to any of us sitting on this board. Um, Homestake gave the land to the city, not to the city, to us, and it was part of the Mitchell edition that was an overall bigger tract than just the 185 acres. There was more property than that. Um, and so that was given to us, and it was to kind of whatever we saw fit. We've been sitting on it for a number of years. Um, it kind of came up of, well, is it time to do something or not? That's kind of where we're at right now. We still don't know for sure. Uh we you will be seeing some requests going before the city of Leed for a preliminary flat that is going to be on the 27th and what that plat

013what we're asking to do is to break break it into six tracks. So 185 acres six tracks we're trying to break it into tracks that are a little more manageable if we decide to keep some or we decide to sell it because we don't necessarily want to sell the entire 185 acres. So it's a preliminary plat. not breaking it into, you know, six lots or 50 lots or anything like that. It's six larger tracks. Um I think the smallest one, and you can kind of see it on this map up here, the green chunk is all one big parcel. The purple chunk is another big parcel. The two pink chunks are the stuff right along the top of Greer Avenue. And then um the orange is a larger chunk. And then there's a little tiny

014I think it's like a lighter greenish blue color right in the middle. And that's off of last lost Irishman Road. So that's going to be the preliminary plat, not this exact image because we were trying to color code it for your purposes, but that's basically what the tracks are going to look like when it goes in front of the city of lead um in their planning commission on the the goal is to have it on the 27th. Um the city staff is currently looking at that because it's considered a boundary plat because we're creating boundaries of all that. Um, we are not having to do, you know, city water and sewer studies right now because you you can sell a large tract like that. Um, we may not sell them. We don't know yet. But

015that's kind of where we're at right now is we'd like to break those down into a little bit uh more manageable chunks of land. Um, I know there's been some questions. So, the pink area is the stuff right along greater. Those are two smaller tracks. The intention would be that those would be something that the school district will want to keep overall. And then the smaller um tract that's kind of the bluish area is also one that we would like to keep. And with that um the whole goal for this part is we would like to have a legal description to put in a set of covenants. the covenants that the district wants to put in place are going to be um we want to make sure that we're trying to not allow vacation rentals

016necessarily um because the whole goal is to have more local control over what goes into those houses. Um the whole point is we need housing for people that live here. Don't necessarily need more vacation rentals. So that is a a thing that we've really been looking at. And then also with that um in order to get the covenants recorded we have to have a legal description which is why we're asking for this initial plat. Um and then if there is a decision made at the board level that they want to go any further then we would have to go into the subdivision process with the city of lead which means water, sewer, roads, all of that and then that other layer of stuff and we have not gotten that far yet because we don't really

017know now. We had a very preliminary idea because obviously terrain is going to be hard. Uh we're going to have issues with, you know, water and sewer. We know that very well going into it. Um we don't know for sure if it's even going to happen, but we wanted to make sure we had a very top level view of what's what is to come. Um and at this point, uh I wanted to kind of relay to you the there's this document here which is a Q&A. This has been out there. It has been edited a couple different times. So, I have been a few people have said, "Well, I read, you know, whatever." I wanted to make sure, you know, the date on the bottom. So, some of the old ones are still floating around

018there. That process has changed. What we've decided to do has changed. So, the updated one um should be December 9th. Just so you kind of know that cuz I know there was I've seen a couple people look at the older version which still had the 40 or 50 lots that they that we were looking at. We're not looking at that anymore. If that happens, the property would be sold and because of the process that we went through with due diligence, we had to um determine what we could and couldn't do as a public entity. And we are not allowed to work with a developer specifically. it has to go through public bid and you know all of that process. Um the other one is there's a map in there basically same thing as that and

019then there's a process in here that this is kind of what's going to be going before the board at the next time and they have to kind of decide um you know where are we at? What do we want to do? Do we want to continue? Do we not? That's kind of what this meeting is about tonight is to get more information. So, I know that's kind of long-winded, but I want that's the things I know I've heard some confusion with. So, I wanted to kind of clarify that for everybody. Um, and just so you know exactly where we're at. And so, I think really other than that, um, I don't really have anything else. Dr. >> I just have a couple things to add. So, um, >> yeah. So, so addressing like how kind

020of the process has changed, you know, like Amber touched on, we were looking at an RFP process at one point. Um, if you look at the second question on this page, it kind of addresses that and a little bit. Can you guys hear me? Okay, you keep the mic close maybe. Okay. It kind of addresses how how the board or how the committee has kind of changed uh tactics throughout this thing. And I think I think it's important to keep in mind as we talk about this and people have varying opinions. Um you know this this whole conversation was born of how to use an existing resource to address real problems that the school district is is facing. And not every school owns a chunk of land that they could say, "Hey, could this impact

021our community in a positive way? Could could this piece of land perhaps uh bring the type of housing that would help the school district grow and uh potentially save off or reverse a declined enrollment trend. Not every school district has that. So I I I guess I applaud the board for being willing to look at that. And uh like Amber said, nobody in this nobody at these tables asked uh to have this asset to manage. it was we kind of inherited it and uh that's what we're what we're talking about. One more thing on these um tracks here just to clarify some things uh when Amber mentioned like the pink parts and you know there's lines drawn here where the these pink sections would be divided into I think eight different lots potentially. Okay. In

022that boundary plat, those lines, those individual lot lines wouldn't be a part of that. Um, that was just kind of something we put into the master plan. But it's important uh for you guys to know kind of why that's a pertinent discussion. And the the way the covenants are constructed is that a school district as a declarant of those covenants um any lots that or tracks that the school district owns would have uh five votes versus one individual vote. So take for instance uh and and the reason for that is like Amber said the school district wants to have some influence or some control over in the future the type of housing that's going to go into that if it ever goes up for sale and ever gets developed then then the school district would

023kind of have that control. So, kind of doing the math on that. If this big blue part right here gets sold and divided up into 48 different lots, and that's also in the covenants, that I think 48 is kind of the maximum number allowed in the covenants. Okay. Prior to that happening, it would probably be a good idea for the school district to take this pink area, those that track that the school district is going to always keep and have that platted into individual lots because then that maintains that proportion of voting authority on that future HOA. Now, if none of this gets sold for development, it's it's not as imperative to divide up those tracks into smaller lots. You see what I'm saying? Um, so I think the other thing to just to be

024transparent about, uh, like Amber said, you know, there may not be anything as far as any staff housing that those are some ideas that we've talked about. Uh, but, you know, we're going to be honest about it. We've talked quite a bit about it and is that, you know, that's a question before us. Is that the right thing for the school district to do? Is it something that would be beneficial? would it be uh handy to have that available as as a recruitment tool? And so a lot of the questions that have come at us are, well, do you know exactly what it's going to cost to build a house on that lot? Well, no, we don't. If the board would decide, you know, if you look at that uh timeline, if the board would

025decide to move forward with that phase, that'd be one of the next things. But like we're not going to put 50 or 100 hours into doing the deep level research and and getting those numbers really to a fine point if we're not even going to do it. So that's kind of that's where that is. So I I just want to be clear about that that u I don't want people to feel like well you said this before now you're saying this. Uh there are some decisions to be made yet. and some of those conversations talk about, you know, some tiny homes up here as a possibility, some single family homes in this area. Um, you know, obviously there's a lot more leg work to do before any dirt moves on any of that stuff. Um,

026but where the board wants to go with that is some of the next questions they need to answer in the next month or so. Does that kind of sound right? Okay. So, the way we can do this is I don't know if you if Amber if you want to call on people or if you just want to kind of direct me. I can run around with the mic. >> We'll make them run around with the mic. >> Yeah, I'd be glad to do that. >> Um, so if you want it, you know, if you have a comment to make like just raise your hand and we'll kind of go down the line or if you you know, I'm going to tell you there might be some questions that you ask that we don't have an

027answer to and that's okay. I mean, that's why we're here tonight, just to kind of figure out what your thought processes are. So, anybody want to be brave and stand up and start? Go ahead, Don. On that ver in the purple section, um I could tell on the map that there's some lines drawn. Um it says that it's 80 acres and you mentioned the figure 48 homes. I don't know if that's accurate or not, but what elements did you use to decide the size of each lot and how you were going to subdivide it? >> Great question. Do you want to tackle that? >> I can a little bit. So, basically, um, when we worked with the design company, it was Terasite Design. Um, they just strictly did some design work based on, you know,

028looking at the topography and kind of how it would work and where the roads would go. And then um the city was in a lot of those meetings and was able to look at, you know, what is their their requirements for water, sewer, all the stuff. Um so that's kind of how we looked at it. Overall acreage, it's not it's it's city, so city standards would apply. Um and that's kind of what we looked at. And that's probably the most um conducive area for access and and other issues with that. So I think that was my Do you have anything to add to it, Dr. Grien? >> Yeah, the other thing I don't know if this is pertinent part of your question, but you talk about the acreage that's listed there. Um, you know, the

029survey on this just kind of got completed. And so some of these documents, there might be a there might be an estimate of acreage there, like this is 40 acres, 60 acres, whatever. Some of that was just a guess looking at the whole chunk of what we own and then okay it's a piece about this big it's about 40 acres or it's about 60 acres. So some of those actual numbers will kind of come more into focus when we look at the actual survey because now we know what the acreage is of this blue part for instance and I don't know it off the top of my head right now. I think it's 40 give or take, but >> yeah. Anyway, I just want to be clear about that. I don't want you to feel

030like they're shifting numbers, but we go with the best information we have have at the time. So, >> anything else, Don? >> Where's all this traffic going to come in and out of place at? Well, I think overall, again, keep in mind we didn't get into detail of full, but it would be um Lost Irishman Road would be one. There would also be an alternative access coming down sort of by the um just second. It would sort of be down by the fire hall. >> That much traffic coming out by the high or behind the mall getting to leave >> um by the fire hall. >> By the fire hall. can put four times the traffic on that hill side and all that that >> you could >> and that lost car which where is

031fire actually going to be with this big green track you could get that for >> well the green tract is just going to be sold as one tract we would not be looking at subdivision possibly on that >> something if this all goes through then you're just going to continue with that green track but where's your fire going to come out for that green track >> and and actually The green Yeah, that that's a good question. This green tract here is really, you know, going back through these documents, you know, those are that's some of the piece that we said may never get sold. >> Yeah. But if you if this all these first few tracks develop and proceeds, there ain't no stopping. They're going to go right into that green traffic. >> Well, okay.

032But not if we don't sell it. Not if the school doesn't sell it. And that's that kind of speaks to right and I'm not trying to argue with you but that >> that speaks to why the school just let me finish just one >> you guys started guys started and the other developers come in and jump on board and we're still back the same thing Cherokee same way they don't have a fire exit. So that whole pitch and all this traffic in this purple coming down by the bio health got 48 48 homes up there 48 lots. You times that by a couple and the kids driving cars and the mailman and the city workers you just triple or more all that traffic coming down two stop sites. >> So I'm going back up just

033a minute. So part of, you know, and and this we've had people also say, uh, we I think we've had some people say the school should never sell that land. Just let it sit there. And it probably could sit there for another 100 years. I mean, I don't really care. >> Okay. And then we got people saying just sell it. Get rid of it. Okay. Now, here's the deal. If we just sell it without doing any of this platting, then we have we have no control over it. There's no foresight to it. Why they bought control? Well, you sold it. >> Because we currently own it and we're looking at we're looking for a way that that that land could potentially benefit our school district and our community. Now, let me finish this next sentence.

034Okay, just let me finish. Okay, so the reason they're dividing it up into different tracks is so that if the day comes to sell some of that, it's not an all or nothing proposition. the district wouldn't have to sell all of it in one chunk. That's I mean that was that was the thought process there. Whether it's right or wrong, that's something ultimately the board is going to have to decide. >> It sounds like to me you're putting a hell of a lot of traffic in two spots. >> I I want to clarify a little bit Clint there. The proposition right now, we are not looking at subdividing it. We want to do six tracks right now. That's it. Then if it sells, it will not be on us to make that determination. It'll be

035up to the developer. If it sells, >> if it sells, >> we don't know that. >> Sell and keep selling. You're still going to have two outlets. >> Correct. But that's not our decision to come up with. That's the person that develops that property will have to work with the city to determine what they need to do. >> Hey, we're trying to get the city's input. What are they thinking about? get this stuff doesn't blossom like you want it. Where's all this traffic coming and going? >> I think that's a question you need to have with the city though because that's they have to meet their regulations no matter what. Whether it's us or somebody else, they're going to have to go through the procedures with the city to make that determination. So, I'm not

036going to answer that because that's not our call. That is the city of Leed's call as part of their subdivision regulations. Do you have anything else, Clint? question. You say there's a benefit. You're trying to sell this for the benefit of the school. Can you explain more that that would be a benefit to this community? >> Yeah, I'd be glad to. Um, and this is something, you know, I'm not making this up. If you've been to um you know meetings uh you know commission meetings in the city of Lead uh you know it comes up in like uh chamber meetings in the city of Deadwood you know in our communities um you know we we're a hospitality based economy and that's not necessarily a bad thing but what what we've seen from the school is

037that becoming increasingly more expensive for families to live here and um that you know the as the property values go up and the vacation rentals kind of proliferate uh that's good for our tax base but it doesn't doesn't bring more families um and so I guess that's that's where we're looking at a benefit to the community is you know because it's all driven by profit right the school district isn't necessarily interested in making a profit we're interested in what's what's going to benefit our community and that is uh more families. So that's that's kind of the angle and and some people might disagree with that, but that's that's where it's coming from. So is this going to be like some sort of when the houses are built, they're going to be a certain price range

038I saw on there. Is that how that's going to work to attract families into this area? >> Well, or you want me to answer that or you guys want to answer that developer price? Ultimately, it's going to be up to the developer like like when when you sell it, even if you put covenants in there, you know, like you don't have complete control over it. And that was kind of that's why we're trying to control what we can control. Um but but yeah, in the end, there are some things you can't >> Can I go ahead and add to that a little bit? Uh just doing my own research for this. Uh I would like to say that I I tried getting um some numbers just realtor.com. Um and what I was able to find

039is that there are currently 164 single family homes with two bedrooms with one bath for sale in the Lee Deadwood School District as a whole. of those 164 homes, 40 of those homes are currently under $500,000. So, if you look at the other side of that, that means that 124 are over that um over that $500,000 price, which was mind-blowing to me when I looked at it. If you look at um the numbers on a bigger scale, uh total I was able to find just shy of 500 um total listings, but that also included land with the least expensive lot being $42,000 in Deadwood. Uh and the next one available being 62,500. And again, that's realtor.com. Um, now with what you're kind of saying about affordable housing being a concern, uh, I think all of

040us have felt that crunch. I can tell you I live in the, um, staterun um, subdivision outside of Deadwood. Um, and we currently have, you know, homes for sale in our neighborhood that are not what I would consider to be affordable housing by any means. and they are those newer uh homes. The other issue too uh we have is also regarding that you know potential fire access outside of it um as well. And one of the things that was done with our particular neighborhood was the creation of a tiff that when that land was originally um sold and developed the homes that were built uh were built to be affordable housing. Now, what I would also like to call uh to mind for you guys too is to remember that we are looking at potentially

041selling this land I I mean to a developer and then ultimately it would be up to the developer to decide how that's going to go from there as far as what kind of housing. However, that's part of why we want to have these covenants in place. If any of you guys do live in a covenant controlled community, it can be a great thing. It can also be a royal pain, too. Um, but the goal of those covenants is going to be to help uh keep those keep those houses uh ideally uh at a range that are going to be more affordable to our families and not necessarily geared toward the vacation rental um as well. I I couldn't tell you exactly whether or not, you know, every house that goes up is going to be

042in that $250 uh,000 range or if it's going to be more than that. I we don't know. And once that land is sold, we don't necessarily have that control to do that. The idea is to try to put things in place to help give us a little bit more control to uh to help influence where we have the ability to influence because once that land is sold, it's ultimately going to be up to the developer. But if we have those covenants in place and we have that HOA in place, that gives us a little bit more ability to affect what's done within that neighborhood. And if any of you guys do live in an HOA controlled area, um that that's one of the reasons that you have an HOA is to help with that with

043the entire neighborhood. >> Uh so I'm trying to keep on track with that being said. So with an HOA, you really can't I I've never really seen the possibility of a covenant being set to cap it at 250,000. I no >> 300,000. So that's that seems like a very fun global variable. Um I would but anyway moving on I'm just more curious if we want to use this money why isn't it more a thought process of like directing it towards teachers and wages to get more people here and affordability status that way. Um, and also I mean because of creating working on this infrastructure and doing these loans and whatever, how much is that going to make the taxes make anyway? >> So I can speak to that first part about the 250. I didn't

044say capping home prices. No. Um what I was trying to explain was that um if you look at what we've discussed as far as affordable housing is concerned, you know, numbers such as uh $250 to $500,000 price range was kind of what was put on here. Um now I I know you've seen plenty of covenants that say, you know, minimum $2500 square feet and these are all the different requirements, right? Um, so I just wanted to clarify that I'm not saying that there'd be any kind of a cap and you're correct. We don't have the ability to do that. >> Yeah. Trying to control affordability. >> Well, and part of that would I mean that would ultimately be up to the developer and any decisions that were made in conjunction with the city as well

045whether or not they chose to pursue say a tip or something like that. >> But um I I just wanted to clarify on that piece. >> Thank you. on this thing that's not ready to be fooled or human. >> Yep, I see your hand. I'm coming to you. One thing I'll address is like the the uh salary issue and any of you who were uh there for my presentation on Monday. You know, that's something also that the board is working on uh in a number of ways. You know, one way is uh to make some enroll or not to make some uh staffing adjustments over time. So, our staffing matches our enrollment. Uh, when I came here five years ago, uh, our starting wage for pair of professionals was $12 an hour. Uh, now it's

046196. >> What's that? >> 56. >> 1956. That's that's a pretty good bump in five years. Uh, we went from 88 in uh, base salary in the state of South Dakota to now we're in the top 15. Uh, so we are working on that. But the other the flip side of that is then we have to have like like some of the overall numbers we have to absorb some positions over time for our enrollment stays down. That's the other piece of that. That was the answer to my second question of whether or not whether or not our economy can afford $250 to $500,000 home um the schoolboard economy. But I I would like to address the u the covenants. Uh I think everybody knows that the city of Leed does not enforce covenants. It's not

047their responsibility or proprietary. They don't care about them. Covenants are enforced by a homeowners association. And since uh now obviously league will enforce their own rules and regulations, but uh but they don't enforce covenants. So you enforce covenants by suing somebody. If somebody in your neighborhood is not complying, their grass is purple instead of green, and the covenant says it has to be green, so you sue. And the HOA then has to hire lawyers or go to court, etc., etc., which is not desirable. Um, I just wanted to point that out. Maybe everybody knows that it's >> No, that that's a good uh that's a good point. Your your covenants are only as strong as your HOA. And that's why, you know, if we if we part with some of this land, you know, right

048now we're and you know what, if down the road if if a future school board says we want to get out of the HOA business, we don't want anything to do with it. Well, it be it'd be pretty simple to either dissolve the HOA or sell their lots and seed their control. That can always be done at a later date to get that control back is never going to happen if you don't plan for it. So, I think that it's uh it's good that the board and the committee has kind of planned for that and and again addressing, you know, the color of the lawn and like we're we made it very clear when we started drafting those covenants that we don't care what kind of mailbox people have. We don't care what their siding

049looks like. I mean, within reason. Uh but but the covenants are more geared towards uh the vacation rentals, that kind of thing. And then and then some of your common things like if you're going to if you're going to build on a lot here, uh you have a certain amount of time to get that done. You have to take care of the landscaping and the drainage so that you don't create a problem where you wash out your neighbor. You know, those are the kinds of things that are in the comments. But okay, I'm talking too much. >> And could I add to that as well? And please, Dr. Pearson, correct me if I'm wrong. Um, you're completely right. >> Alurch, >> you are completely right when you talk about, you know, the HOA having to

050be the one to, you know, go down that road of going to civil court and suing someone, etc. I would like to clarify, and this is where I want you to correct me if I'm wrong, but HOA does not mean Lee Deadwood School District. It would just mean Lee Deadwood School District would have a seat at the table of the HOA, but it would ultimately be that HOA that would do that. would that be us as a school district hiring the attorneys if it came to >> and that's a good point you know like in trans full transparency if we if things got to that point the school district would have representation on that HOA but you know as you know like your HOA fees uh pay for kind of the war chest of the

051HOA and that kind of thing there's there are ways that though and we we read horror stories all the time on the news about these HOAs are out of control and and going after people and uh obviously we don't want any part of that and that so we're going to let that happen but >> I'm excit the the whole idea of the water treatment having to be addressed because I've heard it's at capital city I don't know yet now if that's true or not but it's at its limit so the water treatment center would be addressed would need to be completely addressed up and all of that you would say you're leading up to the developer even in the pink area. >> No, >> good good question. Uh like I haven't heard that that water

052is at its capacity. When we've talked and I don't know Robin I think has been there I don't want to put you on the spot but when we've talked with the city employees we've asked is is there capacity uh to to serve a future development with water? Now sewer is another story. Okay. And and we know that we've done a little bit of research on that. And that's where like when we talk about the areas in the pink, uh we've asked that question of city employees. Uh can the city of Leed handle eight more houses? Yes. So yeah. Um so but yeah, the the sewer is it's it's going to be an issue right here. So this whole thing like the large development may never happen. uh because that's going to be on a on

053a developer to uh to tackle that problem. But I think also I think anybody that's been here a long time and I've only lived here 5 years, but I've been South Dakota for 52 years. I think just about anybody in this room can look around and identify some places you'd have thought would never been built on and now people are doing it. And so I, you know, I can't speak to the future. We can only prepare for it. Well, and I think it's pretty important to say anybody that works in development, there's a lot of realators in this room. Um, there's things that can happen if somebody wants to pay for it. So, sewer can happen. It's not that current system can't take on more, but that doesn't mean the city's not going to have

054to have capacity of some sort in the future. Might mean somewhere along the route they have to put in a station, another station. There's things that could happen. So, I want to make sure everybody understands that just because that particular area maybe can't doesn't mean they couldn't put in an additional system. >> Right. I'm more just saying that this wouldn't be on the school funding, the funding you're using. >> No. >> Yep. The intention would be that if the property would sell, again, the developer would have to go through the city process to develop it. Whether water or sewer, sorry to say, but the city does allow septic systems. That's an option. you know, there's things in there that could be done. We're not going to take that task on. And that has become very

055apparent because of the due diligence we've done up until this point. Anybody else? >> Go ahead, Matt. >> For the lots on, >> uh, are you saying, um, the, uh, if you were to build a house on Greer that doesn't have a sewer line running up it, that that would be on a developer and not the district. If we decided to do it, we would have to determine with the city if they can do something or not. We don't know yet because we haven't gone that far. >> If the district built the house, it would be on us. >> So, yeah. >> And really, there are a couple of different ways to, you know, nobody's trying to be slippery here, but there are a couple different ways this could go. So, if we decided to,

056let's say if the district decided to invest in some housing on this pink area, like let's say we're going to we're going to build a house on this lot right here on the bottom. Okay? If if the district were just going to do that right now, we'd have to get that sewer to run down here to Mountain View. There's sewer right here in Mountain View. Okay. Now down the road like say we don't do anything with that and this goes up for sale the district could make a condition of that sale that when you put in this infrastructure here that these lots above it need to be able to access that sewer. So it may depend on when it happens if it happens that may go on a developer even if the school owns those

057lots. Uh because right now we control it and if a developer says, "I don't want to do that. I'm not going to buy it." Okay, so be it. Or they might say, "You know what? I'm making 48 lots." Yeah. Like for you to have six more on this sewer system I'm putting in, that could work. Uh this pink area right here and and make no mistake that that's steep. You know, you walk a few feet off of Mountain View right there, it drops down pretty sharp. Uh we know that. But there's sewer and water right there on Mount View right there. So, it kind of depends on where you're talking about and yeah, again, not trying to be slippery here. It's just there's a lot of different ways it could go possibilities. Yes, Mike. Okay.

058My concern is is uh who makes a decision on where the road is going to be coming out up on Mount View. Is that the contractor or is that the city? Because because you're you're going to be looking at when you come off the deer and come hook on to >> Yeah. >> Okay. Up there where up there where client's house is. >> Yep. >> Okay. You come down around that corner. I've already had three cars end up my end up in my uh property coming down that slippery hill right there. Uhhuh. >> So who makes that decision? Because I the thing is what I'm concerned of is having we got a pretty quiet development up there from you know depends on the snow depends on motorcycles and how many renters are up there. But

059my concern is is uh people coming down there and uh if you take first street you got to move over on that. Okay. Then if you come down third street, there's a steep slope there. So my concern is that uh where you know the out there right there is uh to me looking at that property is going to be pretty steep and I think it's going to be pretty dangerous for that area. Besides that, if you go and look at that where that pink where that pink spot is that arrow paint, my understanding is there's only a 5 foot setback for to build houses on that. I could be wrong, but I that's what I told the other day. So, you're going to be ended up having a mess with there going to be cars

060parked on the on the uh on the road. Okay. >> Mhm. But I think I think we're going to be looking at I think coming out that development coming out of Greer down to Mount View. I'd really like to know who's where that's going to come out at. Okay. So, do you want some answers? M. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah. Who you asked first? I'm trying to keep track of all the questions. You asked first. Who's going to decide? Is it going to be the developer? Is it going to be the city? As with any development, you know, the developer is going to have to come up with a plan that they're going to have to engineer and the city will have to approve that. Now, Robin, putting you on the spot again, is that more

061or less the process? It's oversimplified, but that's pretty much the process, right? >> Okay. So, it's between the developer and the city to approve that. And and the city has has an oversight responsibility, not just with this, but with any development that might happen. And then uh parking on the Oh yeah. Yeah. this pink area right here, you know, um I I think that brings to mind yet another reason, another good reason that if this goes up for sale, that pink part, it's not just about the control there of the in the HOA, but if school district retains that, you know, like like a developer, once they buy it, they do what they do, you have no say. >> I see. >> And so So, if the school owns that, number one, like we're listening

062to you right now, and the last thing the school wants to do if we would ever put a house there, uh, last thing we want to do is create a mess. And so, I think that's pretty good reason for the school to retain ownership of that pink area. Um, because I don't want to have to arm wrestle with Greg over what's going to happen there. You know, it's I'm sorry, I'm just making a little joke there, but yeah, you know, I mean, man up. >> We're, you know, we want to be, we want to be good neighbors, you know, not just we, but the school in general wants to be good neighbors and that's why we're having these discussions. Yeah. >> Well, and I think it's important to understand that road is a city road.

063They have regulations that say who can park on that road. That's the easy answer. That Greer Avenue, it's it's a city road right now. So whatever their, you know, parking regulations are, I think that's what would be in effect. I'm John Sternhen. I am on the planning and zoning board committee and she is correct there. You can park on that street. Now, one of the things that would be imperative that I think as far as approving a plat that would be to currently in the first subdivision, you have to have off- streetet parking and our community. I've lived here my entire life and we have a lot of streets that are one lane streets and parking on the streets, things like that. But going forward, you know, you have to make sure you make the

064proper decisions that you don't make things worse than they were before or compound problems. Uh I've said it a couple of the other meetings, not everybody had the ability to go to some of the morning meetings. I was at both of those and I've stated and most of you on the board have heard me uh my opposition to the school district owning houses or being in the rental property business. And I made a post on Facebook today. I stated that again. I think that uh I've been in the rental property business myself, rented property, uh it's complicated. Uh I think the board needs to really consider you know what they would maybe be trying to tackle in doing that. Uh the biggest thing that I can see would be morale problems. If you give an

065entry- levelvel teacher and and granted your your wage has gone up but for entry- level teachers but existing teachers wages haven't gone up comparably. So now you're making a a closer margin between a teacher that's been here for 10 years compared to an entry- level teacher. And you know, they don't have animosity against the new teachers, but you are causing yourself a problem. You might not realize it, but I think that is starting to happen. So, if you give an entry- level teacher a rental property, another leg up for them, and the people that have been here for 10, 15, 30 years, they're they've been paying their own property taxes, they bought their own house, they've gone through the whole process, you're going to cause morale problems. Aside from the fact that now you have

066houses that could potentially I built seven of the houses that are in the Hurst subdivision. And so I' I've been in the building construction field for 30 plus years. And if you build houses up there, they will not be built my this is my personal opinion. I do not think you can get houses on those lots even on the pink for less than $300,000 a house. So, if you build six houses, you know, you're you're spending close to $2 million of taxpayers money to build a half a dozen houses that you could maybe rent out to entry- level teachers. And I don't know about the rest of the people in this room, but the lion share of the people I've talked to aren't interested in that. They don't want their taxpayer money to be invested

067in housing for an entry- level teacher who starting at 50ome thousand dollars a year is probably one of the higher paid people in our community. I mean, teachers are good jobs. You're you're a higher education. You know, you have a a degree, so you're getting paid more, but if you compare it to other people that are taxpayers that are funding it, they're not making any more money than an entry- level teacher. And so, uh, I I think you're in the wrong lane, just to put it bluntly, and you need to really seriously consider. I mean, if you I'm not against the development of the property at all, but the school district's involvement in it should seriously be considered and and rejected. Basically, they shouldn't they should plan it out into marketable tracks and sell it

068and get it on the tax rules. The sooner you do that, I think the better it will be for the rest of the taxpayers in our school district. >> Thank you. >> Is there anybody else? I'll come back to you. The school board has spent maybe $30 some,000 on engineering and surveying. How much is it around there? $35,000 so far. And I think it said in this flyer that you might spend another $35,000. And so that so far with these lines on this blue part is that is that where our money was spent to decide that making these into different plots and then building the roads and stuff like that. Build design designing the roads. >> No, we haven't we don't even have full design. This is just platting and getting all the easements together

069and and that kind of stuff. >> Yeah. >> But ours just just to touch on that a little bit. I'll I'll speak up so you can hear me. Uh there was some initial work that Terasite Design did and there was a there was a master plan that they did and some of that you'll notice there was like a an intime contribution from them for $9,000. They they did some of that proono, but then uh then going forward as we got into like like more of this stuff. Yeah, there was some engineering to even see some feasibility something. So >> according to this map, you know, there there's it looks like there's roads on this purple section. >> Yes, they those lines. >> Yeah. Has the school board the members have they walked or driven down

070this purple section? see what the the bography looks like. Can you raise your hand if you have? >> Yeah, I've been up there a number of times. Some of that you can't just drive down right now. There'd be dirt work involved to do anything, >> right? >> Yeah, we know that. I' I've walked it a number of times. I've been up there. I think a number of us have been. >> Let's wait. Louis still talking and then we'll go through that. you drift out in all. >> I mean, I I've went down and on this west end here where they have these roads and these lots and stuff. I mean, that's very deceptive because that is not developed at all. I mean, your grades go from there's a road right underneath the high power lines

071and stuff like that which you can't build and then it drops off 50 or down. And I mean, when they when they have these lines on here and all these lots and stuff like that, it seems very deceptive for me because maybe you can go up from the fire hall up to that one area and there are some areas right there, but all of this other stuff on the left half of this, it's not built. And you're talking about the green part. No, it's blue part. Yeah, purple part. >> I mean I And I mean it just it just goes down like this and then right above the road which is just a logging road underneath there. The power line won't be able to build there. Um I just think all these lines on this

072purple section, it's not active at all. So when we're trying to come to these meetings and say there's 47 lots here, I mean anything can be developed, but there is no way you're going to develop most of that property in a purple section. And if you do, it's not going to be affordable housing or even affordable building. So I mean to draw some lines on there, but but it is it's not factual at all. I've driven it. I just don't see it. >> Thank you. >> Yes. I teach chair at the school at the middle school. I've had some really uh pretty in-depth conversations with Dr. Pearson. Uh we also live here. We own a house on Lost Irishman. And I just want to say that I Sternhagens I agree wholeheartedly with what they've said

073that we're up for some pretty big challenges in in what you're setting forward. Um I've got other other views. I talked to Dr. Pearson about some things uh that I just think board really needs to take a really strong look at. Uh gladly share you that but I won't take up everybody's time. But like one of the things was uh to develop tiny homes which would ultimately go up in by the water tower. Is that correct? >> And I talked to Dr. Be and 400 square ft. That's about where all of us are sitting right uh for a home. And I don't think the school we have a little discussion. I don't think the school district hires enough first year teachers or single people that are going to live in a 400 foot home. That's

074my opinion. I would rather see the school invest in the a larger home or something like across from city hall the apartments that are there. There's one for sale in there. Buy something like that that's got uh an association that takes care of the exterior and still removing all that and put families up in something like that. I would rather see the school get involved that way than that we're looking at. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, in fact, >> this is going in. >> Okay. >> All right. Well, I can talk pretty loudly with that one, so we're good. Um, I appreciate that. And in fact, that's been brought up to me some more. Um, I did have very, very limited discussion about whether or not that would be feasible for something as something

075for us to do with the district. Um, now I did not when I had my discussion about potentially doing something like that, um, I was thinking about it more in terms of, you know, uh, having it be something that we could, you know, have like say our building trains class do some of that work on the interior and not only be able to make it a part of our curriculum, but also uh, as at the end result be helping to provide that housing as well. My understanding is that we're that kind of puts us into a a gray area. Is that accurate? Is it only if we were to potentially sell the property that that would be a problem because of the fact of um of our requirements as far as surplus? Like is that

076even >> So, so if you build a home and and there are dozens of school districts that do this in South Dakota. If you build a home and put it up for sale, it would have to be uh you know, if the school district bought the materials and you're going to put it up for sale, it would have to be at public auction. That's that's the simple part of it. I know I have done as a as a teacher who taught the building trades class. I've done partnerships with local lumber yard where we built built a house that the lumber yard owned from start to finish and then it was their problem. you know, they gave us the curriculum project. Basically, we built it and they sold it. Uh, I know like the Kimble school

077district, for instance, their building trades class built a house and you guys are going to love this. Superintendent lives in that house. Now, school district owns it and it's part of the package for the superintendent. So, I mean, there have been different things that have been done and there's, you know, legal ways you have to go about whatever your goal is. So, I think I've got a couple people have raised hands here and I'll try and hit those. I just think I wanted to get some information here. I I think I heard something about putting this whole property up for bid in the past and it's past >> say that again. >> Consider selling. Did you consider selling the whole parcel and using the money? How different? every year um for the last I don't

078know 14 15 years this land comes up every year want to know what we want to do with this property that we the school board has considered numerous times do we want to put it up for sale do we not want to and every year prior to this we passed on selling property >> so you haven't put any ask for any bids on the property >> no as far as I so as far as I'm I know you know May you but uh we've ever gone as far as uh there may have been realators talked to or different times maybe in the past when Dan Leg was here but as far as I know it was never we never went any further. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes sir. >> What what was your name?

079I didn't catch it. >> My name is Ron Shine. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Do you want to say helpful? Has the moment passed or you want? >> No, I covered it. >> Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to say, you know, I think we kind of have a division of opinions. Those who don't want to see the land developed at all, that's not me. I'd love to see a a sky ridge or a a whatever that one outside deadwood is, I'd love to see that in me. where my concern is is is it the school's responsibility or what are the pros and cons I should say of the school maintaining property maintaining houses you know we have three to five tiny homes is on phase two stubborn 2026 that's three to five sewer you

080know toilet systems three to five paint jobs three to five upkeeps of homes um and it just I think that the community needs to know where there are other do we have other options for you know incentivizing teachers through siphons for rent or have we considered anything other than just building >> obviously yes we've considered a lot of things right I mean you know that like yeah we >> I wasn't sure >> I don't know if there are programs like incentivizing $500 out to pay rent in town you know there's a new apartment complex just outside of Deadwood that I'm sure is Yeah. So, one, one bedroom, one bath, that new one in bed would start 1,200 bucks. So, $1,000 a month subsidy for a teacher would go a long way. And, uh, I just

081wasn't sure if we considered things like tax rather than jumping just to building houses. And then one more comment is we discussed uh, you know, these are steep hills. These are there's snow in lead, people slide off roads. you know, there's a lot of liability that comes with owning and managing rental houses as well. Um, and I don't know if it's going to be our janitorial staff that upkeeps these things. And, you know, when you need a a drain snake at 1 in the morning, if it's going to be our staff who's doing it or though there just a lot of considerations that I wasn't sure if if we've weighed the pros and cons for other options as well. Yeah, you bring up some good questions, Aaron. And like I would say the board is

082weighing the pros and cons right now. So, you know, and that like where it says uh summer 2026, you know, that's pretty impressive. That's right. So, like when that was put on paper, um you know, we kind of went with the earliest date it could happen. That doesn't mean that's the plan. But if you put like let's say we put 2030 on there and then it happens in 2027 then oh the school board's a bunch of liars. So you kind of put the earliest possible date there. Uh the other thing I'm glad you brought this up that timeline there an all or nothing proposition. So those are things that the board you know hearing your input looking at some other things those are decisions that they're going to be making. And so this it's all

083very timely decision. Yeah. I just want to say I think Aaron hit it right on the head. There's just a lot of things that come along with this that we're not looking at. If you want to sell it, great. If you want to devel it to a developer, I'd love to see it see it develop. That's great. We don't whatever. As far as these tiny houses and the school owning them, it's a bad idea. It's crazy. It's just, you know, you say, "Well, it's going to be 1.2 million is what we told last night or four little houses." Well, man, we're flushed with cash, I guess. I mean, it seems like we have that kind of money to build little houses and maintain them. And our janitor staff is not they're not >> They're pretty

084good. I get it. But there is a lot of maintenance to do. It's just it's it's just something that I think we should not be doing as a school district. Take care of the kids, give the teachers more money, and forget these little houses. >> I just wanted real quick. So, say you do sell it all to the developer. Where's the allocation of those funds go? Is it going to go back to teachers? I mean, have you guys talked about when you sell where that money is going to go? That seems like the bigger picture right now. >> Yeah. >> I would say this, and I'll let Margie weigh in on this as far as which funds it would go into, whether it would go into capital outlay, general fund, that kind of thing. Uh,

085one thing I would note, if if we don't do any pre-planning with it and we just put the whole works up for sale, okay? Um, you know, pick a number. If I if I pick a number, everybody's going to say I'm a fool. So, you pick your own number, whatever that is. And, you know, I'll just say like our combined budgets are like 12 to a year. Okay. Now, that's going to maybe go up, maybe it's going to go down as we trim uh or uh decline enrollment, whatever. But whatever number you have in your mind, if you just put that up for sale, how far is that going to go? You know, and I think that uh what the board is doing here is rather than looking at that as an asset to just

086get rid of and then you have a little bit of money uh that won't go very far, will be gone in a few years. Uh, I think the board is is doing some due diligence and kind of planning for the future that uh maybe maybe there's something more important than money. You know, they aren't going to give it away, but maybe the thing that's more important than money is, you know, how can this impact our community? I think that's something people are losing sight of. We can argue what's the right thing to do or not. But when I hear people kind of speak with angry voices about this stuff, I think you got to remember you got a group of people here that are trying to do good for their community. And we can disagree

087on what is good or what is right. And that's why we're in America. That's why we have a voice on that. And they're going to make decisions on it. But I I think we need to kind of keep in mind what the motives are. Uh and that is to improve the community. That can mean a lot of different things. >> I don't need money. >> All right. >> I don't think that anybody's being angry, >> but you know, he said a little bit of money. We're getting $285,000 for a half an acre lot house. We got all this property up there worth millions. Can you imagine if you took that money, put a state-of-the-art welding shop in, electrical shop, body shop for these kids to learn how to do something besides just math and science,

088which is great, but not all kids need that. And I think we should really be focusing on the kids more. And I listened to Amber talk about how long she's working on the project and the board. And there's been a ton of time spent on this. How about all that time being spent with the students? Wouldn't that be great? That's what I think. I think let's look at what we're supposed to be doing. Take care of the students. You know, make that our priority. Uh granted, I think it's nice to have, you know, but I'm not criticizing you at all. I'm just saying I'm looking outside the box. And Mr. Superintendent, I went to this high school in the 70s. There was 550 kids in this school. Now there's 160. So I mean there's a

089lot of things that have changed. But I think with that kind of money that's available up there to make give the teachers some more money, you could use the interest off the money to make that. And hey, listen, I've never said anything about this. All the time it's been going on. My wife's sitting there and I don't want her to have a hard life because of me. But I'm just telling you, she's not going to I mean, you have every right. >> What do you think I'm going to do for her? >> Okay, let's go ahead and finish up what you would like to say. What I'm trying to say is I think that you trying to do the best you can with this, but I think like Sean Stern says and my brother, we

090need to look at selling it to a contractor that knows how to develop it and the school doesn't need to be in the business of building houses or developing land. Our job is to take care of the students and make sure we have an educated community. can maybe talk to the people in the community a little bit before we do so. >> Well, that's what they're doing. >> Anybody else? Go ahead. >> You want mic or I talk about what's wrong with defle to totally keep increasing in value and you don't really need the money, >> right? >> That's an option before the board. Yes. It's >> not that it hasn't been looked at. It is an option before the board. >> Amber, can I just address where the funds would go if they would

091sell it? >> Yeah, that would be true. >> You want a mic or no? >> No. >> Okay. >> No, thank you. Um, >> it would have to go into Capital Outlay because we're limited in our general fund. Um, we can't have an excess excess cash balance. So, we would put it into Capital Outlay. That's where all these expenditures are being taken out of anyway. And then they do have that flexibility where we can transfer 45% of the capital outlay fund into general fund to offset our uh teacher salaries. So that's the way it would have to work. >> Thank you, Margie. >> Thank you. So, I guess to kind of piggy back a little bit, I would say that every single person at this table, our ultimate concern is our district, our kids, our

092staff, and that's why we're looking at potentially doing something. Now, when we talk about that potentially doing something, that's where I would like to put it back to you guys and ask you guys for a show of hands. I've got three options written down here um for what to do here. One, would you like to see us sell the land? Two, would you like to see us keep the land? And three, would you guys like to see teacher housing? So, I I would appreciate it if you guys would raise your hands and just show us um where where you fall on that. Um if you are in favor of selling the land to a developer, would you be would you show me your hand? They >> vote for more than one, right? >> Sure. Perfect.

093Thank you. How about keeping the land? >> I don't think that should be an option. >> Yeah, keeping the land, not itself. >> And then how about teacher housing? >> All right. >> Okay. So, I'm going to throw in what about the idea of kind of doing what we're doing, which is trying to break it up into more manageable tracks and then if we need to sell something, we have something to sell, but maybe we don't want to sell all of it. >> Well, that ship is sailed though. >> No, it hasn't. It hasn't been planned yet. City hasn't approved it. But I'm just That's >> makes more sal >> because the way I look at it is we still own all the land. We own 185 acres no matter what. If we break it

094into smaller portions, it's just making it more manageable because yes, it'd be great. A developer wants to buy all 185 acres. More than likely, they're going to want the stuff that they can feasibly get to. And the way I look at it, and I'll be very honest with you, is there's some of that that has great potential for us to use for hiking trails or other things that would benefit our kids that like to go out and do stuff. um our community that you know you see people hiking through there all the time. There's ulterior things that could possibly be used for. We have looked at a lot of different options. But that's specifically why I think we are going to the city with kind of breaking it into little more manageable chunks because there

095is so many different things that could happen on that property. So, I wanted to throw that out there, too, because I'm I mean, I'm standing in front of you telling you that our intention is to go to the city of Lead with this right here, Brinken into the six parcels. Now, we don't have to do anything with those six parcels, but we could put, you know, we only want to do one piece for sale, we could do that. >> Okay. And just, you know, I'm going to show my cards a little bit. Like my personal opinion, and it has been from the beginning was not to sell all of this. I thought, you know, there's however much it is, and no matter what happens with development, there's a certain amount of this land that, you

096know, it's it's a it's kind of a special thing our school has. Once it's gone, it's gone. And so, as we look at this, you know, more and again, this is just my opinion. I'm not an engineer. I'm not a surveyor. I am not um any of those things. I'm not a landscape architect. I think that this green stuff is definitely uh just really too hard to access and and that's really some of the best area, you know, overlooking the Mickelson Trail and and it's like if we wanted to do like an outdoor campus for our kids, that would be a great place for it. some of this stuff on the north end like like up like past kind of surrounding like where Rocky and Margie live like we've looked at some of that and

097in my opinion again I'm not an engineer I'm like oa that that's going to that would be tough that might be a great place to to hang on to you know and so again I'm just kind of giving my opinion on that but uh I I think yeah I think it would be not a great decision just to sell the whole So that's just my opinion. >> Is there anybody else? We want to make sure everybody has an opportunity to say something. Whatever you want to say. >> Go ahead, Louie. >> You want a mic? >> Doesn't work. So >> if you want me to hold it, >> you know, I guess splitting it up and trying to look uh different options for this land is all right, but at the end of the day,

098you know, the taxpayers are funding the school, but I think it's a really it's a real insult if a person has an apartment building where it's brand new or older, well-kept, and they're paying the highest rate of property tax to the school. And then the school goes, "Well, we're going to go right into competition with you. We're going to build this house. We're going to rent it out to this person, and we're going to have another one and rent it out to this person, and this guy's over here with an apartment building, paying the most highest level for property tax, and the school is going to direct competition. I just don't think that's they should go down that avenue. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. One more round. Anybody else want to say anything? >>

099Go for it, Don. >> Um Dr. Pearson did mention earlier declining um school. >> Yeah. Thank you. And uh and so way we preach that my opinion is that we need to attract childbearing age adults to our community to our school district. I came here as a retiree. I didn't bring any kids with me so to speak. But is there any dialogue between the school and the city as to how that how can we benefit each other? How can the city benefit by attracting school childbearing aged adults and which is very important to the school is there any dialogue going on? >> I think there has been dialogue. Um I know Dr. Pearson and I both and many of these people have been to like economic development those meetings it's a constant discussion you know

100how do we get people here what do we do where do we go um I feel that over the last couple of years I think all of us have had way more involvement in that because before I think it was kind of like nobody went to those meetings sorry to say but at least on this board but I do think like I know Deadwood um there's a lot of it and leads economic development. I feel that they've done a pretty good job in more recent years of trying to figure out how do we get people here and I I really appreciate um so one of the people on the committee as we were going through this was our lead economic development and we did that purposely because she had some like well what about this

101and what about I mean she had a lot of discussions that she brought up that I think kind of ties all of those areas together. So yes, I I would say the discussion is definitely there. I know the city of Lead's constantly working on, you know, how do they bring more business to town? That that's been a constant discussion. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Um, do we know how many students or children, kids, whatever are in the school district that do not attend be open enrollment and do we know how many kids are actually healthare that we don't know about? Because I personally know people that that live right down my road and they, you know, I I get it. They look because they work there and that's what they're doing. And same thing out

102past the beat here. I know kids that go to another state uh and don't attend a school district here even though they are in school district. We have numbers I guess I know this kind of a segue but I think this is something you know that was brought up that would be interesting to know about falling enrollment and is one of the reasons why we're trying to track you know teachers and so on. >> Yeah. I'm gonna let Dr. Pearson answer that because he doesn't. >> We have some sketchy numbers. And what I mean by sketchy numbers, uh, like the homeschool population is nearly impossible to track because they don't have to apply with us. It was prior to 5 years ago, if you wanted to homeschool your kid, you had to file that public

103school exemption with the public school. Uh, that's not law anymore. uh there's a website uh state website that they can go and declare that on and we may or may not be informed on that and people may or may not go click that box. So, it's really it's kind of a weird place that we live where we have a compulsory attendance law that's really impossible to enforce because of lacks uh homeschool regulations or or lack of regulation, which I'm not against people's right to homeschool, but kind of getting to some of these uh some of these answers. And then as far as the open enrollment, um you know, there's give and take, back and forth. I don't know. Mary, do you have a number on our net open enrollment? >> No. Not really. >> Okay.

104It's, you know, a lot of times it's kind of a wash, but if I were to to give you a guess, I would say we're minus 10 to 15. You might say, well, I know more than that that opened a roll. Yep. Because we also gain some. So, I it's hard to know. We can look it up to give you an answer off the top of my head. Uh, but anyway, here's where I'm going with this. uh some other things, you know, Amber mentioned the strategic plan earlier and there are things built into that strategic plan and there's other committee work, believe it or not, like the land use committee is not the only committee we have going. Uh but we also have a committee uh that's focused on outreach to homeschool students. That's a

105new committee and they're just kind of getting going. Uh but you know, another thing we're looking at is uh alternative school programs. Uh and we're not talking about building a new school. We're not talking about hiring a bunch of staff, but using existing resources. Uh, how can we outreach to some of these people that are maybe disenfranchised with what the public school has to offer? U, I think that there, you know, it used to be kind of all or nothing thing either in public school or home school. And I think our world is changing to where now we're we're looking at, okay, uh, what does the public school offer that you could take advantage of? could you come in within our walls for part of the day? So, those are all and and I don't

106want to get on a rabbit trail talking about things people didn't come here to hear about. But Dalton, you brought up a good good question and I think I addressed this also on Monday. We're trying a two-pronged approach to address declining enrollment. One is to see how we can re-engage with those people uh that are choosing to not be in our school district. And then the other thing is how do we face the reality of where we're at and adjust over time and say you know what if we're too fat we have too many teachers uh I just say teachers uh employees okay over time how can we absorb those positions and then does there come a point structurally systemically where we need to make some major changes with the school district uh and so

107we're looking at all those things uh without trying to rock the boat or make an abrupt change where we have to lay people off or anything like that. So, there we go. >> Okay. Anybody else? >> All right. Does anybody on the board want to comment on anything? >> To go off what you were saying, Dr. Pearson, about >> should we let these guys comment first? >> Sorry. >> Just trying to understand the attention once they gave the ground to the question. Is there any stipulations there or anything that happened? >> Not that I'm aware. I mean, there was like a letter of intent or anything like that. >> I have not come across anything like that. And so, if you find something like that, we're not hiding it from you. Share it with us.

108I I'm not aware of it. Anyway, >> we did I mean, I'll just tell you part of that money that we spent, we opted to have a full title research done. So, we had the title company and we got pages pages of title everything everything from, you know, easements to all the power line stuff going on. And then there was some other things in there. There's a lot tied to this property. >> Share that with us. >> The title premium, >> I guess. I don't know. I I don't know why we couldn't. The title company has it and we did do a full document of that. Um, and so that was on purpose. and spent some of that money to get it because there was so much stuff tied to it and I tried to

109go through most of those. I didn't see anything like in the original title work, you know, from home state across. >> The the short answer to your question, Greg, is yes. We can we can share that with you or have you look at it. If you show up at my office tomorrow, you're probably going to be out of luck because I it would it would take a little time. >> It could be emailed with the push of a button. Yeah, >> I think that's something that we would have to talk to because we did had we had to pay for that and we want to make sure there's nothing there. If our attorneys don't have any problems figuring it, I wouldn't have a problem. I'm sure >> I mean I don't have >> I can't

110just call the title company and say send me a copy of that. You >> But if you wanted to look at it, we would certainly let you look at it. As far as sending you a copy like Amber said, we we need to look into that. But yeah, simple answer is yeah, we can share it somehow. >> I wouldn't know. I mean, anything that's in that title policy, I can go to the courthouse and if I want to sit there for hours, I can see it. Anyway, >> there was a lot I'm saying is, you know, >> it's not a document that I have. >> Well, it's not a document. It's a folder. And that's the only thing I don't know if that's still an active because they sent us it to us as a

111digital connection. I just don't >> as simple as you calling the title company and saying if Greg calls and he wants a copy of the title word, let him have it. be that easy. >> I I will answer with we will look into it. Yes. But I'm not going to say yes or no because I don't know the answer right now. >> Well, we can look at >> What would bar you from doing that? >> I said I'm not going to answer right now because I don't know. >> Okay. Okay. >> I'm not saying no. I just don't know. If it's not a problem and we can get it reinstated, I don't have a problem. It's been a year and a half since they sent it to me. >> So, Matt had a question. >>

112Okay. Yeah. Sorry. talking. >> No, thank you. Um, the only thing I was going to say is if we could uh um get empirical data for how many staff might have um rejected the position if they were presented an offer for employment. Um, I know I'm what I'm trying to say is if we had that empirical data that you might have more buying in the community say, hey, we lost potentially 12 to 20 potential teachers over the last 3 years due to housing costs directly. Um, then I have a second part on this market. And then the other thing is um you might also have more client like there was say hey there's this after school program that's going to have like reading recovery and math help that's going to be school sponsored and we

113need we need extra staff and now we're going to find positions. I'm just saying like there might be other ways to find more uh support from the community to have those types of information because you >> well you're talking about like the staff that are turned on with like like I can't honestly give you empirical data on that. So that's not something we've tracked. But I've got principles here. Got one that's been on the job for a couple of months. Got one that's been on the job for almost two years. one's been on the job for a long time. They do the bulk of the hiring. Uh Jay, have you ever encountered that? >> Yeah. I mean, yes, the answer is yes. We been turned down myself several times from people that just called back

114and said, looked at housing, can't afford it. Whether that was the answer or they found something different, that was the answer they gave me. But yeah, several Um, I don't know, Mike. I don't think you've gone through a hiring cycle yet. >> No, I mean, this is my first year, so I can't really answer that, you know, but coming in as a principal, it's hard to find out. You know, it's it's a it's definitely a big challenge, and I can see why the school board is truly looking at this to find ways to try to attract good, qualified people to our school. This could be something that could be intensive. Yeah. And in my short ten years, I've had one my hiring one hiring process. >> So, yeah, like districtwide, I would say, and this

115is this is an estimate. I'm just being completely honest with you. Districtwide in the five years I've been here, uh, it's happened two to three times a year that I know of. So that's so has anybody brought up so say you want to sell the land why not have a stipulation on a certain amount of lots that a builder's going to build and then lease it back to you guys and it takes the tax burden off of everybody else. You guys lease it from the homeowner and then you have your teacher housing instead of putting the tax burden on everybody that's sitting in the room. Yeah, we've talked >> discussed at all. >> Yeah, we have talked about it at the committee level and and that is a possibility. You know, we >> mayor back

116there. >> You want my res hat on? Um, I I want to say thanks to the board and Dr. P for looking into this. Uh, when Lexi asked the questions uh for us to vote, there was one thing I didn't vote for. Um, and that was to do nothing with. That has been something that had been happening for years. So, I appreciate you guys trying to come up with a solution. what's best. You know, I don't know. I think I was probably the only one that raised my hand for the third option, I will say. But, um, not that I exactly agree with this plan, but doing nothing with it, I honestly believe is not an option. It is not the best option for anybody involved. I've been part of a lot of boards uh

117trying to build the community. Uh I was sad when we lifted our residency policy with the school district. So um having more families in what that looks like and gentleman just had a great idea on you know maybe a different way that that looks that we can provide uh housing for teachers. I know it's a problem they have. I just want to say thanks you guys for looking into that. As far as open enrollment, I'll echo Rocky's sentiments a little bit. I've had four daughters go through our school district. One of them currently had moved to Spearfish. She went live there for the auto body CTE. That's a lot of land. I know that it would be hard to find a place to put a big auto body shop on our current area. So, you

118know, something to look look at. Um, we did lose one enrollment with my own kid. And, uh, I graduated here with, um, Ivan Moland was a great teacher of mine. I had a job immediately when I left high school in the area. So, uh, there is a huge value in having those programs. Rocky talked about and I think it's something that our smoothness we've got away from a little bit and something we should definitely see back and the residency requirement by the way we don't we can't legally do that anymore. Um, and I think that came up through case law as being challenged and um, yeah. >> Okay. Does did anybody else on the board want to make any comments? >> I will. Um, so, okay. This thing doesn't want to work, right? All right.

119So, one thing um I would like to say is that our district as a whole has been working hard the last several years to increase our course operates particularly as it pertains to things like CTE. Um Dr. Pearson has put a lot of work into trying to uh figure out better ways to manage our budget and also our declining enrollment. and he's done a lot of work um to look at, you know, what do we need to do to better utilize our taxpayer dollars in a more efficient manner. Um something that I would point at, this goes back to Margie, is that this year alone, we left $1.9 million, I believe it was, on the table um by choosing not to take the full mill levy option available to us as a district. So, we

120are really truly trying to figure out different ways to improve our schools and also help reduce that burden on our um on our residents as well. Um the other thing I would like to say is regarding that land use committee that's been referred to a few times. Um that committee uh I went back through the meeting minutes myself. um that committee was I I know I was asked to sit on a committee um before I was ever on the board and that was back in March 2023 and my understanding is is that there were three committees that were created at that time um the one that I currently sit on um the student attendance and achievement and as well as culture branding and then also that land use um I was able to find the

121first discussion of the land use committee in the May 2023 3 meeting minutes and I went back through all of our minutes and I found 15 times where it was discussed at the schoolboard level um the use of how to potentially utilize this resource. So I do appreciate that there has been a lot of discussion in the last roughly two and a half years about that. Um, I also really appreciate everyone that has shown up at the community coffees, everyone that is here tonight. Um, and truly I really truly appreciate that everyone here um feels so strongly and wants to share with us where they're coming from because that we are here to try to do what's going to be ultimately what's best for our district and what's going to be best for us as

122representatives of every single person in this room. And so I do appreciate you guys all being here and um I do appreciate you guys taking the time to come out here and talk to us and by all means I would absolutely love to talk to you guys. If you are not comfortable you know talking in this forum directly with me um feel free to reach out to me. My email address is on the school website and probably about 70% of you have my cell phone number. >> I want to thank everybody out for coming too. You know, this is one of those proposals that's not no matter what we choose, you know, the votes, we're not going to be able to lead everyone, but we do appreciate everybody's input on what we should do with

123this property. This property set with this goal for a long time. It seems like it might be time to do some things with it. Probably not an all or nothing something, but you know, something move into it and see what's available. What we decide to sell one of the tracks, see how that goes perhaps. So, I'm not sure what the board's going to decide. Um, that's kind of my feeling maybe where we should go with it. Um, as far as CE that Rocky mentioned, um, yeah, the 70s the place was full. Um, 160ome kids in my class. I graduated 1981. Um, and we had a lot of opportunities. I had I have an old one for teacher two and uh, welding. And when you have a lot of kids, there's a lot of opportunity to

124start CPE. Part of the problem we have is the declining enrollment. There's less kids that fill those classes. So it makes it we have a dual problem. One is we'd like to provide all these CTE classes, but then again, you have to have students. So that makes it very different. You can't have a class with one or two kids. That doesn't work. So as we're trying to increase the enrollment that far the enrollment enrollment increase because if you look at our budget we'd be better off having less kids. We don't get state aid. So we can spend more money per kid if we didn't have we had less kids. But if we have less kids in our classes then we can't offer some of these classes that we'd like to offer some of the children.

125So it makes a big difference and we can entice other children to come. if we get some of the homeschoolers to come back at least for some of these CD classes some of the stuff that they should looking at. So that's some of those things maybe we can attract people not only from our own area but maybe some of the areas you know outside we did with the district to bring them up here. Hey you we've got these great CTE classes that would kind of prepare them these kids for a future that's not going to college but actually getting into the trades. Thanks again for else. I just want to say thanks for coming. Also, I appreciate your feedback. That's fine. And we appreciate it, too. I mean, that's why we had this style of

126meeting. We wanted to see what you guys had to say. So, we appreciate that. Um, we're not making any decisions tonight at all. That wasn't the point of this meeting. It was just to hear from everybody. Uh we do have a meeting um next on February 10th and it's 5:30 back in the boardroom. That's just a regularly scheduled meeting. I believe the intention at that meeting was the board make a decision on this handout that that is up here of kind of if we decide to go with this timeline or not. There might >> or parts of it. >> Yeah, there might be changes to it. If the board makes a decision that no, we want to take it off. We don't want to do anything that might affect this document. We don't know that

127yet because that's kind of what we want to take everything we've heard tonight. We'll get all the information and and kind of go from there. Um I don't I really don't know what's going to happen. I think this document more than likely will probably have some changes to it. Um if that happens, obviously we wouldn't be able to make a decision that night. we would have to table it till the next one to go back and do rewrites on it if we need to. Um, but I think the reason why we tried to do this is we are kind of at that tipping point. We have to make a decision because we can't keep putting time and energy into something if it's not where we're going to go. We understand that and that's kind of

128where we're at right now. We're at that tipping point that we have to make a decision. um because if we commit to it as a board then we're going to take a different road than if we don't commit to it as a board. That's kind of where we're at. So I would expect at the next meeting we'll have a line item on the agenda again for the board to have a discussion related to this handout and or other topics. Um so you know you guys have the opportunity to to be at that meeting again if you choose to since it's a regularly scheduled meeting. Um I don't other than that I can't tell you that the decision has to be made and the board has to vote. I don't know. Um there will be no

129decision on like we're going to have 10 lots or 15 like we're not even close to that at this point. Um and it might be the decision that nothing happens. We don't know that. That's why we have to have that full public hearing process. So that's kind of where we're at. So the next scheduled meeting is the 10th. Um if you would vote for concern tonight if >> well you do have a public forum which this whole thing was public forum but >> but >> does anybody have anything on any other topics? I don't think anybody filled out form. >> Yeah, nobody filled out a form to have a different discussion. We've heard from everybody regarding the one that was on there. Is there anything else that someone wants to bring? Is there changes on

130that that you're going to be making that public forum or will you have >> on this document here? It would this one here would just be on the regular agenda. >> Yeah. So, not necessarily like for instance like like there's not going to be some something out of left field like a totally different direction like if they did that yeah there'd be a whole another process and I might just retire if we do that but anyway but like if they decide to not do something on there like like you know Amber said well if we don't if we do something different we might table it for a month. I don't know if they even necessarily have to do that. Like if there's something on there that they're not going to do, you just don't approve

131that part. I mean, and that's not to say there will be action on February 10th. Does that make sense though? Like I don't think they would go through this whole process again to take something off the table or to because you don't like like you don't have a negative board motion. You don't have a motion to not do something. You just don't do it. You just don't have a motion is kind of how that procedurally works. So >> yeah, because I can tell you by looking at this, the first phase is completed. We have a plaque going to the city of Leed. We have covenants that could be recorded if that plaque gets approved. It's kind of an if if um and the district has organized the public meetings, which is what these are. That

132was the first phase of the plan is done. Now the second phase would be if the school board chooses to go forward, then they would have to do construction, staffing, you know, all of that stuff. So, I think that's where we're at right now is that phase one. But if the board chooses to go forward, you would move into phase two and phase three. But they may not. I don't know. I I don't know. >> I think one of the things that the audience really wants to know is we've had this meeting here and you're going to make a decision down the road. But before that decision is made, I think the majority of these people want to know so they can make sure they're at that meeting. >> So I would say every school

133board meeting is the meeting. So there's all if we're going to have a public hearing that would be on the agenda. Does that make sense? >> Yeah. That's what people want to know. >> Yeah. if there's going >> if you're going to go, "Oh, yeah." Cuz that I've seen it happen, you know, and I'm not as young as I used to be, but I've seen it happen where you go through this process and you talk about things and there's only one person maybe that raises their hand that's in favor of uh teacher or employee housing in our district and then a month down the road after everybody's back to their jobs, then all of a sudden it's done. So >> I would say the next the next board meeting if you want to hear what

134is going to happen I would be in attendance >> because I think a decision will be made one way or another whether it's we're not going to do anything or we might do something >> or yeah or like the decision would be like if the decision is to move forward with one of those other phases >> like that that would mean that okay the next phase of studying that and getting like drilling down on those numbers and all that. Those would be the next steps to happen. It wouldn't be like February 10th, they're going to vote on it. Hey, let's let's continue with phase two and then it's a done deal. You can't back out of it. You can't, you know, like cuz we we kind of talked about that to move forward with any

135of that. There's more leg work that needs to be done. Well, several of you pointed out that you don't think I should spend my time on this and and I I agree. There's a point where it's like, well, yeah, if we're not going to do it anyway, like I like like I'm not going to organize all that committee work and all that other stuff on something we're not going to do. So, does that make sense? So, like we're kind of um yeah, there are a lot of unanswered questions. Uh and and if the board decides to not move forward, those questions don't need answers. The agenda for the February meeting is typically going to be available online for anyone to review. Usually by the Friday before maybe the Saturday before uh we have to have

136it published minimum 24 hours but typically it's 4 to 5 days ahead of the meeting that it'll be available online and I would suspect that whatever uh if there are any adjustments made to this that this will probably be included in that packet. >> Yeah. do you think? >> Yeah. >> Um and so that would give everyone and you know everyone um the ability to look at you know any adjustments to this and then also you know feel free to come and attend the meeting yourself on the 10th >> and I'll give you one more option John if you call me and say hey what like is something coming up here this next meeting I I promise I'm not going to lie to you >> unless we cancel it we do a planning and zoning

137meeting on the 10th also. >> Okay. So conflict of being sex. >> I got a question that's burning gold in my brain. is obviously every taxpayer in the district isn't sitting in this room, but you've seen a pretty good representation about whether or not this group thinks you guys should get into the private enterprise of building homes. And and my question to you guys is I who you represent and if every if every taxpayer was sitting in this room right now and and the question came up, okay, do we think that the school should get into the home building business? And you saw that it was an absolute no. Would would you move forward anyway regardless of what the what the group was pushing for? I and maybe that's >> I I think that's an

138unfair question because we just we just heard all of this stuff. I think you got to give us a chance to look at everything and decide and that's why we don't make a decision tonight because we're not making that decision tonight. We're doing it at the next meeting so everybody has a chance to go and think about it themselves. I can't I might have differing opinion than the next person. So I'm not gonna answer >> black and white. Amber I can have and my question really is if the if you if you absolutely knew that the majority of the taxpayers were against you getting into the home building business, would that matter? That's the question. >> Yes, it would matter to these guys. I'll tell you, Greg, like this matters to you. Like we don't

139have the majority of the taxpayers here. Like like I just been around school boards enough. These guys in particular, but other I've been doing this for 20 years and like like this public input matters. So just to give you now I'm not going to make stand here and make any promises, but just to give you some context, you know, this isn't like an emergency thing. It's not like we have to like we have to decide this right now or our school's going to close. It's it's like a long range planning thing. Like I I would be surprised with a lot of push back if the board is going to a lot of push back. I I just don't I don't have a crystal ball to see how they're going to vote. But that'd be my

140prediction that your voice does matter to them. I've seen that. And so I don't I don't know if that's a good answer or not, but I I think yeah, I think >> I know these guys. >> Yeah, >> they work real hard and and it's a thankless job and I understand that and I appreciate it. At the same time, I'm hoping that it gets taken into consideration, you know, what what you know, we think the majority of the taxpayers uh are are for or against. And I I'm, you know, I'm thinking there's a pretty good representation here. Thank you. >> Give you my personal answer to that. I will tell you that um yes, I 100% care about every single person opinion, every single person in this room's opinion. I know that whatever decision I

141make, and I'll be blunt with you, I don't know where I stand on this. I'm I'm still trying to absorb it and I'm still trying to figure out what do I personally feel is going to be the best representation for you, but also I have an obligation to this district to do what's best for the district. And that is what you guys elected me to do is to represent you and to also help make the decisions that are going to be for the betterment of our district. Um, I'll be honest with you. I don't know where I stand on it completely. I don't. And that's the honest truth. In fact, I've told other people in the audience that as well. >> Yeah. >> I'm just wondering, is housing your only option for this? Like, Kelly's

142talked for years about an outdoor education campus. Like, have you considered any of those? >> Yeah, we we talked about that tonight even. Yeah, >> we did. We talked about it. >> You mentioned it like Brutus. >> Yeah. >> The main I will tell you that the main reason behind the land use committee their discussion was solely around could it be developed or not. >> Okay. That was their committee. Now if the board chooses not to go down that route then yeah. I'd invite you to take a look at the strategic plan that's available on the website because that is looking at the overall health because there's more ways that we have looked at and how to improve our district. Um you know currently we have the four committees um the student attendance achievement the

143land use the uh culture and branding and then also that whole school outreach. Those are all committees that are focused on helping to improve our district and improve our enrollment and that type of thing. Yes. All the >> Why don't you see what that property is worth instead of wondering property? >> Why don't you put it out there for sale? >> We could. That's an option the board. >> You know, you were saying we could. We could. We could. >> We haven't made a decision yet, Clint. That's what I say. >> I mean, let's let's make that decision. That might surprise everybody. >> Correct. >> Then you bank that. You have your interest coming off that. You don't need to be in real estate to, you know, keep your school and your teachers going. >>

144Yep. So I think something I I think is getting lost in this discussion that is why we are saying we're not going to make a decision tonight. The board has to make a decision if they want to continue going down this path or not. That we are at that tipping point that we have to have a decision made. That's how I feel because in all honesty I've been doing this for three and a half years. I don't need to have the same discussion. It's not me that has to make that decision. It's the board. The board has to make that decision and that's where we're at right now. And it's kind of hard to make that decision without knowing what best work. >> So, so you're saying like do an appraisal or >> Yeah. Put

145it out there on the internet worldwide. So, Greg, one more thing I'll say like a phenomenon that happens with boards and this public input and all this like we don't have all the taxpayers here, but we have people that showed up. So, yeah, there are people I've had people that come up to me and say, "Hey, I think this is a good idea." Well, guess what? A lot of those people didn't show up. So, it's kind of the deal like if you don't show up, you kind of miss out. Your voice is being heard. And if there's somebody with a contrary opinion to yours, guess what? They're not being heard tonight. So, I don't know, maybe that should make you feel a little bit better. But yeah, the people who show up have more of

146a voice. That also happens when the board weighs their decision. So, that it matters. >> It does. I think it's important to know that, you know, that's why we held these meetings. We wanted to hear what you have to say. So, that's where we're going to kind of end it. We've had the public forum. Um, the meeting, the next meeting, I would highly suggest that you be in attendance if you want to. We could probably move locations if we needed to. Use this space if if we need to, and that's fine. I don't think anybody has an issue with that. Um, I think all of the board members are going to go back and they're going to have to, you know, do their own due diligence, look at the fuzz stuff that's been provided, listen

147to all the comments, and make decisions. That's that's what's going to have to happen. Um I I appreciate everybody, you know, being here tonight. It was really good to hear from everybody. I do especially appreciate everybody, you know, being respectful, having a discussion with us. I I do appreciate that. Um I deal with a lot of people that don't do that. So, it's really nice to see that from everybody. I I really do appreciate that. Um so, at this point, I'm going to call for an adjournment of the meeting. I'll make that motion. A second. We have a motion and a second. The meeting would be >> 7:25 >> adjourned at 7:25. Thank you everybody very much.