001Go stand for the pledge, please. >> 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. >> Okay, roll call. Derek is on a beach somewhere. >> Chad is on a beach somewhere. >> Melissa here. >> Mike's here. Greg >> here, >> Nathan >> here, John here, >> Gretchen >> also on a beach. >> Is she? >> Yeah. >> Good. >> Uh, and then Sammy or Phoebe. >> Okay. Adoption of the agenda. Anybody like to make Okay, Julie makes a motion to adopt the agenda. Melissa seconds. All in favor say I. I. All oppose say no. Motion carries four to zero. Should recognize Whitney. Thanks for coming, Whitney. She's going to be appointed tonight.
002Not not officially till next month, but appreciate you coming. Um, Warrior Pride. So, this would be accepting donations from Midwest Machinery, Calon Hollers, Hamill Equipment, and Winona Controls for the purchase of an iron worker and the Rotary uh Rotary Works Foundation for the seventh grade field trip to Eagle Bluff. Would anybody like to make a motion to >> Winona? Did you mention Winona Controls? >> I did. I I Ham Equipment, Winona Controls, all for the iron worker and then I came back to the rotary works. >> My apolog. All in favor say I. I. All oppose say no. Motion carries four to zero. No board showcase tonight. No student school board member report tonight. No public comment tonight. Consent agenda. There was one last minute addition to the consent agenda. That last bullet point or
003the second to last just above new hires, it says accept the resignation of Brandon Jones as the full-time facility specialist. Correct. That was the one. >> Yeah. >> Okay. But other than that last minute edition, everything remains as originally published. Is there any discussion, comments, questions on the consent agenda? Okay. Would anybody like to make a motion to approve that? >> Okay. Melissa makes it. Lee seconds it. All in favor say I. I. All oppose say no. Motion carries four to zero. Okay. This would be a resolution filling the schoolboard vacancy by appointment. Uh and that would be Whitney. This has to be a roll call vote. So, we have to go around one at a time. Any questions on this? Okay, we'll just go around clockwise. Uh, just say yay or nay. Melissa >>
004nay. >> Uh, Julie >> Lee. >> And I'm a yay. So, uh, and there's two absent, zero nays. So, um, Whitney Steel is hereby appointed to fill the vacancy to serve until the successor is elected or qualified. The appointment shall be effective 30 days after the adoption of this resolution unless the a valid pet petition to reject the appointee is filed with the school board clerk pursuant with applicable state statutes within 30day of the time. >> Pardon me. >> Okay. So Lee moves it. Melissa seconds it. All in favor say I. I. All oppose say no. So resolution is duly adopted four to zero. Did I do that right? Okay. Uh revised budget action item B. Any questions, comments on the revised budget? Anybody like to make a motion to approve the revised budget? Julie
005beat you to it. You would like to second that. Lee seconds. All in favor say I. I. All oppose say no. But that motion carries four to zero. Staffing. This would be the resolution discontinuing or reducing some educational programs and positions. Is there any further discussion on that? Okay. Would anybody like to make make a motion to approve action item C, staffing? Okay. I'll make the motion then. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Okay. Melissa seconds. All in favor say I. I. All oppose say no. Okay, that motion carries four to zero. All right. So then this one, action item D is to terminate a and non-renewal of probationary teacher. Greg, do you want to explain what's going on there? >> Yeah, this is not a performance issue. who uh Liza was
006is on a out of field permission uh to teach special education and um by law we have to repost this position. If we get somebody qualified with the right lensure then we hire that person but because she doesn't have the right lensure that's why we have to do this one. >> Okay. And this has to be another roll call. >> Okay. So, yay. Your name starting clockwise. Melissa. >> Yay. >> Uh, Julie. >> Yes. >> Yep. >> Lee. Yes. And I'm a yes. There's no nos and two absent. Okay. So, then we got to do the uh would anybody like submit motion to uh on this resolution? Okay. makes it a second. So all in favor say I. I. All oppose say no. Motion we carry four to zero. Action item E is the assistant
007boys and girls golf coaching position. We discussed this a couple times. >> Yeah. Last time around we were kind of waiting on numbers and now we have those. And uh I guess I would recommend that we approve an assistant boys and girls golf position as noted here. >> Okay. And then you just you post the thing and see if anybody takes it. >> It's already post. Oh, cool. All right. Uh Lee moves that one. >> Julie seconds it. All in favor say I. I. All oppose say no. Okay. That motion carries four to zero. Administrative reports, Mr. Bowler. >> All right. Um, big thing at the school high school right now is as we continue to look forward to next year, we're on our seventh, 8th revised schedule right now. Um, the, uh, current juniors
008and sophomores have registered and then we try to adjust based on that. So even today I was emailing back and forth with some parents and like well to the best of my knowledge that's what's going to happen but some things are constantly changing. Um one of the like just as an example we had over 40 kids that signed up to take college world history and so that's going to dictate numbers that we have. So that's just an example based on seniors and primarily seniors what they signed up for. So Angie and I have been working Angie's been working really hard with this especially now that Nicole's not there. So she's kind of taken this whole burden on. I'm very appreciative to her for that. Um but we're still trying to work out all the details
009but trying to find something that works best for our students. Um kind of along with that um we are still working on the readact and the capy basics and the number of students that we're having with that particular diagnostic. One of the nice things is it's what little we've dug into the data. Um we kind of are getting in the process of getting trained on what it all means and what we should do with it. Uh we have another meeting uh set up to go through ours with the representative from the company and really kind of break it down. It's good to see some of the kids have shown that they don't need interventions. say that we're pretty pretty close with the students that are already receiving some interventions are some of the higher students
010some not though we are catching a few so I wanted to bring up uh Capy basics with that we've been doing more with strategics and our uh system we've we did a um our tornado drill at the middle school high school and we used the system I went on the loudspeaker and kind of explained this is what's going to happen be prepared type of thing but try to students uh more used to that. And then MCA testing is obviously a big thing that's coming up. I'm looking forward this week to doing some of those, you know, testing rooms and finishing some evaluations and just all of the things that I pushed off when kids are in the building and hopefully get caught up on some of those things. But it will be here before we
011know it. So doesn't tell us that, but that's what kind of where we're at. So >> cool. Thank you, Nathan. Any questions for Nathan? All right, John. >> Um, same as Nathan said, um, MCA's coming up here. We actually already did our science MCAs, but, um, for the next month and a half, we'll be on and off MCA testing. Um, biggest thing right now, making plans for next year with staffing, with, um, retirement and a resignation. Um we have right now we have three sections of third grade. In every other grade level we are two sections. So um that three sections of current third grade will be three sections of fourth grade. Next year with 67 kids having two sections. Those are just um numbers are a little too high there. So we'll be keeping
012three sections. Um so yeah just just looking at the shuffle and the domino effect of that getting ready for next year. Um, I would like to do just one thing in our in our agenda here. We just um, you know, acknowledged the retirement of Mr. Mullins, Mitch Mullins, and then Beth McDonald. Beth McDonald actually wasn't teaching this year. She did a a leave of absence, but knowing she was likely going to retire at the time, she wasn't for sure if she would. Um, both of these people put in lots and lots of years in our district and were phenomenal teachers. So, um, they deserve a little bit more recognition just just given the years of service they did. Watching both of those individuals teach was really a pleasure and working with them. So, just tons
013of appreciation for um, a couple people who truly shaped um, our community with how many kids they educated. Um and then with Miss Sager, Megan Sager resigning. Um you know, she wasn't here for that extended super long period of time, but awesome teacher that very much appreciate her years of work and her dedication. Um she she worked very hard. She was very good with the kids and provided awesome education. So they'll they'll all be missed. Um kindergarten roundup next week gives us a good idea of what our kindergarten numbers will be coming in. Um it's not a for sure thing. You can uh someone cannot go to kindergarten round up and still enroll, but it definitely gives us an idea of how many kids we'll have and depending on those numbers will determine. Um if
014a if a ton of kids showed up, we would have to add a section. Um I don't really foresee that, but certainly you never know. Any questions for me? >> Thank you, John. >> Yep. Miss June is absent, but she submitted her board form. Everybody had an opportunity to uh read that. Any questions on that for anybody who could? Okay. Uh Mr. >> All right. Um again, the weather doesn't show up, but our winter season has kind of come to a close. Um I want to thank all the coaches, adviserss, and athletes and participants for their uh dedication and representation of our school district. Uh, special shout out to Brad King and his basketball team on being section runner-ups and they they just had an amazing mention we we had several resignations. You know, I
015wanted service particular I want to mention Scott Sorenson for 22 years of as a girls basketball coach, Beth McDonald, 32 years and Mitch Mullen's 36 years of outstanding service for those people. So, um I know the board already recognized the donation for the iron worker and Matt, could you tell me what the iron worker is because I don't really know what it is. Do you? It's uh equipment very large piece of equipment and uh it has like four or five stations based on the size of it and it is designed to uh notch out pieces of metal or cut pieces of metal at the specified dimension or and or angle. >> Okay. >> So it's if you get a chance Google it and uh look at it. >> Pretty cool. Yeah. No. >> So, thanks
016to Rich Rich Larson for uh uh Rich actually applied for a grant and tried to get the whole thing paid for. He got half of it and then we already recognized them. But again, I want to acknowledge Midwest Machinery, Calon Hollers, Haml Equipment, and Winona Controls because they kind of picked up the rest of the payment. And that's Matt was telling me how awesome this machine was and I was like, well, I don't know what an iron worker is, but it's awesome. >> And it's and it's quite safe. >> Yeah. >> And of course, you I want to thank the Rotary Works Foundation again for their donation to the for the Eagle Bluff trip, too. Um, two big things, the educational support personnel negotiations. Uh, we kind of wrapped that up and they have ratified
017their part. uh wasn't quite quick enough to get on the the agenda for this week this month. So that'll be on the uh April agenda for the board's ratification. And then similarly, the leave language for the teacher contract. If you recall last fall, we kind of agreed to everything except for the leave language. And at that time, MSBA had their model language out and we said, "Well, when Education Minnesota gets their lead language, we'll kind of get together and make one." Education Minnesota never did put anything together. And so we got together last week and kind of firm things up. And um the teachers union will have to ratify that. And then I'm hoping by April that will be on the agenda for us to approve that portion. And we might have to do a
018memorandum of understanding since we've already ratified the contract, but that's in the works. >> Okay. Any questions for Mr. All right. the worst case scenario for the budget. We have a healthy fund balance. So, um, we hope we don't reach that negative. Um, but one of the big things in the legislation is the special ed funding, which I've talked about several times of the cuts that they're looking at doing with that. and they're doing a study in compensatory revenue. We were a district that did did not lose money in compensatory, but again, we don't know what's going to happen with this round. We are not education is not in this bianium, but there are a few things that they are still talking about. Craig was able to secure a media >> specialist so that we
019can still get the um library aid. Without it, we would not be able to get ones or get that aid. They would give it to us and then call it back. Um, Dependable Solutions is seeing a significant increase in their technology costs and availability. So, they're asking if we can go ahead and purchase early for this next summer instead of waiting because we excuse me, we may not get the things if we wait. Um, so we have advised that if they can't get it, go ahead since we have the cash. um attended some of the safety meetings, region five meetings, um title meetings, um and then met as a finance committee last Wednesday. One of the topics was a summer egg program. And Craig may want to touch on this a little bit more on
020um this year is still funded even though the grant wasn't received, but what will we do going forward? And I think Lee had made a suggestion about seeing if there are local businesses that are willing to help fund a summer egg program for a portion that the grant would have covered if we still had it. Um, still continuing to meet on the daycare meeting for this week. I don't think it got scheduled yet for >> I have to reach back out to him, but we're gone this week with summer break. So, That's pretty much all I have for you. >> Questions for Barb. Thanks. No old business today. New business. Big ticket item is to discuss the survey results. >> You feel good that I'm not old business. >> I'm back. What was it? January
0215th we were here. We were >> sounds >> survey. All right. So, we got the results. We're go through. >> I plug you plug you in. >> You want me to? >> Okay. There you go. You can You're gonna play Vanna White here. Here we go. >> All right. So, we sent out 3,65 postcards to all residential mailboxes and um we sent out some Oh, that's okay. We did a press release. We sent out social media blasts and then emails and emails to parents and staff to really encourage participation. Craig, jump to the next slide. But we received 1,076 responses. So that's about 35% which is a great respon resp response rate for the community. So really good to see and I would say it's always great when you have that that good of a
022percentage um in response. >> So you normally would see I mean we get excited when you're about 22 24% response rate. >> People in Calonia were excited to take the survey. >> Can I ask a question on that? >> Yeah. that response rate, does that include like across social media and cards that were sent out across the board? >> Yes. Yep. So any paper copies then that Craig or whoever received at the office, those were also included into the database. So yes, digital copy and paper copy. So next we in the survey we asked um the respondents a variety of questions to kind of get an understanding of the demographics of those respondents. And so the first question was what is your age? So great um kind of areas of different age groups. So as
023you can see the 36 and 45 was 33% and then 46 to 55 22 and then 56 to 64 10 and 65 and plus was 12. And so really we focus on focus in on the respondents that were 56 and older. And you might think why? Uh because those are the people that show up to the polls and vote on election day. Those 50 56 and older uh age group category. Next question that we asked was do you work for the school district? So 12% of staff took the survey. >> 12% of respondent. Yep. And I would say that's pretty typical that your response rate would be about 10 to 14% of the respondent school district. So that's 12% is perfect exactly where you want to be. >> It's a pretty high. I mean that's
024100. It's over 100 people entire staff, >> right? >> Yep. >> So it's great. >> It's good. I didn't take it. Next you see children which was 57% said yes. So that is school age children um >> so the reason we asked those two question I'll let you do the next one and then I'll tell the story. >> So 5 56% or whatever children of respondents that answer the survey. Yep. And then the next question we asked was, "Do you live in the Calonia Area School District?" And now this one says 93 yes and seven no. And that is because we asked all residential >> Well, all staff and parents take the survey. >> Yes. And we sent it out and some staff or parents might not live in the Calones Area School District. So
025then those folks we're going to toss out as we move forward. So that 7% of respondents that are nonresident respondents, we're going to remove their responses as we move forward. Does that make sense? Because they can't vote. So, while we wanted them to have input and to go through the journey of what is the district thinking about and they responded, we're actually not going to include their responses in the next phase of the analysis. So, we're only going to look at resident respondents because those are the folks that can go to the polls. The reason we asked those other two earlier questions, do you work for the district and do you have school age kids is because we want to be able to disagregate the data into three mutually exclusive groups. So when we start
026to look at support, we're going to look at what do staff think, what do parents think, and what do people that said no to both of those questions. No, I don't work for you. No, I don't have kids. What if those people that we're going to refer to as general citizens, what did they think? Why um did we separate that data out? Well, when Matthew just said, "Wow, 57% of the people who responded to the survey were parents of school age kids." That means that parent responses are over represented in the survey sample. So, we need to pull the data apart because if we were sitting outside of a polling place at a typical school district election and as people left the polls, I said, "Do you work for the school district?" Um, about 1%
027of survey of uh voters would say yes. So, while we had 12% response here, your staff are over represented in the overall SP responses. Additionally, if I said, "Do you have kids in the school district?" Only 25% of voters are parents of school age kids, but 57% of the survey respondents. Does that make sense? So, we need to pull the data apart and look at each group in a mutually exclusive way. And in essence, I need you to think to yourself, 75% of the people who um vote answered no to both of those questions. So, as we trot along and look at what the data looks like, you're going to look at that group called general citizens because really they determine what happens in what make sense. All right, here we go. Last two questions
028we asked. So, if yes, have in the district. So, owning a home in the district, own a business in the district, own commercial property, and then own a 92% own a home. And then you can see that 22% own within the district. So that's helpful as we again trot along and you're consider referendum. If you're like where are the egg land owners that they're concerned about, we're able to go back into the survey data owners in the district. >> So the question >> Yeah. So if I and I own a house that owns it >> and then same with this one in which municipality do you reside that Calonia is 54% with the second one 10%. So like Sue said it's just good we're able to then pull data of the three groups that you
029mentioned. >> All right. So we gave some background on the a facility study. Next slide. We know we pieces floor at the middle uh high school and the common the and that need for storage. So again when you remember when John was here at columns and talking about main needs um but what we did was we identified some key pieces and we also knew from the work that Shelby had done from Ellers that where was that threshold of yes will cost me nothing more than I'm currently paying. And so that was at $8.5 million was the yes will cost you nothing. So, we said, "All right, um, these are the things we see as the highest priority. We could do these and you would pay no more than you're currently paying." What do you think?
030Next slide. So, what do we see? Remember those three? Can I don't know. Can you Oh, there you go. Um, so again, general citizens, remember, they they determine what's going to happen. So, that's your gold bar there. 29% of general citizens said, "Yeah, I definitely would support this." 32% said probably yes. So we can add those two numbers together and we say um those folks uh are going to increase you know over 50%. So we know that there would be support strong support from your parents as well. We had the 44 and the 31 together. So you can see you've got 75% support from parents. Um strong support from your general citizens. So, this tells me that if you were going to go to an election tomorrow and you put an $ 8.5 million um
031bond question on the ballot, you very likely would have success that your community is saying we'll support our schools um if assuming it doesn't cost us any more than we're currently paying. So, we knew that in addition to just dealing with those critical needs, we had identified some other facility projects and enhancements. on the next slide. Um, so then we started to break these apart, provide a little bit of education. Remember, we wanted to make sure people understood what our needs were. So, we talked about expanding and updating your CTE space, so that shop um that you certainly could use a renovation at a cost of $4.5 million. So, we said, "What do you think? Could you give us that?" So, we haven't said to people, "Here's what it's going to cost you." We've simply
032said, "Here's what it's going to cost to do the project." And what do we see? 35% of general citizens are telling us yes. 29% are saying no. And 36% are saying uh not sure, need more information. So nearly, you know, almost a third, a third, a third split with a slight leaning um to the not sure or the yes. So you can see your parents get it a little more. 51% of parents are saying yes. 15% of parents are saying no. 34% are saying need more information. So in this case, what happens with those not sure need more information? What we find is that with additional education, you can typically move a third of those folks to yes. Okay? So let's think about that. You're going to take 12% of the not shurers. We move
033them over to the yes. And all of a sudden between u moving more parents over you know a third of your parents and a third of your general citizens you're dancing right about 50% support that people likely would be supportive of some sort of improvement to your CT space. But again we haven't asked we haven't said what it's going to cost them. Next project your gym. So, we talked about adding an additional gym at the middle high school that that would solve all kinds of issues for you both during the school day and for the community. We had this gym costing $4.5 million as well. What do we think? All right. Now, here we start to see it, right? 18% of the general citizens are saying yes. 57% no. Not sure at 25%. your parents
034even have a leaning towards no um less support there. So, this one um feels different that likely I would say if this was on a ballot, I'm not sure that people would be excited about it. Next one um update and expand the wait room. So, we had kind of a a range of what that wait room expansion could look like. So, we said two and a half to$4 million. And what do we see? uh listen, you know, 15% of your general citizens are saying yes, 66% no, 19% are saying not sure and need more information. Even your parents, just under a quarter of your parents are supportive of it. Uh 53% are saying no. 24% are saying not sure, need more information. So again, wait room probably doesn't have a high priority from your community.
035All right, that multi-purpose space that we really identified as better serving wrestling and gymnastics, we gave this a cost of $2.7 million when we looked at that. Where does this one stand? Um, somewhat similar, a little more support. 21% yes. Uh, 57% no. When we look at your parents, 30% yes, 45% no. Again, you're going to pick up a third. So, you might have another 7% that jumps over to the yes, but you're still sitting at about 28% support there for that. I need some parking improvements, $710,000 to expand some parking. Lots of comments on the on that. Imagine uh 28% of your general citizens said yes. 39% of your parents said yes, but certainly a leaning toward I'm not so excited about that project with 51% of general citizens saying no, 44% of parents
036saying no. >> We wanted to educate people on just that the benefit of that egg to school credit. Certainly that wasn't out when you built your high school, although you had other things you took advantage of. But should we move forward with some type of a bond, um the state's going to pick up 29% of that project. So then we said to folks on the next slide, we said, "All right, here's what things would cost." So, we had already introduced and saw support at the yes will cost me nothing more at the 8.5 million, but we said, "All right, if we g if you gave me another almost $4 million and got us up to 12 million, um would you are you willing to increase your taxes if you own a $200,000 house by 30
037bucks? Um if you had a 16 million, you'd give me 90 bucks. how much of a tax increase assuming the projects included were acceptable to you. So the next slide, this is the most important one. So I want to make sure you understand it. So now we said, okay, we had that tax chart. So I want you to follow along and say that 8% of your general citizens were all in. So they said, I'll give you 24 million. Yep. All the projects need to be completed. Let's go. um 20 million, you had 5% of general citizens. But I make an assumption that if I was willing to give you the highest increase to my taxes, if you asked for less, I'm probably still going to say yes, right? So that tells me that this is
03813%. Does that make sense? I'm adding the eight and the five together. So I've got 13% support for my general citizens at 20 million. I've got 23% support at the 16 million because I added um the 10% there. I've got 44% support at the 12 million. So I am not across the finish line until I do what I've got to hit 50%. So I land back at the yes will cost me nothing is really where I'd say your community's tax threshold is. But we've got extreme support at 65%. We did the same thing with parents and what do you see there? So you've got 11% at the 24 million. Now you're at 19 20 um 32 the 31. And so now you're at, you know, 46% support at the $12 million bond there. So what
039does this tell Sue when I look at this? This tells me that if you put a question on the ballot for 8.5 million taking care of critical projects, you'd likely have success. But it also tells me that um you saw success, you saw support for that CTE space. And I think we talked about this in January that one of the things you could consider is a two question ballot that you could then go and say um if question one at no increase of $ 8.5 million was um successful, would you also consider a $4 million bond to address the CTE needs? And that um that would just just cover that. Does that make sense? So, do you want to risk the whole do you want to go with one question at $12 million and potentially
040risk it or do you do a two question ballot um to see what happens with question number two? So, remember we talked about the fact that that's what we did in spring. Their data looked eerily similar and turned out exactly like the survey said. Question two did not end up passing, but they certainly went after it just to see. We didn't want to leave money on the table if we could get it across. Does that make sense? So, I'll pause there. Through it kind of fast. Questions, surprises. Four. Four more million. 8 million neutral. >> 8 million is neutral. >> Four more. >> 30 bucks >> for a $200,000 house. Yeah. >> Depends on the value of your home. 200. >> That's including the egg to table. >> Yep. All of that's already factored in.
041Egg to school. What did you hear out in the community while the serve that was open? >> Much. >> I got a lot of compliments that it was well written. >> It was well done for sure. That That's Is Isn't that what you expect? You said it was similar to Spring Grove. Isn't that what you always suspect? Everybody's in favor if it doesn't make their increase their bill. Um, so Spring Groves had a tax increase and an even more in we didn't have a break even option. So we were I mean there's was a little bit of a lift maybe it was like a hundred bucks for the base question of like 10 or 11 million and then when we tried to make it to it's like an auction rate to 13 or 14 we
042just cross the line. So you have very little >> serious >> hope or or you you don't think anything beyond 8.5 would be successful. >> I think it would be a risk. I mean, I think you you could pick I think if you put a gym with CTE and said, "Let's try it." You go down because of when you put those projects when you looked at what do people what's their gut reaction to what you're going to do, people aren't excited about it. Um, >> you know, >> because now it sounds like you want to cram in a gym, too. >> Well, and people were like, "You don't need a gym. You're fine." you know, it was fine when I was a kid, all the things, right? Um, but what you saw when you, if
043you go back to that CTE, um, you know, you had 51% of parents going, "This is important, right, that they get that that's those are jobs." You have employers that are saying, "These are the skills that we need." And, um, that makes sense. And so just if you looked at just this and you thought if I pull a third of these friends over, so I pull, you know, 12%, all of a sudden you're sitting at 47% of your general citizens get the fact that CTE makes sense. And you pull, you know, you're sitting at 60 62 63% of parents. So if you did a uh calculation on that, you're you're dancing close to um 50%. So that to me says that you'd have a fighting chance to get that CTE space. Um the other thing
044internally in our office we talked about this morning was um I think we'd had some conversation of were there just some slight modifications that could be made to the weight room that wasn't a $2.5 million project but blowing that hole in the wall and making you know expanding that space that maybe you know maybe that's a half million dollars and and maybe we can reconfigure the CTE space that we're not bumping out, but looking at how you could reutilize and reorganize space within the building that uh you know maybe maybe the second question is $4 million for improvements at the high school that could include and it's a little more broad of a question, but certainly not a let's bump it out and build a gym or build that multi-purpose space. You've got a fighting
045chance at 12, but I wouldn't go 12 and one question. That freaks me out. >> Don't quote me. So, our goal tonight was simply to give you the data, help you to understand how to analyze the data, and let you go home and noodle on it and kind of be thoughtful about it. So, what are important next steps to consider? Uh, that June 16th, that's our drop dead date of like are we going or not? Okay. So, um, we would want to have some conversation between now and then, and we can't submit something to MDE on June 16th if you tell us that day. So, we'd really want to be having some conversations probably next month at your board meeting of what do you want this to look like? So, that then we would start
046putting together the big packet that goes into the state. So, what does that mean? that you submit um as a district you submit to the state here's what we'd like to do and then the commissioner reviews it checks and balances to make sure it makes sense and then we wait for a favorable review from the state saying we do agree that this is in the best interest of the taxpayers to consider this >> make sense >> yep Do you ever see initiatives like a new gym pass? >> Oh, like a standalone $4 million gym. People are like, "Oh, yeah." >> Yep. Sometimes. >> Really? >> Yep. And there's a million reasons why things pass and don't pass. And it's so hard to correlate, well, what happened in this community um could happen here because tax
047increases are a piece of it. if a community is growing um you know whatever the situation is. So in 2017 Rochester schools um I stood before their board and said you can get 169 million across the finish line. I don't have concern you do another eight and a half million to renovate your three swimming pools. Freaked me out. And so I said let the pools sink or swim on their own and see what happens. And so in that case, the swimming community, it was on them to rally like you all need this. You got to go become part of the advocacy. And so those swim families, they got busy. And that's what often happens with a performing arts center or a gym that the people that are most um most supportive of it, they get
048busy and start advocating. They help get it across the commission. often it just comes down to kind of tax threshold of where things are at. So, >> and it's not a big ask. So, what'll happen is that second question is going to say 30 bucks, right? Couple bucks a month. Um, you know, to allow us to do these additional enhancements. So, the second qu like you're talking how it would be worded on the ballot itself. >> Well, it's going to say uh it's going to say a $4 million uh you know $4 million investment to do these things. The information we put out will say what does question two cost you? >> Okay. >> So, we'll start. >> So, this would be an additional mailer, >> right? >> I got you. >> We're gonna mail
049the we're going to be All over social media. >> I see. Okay. >> In your backpack, in the newspaper. Yeah. All kinds of We put together a big heavy information campaign. >> Gotcha. >> But people then started to go, "Oh, >> right." >> Month like silly, >> right? So, do you feel like after your additional efforts that like those numbers would change considerably? Do you typically see that or >> what we'll see is despite those nos never move. >> Yeah. >> No. >> Yeah. >> But about a third of yeses, a third of babies may move to yes. The other twoirds are just two minutes of a nice. >> Yeah. Right. >> So when you think about that, that's why it's easy to go, okay, you're really that CTE space, you know, you're you're close
050and um you might be able to move and influence uh enough people, especially your parents. So when we start to look at this and see the support, so go back if you will just to the chart. When you start to see how Oh, yep. So you start to see here where your parent support is that you're at 46% at the at the um 12 million dollar mark with your parents and we've got some you know 13% of not shurers there. Um in that case we know that we need to figure out how to get parents to the polls. So we want to just make sure that they vote. So, there's a lot of different things that we'll do um in that get out to vote campaign to make sure that parents who um will be
051most impacted by this that they exercise their right to vote. At the end of the day, what do we also know? Parents get busy and they just don't vote because they're just like caught up and they think my one vote doesn't matter. And at the end of the day, we have 30 or 40 of those in business. >> So, let's say you you you um get your 4 million >> and then you enter the design phase for this CTE expansion and then you you're like, well, we could bump out a classroom wall, so the actual new project or the new construction doesn't need to be as expansive as we once thought, right? And next thing you know, the CT program or the expansion cost you $3 million, but you got approve of four. Yep. >>
052What happens to the million? >> Great question. So, what we would do is if we were going to do that second question, we would identify renovations and improvements throughout the building, including a CTE space. It's how we would word it to allow you that flexibility. I've been part of projects where we've tightened up the question too much and then you're stuck. You know, you have some options, right? One is that you just don't bond for all the money or you turn around and pay it back right away because you didn't need it. Okay? But the other option is that you it was easy for us as we were spending some time today looking at this being thoughtful of um you certainly have some other improvements that could be made that maybe were in that like
053priority two or priority three column that if you had um if you know the projects came out that there was an extra 250 or $300,000. There were things that you certainly had needs. What were we at at one point? Like 40 some >> 40 something. Yeah. >> So 12 is just taking care of the >> Yeah. >> I also just want to remind you that I think when Shelby was here, she talked about board authority. So, as a board, if you didn't go to voters, there are certainly um the roofing projects could be done just with board authority without going to bond that the HBAC projects could be done with just board authority. But by doing that as a board, and some boards do that, you're not asking voters, but you're still impacting taxes. And
054so, um, you wouldn't be able to do some of the other projects because they don't fit into the authority, but there are projects you could do. Speaking of board authority, one of the things that I neglected to mention in my report is, and I think I put it out in uh my written thing, is in April, I would recommend that the board renew our levy authority of $460 per student. Um, which is a new thing since 2023 that we're able to do. And I I think every renewal since 2016 was passed was the legislature gave the boards the authority to do that. Um, so that will be on the agenda for next April. unrelated to this but >> but good to just get it out of the way as you start this conversation important good
055to handle and I think Shelby kind of visited about that when the last time she was >> and one of the one of the people that contacted me about the survey is uh correct in saying that if you add up all this space you're going to need more money to you know for custodial and and um you got a new parking lot there's more snow removal. That is correct. Um, so if we add that kind of space, there will be more operating costs involved with that. >> And then I would counter that with putting in new HBAC efficient, right? I mean, there's all those pieces. You're running some really old systems. We're going to take care of some things that um, you know, probably are costing you more from an efficiency standpoint. >> Yeah. I
056wonder what's going to happen in 20 years when the city auditorium isn't functional anymore because that gets used so much for youth sports and everything and >> folks probably don't >> the general citizens I'm sure that don't have kids that are constantly in that auditorium probably even realize that there is actually the need for more gym space >> because that auditorium is getting a little long in the tooth. go back to the like where the 8.5 with the like this isn't going to be the last time you're so I mean here's what's happening right that you're going to have some of this other debt drop off and I mean we're constantly and Shelby is great at constantly watching what's happening with your property valuation and your debt. And so it's likely that you might tackle
057a referendum in 2026, but then in 2033, you might be at it again and that might be the time to go, okay, we're 10 years from that auditorium being offline. Is now the time to be making that investment? report. Is that when you start to go um do two buildings still make sense for uh Calonia? Yes or no? And that's why we tried when we were first doing those kind of block diagrams of where would things go, what did things look like? And so even if we make that investment in your CTE space, what we're doing is trying to protect the footprint of the areas where should you need to add classes, should you need to add a uh you know classroom, should you need to add a gym that we've been thoughtful about that
058on your footprint. >> Do you know what of that building? I have no idea, >> but it's going to need an investment at some point. >> Somebody's going to have to pay upgrade it, you know, do something with it. >> The Matthew Steer Auditorium. >> There you go. >> I think they just >> did they I couldn't tell you. >> Not like less than 10 years ago. So they're probably in the basement. They don't like want beverages on >> So I mean it's still probably 10 years but >> I think you're pretty close. >> Yeah. I mean since I've been here the same floor seven years >> since I've been here. >> Yeah. So next steps if you kind of look at that last timeline I wanted you to just have that in mind. So
059keep that June 16th date knowing that that's like last day we can get it into the commissioner. So um we'd want to have a go nogo here's our plan um at an April meeting. So typically if we're if we're here in March, so next month the conversation might be here's the direction and then we'd want bond council to write question. So we might say okay in the May meeting would be when you'd um you know approve the question and say let's let's move let's move forward. And actually you don't even need to call the election till um that July 20th. But in essence, um, the question ends up in the review and comment. So at least if we we would have bond council write the question with direction, but you wouldn't have to approve here
060we go until July if you don't want to. And you can submit a review and comment and then change your mind. I mean, it makes me angry, but because I mean, you're putting a 80page document together, but you what we want is to pull all that information together and get it off to the state so that they can start reviewing it. So, you kind of have those two key deadlines. So, in your mind, they would you really got to decide by May and then you got to commit in July. That make sense? So, is it something we should put as a discussion item for our April meeting? >> I would. Yeah. >> Um, >> so typically we would come back in April and work with you and that would be, you know, when you think
061about moving things around or thoughtful just conversation of I've looked at this, I've got this, here's where I'm at. And then we would leave April with a all right here we we understand the we understand the directive >> which all we need is a direction like yep here's the two amounts go for it and then we'd come back in June and July and be adopted make >> sense makes sense to me anybody else have questions Sue, thanks for doing all this. Thank you. >> Playing Vanna. >> All right, cool. So, uh, that was new business item A. New business item B is the school policies. Any questions, comments, concerns on the school policies? the the family medical leave thing that you were discussing earlier on in the board report. Would that >> would that be
062an update to policy 410 or what? >> Um >> was that unrelated or related? >> This this one is unrelated to that. The paid family medical leave is the one I'm updating, but this one is probably pretty similar to what we've had in the past. >> Gotcha. Um, the one that isn't on here that that uh John and Nathan and I are kind of started digging into is the new AI policy that is going to be one of the more labor intensive ones that we have to keep an eye on because artificial intelligence is changing so quickly. Um, it's not going anywhere. Kids are using it, teachers are using it. um we just have to make sure they're using it responsibly. And the webinar I was on the other day um had some acronym, but
063it was human artificial intelligence human. And I think that's what we want to get across to our kids is, hey, it's a tool that you can use, but you have to say here's how I want you to manipulate this information or whatever. And then it'll spit something out. But there better be a human on the other end, you know, saying yes or no that that's what I wanted. And um it's just you can't just say do this and then not evaluate what it's doing. But that's one of the big things that I think we need to make sure that we have in our policy. And we already have uh allocated some time in our fall workshop to um talk to our staff about our new AI policy that We're We haven't even completed doing that,
064so it's going to be interesting. >> All right, sounds good. So, that's uh new business board member reports. Melissa, you got anything? >> Um, no. I'm just dependent and support staff negotiation finance. >> Okay. All right. Cool. And uh so then Whitney will be sworn in next next month. And is she gonna get like an email address set up for >> Yeah, we'll get >> and then uh do you know where to find everybody's contacts if you have questions? Okay. >> All right. Sounds good. Well, if you have any questions, give us a call and thanks for doing this. >> Um adjournment. Would anybody like to make a motion to adjurnn? Lee moves it. July seconds. All in favor say I. I. All oppose say no. Motion carries 4 Z. It is 6:31. India.