001Go ahead and call the June 23rd, 2025 school board meeting to order. We will begin with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call, please. here. Mr. Brad Olsen, Mr. Bon Sharp present. Mr. Dwayne here, Dr. Gail Bortnham here. Mr. Kevin Burkard here. Mr. Mark here. All right. I think we have a familiar face out there, but we have some good news items. Correct. We do have some good news. The national debaters are back. Coach K is here with a very special guest. Yes. Uh, good thing is I am not blonde this year, so that was not the hat. um for that. We also didn't have
002a lot of time after after awards ceremony for to dye hair. But uh we got back to nationals on s Sunday I believe it was or sat Saturday uh we got back on Saturday and we brought home a fourth place on the George took fourth place in uh expository out of 600 and some entries uh which is super awesome. Um but we also had a lot of success on on inexpository. We put three kids into out rounds which is huge. Um, Deca Sullean, she took uh 28th in the nation. Uh, she was next out to or no, two two ranks out to go on to the next round of semi-finals. Um, at one point in time, she was winning the tournament for two rounds, which was awesome to see. Um, and Brandon Wrestling, who is
003a freshman, was in the top six uh I think he placed 38th overall um as a freshman in in expository. So, this has been seen to be the event that we do very very well at at nationals. Um, in 2012, uh, Hannah Brennan took sixth in it. Jacob Wulmarmac won it. Um, he was a semi-finalist as well. Lexi Door in 2012 was a semi-finalist. Uh, and Jordan Phillips took fourth back in the COVID years uh, for it. So, having another fourth place one with a beautiful trophy uh, is great to see. And it was really awesome. Um, also is that Mitchell Goals took made round sixth in extemp debate as a freshman. So, he was top 211 out of like 1,100 people that were entered into that event. Uh, so we did really, really well
004on that. Uh, especially after the very rough first two days of the tournament. We didn't do too hot the first two days. Um, we were really good at getting next out. Uh, I'm George was literally 62nd. They take the top 60 into final rounds of next rounds of inform. Um, my Heman was 10 I think it was 106 and they took 104 to the next round of impromptu. and it's just like ah so close. So we we did really well um when it came down to it. But I'll let Amma tell you all about her wonderful speech that she did and all the stepping back. Uh yeah, so like Cond said, um the event that I went for was inform, but I didn't get into outruns like he said, but my expository was on tipping
005culture and I talked about the history of tipping culture and the societal issues that we're facing today and how it has expanded. um into our world and I got fourth question. You're not used to this question, are you? Any questions? Yeah. Do you do you change from round to round when you get to a round and you move on? Do you make any adjustment or do you feel that's good enough to go or you know like somebody like a coach does he help make any adjustments to what you present? That would be like done before um we performed. So like the night before he told me to make some changes and like um when I was practicing like the day before like he told me to speak louder and like go take pauses and that's
006what I did. Did we cut a bunch too? Yeah, we did have to cut. Yeah, we cut a bunch. for like uh you are at the time limit was 5:30 and she was hitting like 540 with a flub and I'm like we cannot push this. Is there a big is there a big penalty for going over? Can't be ranked first. Oh gosh. [Laughter] Here is here as well. Deca placed 20 I think it was 286th or around there and he had an awesome expository as well and tune represented in extra what nationals was like and what your performance was like. Here you go. Oh okay. Um it was fun. Um, I got to learn a lot about like speaking wise and like how to speak in like more than like just people I see like
007every weekend. Um, I think I grew as a person and I really like my expository. So I think that's all it is. You want to know what about smut? smut. [Laughter] Explain a little bit more. I know it kind of talked about like how as like as a society we just think smut is just like kind of explicit explicit scenes and kind of like bad, but it's more telling us like how we should experience love and how we should um experience our desires as human beings. And it doesn't have to all be like um bad. It can be like a amazing experience. And I gave examples of like books that showed us those experiences. Um one of them was um beneath the skin by Laura Wright and how the main character went through trauma but
008she also exper um experienced desire and how she discovered romance. And another one was the Kama Sutra in Indian um it's an Indian ancient um story and how it talked about like um explicit sistines but also talked about personal growth and exploring your desires as a person. So it doesn't always have to be like bad. It can be like a good experience to people to read those kind of kind of books to experience more about yourself because you don't know what like you don't know what you might like as a person I guess. Sorry. It's good. Yeah. What we found with expository is it's usually those topics that people know about but don't know about. So like tipping culture, where does it come from, how it was, or like smud that seems to be in
009the news, like it's the new popular thing, especially with the Queen Hooper book that just came out. Um, so when you're able to explain it in a different way without details or anything like that, it really hits the audience members differently. And if you think about it, if your judges are mostly female and they're mostly college age students who are a little bit older, they're reading that genre um for it. So it's like boom, we'll hit right to the judges and away you go. Do you help pick the topics or do they pick the topics and run it by you? They run the topics by me and they go, "What do you think of this?" I'm like, "Ah, that's a good topic." Or they correct the new topics came out today. Yes, the the the
010new debate topics came out today. We had one two days off and then they send them out. So, we're either going to be debate for national qualifier, we're either going to be debating about for public forum, I believe we'll most likely be debating Washington DC versus Heler, which is the handgun uh Supreme Court decision that came out whether or not like everyone gets a gun and you can't regulate it. um mostly is probably the one we're going to get or I know in the early part of the year it's most likely either going to be oh I just read the two too um oh no I can't remember I remember reading them and going oh those aren't good oh elections of judicial officers should be uh does more harm than good so we shouldn't reelect
011judicial officers so like judges or the other option is the United States should regulate sports betting which could be really interesting topic and then I know LD is going to be a debate about whether or not we should people should be allowed to have nuclear weapons or states should be allowed to have nuclear weapons probably winning again but like we've debated Debbie Soul back in 1965 debated nuclear weapons and by God we're going to debate nuclear weapons in 206 so seems like they they don't go away. Yeah. Wow. Another student that wants to talk about you want to talk or you can talk. Okay. So I did Congress and going there was a good experience cuz I got to learn a lot and meet new people and the other people who were there were honestly
012they were on another level. Their speaking skills were really good and because of that I learned a lot how to speak better and have a better audience and like engaged with them. So I've learned a lot from Congress and then for extent debate I learned a way to like be more creative with like how to think and work around like other topics. For example, we debated about like um something about like wait, I can't remember, but it was just something weird and I had to like use different words to maneuver around it and it helped me learn and grow as a speaker and representing my voice. So, I think nationals is a great experience as a whole. So, yeah. Any questions? The crowds grow as you go up as far as who watches you. Yes.
013This year for Senate, which I was in, um if you broke into finals, you would go to the capital and then there's like you would be like broadcasted to national TV. But the first chamber I was in there, I believe there's like 30 people in there, including spectators and like judges and other people who wanted to come watch the chamber. So yeah, I think it would keep going bigger as you break into rounds. So yeah. Okay. I'm not sure what else there is to say about this program in in our community there. It's you come in each year and are more impressive than the year prior. And your legacy I I hear is is growing on as uh I was talking to Brianna Wulman today and one of the debaters that she coached with runner
014up y is my understanding. And so so and she was very proud of that. And uh she even kind of alluded to I I felt like kind of you know and I don't know if that was a compliment or not but uh and Olivia Johnson one of our sheie coaches for Jefferson they had a top 30 kid and a top 60 kid as well in their main events. I'm just like but it's good to see those kids that continue on and and keep building up other students across the nation as well. So what's about tune was I found him he he used to debate back in the day as a little freshman. Um and then he got injured in wrestling and I was like hey you don't need physical body to debate and then he
015came back and national like a nice trade. I think they covered it on like ABC or something this morning. CBS CBS and he had been a debater. Yes. And I thought it was wonderful coverage just to say this is going on and how wonderful it is to help students develop these skills. And I thought sure they were going to call your name though as the coach of the year or something last year. Oh, that was last year. Oh, gee, we missed it. He did. He he got to he called my name and got to do that. Yep. Uh I got uh I was sitting in protest land. So I was one of three people in protest land. I was like the youngest one there. Um the two ladies that were with me, they're like, "Oh
016yeah, we have Josh Gad's number on speed dial. We talk to him like once a month." I was like, "What?" And they're like, "Oh yeah, Josh Gad and I are good friends." Like, "Hey, uh signature. Can I please have him?" That was pretty sweet. Well, I was looking for you in the audience to see, you know, see where everybody was. Way we were in the way back. Okay. At least you were there. We were there. Yep. Cool. Well, we're very proud of all Is everyone coming back next year? Oh, yeah. We only took We took 12 kids and only two were three were seniors. 12 kids, only three seniors. So, there we go. Richmond, Virginia is next and then we go to Phoenix, Arizona. But Richmond, Virginia. So, we are not driving to that one.
017Marked on live recording. So, live recording. Well, congratulations once again and we'll see you next year. All right, we have the agenda for tonight. I'd ask for approval for the agenda. I'll approve by all. I'll second. Second by Portum. All those in favor of tonight's agenda signify by saying I. I. Same sign. Persons wishing to address the board. remarks. Come on in and have a seat if you look familiar. There's Cara. No board remarks for the evening. Uh we had a consent agenda in front of us as well. Does anybody wish to have anything pulled off before approval? Seeing none, I'd ask for a motion for the consent agenda. By Sharp, second by Murphy. All those in favor of tonight's consent agenda signify by saying I. Same sign. Reports of the superintendent, Dr. Guffin. Thank
018you. The first item on the agenda is an annual um budget discussion that we have. We have some um transfers that we need to do and then a supplemental budget that Michaela will explain tonight. Yes. So, first we'll start with the inner fund transfers. The transfer from Capital LA to general fund was already budgeted. That's $800,000. So, now we just have to approve the actual transfer of those funds. And then the $528,000 transfer from bond redemption to general fund. That's just the remaining net assets in that fund after our last step payment from the CHS bond issue. There's no more activity in that fund other than some delinquent tax revenue collections which I'll now receive fund. Moving on to the contingency transfer starting um we budgeted $200,000. We just need to transfer 105,000 increase for
019nurse sub nurse services was due to substitutes here in upkeep of buildings. increase was mostly due to the increase in our property liability insurance premium. There's also a need to supplement the general capital outlay and sped funds. For financial statement purposes, we must move trust and agency activity into the general fund. So, we must supplement the middle school function by 50,000 and the high school function by 640,000. Miscellaneous revenue offsets this. So, there's no net effect here. Other than that, for general fund, we just had to supplement some title one and two related functions where the offset is just title one and two grant revenue. For capital outlay, I'm projecting us to have a surplus. So, we just have to move some budget amounts between functions for the $945,000 increase to technology. This is due
020to us purchasing iPads this year, which wasn't budgeted until July 2026. The reason we got them early is because we if we didn't cycle out the devices, we would have had to do a management system setup twice. So once with the old devices, once with the new ones, and we were running out of space on the old devices to even update, and it was also needed to um since we had a large unencumbered balance for buildings, we were able to offset that increase with those funds. food service. We purchased a truck early. So that was in next year's budget special ed funds. So instead of payments to DHS being coded to autism, they should have been coded to residential. Um we also had some more out of district placements than I had budgeted. It cost
021229,000 per student to attend LifeScape per year. So just an increase of one student is significant. I decreased some other functions that were way below budget. So severe and early childhood due to that was due to salaries and benefits for positions that remained vacant. Occupational therapy that increase was due to us hiring an OT midy year. transportation. That increase was according to foreman. It was realized at the beginning of this year that alpine school for the blind and visually impaired and work pro program were their own routes. So we just started getting charged for those this year. So I'll have to increase the budget for next year. Um I am also inquiring on some efficiencies to see if we can get the cost down some next year. Okay. Having any questions? I ask for approval
022of the inter fund contingency transfers and supplemental budget and these will be two separate motions. Correct. The inter fund before prior to the separately the transfer. Mr. President, I'd like to uh move that we transfer 800,000 from capital outlay general fund and the 528 316 94 cents from the bond redemption fund to general fund. Okay, we got a motion on the floor. Second. Second by Mr. Alm. Further discussion related to the 2025 interfund for layman's terms at 528 uh as the bond has been u paid off and that's the remaining balance of correct the school is paid for. Correct is the way it boils out to remaining excess funds in the in the fund. Y that's good. All right. Any further discussion to be had? All those in favor of the 2025 interfund transfer signify
023by saying I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Next would be the contingency transfer and supplemental budget. Mr. President, yes. I would uh move that we transfer $105,000 from contingency into the budget within the g general fund and adopt the supplemental budget. Motion on the floor and second by Dr. Borton. Any further uh discussions related to the contingency transfer andor the supplemental budget. See none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I oppose. Same sign. Thank you. Okay. The next items on the agenda are second readings of policies that we discussed at the last meeting. Again, all of these policies are a result of legislation that was passed in the last legislative session, and these laws would take effect on July 1st. Uh the first of which is policy be uh schoolboard meetings, and this will
024require us to review um on an annual basis um regarding open laws. I'll approve a second reading. Okay, I have a motion on the floor uh by Mr. Alm. Second, second by Mr. Sharp. Any further discussion related to policy be? Seeing none, all those in favor of second reading signify by saying I. I. Oppos. Same sign. Thank you. The next policy ECAB is um a policy which defines how multi occupancy rooms. I'd move approval of second reading of ECAB. Mr. President, we have a motion on by Sharp. Seconded. Second by Borton. Any further discussion related to policy ECABB? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Same sign. All right. The next one is policy JA. This is compulsory attendance age. It changes the age at which students may now end their
025educational experience. Motion on the floor by Burkart, second by Dr. Bortnham. Any further discussion related to policy JA? Seeing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Same sign. Okay. The next one is ACCE and ACE- E. Uh, this requires um us to be in compliance with IEPs and 504 plans for military um children of active duty military members within 30 calendar days of arrival. So move on floor by sharp. Second. Second by um any further discussion related to policy ACE and ACE- M Schultz. Yes, sir. This is our current practice. Correct. Absolutely. That's for all children. Y any further discussion? All those in favor of policy AC and ACE- signify by saying I. I. Same sign. Okay, the next one is policy KB and this is regarding uh complaints for curriculum materials
026and it does allow uh patrons to um appeal their decisions to a circuit court. So move to the second reading. We have a motion on the floor by Sharp. Second. Second by all. Any further discussion related to KB? All those in favor signify by saying I oppose. Same sign. Thank you. Okay, last one is policy FD. This is uh facilities funding and it specifies when elections for certain um items may take place. Um and then just some cleanup things that Michaela and I work through. Motion on the floor by Dr. Bortnham. Second second by Mr. Alm. Any related uh discussion related to policy FD? Mr. a question. The facility or the um this will go in effect July 1st as the rest of them. Yeah. Any further questions or comments? Seeing none, all those in
027favor of policy FD signify by saying I. I. Thank you. Well, the last item on the agenda is a bittersweet item on the agenda. Uh it is time for us to recognize one of um our school board members who will be retiring from service. And it has been um quite a service indeed. Um I'm not sure if this is my favorite story or if this is Mr. Alm's favorite story. And I know that you've heard this a million times, but this is going to be a million in one, but uh Mr. Alm hired me for my very first job uh teaching at CC Lee. Um and he hired me to be the superintendent. So, um Dwayne likes to tell people that he hired me twice. Apparently, I needed to be hired twice. But, um good
028choice. Thank you. I clearly remember, uh interviewing with Mr. Alm. I was nervous and I was afraid and I wanted a job really badly teaching at CC Lee. I had been there as a student teacher and really wanted to stay at CC Lee. And I was interviewing with Mr. Alm and back many years ago when we were interviewing um Mr. um used an an interview technique called the empathy interview and he would you ask a series of questions just to get an a quick response out of people just to kind of tell about their personality and I clearly remember one of the questions that Mr. Alm asked was, "What would you do if you found a quarter on the floor?" And out of fear and just my immediate thought was, I said, "I would give
029it to you." Oh, tonight. The the date on the quarter is also very special. This was the year on this quarter was the year that I was a student teacher at CCL. So, I hope when you look at a quarter, Dwayne, that you will think of me. So sweet. [Laughter] Thank you. Yes. I feel like we should clap. I really I do remember um after the interview uh Frank, his first name was Frank from Northern. Yep. Mr. And I said, "What do you what do you think?" And he was in the building and he knew who you were and he were he was your soup. was and uh he said don't miss her. That's good advice. We got the job done and uh my land. Isn't this something when you think back um I mean
030the highlight of my career. One of the very best highlights and uh I really pat myself on the back occasionally. Well, thank you very much. Here's your quarter. Sweet. Before we give the floor to you, we want to uh say a few words from the board and give everyone a chance to uh say their proper thank yous to you. Uh we do have a token of appreciation from the board. Here it says from the Aberdine public school district with greatest appreciation presented to Dwayne M for believing in our mission offering invaluable support and leading our path to success. School board member from 2002 to 2025. Thank you so much, Mr. Schultz. I think um I don't know where I'm you know first of all um I'm very appreciative this I feel honored and uh what
031I'll do is I'm sure I'm going to display it on my uh education wall I think in my office. So uh Mr. Schultz you'll have to figure out and figure out where I'm going to put it. I'll be happy or whenever. Very very nice. I appreciate it. I believe uh Mr. Mr. Murphy had a few words he'd like to say before uh giving you the floor. Okay. Um Dwayne, would we like to thank you for your commitment and service to this community, to this school district, for your love of our students, your passion to provide the best possible education for our community is just outstanding. your service on the Associated School Board. This board wouldn't know what to do without you giving us the policies on the state level and bringing it back and discussing
032those issues with the legislature. We certainly appreciate that. You could have retired years ago, but you chose to stay involved. Your energy and commitment has inspired me and other board members to stay involved. You made our school district in Aberine a better place than you found it. Thank you for your friendship. Appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Murphy. Thank you very much. Other comments, all my um first met you in 1981 as a fifth grader going into kindergarten at CC Lee Elementary School. And I am one of thousands that know who you are. and you influenced gener generations of students by your kindness, your calm nature and the millions of things that you have done behind the scenes as a voice. I hope for those kids that had the opportunity to learn from you, I want
033to say thank you. I have moved from that student to someone that you now mentor and I'm more proud to call you my friend. Thank you for everything you've done. Well, thank you u Mr. Schultz. Uh greatly appreciated. Um, I would have to say this is something that really is uh true and I think about it every once in a while and especially when I found out that you were interested in running for school board back seven years ago and uh I really know that uh I can see myself in the hallway at CC Lee by my office and here's this little kids standing in the hallway. You might not believe it but this is true. I can still see little Aaron Schultz doing this and looking. That really is true. That's not a madeup
034story. He has stuck out in my memory that way. I don't know why he stayed in the hall. Well, you know, um um you know, first of all, I'm very grateful for having had the opportunity to um um serve students in our great Aberdine community and in the state of South Dakota with associated school boards. It's quite an experience. You learn a whole lot by my travels in Washington DC serving in different things and one eye opener was when I was president of the western conference of NSBA and uh some of the startling things that I learned that were happening in other districts. I couldn't believe it but I know that I learned something uh from that to keep my eyes open. um you know um and then of course uh working with the public
035school element trying uh trying to promote that in various different ways. Uh that was always my uh two goals no matter what. Even when I first started teaching, I didn't realize it. But I just wanted to serve students. And uh as time went on, I thought there's only one school in the world that's public schools. And uh I still advocate uh to that even though some things may have uh changed. I I know these uh experiences would not have happened if I wouldn't have had uh the support and the input from the various school board members that I worked with. U it was just invaluable uh to me and uh so I also worked under four superintendent during my schoolboard uh term. Uh I worked with eight total during my 63y year career and uh
036there was great guidance along the way and great communications. Um I do remember one superintendent that uh I had my first time uh when I was principal of Simmons and I remember the very first day of school I was outside watching the buses come in and the uh new superintendent was Dr. Roger Hansen from the state of Kansas and he said do you really know what you're doing? And I said I think so. So you remember little interesting things like that that uh spark your your memory. Um u and of course uh it's without saying I have to say thank you Dr. Guffin for your valuable input over the years and uh I just think uh the conversations that we had were very helpful. I know especially at the state level a lot of things
037came up and we would uh talk about some different things that uh potentially were of something to be aware of but so it's much appreciated and added much to my career. Um, you know, I was reminiscing the other day about significant happenings, changes in our district over the 63 years that I've been here. Um, enrollment when I came into the district, I think I'm fairly close, was around 6,500 to 9,000 students and I think it was closer to 7,000 that senior class at uh, Central High at that time. Um usually when I start teaching I had 30 in the classroom. In my last year of teaching at Howard Hedger you know I had 36 students in that class and the next year if I would have stayed not become a principal um I would have
038have done a combination classroom. I kind of wanted that experience but uh that was maybe next year. Yeah, maybe next year is the night. Just give me a call. Um this um you know and the cre uh the creation of a new elementary school, the destruction and of two elementary schools, adding the air conditioning in our schools during the remodeling phase about the time Central High School was built. um creating the athletic compliments at uh Central High School uh then known as Swisserfield and we've since changed that name of course um the new Simmons Middle School that was built. The new additions at CC Lee and Simmons Elementary um were certainly interesting. Uh I do remember uh something that kind of stands out and uh it was interesting and it happened up at the old
039district office back in about n um somewhere in there um 20 2006 but I remember we had a special meeting and guess what that special meeting was about? uh the Arbory Corporation had offered us. I think Brian, I'm not sure whether you were there then. I know Brad Olsen was uh there. They wanted to purchase the land to build a restaurant and you you have now what you see at Arby's. So that special meeting it lasted quite a while too, a lot of discussion and that was the former Henry Neil site as we know it. Um, so you know, after 63 years, I thought of serving the district. I thought I would officially tonight become the resident historian. And if that changes, let me know, Becky. Uh I can only say you know thank you
040board members uh for being such a great team to work with and I I cherish the uh interactions and u the various memory of things that we did. Um and I know one thing this all helped me to become a better board member along the trail. So I have a lot of people to thank and if it weren't for all of these people I'm mentioning uh the success if there was some would not have been possible. Um well I I wish you the very best school board. Uh and hope we can stay in touch. I know I will be in touch. Um and I think there's one final reminder uh for this coming school year. Please uh would you remember to go for the gold? We have been seven out of the 10 years that
041have been here. Um as you probably well know and uh please don't break the record. I tell you one thing, I'll be watching. Well, thank you very much. And you can be part of retired school personnel now. That's I guess he is a member already. So, you're going to still advocate for students in a different way. So, we'll do our best. Yeah. [Music] I did not think I would be involved that long. I had no idea. But I had a burning desire always to improve education and uh always had students in mind. One of the uh highlights during uh my administrative career was uh when I served at CC Lee as the principal u we started a learning styles program. An award that I'm very proud of is having the new addition at CCV named
042in my honor. That's where I hang my hat. CC the main legacy that I think I feel good about helping with is to help students all across our community helping them to learn and and uh trying to promote success for all students and this is true when I served on the Associated School Boards of South Dakota as board of director that uh I was able to do the same thing for students across South Dakota. I appreciate all the board members that I've served with. They have helped me become a better school board member and I thank them as I think back over the years. My family was always very supportive of my efforts in education. I guess overall I'm just so happy to have served in all these capacities and if I look back I
043wouldn't change a thing. And of course, we'd like to thank uh the family as well for sharing with us. It's you know my granddaughter right across from you here teacher at CC Lee now and u she was a I I knew from about the third grade on or maybe the second grade she was going to be a teacher and uh at the famous Monday night dinners that my wife always prepared um Cara was always there preparing some kind of activity for everybody. and the adults had to do something besides clap their hands and that happened uh quite often and so um it was interesting and of course my daughter Beth and my son-in-law Brian have been invaluable people to help me throughout the career and when we were raising kids and grandkids and so um
044you know again it it takes a lot of people to be successful and what you're doing but uh So we we thank you very much. And of course Sunny, my wife uh was a great uh person to uh just uh support me. She understood when I traveled to Washington the different times for the different committees. Uh she was so supportive and I I really uh don't think I could have done it without Sunny's help. Uh it was really something. So overall, thank you very much. Well, we will miss your optimism. Yes, I think it's only appropriate that uh you adjourn this meeting. I will make that motion to adjourn this meeting. Mr. President, nobody seconds. It doesn't have to. I think I heard a second. Second that motion. All right.