GFPS & GFAFB School Board Meeting (November 24, 2025)

001We'll call to order the regular meeting of the school board for Monday, November 24th, 2025. >> And we'll call to order the Grand Forks Air Force Space School Board meeting for the 25th of November. >> Our first item on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. Invite you to stand as you're able. Just a quick note before we proceed. Our uh city school board and Grand Forks Air Force Base School Board are holding this meeting jointly. So you'll hear from both agendas as we weigh through from one uh main section to another. Uh 1A on the uh Grand Forks Public School District number one agenda is the reading of our schoolboard meeting norms. Mr. Manley, >> be prepared. Be on time. Value and respect each other. Exercise thoughtful deliberation and conversation. Be professional at the

002board table and when visiting with the general public. Speak up when the norms are not being followed. And advocate on behalf of students and keep the community in mind. Thank you. Item two. This is the approval of the agenda for school district number one. I would seek a motion to approve our agenda as outlined in our packet. >> It's been moved by Mr. Larson. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Anderson. Any discussion or changes? We'll take a roll call vote. >> L. >> Yes. >> Flynn, >> yes. >> Pomacino, >> Larson, >> yes. >> Cleven, >> yes. >> Hodak, >> yes. Anderson, >> yes. >> Manley, >> yes. >> And Burger, >> yes. >> Nine, yes. Zero, no. Zero absent. >> Motion passes. >> We'll now move on to the approval of the

003agenda item two on your baseboard packet. May I have a motion? >> Moved by Snyder. May I have a second? >> Second by Bruce Dad. Are there any changes or additions? Having none, Cindy, may I have a roll call vote? >> Brucead, >> yes. >> Brandon Shepard, >> yes. >> Snider, >> yes. >> Michelle Shepard, >> yes. >> Four, yes. Zero, no, zero absent. >> Thank you. Motion has been approved. >> Item three under celebrating success 3A are classified and certified employees of the first quarter. >> Do that. Sorry. Or did you? >> You can approve your minutes. Yeah, please. Yep. >> Sorry for that. We're going to uh stick with the baseboard packet. Item number three, approval of minutes from October 14th, 2025. May I have a motion to approve those minutes? >> Motion

004by Snyder. May I have a second? >> Second by Brucead. Are there any changes to the minutes? Having none, Cindy, may I have a roll call vote, please? >> Snider, >> yes. >> Brucead, >> yes. >> Brandon Shepard, >> yes. >> Michelle Shepard, >> yes. Four yes, zero no, zero absent. >> The minutes from October 14th, 2025 have been approved. >> Okay. Celebrating success, our classified and certified employees of the first quarter. Dr. Brener. Thank you. Uh tonight, Christy Robson, who's a classroom specialist and family room mentor at Community High School, is going to be introduced by Mr. Bohan, principal at Community High School. Congratulations on being classified employee of the quarter Christie. I think I have this correct. Good evening, members of the board. Terry Bohan, principal at community. I'd like to introduce you

005to Christy Robson, uh, as the classified employee of the quarter. Uh, she serves in a unique role at Community High School, but in her 15 or 16 year career, she's served in multiple unique roles as a veteran class uh, classified staff member. They range from early childhood work with youth, elementary ed, alternative ed, and even into adult education. Uh she is sort of a Swiss Army utility type knife uh in the Grand Forks public schools and has been for a long time. She was nominated by uh staff at community high school for going above and beyond in all facets of her interactions with students. She is a relationship builder. She is often the first adult that many students see each day uh because she also acts as the driver of what we call our charger

006mobile. She builds many relationships with students while on those trips or in the hallways uh to make them feel welcome and and build another road to success for them in al in our alternative high school. She is also one of our staff members that is first to say, "Sure, let's do it." or "I'm in when certain things come up with our staff." She sees the school or our school as her domain. And she's often working with some of our toughest students, finding success with them in high school. Uh lastly, uh she is a leader in our group uh sources of strength. uh has been for the last three or four years and we appreciate her work with that group. Uh and she's a Grand Forks girl uh graduated from Red River. Uh works in this

007community, lives in this community, raises her children and watches them graduate in this community. And sometimes when you don't know who to call, the Ghostbusters will be here in her community as well. And so here is Christy Robson, a classified employee of the quarter. [applause] [applause] Thank you very much. I'm so appreciative of this. It was a big surprise um when I was awarded it on um Thursday of last week. um wasn't expecting. Walked into the library, that's where my um desk is, and my husband and daughter were sitting there. So, I was like, "Oh my gosh." Um yes, as uh Mr. Gohan said, I do enjoy my job. I have a couple co-workers here dressed in some costumes supporting me because that's what we do at community. We try to get everybody involved and

008excited to be there and we have a good time. I enjoy going to work each day and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Thank you. [applause] [applause] Next up, we have Emily Kulis, library media specialist at Red River High School, and she is our certified employee of the quarter. And she will be introduced by associate principal, Mr. Jay Heerley. >> Thank you for your time. Thanks for the opportunity here to speak a little bit about Mrs. Kulis and what she does here at RER High School. Um, she's someone who truly makes a difference every single day. She connects with hundreds of students. She learns her stories, discovers their interests, and sparks which can be at the high school level difficult a genuine or love of reading. When you walk into her classroom, you can

009feel that the intentional care she puts into the details. Through thoughtful organization, creative displays, and data-informed decisions, she creates a space where students feel welcomed and excited to explore. At her core, she's a teacher. She eagerly collaborates with colleagues across disciplines, and is always ready to jump in and support instruction. Whether she's guiding students through research, doing literary analysis, uh covering some social justice topics, or career exploration, she brings energy and heart into everything she does. Her efforts to refresh the media center, improve signage, and expand our diverse and multilingual materials has opened doors to many learners, and thanks to her initiative, we've been able to grow our Spanish collection and renew digital resources like Comics Plus. Her passion, her expertise, and her genuine care for students help make the library a vibrant, welcoming hub

010for our entire school community. It's my pleasure to congratulate Emily Kulis as our certified staff member. [applause] Congratulations. [applause] >> Um, I was really surprised when this came about, but um, I feel very lucky to hold the job that I do. Um, I tell kids every day I have the best job because I get to be surrounded by books and I get to share that love of reading and research with them. Um, so I just appreciate this so much. Um, thank you. >> [applause] [applause] >> We'll now move into agenda item four for both boards. This will be our public comment period. We'll hold this comment period together. Uh I have three uh public comment cards, so I'll I'll call you up in the order they were turned in. But just a couple of notes

011before we get started. The purpose of the open meetings law is to provide members of the public with access to the meetings of a governing board of a public entity allowing them to observe and monitor. By state law, every regular meeting of the board must include an opportunity for an individual to provide public comment. The law requires that an individual providing comment at a meeting provide to the governing body in writing their name and address. The board may limit public comments in accordance with the provisions of North Dakota Century Code. Public comments must be pertinent to the district, may not interfere with the orderly conduct of the regular meeting, may not be defamatory, abusive, harassing, or unlawful, and may be prohibited if an alternative procedure exists to bring that particular type of public comment before

012the public entity. The public comment includes confidential or exemp exempt information or the public comment is otherwise prohibited by law. Individuals submit these public comment cards to the schoolboard secretary before the meeting begins and wait to be invited to speak. Each person may speak for up to three minutes. No individual may speak on the same topic more than once. Schoolboard members shall not engage in a response or enter into a debate about any issues brought before the board during this portion of the meeting. Public comments and concerns will be directed to the superintendent of schools who will address them in accordance with policies adopted by the board. With that procedure in mind, I have first Lisa Johnson. Good evening, chair, members of the board, and community members. My name is Lisa Johnson. I am a

013local realtor dedicated to serving our community in the day-to-day of the housing market. I'm here today because what I see in the housing market is directly connected to what you see in our schools. The stability of our families, the ability of new educators and staff to relocate here and the overall health and growth of Grand Forks. I know that these are some conversations you as a board are will be addressing this evening. Over the past two years, our community has issued very few multifamily housing permits. In a growing city, that creates a bottleneck. With no additional supply and a rising demand, the cost of housing has gone up fast. Families are competing for the same limited number of units, and many simply can't find anything affordable. I regularly meet families who want to move here,

014who want to send their children to our schools, but they can't secure a place to live that fits their budget. Just last summer, I had parents calling me frantically looking for housing for their incoming freshman students. Students that when they graduate have a potential of remaining in our community, adding to our growing workforce needs. The pressure is only increasing. The Grand Forks Air Force Base expansion is bringing new missions, new jobs, and new families to our region. At the same time, the University of North Dakota is experiencing historic enrollment levels. Both of these factors are signs of a thriving, growing community. But they also mean we need to be growing our housing supply just as quickly. Right now, we aren't. And the consequences are real. Educators and school staff struggle to find affordable housing, hurting

015recruitment. Families are priced out of stable neighborhoods. Students are forced to move frequently or commute long distances. Some families who would contribute to our schools and our tax base end up choosing another community altogether. I'm not here to assign blame. I'm here to urge action. Grand Forks needs more housing of every type, but especially affordable multifamily housing that allows working families, young professionals, and new residents to put down roots. Strong schools and strong housing policies go hand in hand. If we want to keep pace with the opportunities ahead at the air base, at UND, and within our own growing workforce, then we must create the housing that makes it possible. Thank you for your time and your commitment to the future of Grand Forks. >> Thank you. Next, I have Bob Calgar. Good evening everyone.

016Uh, I'm Bob Calgary. I'm here to ask that the school board vote no toward providing any pilot funding for Brookstone Apartments. I would rather see the Grand Fork School District get their financial situation straightened out prior to spending any more funds that we don't have. Uh currently the Grand Grand Grand Forks County is approximately $2 million over budget and the schools are four and a half million over budget. I think it's highly important that we take care of our financial situations before we promise anything else. Uh in regard to uh Brookstone Apartments, I believe that the city of Grand Forks has spearheaded has been the spearhead for giving away in the last three years $ 37.8 million of tax exemptions for developers. If you approve Brookstone, we will now go over the $50 million tax

017exemption giveaway. And why are we exempting properties? Because on the front or the top, the city of Grand Forks, I believe, has been misinforming not only me, but everyone in the community. I sent every member of the school board tonight the actual vacancy rates for the last four years in Grand Forks. The city of Grand Forks has been selling 1.3 to 2%. That was at the first meeting. The second meeting they told us it was below 1% vacancy rate in Grand Forks. the third meeting to I would say many people's surprises uh Mr. Felin announced that vacancy rates no longer matter. So what is this program about? That's what I'm trying to figure out. Why are we giving away millions of dollars if vacancy rates don't matter? According to the Grand Forks Apartment Association, which

018we've used for 28 years for referencing vacancies of all kinds, vacancy rate was 7.45, 2022 was 5.16, 2023 was 5.19, 4.83. 5% in the 28 years I've been doing this has been the beautiful number for us. I I don't know why it would have to go lower. Are we done? >> Thank you. >> Next I have Terry Hansen. >> Good evening uh President Burger. Uh my name is Terry Hansen. I'm the executive director of the Grand Forks Housing Authority. I have lived in this community for 38 years. I have been with the Housing Authority for 36 years and I've been the executive director for 26 years of the housing authority. I am here tonight to uh speak in in favor of this board's action towards the uh financing application by Brookstone Apartments. And perhaps I'm

019coming going to come at it from a different direction. Um, we've all heard that housing, affordable housing is difficult to come by in Grand Forks, in the state of North Dakota, in the entire United States. And I believe that is true. It is the norm that everyone should only pay 30% of their income towards housing. And those that uh cannot find housing at the prices to where they're 30%, there is assistance provided by the housing authority to assist those families. What the Brookstone Apartments is is proposing to do for the city of Grand Forks is to provide housing at rental rates that are already affordable to many of the lowincome families of the community. Whether it be 60% AMI, 60, 50, 40, or 30% of AMI, the rents for these units will be 30% of

020that income group. So if you're a 30% AMI, you will pay 30% of your income. And those are the rents that they're setting these apartments at. And that is something that is uncommon in the affordable housing industry. Generally, they'll go out and using the same programs that Brookstone is proposing to use. They'll develop the properties and then they'll come to the housing authority and ask the housing authority to uh put projectbased vultures in the units so that the rents can be high and the tenants still only pay 30% of their income and the balance is made up by the uh housing choice vouchure program. That is not the case for what they are proposing. They are proposing to have the rents come out of the chute at affordable rents. That will provide the housing authority

021the opportunity to use its resources to fund other housing, other households in need of affordable housing rather than to assist these families uh that will be residing at Brookstone. I in the last and and contrary not contrary to whatever has been presented up to up to now but yes the uh vacancy rates today in Grand Forks as of September 15th which is the last report available by the Greater Grand Forks Apartment Association is 3.19% vacant. Um, in my mind, and this is a personal opinion, I think that it should be around 7% vacancy because that 7% vacancy puts pressure, downward pressure on the rents rather than a 3% vacancy. >> Just finish up there. Just that thought. Just finish up that one thought, please. >> Just finish up that last thought. >> Okay. Um I

022I really do feel that that it that it that it's important to take advantage of what Brookstone is is uh op uh providing the community and request your support for the proposal. >> Thank you. >> Those are the three comment cards that I had turned in. Are there other members of the public who wish to speak during the public comment period tonight? We'll move on then. >> We're going to go to the baseboard packet. Item five, our superintendent's recommendations for action. Item A, state of the base. I would like to welcome Colonel Bashani Whitmore, who is our deputy wing commander of the 319th Reconnaissance Wing, to the floor. All right. Good evening, everybody. Thanks. All right. Sorry. This over here. All right. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, staff and faculty of Grand Forks Public Schools

023and the volunteers and parents of the school board. On behalf of Colonel Alfred Rosales, the commander of the 319th Reconnaissance Wing, I want to thank you for having me here today to be able to share some things going on with Grand Forks Air Force Base and the 319th Reconnaissance Wing, as well as to share why Twining Elementary School project matter strategically, not just for uh what we do at our wing, but also for what we do with the Air Force at large. My obligatory slide, excuse me. So, as many of you know, the 319th Reconnaissance Wing has long been trusted with missions that have global impact, and we've primarily had three of those up to this point. Our first mission is to provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance with our high altitude RQ4 Global Hawk uh

024flown from Grand Forks, Italy, and Guam. Simply put, we take images and we track ground moving targets to ensure that our senior leaders can have make informed decisions. Since the beginning of this year, we've flown nearly 5,000 hours in the Indo-acific, in the Middle East, in Europe, and along our southern border. Second, we ensure strategic communication command and control with our highfrequency global communication system, which allows us to send HF signals for communication over long distances and annually does about 4,000 encoded emergency oxygen action messages that allow us to control our nuclear uh capable force. Third, we deliver airborne communications capability through the E11 battlefield airborne communication node, the Bacon, which is currently residing at Robins Air Base, Air Force Base in Georgia, which allows disperate systems to talk. We call it Wi-Fi in the

025sky, but multiple systems from the Army, the Navy, the Air Force are typically not built to talk to each other, and so it kind of bridges those gaps so everybody's able to share a mental model. However, as of October 1st, we just added a new mission to the base, and that's Air Combat Command's point defense battle lab, and what that'll do is test and evaluate small UAS or unmanned aircraft systems or drones and counter UAS technologies. the work done there done, excuse me, the work there that's going to be done is going to be able to develop the tactics, techniques, and procedures for us to not only be able to protect Grand Forks Air Force Base, but we're going to be able to push that out to the Air Force at large and all military

026installations. So, big picture, the 319th Reconnaissance Wing is global. It's having a significant impact and it's critical. Additionally, we've had permanent residents for quite a bit of time, about 11 months, and those would be our B B1 bomber partners from Ellsworth Air Force based in Rapid City, South Dakota. We've had about 1100 or excuse me, 800 airmen and 13 B1s on our ramp and it was basically the largest non-contingency statewide relocation of assets in Air Force history. And the beautiful thing about that wasn't necessarily that they were able to bring those capabilities here, but in fact was actually the warm welcome that I think Grand Forks gave to those individuals and really integrated them into the community. So, we greatly appreciate that. What they were able to do while those B1s were here were able

027to do a hund a $378 million runway uh repair and fix and put down a whole new runway at Ellsworth to be able to bring in the B-21 Raider which is the Air Force's newest bombers. So ultimately coming out to the end of the year it's going to be a far quieter area if for those of you who are able to hear those B1s. Uh, but we take a a lot of those lessons that we've learned from the B1's being here because we're actually going to have to move out our RQ4s very soon. So, starting in April, we're going to do a runway overlay and mill as well. And so, we're going to have to ship our RQ4s to another base until roughly September. I'd like to pivot uh from operations to quality of life,

028if I may. And it's something that all of you play a role in. Military families don't always get to choose their next assignment and the needs of the Air Force often drives movement on short notice to places that people didn't expect. However, the quality of life pro we provide on the base and experience people have off base can be transformative. So, what are we doing to take care of our airmen? In May, we broke ground on a 14.2 million renovation of a dormatory which will update the building that's 67 years old. In August, we reopened our child development center following completion of $ 8.4 million renovation. This expanded center provides additional on-based child care options for our families and modernize the facility. Last month, we celebrated the demolition of Ben Isles Elementary School. We honored

029the history of Benson and the educators who work there, serving our community and nurturing the children of our service members. Once the demolition is complete around the end of the year, it'll clear out the lot for the Twining Elementary School. The Twining Elementary School project is not simply building or renovating. It's a or an update to a school or base. This project is a statement. A statement that our community values military families. A statement that our children, those tied to service and in the local community, deserve the best. And a statement that when our families thrive, our mission thrives. Projects like Twining are not nice to haves. They are strategic enhancers, enhancers, and fundamental imperatives to national security. They are retention tools. They are readiness enablers. And they are among the clearest signals we can

030send to Grand Forks is not only a place where airmen can serve, but a place where they can build a life. I thought I might put that quickly into context. The Department of the Air Force closely tracks our public education. The school districts surrounding all 157 of our US uh installations in the US are graded based on absenteeism, safety, studenttoteer ratio, mental health support needed, etc. In the Air Force's 2021 assessment, which is the latest one, Grand Forks Public Schools received an overall green rating, placing it in the top third of 157 installations. Additionally, Grand Forks Air Force Base is one of only 16 statewide, state side installations offering public school on base. I want to expand what green rating means, and that means uh investment in public education through funding, talented educators. Grand Forks

031Public Schools was assessed to offer student learning rates, school climate, studenttoteer ratio, and counselor availability to the top percentile in the district. Now, as a juaposition to that, I want to look at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. I don't bring up Maxwell as an indictment or judgment on the incredible educators and staff that work there each day. However, I think it's I think it's illustrative. Their distin received a red rating placing in the bottom of the installations. The air university and staff college have reported issues with 56% of students electing to geobatch or not move their families when they're intending one of those in residence programs. Additionally, highquality candidates are reluctant to accept teaching or faculty positions due to the surrounding school district's reputation. The public education offered around the installation directly impacts

032the students quality of life, potentially deterring applicants and is limiting the talent pool of educators and faculty. This is also a consideration for families when separating from the service and deciding where to put their families going to plant roots. So tonight, I want to say thank you because that's not an issue we have. Thank you to the Grand Forks Public Schools for their partnership and care in ensuring our military connected students are welcome integrated into Grand Fork School District. This allows our service members to live in our local community with the confidence that their children will be supported the same level of care as our students on base. And thank you for championing the Twining Project that will impact future generations of airmen who haven't even arrived yet. And thank you to the educators who

033show up every day and shape the minds of students who will one day become the leaders, innovators, airmen, and citizens of tomorrow. And finally, thank you for your time. [applause] Thank you, Colonel. We greatly appreciate your time tonight. We are going to move on to our impact aid funding update item B on the district 140s agenda. I'll pass this on to Mr. Bombach. President Shepard, President Burgerer, members of both boards. Thank you for the opportunity to give a little bit of highlight over the impact aid program and just how that impacts the Grand Forks Air Force Base uh school district as well as Grand Forks Public School District. So, I've uh taken a few slides from Nafus, the National Association um of federally impacted schools. So, I'm just working from what they have here. It's

034a program that's come into existence since 1950 uh in order to support school districts um as they are impacted in a in a positive way, but impacted by the presence of federal land. And so, in Grand Forks, that of course is Grand Forks um Air Force Base. The point of this is that school districts are largely supported uh in part by federal grants but state funds as well as local property taxes. And when you have the existence of a federal property such as the Grand Force Air Force Base, those property taxes are not derived. So this program steps in to supplement exactly that um situation. Um there's a little bit of history here. It began in 1950 and has only grown in this presence. It's not just for military impacted areas. is also for uh

035Indian trust, treaty lands, um etc. In our case, the slide is telling a story of when you take the federal grants out of the mix um you know, half of any general school district across the country is supported by state aid. And then you can see largely the other half of that equation is for local property taxes, both uh businesses and in homes. in Grand Forks, that mix is is probably 60% from the state, um 30% local property taxes and 10% from federal grants and such. So, it's a it's a big part and it's an important consideration that Congress gave back in 1950 that continues to be important today. Um just that history here. Uh it's also worth noting uh that when this was established in 1950, it was a two-part program. It was focused

036on operations of the educational services provided as well as support for the facilities themselves. And this was actually as the Nafas organization likes to a bit boast about was the original federal education program. So before any of the other uh formula grants that existed such as title one etc. it was impact aid that really gave um way to that formula. There's been a number of changes over the years and as recently as as 2015. just put in context of the the president's budget, the the federal government um does have a lot to say about education and is involved, but you put it in context of the overall budget. It's 2.3% of the overall budget. It is primarily a state issue, but this program recognizes the importance of that federal involvement in that quick landscape across

037the country. You can see um from the map just where exactly um the dollar amounts are shown as impactful. uh just the three numbers across the left, 932 basic support school districts. This is really any student that's military connected for any federal reason. So it again I mentioned tribal lands, I mentioned the Air Force base, there might also just be federal buildings that have employees uh who bring students there. So there's a number of communities that receive impact aid even without the existence of federal property. 201 would be those school districts or others impacted by the actual existence of federal property and right in the middle would be the unique combination of both and that's where we reside where we have the existence of the federal property and we receive that basic support uh across

038our community. The program itself is annually appropriated and so each year that national association goes to Congress goes to the Hill and advocates for a renewal of that program and the story that they will highlight is from the existence of the program they've continued [clears throat] to measure the need of the program and it's it's underfunded. They point out the $1 billion shortfall. Um, we in Grand Forks Air Force Base is are very lucky in that [clears throat] each year as we submit our applications for dollars, it's based on student count. That's where they get the measurement of need. And then according to what's allocated, that school district will receive its lot. So they might say, you know, we we need this much, but we're only going to get 73% of our need met. Grand

039Forks Air Force Base because we are co-terminus the shape of the school district is the exact same shape as the Air Force base. We are heavily impacted and that status brings us a shortity of 100% of our need each and every year which is incredibly fortunate position to be in. So when it comes to these annual appropriations, everybody watches these numbers from left to right. you'll see um fiscal years starting with um the most or ending with the most recent on the right and then different portions of the impact aid program, federal property basic support. There's additional modifiers then for disability payments and then some money set aside for construction and facilities. You can see there has been increased support across those basic and operational needs but stagnant across students um and children served with

040disabilities and even the construction and facilities have largely been stagnant. To put that in context for Grand Forks Air Force Base, we receive probably about $85,000 every other year to support the facility itself. I would argue, you know, barely enough to maintain, let alone any capital improvement. So, it's a it's an important conversation that continues to happen on Capitol Hill each and every year. This chart is um less from the national organization. It's from me, so it's a little less pretty, but you can see from top down is past years to most recent year. And then from left to right is a little bit of an equation I'd like you to follow just to see the net federal payment per student in the bottom right hand corner. A big part of this is the third

041to last column is in the state of North Dakota, the way that the payments work is they've been counted as tuition payments in the state aid formula. And so when they get caught into that equation, there's a deduction that takes place where the state withholds a portion of those dollars. So even for the federal impact aid money that was coming in for years and years, we received the benefit of about 25% of that. And since 2021 legislative session when administration went to the legis state legislature to point this out, a law was changed and passed to eliminate that from that designation. And you can see the percentages being reduced and so after this current year will be done with those deductions which is timely because as I mentioned the construction projects the construction payments associated

042with impact aid don't keep up with the need. we have in front of us the opportunity to rebuild Twining um preK through a um school building and we're going to need um those extra dollars to help pay for the principal and interest on that new facility. So, it's um exciting time for sure and I think I'll just end on that note with my overview of impact aid. >> Thank you, Mr. Bombach. Are there any questions for Mr. Pombuk tonight about the impact aid? Okay. Uh before we move on, I want to go back just for a second and apologize to Colonel Whitmore and to district one. Uh you it's oversight of mine. You know, living on the base and having more access to the knowledge of what is the state of the base currently. I

043didn't give an opportunity to any of the district one members for any questions for Colonel Whitmore. Okay. Thank you. And thank you again, Colonel Whitmore. We'll now move on to 5C under discussion. This will be the curriculum review. Dr. Brener. >> Thank you, President Berger, and Madame President to your left. Um, I'm going to pinch it tonight for Dr. Galach. Um, as you can see, she's not present tonight, and Mr. Block is not here either tonight, but both uh are excused from tonight's meeting. So, uh, while I'm not part of the curriculum review process, I was in my former role, so I have a little bit of history, uh, with what this is all about. Uh, so in front of you in the the cover memo, it it discusses uh, the members of the curriculum

044review uh, committee and they do meet annually in November. And I'd like to highlight that there will be seven additions that I'm going through this evening and one deletion. And what I'll say at the beginning and what I'll say at the end confirmed by committee members is there's no additional cost to any of these courses being added. No additional cost for staffing. Uh everything would be done in-house with existing folks. Um so the committee members consider the following criteria when considering a proposed course uh modification. The number of electives that are already in a department. The expansion of multiple pathways andor enrichment opportunities for students. the inclusion of 21st century skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity and choice ready alignment. Uh similar content not already addressed in other curricular areas. Uh and

045whether or not it's a mandated course under state law. Uh the collaboration between high school staff regarding the proposal, staffing material and costs, and the equitable offerings at each campus. Um so this is under discussion tonight. So, um, any questions that I can answer at the end, I'd be happy to. Uh, if not, this would be on our next agenda for action. So, I will go ahead and take you through these courses, uh, as you see them in your packet. The first one, drum line, would be an addition, and it's approved by the committee. And, uh, drum line as we know it now is, uh, either before or after school um, uh, academic activity. and it's a performance ensemble featuring marching percussion, including snare drum, bass drum, symbols, and quads. During the school year, students

046will learn fundamental drum line technique, maintenance of equipment, and how to perform drill. The ensemble performs at community events, pep rallies, if you're at the state of the district breakfast a couple of years ago. That was a good wake up for everybody if you didn't have your caffeine. Uh athletic events throughout the school year, and if you ever see the two high schools uh compete against each other, it is it's something to behold. Students do not need to be a percussionist to join, but they must be in a band course, either band one, two, or three. And they do have auditions for this. So, the rationale behind this course being offered uh in order to provide students with a musical opportunity that involved acts of community service and right now the community functions as an

047extracurricular group. However, the hours that the students uh put into drum line add up to a half credit course. Uh so therefore the committee thinks uh this is well worth adding as a curricular course. I will uh stop right there instead of going through all of the details. The requested uh line item for repair would be an additional $1,500 for instrument repair, but I had a meeting with Jeff Slum this morning who's um our district coordinator for music and they have a budget that will support this. So you you won't see an increase um there. So, the credits would be for a full year, half a credit, and it's for students in grades 9 through 12. And I'm going to go ahead and move on to the second one. And I'll take questions at the

048end if that makes the most sense. Exploring health uh healthcare careers would be an addition and that too was approved by the committee. This semester elective course introduces the student uh to a wide variety of careers in healthcare. Students will examine careers in the various health science pathways including therapeutic services, diagnostic services, health informatics, u informatics, excuse me, uh support services and biotechnology research and development. Students will learn employability skills that will help them be successful in a career in health care. And this course will help students learn about professional standards, qualities, traits, and attitudes of healthcare workers, improve communication and teamwork skills, and explore career decision-making, and how to become better prepared for employment in the occupation of healthcare industry. And so this course, the rationale, uh, it's included in the health science coordinated

049plans of study for the North Dakota career and technical career and technical education. and it would fill a critical gap between medical detectives now being offered in middle school and the medical careers courses for the upper level students. uh as a 9th through 12th grade elective. It would allow students to explore health career options without a fullear commitment focused on health career pathways and career exploration, learning employability skills, and better prepare them for the technical courses offered in the career impact academy such as um the uh certified nurse assistant program, sports medicine, and EMS. And again, you'll see a a highlighted area, at least it's highlighted on my document, uh approved by the committee contingent that everything remains costneutral. You don't see that u behind every one of the courses, but I've been assured that

050there's no additional costs and there shouldn't be any additional costs as we're going through our budget realignment process. The third one is advanced manufacturing one and this course introduces students to the fundamentals of automated manufacturing. Students learn how robotics, sensors, and programming are applied to automate production and assembly processes. Emphasis is placed on mechanical design, system integration, and control logic with hands-on projects that uh simulate real world manufacturing systems. Students develop teamwork, problem solving, and technical skills applicable to robotics, automation, and manufacturing careers. So that's manufacturing one, and there's a manufacturing two. Um, so manufacturing one would be a prerequisite for two. It's a semester block, one credit for students in grades 10 through 12. Getting to manufacturing two, uh, some similarities, but just going deeper. So, I won't read through that whole piece. Um,

051but you can uh you can assume that going from advanced manufacturing one to two, uh, there simply would be more rigor and building on the foundation of manufacturing one. The next course is dual credit anatomy and physiology A and B. And the course description is uh physiology and anatomy A is designed for the student who is interested in further study of the human body. This course is designed to mimic an introductory college course in order to prepare students for college level courses in the medically related fields and will aid the students in better understanding of functions of the human body. topics include medical terminology, introduction to anatomy, cells, biochemistry, uh skeletal systems, joints, and the muscular system. And then part B in physiology and anatomy, that's designed for the student who's interested in further study

052of the human body. Then we'll just um go a little bit deeper. And again, another dual credit opportunity. And if you're if you're not aware, um we we already provide 59 different types of courses that are either dual credit or uh AP courses and this would add to that uh body of work which puts us really really in line with Fargo public and nobody else really exceeds that um in the state to my knowledge. The next course is Spanish for native heritage speakers. Uh there's there's uh course one and course two. This is probably a little bit different than maybe what you're anticipating. Uh this course will enable learners to develop, maintain and enhance proficiency in their native language. Learners will build on their literacy skills in their native heritage language. Uh learners who are

053literate in their first language will learn English more quickly and easily. This will aid academic achievement in English and spill over into other disciplines. The course will promote bilingualism and by literacy. Uh so the rationale for this course as with uh native heritage speakers too is it's an increase in Spanish speaking students who are now living in Grand Forks and could benefit from an enabling learners to develop maintain enhance proficiency in their own native language. So sometimes our students come to us and they're speaking their native language but maybe not at a high uh at a high skill level because they're integrated in our schools where English is predominantly our language and sometimes there's a bit of a conflict between their native language and English. So this is to help them with their own cultural

054identity. That would be the same for um level two just goes a little bit deeper and gives students more opportunities. And you can see that this is a uh full year. Semester A and semester B. There would be one credit issued for students in grades 9 through 12. And that would be the seven courses that are being suggested to add um to the menu for next year. And then one course that will is being recommended to be deleted is robotics. And the rationale for that is uh the class is no longer utilized or has proper enrollment. The class will be retitled to become an advanced manufacturing one class to provide a proper pathway for students to earn manufacturing credits. There's more than a mouthful that I have for you tonight on behalf of Dr. Glatch

055and the committee. And again, I'll stand for any questions that I might be able to answer. If not, we can defer them to Dr. Glatch at our next meeting. >> Questions from board members for Dr. Brener? Mr. Cleven. >> Uh, probably a few here. The drum line states that currently it's an extracurricular but would become a course. >> Is that going to jive with teacher contracts and the statement of not having cost? >> Yes. Um, yes. Yes, and no maybe is the the answer to that question because it won't be an extracurricular. We won't have a teacher on an extracurricular contract. It'll be within the day. So, it's going to fit into the overall master schedule. But that won't require adding teachers or adding other things that would incur cost. >> That is correct. >>

056Um on the equipment repair, there was a statement about the $1,500 instrument repair was quote already in the budget. Uh but given all the other things we're going to be dealing with over the next few months, could that be considered as an expense to participate, thereby freeing up some of that budget money for other things we might need it to do? >> Yeah. And when I met with Mr. Seelum this morning, that was probably an area that he couldn't touch. You need your pianos tuned, you need your equipment tuned, um you know, for performance related issues. So I I don't see that as being going through the budget reduction process. If I'm understanding your question correctly, I don't see that as a place where we're going to reduce the budget. >> Okay. Thank you. Um

057these are all house high school courses, correct? I think it's obvious, but I just want to ask the question. >> That is correct. Yes. >> And then lastly, none of these are mandated by the state or any other government agency. >> They're all electives. Yes. Thank you. >> Other questions from board members for Dr. Brener, Dr. Hodc. >> Mine are similar to a little bit of what Jay is, but I guess I'm going to be expecting more details when they talk about there are no resources um that are going to be needed. I want to know um do we have teachers that are qualified to teach these um courses? And if no new teacher needs to be added, does that mean that we currently have teachers that are not teaching a full load and so

058their load could change, which could mean then we would be having an added cost there. I would like to know about the classrooms that would we be needing for these electives. I'd like to know where the curriculum would be coming from for these new courses. I'd like to know if there's new technology that's going to be needed for those courses. I'd like to know what the class size would be um uh particularly with the drumline one um will that evolve into more than one course and such. And then finally there if you're taking um a teacher um from another class to teach um so the electives are changing. I'd like to know what other courses would be impacted. If you look at the one with psychology um we do require biology, we do require um

059physical science, but then they went into that next course. I would like to know how that chemistry how that's going to impact is that going to mean that we are going to have to have additional sections of chemistry. So, I I applaud this, but I'm still concerned about um the budget and where we're at with it right now. And so, I think that we need to have more information. And then my last question is when we do go for approval next board meeting or or such, will we approve as a whole or will we approve class by course? Thank I'll take the last one because I can answer that one. We'll we'll take them course by course, but for the other uh six or seven, I will defer those to Dr. Galach and we'll be

060ready to have those to you. As a matter of fact, if we can get some of those responses in Friday focus, even before the board meeting, >> we'll do that. Thank you, Dr. Hodk. >> Other questions? Miss Flynn? >> I have a similar question um related to the adding of drumline. Um, I pulled up the course description book for Central, um, just as a comparison. And I'm looking at, um, all the music courses. Of course, uh, drum line's not an option for fine arts, but we do have things like choir, chamber choir, harmony, band, jazz band, orchestra. Um, and then we also pay an extracurricular salary for some of those. So, can you tell me how those are different? and and the rationale would essentially be that we're getting rid of the extracurricular component but

061still doing some of it but for credit. But how is that different than some of the other music structures? >> I I don't know that I have a a really solid answer to that other than knowing that drum line used to be at 7:30 7:45 in the morning might even been 7:15 at at either one of the high schools. um and it it just seems to fit better as a co-curricular activity rather than an extracurricular based on uh the committee's recommendation. So, um the the others that you talked about, some of those are uh some of those are large group. You know what what we agreed on with the the high school music teachers and high school admin starting in the fall of 2026 is our our vocal band and orchestra teachers will be in

062front of larger groups three and a half periods a day and individual lessons one and a half periods a day. So somehow this is all going to work into that overall master schedule. That's that's my best response for tonight, but we will have a a solid answer for you. I I would just like to know because it seems like there's maybe some cross crossing of maybe expectations and so if the rationale for one music extracurricular becoming an academic is as such I would like to see that applied uniformly. >> I see. Okay. Now I fully now I understand. Thank you. >> Other questions from board members. I just have one high level question and that is I'm assuming this this committee has done work for a long stretch of time uh independent of budget realignment

063conversation. So at any point were they given any directive or or were given any notion that uh a these have to be costneutral but but also you know we may be looking at uh one of our 12 concepts in the budget realignment process is course offerings. So did any of that intersect at any point or or was this its own independent process and now we're here looking at it in the midst of trying to come to a decision over the next couple of board retreats. So just trying to understand how we hold these in balance. >> Yeah, fair question. Uh my response to that is what a couple of committee members shared with me that Dr. Glatch was emphatic that anything that's added, this is all cost neutral. >> Um, but but I think the

064the question within the question is shouldn't we be looking at some reductions rather than something even being costneutral? And I fully understand that question. That's fair. >> Yes, Mr. Cleven. >> No, you you got you got it right there with that summary of curricula. So, thank you. >> Other questions from board members? Just a reminder for tonight, this is under discussion. We'll we'll be back in December for uh as you pointed out Dr. Hodc or or asked for specifics on uh some clarity, some individual decisions on on each of these. um want to make sure we've had sufficient time for not only tonight's discussion but in preparation for that next meeting so that any questions board members have we have all the information available and in front of us. So, one last opportunity for board

065members. Any further discussion, questions? We'll now continue with the baseboard packet. We'll be moving on to item D, our monthly enrollment report. In the absence of Mr. Baky, I'll pass this on to Dr. Brunner. >> Thank you, Madam President. You have a memo from Mr. Vaky and I'll pinch it for him. Uh listed below are the enrollment numbers for Twining Elementary and Middle School as of October 31st, 2025. In grades K through five, we had we had 202 students, which was an increase from uh of two students from September 2025. At the middle school level, grades 6 through 8, uh 71 students. There was no increase or decrease in that enrollment. Uh overall, if we compare to last October of 2024, uh we've had a decrease in 13 students overall. Uh the total enrollment today

066is 273 students and we are building this new school for an an enrollment of 500. Just thought I would add that. Um Central has 61 students connected to the Air Force Base, Red River Zero, and Community High School um doesn't have any students from the Air Force Base either. That is the enrollment report. >> Thank you, Dr. Brener. Are there any questions about the enrollment report for Twin Elementary and Middle School? Okay, having none, we'll move on to item E, our quarterly financial update. I'll pass it on to Mr. Bombach. Thank you, President Shepard, President Burger, members of the board. Quarterly suggests three months. I want to point out this report is actually for the first four months. That's just where we landed on this, but I wanted to give the most up-to-date numbers. So

067that's through October. Um, fiscal year 26. That's total revenues to date are actually $0 with total expenditures are $129,503. The reason for that is we just got through the longest ever federal shutdown and that affected this as well. But the good news is that despite those expenditures exceeding revenues, there's a balance there of about 7.5 million. So the school districts in a healthy place. Um the the following report just kind of takes through those um reports on the revenue side. Nothing has yet been reimbursed or come in yet on impact aid, although we have since received some. You can see executive admin support just over $30,000, the business office support of $34,000, operations and maintenance of 45 grand, and pupil instructional staff services. That's directly related to grants um expenditures of 2427. Uh and then

068lastly with that last grant line item of 17,800 brings that expenditures to 129,000. So like I said, beginning fund balance at the start of the fiscal year is 7.6 million and we're sitting about 7.5 million. This is just anformational report, so no action is required. >> Thank you, Mr. Bombach. Are there any questions for Mr. Bombach on our financial report? [clears throat] Having none on item six on the baseboard agenda, there are no recommendations for action. So, we will turn it back over to district 1 agenda. >> Yes. Uh, now we're on to board action. 6A is our consent agenda. I would seek a motion to approve the consent agenda as outlined in your board packet. It's been moved by Mr. Cleven. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Palmino. We'll take a roll

069call vote. >> Hodak. >> Yes. >> Larson, >> Manley, >> yes. >> Cleven, >> yes. Anderson, >> yes. >> Flynn, >> yes. >> Pomicino, >> yes. >> Lun, >> yes. >> Burger, >> yes. >> Nine, yes. Zero, no. Zero, absent. >> Motion passes. 6B, general fund financial statement. Mr. Bombach. >> Thank you, President Burgerer. President Shepard and both board members. Thanks for the opportunity. This one applies to District 1 for the first four months. Same time period, fiscal year 26. Total general fund revenues just exceeded $33 million at this point and total general fund expenditures at 29.26 million as results in revenues over expenditures of $3.77 million for the first four months of the fiscal year. Two reports come attached here. The first is our variance report comparing the actual to date of through those

070four months against the budget. You can see that the revenues are about 25 po 25.4% 4% of the budgeted revenues for the year is where we're sitting and expenditures at 21.6% of those. Um just to note within the first three buckets of revenue, property taxes, um those don't come in until just after the first of the year when folks start paying that. So you see that's a smaller number whereas our state revenues are already near 32 million. 40% is where we'd expect to be by calculation and by formula. Just skipping down to the second report, which is page uh well after page three of the initial report. This is the comparison of year-over-year. Sometimes we can draw a little more inference into where we're at at this point of year as compared to the same

071point of year in the prior. And you can see our revenues are exceeding last year's by 2.2% whereas our expenditures are exceeding last year's by 6.1%. I do make a number of notes in that first page um in the box here. They're numbered along the left hand side of that initial box and they correspond to later pages with the same numbers. So drawing your attention there. The first one is just the CTE house. It's always exciting um when you get a purchase agreement and that's what we have. So the students each year take the time to build a home and then we sell it into the community and we um had listed the property for $519,000 and it's got a purchase agreement for $525,000. no contingencies in December. The note here is that last year

072at this point we had already received the revenue from the sale and so it could appear as though we're lagging but this one's coming in exciting way. Um a lot of the other notes here are largely pointing out variance early in this year. Um and one thing to note too in particular that we're watching for variance. So that's not a a queen explanation for everything, but it can be an explanation. But when it comes to utility rates, um they're a little bit higher than where we'd expect to see those. Um I think there's some credits back to us that are coming our way. So timing issues and variance um play a role in that. Just wanted to articulate those on the graphic um depictions in the last three slides. You can see that revenues are,

073like I just said, showing a little bit ahead. Expenditures are also showing a little bit ahead um but down from two years ago at this point in the year. in the general fund balance. That final slide, you can show that it is um down because of where we started um where we ended last year that brought that general fund balance down. All told, administrative recommendation would be to approve the general fund financial statement for the period of July 1, 2025 through October 31, 2025. Happy to stand for any questions. >> Questions from board members for Mr. Bombach, Dr. L. Brandon, I know it's early in the year, but I I assume we're we feel we're on track for an fund balance of what we predicted so far. >> Yes. Yep. >> Other questions from board

074members. I would seek a motion to approve the general fund financial statement for the period of July 1, 2025 through October 31, 2025. It's been moved by Mr. Palmino. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Manley. Is there any discussion? Take a roll call vote. >> Pomacino, >> yes. >> Anderson, >> yes. >> Lun, >> yes. >> Flynn, >> yes. >> Larson, >> yes. >> Manley, >> yes. >> Cleven, >> yes. >> Hodak, >> yes. >> Burger, >> yes. >> Nine, yes. Zero, no, zero absent. >> Motion passes. 6C, finance committee report, which will lead into consideration of tax incentive financing application for Brookstone Apartments. But before we get to 6C1 on 6C, Mr. Palino, thank you. I'll take the easy ones. The uh first one we did, we had a change order on

075a HVAC unit at Valley for 72,179. It was hanging from the ceiling and it was decided would be best fit on ground level and insulated and in a room by itself. So, we accepted that one. The second uh change was uh when we did bid this, we had decided that we were going to use our existing scoreboard and our old goal posts which were goal posts were over 15 years old. So we have decided since we do have the money to to spend 169 718 for new scoreboards and new goalposts for the uh valley fields. And then we talked a little bit about the summer summer projects that would be coming up. The main ones were roof projects at Trader Middle School and Lake Agassy. And then there's a project at Red River on the

076rider room that the slope and the walkway down is not uh acceptable by ADA. So it has to be adjusted. So those are the main ones that would be going on this summer. Uh we did have some discussion on tax incentives and we talked a little bit about it would be nice if we could work with the city on getting quicker notification so we had more time to discuss and possibly have two meetings instead of trying to squeeze it into just one meeting and also maybe schedule a meeting with the uh developer to have some discussion on moving forward with that project. So those are the main things we talked about. Hey, thank you. I know you're planning to turn it over to Mr. Bomb, but I do want to touch on a couple of

077points because I know lots of people are listening or will watch this back later. Uh, first reminder, this board has given this committee, the finance committee, a certain amount of latitude for change orders up to a certain amount. Maybe Mr. Bombach, you could uh give those specifics, but that's why some of these don't require full board action. Uh the second thing I wanted to note, you've heard me say this a number of times. Uh yes, we are going through a budget realignment and and reduction. Um and yes, it is also true that in the building fund uh with the referendum that was passed um we came in under budget on these particular projects. And so there money in these funds, Mr. Bomb, you may want to touch on that just before we move forward. Uh

078that's separate from our general fund balance. we can't transfer from a referendum to build a new school uh into the general fund. So perhaps just a couple of clarifications that may be helpful for those listening and then we'll move on to 6C1 if you wouldn't mind. >> President Burger, happy to answer those questions. As it relates to our construction projects, the board had the foresight knowing that there'd be a number of change orders coming to set aside some authority delegated to the finance committee and to the administration. So the board approved a guaranteed maximum price the overall contract. The only entity [clears throat] that can change that amount is the board itself. But for change orders within set aside contingencies or allowances, it [clears throat] was designated that the finance committee would address anything exceeding

079$50,000. Anything less than $50,000 on a change order already budgeted for would be uh dealt with administratively. For the second question about the different funds that are used um relevant to Valley Middle School, the central kitchen and the safety and security projects. Those are all referendum dollars fund 41 that are set aside. Uh no two ways about it cannot cross into the general fund whether we'd like to or not. Um in either direction. Same goes for the building fund. So when we're talking summer capital projects, those are relative to our building fund to make sure we're on top of our deferred maintenance. And there's a number of other funds in child nutrition etc. Special assessments that we just cannot cross between. >> Thank you. Do you have something else, Mr. Palmine? >> Yeah, just the

080other thing is that both contingency funds, the owners as well as the uh contractors are in very good shape. So, we're moving forward on that. And I think the exciting news is we were told roughly three to four weeks and we'll be getting the keys for Valley Middle School. So that very exciting for the kids over at Valley. >> Thank you, Mr. Balmach. I think we're on to 6C1, consideration of tax incentive financing application for Brookstone Apartments. >> Thank you, President. >> President Burgerer, Mr. >> We need to take action on the finance committee report first. >> Thank you for the reminder. You are absolutely right. So, we are looking at in your memo uh wanting to approve. Is this correct, Cindy, to approve the finance committee report? >> President Burger, I can clarify. The

081reason it's under action is because of the related item to Burkstone Apartments. You don't need to take action to accept the finance committee report, >> but because that conversation started there, that's why the a lot of it got brought forward into action. >> Okay. Then I'd like to make a comment on the on the finance committee minutes. >> Yes, please. There's on the last page of them, there's a discussion about highlights of the discussion at the finance committee regarding tax incentives. I think it's important to recognize that was merely discussion. There was no formal action or policy taken. It was just ideas being discussed. >> Yeah. Thank you, >> Mr. Bombach. Thank you for that. I was also going to invite you as soon as we get the keys to the Valley Middle School, come

082on over, grab a box because we need to move into the new school building, which will be quite the effort we're working on, but we should be ready for the start of the second semester. Thanks for the opportunity to introduce the Brookstone Apartments um project. It's a a unique partnership between Dakota Commercial, Mac Construction or Mac Capital and Construction, and the Red River Regional Council. The project has a unique blend of different federal and state funding support programs um that we haven't quite seen before in front of this body and it's complete. The project's requesting both federal low-income house housing tax credits and support from the North Dakota Housing and Finance Agency fund. Um this really sets aside um a number of asurances that I I've found to be unique. The pilot would discontinue if

083the market rate or if they were to go to market rate within 20 years. Um, every unit is rent or income restricted. It requires debt repayment of debt coverage ratio. Any any debt payment recoverage ratio that exceeds 1.3 would then require repayment of the loans. So that would cap uh any developers ambition for further profit beyond that. And then lastly, the programs themselves also require reserve funds to be set aside to the tune of six months of operation. There's just a number of controls involved with this project that I wanted to out the gate um note as as being unique here. Uh these programs to collectively do set rental rates as mentioned and then they can set and control for any increase of those rental rates. It varies but on average no more than 1%

084a year. Inside the memo, I do include that the rental rates are anticipated to be 951 for efficiency apartment up to uh 1450 for a three-bedroom unit. I would just articulate too that that's on average if you take the efficiency apartments within the building. That would be the average number among them. The lowest of them would be $630. Similar goes with the three-bedroom units. Uh although the average is 1450, it's just worth noting that there's variance and the lowest among them would be $872. Just when you're thinking about the affordability of the units, the project itself is located just to the west of us by Furniture Row. Um it's on the edge of town, but it's considered infill and that the infrastructure is already there. The investments already been made by the city um to

085um hook up and operate the facility. Um the estimated value of the overall project is 33 million and will provide 160 of those affordable units. Uh there are some um anticipated figures relative to property tax revenues um provided by the city. It would generate 300 almost $16,000 in additional property taxes in the first five years. Um and then at the end of their proforma it shows when it comes fully online by the time it does so or over the 30 years it would be 6.8 million. The school district's component of that is estimated to be about 119,000 in those first five years and then over the 30 would be 2.6 million. Um they're going to we have a couple of guests here I just want to make sure I introduce here although there are I

086think folks present who um could talk to this. It's primarily the developer Curtis Rean I think is going to take the opportunity to address the application. But first I'll hand it off to Lisa Rodfold. He's the executive director to Red River Community Housing Development Organization to make a few comments on a couple of those unique programs that I highlighted. >> Okay. Um, good evening. Uh, my name is Lisa Ratvald and I am the executive director of the Red River Community Housing Development Organization. We are a sister organization to the Red River Regional Council based in Grafton. I've been working on affordable housing development um throughout North Dakota, Minnesota, and South Dakota for about 30 years. Um I am assisting um Matt Construction and um Dakota Commercial in packaging financing to get this um much needed

087affordable housing built here in Grand Forks. Um, I had shared a flyer or a handout um, via email with board members um, yesterday. Um, and so I'll be working off of that. Um, and also I guess reiterating some of the things that you've probably already heard. Um, so um, the the need for the project is very strong. Um, right now, uh, 44% of renters in Grand Forks are considered costbururdened, meaning they pay more than 30% of their monthly income toward their housing. Um, the vacancy rates, having looked at various um, sources, consistently are landing between 3 and 4%. um a healthy vacancy rate is between five and 10 and I think Terry Hansen earlier had mentioned seven. It gives room for movement within the market and it also um creates a little bit of competition

088um which is healthy. Um the folks that u are likely to live in this development um are people who earn um 60% of the area median income or less. Um for a four-person household that is $62,640 a year. Uh the median for a family of four is around 68,000. Um so it is just below um median of course you all know half earn more and half earn less. Um and so um it's a big percentage of the local population. um that fall into that income range. Um we had an independent housing market analysis performed when um the funding applications were submitted to the North Dakota Housing Finance Agency in September. Um the market study looked at 80 different properties around town. um and um compared amenities and age and number of units um identified that

089there is a strong market for this project. Um it would require uh a 4.1 um absorption of um eligible tenants. So of of all the eligible people to move in here, if they captured 4.1% of those people, they would fill the project, which is not a huge number. So um the study concludes um that this project would not have a negative impact on existing rental housing in the community. Um, I'm going to talk a little bit about the financing. Um, financing affordable housing is kind of like a Rubik's cube. Um, there's lots of moving parts. Um, there's lots of different people that you have to satisfy. Um, and so it ends up being a bit of a puzzle. Um but it boils down to um you know we have equity and we have debt um

090and we need to we need to make those balance out. Um right now uh you know we're looking at ways we have a financing gap um between the sources of of funding and the cost to build the project. Um and we're looking at various ways to tackle that um funding gap. Um obviously things like reducing the interest rate, extending the term of the loan, um seeking a higher loan to value ratio, um lowering operating expenses are all things that can help us um afford more loan. Um and that is really um where the pilot comes in. Um, if we can reduce operating costs by managing that pilot amount, um, and having it be a known number that's consistent over a period of time, we can, um, we can maximize the loan that we can borrow

091from a local bank in order to get the project financed. Um, touch on just a couple last things. Um the rents are set by um so the tax credit program is a program of the IRS. Um they get federal tax credits. Um investors buy them. We take their investment and invest it into this housing. Um the rents are controlled. They're adjusted annually. They typically go up about 1% per year. Um, our market study tells us that since 2010, the annual increase here in Grand Forks has been around 3.3%. [clears throat] So, that increase would be um, a lot more manageable than um, some of the other properties in town. Um, the operating expenses for a project like this are the same as they would be for any other um, rental housing project in town. [clears

092throat] they, you know, still have to pay utilities and they still have to do maintenance and and lawn and snow removal and all those things. Um, but the revenue side is a little bit more controlled and restricted. Um, a couple other unique um factors, we're in a kind of a high interest rate environment right now. [clears throat] um when we are working with investors um that buy low-income housing tax credits um they want us to lock in uh an interest rate for at least 15 years. Um and so while um a lot of developers would um you know look to refinance and try and capitalize on a hopefully lower interest rate in five or 10 years um this project will have to lock in for 15 um because they just want to know they don't

093want surprises. Um and so um that's another in in this particular case it's not working in our favor but that's just how how those things come together. Um the project is really just good basic rental housing. Um it's you know there's not a lot of amenities. It's really what is needed um by people who are you know workforce entry level workforce is really kind of um who we're targeting with uh these apartments. Um so nothing fancy just a good quality, safe, modern um rental housing uh with hopefully um affordable rents for a lot of folks. um and hopefully keeping some young people here in the community um rather than losing them to um somewhere else where they you know find they can afford the housing. Um other couple things um so the the project will

094be financed in part by um the tax credit equity and in part by the housing incentive fund which is a North Dakota um program. um housing incentive fund does go in as a deferred loan. But as mentioned um if the um revenue uh debt service coverage ratio exceeds 1.3 um then there will be a a prrated payback. Um, so they really control how much the owners and operators can can make on these deals. [clears throat] And there are costs associated with um compliance and and monitoring that the housing finance agency will do and also that the investors will do. I'm happy to take any questions. >> Questions from board members. Not at this time. >> Thank you. >> Okay. [clears throat] Excuse me. Good evening, board chair Burgerer. Um, my name is Curtis Rean. I'm

095a developer at Dakota Commercial along with Lisa and Mark with Matt Construction. Um, I've been the developer on this Brookstone project. Um, just want to go over a couple things. Lisa did a really good job covering some of the basics of a a tax credit project like this and what what goes into that. Um and we've got um Mark Schill in the back as well who can speak a little more to some of the needs that we have or some of the market conditions if you guys have questions regarding that. Um but a couple of things I'm going to cover are some of the direct benefits to the school district as well as how we landed on the ask that we have in front of you tonight. Um first things first, how is this going

096to benefit the school district directly? Um, one of the one of the main things about this project that's maybe been a little understated that I'm pretty excited about is um, while we don't have a lot of amenities, we are going to have a space adjacent to our leasing office that will be for um, service coordinators in the community. This could be nonprofits. It could be um, people from the school district. It could be a lot of different things. It'll be an open space that's available to those entities to come in whether they want to reach some of their clients who live in our building, provide services or resources to the clients in our the tenants in our building. Um that space will be made available to them at no cost. Um it's just one of

097the things that it's included in the tax credit program as a you can do to score more points. Um we didn't need it for our project, but it was something that I felt strongly about and wanted to make sure that we include with this project. Um the [clears throat] the obvious thing that you guys are getting is housing. Housing for families, housing for teachers, um housing for some of the young professionals that we're trying to keep um in Grand Forks who may be school district employees. Um the other big thing is Grand Forks is doing a lot right now. We're growing. We're expanding. There's been a lot of positive momentum and we want to try to keep that going. And in order to keep that going, I think we need more housing to support that.

098Um, and the last thing is um, from the property tax side, you will see I think you brought up the number, Brandon, what what that number is that you'll see right away. Um, I mean, on that lot that's sitting there right now, it's pretty minimal amount that you're making, maybe two grand a year if I had to guess. Um, and I think that jumps up to 16 or 20 with this project as is in year one, um, with the pilot. Um, so now I want to get into how we got to what we're asking for. We're asking for 20 years 90% uh pilot with the caveat like Mr. Bombach mentioned being if this ever goes to non-affordable units or we go to market rate um that that pilot will drop off and we will start

099paying full property tax at that point. Um so how we got to 90%. Um before we put our pilot ask together, before we went to the city, before we came in front of you guys and the county, um what we did, we went after every funding source we could. We got the tax credits. We went to North Dakota North Dakota Housing Finance Agency, got the HIF funds. Um went to BND. We're pretty confident we're going to max out the benefits we can get from them for the flex pay program. Um and what that left us with was still a funding gap that's there. Um that gap is how we landed on 90%. it's what we needed to get to that 1.15 debt coverage ratio that our lenders are going to require that allow us to

100pull the trigger on this project. Um the other the only other thing we did was we have a pretty good structure on the land sale with a with the land owner. Um we worked with him to try and get even just a little bit better so we can get that down a little bit more. Um I don't know if you guys saw in the news last week announced a 260 unit project. It's actually the exact same uh type of project as this. They're utilizing 4% tax credits. Um, and HIF funds from state of North Dakota. It's a developer from, I believe it was Indiana. Um, looking at that and the cost, they were requesting a 100% 20-year pilot. Um, we'll see where that lands in Fargo. Um, but what they had, they were at $345,000

101a unit all-in cost to get that built. We're just under 300,000. So, we're about 18% cheaper. A lot of that comes from decreasing our fees. Um, decreasing the GC fees, decreasing our uh our developer fees to the extent that was allowed by the tax credit investors. Um, essentially we cut out as much as we could to get this project to go. Um, we can't cut any more on our end. Um, the tax credit investors put a stop as to where we could cut anymore. Um, so we've we've maxed that out. Um, that said, you know, we need affordable housing in Grand Forks. This project is ready to go. We're ready to get it going. Um, and I think it could be really good for the community. So, we're asking, like I said, for 90% for

10220 years with the caveat that, um, if we go to market rate apartments that that pilot will discontinue at that point. Um, if you guys have any questions for me, I'm happy to answer them. >> Questions from board members? Mr. Thank you. Um, thanks for being here tonight. Uh, appreciate that. Uh, much of what you said matches what we heard at local government advisory committee. So, it's always good to see things stay consistent from meeting to meeting. So, appreciate that. Uh, couple just status questions. What is the status of, and I'm going to use the acronyms without even pretending to know what they mean. >> Um, HIF and your LIHTC. What's the status of those submit? >> So, LIITC, those are the federal tax credits. We've been awarded those tax credits. Um, the HIF funds

103from the state, we are very confident we're going to get them. Um, we're in a negotiation with them right now. Well, one other thing that's important for you guys to know, um, it's 160 units. We may phase this into two 80unit projects. That's the negotiation we're having with North Dakota Housing Finance right now. um doesn't change the numbers at all, but it will um it it'll obviously change that and make it a couple years um three-year project instead of two year. >> And this probably isn't a question you can answer, but would phasing affect the property tax projected revenue >> slightly? Um I don't know those numbers off the top of my head. It would That's a good question. Brandon, do you happen to know what how that might work? >> Yeah. Um, President Ber,

104President Shepard, members of the board, I would say yes, it would. I mean, those tax incentives only come on at the completion of the project. The status of the construction is assessed each year if it's longer than that year. So, I would just assume based off that information, if this second portion of the project came on a year later, it might just delay that initial startup for the another year. >> Thanks. May I continue or if others need the floor? All right. Thank you. Um, [snorts] there's a statement somewhere in your packet about net income being like over a million dollars. >> Define what that means because that seems like a pretty good net income. >> Sure. >> If that already includes debt coverage, >> property management expenses, all that. >> It is. That would

105be the net operating income. So, that's before debt coverage. >> Thank you. Because I think that's an important consideration here. Um we we keep hearing about you know this will be even with the incentive it'll be more money than the tax collecting entities currently collect but I struggle to find clarity on what the status quo is in these applications. Do you know I heard $2,000, but somewhere in here I saw over five years the net is like $823. Can you provide some clarity on that? >> I'm not sure where the $823 came from. Um you're talking regarding the property um property tax revenue. >> There's a statement about net benefit over five years. >> Sure. That was um Brandon, you had that number, I believe. Yeah, President Burgerer, President Shepard, members of the board. Where

106I'm getting that is some of the analysis here at the end of the packet. It's been um provided by the city uh and the the um city finance director put this together and did the analysis. I would draw your attention to the last of the sheets that has a little bit of yellow highlighting. And this is where it breaks down just how this works. And in the very first row, you'll see that the land value is there. And that land value will always be taxed. these incentives never never go to work on the land. So that'd be I'd consider that your baseline and here it articulates that your school district receives a minimal amount there. Um and then after completion of the project is where that jumps up and it shows that land valuation increases

107greatly, the improvement of the project increases greatly and then comes to a school share of the tax with the application of the pilot of $23,369,000 a year. Does that articulate the >> That would be revenue, >> but that would be revenue after the improvement. >> Correct. That would be revenue after the improvement and after the application of the pilot. >> Correct. What what I'm curious about is what is it collecting now today? >> Oh, >> and if that were the status quo in the future, what is that value? The way I read exactly this here is the true and full of the property is is $10,000 and they assess against that and so that's where that portion is the school district is $62 a year. >> That's that's what I wanted to just make sure

108we all understood. >> Thank you. >> Uh I think that gets through it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Other questions from board members? Miss Flynn? Curtis, can you talk about the ownership structure? Um, like how much do would Mac and you own? What does that look like? Who has ownership rights? >> Sure. Um, [clears throat] so these tax credit deals are very unique. Um, Lisa alluded to it a little bit how we we've been awarded the tax credits from the federal government. We will take those and sell them to an investor. Um, that investor, it'll be US Bank. It'll be one of the larger larger banks in the country. um will come in, they'll own the majority of the project, 99.9%. Um we maintain responsibility um as the general partner um with with minimal ownership.

109Um cash flow gets split a lot of different ways. There's really not a lot in these projects. Um where the cash flow goes is to our deferred developer fee. We end up um most of our fee ends up being deferred and then paid out over the life of the project. Um so does that answer your question? Sorry, I know it's a little there's more to it, but that's kind of the broad overview. >> Miss Flynn, do you have others questions? Other questions from board members? Mr. Lar uh excuse me. Yes, Mr. Larson. The the stage we're at here, um looking through this this tax break, is there a conversation? I mean, what we're being asked for today is to take essentially 10% of what otherwise would come from a a normal project. Um, I see

110obviously benefits to the city, obvious benefits to the county for a project like this. Is there any negotiation to where the school district is taking more than 10% and the city and county are taking less? I don't know who to ask that question of, but it feels to me like the kids are still going to be in the district. The kids are still going to need teachers and facilities. We're already going through a big retreat process of making cuts or changes or finding ways to do money different. Um, but is there a way to say you pay, man, these numbers are tiny, 62,000 a year in taxes, which represents that's on the sheet here, 10% of the obligation. the school gets 23,000 of that if we shift shift some of the dollars from the city

111and the county to the school and we get more money so that our kids are still getting what they deserve. Is there that kind of negotiation in in this process? >> I'm not sure where that conversation starts. Um what what I will say is that like I said we went out and pursued all the funding we could before coming up with this ask. Um, if we did that and it came back at 70%, we would have asked for 70. Um, you can believe me if you want, but that's that's the truth. If we don't get 90, wherever that comes from, um, this project doesn't happen. We will not move forward with it. President Burgerer, President Shepard, it's it's a little bit of speculation here. I just wanted to comment on that. I haven't seen that

112come forward in this way. is a a payment in lie of taxes which is a set dollar amount that's set to be negotiated and usually it's equal across all taxing partners. I don't I don't I don't know if legally there's an authority to decipher between each entity. If of course the request exceeds five years in term then it goes to county and school district to weigh in whether or not they will participate. But I honestly haven't seen or or really considered the question of does each unit then have the ability to negotiate their terms individually. >> Mr. Anything else before I move on? >> You know, I I mean I believe you Curtis on the 9010. I do. Um it's it's one of those things where when we're going to extreme lengths of either finding

113more dollars or cuts, there are very few ways to find more dollars other than development. And so then to say we're going to have development but not reap the benefits of the development. um and then potentially having to go back to ask for a referendum for more dollars next year or the following year or the following year. It's just those kinds of things of we don't have opportunities to get more tax benefits other than these kinds of projects. So to start a project out and say never mind that just it feels a little shortsighted to me. I get it from a city and a county standpoint, less so from a school standpoint, which is the reason we're all sitting around this big table. Um, so I just I struggle with it a little bit. I

114I get it. I like the ideas. I like the entrepreneurial nature of it all. I want to say yes. I just struggle with that. It's just my thoughts. >> Miss Flynn. >> Um, Curtis, I uh know you through our real estate connection. So, um I probably have a little bit more insight into who you are, but um you know, I think part of the struggle for me and maybe some other board members is we've heard the we can't do the project unless we get this amount before. Um, so can you specifically talk about your experience with um working on low to moderate income housing projects and maybe some of the background or the initiatives that you're a part of that are important to this project? >> Yeah. Um, thank you. Good question. Um, one one

115of the big things I I've been working on this. I sat on a panel for um the housing need that we have for the um North Dakota economic developer or no, yeah, economic developer. Keith was there um conference in Fargo earlier earlier this spring. Um that's where I met Lisa. We sat on that panel um and and talked through a few of these issues um and how to get there. It's really how I got introduced into the affordable housing world um and understanding how these developments come together. Um, from there we started working on Brookstone. We brought Lisa on as a partner, um, who's been a tremendous resource and taught me a lot along the way. Um, and then since then, the governor recently asked me to sit on, um, the council for homelessness that

116he announced a couple weeks ago. Um, my goal with that, I'm not going to act like I'm an expert in homelessness, um, or that I know how we're going to get people off the street and into housing units. Um, my goal there is to be an advocate for the next step. people, you know, figure out a way to solve the homelessness. I'll figure out a way to get them into their next step into their stabilized home um once they're off the streets um and they have the the services and resources they need. Um as a part of that I and digging into this program um I think there are some opportunities to change the ways that these programs work. um that's obviously a lot smarter people doing a lot bigger things than I am um

117who make those decisions, but I think there's even some decisions at the state level um as to how they direct their funds um that may be we may be able to address there. I don't know if that answers your question, but that's some of my background, some of how I got here and how I have a little more of an understanding of this project um and what's really needed to get these these across the finish line. >> Other questions, Miss Flynn? Mr. Cleven, I think I saw your hand at one point. Oh, Dr. Lun. >> Well, it's more for Brandon, but but I think it's probably gerine to this. Brandon, I'm trying to understand one of these graphs with with the sheets and stuff. So, am I correct in saying right now this this the

118school district collects $62 a year on this land that's owned out there? >> President Burger, President Shepard, Board Member L, uh you are correct. >> Okay. And and even if it doubles, that's $124 a year. Or if it triples, that's $186 a year. >> If nothing gets developed on this land roughly, am I correct on that? >> It's actually a good question because of local property tax caps. If there's existing base, you can't >> I didn't even I I didn't even check the 3%. But granted, it's going to be a very small amount of dollars. And then I'm reading this right. And then if this project goes through, then the first year the school district is supposed to estimate get in about 23,300 and then it slowly goes up to $28,000 over over those first

11920 years while the while the the cap is in. Am I correct reading that? >> You're reading the estimates correctly. And and if just so just throw rough estimates in there, um when you look at that, that would be if if there's no project, we're collecting less than $200 a year. If the project goes through uh and as the as the way it's proposed before even the big money kicks in, that's over $500,000 because it's 23 23 24. Am I correct in my thinking that correct? >> Okay. I just wanted to to to make sure my understanding is right. Thank you. >> Other questions, Mr. Cleven? >> Just a general statement and nobody here in this room can do anything about it. I would love to own land for speculation and pay $62 a year

120on property tax, our share. Something's flawed in the tax code. That's my That's a Jay Cleven observation. Uh but I in all seriousness no seriousness seriousness however I do think that point should be taken like we should look at that property tax policy and and ask ourselves as a community does that make any sense. Um maybe that's just a a personal observation. It's certainly not something that I'll use to evaluate this particular request. >> Thank you. Other questions from board members? I have a couple of thoughts and a couple of reminders. Uh and then we'll see which uh what action the board wishes to take. Um you know, I'm I'm not um compelled to say um you know, the over the past x number of years, we've done this number of projects, it's this amount

121of money. We're looking at this project tonight on its own merits, not looking backwards, not looking forward. Uh a reminder that at a subsequent board meeting, we will be talking more broadly about how we want these proposals to come forward, what a rubric might look like, how we might evaluate them uh as a board, setting some policy or good governance around, you know, this is what we'll be looking for. So that's that's another conversation uh for tonight in front of the board. Um we have one project uh it's it's unique. Um in my personal opinion it's creative fills a need. Um there's uh there's monitoring. Uh the profit is controlled. Um there are guard rails. Uh I I'm not evaluating this um against any other project that we might be seeing. Um and I would

122invite the board to do the same, remembering that we're uh we're going to be looking again uh in December at at how we want this process to um to unfold moving forward. And so, uh, what we have in front of us as a recommendation for action, uh, as we consider this pilot request, um, so, uh, not having any idea, uh, what the board's appetite is for this, uh, I would seek a motion, uh, to either, u accept or reject the pilot request for a 90% property tax exemption. And before we hear a motion from a board member, Mr. Bombach, >> President Ber, sorry to interrupt. Um, Mayor Bachensky is here in the audience and I think maybe he had a comment towards that last question there. >> If it's if you if you'll entertain a

123comment from Mayor Pensky. >> Oh, come on. >> Well, I think I could speak to if you don't mind. Uh, Chairman Burgerer, Chairwoman Shepard, and all the uh the base, Colonel Whitmore, also nice to see you. I know uh all the people here from the base uh school district, thank you for sitting through this. Really appreciate that. Um, I did want to make a few few comments. Um, Mr. Cleven, welcome to how the state values eggland. So, we have to deal with that. That's $62. Obviously, we're a very rural state and uh we like our farming and our ranching. That's why it's $62. I wouldn't expect that to uh change anytime soon. Uh, Mr. Palmstino, I did want to touch on a point that you had earlier and I know you're going to speak about

124this. I don't want a project that's that has so many positives like this to to to have a misstep on process. So, I think we need to change how we do the process when it comes to incentives. I think the legac and the process we're doing just really isn't working. I'd like to get all of our boards, you know, seeing the the school board from the the base here and your school board in a joint meeting. I'd like to have joint meetings going forward where the city, the county, and the school board get together. We find out about a project first. We can ask questions and then a month or two months later, we can get those answers, come back together, then everyone's together. I just think it'd be a much better way to build

125partnerships and then people if they are opposing it or for it, they only have to go to one meeting rather than three or four and they can spend time running their businesses. I think it's just a benefit for everyone. So, I would like you guys to consider that going forward. And one more comment uh to Mr. Larson. I think he makes a great point. I think it's one that really needs to be uh well thought out for the county and city. Um the math equation is a lot less. We've got fixed costs. If we bring in, you know, a project, we don't have any more expense. So, it's all new revenue. It's a more complicated equation for the school district. You have the per pupil income to think about, but that can certainly get eaten

126up if you have more cost for educating the kids. So, in a perfect world, these types of projects would come where a school has some capacity. The room size or the class sizes are small. So, maybe you had a little capacity there, then your expenses aren't as high and it's it's largely all revenue. That's not always the perfect situation isn't always going to happen. We know how hard it is to get things um to come to town at times. So, I think having growth and having housing can lead to more development and more projects that are going to pay more property tax, which can help out the the school board. But broader picture, I'm here because I'm really excited about the community. I'm really excited of the direction we're going, seeing um the CTE center,

127the CIA center. Um I mean, you guys took a risk on that. You absolutely knocked it out of the park. Valley is going to be opening up soon. You drive down UND, um their enrollment is only going to grow. Um we're growing manufacturing in the egg side. The base is growing. We're seeing uh our senators are working hard for a new mission. You got SDA. You've got high high frequency communications. You got the CBP. There's a lot going on at the base. There's a lot going on at Grand Sky. We're only going to see more people coming to Grand Forks. And we can't have two years like we've just had where there's been zero permits. I take we did just have a permit coming for 32. Um that's going to help, but we trend um

128the previous uh last 10 years we have about 145 permits a year. the previous 10 to that we had 300 permits a year. Um so having zero for two years is scary not just for today but knowing the growth that's going to come. Um these things take a year and a half or two years to build. I don't blame anyone. If you are currently own units in town, you have a great opportunity to squeeze people and force them to stay because they got nowhere else to go and you can jack the rents up. I certainly get that. I don't think that's the kind of community that we're going to be able to grow um with what we've got coming. So, those are my few points and um just appreciate the time tonight and uh we'll

129sit back and and get to see uh see the debate. So, thank you very much and and if you do have any further questions certainly um you can ask them now or I can get back up here. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Yes, Mr. Cleven. >> There's a motion on the floor from Mr. Cleven to accept the pilot request for 90% property tax exemption for 20 years. Is there a second? There's a second by Mr. Palmino. Uh discussion from board members. Yes, Dr. L. I I'll start it off. Um I I appreciate everybody's thoughts and comments. I I you know, and I have a tendency, you know, talking about both out of both sides of your mouth. I I agree with with both sides. I understand where where Joel is coming

130from with that. I I I look back I keep looking back at if we don't do anything, we'll collect 62 bucks a year and we can pay for somebody's coffee for a month or something like that. The you got to look at progress. I think this this project is different than some of the other projects because because of the low to moderate income. Uh um so I'm I'm in support of it. I'll tell you though, if we don't change the process, I'm a strong no for all the future ones because this process has not worked and and so I appreciate Mayor Bachensky and and and Bill talking about it because we do have to change how the how this is done so that it isn't a rushed come in here, here's 4,000 pages worth of

131information that most of us don't understand and then make a decision. So, so I'm I'm certainly in support of this now and I look forward to developing a better improved process in the future. >> Thank you. Other board members, other discussion? Miss Flynn? >> I have a couple things. Um so one of the things that we talked about at the finance committee was uh we sort of tossed around as a way to uh maybe develop our own process was sort of a rubric and we didn't really identify you know there was no final decisions but I've kind of created my own litmus test or rubric that I run these through because I don't think that um all of these are just a blanket yes or no. While I certainly think that um the financial piece

132is important, um you know, I've I've looked at all of these as one project as it comes. And so my litmus test is number one, what is the benefit to Grand Forks Public Schools? Number two, is there a need for this type of project in Grand Forks or the greater Grand Forks area? Number three, can it happen without the proposed tax incentive? Number four, what's the financial health of Grand Forks Public Schools? Number five, what are the negative impacts of this project? And number six, what is the process? So, number one, what is the benefit for Grand Forks Public Schools? Um certainly to have families uh who who could have some stability in housing um is important. Um, [clears throat] similar to um, our speaker who talked about real estate, um, I too, uh, hear

133from families that, um, there's a lack of of housing options in our community. A couple things to point out. Um I uh work part-time as an advocate for CVIC and we are frequently um I'm on the crisis line which means that I am responsible at times for uh sheltering individuals who are fleeing a crisis situation. We are getting to the point where our shelter becomes more at capacity and when uh we are trying to help individuals move out and get their own place. we're waiting on the housing authority process and so um part of that wait is also related to availability of housing and so it was nice to hear um the perspective of Mr. Hansen um and Lisa related to uh you know the region and what we're facing. Um, also because uh we

134have our base friends here, I think it's important to talk about um BAH and um base aotment for housing. So for those of you that don't know, the military issues um housing aotments for their personnel and those dollars are based on average rental rates in the area. Um my dad worked at the base housing office for um 20 years as a civilian and so I'm very familiar with this. Um the base housing aotments in uh for uh someone up to an E5 level um are capped at 1580 81 without dependence um they're capped at 1191. So that means that someone looking for an apartment in Grand Forks who's been in the military what three to five years um is is allotted only $1,191 for their housing. Often times people will try to purchase a house

135and realize there's a gap there and so um it becomes difficult to purchase a house because these numbers are also on rental rates. um th those figures that I just listed off decreased.5% from last year and the BH rates in our town are ranked 50th in the nation. So our military friends who are trying to come here are really lacking in finding housing that fits the a lotment that they're given. Number two, is there a need in Grand Forks? I believe anecdotally, yes, there is. I think from the study um and what we've heard there is um but I also found that the concept that um Curtis had mentioned with this what I'm going to term as a resource center on site is unlike anything other than what I've heard before. I think having a

136a site and because he's said it publicly, I'm going to hold him to it when the project gets built. Um, but having a site where individuals can come and meet within with within the housing area where there's not travel required, anything like that. I think um my friend Miss Berg in the audience who's a city council woman um and is a social worker by trade could speak to um the benefits of having something like that. Can it happen without the tiff? Curtis said no. Um, I think that's another thing as I get to the process piece that uh this board has struggled with and I've I personally have lost trust in that specific piece of the process. I think you know one of the questions I asked on the previous one with Northridge was to

137Baker Tilly. It's not that I don't distrust their assessment. I distrust the process of what the inputs are that they receive because any person can input their way to make something look good in their favor in my opinion. And so, um, when I look at this project from a real estate perspective, uh, does it feel a little bit like yes, maybe there's some stacking of of tax resources, but it's complicated. The school district has talked about some tax incentive things before and that has been complicated in how we sell things and how people invest things. Number four, the financial health of Grand Forks Public Schools. This is no secret. I think this is a big piece for me in deciding uh why it's not easy to just blanketly approve all of these. It causes pause

138for me. Um, Eric Lun says quite often, uh, Dr. Lun, uh, that if we don't do it, then we're we're gonna get nothing. I [snorts] I disagree with him somewhat on that. Um, because I'm certainly willing to call the bluff on some of the projects. Um, I've shared my concerns privately with uh, Mr. mayor about, you know, sometimes when it does get to us, it feels like the decisions already been made without any sort of negotiation. The last one we just uh didn't move forward. It went back and it got redone and somehow the numbers worked. Um I [snorts] will I will vouch though for um uh Curtis in this project and um I know Mark as well. Um I I think they're really great people and uh their experience and the initiatives that they're

139trying to build in Grand Forks um are more about the community rather than feeding their own pockets. Um negative impacts uh you know certainly we've talked about potential negative impacts could be overloading Discovery. Um it's in the Discovery School District. We can't predict how many families are in there. Um I do feel confident however um that by 2028 2029 when these buildings come online that as part of our process we could figure out the boundaries as we've already started that process. And lastly number six the process. Um, I appreciate uh the mayor uh bringing a solution rather than continuing to um uh you know kind of not by his doing, but we kind of have just it it's kind of felt like these tiffs become like a horse and pony show, right? Like they just

140go to the different tax incentives and then we're in a financial crisis. It's like, well, you know, um, in the past, uh, the developers, some of them have not come to our meetings. In the past, we felt like we had to rubber stamp the project cuz there was no time to decide yes or no. In the past, um, we haven't really had a process for the legac members to come back and share their feedback. In the past, we haven't really got a lot of information. Um the fact that we've had multiple people reach out um to educate board members if they were willing to listen. The fact that um Curtis is here, Mark, um Lisa is are here um to me speaks volumes that they were willing to show up and answer questions and speak

141to their project and expertise. Um, couple other things I'll say before I get off my filibuster here is um, uh, this project will have limited amenities. Um, other projects before us have not. Um, I believe that the guards for control both federally and at the state level are more important than some of the other projects. Um this I've also heard from people that um if we approve these then the public is basically picking up the check that the taxpayers are the ones subsidizing um subsidizing the tax incentive. I [snorts] disagree with that. Um it's my opinion that um part of the reason why property taxes are higher in our town is because we have uh we lack commercial developments for more property taxes to subsidize the backs of residential property tax. You think of it

142like Fargo, right? Fargo has a large commercial tax base. Um and maybe 20 years ago if we had some more commercial developments, we would have reaped the benefits. um of today, daycare costs are going up, which obviously impacts housing costs as well. I was a pretty hard no when this project came um across our way because I didn't understand it. I was frustrated about the process and I was um uncertain that uh there were some truths that weren't tweaked. I feel like I've done enough research and I've had conversations um as well as listened to um the information and and read the tax incentive that I'm comfortable with um supporting this project. Um again with that litmus test with uh the mayor saying that we're going to do better in the process. uh a yes

143vote for me doesn't mean that it's a blanket yes for all tiffs. Like I said, each one of these comes um to me as a single project. Um but I do believe that this one is the closest to being how it should be done the right way. Um, I think again to Jay's comment and to the mayor um comment about uh the state, part of the problem that I think the public struggles with is um when someone buys a piece of land in 2011 for $8 million and assumes the balance of specials and they pay $62 in taxes. That's a problem and I don't know what we can do to fix that. Um I've never seen crops on that land. Uh it's always been dirt um in the city limits. Um and I think maybe

144that's something we we can advocate for regardless. Um I think this project is well done. Um I trust that it won't happen without the tax incentives and I'm happy to support it. Thank you. Other board members, Mr. Palomino. >> Yeah, I won't be quite as long, but I I support this because it is low and moderate housing and I think we see that every report we get from schools and we have 50% of our kids in Grand Forks living and getting receiving uh free and reduced lunches that there is a problem in this community of poverty. So, I think adding more low and moderate housing to the collection that's there is a good move by us. That's why I would support it. >> Thank you. Other board members. >> Yes, Dr. L. >> Just one

145one quick question for Brandon and or whoever knows and I I don't think this should factor in how we decide. I'll support it no matter what. But if we support this, we have two entities supporting it and one not supporting it. What where do we go after that? >> Yeah, President Burgerer, President Shepard. Um it's the understanding in the law that the it could be exactly just those two parts. Just those two taxing entities could participate in a tax exemption. Um there was also I don't recall if the county said that they were open to renegotiating or negotiating and having that conversation again. So there could be I assume a reapproach to that. Um because it sounded like the project needs all participants to really go forward. Other board members. Yes, Mr. Larson. >> I'm

146interested in the opinion of our business manager as to whether this makes sense for us to do it or not. President Burgerer, President Shepard, you are the elected officials. I I think [laughter] I would weigh in and I would say it comes to me it comes down to um there's so much uniqueness about this project. I would I would say that and I I shared some of that opinion upfront. To Amber's point about working closely with the team, I think that there has been a a good effort by a developer and beyond to have met early. I think the city's done a good job too with the local government advisory committee, not just the one that brought up this topic in this application, but once prior gave preview to projects coming. They're doing what they

147can to communicate. And I was happy to hear the mayor say too that there's even further efforts to to better communicate early often to the point of the tax incentives. It's a big question too of what you think will happen with that land in this particular case over by furniture row. And there's a question if you think that this project not completed another one will come along next year and get it done without the tax incentives. Well then we'd be better off to not participate. But I think by looking at the track record in this particular case, I wouldn't bet my money that a different development comes along. And I'm looking at the estimates just as though you have processed those. And I'd much rather have the $24,000 next year than the 60 or so

148that we could anticipate. Now, >> thank you. >> Other questions from board members? One final time. Other questions from board members? Motion on the floor is to approve the pilot request for a 90% property tax exemption for 20 years on the project we have in front of us in the packet tonight known as the Brookstone Project. We'll take a roll call vote. >> Larson. Yes. >> Pomicino. >> Yes. >> Cleven. >> Yes. >> Lun. >> Yes. >> Manley. >> No. >> Anderson. >> Yes. >> Hodak. >> No. >> Flynn. >> Yes. >> Burger. >> Yes. >> Seven. Yes. Two. No. Zero. Absent. >> Motion passes. Thank you for your presence tonight. I thank board members for that robust, lengthy, and thoughtful discussion. That concludes the recommendations for action this evening. Uh we'll move on to

1497A announcements. Uh Air Force Base Board President Shepard and I thought we could share this announcement time rather than having two separate pieces. So are there any announcements for the good of the whole? Dr. Brener, >> board member Paul Msino asked at a previous board meeting about getting an update on the new Valley Middle School move and when that would happen. Um, and we will have that in front of you on December 8th. Uh, what I can share with you today is Friday, December 19th and Monday, January 5th. Those would be considered two remote learning days for students at uh, Valley Middle School. And that's going to give us some time uh, to make the move and to unpack. So, those are concrete things I can share. Um, but as far as open house, decommissioning

150valley, uh, those those details are are forthcoming. So, that'll be coming up on our December 8th meeting. And other than that, uh, I've been in weather meetings since 4:00 this afternoon. Um, and I'm sure my son's, uh, cell phone is just blowing up wondering what dad's going to do. Um, and it looks like it will be business as usual tomorrow. We're going to have another phone call tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. which includes the Grand Forks Air Force Base, UND, and community partners. Thank you. Other announcements. We thought we'd also share 7B, a board request for future consideration from any board members of either board. Dr. Lon, >> I'm not sure they believed when you commented about that we would be willing to help with the move, but I think some of us are very

151serious that we would be willing to help with the move if need. So, I just want to make sure that you're aware of that, Dr. Burnham. >> Thank you. Are there are there other board requests for future consideration? 7 C on the city board agenda is schoolboard meeting norms. Mr. Manley, how did we do? >> We did very well. Thank you. >> And these actions we have to take separately. So, President Shepard, >> we'll go ahead and adjourn at 8:11 for the base board. City board is adjourned.