001order call V here here here here C here United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all tonight we have approve the agenda unless there's any or changes something the agenda want me to do that now or you want me we did do a motion the second so play finish that so motion um to approve in second all in favor okay motion carries um just a quick reminder I did say it right before the meeting started um according to the policy that we approved in January bdh for public participation at board meetings um it said that we need to provide a form so the public forum form is always going to be on the back table um if you want to
002speak during a public form you just need to fill it out and submit it you can either do it the night of right before the the meeting starts or you can find it online now too and you can submit it for prior to the meeting if you want to this just helps us keep track of it and then it follows the policy so that is available just kind of we're going to try to remind people the next couple meetings till we get used to it and and if you are hearing it for the first time right now and you want to speak you can grab it and then just quietly pass it to Mary kind of in the beginning the meeting yep okay and then we are on labor authorization do we have anything on
003that one nothing um minutes we need to approve those from January 14 make a motion to approve the minutes from January 14th 25 I'll second that motion okay motion to approve and second it all in favor okay nothing carries so we are on expenditures um I would entertain a motion unless there's anything that needs to be pulled out 8 I'd make motion to approve approve expenditures a c second okay all in favor I I car our next item is financial estate Financial estate financial statements um and we would entertain a motion for a through K unless there's something P up the financial statements all in favor M carries um patrons and others we have the want to go through the school board anything Schoolboard recognition what are we doing would okay so we got we
004got a lot kind of a lot thank you Mary for taking care of some things so is the CER yes oh no you have the certificate they from the oh these from the high school student council Okay so gift from the high school student council sorry Steve you all got the same thing that's okay I like this too thank you high school and then we've got these certificates and it's got a little statement from the associate school boards it's funny I Mary's like well you have them I'm like brought them up to you today you said yes and I brought them back to you so I did have them so anyway all right um so lead deid school district will join districts across the state to thank school board members for their leadership and service
005to our local school district and Community during South Dakota School Board recognition week from February 17th to 21st this is a great opportunity to recognize our school board for their dedication to our children and our community this group is responsible for setting the vision and of the goals for the district and strives to provide a quality education for our students the school board also hires quality Educators adopts policies and evaluates progress while always keeping the best interest of our students in mind as elected leaders school board members serve as the link between the school and community members they work tirelessly for our students staff and community and we appreciate everything they do we appreciate most things no I'm kidding so I I think though it is you know it is really a thankless job that
006these guys have you know and I don't know I don't know why sometimes they run for school board but uh it it's a lot of heartache and you know they have to make tough decisions and what I really appreciate is that we don't always agree on things these five people are not always unanimous on on things but they always come back to that goal of uh helping us to have the best school we can have uh and that means different things to different people so they're balancing all those different constituency groups uh but but in the end they're always driven by doing what's best for these people right here in the front row for our students and so I really appreciate that that through it all they always they find a way to come together
007and uh I guess set policies and oversee the business of the school district for our kids so thank you for that and while I'm passing these out I'll just let you know Mary picked up cake for tonight so at the end of the meeting uh we can all have cake buttercream frosting right yeah does anybody ever actually pick the other kind of frosting water cream guy maybe we should do a poll uh I think do we have we got some other student councils here so uh let's just go on down the line Middle School what do you guys have to do and set positive environment in which we find ourselves on a daily basis allows us to thrive and a direct result of your thoughtful decision being and tireless effort efforts from providing quality resources
008to ensure a safe and responsible atmosphere for everyone you continuously demonstrate the importance of education and the value of creating a space where growth and learning are prioritized we are grateful for the time and energy you invest and fostering an environment that supports both academic achievements and student development the leadership and and often thankless efforts do not go unnoticed and it is clear that each of you is deeply committed to improving the lives of our students and Educators thank you again for all you do for the hard work that truly makes a difference and we we're fortunate to have such a dedicated individual overseeing the fut of our school thank you all collaborate on that it but she it well it was was very good and you did a very good job delivering Elementary we
009have a few of our elementary um Representatives here and on behalf of the elementary student council we thank you as well and we have a small token of our appreciation want to introduce yourselves quick hi and I'm hi I'm e and I'm president [Laughter] thank you and thank you guys for coming to the meeting you to see everybody have anything else if not you guys can sure hang out if you want but if you don't okay we understand so we are what a week late but last week was National School counseling week and we do have one two two there hiding he's hiding we have two counselors here and if you guys are okay with it you can just maybe stand up and give us a quick synopsis of anything that you want to share
010if not but thank you guys for doing what you do okay you want it quick okay then Sarah used to come with like a little note card and Amanda wouldn't have anything and then I'd have like so anyway I um know I'm honestly um honored to be a school counselor and I've been here for nine years 24 years as a school counselor um in the high school you know things change over time but yet they stay the same um the goal is always trying to help the students much of the time they're they're just here for four years and it seems like it goes by so fast and to get them everything they need as they launch off into young adulthood um so there's so many things going on with all the various tests that
011they take um and sometimes they wonder why they have to take all these things but they're all you know we're trying to help them become successful wherever they go after high school whether it's work military tech school College University um a few little facts here this year's class seniors um very excellent group um we had more getting a platinum on the national career Readiness test of this class and they did probably better on smarter balance last spring about 22 of them out of 50 are taking have taken or are taking dual credit so that's a pretty good number uh for that taking college or Tech courses in advance of attending and then we have about 14 Juniors doing that this year um other than that oh I I think a couple of things that I'm
012doing a little different this year I took on the Youth Empowerment team that Sarah deoman had so I had six students in that and that's through the lence County Coalition and today we attended a luncheon um that was the speaker was on the science of chemical dependence Lexi was living um and the students really enjoyed it a lot they got a lot out of it because it's just different you know and it's and learning more about something from a professional it was well delivered and and they we got um enjoy that and they're going to be doing some things at the elementary with the PE students and they've done some things with middle school health for like talking about um alcohol and vaping and some of those things so that's kind of they're they're against
013those things so they're trying to spread the word to the younger students um and then when we taking the Juniors to a career day on Thursday um and stures this week so that's something that they should get some you know good information that anybody has any questions don't hesitate to reach out um my name is Yolanda price I'm the middle school counselor this year and I just kind of have a bulleted Point thing um I want to thank all of you guys first too because like I know you guys have hard conversations and so that's important for our district as well and we have hard conversations in our office with students every day so we know what it's like um so things that we've done at the middle school we did Red Ribbon Week challenges
014so we did some door decorating and some dress up dat competitions um um which was um the winner was sponsored had a pizza party that was sponsored by the Lawrence County Coalition um in November we had kindness week where we did some Dr of days um we've started a grief group we've met two times um it's kind of an open Forum so if you want to come you come come if you want to share you share if you don't want to share you don't have to share there's no pressure um it's just a way for kids to like know that there's other people that have had some grief in their life so we've started that um we started hope Squad which is a peer-to-peer assistance program that talk about big issues that primarily focuses on
015suicide prevention and so there's a nomination process every grade level um nominated students we had to get some parent permission and we have 13 students that are a go um we had our first meeting last week and it was all focused on um team building um last week for national school counselor week um the intern that we have um him and I made some like car scratch off cards that had challenges and some like counseling trivia on it and we had about 16 or not 16 60 um kids participate in that they could take one card per day and so they were um challenged to do some type of active kindness or answer the trivia and then there surprises I'm currently working on the Middle School master schedule um some things that are in the
016works we're going to do potentially a topof thee hour topics during parent teacher conferences some quick 10 to 15 minute things on like sleep and hygiene and the importance of staying away from C certain social medias um we're with our intern we're working on something for World of work week we're going to do some type of game of life for our middle schoolers um and then with hope Squad we have to do like a hope week homecoming type of thing so the kids will break storm that so that's coming um that's about it so far I don't have anyer sorry so if you have any questions feel free to reach out okay well thank you guys very much and thanks for all you do I know it's fun okay business we were going to have
017an update on the middle school project yeah so I think Jamie were you able to do you did you activate Michelle's microphone I don't know that I don't know if she'll need to speak or not but uh we've asked Michelle to kind of sit in on this and what we'll do is we'll kind of Bounce Around between uh bill and I and Jay and uh kind of give you the information we have thus far on the middle school project and I'll kind of get the ball rolling here and then we'll we'll go into it and uh Michelle is just kind of here if we if there are any questions that the rest of us can't answer but uh to start with where we're at in the process is this our ultimate goal is to um
018get things put things out for bid in uh May and so working backwards from that we'd like to have the board be able to um approve kind of the basic design now obviously these are not buildable plans but uh uh the concept and we're we're starting with that tonight because we'd like to have the board be able to approve that in the March meeting so you don't have to approve anything tonight don't have to make any decisions but we want to give you an update on kind of the process we've gone through and I'll give Jay a little heads up here as I talk a little more and he can kind of collect his thoughts but uh um Jay is going to talk to you about the process we've had from user groups input groups
019and the different meetings we've gone through to to get some input on this um and then we'll kind of go through the design uh and Bill's going to have some things that he's going to present as well so that's kind of what we're looking at uh one of the key things is in the next week to 10 days I believe we'll have uh some cost estimates uh coming from the Architecture Firm and right now we've just got kind of a big budget that we've looked at like you know we' talked about that $1.9 to $2 million range and what we're going to uh get for that well now uh they're in the process of kind of drilling down and getting like based on the things we've talked about the specific Square footages the specific things
020we want uh getting some realistic cost estimates to see if we're on track or not and that's going to tell us a lot uh about changes we might need to make or things we would need to get to you guys uh well ahead of that March meeting and what we're anticipating is that the cost estimates will be on track with what we've estimated thus far but uh before I turn it over to Jay on the user groups uh just real quick I'll kind of reemphasize what our goals here with are with this thing for anybody that is new to this uh one of the huge problems we have is before and after school behind this building between the Middle School and High School there's a lot of congestion and especially uh something that we find
021particularly vexing is um cars lined up with parents picking up kids dropping off kids and it really gets interesting when we get a few snow piles in there but you get a line of I don't know how many cars sometimes 8 10 12 cars lined up back there and you all know we don't have a lot of extra space there and they come in through CC Curran come around there well then sometimes they're in the wrong place kids are waiting to get on the buses so the parents start filing in and then the buses are coming in about the same time and you got kids coming and going with with that traffic right there um and it just really is a mess and we haven't had any major accidents yet but I I don't know
022why uh so we've kind of talked about making a safer environment there by separating the bus traffic from the car traffic the car traffic pick up and drop off somewhere entirely different the other thing is looking at this building any anybody any human who has approached this building uh from the city of lead would think that the um front entrance would be on Main you wouldn't think the main entrance would be a drive around behind the high school and go to the backside it's just not very convenient not very accessible along with that the office area where Eva works is congested mess uh especially before and after school you get more than three people in there and it just it's not very functional and so we're hoping to kind of clean that up in this
023whole thing uh and then along with that a more functional office clean up the traffic flow uh a more accessible front entrance also looking at some safety concerns uh clear line of sight as people approach the building uh Access Control uh and then along with that uh implementing a space there for uh Middle School CTE and stem and having a old CTE stem lab there as well in some of those spaces so kind of a lot going on there for for that $2 million uh and with that Jay why don't you talk about the process we've gone through to get input from staff and from the people that are actually going to use this not just Jay and I didn't sit down with a piece of notebook paper and draw this out process no we
024have we have a lot of people with a lot of really good ideas and we really found that out so uh currently uh I think we've met uh at least three times with the Architects um one in a admin Group which is we talking about the admin area that being the office area with the nurse's office and the conference room and the teachers work room there uh the other one being the uh uh CTE classroom uh that group which consists of uh Dr Pearson and Bill and we've had some of the high school um shop teachers um input on that too also uh and then the leadership group which we kind of talk about the bigger picture uh of everything and then we've we've gone through and actually uh had conversations about the plumbing the
025HVAC um the electrical all those things are kind of starting to to U happen now too so we've met at least three times with the architects in Zoom meetings and uh we're kind of luy we had one of the Architects was able to come out uh I think it was last week or the week before it's I think it was last week and kind of get her eyes on it um um you know not from a zoom meeting so I thought that was really good we took her around for a tour and she could see everything that we'd already talked about so um you know like the the the uh the admin area group you know we I designated a teacher from each uh grade level um on that so that they would have input
026during those uh meetings and then Eva uh and and Yolanda um and and I think that was um really really imperative that we got their ideas um for people that are in those areas and uh the people that use those areas um I think it was really important to get their input about where things should be because like Dr Pearson said we can we could sit down and and and draw something up uh but it wouldn't make sense possibly to the people that are actually going to be in those areas and I do have a secretary that is very conscientious about her space and the space that she's needed and I was really happy that she she spoke up and sometimes yeah I think U you know that that created some uh some a little
027bit of not issues but I think you know it's really important for people to express what they need and to make sure that those things are getting across to the architect so um anyway those that was really important to have those people that input and I think that's um one of the biggest uh positives about the user groups that we we've had so far is making sure that we are we are having those people and their input and then uh with the inclusion of a few board members now um in those Zoom meetings too I think it's really uh helped the process that and moving it along quite quite quickly and I think we have a really good um you know group of people uh and I think we have a pretty good plan of
028where things should be and how and what I was really worried about is you know if you're looking at this map right here you know you don't really have an idea of how big things are but when we started measuring um current furniture that we have and see if it would fit in these rooms and stuff that that really helped out um that we could move the a lot of the current stuff that we have um in in in these areas so I was I was told that I'm not getting a new desk which is okay there that might have been a little p and Che okay no I'm just making a joke whatever happens there is um but the biggest thing was that you know we have a brand new uh conference room table
029we want to make sure that was usable I mean in that that area and anyway that wasn't the biggest thing in the world but I think we're utilizing the space really efficiently um and um I'm really excited about uh the input that came from Bill and and Dr Pearson about what we really want to have in that CTE space and um I'm really super excited about um for our students in the future to have that kind of a space that kind of a facility um and uh at their F at their fingertips um so anything else Dr Pearson yeah if if you wouldn't mind and I can get up and do it too but if would you want to maybe approach the board right not this board that board sure and and maybe point to
030some of those things in that office area sure um and then yeah so um what's really nice you know we've kind of our current like Dr Pier said in our current office area uh we we put the uh nurse Percy in there and it's it's it's space is not adequate but anyway so we've um this is the nurse nurse area um and we've actually like put in a a spot for a shower and uh a washer and dryer um those kind of things that we can um help our students with um the principal's office will be right here and I'm glad it's like one of the smallest areas so we don't have to worry about how big that is uh of course a good uh size staff staff uh restroom that will be accessible for
031all our staff uh the conference room um and then a kind of a workroom for for Eva uh and myself and and all the people that are in the office area here uh this this space um has become uh really something that we we need to focus on because one of the reasons why we're doing this is because the poor uh uh layout right now of our our Middle School office area like Dr Pearson talked about so making this area as efficient as possible and then the area where people come in so this will be the main entrance off the off the street here and so people will come in here and then be able to come through this area here and then be able to our the our secretary will be able to let
032uh uh people come in through this area if they have need anything in the office area um one thing that I I was really adamant about that we didn't want to lose is area an area for our staff uh to do have do their planning their coping uh and anything that they need to do for their classrooms uh so a staff work room and their break room uh would be here uh and so this is all the old um uh Library area these are uh some current classrooms that we have so there we are going to lose like a a classroom in a part of another classroom but this will be functional and we were thinking we're thinking this area here is going to be okay for uh like a special education uh classroom um
033you know they're not used all the time and they don't have as many students in them so this is going to be work out well for them and then these are all the other areas that we're really not going to touch but uh and then uh um which one you want that one oh yeah the CTE classroom so you can kind of see where like my office current office is right here um and then these are going to this is going to be kind of a bigger classroom where the current workroom uh teacher work room is in this area um an office area for that teacher uh that we have there there um and it just looks we have all like our shop area here with all of our um Machinery um like miter saws
034and table saws and all these kind of things over here so um and this is the current this would be the current office area right here so we would do away with that entrance right there we have the outside entrance here and then we'll have we keep this door here um but this that main entrance would be blocked off I think is what we talked about before so it's really come along and I really think we're utilizing the space really efficiently and uh you know things are probably they look from from the design you can't put yourself I can't take myself and put them in there right now with all the walls in there it's really hard for me to to insert myself into space that really isn't there yet but um I think it's
035going to be a really nice uh area for our students bill can you have on that Library a little bit what we're planning on to do there yeah so to the library this is the current area that's right behind the multi-purpose room um so um and this is the uh is this the this is the storage that's that's where you have all in file cabinets okay this is yeah so this is my dead file uh room for all the students that have left our special education program right now so we'll repurpose this area and the area right behind the multi-purpose room will be the new library um with some updates um we've talked about just not scrambling things in there moving things in there there needs to be some from you know some paint new
036paint and some probably you know ceiling and and and things like that but um anyway that's going to be and square footage wise Bill what did you so square footage wise we end up being about 180 Square ft difference this being smaller but we included this room here and this is a store room where they have some old PE equipment using this room here as a uh maybe like a study area there'll be a few steps down into it so that you can get into it maybe put a little bit of glazing around there so that whoever's running this can look down in there and see the students down in there and right now we have like the sliding wall yeah that that we used to put the band or the uh DJ up here
037for dances and things um but but I think this is probably going to become a a permanent wall they've talked about that both ways so that that's not quite set yet so could be a permanent wall but um anyway but we feel comfortable with that area being big enough for our library so we we don't want to downsize that or make it smaller um if if possible so it's pretty pretty close square footage wise and and we feel we can util utilize that space for for a library so what questions do you guys have about like the process or where it's at for now or that kind of thing and we do have something some comments about the canopy but do you have any questions on any of this yet I no I mean I
038think that I I had mentioned to you that I like the idea of utilizing that space for the library that was kind of what my big concern was is where are we going to do with that sure um but I do think that that's going to be a good use of space my only question and uh going back to the CTE section of the um of the class of the building sorry someone's phone school um looking at the aerial picture of the school it looks like a different footprint than what is up there almost like it's built out a little bit because when I was looking at it I'm like okay I can see where ev's would be where yours is now where the current conference room is but that is a different footprint than
039what we have in our packet um I guess I'm not sure what's in the packet but this is this does match here so like so like where this door is right here you know J beagle's desk is right here right and there's a window here okay and it's and so like this is where the like where the mailboxes are correct nurse Percy is like kind of right here Eva's right here and we got the tunnel of Doom right there conference room is kind of right here yeah I don't know if I helped or hindered understanding there so this is that corner right comes up over up this is the whole building don't look at this Red Line This is the building okay some down and then go forward and that's what I was confused about
040there's a building under okay it's just the the red line okay that's what I wanted to make sure of because I'm like okay looking at that I can visualize it what that current space is but then I'm looking at this and going that's not right okay so it squares it up um and then my only other issue um would be with Eva's office um and that that's probably just be more a matter of where you put your furniture so you and I can talk about that in different yeah and then she has some definite ideas of how she wants her furniture set up help increase visibility then yeah let's make sure that our back St yeah and I I and I think we've I think we've talked about that you know her her positioning in
041there to be able to scoot around and make sure she sees what she needs to see yeah and you know and then she's had some we're going to talk about you know she's had some conversations with Dr Pearson about gosh I really don't want this big window there and you know but you know I think we we have to have visibility you know and but we still have to have safety and there has to be some give and take both ways and something that we can come up with that makes sense for both so we're gonna price that with I don't I don't want to say bulletproof glass because there really isn't a bulletproof glass but there's you know they make a thick glass that will like stop most bullets price it both ways price
042it with some of that safety glass that we took a look at here the other day and and then we're going to price it too with just the film that we put like in the elementary uh at the elementary office that you know wouldn't stop a bullet but it would keep the window in path if somebody shoots through it so you're really going to slow somebody down trying to come in that way um and amber made a comment when that first came up she kind of leaned over and said that looks similar to the layout of the high school office and yes it really is with the addition though and and I don't really like this coming in that high school office they come in that hallway and and you can't really see there's not
043a clear line of sight there there's cameras so the difference here couple things that vestibule is going to be wider there okay and then there's also glass well it'll be similar to like when you walk into the elementary school there's the vable in the can see you walking out I mean more like that is what you're thinking on that where the windows and I think in talking to our element uh secretaries there was there was maybe some disconnect there in the design process they felt like maybe some of their recommendations weren't weren't heard at that time and you know so there are some things uh well I don't want to say disgruntlement but some things that like we're going to work to try and make better for them now and so having that conversation with
044them really kind of rang a bell like okay let's make sure that we have our people involved in some of these design design discussions and very important well it's very important for Eva to be the one that knows how she wants her desk and where it is and that's a huge thing when you have someone working in that and I think we're getting there don't you think Jay I do yeah agree just my main thing is the way I mean if we're getting down to the point of a desk is positioned right now you've got her desk so that she's positioned with her back to the windows which is completely pointless for what you're trying to do especially since there's a big difference I think we're kind of losing sight of we're not here to
045tell people where to put their BS no I understand but I'm just saying that we're look at trying to figure out where we're going to put doors and things like that so that we can move further in the process we need to think about that type of thing because there's a big difference between our high school where you don't have too many people walking across the side right behind Lori versus the number of people that are going to come up that sidewalk right there to come into the building and and I I agree with you and we've had we've had some talks with Eva about that and I think that that desk can be positioned another way and I think too some of is as we talked about it and the you know it's kind
046of amazing when we're in a meeting we'll say like they can flip a cabinet or a desk on that drawing pretty quick and it's just I yeah I was just thinking more in terms of like okay if we're looking at we do potentially need to consider moving a door you know in order to make this safer it was ultimately what my and what was really really kind of neat too with the way that they can manipulate things when we were talking about it is like uh uh you know for example in this work room Eva was talking about what kind of cabinets she needed and it was just like they could change that the look of them and you know if it's uh for four file uh drawers or if it's one big one whatever
047you know what's most efficient for what what we need and and then again in the staff work room too the teachers had a lot of input on what would be the best for for their needs and their uses so um and Bill had a really good idea there you know to save a little cost they've vented that staff bathroom right directly into the principal's office great I'm going to have a big window here you are sandwiched between two [Laughter] bathrooms so you're thinking that I mean I don't think you're going to see a lot of changes with like the building layout now right I mean you're kind of set on it's kind of set where it's I mean we've got we've got that footprint to work with so I mean you're not going to move
048any of the outside wall so this was the only point of contention is how much do do we because once we lose it we lose it right and but I think we're comfortable with the size of that and being able to still make good use of that so yeah did and I think you guys are in on a meeting schedule be in on a meeting next week about the C I think there it's I think that's Thursday right I think it's this week this week right you guys got in that email okay and so that was one of the things and I had to I think I had to go teach class or something so I missed the tail end of that meeting I think there was a lot of discussion about that canopy and
049that's one of the things I I really don't care about but I think it's a very uh important thing because that's going to be seen by the public so I think it's important to have like our board Representatives weigh in on that and and get the right look and something that's going to be functional to identify that main entrance so should get that drilled down this week I think and I think it was just the looks and then my concern was is making it as easy as possible for you know snow removal and yeah and it's whatever you got to deal with right it's not going to be as big as what you seen the other day um they're going to bring some of that up yeah they can't take that between those two two
050pillars there so okay that makes sense then the canopies over the front door they talked about originally taking the canopy from this post here to this one here and I think they're only going to they're end up taking it to here yeah just basically like an awning that says L down the middle school or whatever yeah just something that this is the entrance and I really liked you know like the look of it that it was angled so that people could you know see it from down the street that oh that that's where I'm going yeah the last question I had she just walked in the [Laughter] door okay um so you're just so pretty much what we're kind of we haven't seen yet is the numbers and we'll have those before the mar I
051think and that could change some of this yeah I mean you know yeah all right my last question promise um with the nurse's office um is there a reason for having that door open out into the main building or just the fact that it's Jay's office and we don't feel like hitting them with a door I mean if you look door here that goes out into the hallway Y for the main building as opposed to if you've got kid that's sick more than likely I should think that they're going to end up in the office yeah and then be brought back to you so when the door is open kids will come straight to me okay when it's closed I'll have a sign out there that says please go see Miss Eva okay um we
052talked about that but just the way um because we thought that maybe Eva would want them to be able to lay down and stuff but she doesn't want them out of her line of sight so um we decided that this was the best option so it's that office will really only be in use when I am in the building okay thank you anything else you guys want to add if not I think that kind of answered a lot of the questions that we kind of heard last time you know with like where things were going to be and what was going to happen and and then so I think the intention is just at the March or some time between now and the March Mee we'll have costs to go with it and then to
053be you know possibly prepared to say yay or nay at the next meeting once we know kind of where those costs come in so fair okay thank you guys um new business we are on contract resignation and retirement there a list in the packet you want to read those start person sure sure can okay so certified substitutes at uh $135 a day Julie Cudmore and Amanda shrier and then at 115 a day Riley Andrew uh classified substitutes uh Randy Hansen for snow removal uh Julie Cudmore par professional Ry Mitchell Food Service uh Sher strand Food Service uh resignations retirements this is kind a long one here uh Elementary Food Service Katie Jenkins uh Winfred Harris Elementary Food Service Tanya Kramer Elementary Food Service uh and then four uh retirements and uh yeah these it's just
054amazing the longevity of these people and the dedication of uh Dedication that they've given to the district uh actually there three retirements here we had one last month uh Christina Johnson Elementary sped instructor I'm gon to put somebody on the spot how many years there I don't know yeah on 30 Lea stagner uh I know that one that's 40 years uh Lisa ran yeah that's impressive uh and then Amy Rogers um and the reason for the resignation uh she's just changing positions going to a 9month position uh so she's resigning the 12- month position and so she's really not changing her job duties just different like that okay and then uh classified work agreement Amy Rogers N9 month technology assistant okay she'll still be in the elementary school so we would need a motion to
055approve those contracts resignations and retirements motion to approve the contracts resignations and retirements second all in favor I motion carries so the next item is the administrative contracts okay I'll go ahe and read through those uh Eric Pearson superintendent Margie Rapa business manager Dan Van Biber Elementary principal J beagle uh Middle School principal sped director Mark Jacobs High School principal Zach Clement uh 612 assistant principal and activities director Darcy Percy District nurse Jamie Hol Network director Bill snow maintenance Transportation supervisor and Elizabeth fth food service dord make a motion to offer administrative contracts one second a motion in a second all in favor I I okay motion carries we are on to some Surplus weight Line Equipment okay I should be in the packet yep and that's um I think the board member MERS got
056that also last week so if you had any questions or concerns with that I give you a little time there thanks Jamie so rather than read through all that it's it's just stuff that uh our activities director has determined isn't really fitting with our uh athletic strength and conditioning program and so it's it's stuff that uh has served us for a number of years uh but but some decent equipment kind of the more of the machine like the cable machines those kind of things not talking about any treadmills or anything but uh there are three places those things are going one piece of equipment that's going to the Hanley Center uh there's a few pieces that are going to uh Lawrence County Sheriff sheriff's department and then there are a few pieces going to Deadwood
057PD and there was a little question and we did some research uh Marie made some calls and uh because the Hanley Center wasn't a government entity but we found uh we were directed to statute where it's it's permissible uh to donate it to a nonprofit uh for the community good we we felt like but I want to be transparent with you guys if you guys disagree speak up but we felt like the Handley Center definitely fits but anyway my recommendation is that we uh Surplus the stuff uh at no cost to those entities we need a action to Surplus the items to those entities and no cost make a motion to Surplus weight room equipment to the Handley Center dpd and lcso at no cost second okay all in favor I motion carries uh the
058next one is an update on um so we've been dealing with the school land property across the road here and we would like to have approval to have the superintendent initiate the process to get the remaining portion of the land annexed inside the city limits of lead because right now it's partially in and partially in the county so that's kind of the first step to move forward is to get that all in head City Limits I think Robin is there like a application that we have to fill out to be to put it before the city council could you please sorry I don't mean to put you on the spot but could you kind of run through the process for please I think I'm just going to suggest that Robin should probably recuse herself from
059voting on this item probably have a direct don't you think well I'll handle it after of C side yeah so you probably shouldn't vote on it here just right but but informationally yeah I think information that in mind um so so the school district will just need to fill out a petition and then submit that to the city lead and that will start the annexation process and then we'll run that through the city board and we have publication and things like that that we need so it gets annexed um really the only change uh will be it's the tax exempt parcel so it's not taking away County tax or adding city tax so there's no monetary value for any of so it's just kind of like Dr Pearson said the first step um because part
060of it's in the city elad and part of it's in the county so we can get it all in the city then it's for plating and all that type of stuff so Amber can I anything I don't think so that's pretty much the same process yeah we just have to do a petition just like any other land owner so we have to go and then the city council will have to either approve it or say yay or nay and then we'll from there we need a motion um Mary how do you want to do that for do you want it to have for reuse or you just put it in there yeah so then we just need the action item which would be to approve the superintendent to initiate that process all motion to approve
061the superintendent to initiate that process on second okay all in favor I there you go all right so the next item is the facility use for Mountaintop field coming up and I would also ask Robin to address that but probably be the same situation she would vote on it yeah well and I had Dennis yeah so he can give us that and I thank for having you here uh case you don't we go through a little history 2026 lead's going to be celebrating their 150th birthday and there's going to be like a all class reunion is going to be celebrating at the same time this is going to be on the 3D the fourth and 5th of July going to be quite the party I guess and we're gonna have uh we've talked to Bill
062snow about this already we're looking at having a concert at the football field we've done it was done once before like 20 30 years ago whenever I can't remember Bill been that while now but it's going to be a pretty good side little concert we're asking to be able to use the football field for that concert we estimate probably we're hoping between three or four 5,000 people at this concert and we would set a big stage up the stage is we talked about that it's going to be a pretty good size stage because it's going to be a pretty good size band it be on the I'm going to say the prob the west southwest side of it facing the back the stage will be facing Terry Peak we're going to be uh have vendors
063up there it'll be pretty much all day on the 3 probably maybe even on the second because they might be setting up that stage that day uh so we're asking for permission to before we sign this band which probably we have one lined up already but we haven't signed it we need to make sure that the school board and everybody's on board letting us you that field the only concern I have and it's it's something that just I think this level of communication would probably take care of it just you know like with with the new track there I'm not so concerned with people walking on it but just like when like when they go to set up the stage all an equipment across I and I think like I like I say just mentioning
064it to you now we'll put a mental note to you guys that just to tell the guys to be careful that's my only concern I think that'll be it we had that conversation when we were up there so they're they're aware of with the new track chairs people always want to bring chairs to events like that are you gonna allow those to be on the track it's a metal I would say not a chair on the track but there's all right it' be all right on the field yeah on the field we find just some of those things as you're setting stuff up because I know that's you know you just don't want somebody sitting in that track and then having a big old divot yeah we can flag that off what we got to
065do to make that happen and we we' already discussed we're going to try to get that stage in there and stuff across that track understandable we don't want to damage that and we'll be every precaution to make sure that doesn't happen and if you guys work with Bill on that I I I'm pretty confident you can get it done yeah it's we're hoping for a big deal so uh and that's the only place we can have it and we'll probably be coming back to you for even a little bit more help when we decide how we're going to handle this and how we're do it we're just got the well we got lots of plans but we got to make it happen but how to get people up there and how to get people out
066of there if we have that big of a crowd um we that whole weekend we're thinking probably between 5 to 10,000 people in town for a couple days so we'll have a pretty big outfit going on with the facility use requ I mean I've filled out for a couple times but do we need to have something different if there were damage to that track how we would take care of that or is that in that that's in that agreement okay I just want and this is usually something that we don't take to the board when we have any usually but with the size of this scope of this project I just kind of recommended that this would be a good idea to I don't see any ISS I mean we don't have school then and
067I makes it a little easier but just just as long as the school was protected if there were damage actually when we had the all School reunion Chris Roberts um the all school reion had to get their own insurance well that's what I'm wondering is that how this will be I'm assuming that's how this will be too you would have an insurance of some sort for that type of stuff City's probably insurance would probably I would assume cover that okay yep and and it's also going to be a joint event with the chamber and they also have liability insurance they have the stuff down at the park and all that kind of stuff okay so this will just be on that coverage it'll just say that it covers this building or structure yeah the chamber
068list the city has an additionally ured and then it's also going to be under the city and bathrooms and all that stuff up there than that whole assuming going have toies from that people there's no way to that's how about the concession stand area I would guess they're going to use all that okay yep we're going to we I think we counted or we kind of figured out probably maybe 15 to 20 concessions and 30 or 40 otties and okay it's a yeah and it's good yeah hopefully the weather hangs out you know how the that's what scares us the most we sign we sign someone it cost us a lot of money to get this band in here and all of a sudden we got lightning and thunder and we just stand there crying
069are you looking at hiring security as well yeah we'll probably have to go if you go to someone like Foreigner or someone like that they require you have Professional Security if we go to someone like we're thinking now it be it could be just our local security but we do there's a place I go f show why that yeah okay yeah yeah and I would I think we're at the point right now where we are going to need to book a band and so we just need to secure the venue and then once we get more planning and we figure out like the layout and more details if we're going to need buses for transportation um we're going to sell beer all that kind of stuff we can come back and yeah give an update
070on what the could be kind of like a well Robin came but the one is like the Woodstock of Le W rings and stuff you could better be the Woodstock it well okay like so that would be that would be a separate question the board would take up and that would be I mean our policy allows that for you to approve it for special events and so and I don't know like I don't think you have to approve that right now but if but if say four of you are sitting here on no way then then it maybe be good to let these guys know but if you're like oh yeah we'd probably consider that like I say you don't have to decide right now then I'd say go ahead and approve it and I
071just I don't want these guys to be unpas these are just things like as long as I mean the facility use is not the issue it's going to be all the other stuff so I think just when you get a better idea we probably should just bring it all kind of as a package yeah and make sure we improve the little things you know like that kind of stuff make sure insurance the check and whatever so yeah I don't it might not be just a like I said could be other things going on up there it just depends when this band wants to set up once they get set up then we're kind of locked out okay do you want to still do a motion to approve the facility use yeah if you guys want
072to we can do a motion to approve the facility use request form for Mountain Top Field July second and third I'd make a motion to approve the city of lead to use Mountain Top Field on July 2nd through the 5th 2026 you should we maybe should I potentially amend that motion to the six so that they have it's whatever is on the form we don't have the form I didn't have any form it's just I didn't want to fill finish filling it out until you guys were done don't you guys knew what was going on I guess the the the dates need to W match what they want I don't think we said the dates yeah the date for the concert pretty much SE already already set I think it's the second through the fifth
073on the form because the concert is the third so that's one day to set up one day to turn Okay okay so we have a motion we need a second somebody need to Second it or not or it's going to die for a lack of a second I just worry about damage to the fuel guess that second but we'll have 10 more discussion make sure that it's not damag to the field that's what I'm worried about it's just damage to the field I as as we're protected we don't have damage to but I think right now you're just doing the facility request yeah right now it's just facility request so I will approve that so there is a motion and a second to approve the facility use for Mountain Top Field all in favor I
074and then I same y thank you well I'm glad I didn't just sign the form I think there's just a big difference between you know well yeah something so bus usage for South Dakota St yep it's a small it's a tech Organization for the state of South Dakota um I'm vice president and we're having a little pre-conference before the Thai conference and we're having a group do some tours of um Surf and do some things in town and Lead so we just want trans portation for everybody to get back and forth from Deadwood second Motion in a second to approve the request all in favor carries all right we are to the climate survey this was at the last meeting I believe Robin had requested that we just kind of take some time to go
075through this um it's been out there in the public it was given to all the teachers and and at their in service a few weeks ago um but we just haven't had a chance to go through it so I think that's so just real quick we did this climate survey in November and we've made the results publicly we shared with the board uh what what the results were right away in November and then um when I did my district pulse presentation on January 6th I kind of went through it with the public and with our staff and then since that time it's been posted on our website now I will say there was a an open-ended question um where people were allowed to put comments and because you know how that goes when people put
076comments they're not all positive and just like with our uh you know public input at the uh public forum you know we're not going to allow people to bash employees and so we're not going to put negative comments out there for the public to see what we did with those comments was as an admin team we we sat in this room and we read through all the like every all the 10 people on the admin team got a chance to look at those we got a chance to talk back and forth you know what pertains to our buildings and that kind of thing and I don't want to paint a picture that that there were these overwhelmingly negative comments I mean there were just a few but anyway a lot of them were really uh
077pretty constructive uh some good recommendations that kind of thing and so as an admin team we had an opportunity to strategize on how to use that information uh also I would say and I kind of mentioned this on January 6 too and I'll give you guys a chance to kind of go through and talk about each one I just give them a little preview here um we were really pleased as as we looked at these that uh the results really seemed pretty overwhelmingly positive uh there were just a couple of areas that I wouldn't even say were negative but just when you kind of peel back the layers a little bit it was like okay these are maybe an area of concern uh because um you know maybe there was a majority that either agreed
078or strongly agreed with the comment but maybe there was a significant number who were either neutral or disagreeing and so we've kind of talked and when we get to those items we can kind of talk about the strategies we have to address those areas of concern so uh we'll just go through these one by one and if anybody have any questions or comments uh we kind of talk about the whole thing as a whole uh first few questions were just identifying who the first two questions were identifying who the people were whether they're certified classified uh support Administration um and which building they work in or if they're districtwide so we get to number three I am happy in my job um the raw numbers we had 32 strongly agree 46 agreed 14 were neutral
079and three disagreed we had 95 respondents to the survey so when we look at strongly agree and agree uh percentage wise 34 plus 48 is uh 82% strongly agreed or agreed that they're happy in their job and that kind of if you look online at uh like the PE research you know just for job satisfaction uh in general in the United States it kind of kicks the heck out of that um I've spoken to and treated respectfully by my Superior Superior supervisor excuse me um 66 strongly agree 19 agree um and so that adds up to 69% and 20% so 79% a greater strong weight have greed while being treated respectfully uh three disagreed one strongly disagreed out of 95 people any questions or comments I'm spoken to and treated respectfully by my peers and
080colleagues 37 strongly agreed 45 agreed nine were neutral three disagreed one strongly disagreed so again 47% and 39% that would be uh 86% strongly agreed or agreed any questions on that okay I feel supported by my colleagues and peers with whom I work 37 strongly agreed 41 agreed 12 are neutral five disagreed uh so that puts uh that be 70 or no 82% strongly agreed or agreed um I feel that student learning drives decision makings in the school district uh decision making in the school district excuse me 24 strongly agree 38 agree 26 were neutral six disagreed one strongly disagreed um so again pretty pretty strong numbers there on that one is there any questions on that comments okay I feel empowered to make decisions that are best for students 30 strongly agree 45 agree
08114 were neutral six disagreed so again 79% strongly agreed or agreed I feel that my school is a safe place for students and staff I thought this was a pretty good one uh 41% strongly agreed 42 agreed 10 were neutral two disagreed so uh 87% strongly agreed or agreed that this is a safe place for students and staff um I feel heard by my building level administrator um 80% or no 84% strongly agreed or agreed so 40 and 40 nine neutral five disagreed one strongly disagreed I feel that building level Administration treats staff fairly 44 strongly agreed 38 agreed 11 neutral one disagreed one strongly disagreed so again 86% agreed or strongly agreed and then uh I feel like I have an appropriate level of autonomy in my job 35 strongly agreed 44 agreed 11
082were neutral four disagreed one strongly disagreed this one really wasn't surprising to me because you think you know most of our people are teachers and you know you think of the level of autonomy that teachers have in their jobs it's pretty autonomous job when they go in that classroom and you say go in that classroom and close the door they don't have the doors to close but um yeah they're they're really in charge pretty high level of economy the survey reflected that the next two items were ones that as an admin team we kind of identified as like things that we wanted to dig a Little Deeper on uh employe in the school district are held accountable appropriately um nine strongly agreed 47 agreed 20 were neutral uh 16 disagreed and three strongly disagreed so
083again still pretty positive numbers but the the strongly agree was a little lower percentage uh 177% and the agree was 49% you know so we just kind of wanted to look at with the number that were neutral and that disagreed we kind of wanted to look at why is that what does that mean and so we kind of divided this up by building and the building principles are U digging a little deeper on this question in their buildings and um put you guys on the spot a little bit uh Dan and Jade you want to kind of talk about how you're addressing these two areas of of concern to get to the root of it or find out what what thing in there sure sure um so I I addressed it in our staff meeting
084uh a little over a week ago that these were concerning to us and um that we were going to dig deeper by the building level so on Friday during our PD day um I'll have another survey to just my building staff to kind of dig into these um questions a little bit deeper um leave a little room for some some open-ended comments so it's not they're not stuck between multiple choice so that we can we can find out um you know because it's concerning you know and I feel like if we can figure out what's causing the neutrals and the disagrees that we can address those issues so we're going to start with that survey um and and go from there so I went in our our Middle School um has a team time with
085with the teacher so I went and met with um all the teachers during their team time and gave them some options um one being that that they all know that I have an that I express that I have open door policy and I've always said that that they can come to me individually with with their concerns if they didn't feel comfortable with that that they had the option of sending one of their uh trusted co-workers whether that be from the elementary high school or wherever that could come in in their stead and they can still be anonymous and express some of those issues that they may have with those questions or if they didn't feel comfortable coming to me that they could come to another administrator in the district so I gave them some options
086to be able to express what they felt um if they were respondents to those questions but so and just just uh you know speaking a little bit for Mark he's got I think a similar process that he identified in the high school s to what Dan talked about initiating some conversations with people doing another little survey um and so and then the last one is I feel like I'm a valued part of of a team and we had 30 strongly agree 40 agree and so those I mean those are still strong num so that that's 32% plus 47 that's still 79% but what was a little concerning you know when you asked that question feeling like you're a valued part of a team like you want to hit Almost 100% on that and so when
087you have uh 15% uh neutral and 6% disagreeing uh you want to kind of figure out how we can bring those people into the fold and and you know one thing about this climate service and I guess I have to commend our admin team on this is I think that we're U kind of tackling these things you know like it'd be pretty easy to gloss over this and just move on but I think we've all been pretty open to um you know finding some things where hey if we dig a Little Deeper we can find something we can improve on and kind of meaning that head on so and it wasn't just the principles but our whole admin team 10 of us sat and talked about these things try to develop strategies so what comments
088or questions do we have from from the board on this my only question would be for Jay have you had anyone utilize that process that you set up yet not yet and I think um we've kind of like left that open-ended um I think well Dr Pearson kind of wanted us to maybe have some kind of some answers or if we had some answers by uh this Friday um but no I haven't had anybody um utilized that process yet so which which I don't know if it's good or bad I maybe I didn't give them the correct options or or whatever but anyway I appreciate that you guys are spending the time and working on this yeah yeah um so I would just like to comment um so I kind of went through this survey
089and took it as if I were taking it as an employee and so like the high level overview of the whole thing it's is genuinely positive all of the questions the answers were more positive than negative um but when you I feel like the way that the questions are worded when you when people are answering it neutral they're not really agreeing so a neutral answer could almost be taken as a negative answer answer and so if you look at it in that mindset um it gets a little bit more negative and so that was one thing that I really wanted to look into I feel like that it's important for the staff to know that they took the time to do this survey that their feedback is going to be valued and that we can
090try to um put some solutions out there it's not just a survey that there's not um anything that actually comes up out of it we want them to know that their feedback is appreciated and um feel empowered to be a part of the solution and so I appreciate the admin team you know coming to the table to try to figure out what we can do I feel like that there is a little bit of a division within the school and so what I'm kind of wondering is if the board could be a little bit more involved and maybe that's a horrible idea and I am open to if that is a horrible idea um and maybe that would give us a better understanding of things that are going on you know we make policy decisions
091and lots of decisions that affect the teachers that come to school every day that's their job that's their passion and we want them to be happy and so I guess my opinion is we should really want to do better with these results so I don't know if it could be just a open staff board meeting or if it could be two board members go to each School dist or each um building and just sit in on the feedback maybe we won't get any feedback I don't know but I just thought that um I think the survey was a good idea and it was a little bit kind of like an outside the box idea to get direct feedback but if we could continue the outside the box idea on how to make changes that it's
092really going to move everything in a positive direction get advice feedback on D yeah um so and I think that's part of the reason for the followup is it's this the survey results were were very insightful but it's hard to discern like which building it might be coming from or which type of employee if it's classified or certified or you know a districtwide employee so I think that's part of it and then I know I talk to you Robin a little bit too I'd be more than happy like if I once I get my survey results to share that out um with the board you know if if if that's something we deem appropriate but um yeah I I I think the the more uh you know the more that we can look at this
093together I think uh we can come up with some good solutions to try to make things better for the staff in the district I voice my opinion on it and Robin and I have visited I mean it's fine um I have a pretty strong opinion it's no different than working for government or um my County Commissioners there's a chain of command um my County Commission doesn't come in and talk to me at that level that that's just not what you usually do um I'm always available for people to call and talk to me just one on-one but I don't feel like the school board's position should be talking about at we have our administrators we hire our administrators that's what our job is to do is to hire the administrators um if we have an
094issue with an administrator we need to deal with that administrator and I feel like the staff underneath that Administration they need to deal directly with their staff that's just my take on it I'm perfectly comfortable once they have a chance to talk to all of their staff if they want to come share that with the board that's fine and that that's the way that it should work I'm not comfortable as a board member that we should be sitting in on those one-on-one staff meetings that's just my take on it it's different like you know we get emails all the time we get people that call us all the time that's perfectly acceptable I mean they can keep doing that and I think any can contact any of us individually with concerns that's just just my
095view and we can have different views that's okay yeah and I wouldn't think that it would be like a staff meeting but maybe was just um a one-time conversation where we just take these survey questions or the new survey questions and just SK the direct feedback like okay if you're um what are the things that are really going well what's your feedback on that things that can be improved on so that um if there is distrust or if there is division the um reporting schedule or who you go to that Chain's not working then things are might be broken I think we need to give the chain an opportunity to work and I I I just feel like that step would be really antithetical to the gavel train that that we all sat through with
096the associate school boards I mean just it is the exact opposite of what they said a board member's role is and I think you know like this survey uh you know I had the idea to put this survey out there and now I kind of feel like it's being used as a little bit of a bludgeon like like a gotcha thing it's like you know we're making an honest effort to identify places where we can improve there's positives here here and I think we've got a process for that I think we need to give that process a chance um I I don't think it would be a good idea sorry Amber I don't think it'd be a good idea to have the board make it so that the administration is sitting here going well I'm
097never doing another survey because look where that got me I think the admin has to do their jobs in each of their buildings and if you feel that you can't do your job then you need to go to the superintendent and and then same thing if any of any other employee feels that their admin isn't getting to what they need they need to follow their training command and then if you're not getting where you're going then talk to us otherwise talk to us if you had anything you want to share that's where I that's where I'm at too you know I I had this um thought a few days ago um not entirely dissimilar to what Robin saying um however I mean I think that it's when people want to get a hold of us
098they get a hold of us um and I mean I have had phone calls emails letters um people are going to get a hold of you I think that my concern with having a board member sit in would be that we're also putting ourselves in a position that we're not going to be able to necessarily see the big picture or we're going to be in a position where we have to recuse oursel when if something were to end up coming up to the board level um I think the other part of it too is that while I understand the idea that someone may um feel better having a board member um sitting in on this you could have another employee that feels completely different and feels you know like they can't be honest because of
099the fact that a board member is present that's why I think it's more important that we step back and we allow people to reach out to us when they want to on their terms rather than us forcing the issue and it's not our job it's not what we're like you said the G training that isn't we're not that's not what we're our position and our role is okay so it's not an action item we did go through the climate survey which was what the question was I think everybody got to kind of voice what they were feeling and how they were at but it was not an action item tonight because we don't usually make it an action item um I think that's kind of so review and discuss the 2025 2026 calendar okay so
100again process wise and I think the calendar was in the packet um we met early January with the calendar committee uh the calendar committee consists of teachers from each building uh classified staff throughout the district uh building principles uh and me and so to start with I gave uh two versions of a calendar and Lexi had brought up a suggestion of combining spring break and Easter break and so that first meeting uh I brought a version of the calendar that had that and then a version that was really kind of similar to what we had this year and uh the committee met and I guess we've got a few people in the room here up at these tables that were in there uh Jay or Dan would you guys want to kind of speak to
101how how that conversation went or and just real like we had that meeting people took it back took the versions back to their um buildings their departments and then we had another meeting and kind of landed on this you guys want to maybe highlight those conversations were as we got some feedback yeah so um and I I think it's gone this way for quite a while I mean as long as I've been here it's kind of been the process but um you know it's it's really um quite open the committee um to bring in their their thoughts and their wishes and their needs from people in their buildings and um with the caveat of we have between after cool Deadwood Nights and Memorial Day and everything in so there's there's wants and then there's the
102reality of of where everything needs to sit but um I I think it real the process works out really well is having that committee um sit down and and Dr Pearson brings in the the initial um copy at least the rough draft and we all kind of talk about a little bit take it back to our to our staffs um uh I did it in a staff meeting uh gave him some time to look it over and found that Native American day was in the wrong spot you know so that was that was a good thing um just a error there but then actually making sure that we're um being diligent and and and um you know forthright with making sure that we're using enough days um appropriately to educate kids and then um sometimes
103that it's a balance with what teachers want and what's what's the most appropriate thing to do and uh but I think the process is working really well and that feedback got back and we changed some things and that took some some suggestions that were from teachers you know as far as like uh uh going into the day I can't remember what the date was of December but um uh like the 20th I think is a Monday coming back from Monday for Christmas vacation uh before that we start Christmas vacation and we decided that we could do that differently and make sure that that probably wasn't going to be the most productive use of time is to come back on on a Monday um but anyway but we fit fit a day in so that's kind
104of I guess my take on the whole process so yeah we got some specific feedback that was the 22nd TR to have staff and students come back on the 2 December felt a little disst um so and I one of the other specific feedbacks we got was um trying to build in at least a partial PD day in that first part of the year to to do some things that we weren't able to do this year and maybe I think we Trimm down a little bit with the PD at the beginning of the year um so that it wasn't over and then we added one in September correct yeah September um and then we we you know we looked at trying to combine like the the Easter break and the and the Spring Break um
105and as a teacher I can tell you uh that would make an awfully Big Stretch of time with no breaks um like almost a month and a half uh over a month and a half um from mid-February through beginning of April so that was a little bit so I I think that's part of the reason why we um talked about this version um but it was it was great because I had U my building reps reach out to staff in the elementary and get specific feedback and those are some of the things that we had heard and just you know and I kind of give this a little Spiel every year when we talk about calendar but you know by law the school calendar is not a bargainable item so like you know the administration
106advises the board the board sets the calendar and and even like this version I give you if you guys want to do something different you have the authority to do that the board sets calendar um but with that um we like to get staff input uh they've given some great suggestions but it's like sometimes people people get confused on that and they think well that should be negotiated that should be bargain uh that's been established in case law that that's not not the case and so so uh we do appreciate the input but at the end of the day we have to make decisions uh to make it work so with that what uh what do we got I am not a fan of having a spring break and then having your Easter break be
107a couple of weeks later I mean you've got a four-week span where our kids are going to school for four days or less in a row um in a six week period it not going for a full week of school five out of those six weeks um I feel like we could do something better with our time that way I also am looking at it I mean I can see from the educat perspective but I'm looking at it more from the parent perspective of okay we have this more strict policy regarding um absences from school which I 100% support um but we also need to recognize that a lot of our families are in a position that they can't leave during the summer months um and so I like the idea of providing a better
108option for families to be able to do something if they want to during a different time of the year um as well and I mean frankly I think it's just disruptive um for our kids to have all of these four-day weeks when we could do something to make even I mean I I can see the writing on the wall I'm not getting my full week of you know um spring break slash Easter break but doing you know something where you know we can make one of those you know longer shorter so that you know families do get a little bit bigger break with theirs you know with with their families does that make sense you know maybe taking away the 23rd of March and adding that on to Thursday the 2nd or April the 7th
109or you know just considering something a little bit different I get where you guys are coming from but I also just think that four weeks four day weeks in a row is disruptive um and I mean overall you're looking at six total like that or uh five out of six weeks in a r be like that overall though beyond that I like the rest of the calendar I love having semester tests in December um one of the things we discussed in our academic and achievement committee meeting um a couple of weeks ago was I want to see how our finals looked um you know taking them before Christmas as opposed to a week after getting back I'd be curious to see what that looks like all the kids did exactly yeah something dig up you
110do it tomorrow yeah I think it's already being worked on through academic um achievement and success I think today we're just reviewing And discussing it does anybody have anything to add regarding po calendar y I don't disagree with you but I also if they took the two versions to the teachers and this is the one that you know if the group decided this was a better one then I feel like that's what we have to go with um but I don't and it always doesn't happen this way it just happens that it's two weeks in a row for Easter and well you know part of that you know just as Lexi talks I'm thinking through what she's saying and I see that where that you know and what exacerbates that is you know Easter that
111that affects two weeks okay well then also we made the decision a couple years ago to do that with our spring break where it used to be it used to fall in one week and then we we the reason we split it had to do with parent teacher conferences because we wanted a day off the day following parent teacher conferences that was something big that the staff said well we can't do parent teacher conferences on a Wednesday night and so like some of those so we said okay let's split it between two weeks so I hear what you're saying and I think maybe that's something we need to we've got a couple months to look at it we'll we'll look at it and see but uh no promises but I just had thought of it
112from that perspective that was kind of the thought process of how that land Ed four weeks in a row like that so anyway okay we have no recommendation at this meeting so we don't have to worry about that um review Health office procedure protocols and standing orders believe you got yeps we just added it to your packet so you guys can review it um I've worked on getting all of those together over the last eight months so this is basically what you had kind of given us a precursor to before of saying this is what you like to add in yes so when we were going through our policies last year and stuff there was pieces of it I'm like that really doesn't belong in a policy let's pull that out and put it in
113a procedure or protocol and then standing orders are something that the um Board of Nursing requires for nurses that kind of work on their own um and having those assed by a physician agrees with those is necessary so wanted you guys to be able to see those okay so we're not approving or disapproving you're just letting us know that you got them all together yep these kind of yeah these don't need board approval but for transparency I thought it' be good to have you guys to see well I think it's good just for you to have like's we're going to do and how we're going to do it look good okay um correspondent there is a thank you there from Shannon mman regarding the Christmas party so that was provided to everybody administrator reports is
114where we're at okay I'll try and be kind of brief but part of my just you didn't have to it's it's your nonverbal I think she rolled her whole upper body I don't think we've Ed ever get my chocolate I think I think a lot of people in this room can attest a lot of my reports have been pretty short but anyway they are getting shorter yester well not tonight okay so here's the problem here like legislative report okay like I've got two I got four pages of spreadsheets I'm not going to go through all these bills I'm going to hit a few of the highlights uh so and I don't know I may offer some opinions on some of this but I don't want to make everybody angry some people angry whatever but like
115I'll just start going through on the Senate side I just have a couple Senate Bill 51 uh I think passed the Senate and that was the one requiring the display uh an inclusion of Ten Commandments uh and that got defeated in the house like on the house side so that it's kind of we don't need to debate that or give our opinions on it because it's it didn't pass um Senate Bill 71 I thought was interesting and I think that one is still alive maybe on the house side revised Provisions pertaining to the compulsory age for School attendance um lowering that I guess I will give a little bit of an opinion personally I I mean it it's conflicting because I think that we should you know we want the kids here we want to
116we want a shot at trying to educate them but the reality we just have some kids that are determined to drop out and some of them are using homeschooling to drop out we've kind of talked about that um and so you know we're fighting this fight to keep them here till 18 and there's I I don't know I think lowering that age at which they can drop out I don't think it's going to lead to a rash of dropouts I think they're finding ways to do that anyway and I think it's more about if that family and that student values education they're going to stay anyway so that one is kind of one we're still watching um and if any of you have questions about specific bills I can try and find another spreadsheet we
117can touch on them but House Bill uh 10002 to require that all certified Educators take a course in South Dakota Indian studies I I didn't read the text of the bill I don't really know what that's about because to be certified we all have to take South Dakota Indian studies so I don't I don't know what to change so I don't anyway um House Bill uh 109 um provide for creation and use of South Dakota education empowerment accounts and provide a penalty there that's that's vou one of the voucher bills uh I was surprised to see that that just that that uh was sent to the 41st day so that's that one's dead for now but that could be resurrected uh House Bill 1020 another bill to establish education savings account or vouchers that one
118also was sent the 41st day House Bill 1040 reduce the state's contribution to a subsidized High School dual credit program that one is a little bit concerning and understand you know money's tight and revenues are down at the state level but that one like if you end up going to a Cracker Barrel and you know might think about giving some input on that our dual credit program we have a lot of kids take advantage of that and that would knock down like right now it's it's really pretty cheap for those kids I think it's like 40 bucks credit or something like that what's that 1040 so it's going to it's going to ENT I think the kids right now pay like a third of of state tuition for those credits and that's going to knock
119it down to to or put their share up to a half so um House Bill 1105 require the display of the state model in Public School classrooms um under God uh was it under God the people rule is State model and so that one looks like that one got uh failed in the house so that one seems to be dead for now too um I'll spill 1185 uh there's a hearing scheduled for February 12th that's tomorrow provide that public monies for Education may not be used for lobbying purposes um I guess that sounds pretty good but I don't tell you right now you know we do spend public money for lobbying in our school district because uh we're members of an association that and I don't know I just think you know people might have
120a lot of different opinions on this I just think we want to think about it before we' Outlaw that practice because there are some lobbying efforts that are done as advocacy for students and and for the well-being of school districts and and if we can't use tax dollars for that what dollars could we use that's that's all we have I that's that's what we are so um House Bill 121 establish requirements for School counseling services and we do have still a counselor in the room here and I guess you know might be breaking protocol but if she wants to comment on this I might let her do that as well but first um you know this is one of those like I can I can see both both sides of this I can see like
121as a parent where you know it's I mean there are some big things that kids are dealing with and it's it's a little scary as a parent a little concerning that somebody can at school talk to your kid about anything and you are you are completely in the dark I I get that I'm giving my opinion here I I I get why that's concerning to people but also when I look at all the things you know talked about school counsel's week and appreciating those people I look at all that the school counselors do and I really would find it hard for them to do their jobs effectively if this bill passed the way it is uh I think it would really hamstring there are so many times when that counselor has to be um kind
122of that first person that is dealing with a kid in crisis uh there there are just so many things that and you know on a daily basis when Yanda wakes up in the morning you she doesn't know what she's going to face in in the school day and the way this bill is written it would really tie her hands to do any of the deal with any of the things come up throughout the day and I and I get it people are afraid that we're indoctrinating kids here in our school and I I think that that for the most part that fear of indoctrination my opinion is that come that's coming from other places that's not necessarily South D South Dakota problem um we have a lot of trust in our in our counselors and
123the job they do and um I guess I haven't seen any any indoctrination so I I have some real problems with that bill given my opinion danda do you want to speak to how that would affect your job and you don't have to speak you don't want to I'm giv the origal the original bill would have tied my hands if any student came in my office at any new topic that would have come up by what have a call home and ask permission first um the bill has changed um to the effect of um basically focusing on the lgbtq community a lot um the bill completely goes against any ethics I have anyway so the bill is not even necessary in my opinion um because in my ethical my professional ethics I I'm going to
124involve a parent if it's a big deal um if it's out of my locus of expertise I'm going to find somebody else that has the expertise to do it um and so for instance if somebody comes in my office and they have uh some gender issues let's just say and we start talking um my first question to them is going to be have you talk to your parents that's just going to be my first question um if they say no my job is then to encourage them to do that that might take a couple sessions though according to the bill I would have to call right away and so um treating the whole child and making sure they trust you to tell you those things requires a couple visits and that's just the way it
125is and so um I would then encourage that student to tell their parents I would probably role play some stuff with that child so that they have are comfortable telling their parents I would offer probably to sit with them to tell their parents um so anything that's of that nature I'm going to involve parents anyway that's that's our ethics that's what we do and so um I think that Bill's unnecessary all together to be honest the these are just prickly issues there are a lot of there are a lot of tentacles to it and I I can see it as a parent I can see it as a as an educator but the other thing like I can't wrap my head around you know a home where a kid just I mean sometimes kids are
126afraid of their parents yeah but like where a kid just can't talk to their parents that's and I I don't think I don't think we have anybody trying to like hey have you have you thought about being transgender but let's explore that I mean I just don't see that happening um but maybe I'm just naive I don't um and the bill is written includes all staff though it's not there's full language in it but it does talk about like all staff having those conversations and I think this the debate brings up kind of a good point for I'm not trying to make this longer but you know I think it's important for us as schools and as administrators to um share with all of our people you know what is appropriate for us to talk
127about you know we're here to teach a curriculum and yeah we want to be here for kids and we want to be somebody sometimes that they can confide in but like like sometimes sometimes you get you can get really out of your wheelous pretty fast with kids wanting to confide in a teacher that and and that really puts the teacher in a bad spot and I think that our counselors are a pretty good resource that if kid comes to me to me about something I'm unqualified to talk with them about yeah I can listen for a few seconds but then I'm like yeah I think you need to go see this person anyway that was a conversation about see go about what's right in the policy um okay House Bill 1229 this could affect our
128school district big time and I don't know what the full ramifications would be I I but uh provide an exemption from certainty property taxation for owner occupied single family dwellings and to limit taxes due on property over the previous year so I think I think this is the bill that is uh Randy diberts bill that will uh zero out owner occupied property taxes to the school district now where we have a little bit I think we would lose some Revenue with that where we have a little bit of wiggle room maybe is we have some room to make up some of that in uh the other tax categories U because we don't Levy the max across the board I'm not saying it would be a complete wash but this one is one to watch and
129that's kind of concerning and when he sat in that room over there he didn't have an answer he said yeah we we haven't quite figured out what to do about Lee Deadwood well I think he still has it and I think we need to press on that a little bit and we need to keep in mind if you read it it's $100,000 owner occup there's a threshold in there it's not if your house was worth $500,000 they're not saying 500,000 right it's $100,000 of the full and true value of each owner occupied single family de so you get a tax break up your 100,000 valuation okay so you just need because I've heard that from a couple jez if you have a $500,000 house that's a big difference well this is limiting it at the
130first 100,000 so it's kind of different on how it's written but you have to read there's like three parts to it I mean it's not true is that the one that also includes additional sales tax at the state level to offset yes yes maybe we should ask Randy he would with us I think this was going to come up at Saturday at the CRA speak yeah we'll talk about that Saturday at the um it might be good for Randy just to kind of break it down a little bit because like the other question is okay if they give you a tax break on your owner occupied and but they raise the sales tax how do those entities that get that tax you know the school the city the fire district all these other districts how
131do they make that Revenue up so if you're pay more in sales tax is the state going to reimburse all those entities that are losing the revenue yeah they'll put that into the funding formula here's the problem we're not in the funding so that's that's a very perent question Robin that uh we're just kind of left out of the cold it's you know people can get behind this bill because for the majority vast majority except for just a small handful of schools in the state it's it's Revenue neutral it's not going to hurt them at all but it's going to hurt us because they're they're not going to make up what we lose above the state aid formula yeah remind me what did we take for our M this year I want to say they
132vary by category okay so you got non computer well I mean I did my map on anyway so doesn't matter I don't know what I'm doing I think it is something though we need to watch and if anybody's going to the Cracker Barrel on Saturday do we have to not have AUM present for those okay you could go to curious no you could you could have a quum of board members at the Cracker Barrel don't sit together sit together okay like before and after or during the break don't Mill about together just stay away from each other and there's it's this Saturday and Spearfish is this Saturday and then and yeah the March 1 or 2 that's Saturday so this this coming Saturday is spirit fish 10 10 a.m I think it might be good
133to talk just have more instate conversation we ask maybe they would be open to including wording to offer Revenue source for districts that are outside the P well we did ask him that when he was here yeah I think they're a little bit further in that all right I just have two things two more things real quick uh see I told you legisla take a while okay uh as you know like we've got some retirements and we got a lot of teaching positions coming up and uh so we've got two job fair scheduled one at in Spearfish of Black Hill State another one in sou Falls at the convention center so I think I think Jay and Mark are going to the Black Hills one right or maybe all three of you guys are going
134to the Black Hills yeah um and I might stop by here or there that's on the 25th of this month on the 20th Dan and I are going to head over to sou Pauls and go to the one at the ramota there so see what we drow up there uh and then kind of a neat thing uh working with Oliver rener uh he had an idea to kind of do a project uh for recognition for middle school students uh whether it be academics Athletics some different things and this that kind of stems from um also honoring his his son who uh passed away cash u a couple years ago but he kind of wanted really liked this idea he's you know his approach was you know I don't want to do something just all about
135cash you know he wants to honor cash but then also he said you know I think it'd be kind of nice to do something uh to increase recognition for our middle school kids kind of across the board and so the idea he had was to set something up kind of a display by Jim 2 and so we've got a committee put together with Jay and Zach and Bill and there's G to be another Middle School teacher on it right Jay yeah Darren mcroy Darren mcroy uh and then Oliver will sit on that as well and Jay is setting up a meeting here in the next couple of weeks so that'll be kind of a neat thing uh to see that's going to be showing up there outside of gym too and I I think Bill
136that'll probably be before the end of the school year will see something up there right yep yeah so was kind of neat idea and appreciate Oliver bringing that to us so that's all I have for a report okay so sorry um I would just like to mention that with house bills one z9 and one20 um I listened into a lot on that and pretty much the only reason they moved it to the 41st day from what I got out of it is funding they're trying to cut money from the budget this year but it sure sounds like it'll be back next year yeah so we live to fight another day okay Food Service all right so in looking at the food service budget this year we're in great shape Food Service budget um the federal
137dollars the entitlement money I'm using more efficiently and starting to build menus around our our federal dollars some of those uh new recipes are hit and miss with kids depending on if you're at the elementary or high school or middle school um our kitchen equipment is functioning well our new ovens that were installed here at the high school we had trainer come up in excuse me December and do training everything's working properly in the way it's supposed to be working other than we have a fussy walk-in refrigerator up here so um it's losing some coolant somewhere Myster so we're getting an estimate to see what it's going to take to replace some parts rather than keep pumping it full of cool it so I'll have that estimate hopefully by next board meeting but things back
138it's February hard to find produce in the United States right now but strawberries are coming out of the greenhouse they're beautiful uh I know I get all these emails there's a free Phoenix that took care of some lettuce for us but things are on track you yeah Mr smoke so this is going to be pretty short um over Christmas break I had some of that safety glass installed down in Deadwood so that whole pyer area is all covered in that safety glass um also had the weight room painted so it's painted and cleaned um and then I thought I'd give me a an update on the electrical for this building um we're still waiting on getting parts in should be here next month we're going to be doing the RFP this week and putting that
139out for bid soon so okay we should be good to go sometime over the summer we'd like to have that done and it's it's going to knock the power out of this building for about a week thank you Marie your turn so um I'm not sure if you guys are familiar with Esser we got a significant amount of funding if Esser one two and three so I just thought I would share uh some of the expenditures that we spent the money on um between all three of them the total we received is about $2.8 million so I'll start with s one and um what Esser stands for is the elementary and secondary school emergency relief and it's as a result of covid-19 and um the descriptions that I'm going to say um we had to
140list an allowable expense and then we had to justify that the description or what we were buying um is preparing preventing or responding to covid-19 so um an sr1 uh we had two pair of professional salary and benefits at the elementary and that was 16763 we also had summer school salary and benefits of 3727 and then we had food service salary and benefits of 38,9 68 that's when we were going grab and go meal y um and then the school psychologist training in Vermillion and the special fund was 1,133 uh we also had singing mask for choir 402 um and then we had documentaries at the middle school self-regulate and reduce bullion that was 3 uh 666 uh Middle School curriculum 2,837 uh Elementary Chromebooks with license 15,400 uh Middle School computers with warranty 11,800
141plexiglass 15,57 tables at the elementary in the Middle School uh 7,896 and then we got some check-in checkout license for the student monitor progress 642 active panels uh 9,745 Microsoft licenses 679 Land school license 2587 Reading Plus license 975 spark license 595 and then room sterilizer lights 505 so we received 17,28 in esser1 so of that 95,3 73 was general fund 2,812 was capital outlay 1,13 three special aded and 38968 was F so then in S 2 we received 818466 um the expenditures were teammates salary and benefits conference in Lincoln Nebraska and Bor games that was 6,477 PB celer uh benefits and license and supplies was 7,144 and then in capital outlay the PBIS license was 3,932 uh completed coursework for salary and benefits and license that's when the teachers would complete a course and
142then they get $500 for it and then so the salary and benefits was $85,200 was for the license for the platform and and then we did the assistant 612 principal ad salarian benefits for fiscal year 22 and 23 that was 27,600 uh more interactive board 60323 and then to install the boards was 600 and staff computers 12,695 um the school psychologist convention in Boston was 5,5 549 uh we level the elementary Auditorium for at the elementary for 51,70274 the total was 7,184 Microsoft license 655 uh bass license 3,140 and then the Apex Credit Recovery online learning 8725 and then we did two District servers plus the network attach servers 21,271 uh route bus was 10 15,8 189 we did an activity bus for 179,0 1825 so of that 818 463 323 713 was general fund
143Capital out was 48921 and special ed 5549 and then we have S 3 learning loss uh that total was 67,69 and at the me elementary we did a Ela and a math interventionist salary and benefits for two years that was 25,9 136 at the we did a social studies teacher salary and benefits for two years and that was 12140 after school tutor summer school salary and benefits was 17,36 and then new course development stien to the teachings at the high school that was 1358 and then there was also curriculum for the new coursework and that was 35,2 65 and then the dial membership credit and Recovery was 765 and 20835 and then the district school psychologist intern for one year that was 4,440 that we contracted with blacka special services and then districtwide curriculum uh
1446370 in general fund and 127 221 Capital outweigh and then indirect cost was in the general fund of 1,704 so the total and learning uh learning last S3 was $17,604.13 training supplies was 15557 and then the student shots for this fiscal year was 2,260 and then the assistant uh 612 principal ad for fy4 was 18437 interactive boards 17744 install the boards 10,200 Credit Recovery 9715 computers at the Middle School 139 13915 and then 15 Sam Samsung tablets 3,677 Chrome books at the elementary 55,78705 uh Furniture in the library 1,6 and then online registration for in Infinite Campus was 15,000 security cameras and license was 44903 three viewing stations 4101 vacuums 2950 and then the HVAC system at the elementary for phase three was 645,000 646 we did four sers for 26826 and cafeteria tables at
145the high school for 13, 877 well thank you for that list you're welcome and as far as the upcoming budget um we're gathering information for the budget and at the May board meeting I'll do the proposed budget I usually get um valuations from the assess assessor's office uh second week in May and then July we will adopt the budget uh March 26 we get the renewal rates for our health premiums the audit fy2 24 but or audit Bruce has finished it he's sending it off to get it approved so either March or April that's done he'll to the board to present think it went well all I have public forum that's where we're at so we have public forum um we do have the new for and I don't believe anybody f it out tonight
146so don't have to worry about that there's anything but we don't have anything and then we are going to go into executive session for personnel starting to 1252 one