S-O School Board Meeting, May 19th, 2025

001Yeah. Did yours? Yeah. She loved it. It was good. I didn't realize your daughter was going until Yeah. I didn't know that either till she got home and Mackenzie was on it, too. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. Well, I asked her. I'm like, "Do you know if anybody close by is going?" She's like, "I don't think so. I don't know." And then when she got home, she was like, "Oh, she was Yeah. Yeah. She had a good time. I heard some of the Somebody recorded it. It was good." Oh, really? Yeah. She had some of the in some of the I only heard choir, I guess. I didn't hear band. Yeah, I'm sure. It was lovely. Yeah, I'm sure. [Music] Hello there. Hi, Jamie. How are we doing? Fred, how are you? Hi. How are you?

002Hey, Jamie. Give me a minute. Having support. What? It's 5:30 already. No, I mean, it's all finished. You want me to sit over here or not? You're good with running it there. Okay. Someone be right next to you, but that's fine. I don't think it matters. All right, Jennifer, can you hear me now? I can. Can you hear me? Yep, we can. Okay. AT&T commercial there. Yeah. Can you hear me now? Can you hear? What's up? Remember that one? It's a classic. We'll have to when we start here, Greg, I'll pull it up. But we have to do the um public hearing first. I don't know that anyone's going to be here, but I can always be surprised. I don't have a senior. Is it starting? It started now. Yeah. I don't have a senior

003coming to do recognition of excellence. You didn't have any jump out of their seat to come back after commencement. And you said it's on, right? Yes. Just to have a little rec box. Yep. I Because last time I started I I saw it on and I set it down and then I never recorded it. I'm like until like partway for the the live stream thing. Yeah. I think I did it about halfway in the meeting when I realized I didn't hit record. So sorry about that. No, that's okay. I appreciate you doing that one. We have conflict. It is 5 well 5:31 now. So we'll start with that public hearing. Greg Okay. And we have Jennifer on ver virtually hybrid. Okay, we'll call the meeting to order. Do we need to approve the agenda on

004this? No. Call a public hearing for the fiscal year 25 amended budget. Is anyone here to comment on the amended budget? Okay. Um what is presented? Um two things on there. We are amending the budget trying to do that so that we don't have to have an audit later or a audit comment excuse me later. We're guessing we could end up high a little bit on instruction which is primarily the teaching salaries and the main reason for that is when you got to remember when you set the budget next year's budget we already did two months ago and approved it last month here. Um when we set it originally a year ago the legislation hadn't come through with the increases to teacher minimum pay and TSS. So, obviously didn't budget for that and so I

005we'll think we'll be okay, but we're trying to be safe with that. And then the other item that's going up is just to be on the safe side with the timing of construction. The amount that we added to the budget would be roughly the amount of the construction project. Not all of those bills will be before June 30, but in case they are, then we are within our budget to do so. So, that's the two reasons. Okay. See no other comments. Yep. We need need a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. Have to adjourn. All those in favor say I. I. Post same sign. Motion passes. We are adjourned. All right. We're in the regular board meeting. We can begin when you're ready, Greg. Okay. call the regular meeting of the board of directors for

006the May 19th and we'll approve the agenda. So moved. Second. Been moved and second to approve the agenda. All in favor say I. I. All oppose same time. Motion passes. Five school board basics. Put the students first. Follow the law. Follow the law in your own policy. Respect the chain of command. Respect. Go ahead, Jenny. Respect the chain of command. Base decisions on shared objective information. Operate in the public eye. Okay. And I don't think there's any visitors here, so we can move on then. The consent items for there. I don't know if you got any few new bills. Nothing much. Okay. Any other questions on any of the other items listed there? Nope. Okay, we'll look for approval of the consent items. Now we have a motion to approve the cons consent agenda items.

007Second. Move and seconded to approve the set items. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed. Motion passes. and we'll go on to the administration reports starting with uh principal Dam. Yeah. So, a lot of year-end stuff trying to transition as much as we can and get prepared for number one our building project uh for this summer. Uh I know there will be a lot of discussion about that here as we continue to go through. And so just trying to make that as seamless as possible um for not only students but also staff um and trying to um get everybody as settled as we can. uh as I mentioned in my report, uh finished up our end of the year assessments and are continuing to look at um that information um that

008it gives us um knowing that it's a kind of a snapshot, a one-day snapshot for um for those um levels, academic levels for where we're at. Um things are looking okay. Um like I said, we'll continue to to really look at those and dig deeper into them. Um, lots of activities happening again as is want to happen in the spring. Um, lots of field trips. Uh, zoo trips, field day was scheduled to be today. Um, we made the decision on Friday to change it. So, field day will be on f on Thursday this week. So, we're looking forward to that. Um, and we held preschool graduation last week, Thursday, in the high school auditorium. Seemed like it was very well attended. Uh we had previously done it in the uh central park uh that kind

009of started in COVID and we had done that for the last few years and uh decided to move it back inside and feels like that was a good move. So we'll continue to see how that uh works for us here moving forward. So um professional development continues to be focused on mentoring uh teachers IT PDP plans um their professional development plans and uh whether the goals are met or not and and trying to balance the support and accountability pieces that kind of goes with my role. So um and then like I said lots of preparations for our building project this summer and working through some of that. um lots of hiring as well and trying to find fits for our teams um has proven to be a little bit difficult um through our processes but

010um we'll keep working on that. So you can see the PD attendance and the uh staff attendance through last Friday May 16th. Any questions before we go on I'll just add Mr. Mr. Dale doesn't even know this, but it's either three or four people I have I've had even reach out or informally comment that they really liked the graduation in the auditorium. All positive comments. Good. None negative. So, this is your first year doing it in the auditorium. It's my first year doing it in the auditorium. I think they did it inside before CO before 2020. Uh I don't know exactly where that was held but it's the first time since uh 2020 since that co well yeah since 2019 I guess really to so because we didn't have anything then the spring of 2020

011we closed down in March and yeah so yeah worked really well worked really really well it was cool yeah that's when that makes sense you know now that you say that I think that's what I had previously over here and elementary but It's been quite a lot of years. It's been a while ago. Yeah. Well, seven years. So, yeah. So, we've done like I said, done in Central Park for quite a few years and that worked well. That served us well, but I think this was a good change. So, yeah. Okay, we'll go on to uh Mr. Herz. A lot of similar uh statements to Mr. Zo. uh just wrapping up end of the year events and things like that. So commencement on Sunday went really well. We had 40 seniors graduate. Um 39 were

012at commencement if you were there. We had one graduate who just chose not to participate in commencement. Had family out of town and just chose not to. So 40 graduated, 39 at commencement. A lot of things going into um preparing for commencement. So definitely feel a a weight off my shoulders there. But now kind of that uh rush to finish the school year, make sure schedules are ready, case loads for ESL and IEP students are split up and schedules are pretty much finished. A few tweaks here and there, master schedules done for middle school and high school. Uh Julie Schuler and Katie Schroeder have done a great job wrapping up assessments down in the middle school. Uh, similar to what Kent mentioned, just the high ready assessment and the fast bridge assessments for reading. So,

013that's done. Done. Awesome. Yep. That's a good feeling. And then just a reminder, early dismissal on Friday, dismiss at 1:30 for the high school and middle school. So, yeah, just thankful to staff for a great year and um I think we did a lot of good for our students and proud of that. So, so is that 40 graduates, does that include the kids that graduated like at semester time? It does. Yep. Okay. Yep. Didn't realize that class was so small. Yeah. Smaller class and a few didn't get to graduation. So, you have that number in there, too. A few that just didn't make it meet the requirements. So, do have one that's going to come to summer school and hopefully finish the credit they're missing. But um yeah, a few just over the years have

014gone on to other things or chosen not to that's been a smaller grade historically. I'm trying to think of the right I mean coming up and then the grade below them has been larger. Mhm. I don't know why difference the water 18 years ago. I don't I don't Right. They just been the juniors have been bigger than the seniors. Mhm. We'll kind of have that again. The fourth grade very large, the current fifth grade a little bit smaller. Mhm. So, you know, just that we'll see that again in six years, eight years, something possibility. Yeah. Yeah. PD same meeting with students uh or I'm sorry staff to go over individual professional development plans and just kind of signing off on those and and getting that documented that we completed those and then end of the

015year any staff member that was evaluated. We kind of have a final meeting to go over teaching standards and so I'm working through those right now probably about half done with that process. Hoping to get the rest wrapped up this week. That's part of our checkout process for staff. One thing I wanted to bring your attention to, success going into this school year, made quite a few changes. Then based off of feedback this year from staff, community, and students, uh, making some additional changes. So, we're going to move it back to the end of the day. I think that's something I've shared previously. So, we moved it this year to balance out lunch. Half the kids were at lunch, half the kids were at success and then we swapped uh found a way within the

016schedule, middle school, high school, to not need success in the middle of the day to balance lunch. So, we've got a solution there that we really like and that allows us to move success back to the end of the day. A lot of the feedback we got, especially from athletes and kids involved in activities, they're missing a good chunk of that last class period. by moving success to the end of the day. Now they're missing mostly success, not their chemistry or math class. So that was one of the big reasons we moved it. Also, um we won't have success on Wednesdays. That allows us to make uh regular class a few minutes longer. Each period will be a couple minutes longer. So that was more feedback we got that Wednesday classes with our change from

017a 2:30 dismissal to a 2 o'clock dismissal. Just staff not loving how short those are. So we gave them a few minutes back with that change. And we'll spread out our future ready curriculum a little bit more. Uh we really concentrated it this year and and took on a lot. And then just based on our feedback from the DECAP, we feel like we could spread that out and be a little more targeted at each grade level. Instead of having every kid complete, you know, every assessment and every activity, we'll spread it out so it's maybe not as much um for students and for staff to manage. So, yeah. And then decap had to apologize to Sandra uh day after the article ran. Am I right? day after we heard from the department of ed that

018they had gone through and regraded our decap scores not just for us but for everybody that submitted one. So originally we were at a 30 and that was the score that I shared with Sandra and was in the paper and then Yep. got an email is that Thursday last week I think because I was thinking that was maybe last even like last Monday or something then right? Yeah. So, got an update that the Department of Ed decided to go through and hand check all of the um decap plans that were submitted. Initially, they had told us they weren't doing that and that's why we started the peer review process and they were going to only check a few. They ended up, I think, in their process finding out that they maybe didn't agree with how

019they were scored. Um, so they went and checked everybody's and so our score did adjust. Still really happy with where we're at. Uh, so just a reminder, we were at a 13 last year out of 36. They have us now at a 24 out of 36, which is where I felt like we would land in that mid 20 mark. So that does align with how I graded our rubric. Um, so yeah, the peers that graded ours and gave us a 30 were being pretty generous maybe, but still happy with that score. So So sorry if there's got to be a correction published right with that, but with this probably. Yeah. Yep. So, but still really happy with the progress we made in the decap and yeah, grateful for staff's work on that. So, then my

020uh attendance and professional development attendance is at the bottom. With success being at the end of the day, will students be allowed to leave early if they're all Yeah, good question. So, we're for sure allowing anybody in CAPS or school to career that's at a placement to stay at their placement during success. So, we won't have them come back. Still discussing what we're going to do with seniors because that does eliminate open campus 8th period or early dismissal is what we call it. If we have them early dismissal eth period, but then they have to come back for success, then really nobody's going to want early dismissal ethi. Um, so still looking at that. Um, we definitely have things within the curriculum that we want seniors doing. So, one thing that was suggested in BLT

021by a couple staff members was maybe only having them report based on like a grade requirement if they're failing classes andor only reporting on the days that there's like specific curriculum to go through. So, yeah, still in the planning process for that what it's going to look like. Nope. I think I've heard a lot of good or comments I've heard on moving the success have been all positive. So any uh questions for Mr. S? How does the or either one you can answer the PD? How did that go through with teachers? Pretty good or Yeah, I think so. gave quite a few options for the individual professional plans be curriculum based or MTSS based so they could focus on grouping strategies or um assessments. So a few options to focus their efforts on and we'll

022continue that next year and maybe open it up a little bit more is kind of what we've talked about. Yeah, the feedback that I've heard is that they like the individual nature of it. They like being able to focus on some of the places where they feel they can make the most growth and set their own goals. Um, and I've even had just in having preliminary conversations through that process had a few of them say, you know, I'm going to keep working on this goal for the next year and that's kind of been been our focus as well. So that's a I think that's a positive for us to know that it's having the intended effect and giving them the time and the energy and the resources as much as possible to try and meet

023those goals. Okay, thank you both guys. We'll move to superintendent. Um, all right. So, for the first goal, talking about strengthening district literacy and math. Um, I know last month we talked about delaying the math cycle or purchasing some of it this year and some of it next year and still continuing our curriculum cycle. So, obviously still looking into that and I'm kind of with the way some of the legislation and things have changed and that we've looked at things, I'm kind of glad we pumped the brakes in that way. Doesn't mean um we couldn't have if we needed to, but I think that was a good choice. Um, I'd say I've been working a lot on the PD, but I've been working some on the PD. These guys and Mrs. Schroeder and Barb Williamson

024have been working a lot on the PD plans for next year and then kind of coordinating, collaborating, and meeting with that. Maybe not as far on that. It doesn't mean we haven't worked on that, but maybe not as far as we've been in years past, but I think we're in a good spot and we'll we'll have it ready to go. But with some other things that are going on and scheduling and adjusting to staff, sometimes that gets pushed to the the back burner. You got to take some time to do some other things. So, that's been going well. I'll present tonight um the sharing agreement with Central Line and Bden Hall for the workbased learning coordinator. It's worth two FTEEs. It's the same person, Jordan Mening, but his position for basically is being eliminated at

025the AEA, so we wouldn't incorporate the AEA with it. Um, Central Lion, excuse me, will house the contract. So, for us, it looks the same, but just who he's working with changes, if that makes sense. He'll be at Central Lion and he's serving in a different role there. And then he's um he's going to be their new AD next year, but also do some curriculum based work there and then he'll be doing the workbased learning stuff at Poen Hall and Siblio Chetan. So, like for us it looks the same, you know what I mean? But he's being housed somewhere else contractually. um done a lot of behind the-scenes planning for next fall school year for a variety of things whether that's PD schedules, staffing, um plans for some things to do with our admin team.

026So, um that's still ongoing and hopefully finishing up. Um I've given you verbal updates as we've gone on or in email updates about the open positions and positions that we filled and have a few to approve tonight. Um, I just want to thank the principles and the board for helping with teacher appreciation week. Um, I think that was wellreceived overall. Um, I think that was a good team effort. Couldn't have done that on my own, but just between um, these guys and Julie coming up with some ideas and some themes and it's great when people have different strengths and things like that and glamorized how it looked because I probably wouldn't have done that myself and and but it looked great when we sent out the information. And so I appreciate that and just spending

027a lot of time trying to coordinate with the staff who needs to know about um schedules for this summer with the different projects and coordinating that and getting out the teaching staff and just staying on top of that as as well. So doing the best we can with that um financial stability and viability. Um continuing like we've talked about with those positions and absorbing, transferring and reducing them if necessary. had a lot of talk about save and ple projections and met with which we'll talk about later tonight with the um finance committee about that and renewing our ple. Um I just put in one word bonds that's taken a lot of Kendra and myself's time. Um yeah, that's what I'll say with that. And then just with site logic and working on the potential building

028projects and the background information with that and different vendors coming in coordinating that um a lot of legislative advocacy and education in the past month specifically not saying for against but with the proposed tax overhaul for property tax legislation and just trying to understand how that affects schools ultimately that didn't get passed through but I think there's a lot of momentum for that to start up again next fall with the new legislative next session next year and I'm not saying that's good or bad. I'm but that will be a change in terms of trying to understand that. And then we've had a lot of talk with insurance um just in general renewing and I put this on here the attachment because when I created this I didn't know if the storm protection fund would be

029established or we'd have something to vote on tonight and we do. But I'll give you a brief overview. If you remember last year, part of when our insurance renewed, one of the big changes that's happening into the state to the amount of claims is they're no longer going with just your standard, hey, $5,000 or $10,000 deductible, similar to what you would have on your house or your car, right? They're moving because of the increased cost to a percentage deductible. So, of 1% of your estimated value of your property. So if we have a and we're talking roofing specifically um something come through come through that we have to have a roofing claim it could end up being just to pay the deductible $5 $700,000 which we don't just have sitting around in the management and

030when we had talked about that last year do we buy a balloon policy to kind of fund that just in case and we said no and I think that was the right just time to do that because of how expensive it was well it's not just Cypioin that's having this it's statewide this discussion. So, what the storm protection fund would be, we would be entering into a 280 agreement with some other schools. I'll explain more about that when we get to that point, but basically we would contribute to that to that fund and over time that build up. And what that does is that helps pay down or buy that deductible in the terrible case that you actually have a catastrophe where you got to replace your roof and you don't have $600,000 budgeted in

031your management fund to pay for that. it goes back to what would be more realistic in the past where you've paid that 10 or $20,000 deductible and then they can help cover the last the rest of that if you're a part of that. And so that's why I included this on here, but it actually got farther than I anticipated. I didn't know that we'd have a quote or something to vote in by the end of last week when I was preparing this. So that's kind of an overview of what this is and you can ask questions on that right now, but we'll also have that as a business item to discuss when we get there tonight. And that's my report. Okay. Any questions for Stan and we'll move on to board committees? Um policy committee.

032We've met remotely to go over a few things and then we're doing the second reading of those policies that we approved last month. So, I thank them for their work on that and there's a lot of little nitpicky policies to go through and some of that has that initially was guessed on what would may be passing legislation has since passed. So, I'm glad the thankful the policy committee did that work. Finance committee, we met on May 7th and discussed a variety of topics. Greg and and Jamie are on that committee. Many of which we're discussing tonight. I don't know if you guys have anything else to add to that or not. I don't really know. Yeah. So, thank you guys for that. But there were a lot of things to go over and some of

033that we'll discuss tonight specifically. So, I appreciate their time and facilities we did not um meet. Okay. Go on to recognition of excellence. So, as I mentioned, um, seniors are graduated, so I did not ask them to come in and, uh, read, so I'll read on their behalf here. Um, band, uh, would like to recognize Kelly Jacobsma uh, for excellence in building the high school band and moving forward and upward this school year. The band received one of only five IHSMA class 2A large ensemble division 1 ratings in Sous City on Saturday, May 10. Mr. Jigsma has worked hard to provide a stable, positive environment for students to grow, excel, and develop new and varied skills. Over the school year, he and his students achieved this one rating after two years of lower two ratings.

034So the two previous years we had scored a two at that same event. It is a difficult task to receive a one rating achievement. Thank you Mr. Jacobsma for all of your hard work, diligence, patience, and encouragement to help our students reach a higher level of success. Congratulations to Mr. J and the high school concert band for 2425. We just received notice uh of our eighth year in a row receiving the NAMM Foundation 2025 best communities in music education. Mr. Jacobsma does all of the work to apply for this award each year. He has submitted great applications to have our school recognized each of the last eight years. Thank you to Mr. Jixma for the time and effort required to be able to receive this award and recognize Sibly Oitten nationally. So eight years in

035a row we've received that vocal the IHSMA large group festival achievement on Saturday May 11th our high school choir students participated in the IHSMA large group festival and earned a division one superior rating the highest possible rating. All three judges awarded division one rating with scores of 38, 38, and 36. Division one falling between a 36 and 40 rating. This outstanding result reflects the students hard work, musical growth, and commitment to excellence. Emma Holbeck uh was the 2025 Iowa Allstate Jazz Choir uh member, so she's recognized for that. We are proud to share that Emma Homebeck has been selected for the 2025 Iowa Allstate Jazz Choir. Only 20 students statewide were chosen for this prestigious and highly competitive ensemble, which features the top high school vocal jazz singers in Iowa. Emma's selection is especially noteworthy

036as Civio Chetan is currently the only 2A class 2A school represented in this elite group. The other selected students come from uh either division 3A or and then seven 4A schools. So, seven students from 4A schools were chosen. Our school is also the only one from Northwest Iowa to be represented. Emma will attend the All State Jazz Choir Festival from Saturday, July 19th through Monday, July 21st alongside the other students selected. The ensemble will perform as part of the Iowa Coral Directors Association Summer Symposium at Central College in Pella, Iowa. This group is often featured in concerts alongside renowned guest artists. This is a remarkable achievement and we are incredibly proud of Emma and our high school concert choir students for their excellent excellence, dedication, and musical leadership. And then the last piece here are

037the generals of the week for April. On April 4th, elementary, Zoe Alip. Yep. Middle school, uh, Kayn Heronus. High school, Andrea Yuribe and staff, Quinton Liam for April 11th. Uh, elementary, Kaani Aduliff. Middle school, William Flores. High school, Lindy Tracy. staff Ella Brexford and April 25th I think we took a week off for Easter. Yep. We didn't know school on the 18th. Y so elementary was Maddox Grown middle school Ranatada Morales high school Tate Marco and staff Gan. Okay, good compliments to the band and choir division there, vocal division for their jobs and also for the April generals. Move on to literacy goals. So, we're not having a presentation with the schedule. um one of the staff members that was in is um not able to be here this evening and that we usually use

038Kitty or Barb as the backup and they presented already and I said we um had enough going on tonight that that was okay that we didn't have that presentation this month. So we don't have that. Okay. And now we'll go on to school board appreciation month. Yeah. Yeah. So, school board um is whether people realize it or not in Iowa May is school board recognition month and different schools take that at different times. So, I think the week of a board meeting is an appropriate time for us. So, just want to thank you um five for all that you do to serve our student staff and the patrons of Cibilo Cheton and I appreciate your willingness to serve and there's so much that goes into it as you guys know that maybe the public doesn't

039that goes into the service on a school schoolboard meeting more than just the meeting a month. Um you don't just show up and that's it. Um there's phone calls, conversations, and other meetings that we take part of. Your efforts in the committee work, conversations, and communication as members of our community make an incredible difference and to the education that we provide for our students. So, thank you um for all that you do. One of the things that's interesting or that I found interesting and we posted on social media today, that was the wrong graphic, I apologize, is that in Iowa there's a total of 1,845 board seats. And so you can either have a in K12 districts, you can either have a five member or a seven member board. Traditionally, not always, but usually it's

040your larger urban school districts that are the seven member boards, but obviously the majority are five. But I found 52% of a board members statewide are in the 0 to four years of service. That means in their first term and then 25% are in years 5 to8. So roughly 75% of board members are either in their first or second term. And then the third term it, you know, kind of drops in half again. About 13% of board members statewide are in their third term of service. And then you have 10% um of board members statewide that are beyond that 12 years of service. So we have a couple different experience levels within our own board and have some that have served in the past beyond 13. And so I'm just thankful to our board for

041their commitment. And yeah, thank you. And a sheet of paper isn't enough, but this is just from IASB and Sibluchin Schools. Just a certificate thanking you for your service and all that you guys do. So thank you so much and I do appreciate your support and the time and dedication you have to our district. Okay. And now to our two-minute board policy. Usually I try and do something new, but I had done this in May last year when I was looking back and I thought it was kind of interesting. So I thought I'd do this again. Um, but in filling out some of our free and reduced numbers, some of our end of the year reports that we actually do now to effect for next year. So, we had to pick a month to report

042on and then we do that in May and then that affects some of our numbers to start out next fall. So, here's what we reported on. Elementary um our free and reduced for the for what we reported on to the state was at 56% and that would have been 58% a year ago. So, you could say down slightly but basically the same. The middle school was at 51% and you could say up slightly but hold and serve a year ago that was at 49%. Um, and then our high school is at 47 compared to a year ago at 48. So you can see the numbers are roughly holding steady district-wide um from building to building and then across the district. Um, I I took out the decimal because we do have to go to two

043decimal places when we report it and so it was slightly different, but all in all, when you round it, we're pretty much at the same spot this year as we were a year ago. And I've said that repeatedly when people ask. We have over 50% of our students here that are on free and reduced lunch. Um, and then one other factor now that we've settled and working through some things with staff members coming in and leaving where we're at right now, out of 61 total staff members, and I'm I'm counting with that two unfilled positions, which is the elementary sped position and the elementary um music position. Um, I'm counting those out of the 61, but they're not included in the total. So, you could say out of 59 here, 19 staff members are at

044that um minimum of 50,000. That doesn't mean they're all beginning teachers, but that's where they're at. And then we have 16 staff members at 62,000, which were the new veteran minimum for those that are in their 13th year this year. And we'll have others that achieve that in the coming year. So, just kind of pointing that out where we're at. And this isn't necessarily unique for a small school to siblio cheating. That's all over, but you add that up. 29 35 out of 59 staff members roughly right now um that are at one of those two minimums. and just yeah, that's where we're at. That's all I had. Unless you had any questions or comments on that. Okay. Move on to music for best communities for music education award. Yeah. And it was in Casey

045alluded to it when we read the recognition of excellence, but I just want to make sure that we talked about it. It's for the eighth year in a row. And when they sent us that that they actually said that in the email. Um, and this is a copy of part of the email that they they sent to Mr. Jacobsman and myself here. It says, "Congratulations. We're pleased to inform you that your dedication to music education has earned you the 2025 best communities for music education award from the the NAMM Foundation. and your collective efforts. Teachers, administrators, parents, students, and community leaders have been instrumental in making music a part of a well-rounded education for every child, and we applaud your community's unwavering commitment to creating an environment where each child can learn and grow with

046music. Um, I don't have it in front of me and I didn't look, but if I remember, I looked at this with Kelly in Iowa, the next closest I think someone got to four years in a row, um, and had a previous year, but a year where they didn't get that. So, um, and nationwide there's not a lot that have a streak like that. So that is something to obviously pick up and we thank the staff for doing that and something at civilian to be very proud of I would agree that's a good accomplishment for the music department. Absolutely. And moving on to new business consider approval of new contracts. All right. the following contracts. Doyle Telusen to be a regular bus driver. He's filled in and sub for us in various capacity. Um and

047Kelly Doden, who's done that in the past, but been more a sub this year to be route drivers for next year. And then Carolyn Ward to be our new second grade teacher for next fall. Okay. Any questions on those for Sam? I'm looking for a motion. I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Been moved and seconded to approve the new contracts as listed. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed. I motion passes. Consider approval of new supplemental position. So, I presented this initially to the finance committee for their approval to present to you as the board, but just establishing a an ELLL interpreter stipen. And this would obviously um be for who we have currently doing this um senior Victoria. But what's happening more and more is we're getting more families

048that the when they move in and specifically midyear as an example that the parents family members don't speak English. And so to in order to register and enroll them during the school day, we're pulling Senior Victoria out of class or um asking him to come during his prep also. And and it's a great resource for our community, but many of them are comfortable calling him and he'll give his cell phone out, but many of them will call him after hours to talk or ask a question and and he gladly takes that. And so that that's kind of where this is coming from is just to kind of compensate for that time that that's happening and the extra effort that he's putting into that. Similar what we did when we created the 504 um position a

049year ago, I think it was at this time. Any questions on that? Oh, looking for a motion. I'll make a motion to approve the new supplemental position, the ELLL interpreter stipen. Second. Okay. Been moved in a second to approve the position. All those in favor say I. I. All those. All those opposed, same sign. And motion passes. Consider approval of operational sharing agreements. I will not reread the whole thing and I kind of summarized that earlier but something we've been working on between central Ian superintendent myself and Bon Halls and that's where we'll be sharing it'd be the position we did this past year Jordan Menning would fill that role with his credentials he serves as our work brace learning coordinator because he has the certification to do that um as an example this year

050he's one if you remember in the middle of the year we got awarded that STEM best grant for just under $40,000 that's one of the things he he did the bulk of Not that others didn't work on it, but he did the bulk of the work on that as an example. So, we'd just be continuing that agreement other than um Central would now house the contract. Any questions on the sharing agreement? If not, looking for work. I'll make a motion to approve the workbased learning coordinator position as presented. Second. And moved and seconded to approve the operational sharing agreement between Central Lion and George Little Rock for workbased learning coordinator. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those post same sign and motion passes. Consider approval of Oilia County Fair partnership agreement. So

051Greta Geese is the ISU extension regional director and I got this from and so I kind of copied her explanation that she shared with us and I won't read it in detail and I'm going to be upfront. I am not by any means an FFA expert or pro. So if I misspeak please feel free to correct me. But one of the big changes that they need approved is we're unique in the state of Iowa's um we're one of the few counties that has one district housed in the county. Yes, other districts borders overlap in Oola, but we're the only one where the school is located within the county. And so there's there's times where people can live in our county. As an example, you could live in um on the edge of Harris or in

052Little Rock where you live in our county, but you're you go to another school district. And this agreement would allow those that live in our county, even if they're in another district, to show for FFA at our county fair. But we have to approve that through the school. Okay. Any questions on the agreement? I'll make a motion to approve the county fair partnership agreement. Second. Been moved and second to approve the Os County Fair partnership agreement. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. consider approval of registration fees for 2526. Um, and I see right away I have a typo because in the table it should say 2526 and I did not change that. I don't know how many times I've looked at that and missed it, but

053I see it right now. That should say 2526. The title says that we did not make any changes to that. Those fees are all the same as they were and there was minimal changes last year, but as they were adjusted to last year. Um, and we left the activity tickets and the family pass the same as well. Um, I think I shared with you guys in a in a meeting the war eagle conference is looking at making changes to some of their tickets and entry fees, but what they're changing to is what we currently do. So, we would I mean that wouldn't be a change for us if that makes sense. And it looks like they'll do that. So there's nothing to present on that one. If if anyone had a question there, I'll make

054a motion to approve the registration fees for 2526 as presented. Second. Been moved and seconded to approve the registration fees for 2025 2026. All those in favor say I. I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. Consider approval of adult lunch price for 2526 school year. Last year we didn't approve this till June because the USDA was late getting the information out, but we did get it last week. Um remember this, we can't set it below that. They tell us what that price is for adult meal prices um for school lunches. And the rate for this year is $4.97. we have typically rounded that up to the nearest amount so you don't have to deal with pennies. So, um we're recommending to charge $5 to avoid using the pennies for cash transactions, which does happen

055when we have visitors come in from so time to time. And the rate for the adult breakfast is 215. Um we approved the meal rate and I'm putting that in there as an FYI. Okay, any questions on that? I'll make a motion to approve the 2025 2026 adult meal rate to $5. Second. And moved and seconded to approve the adult lunch price for 2025 26 at $5. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Consider approval of student breakfast and lunch prices for next year. So the pro the proposal here is to raise the um student meal price for the high school to 280. What is different is the one change that we've adjusted. Basically K8 gets served the same meal and then high school it's bigger according

056to USDA guidelines. And so we're making the K8 price the same. So there's not a big change in the in the middle school um that there is compared to the others. and we're just making that price the same. And then the high school, I think they went up 15 cents if I remember right. And then the breakfast went up that amount. That's the same um K12 districtwide. And then those reduced lunch and reduced breakfast prices. When we say free and reduced, the reduced is those that don't qualify for free but might qualify for reduced rate. We get that from um the state as well. And that hasn't changed in several years. And we just that is as that is served at what the state gives us. And then the extra milk is at 50 cents.

057And the student's second lunch, if they're buying a whole second lunch, has to be at the full reimburseable rate. Any questions on the pricing? I'll make a motion to approve the 2526 student breakfast and lunch prices as presented. Second. Been moved and seconded to approve the student lunch student breakfast and lunch prices for 2526 as listed there. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed same sign. Motion passes. Consider approval of the milk bid. As you can see, I have the matrix attached um which we had three bids for. Um, Prairie Farms is the one that we had currently been using and had the lowest bids based for our needs there, which Carla highlighted and provided. Um, but I did attach that. And so, it's recommended to go with Prairie Farms. I'll

058make a motion to approve the 2025 2026 milk bid to Prairie Farms. Second. It's been moved and seconded to approve Perry Farms milk bid for 2526 school year. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed. All those opposed, same thing. Motion passes. Consider approval of pizza bid for next year. So, typically in the past, we've had a milk bid, if you remember, and then a bread bid. And I'm going to make sure I use the terminology right here. We didn't really have separate bread bids. So then we can go through Martin Brothers because they're considered a prime vendor. Did I say that right, Kendra? Right. They're prime vendor because we didn't have bids. So we can go through it's not bid out then. We just use them because they're identified as the state.

059So if you're wondering or if you have really good memory why we didn't have a bread bid, it's because we didn't have any to approve. So typically that's been done after the milk one, but we just don't have any. So, we do have looking to do pizza again next again again or return I should say. We didn't have it this past year, but after our site visit and made some adjustments, we're able to do that. And so, those are listed in the matrix and it would be with pizza ranch on those days that we have that done. I'll make a motion to approve the pizza ranch as the vendor for the pizza for 2526 school year. Second. It's been moved and seconded to approve Pizza Ranch as a vendor for pizza for the 2526 school

060year. All those in favor say I. I. I. I. All those opposed same sign. Motion passes. 6,500,000 school infrastructure sales service and use tax revenue refunding bonds series 2025. So we have four parts to this that Greg just read. Um, and we got it from Matt Gillespian legal on what we had to say on these because if you open them up for the first one, the resolution appointing a paying agent, the bond registar and the transfer agent and approving the paying agent, bond registar and transfer agent agreement and authorizing the execution of the same. Um, we can look at that. But if you go through the resolution, that's 10 plus pages. We do not have to we do not have to read that whole one. And so please ask if you have questions on that

061and I will address that right now here as we discuss this. But um your recommendation would be if you so choose to approve the resolution as presented. And all of these just as an FYI were provided by Allers and Cooney who we paid we've talked about this year to to handle the legal stuff. So that's where this came from. We need to do roll call votes. Thank you for I forgot about that. Yes. Yes, we do. We do. And we need to do it by roll call vote. Thank you for saying that. I knew I'd forget that. So any questions that I can answer with it? It's just all the legal things that we have to do to approve the bonds that we've already done. There's a motion in there if somebody is ready to

062read it. I move that we approved the resolution appointing paying agent, bond register, and transfer agent and the agreements for each as well as that we authorize execution of those agreements. Second. Been moved and seconded to approve the resolution as stated. All those in favor say I. Do roll call. Oh, I'm sorry. Yep, you're right. Jamie, yes. Crystal, yes. Craig, yes. Jenny, yes. Okay. It passes. Okay, we'll go to the next one. Approval of tax exemption. Cert. Same thing. legal jargon. This one's 22 pages. We do not have to read the whole thing, but it has to deal with the tax exempt certificate and place on file for when appropriate. We give things that are tax exempt since we are public school. And the motion is listed under the quick summary. And this has to

063be roll call as well. No, just just the two that are resolutions. So, not this one. I move that the form of tax exemption certific certificate be placed on file and approved and second. Why are they labeled on June 3rd or why is that the date? It's when we get the funds. Yep. That's when the actual the sale went through, but then that's when we'll get the proceeds or the funds from the sale is June 3. Okay. Which is Is that a Tuesday? Yep. I think so. I think. Right. I think they they hold they held them in a held the money in a Yeah, we got a small percentage of it called the good faith Yep. amount up front and then they're processing that and they hold an escrow and then we get that

064on June 3rd. Okay. It's been moved and seconded to approve the taxerts. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Approval of continuing disclosure certificate. Same thing and legal jargon, but basically disclosing of what we're buying with the bonds. Um the purpose of it and and the resolution. And it legal disclosure is what it's getting at and what all the terms mean. Any questions on that? Or else I need a motion. I'll make a motion to approve the continuing disclosure certificate as presented. I'll second. It's been moved and seconded to approve the continuing disclosure certificates. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. This one we need roll call for this resolution. So resolution authorizing the terms of issuance and providing

065for and securing the payment of school infrastructure sales service and use tax revenue refunding bonds. Yeah, as stated, I don't have anything to add on this one. I'll make a motion to approve the resolution as presented. Second. Okay, been moved and seconded. And now we need a roll call vote. Jamie, yes. Kristen, yes. Greg, yes. Jenny, yes. Okay. Okay. Motion passes. Consider approval of resolution of uh to approve participation in storm protection fund. And before I get going, will this be roll call? Yeah. Right. Yep. I was going to say that ahead of time. Okay. So, to kind of get back what I had said in my report and to summarize, um, these bullet points and the agreements came after I put my report on there and I just so I just left it coming

066through. So, it's it was set up by Janelle Freriedman. We'd enter into a 28 E agreement on this and there'd be other districts around the state. There's two tiers in here based on your district size, but I don't remember the cutoff and we're but regardless we're in the it says there in the second point we're in the smaller cutoff. So the amount we'd pay per incident would be 10,000. The larger districts and one of the things I'll share here they use as an example they pay 25,000. And so obviously with more students you're going to have more um building value and coverage, right? And so, um, to be in this agreement, the members have to have property coverage with EMC for wind and hail deductible, which we do. Um, to have broad representation on the

067board, be divided into larger and smaller districts. Um, they have five board members that are primarily SPOS's from the larger districts, and they're working on um, getting four from the smaller districts. Um, I was asked to be on that board. So assuming this goes through right now I more than likely will be on the board to represent Northwest Iowa and the smaller school districts. You have until June 27 to join. Um but the earlier that they can get things this year get things set up it gives them a better idea of what the cost will be and then subsequent years you have until June 1 to sign up. Um members can terminate in any year but there's a bigger entrance cost the first year. So whether we enter this year or three years down the

068road, there's a bigger cost your first year. And so if those want to hold out and say, "Hey, three years from now, we'll have a lower barrier to entry." They would give them the same cost to enter, if that makes sense. Um the administrator and the fiscal agents are both required to carry insurance or or a bond and and that is covered by us. Um trying to see the applicable ones. If we approve to be on here, your contribution is due into the fund by July 10. And then it says the administrator can approve claims that are um less than $1,000 to be reported at the next board meetings. Those that are greater than $100,000 um um prior to the the board meetings as well, and then that'd have to be approved by the board

069and how they pay that out. So our share for FY26 this coming year to be entered and remember this is for the the first year of this and then the idea is if this gets built up um that cost would go down the years after that would be $23,184. There's our resolution. This was from a presentation and I did not put the whole presentation on here. There's 30ome slides, but I thought this gave just an overall summary of of the benefit. And it the 25,000 is for the bigger school district. You could change the math to 10. So that's why it says 25 because um SPF 25 is for the large districts. Storm protection fund 10 is for the smaller. So let's say you have hail damage at one of your buildings that has $30

070million in value, right? A one at just one of your buildings, which we have here. Your 1% deductible is 300,000 that you have to come up with and your repairs for the roof are 2 million. Your district SPF coverage means you have to pay 25,000 for a large in our case 10,000 per occurrence. So it says district pays 25. We could change that to 10. Okay. We have to come up with the deductible for insurance. So instead of coming up with all 300,000, we come up with the 20 25 in that case. In our case, it' be 10. The storm protection fund repays the remaining portion of that deductible and then the cost to replace the roof. The remaining portion of that is then paid by EMC. So when you have $2 million to replace

071your whole roof, we come back to paying our deductible. It's not called a deductible, but that's what I'm going to say for right now at 10,000 rather than having to pay 300 grand in this case. That kind of gives a little bit of a math summary there if that makes sense. you know how many schools are doing in that or in the possibility to enroll? Um I do. I think all of them are figure. Yeah. Anyone that's given EMC coverage had that possibility or were told about this. Um I'm going from memory. I thought she had a hundred that were seriously interested to start. that sound or 97 or something or 102 to start out and that had put serious interest in. Um more might be some have already started going the route of building

072up their management fund by setting aside extra dollars each year to build that up to get to I'm not suggesting we do this because we're not in that boat. I'm but to get to the 300,000 and then let it set there. Um that is an option. One of the pieces of legislation that came through this spring that ultimately didn't pass, though, if it passed, it would have prevented that because they wanted people to be accountable for their management fund to the taxpayers. And they're saying some schools were building up too big a balance. Well, the reason they're doing that is schools either a had some pending litig litigation that they're preparing for or they're they're building that up to try and protect themselves from insurance claims because those costs have continued to skyrocket and not

073everyone sees that. So that that option could be limited. I won't get into the specifics of the bill. It didn't pass, but you could only carry ultimately it was going to come through over a three-year average. you could only carry 120% of that three-year average, which would make it, if that passes next year, really hard to build up your management fund balance to have on hand 1% for that. And if you would ever use that, then you would have to start over again. So, I'm not saying that's a bad option, but I think when that came through, others were looking for other ways to protect against that risk, if that makes sense. So they they were they were positive on the number of schools that were initially interested. Yes. You got a guesstimate on who's

074paying I mean percentage paying 25 versus 10 that I don't know like I said there was a cut off on the on based on student enrollment. Yeah. And I don't know that they didn't really share all of that who was what they just shared, you know, our individual and then the the dollar amount. Everybody's dollar amount is different. The the 10,000 versus 25,000. I was just trying to see how much money they're going to get if they're hoping for 10 million. Yeah. to build build to that to have a good they came up with the estimated number of schools interested and projected and then the dollar amount they came up with was to set the fund at initially that if this year um we had more than one claim in the first year they went

075back historically um for how many claims were in any given year in the last was it 50 years do you remember 40 years it was a long time and that pot adjusted for inflation with what we're taking the first year would cover 49 out of the 50 years. And so they were confident that that could cover in worst case scenarios this first year. And in a case that where it's not a worst case scenario that pot is carried over. They're not going to pay that back. So then ideally when you're in it multiple years years moving forward, we would have that should hopefully drive down our costs and we would have less to pay to be a part of that. That's that's the idea behind it. Is this just with Iowa schools? Yes. Yep. It's

076Yeah. Strictly with Iowa schools. Not that others couldn't states couldn't do that on their own, but this would be this fund would be an agreement for Iowa schools. Yeah. Schools and AEAs, community colleges are not included. Yes. Aas can, but not community colleges. The risk was too their structure is different. The risk was too large to be a part of this. community colleges because of the number of square feet they have and how spread out their campuses are there's more risk there are usually all in one place like school districts have different in different parts of town you know where it's less likely the everything would get wiped out in a disaster so coincidentally we didn't know this was going to happen at the beginning of the year. We've had conversations off and on throughout

077the year about what's a way to protect ourselves against this. We had talked about do we start in the spring talking to you guys about building up the fund. Um look at other options like I mean I'm not saying we talked about this daily or weekly but Kendra and I had talked about it a lot after our quotes came back last year and so when this came through it was very intriguing. So, um I think Kendra attended the workshop first and then I watched the webinar later and started talking through this and thought this could be a good option for our school. I thought the the fee for it is not I mean when we were looking last year at the deductible buy down it was 50,000 you know and that was reoccurring. Didn't matter

078if you paid or not that was going to be um happen every year and probably go up. That one didn't. Yeah. Yes. I couldn't remember if it was 50 or 100. I thought maybe 100, but cuz we said if if the 1% I I remember the math on that. If we did 1% was 350,000 to replace one of our roofs that we had to pay that and that deductible down was 50 grand every seven years. It take us 7 years and we've we've paid that money. Yeah, this makes a lot of sense. So yeah, 23 is a chunk of change, but we're hoping it's not that amount every year. Any roof problems with all the wind? We have not. Greg, I just wonder if anybody has had any wind problems or roof problems with the

079wind lately today. Well, because they said Inwood didn't have power. The Larchwood didn't have power, in South Dakota didn't have power. Everybody over there was today. Yeah. I hadn't heard anything today, but then yes, or I mean last week too, the wind was blowing like crazy. Mhm. Any other questions for anybody on Kendra or Stan on the storm protection fund? I'll make a motion to approve uh the participation in the storm protection fund as presented. Second. Been moved in a second to approve the participation in storm protection fund. We'll have a roll call vote. Jamie, yes. Kristen, yes. Greg, yes. Jenny, yes. And it it's approved. I really like the idea that they'll let it go down if it if hopefully the fund stays up there. Correct. Yeah. And it doesn't get used up. Okay.

080Uh go on to equipment breakdown insurance. say my my computer just froze. Approval of equipment breakdown, insurance renewal. So, we've done this in the past. Why we didn't attach it is because we've been having um them adjust the quote several times over um for different reasons. We still had some of the new equipment from the kitchen that they had added on there, but was still under warranty. And then um we asked them to make some changes because we don't need equipment breakdown. One of the big things is for your HVAC. Um hopefully in the next year we're not going to need that coverage at the elementary cuz hopefully nothing happens. But if it does initially should be under warranty and so we've had to go back and forth on some rate adjustments. I think Kendra

081put a out. It's the latest one that we have, but um the the laptops and tablets that needs to be adjusted, too. We're getting some new ones. And some of the ones that will be won't be used and will be used as backups, we won't fix those. You know, if they break, we just won't fix them. So, we wouldn't turn them in. So, we submitted Friday to get another quote and we I thought maybe we would have one today, but a new one, but we did not. So, it should be less than this. So, what we're asking Yeah. to approve to renew us um which we've done the last several years the um equipment breakdown insurance and then um if the when we get the new quote that it's adjusted, that's what we'll go with.

082But we have to give them an answer coming up here. But it should it will be adjusted down. It should be less than what is listed on that sheet. I think we can just approve the approve the renewal and then we'll Yep. This is the most that it would be for next year. Our current premium is the 99. Yeah. And the renewal adjustment, that $13,000 increase is because we use it a lot. What's that? Because we use you we turn a lot of claims in, right? You're supposed to, but then premiums are increased. Yeah. So, it would be like an example of a claim that was submitted. Yeah. And we asked for a list of that that so that we're seeing that we get our dollars back. So all of our um copier work and

083the toner when we get that goes directly through breakdown insurance. A few years ago we we added our copers on to that. You can do that instead of we used to have like a maintenance agreement with the the copier company, but it was cheaper to do it this way through here. So rather than having that set um agreement with the copier company, all of the toner and repairs goes through um equipment breakdown. So we don't even get the bill for that. It goes to these Marco sends it to them and then they pay for that as an example. Um HVAC. Yeah. H if if we have different things certain not all but certain components break down HVAC specifically like control boards and things like that. um the replacement cost of them, different things in the

084in the kitchen that we have to have repair work done on when they're not under warranty anymore. Obviously, what we've just talked about um computers and laptops if um they get worked on or need to be repaired um which happens fairly regularly with some of the student computers. And we have something with climate too, some with this insurance and the climate control. So, we have an agreement with them. They they service the Hback. They come in and they'll they do all like the filter replacement on all the units. Um the big huge rooftop units and then some of the smaller ones. So they'll come and service that. Um twice a year I think they do filters and then you know we've had a few issues. Service agreement. Yes. Yeah. Which is paid paid through this.

085Okay. Oh yeah. Yes. I forgot about that. That agreement is paid through this. Yep. Yeah. So it's not it's in my mind it's not really a repair. I mean toner is some of that stuff you just use it. Yes. Correct. Yeah. So like the maintenance agreement for the HVAC or service agreement and the toner those kind of things. We specifically added those to this because it was it can be paid through management that way. So is it I mean it must you're thinking that it's still the best option to go versus even though our premiums are going up, it's not going up enough to Yeah. I mean, what did he tell us? It was Yeah. Our usage rate is he goes the good thing is where he said number one, he congratulated us because our

086usage rate is about as high as any district, which means we're turning it. Not that others don't have those claims, but means we're turning them in. Um, which on one hand's good. He goes, but on the other hand, then your rate goes up. But we're we're pretty close to being dollar for dollar coming out ahead there. It was pretty close. We can't tell you for this past year because we have two months left with some things, but we were pretty close to being um where our premium was at. Yeah, we're turning it. We're getting that much those that many claims paid for the premium amount. It's a kind of a wash. Yeah, we weren't at the 99, but no, we still when we asked for the report, we still had end of April and May

087and June to go through yet with that. So, we would come through that and then yeah, that all goes through management then because it's paid as an insurance. If we didn't have it through here, those repairs and costs would have to come through general point. Did I answer kind of the questions with that? Go ahead. I'll make a motion to approve the equipment breakdown insurance renewal as presented. Second. Been moved and seconded to approve the equipment breakdown insurance renewal for the coming year fiscal 26. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed same sign. Motion passes. Consider approval of FY25 amended budget document and authorization to file with Department of Management. Yeah, I don't have anything more to add than I did at the hearing at the beginning other than yeah, we

088do this to avoid an audit comment. I think it's better to do it this way to be transparent. We might not even spend that whole amount but projected to go over so that that way if we do a budget adjustment now they are due May 31st. So this is our time to do that for the current fiscal year. Any questions on that or looking for a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the fiscal year 25 amended budget document and authorization to file with the department of management. Second. It's been moved and seconded to approve the FY 25 amended budget documents and authorization to file with Department of Management. All those in favor say I. I. I. Oppose same sign. Motion passes. Consider approval of voted physical plant and an equipment levy renewal rate. So

089FY26 our voted Pepple expires and it's approved by the voters in last 10 years. So our current one expires at the end of FY26. So June 30 of 2026. So just over a year from now and is set at um the maximum rate not the maximum voted ple but our maximum rate is 67 cents and then that's down through the income sir tax. Um we need to work this summer on adopting resolutions and following those guidelines to ask the public this fall or winter to approve renewing that and we need to decide what we want to set it at for the next 10 years. Um I I'll kind of jump to the recommendation and then work my way backwards here. um and talking with the finance committee on this and I know where we set

090it but I'll try and explain where this is coming from. It is recommended to approve asking this set to be at a dollar a$134 and I'll explain why I sound wishy-washy on that. I had talked to the um finance committee about a buck. Um and I'll explain why we looked at potentially the max which is a$134. Um I'm okay with either but I want us to have a discussion on that. I had included on here, I think I had presented one of these at a previous board meetings just kind of comparing to other Northwest Iowa school districts and where our rate is at which is at 67 cents. It looks like it was at 10 cents, but that's cuz we buy that down through the income sir tax and showing some other districts. And I

091I think when we talk that through other than the Lion County schools, pretty much everyone in the area had it at a buck or a buck 34 other than the schools that didn't have it, which included Harris Lake Park, Okaboji, and Spirit Lake. Um, and I can go back to that in a second. I also included a sheet that's alphabetical that just shows statewide where everyone is with their voted PEPO. I was looking last week and Jamie and Greg had asked me for this for which school districts and the percentage of school districts that have this and I could not find it and so I didn't get it on there and what do you know lo and behold today and getting ready for the board meeting I found the information. So, I have it as

092a print out here. And I apologize, um, Jenny, that I was not able to get this online because I just found it today. But I'll kind of put up what we're talking about. So, the the two sides to this, if you look at the side with the words first, it's just explaining what the voter approved physical plan and equipment levy is. The most it can be set at is a$134 for up to 10 years when when this is passed by voters and so forth. We can set that up. What it says though on the bottom, it says the following map shows the two as of FY25, the start of FY25, so this current school year, this was as of last fall, 278 districts in the state had a voter approved um PPE, the VPEL. 278

093out of the 325. So that's 85.5% of the state have one. And it says of those 278, 97 use an income sir tax to generate some of those funds to lower that rate. That's more just an FYI or for your information. And then it says click for the larger map. Um if you flip it over, that is the map. And so how that's colored is the districts that don't have a voted pebble are the ones that are I'm I'm kind of looking right here. Virginia. I'll put it up here. That's kind of confusing. This is the map I'm referring to here, but the districts that are gray on there are the districts that don't have one. And yeah, in our area, it looks like that, but the property tax base plays a big part of

094that. And you'll see the some of the ones to our east, east, and Dickinson County. I'm talking HLP, Spirit Lake, and Okapoji don't. But there's a reason for that because of some other revenue streams in their county, right? Um and play central Everly. Then there's a few others MOC and things like that. But other than that, you can see 80 278. So 85% of the districts in the state roughly have one. That light light blue um I'm going to call it is the districts that have the voted ple but with property tax only. And then the aqua color, I guess I'll call it, whatever you want to say it, is the ones that have the income sir tax, but the rate is lowered through the income sir tax. So that's why our district is shaded

095that way. So it kind of gives you an idea of um where we're at statewide with who has the voted ple, what percentage of the districts do, just if that's part of the discussion. So um why why do we need to re uh renew this? Number one, it's required because it's due. And why is Stand Iselle asking for this to go up for sure from 67 cents to a dollar? Is this just to pay for the new addition? No, it's it's not. I would be asking for this whether we did the improvements or not just due to the age of our facilities like I talked about with our finance committee. I think there's needs that are going to come up just to to keep our facilities in the shape they are due to their age.

096Um, and I I think that's something in important to maintain um our facilities and we want to have nice facilities for our students and be good stewards with the taxes that the public has entrusted us with. The going from a 67s to a 67 cents to a dollar generates I'm I'm ballparking it here, but about $125,000 more per year. If you go up to the dollar 34, it's a little over 250,000. I apologize, I didn't pull that document up, but I had shared that with Greg and Jamie when we had our meeting that night. So, that's kind of the dollars that it would generate for us. So, we're talking annually if we go to that dollar mark, about 125,000 more and then double that to 250 if we go to the buck 34. What has

097changed since Jamie and Greg and I have met and why I am recommending the $134 is legislation came out and talking about the property tax reform and what they're talking about with that is assessing property tax at the full value not having the roll back anymore. And so if you h if you have a a home at $200,000 of value right now it's not assessed at that full value. They have what's called the roll back and our rates are based on that. One of the pieces of the reform is to eliminate that roll back and assess all residential. I'm talking property at the full value, but then you would lower your rates and have to generate the same income. Right? If I'm going to tax on a house that's at 150,000 and then a year

098later it's actually at 300,000. You don't need the rate to be the same to generate the same income. Right? But one of the the pieces of that in the proposals was to increase the home homestead exe exemption to 50,000. And so there was talk that just splitting the rates in half, which is one of the proposals of this, including the voted ple wouldn't generate the same amount of dollars for school districts. And so that has since not passed. But what is that going to do? And we can't predict the future. I don't know what next legislative session will happen, but I think that'll be a hot topic of a discussion is that property tax reform in some manner or shape. I don't think that's going to just go away because the session ended. I think

099that will be talked about from the start this time rather than from the end if that makes sense. And so that's kind of where the shift in that is do we want to bring that up to a $134 so if that legislation happens and that goes in half we can still generate the dollars that we are looking for if that makes sense. Am I strong on either a buck or a buck? I think we need to raise it. Do I have a super strong opinion about either one? I I'm open to either one and look forward to your feedback because ultimately yeah we'll have to answer to people for this as well. But that's what we're looking at doing tonight is to make that recommendation and then in June we would make the resolution based

100off the recommendation tonight. We'll write up the resolution to um match what we talk about tonight and then we'd approve that in June and follow that process. But what we're looking at doing tonight for this agenda item is what do we want to send that resolution at? A buck or a buck 34 would be my recommendation. So that was a lot of explanation. I hope that made sense. Please feel free to start discussion or ask me some questions. So once it's set, let's say at a dollar, it's set that way for 10 years until Yes, that'd be the max. Whatever we set it at is the max. Um, and that's why I said ours is currently set at 67 cents max, is the max we can ask for. You could say, "Hey, we didn't um

101have much in repairs this year. We didn't spend much." We could for a year lower it, right? There's nothing that stops that. Um but that's why it says that's the most you can ask for as a max. So if we set that at a buck, which I think what you're getting at is then over the next 10 years, that's the most. And to start, we would raise it there because that's what we're looking to do, I think. But that's the most we could ask for from the voted side of things. Remember there's a there's a board approved side of things too that we approve annually every year at 33 cents. And so where the why the $167 an odd amount when you approve the board approved side the legislation said you can have $2 total

102for ple physical plan and equipment levby 33 cents comes from the board approved that we do annually and I don't remember which month off the top of my head but usually in in the fall and then $16 up to $167 goes to the voters. Have we ever decreased it? Like if we haven't used it, do you know? I I I can't say historically. I didn't go back in every year since it's been established. Have we ever decreased it and not asked? If we haven't needed it, we just say, "Hey, we didn't have much to know." Not that I'm aware of. And And I didn't even know that was a thing until you brought that up. Yeah. Um things that are bought with it. We've only had it for 10 years. Yeah. Right. Oh, it's only

103been in 10 years ago was the first time we had it. Yeah. We didn't have it before that. And it does more than the physical. I mean, we think of upgrades to the buildings or maintenance in the buildings, but there's other things that legally legislatively qualify. Um, vehicles. Yeah, vehicle purchases. When we do, we didn't have time to get it on here, but um our Chromebook quote, we're finishing that up. So we might that's a separate item, but we might have that as a special board meeting to approve that coming up here in the next week. But when we get our Chromebooks, whether that's for the elementary, middle school, high school each year, we play pay for that out of ple and those costs I don't think are necessarily going down, right? Um I'm just

104trying to think of things that aren't necessarily building wise that we pay for out of that. There's certain um infrastructure software and software like technology infrastructure that we pay for out of it. Software, servers, that type of equipment, right? Scrubber, you know. Yeah. Maintenance equipment, that kind of stuff. Um so can't can't be used for salaries or anything like that and supply type of stuff. That's just general fun. Yep. So yeah, raising this that's what those funds have to be used for. We couldn't say, "Hey, we raised this and now it goes to teaching salaries or you know, Stan just did this to increase these salaries." No, that's not what it's used for. And that's not there's that's what the general fund is for. This is specifically set aside to pay for those other things

105so that you reduce the pressure on your general fund. And with the local option, it reduces it anyway, right? Yeah. And yeah, the save the save the local option sales tax the save dollars kind of goes into the in a way goes into that same pot and can and covers some of those similar things. Yes. So, one of the proposals, what I was getting at that was out there was to basically have this. So, they were going to max out the voted ple at a dollar. The board half when we approved, if that would have gone through, the most we could have approved it was 16 1.5 cents because now it's 33. The most you could do the voted portion was a dollar. And um yeah, they came to a dollar. That's not Was it

106a buck? The or the total? No, the mo I'm I'm sorry. The most you could do for the voted part was 67 cents. The total was a dollar. Like my math isn't working out there because it's $1.34 now for voted. It would have been half at 67. Um and so I'm just making easy math. If you were at a buck, they would have rolled that back and made your rate 50 cents. Okay. And because they're saying the assessments would go up roughly twice. One of the concerns now neither for against the bill was with the roll back and some of the bigger exemption is as a school district you might not get the same amount of dollars at 50 cents as you did as a buck. And so that's where the discussion of if we

107want it to get a truly at a buck and that reform happens in the future, are we better to be at a$134 and get that when that gets if that would happen in the future roll back? That's one of the discussions that we've had and other districts have as well. It's just we're in a year where we're voting to renew it. Not every district's in that situation. Some might have renewed in the last 5 years, some might be up three years from now. We're just one of the districts that this is the year where we're up to renew it. And I did hear two state legislators say that one topic that they wish they would have been passed on was the real estate taxes that they would have got it to go through. Yeah. Yeah.

108Whether what I mean they didn't say what but they would have done something to it. So, yep. And they're looking at reduction, but that's kind of the feedback I got, too. I think one of the reasons it didn't it seemed to appear later in the session was it talked about right away and came up. And I think that's one of the reasons why it didn't because everyone was kind of like, let's take some time to study this, not just for schools because this this property tax, you know, the overhaul affects cities, counties, everyone statewide. And so just taking some time to understand some of the proposed legislation and look in how that actually affects the different entities. So I'm glad they took the time to do that. It it might be a good thing. I'm

109not saying it is or isn't, but just take the time to understand that rather than push it through and then see unintended consequences. Any other questions I can answer for you guys? No questions. Probably looking for a motion. What's that? Rate. Yeah. And in the motion would be the rate. Yes. So I guess what are we thinking? A dollar or$134 or So I I put both on there. I'll give my two cents now if that's what you're asking for. Well, my 100 cents or 134 cents or whatever. 134 cents, right? Yeah. Um I think I told you guys in in the in when we met in the finance meeting to talk about this and present tonight, it sit at a dollar. I I think I've changed a little bit. I lean more towards the $134.

110Um, does that mean we have to ask for that all right away? No. I mean, we could. Um, and it might be useful, but with the uncertainty of what the future holds and I don't I don't want to put it a dollar, things change legislatively and now we're not getting what we had originally hoped for to cover that. And I know there'll be more entities in that same boat. And so I would say that's the biggest thing that's probably changed my mind is just those discussions and looking at those implications for us as a district moving forward that since we last talked that I would lean towards a$134 um that would be my recommendation. If we come back and say no we want a dollar I'm good with that as well. That won't upset me.

111I just think you don't know what's going to happen in the next 10 years from the state on what they're going to do there. And so you could always, in my mind, you can always change it back to say you're not going to take it all, but you can't say you want more. That's kind of where I'm coming from. That exactly. And that means right away, you know, start at a buck and then we could find out something changed and we have the authority to raise that. But, you know, we could make that an an initiative right away that we're looking at going at a buck. But I we can always cut it back, right? We But we can't jump it ahead if it's not approved. I was going to say, can we make the

112motion that we go with the$134 but focus on staying at the dollar if we can attain that or No, I I I hear what you're saying. I would say we could make the motion to stick with the$13 if that's what we're saying. The$134. That's a good idea to and then um you can give me that as a What's that? It'll have to be clear on the ballot. Yeah, because it'll have to say a$134 and people are going to have to understand on the ballot that it'll say that. But what I I don't know that we put that in the motion, but we can give that to me as an imperative. That's what we're working on budget wise. We talked about some uh some literature that kind of comes with this to educate and I know

113you had shared some with us 2015. And reason I'm not putting that tonight is we're just doing that to make the recommendation to put it on the resolution as we present that and then officially approve that next month and move that forward. And on the next agit agenda item, we'll talk about the date that we vote on that. We'll start putting that in the newspaper out there and have some time for community to ask questions if they do and we'll publish that in the paper. But yeah, it probably be best for the recommendation to stick with whatever dollar amount, but we could when we get to the I'm just I'm jumping ahead here, but we set it at a buck 34. When we get to the budget or future later, say Stan, we're hoping you

114can keep it at at a buck right now. You know, there's nothing wrong with doing that. How does this fund sit like today as far as Well, that that's a good question. We're a little low, but we're also at a very unique time because we've been funding some things for the um construction project, facilities project ahead of time that we could pay for that will come from the um bond sale, which isn't occurring till June 3. Do you know what I mean? Like in the end, we'll be okay, but and budgeted through. But we knew we weren't going to have many other projects to do this year just because there's going to be some increased costs with going through in the bond sale and some of the other regular maintenance that's that's happening with that.

115You know, we're still we got a few elementary rooms that we're going to replace the front carpet on. We still need to do those type of things this summer, but I mean we were confident when this comes through that and there's there could be a few overruns on the project that that will come out of. So, but right now we're sitting okay with it. I don't have an exact dollar amount. We didn't look at that. At the end of April, we had 335,000 and or sorry, ple we had 335,000 304,000 out of save. All good questions. Yeah. Not an easy decision. I get that. Yeah. Especially when you I come and give you a waffled recommendation, but I mean I get both sides of that. Um I think we'd probably be all right probably with

116either. I think it's just maybe gives you more flexibility of the dollar. The one gives us more flexibility, but like I said, I'd be good with either. The one gives us more flexibility, I think, moving forward. That's one thing I would say that the the$134 gives you unforeseen stuff. whatever happens to the legislature if they change something there that really not saying they will but and if we look at the a lot of the in my mind a lot of the areas around here besides lakes and lions don't do the higher rate. Yeah, they do. And even looking through the state I think majority of them are at the$134 but Does it say in one of these might not have had it? Yeah. But if you do the average rate across the state, it's over

117a buck. Yeah. For those that have it. Um it's it doesn't come out to the even dollar amount because, you know, usually most most schools are at 67 cents or a buck or a buck 34. It doesn't come out to that because of just how averages play out. But if I read the other day, I think the average across the state was a$15 or something like that, which tells me most are at the buck or a buck 34. But you get some that are at 67 cents like we are into that that that would keep it from being at the max. Well, anything else or I don't have anything else to unless you have questions otherwise I think kind of point of other questions then we can look for a motion on I'll make a

118motion to consider approval of the voted property or physical plant rate to be set a $134 for the next 10 First, I'll second. It's been moved and seconded to approve the renewal rate for the voted plant and physical plant at $134 for the next 10 years. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Thank you for that. I appreciate the discussion there. And so with that, we have to choose um when we're going to set the date to vote on renewing that. Um ours expires at the end of FY26. We would work on adopting that, but my recommendation is um there's different dates throughout the year, but my recommendation is to vote to bring this to the public to vote on on September 9. The next date after

119that is the general election in November and then the date after that is a date in March. If it wouldn't pass, we have to wait a certain number of days before we could bring that back to the public again. I'm not saying it won't, but just if that was a question. So, doing that in September gives us a little flexibility with that. Um, it's also the recommendation from both IASB and talking with some of their representatives and ISF, which is the um, I always got to think there's Iowa School Financial Information Services that we subscribe to and get a lot of content from. They definitely recommend doing it on a non-general election date. They just said it's usually been found to be more successful for schools for that reason. So that's my recommendation is to

120vote for this or bring it to the public to vote on on September 9, 2025. Any questions pertaining to that voting date? I'll make a motion to approve the setting of the date of the voted couple renewal for September 9, 2025. Second. been moved and seconded moved and seconded to approve the date for the vote of the voted ple to to September 9th 2025. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those pose, same sign. Motion passes. Consider approval of 2526 Vista Iowa contract. It's formerly Grant Wood. It's now called Vista Iowa and it's our accounting and payroll software and the quote is attached. Everybody still loves it. Kendra saying yes and don't go another direction. I don't know about love, but we don't want any changes. They're they're very good to work with

121and very helpful. I'll make a motion to approve the 202526 Vista Iowa contract. Second. Moved and seconded seconded to approve the 2025 2026 Vista Iowa contract. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Consider approval of NCC partnership agreements. So there's two parts to this um for the two motions here. The first one is for the jointly encro enrolled courses or basically the courses that we take online through NCC for um college credit. So um Dawson takes a co I'm trying to think of an example takes college um I can't even think of an example now takes world history for college credit right that this is we have to have a contract with NCC and they would be our provider for this to get dual credit it's an

122elective at Cibiochen and then they get college credit for that as well I'll make a motion to approve the jointly enrolled courses agreement with NCC as presented. Second, it's been moved and seconded to approve the jointly enrolled courses agreement with NTC. All those in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. And now alternative high school. This would be Um it we'd pay for if needed for seats at the alternative school if we'd have students that's so enrolled there. Our first priority would be do that in town here at the library. Um I was thinking we did that. We did. But if we needed or that's not working out and we need seats, we need to approve the agreement with them annually. So we did not have anyone this second half of

123the year that attended there. How was our joint courses that higher you think or is it stay pretty steady or have you seen I did not see the or I haven't seen yet the final um they haven't sent the final bill yeah the final bill yet for that to look at my we might have our overall number down due to changes in enrollment but I would say utilization just seem to be up p you know if that makes sense to compared to a few years ago it might be down for the number of courses, but I I think it seemed like there were a good number of students taking advantage of that for multiple courses and and just because some of the ones that even we had inhouse before that weren't dual credit were offered

124dual credit this year. So like they could get dual credit for CAPS through NCC as well with Katie if I remember right and um one of our math courses too we used to do with pre-cal but it changed and I can't I think the college algebra course so you know that's an increase in usage as well through that. Okay. Any other questions on the alternative high school or the others? for a motion. I'll make a motion to approve the agreement with NCC for alternative high school services. Second. Been moved and seconded to approve the agreement with NCC for the alternative high school. All those in favor say I. I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. Consider approval of payments to Site Logic. Yeah. Seeing that we've had the last several months, the invoices are attached.

125So moved. Second. And moved and seconded to approve the payments to site logics as listed. All those in favor say I. I. I oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. Consider approval of pay application for LNL builders. So site logic is our general the one that won the bid that will work under site logic is LNL builders and pay application but basically their first invoice. questions on that or 50,60417. I'll make a motion to pay the request number one from LanLB Builders for the 2025 construction project and request of 50,6047. Second. Been moved and seconded to approve the payment request of 50,60417 to Elvin Builders. All those in favor say I. I. I. All oppose same sign. Motion passes. Consider approval of additional 202425 district depository. So this would be for this current year. Um asking for

126ISTJ um looking at potentially putting in the short term we could put um for that's why it's a max of 7 million, but we could put some of the proceeds from the bond sale in there. We're looking at potentially putting, do you remember from the bond sale we have to keep, I'm gonna use the term kitty, that 650,000 roughly, that's not the exact amount, but roughly that we have to keep set aside to guarantee the payment for the life of uh the bond repayments till the end and then we can use that. So, we're looking at potentially and they recommend having a separate account for that. So, we would use this as well, the higher rate of return and using isjit to house that amount. But we need to approve them as a depository. In

127order to do so, I'll make a motion to approve uh is JIT is a depository with a maximum amount of 7 million for the revenue proceeds that we receive in June. Second. The move was seconded to approve Iowa Schools Joint Investment Trust as a depository of the 2425 here. All those in favor say I. I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion passes. So these were presented last month. No changes. The changes were presented last month. I won't go through them as well. And since this is the second month, the policy reads there, but you could make the motion to approve the second reading of the policies as listed, unless you desire to read them all off, but we did read them off last month. I'll make a motion to approve the second reading of the

128following policies as listed. My bad. Second. You didn't do it. It had been moved and seconded to approve the second reading of the board policies that are listed. All those in favor say I. I. I. Oppos. Same sign. Motion passes. Next meetings are listed there. Remember next week and then we've got the Yep. Tuesday would be the works I got to say the right date, right? The 27th is the Tuesday. The work session with Lan at 5:30. We'll do it in the boardroom since it's um won't be admin team. It'll be the board, me, Kendra, and Lanne. So, we'll we'll meet in the boardroom. Okay. And then talking points. I had uh Wednesday the 28th. Did I put the wrong date down? I don't know. I got on my calendar. I think Lann's figuring on

129the 27th because she did email me today. That was the sec. It was the 27th or the 28th. I've got the 27th. So, I went with the 27th. I think you're not that far off. Yeah, that was the two initial main dates. I think we ended up going with the 27th because that was the first one that worked. I think there's one conflict each night, but we went with the 27th. Yeah, talking points. A lot of them. I almost made it through the whole alphabet there on the agenda. Come up in conversation. Not that no one knows. We didn't make it to AA, so that was good. Yeah. Um, good job for the music environment, local and otherwise. Yes. And I know there's a lot to approve tonight, but I think that also speaks to

130a lot that's going on in our district and some exciting things that are happening and in um approving all the bond things. Not that that's fun, but that also indicates that there's there are positive things going on and um making decisions with Pebble. Not that that's exciting, but it indicates there are exciting things going on for the future. for of our district. So, positive and needed both. Yes, definitely. So, nothing else unless you guys want to stick around for a while yet. I'm looking for a motion. I'll make a motion to adjourn. Second. Be moved and seconded to adjourn. And all those in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed. Same sign. Motion passes. Thank you everyone. Thank you Jennifer. Thank you.