001To 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. >> Good evening. Welcome everyone. Thanks for being here. Um, let's start the meeting by having a motion and a second to accept the agenda. Please make a motion to accept the agenda. We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> I'll second it. >> We have a second. All in favor of approving the agenda, please say I. >> I. Against. No. On same time. >> The agenda is accepted. >> We have no one on sign up for open forum. So, we'll move on to communications. Our director of business services will give us an enrollment and an update, a financial update. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of
002the board. Start with some enrollment. Um, we're actually down 18 from budget right now, which if you go to the graph for something kind of what happens at this time of year, we did bump up in January. I'm going to say thanks to TF a lot. We got quite a few kids in January there. So, good job. So, we went up a little bit in January and then we're coming down again in February. It's not too unusual. I was just say there. So, um I have two treasures reports included this month just because we didn't do one in December because we met so early in January. So, the the December treasures reports um it's a little larger that year or that month because we had larger state aid in December. Um otherwise, there's nothing else
003really different on that one. If you go to January, you can see we made our bond payment in January. They're due each year in August and February. So, we always make them the month before. So that was made in January. So you can see in our debt fund um a large premium in there of $4.3 million. So those are the three or the bond that we paid off in there. We had two investments come due in January and then we purchased three new ones at the bottom there. You can see unfortunately interest rates are dropping. We sold the two at 4.22 and 4.54 and we purchased the newer ones at four 3.95 and 3.9. So interest rates are going down, but we're still not not too bad. So we're still if we can stay in
004that 3%, that's awesome. And then on the monthly report for January, the DBS reports, um in our expenditures, um we're right on target in the general fund, um food service, we're a little higher there due to some the purchases that we made for equipment this past summer. And then the um tables that we purchased before Christmas. Um, let's see. Community Ed, we're right on target there with expenditures and a debt service. You can see we're made those payments already. So, we're 100% in debt service fund in general fund revenue. You can see there the graph. Sorry, I'm feeling a little slow tonight. Can you imagine why? >> No. Um, so we're pretty much right on there in general funds. If you go to our food service there again, it's showing our expenditures a little higher
005in 2526 due to those equipment that we purchased. Then community is looking pretty good too there with revenue. >> Robin, can I ask a question about the food service expenditure? So if I recall, there's new legislation of what we can spend our food service money on. So we were able to get some table some tables for correct. >> So is that going forward or was that a one year? >> As far as I know, it's still in legislation. I haven't seen any changes to it because we do have for next year we're looking at purchasing some tables for the middle school as well. You know, like we did at the high school this year. So, as far as I know, unless they change something in session this year, we can continue. >> And outside of
006furniture, what was it? What was allowable at besides our staff salaries? >> The newest thing they added in was to be able to purchase cafeteria tables. That was a big otherwise before you could only purchase things were actually in the kitchen and now they're moving out into the cafeteria in that area. >> Thank you. >> Yep. You're welcome. Good question. Any other questions on anything? I know that was a little bit more than I usually talk about. a couple months there. Any other board members have questions for Robin? Thank you, Robin. Okay, let's see. We're moving on to our student representative update. Neither of our students are here tonight. We're not sure if one of them's going to arrive or not, but student Sarah got a one student update. Yeah, an event tonight. Um, but
007she wanted us to know that prom theme was announced and it's masquerade in April. Um band and choir had a very successful extravaganza where the trip to Italy was formally announced. Um the dance team danced at state for both jazz and kick and Charlotte Rabim and Libby Carlson both made it to state for wrestling with the boys individual tournament being this weekend and students are all excited to hear that our very own Mr. Rogers is running in the running for teacher of the year. Y >> All right. board committee updates. Does anyone have any committee updates to share with the rest of the board? >> I have I did get the honor of doing the spelling be I got to be the pronouncer for the fifth and sixth graders and great kids, great spellers and
008I wish them luck on their next endeavor or something. >> Oh, I saw Yeah. Yeah. When you sit between Matt Silver and Jeff, you get on the front page. It was fun. Good. Thanks for that. Any other committee updates? Greg met this month for like a longer kind of retreat just sort of just there, you updating policies that haven't been updated since they've been incorporated years ago and um getting things in order. The good news is the budget adjustment targets are all coming in where we all all of us need to be without too much trouble. So you're doing budget adjustments with a couple different groups. Sarah, >> yeah, thank you. Any other video updates? I'll give the uh yesterday we had a long day of mediation with our teachers. The good news is we
009reached a tenative agreement after several hours, but we're just glad to move forward and we're we're thankful for our staff that they'll get these increases in place and um so yeah, it was good to reach a tenative agreement yesterday. Anything else to add? >> All right. Any other committees people served on in the last month that you'd like to comment? Okay, we'll move to the superintendent update. Mr. Deets, what do you have for >> two things? I'm g start with the bond campaign for February 10th. I just dropped down some notes. I want to make sure that pieces, but want to start by just thanking people for being engaged. I know it's an interesting topic to come back and talk to taxpayers about things that are important that we need to do. And I do
010want to make sure that people understand that we are appreciative of the dialogue we get to have and to work through things together. I think that's the piece I I'm going to pitch out to our community at this point is keep being curious. If you have questions, come talk to us. We'll engage you. We want to learn from you and make sure we understand things and that hopefully through that conversation and dialogue, we can also give you some things to learn from our what's going on too. And I think the one piece I wrote down is that it's okay to have differences of opinions. But I think the one thing that makes us special as a district in our communities is that we can come together and have good reasonable dialogue and understand each other
011because in the end when it's all said and done, we're on the same team. We're all here to basically make things better for everybody in our community. So again, if people are out there and want to come in, I am always available. I'll meet you somewhere. I'm more than happy to talk about this because again it's important for us just to have that open dialogue and be able to talk to one another in a way that again we can just work together. Um from a future plan perspective obviously we're going to start some conversations about so now that this is passed us what's the next steps. We're not there yet. That'll be the next few months and we'll start going through some of those dialogues. But we'll keep people informed about those next steps in
012the process too as we move forward in the future. And that'll dubtail from Sarah's report from the student. Um, we have so many of our sports teams activities, our fine arts that are at different events and things for section state. Just want to congratulate all them for what they're doing. I had the privilege of going to the dance team state tournament at Target Center. 10,000 people screaming every three minutes for fantastic. And again, I saw our girls compete and I just want to say that was fantastic. They're so synchronized and organized and getting to know some of the girls in the team. Just want to let you know they get to school at 5:45 in the morning twice a week to practice before school even starts. They're outstanding. So, just want to thank all of
013our students for all that they do. Just proud to be a Wildcat. It was fun to be here. Since you spoke about the um the bond, I just want to personally thank you because of the enormous amount of work that these efforts take all of you sitting here and we appreciate that and we know that we're aware of that. We've had to go out a few times and it means an enormous amount on your plate. So, thank you very much for your we appreciate it. Did anyone else want to add anything to that? Okay. Um we have Mr. Ruby here from Taylor's Falls. We're so glad to see you, Jason. He's going to give us a Taylor Falls update. Once in a while, we have one of some of our leaders come and talk about
014their programs or something special they want to share. So, it's Jason's night to be in the limelight. >> Here it is. Looking forward to it. So, uh thank you for the opportunity to come and speak with you. Um we have a lot going on in our school. So, I had a lot of things we could pick from. We've done a tremendous amount of work around literacy. We've done a tremendous amount of work uh continuing to improve our our behavior structures and what we're doing to support our students behaviorally as those needs those needs continue to increase. But the thing that I wanted to speak with you about a little bit is I think that's something that's really really critical for any school and any organization. So I'm going to start with a little bit of
015some of the why behind we do some of the things we do at Taylor's Falls Elementary. And I'm going to pose this question to you. So why is tradition important to organizational culture? So go ahead and think about that for a second just quietly to yourself and I would invite the audience to join in as >> well inclusive Mr. >> and while you're thinking and what I mean by organizational culture so that could be really any culture. So it could be a school, it could be a place of worship, it could be a Fortune 500 company, or you could think of it maybe as your family or a group of friends that you have kind of that culture. So why are traditions important? >> Okay, >> you've no this is not a test. So I'm
016actually going to tell you um first thing that >> is that that's my goal. So the the first reason that tradition is so critical for organizational culture is it builds identity and belonging. So people have shared experiences that they can encounter together and when you have that it strength strengthens the relationships between people and so I'm going to show you some examples of some of the things that we do in our school here in a few minutes. But that's a big pillar of that is it allows people to build relationships and then it also we're all doing something together. We're sharing an experience as part of the tradition that we have. It reinforces values and norms. So really what we're talking about there is what is collectively important to us. What are some of the
017the common things, the rituals, the things that we engage in that we have determined as a as a group, as a family, whatever term you want to use. Um what is important to us? It also is good for engagement. So having strong traditions as part of your culture really does It provides an effective means and an effective vehicle to really have good morale because people feel like they're part of something or something to look forward to. Uh they are sharing some of those common pieces and then it's something that each organization can really capitalize to make sure that they're unique. So every building in our school district has traditions that we have that we employ that build the culture of our school. And some of those things are different and that's okay because that uniqueness
018is part of what builds a strong culture. Bridging past and present. So it helps promote investment and longevity, but it also connects people and kind of gives people a sense of purpose. So I was in the front lobby of our school a couple of weeks ago and I saw a picture that we took my first year as the principal at Taylor's Falls. I looked like I was maybe like a 14-year-old skateboarder. Um I've got a lot more gray hair now. Um here's a picture in here that illustrates that. I saw that I was like, "Whoa, I don't see a lot of science shots of myself." But um a lot of those staff have retired or they've had changes in their lives over those past 13 years. And we've got a lot of people that work
019in our school now that are part of our culture and our community that were not there. But having a strong organizational culture, what that does is new people have something to participate in. They can belong. They can join. They can kind of hit the ground running as you have those established pieces. And that's also a recognition of past challenges and success. So I've got a quick little example in some of the slides that we're going to look at and these are just pictures of some of the things we do traditionally in our sorry for that in our school. But um one of them was something that occurred during COVID and we started that tradition and we have maintained that tradition. But that's a challenge in the past that those of us that were a part
020of that remember how difficult that was and the adversity we went through and the division in our culture and all the challenges we faced. Um we've continued that tradition and that's been become a part of our culture. So how do we maintain tradition? Um, first of all, it's something that's very intentional. It's not by accident. So, I remember when I started as the principal at Taylor's Falls, we started we carried on some of our past traditions, but then we also began incorporating some new traditions. And I could kind of tell, so people are kind of looking at me like, what kind of a circus are you running over there? Like, what is going on? Um, but that was intentional. And this is the reason why is because I understood in that kind of intentionality behind
021like as the leader of the school, I really want to build a strong culture. So, we're going to uh reinforce some traditions. Uh and it's also trade-offs. Some of the traditions that we have can be a little bit disruptive in our school day. They can cause us to zigg when maybe we wanted to zag. And there are trade-offs that come with that, especially when you've got, you know, 400 kids in your school. So, there's all sorts of surprises sometimes, but it's worth those trade-offs. Um, another piece that that's important for how we maintain tradition is you've got to be flexible and you've got to adapt to changing needs. So, it's not to say that just because you've incorporated tradition means that it needs to occur for all time, forever. So, you got to be flexible
022in some traditions. It's like, okay, we can say goodbye to that. And there are a few things where we've kind of collectively decided, you know, that's run its course. We're going to move on. And then involvement. A lot of the traditions that we have at school came from staff. So, it's being open like as a school community to saying, "We're going to listen to your idea. Let's give it a whirl. Let's give it a try or we're going to talk through it." And not everything's maybe going to work, but we'll give it a whirl. So, I'm going to talk through some of our um some of our traditions. This is a pie ceremony that we do every spring. If you look very carefully, Superintendent De is actually getting up high right there. There he is.
023He's down towards the end. But this is part of our fundraiser and the kids get really excited. If you ever attend that, I would strongly recommend you bring hearing protection because the volume level in the gym is deafening because the kids are so excited. But we choose students as the kids meet various uh thresholds in our fundraiser and they get to come up and we have a big ceremony where they deliver a pie to a staff member. All school sing along. So every year the last day before we go to winter break, our gym is packed to the gills with people, visitors, all of the students, all of the staff, and we come together and sing some Christmas carols in the gym. Uh that's a tradition. Speaking of some traditions are long-standing, like I looked
024at some old yearbooks and Taylor's Falls first was a public school or had first graduate class in 1915. this sing along that kids used to stand in the hallway and sing together. They didn't assemble on the journey because there wasn't a jam built, but uh this goes back all the way back to the old school. >> I told Mrs. Brandt I had to get a picture of her in here. So there you go. Veterans Day. What we do on Veterans Day is we invite veterans into our school. So we advertise in a local paper. We send something out to our parents and we invite relatives. Some of our parents are veterans. Sometimes it's just community members, but they come into the school and the kids all work on projects uh to thank the veterans and
025we have a little rotation where the kids come through, they visit with the veterans, they thank them for their service, and sometimes they have little crafts they've made them or little thank you cards. And that's uh something we get a lot of really positive feedback on every year. Morning greetings. So I think it's this is this is more of a someone might call it a ritual, not like a weird ritual, but like a traditional ritual, but every day when our kids come into school, they're greeted by me and Mrs. Laiier. And then their teachers are also standing at the door to greet them as they come into the classroom. So every single kid in the school is getting two positive interactions with an adult who loves them and cares about them before they even start
026their school day. And I'm a lot of times we're doing fist bumps, we're doing high fives and trying to make that physical connection with the kids. Sometimes a quick side hug. Um but um it is really important to all of us that we start the day with uh off on the right foot with positive interactions. And that's actually supported by research uh that when you set up a kid with a positive interaction with an adult, chances are they're going to have a better outcome as they go through their day. Halloween, we do a big Halloween parade. We invite members of our community in. Past few years we've gone with a theme. This was a farmer theme. That was the farmer. I don't know if you can find Waldo, but we did stage a photograph. That
027was our theme for this year. We did a Where's Waldo theme and uh stage this picture and the kids have a lot of fun looking for Waldo in that photograph. We do a Roman feast every year. This is another tradition that's a newer tradition when we adopted our new reading curriculum. Um, but the third graders are studying ancient Rome and so they have a Rome themed meal. They dress up in toboggas with appropriate clothing on underneath of course and uh they have a good time doing that vocabulary parade. Uh we do this every spring. The kids can pick a word with a definition and then they walk across the stage and illustrate that word with with a definition. That's not just a tradition we do because it's fun and the kids can learn a vocabulary
028word, but it's also we take a minute to teach the kids how important a good vocabulary is to becoming an effective reader because that's a really huge pillar of that. So that's one of the many things we do to try to build a strong culture of literacy in our school. This is our last one, but this is the one that started during COVID. I sat down with one of my teachers and I just said, "People are really bummed and discouraged and this is just kind of gross." And we were kind of back in a hybrid model. Uh so we have half the classes in and what what can we do? Let's just figure out something fun to do. And so it's it's not expensive. It's not uh crazy, but basically we painted some saw off
029clothes pins to look like leprechauns and we hide them outside and the kids take 15 minutes to go outside and get some fresh air. And then the class that wins, especially Painted Leprechaun, uh gets an extra recess with me. I'll take them out, give the teacher a break, and uh they get an extra recess. So, in summary, um when kids and staff have fun at school, they like being in a school. So, when school is fun, they want to be there. They like it. When kids and staff like being at school, the kids are going to learn more effectively. They're going to learn well. and the staff are engaged because when the staff want to be at work, they're going to do a better job of working with the kids. So, this is kind of
030part of my philosophy in some of these traditions that we have is that having fun together uh for its own sake in some cases, sometimes it is academic, like a vocabulary parade, but sometimes it's like we're going to go look for leprechauns for 15 minutes just because it's fun and that's the only reason why. But it does build that community and it builds that culture and taking time to do that. It's not just okay to do that. Like it's really important to do that and to take a minute just to have fun and enjoy our kids and enjoy each other. So that's all I've got. Anyone have any questions? >> Just to review, the reason I love these presentations so much is because we get to see a little glimpse of what you do in
031your building. We all know magic happens there. Like we all know that, right? And it's just the things you do with kids. It's just fabulous. >> Thank you. Well, I have to say the intentionality around these traditions, I I lived these with Taylor Falls for years with all three kids and hearing the intentionality behind them is awesome because I've seen the long-term impact. I mean, the kids come away from Taylor Falls with that as family and I know these are just a smattering of some of the traditions that go on. >> Yeah, this is not an exhaustive list. We would have been here for a while, but these are just a few things we could picked. Yeah, >> I get the pleasure of subbing there once in a while, fourth and fifth grade in preschool
032even. And I as I watch this, I just kind of have this smile on my face really inside too. But it's also kind of a bit of an emotional thing as we see a disconnect of what's you see every single day and what we get a chance to see in the room here. And I have a presence on social media if you follow social media much and I see the comments that people make especially in a you know certainly a lot of emotion in a in a bond season and I think there's a huge disconnect about what people watch on national news what they think education is and then once you get into the classroom it's just a completely different thing and I just wish we could somehow you know you got I say every
033school is kind of like a planet once you're not in that you don't know kind of what's going on. I wish we could kind of send a, you know, we send people to the moon. We need to send some of our community that are so unfortunately negative about schools because they get it from the, you know, all the debacle that's happening at the state or the national level. Don't get your news about CL or TIFF from the national news. Come on in, take a look. And I think it's just great that you invite a lot of our people in. And I just wish that we could have some people share the comments that are made just don't match about what's going on in each of the schools. And I think we'd all agree with that.
034touch your soul. It's disheartening to see the fun things you are doing every day and what's going on there and the traditions that we develop and yet how people speak about us about our finances about what's you know learning or test scores or things like that and it's truly what occurs every single day and I don't know how hard all of us have been around know how hard it is to go and do those jobs every single so thanks for giving us a taste >> if we could get one or you people watch the video of this thing or go visit. I I hope you do and hopefully it changes a little by little about what's going on. So, great job. >> If you haven't seen Jason in his turkey outfit, you probably >> That
035photo was conspicuous by its absence. >> Thank you so much. OKAY, WE NEED TO MOVE ON TO THE CONSENT AGENDA, which is a little less exciting. It includes our um fund summary, our personnel items, including hires, resignations, retirements. Um it includes our past minutes. Um and after looking at them, we'll need a motion and a second to accept our consent agenda. >> Madam Chair, I make a motion to accept the consent agenda. Thank you, Jeff. Do we have a second? Thanks, Josh. We have a motion and a second. All in favor say, "I." >> Against. Same sign. The consent agenda passes. It looks like we have no old business, so we're moving on to new business. The first item is our multiple donations. Um, so our February donations, the St. Cory Valley Foundation has donated
036$2,400 to our middle school band program. $1,800 to our high school band program, $500 for our high school choir, uh $1,200 1225 for our drumming, our dynamic PS dynamic drumming, and 1225 to our primers, our TF dynamic drumming. In addition, High-Tech Kids has donated $1,000 for our robotics program. Estate Builders has donated $1,000 for scholarships. DLU football has donated $6,000 for scholarships. The TF Lions Club has donated $500 for scholarships. Pound the Rock has donated $500 for scholarships. Uh Lakes Area Electric has donated $1,000 for scholarships. Lions Club has donated $1,000 for scholarships. The girls hockey boosters have also donated $2,000 for scholarships. Alan Lions Club has donated $750 for scholarships. The Knights of Columbus have donated $4,500 for scholarships. And Seal Wrestling Foundation has donated $1,500 for scholarships. We have a very generous community
037in terms of supporting our scholarships. If you've ever been to scholarship night, it is just amazing the amount of scholarships we can develop due to these donations. So, we're super thankful for that. and we'll need a resolution. But first, a motion and a second to accept all of these donations. >> I'll make a motion to accept the We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> I'll second it. >> We have a motion, a second. Sarah, can we start with you? Sarah, I >> and Lori I. The donations as listed are accepted for this month. Okay, we're going to move on to a first read policy on video recording on school buses. Cory, are you going to talk to us about this a little bit? >> Yeah, I'll touch on a few pieces. It's
038not a very long policy. Biggest piece of this was that our previous policy before it was first read the actual title of the company we were using. >> Which prior to 4.0 was transportation. >> Okay. >> Um, so it had the name in the policy that we had to get removed out of there. We are not adding a name this time. It's just going to say whoever we contract with. Um and then we did add in there um the word employees. It was very specific to students being on the bus and and how we can video them. But we also have employees on the bus. So we did add the words employees in there as well. Um just to make sure that when our employees are on the bus, we can incorporate them into our
039policy. >> So this is the first reading. It'll come again as a second reading where we'll actually vote whether there are any questions for the policy committee or Corey about this first reading, this video taping on school buses. Okay, thanks Cy. We'll see you again probably next month. All right, we are moving on to we have to we have to have a resolution to canvas the election results. So, there's a few things I have to read here. Um, so be it resolved by the school board independent school district 2144 that a special election held in the school district on February 10th wasn't all aspects and legally called and held. Um, returns therefore been duly canvased in the votes cast at the spe special election for and against. The question submitted to the elector was as
040follows. So on question number one for 48 million for the acquisition and betterment of school sites and facilities. The ballot question did not receive the approval of the majority of the votes cast. It's hereby declared that it does not carry and in the case of question one it was dependent on question one I mean question two was dependent on question one passing. So again the ballot question two did not receive the approval from majority of the votes cast. Therefore we declare it did not carry. So pursuant by Minnesota statutes, um we hereby are instructed to notify the commissioner of education of the results of the special election and provide the certified vote totals for each ballot question in written form within 15 days after the results have been certified for the board. So once again,
041this is a resolution. So we'll take a motion in a second and we'll have to do a call vote. I'll make a motion to certify the election results. >> We have a motion in a second. We'll start with Sarah. Sarah I >> Jen I >> and Lori I >> Okay, thank you very much. Um every year we have a annual compliance for American Indian education and Mr. D is going to talk about this a little bit. >> Yeah, part of our goal is going to be um in the education our district is that we meet with a parent group and every year they meet to talk about if we're meeting the needs of the students that we serve in this community and in our district as well. And um this document reflects that they do
042believe that it's called concurrence. They believe that we are doing the work we need to do and it's just a document that we're asking you to approve so we can send it. >> Do you happen to know officers of Native American descent? >> I don't I'm pitching for Sarah tonight. I'm not sure. >> Yeah, that's Sarah. >> It's I know it's a very small number. I know more than I thought though because I just asked that question. That was way more than I >> had. Yep. >> Well, it's good. Are there any questions about that? >> If not, we need a motion in the second to accept the annual American Indian education. >> I will make a motion. I'll second. >> We have a motion. Second. Anyone questions? >> If not, all in favor say
043I. >> Again, same sign. That motion passes. Uh we're moving on to Wildat Wild Academy. Oh, so as we've talked about um Mr. Deetsz is um suggesting that there's interest at the middle school level to be added to our Wildcat Academy, our online academy that has been far more popular than we ever could have anticipated. And there's a number of students who are going to go online somewhere. We just assume they stay in Chicago. Is there anything more you wanted to say about that? >> No, I mean the goal tonight is just to basically take some of the conversation we've had over the last year and then basically advance the seven and eight component of this piece to add to our 912. We are ready to go with all the information tomorrow morning on the
044website. We'll be posting the position for a teacher. Uh we've done the research and and surveyed our parents and middle school kids. We have numbers that we believe in will fill pretty quick in this program and we're just excited to offer an opportunity for students that feel like nutritional model is not what they need to be lancing. So asking tonight to go ahead and approve that piece and then starting tomorrow all the information will go out when we start the process to be ready for the7 school year. >> And I think the good news is we've learned at the high school level that we're keeping some students. We gave students that weren't wild cats that are now wild cats and we're hoping the same for middle school. So, it's been a hugely successful and I
045know there's districts that have grown their programs, too. I mean, lots people and lots of revenue. So, we're hopeful for that. So, um we need a motion in the second to add seventh grade academy. Make the motion. I'll second it. We have a motion in the second. Okay. Any other questions or any hearing? None. All in favor say I. >> I. Again, same sign. That motion passes. All right. We are moving on the agenda to um community education rate increases. Dan McDonald, our director of community education, is here to make a presentation. Nice to see you, Dan. >> Yes. Thank you for having me, members of the board. Um, each February I've been coming before you just to kind of touch base on the rates that uh we know we need to adjust for the
046upcoming year. Michelle, where do I point this? >> Turn it on. >> Yeah, >> there we go. Sorry. Um, so, uh, gonna just touch on, um, preschool rates quick, uh, a little bit within kids club and, um, uh, rates relative to, um, the, uh, uh, building rentals as well. Um, so, as you know, it's just to keep up with costs, especially our staffing costs are continuing to rise. Um, so the proposal would be here. This is probably the most important slide to see. Uh 295 a month to 309 for the five half days. You can see 178 to 186. Um uh two for the two half days is 127 uh 33 and then all day every day is 41 to 43. So it's about a 5% increase across the board from last year. relative to
047the comparables that we always use, um we're still well within affordability, I feel like. Um just did some math today with our new um early childhood supervisor and our all day every day cost for the current year was $779 for a typical month, which is 19 learning days for our students. And where she came from in White Bear Lake, that's 1010 of $1,000 and $10. So or $1,10. So, you know, when you compare it to Still Water, I mean, we're we're still well below costs. Um, as far as the kids club rate adjustments go, same thing. We're looking just um mainly this uh proposal would be uh about a dollar increase for before and after. Um and then a little bit more for preschool for summer care. So, jumping from for preschool from 25 currently
048to 35 next year. um just because of kind of some of the extra things we need to do to keep up with ratios and things like that for that uh age group. Um and again comparables same thing you see we're right within the ballpark with North Branch a little bit lower than all of them but considerably lower than Forest Lake and Still Water. Um, and then, uh, the rate adjustment for facility use. Um, we've not adjusted this rate in the four years that I've been here, and this wouldn't be something that we would probably come every year to ask like we've kind of had to do for kids club and preschool to keep up with those costs. Um, but it this is this would help us kind of uh have a little bit of a
049bucket for facility maintenance. Um, our chairlift uh was ordered in October by our previous aquatics manager and it just arrived yesterday. We haven't been in ADA compliance because that piece of equipment broke. That was $11,000 purchase. Things like that. Um, this is the bucket of money that we can tap into a little bit with some of those expenses to keep up. So, uh, our current rate, uh, for processing charge adjustments is $15. We're proposing to go to 25. A rescheduling fee currently 5 to 10. and a no show fee, which happens from time to time. We only charge $10 if you don't show up for your rental. We'd like to at least bring that up to $20. Again, uh comparable to the area. So, that's the proposed rate increases. And I would entertain your questions
050if you have any. >> Does anyone on the board have questions for Dan? >> I have a question. Um how are the preschool members doing? Um we we pretty much stayed consistently with that low 200s in the four years that I've been here. We're at 198 right now programwide, 167 in uh in primary and whatever that would be 30 30 something in >> TF >> in TF. Um so they they've remained consistent. I you don't want to price our families out and and as we all know cost of everything has gone up considerably. So, we Brian and I met Matt about this. I think Corey and I discussed a little bit from from his angle and you we really labored with where do we land for a fair increase that helps us keep up with
051our expenses but doesn't burden our families anymore than we possibly can. So, a lot of thought and a lot of conversation and a lot of care and compassion goes into making these decisions. This is not something we like to come and ask for. We wish we could say we wish we were 4K. I mean, I wish we did the way Wisconsin did honestly in Minnesota, but that's a larger discussion. So, but our numbers have been remaining steady. >> I just want to say, Dan, thank you for always putting a family's budget in your decisions. That's always something that you always touching. I had three kids in daycare at one time when we were first married, and it's hard. So, I appreciate that you always are very mindful of them and the expense that this comes
052to. Okay. >> Yeah. For those of you in the audience, I'm a father of eight, so that grounds where my decisions happen in this. I think I had five in daycare at one point or some crazy thing. So, yeah. No, I mean, I don't want to impact the families anymore. We, like I said, I mean, and I appreciate superintendent deeds, Corey. I mean we this isn't just Dan McGonagle comes out and we need to roll it up by 10% or 5% or whatever. I mean we really and same compassion and caring that those guys display as well for their you know Brian I know has half the number of kids that I do too. So we we both have walked that walk. >> Are we able to keep up with the need? Is the supply
053keeping up with the demand for being able to have enough sections of preschool? >> Tell me more. Like do you mean are we >> for a while we even talked about do we have enough spaces for that amount of people who want to come to preschool? Do we have enough >> Yeah. Yeah. And so far that's that's kept up nice. I mean primary has worked as a really nice facility. I don't I wasn't here for the green building but those of you that were um I think primary has fit our needs really well. more and more with the all day class. We're we're having conversations with Jason and Amy about giving those students our all day students access to the specials which is by ed or the gym gym space, music space, library space, things
054like that. And I think more that we can structure that like an everyday pres or kindergarten type classroom the better. So yeah, the space has been good >> been working out really well. >> Is that specialist conversation something that we're building toward or is that happening now? >> Conversations are happening now. building towards the hope. Um yeah, and and you never know. We we always put it out there, offer this, offer this, offer this. And everybody might say, "Hey, this year our kids all all want half day, and we might not have, you know, so it's year-over-year. You never know where what families are going to want." So that factors into >> and I should know this exactly, but we have something in place for families in need if they can't. >> And we're really
055working hard on on um doing better with that. We we have um pathway $2 that we get. We've never qualified for BPK and I I'll pull Robin in. Robin and I have met a couple times this school year about trying to better understand that application and our new supervisor has some a really strong background in early childhood. So, she's really going to help guide us in that, too. >> Um my hope is that if we could get that BPK money, that helps alleviate the need for us to to rely solely on the feebased program. Um, and if we can crack that code, and again, I mean, for I've talked to Brian about it, Robin and I have met numerous times about it as well. If we can figure out how to get that money, too,
056that I think could help alleviate some of the stress on families, too. So, we're doing that work and I'm excited that Nicole can she's bringing a fresh set of eyes to it, too. So, >> great. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Any other questions for Dan? >> Well, Dan, thank you very much for laying this all out for us. We appreciate your effort. >> Thank you guys for your time. >> And we'll need a motion and a second to accept these new community aid education rate increases. >> I so move that we accept the rate increases. >> We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> We have a motion and a second. Any other questions? If not, all in favor say I. >> Again, same sign. Yes, sir. >> I'll let you know. 78
057students. >> Thank you. >> You ask and you get answers. >> Cool. Right. All right. >> Yeah. >> All right. Um, next we have to look at some revised calendars. Um, the revisions came about because the legislature allowed >> No. So, this one is just >> for middle school conferences. >> We made the adjustment. >> We already explain. >> So, this year we made the adjustment to the conferences up to spring break like the week before. So if students were home, they would have the time to complete the work. Parents found out that they were missing. So Todd just asked us to continue moving that forward. And since we had 26.7 and 2728 already approved, we just need you guys to approve the revisions of moving the conferences up by about a week to accommodate.
058>> We asked the staff about this staff to make this happen. >> Perfect. Any other questions about the revisions to the calendars? Okay. If not, we need a motion and a second to accept the revised calendars for 26, 27, and 278. I'll make a motion to accept the revised calendar. I'll second it. We have a motion second. Any further questions? If not, all in favor say I. >> Again, same sign that calendars pass. Thank you, Michelle, for the explanation. We have the 4.0 family here tonight, too. Um, our the bus company that we contract with. Um, and we're going to be discussing the new lease agreement. >> Robin, did you want to speak? >> Sure. We have a lease agreement and we have an actual contract, >> okay, >> to talk about. Um, before I
059get to those contracts though, I want to thank all of you guys and for the partnership that we've had. Both your corporate company and your local company have been great to work with. So, I just want to say thank you. Um, so the lease agreement that we have is a two-year agreement. The first year is kind of a catchup year. We're trying to catch up a little bit. So, it's an 8% increase and then 3.75 to match our contract in the second year. Um, the contract is actually a six-year contract that we worked with these gentlemen out here on the contract. It's a six-year contract at 3.75 each year. Is there anything else that you want to add to that, Mike? >> Is a sixyear contract typical? >> Yes. We could have actually gone I
060I thought this was as long as we could go. We could have actually gone to a six year with a four-year extension, but the six year I think last time we had four year four. >> Yeah. >> And how's the hiring bus drivers? How's that going? >> Um, it's it's always been a challenge in that, but uh through all of the shortages, we've never ran short. I say we've never missed a route or trip back anything. >> And I can tell you that that >> and so we we really work on our culture 4.0 0 and have the family atmosphere and really, you know, try to get everybody to really see that there's a bigger picture here. And we really tried over the years to change the stigma what a bus driver is because a
061bus driver takes care of the most important individuals, kids think we have to. So getting them to change on really realize how big of an impact that they actually have and the hard part is a lot of it's not seen, right? that you don't get to see the rest like the Paul Harvey the rest of the story but who here who here rode a bus when they when they or you okay who here remembers a bus driver that had a positive impact in their life when you rode the bus right and chances are the bus driver may not even know they had a positive impact on your life but we say these we have stories of stories stuff so really really blend that in to get people to really say hey it's important to greet
062our kids and take care of them and and that's the biggest job we Yeah. So that's >> and your car shows through because I've been on the board for 21 years and for a while there we were hearing a lot of things about our bus and our routes and parents were calling. >> I don't know. I haven't heard much of anything at all. And to me that tells you you're doing your job. >> That's our goal. And just so you know, they rescue even when you're maintaining. >> Okay, Brenda, we need to give some context because she talks about this all the time, but your company came to her softball rescue and how much she appreciated it. >> We did. It was great. Didn't miss a beat. The kids didn't even know it happened. And
063number one, what are we going to do with the bus? >> We got Thank you very much. You're welcome. >> Well, the nice thing about we we contract with 31 districts in Minnesota. We're not big, but we I started when I was 1985 work as a bus mechanic, but we got shops and stuff all over and we all really work together. So, if somebody Yeah, you're in Mano, something happens, we can get somebody there within probably 15 minutes or less. >> It was even quicker than that, but yeah. >> Yeah. And we just want It's all about service and take care of our kids. So, >> well, we very much appreciate you. Thank you so much. >> So, um any other questions for 4.0 since they're all here, including your grandbaby? >> Yes. early recruitment.
064That's what I expect. >> So, just so I'm clear, six years from contract, two years lease. >> Yes. Correct. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> And just to piggy back on our question, is a two-year lease agreement for is that typical? >> That's what we typical. >> Yeah. >> And I see here we're voting on the contract. We're also voting on the lease. >> Correct. >> Oh, can you just do it together? It's fine. >> We can do it together. Okay. So, we need a motion and a second to accept the lease agreement as well as the contract that was presented to us tonight. >> We have a motion. Do we have a second? >> We have a second. Any further questions? If not, all in favor of accepting the contract amendment, please say I. >>
065I. >> Again, same sign. Both are accepted. Thank you for traveling here >> and being here. We appreciate it. >> Thanks for the opportunity. and Rob will get caught up on the lease for the first couple months. So, just >> Thank you. >> All right, we're moving on to um the Clem seniority list. And this is something we do every year just to come to agreement that all the teachers are in the right spot on the seniority list. So, it's presented to us um Cy to make sure it's correct. And we made a motion in the second to accept our CLM seniority list. >> Make a motion to accept Clem seniority list. I'll second it. >> Uh any questions? If not, all in favor say I. I. >> Again, same sign. The clown to see
066nor list is accepted. All right. In addition, we have our lane changes. We do this twice a year for teachers who are furthering their education so they can keep moving along in their lanes a couple times a year instead of just doing it once. So before us, we have the teachers where they are currently, where they'll be moving to, how their salary will be changing. So, we need a motion and a second to accept the climate changes for February 20 26. >> I make a motion to accept the half year changes. >> Okay, >> we have a motion and second. Any questions? All in favor say I. >> Again, same sign. The cle changes are approved. Okay. Um Corey has done some work to do some reclassifications of our local 284 jobs. Um you you'll
067do better than I will at explaining. So I'll let you know. >> I'm sure you guys all remember about a year year and a half ago we started this project to try to parse down the amount of job descriptions we had. We went through a time where we had job descriptions for one single person versus a group of of jobs. So, um, through that process, um, we had contracted with the company to just kind of see what individuals were doing since our job descriptions were so old at the time. Um, and also to help us put in get us in compliance with the pay equity report, which we file every three years with the state. Um, I will say we did pass our credit report. We had to file it this year. So, that's great
068news even before we did this. But, uh, it just makes it a little easier to for us in the future on our packer report along with our when people need accommodations. So, we changed the format of our job descriptions, had them written, rerated, um, to where we only have 20 job descriptions out of 58 that we used to have in this contract. So, what it helps us with is just putting people in the proper positions with the proper tasks on their job descriptions. Um, it does come with some changes in classification, um, which is why we have it here tonight, um, because it does affect our budget for this year. Um, so we do need an approval that we move forward um with with the job classification study we did. I know I didn't provide
069any information on it mainly just because we want to make sure we tell the employees first um before there's something out there publicly so that way they get an individual meeting with their supervisors if you're late. So that will start after we get through this process today. Um but any questions you guys have about it um there's about 20 people moving um classifications through this and most of them are just moving up classification and then we just do that by the contract terms. It's dictated in the contract how they move from schedule to schedule >> and it's all local 284 union. >> Yep. And again I can say in the past what has happened is individuals would come forward and say I think I'm in the wrong classification and it would be sort of a
070singular look this is where we think you belong. I think this gives more order to make sure that people are classified correctly so they're getting paid correctly and all of those things. So I think it was work we needed to do and I just appreciate that it was finally you know it was done correctly. Any other questions about that? Well thank you Cy. So, we will, since it affects our budget, we will need a motion and a second to accept the the new job for local 284. I'll make a motion. >> Thank you, Josh. Do we have a second? >> I'll second it. >> Thanks, J. We have a motion and a second. Any other questions about the job? >> Okay. If not, all in favor say I. >> Again, same sign. The motion passes.
071All right. Um, if there's no other business that takes us to the end of our meeting and we'll need a motion and second to >> do we have a second. >> Second. >> We have a motion. >> All in favor of adjourning say I. >> I. I wasn't like Sarah, I thought you did