001I'd like to call the meeting 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. Welcome everyone. We're glad you're here. We're going to start. We need a motion and a second to approve the agenda for tonight's meeting. I'll make a motion to the agenda. I'll second it. We have a motion. All in favor say I. Again, same sign. That motion passes. Uh we have no one signed up for open forum tonight. So we'll move on to communications. Our director of business services, Robin Bergson, will talk about enrollment and then a monthly update. Thank you, Madam Chair. members of the board. Enrollment for the first time I can say our enrollment is stable. The line goes straight
002this time. Um, so we were looking it actually I took the enrollment last week and it actually went up two students. This week it brings it back down, but it's stable straight across. So for the first time I think this year I can say it's doing that. go on to the monthly monthly update and this is still the original budget. I am going to present the revised budget to you next in a few minutes here but this is still showing the original budget. Um in in the in the revised budget you'll see that the biggest change is going to be in the community fund and that's where because you'll see some of them are at almost at 100% already. So um no big changes on here. You can see that our general fund is showing
003our revenues over expenditures at this point and they're higher than last year. So that's a that's a good thing right now. If you come go down to food service, um this is a plan. We're purpose purposefully spending down that fund balance on equipment. So we're always going to see our expenses over our revenue in the fun in the food service fund this year. Then here you can see community service. Um the revenue is exceeding the our expenses right now. So that's what we want to do. So, we will revise that budget a little bit to bring that closer to actual. So, nothing real exciting this month, but we're we're just running where we're supposed to be right now. I think the news is exciting. Well, it's not exciting, but I think yeah, maybe no big
004news is good news. So, unless there's any questions from anyone. Does anyone have questions? Oh, I have. Thank you. Thanks. Okay, we'll go to the student report. Before I let them talk, I just wanted to say I got to go to our town um the performance community. Um and Catherine gave I don't think you ran. Okay, go um were and it it was just so well done and I'm just always so impressed by the production. So I enjoyed it so much. Thank you guys. It was it was just All right. So now I'll let you guys go. Whoever would like to go first. Okay. All right. I have it on here so I don't mind. Okay. Okay. Hello everyone. Um so last last board meeting none of us were able to make it because we
005were at variety show. So I guess that's what I'll talk about first. Um so last not last month um it was last month. Yeah. Last month uh we had the variety show. Um I think it went very well. Well, I know when I gave my report to you, I talked a little bit about it, but I think the overall show went very well. We had 29 acts, including Jazz and Stage Fire. Um, and it was like you got to see a lot of different people. You know, that's what I like about it is you get to see those people who maybe have a secret talent that they don't quite share, but we had some really cool acts that we don't usually see within the music department. Um, and then if anybody wasn't there to see
006it, there is a video available on YouTube at Chicago Lakes TV. So, it is there as well. Um, next, the student council state convention that we went to on April 4th through the 6th. This is a convention that was hosted in at Hibing High School this year. We started going to this last year and honestly, I hope it stays for however long student council lasts here at the high school. Um it's a very unique and special opportunity for student leaders to go to and kind of experience like different types of leadership from different areas of the state. So you get people who have who are from areas of less population than us and you get people who are from quite larger population. So you kind of get to mix and see like what compares and
007what doesn't. So we got to like we got to have these like tables where you would meet with a bunch of different people from different schools and then they would have a sheet of different topics. You compare contrast what you do at your school. A lot of the times it's similar because like great minds think alike but then you also get to see like oh this school maybe has a little bit more opportunity to do this than others based off population and or funding and then these schools are less fortunate to do that. So you kind of get to see and then if you're like one of those schools that maybe hasn't tried one of those things you kind of ask around how do you do this? How can we start it? So honestly this
008brings a lot of new things to our school and also just kind of builds the confidence of our student leaders at our school and also as like somebody who has seen our program before we've gone to the state conventions and after it's honestly a great bonding opportunity for our council as well. I know that we went to Craig's earlier this year, which is like a smaller version of this, but still pretty big. And you, our council from there got to know each other a lot more, so we were more efficient throughout the year. So, I think it's a great opportunity to get to know not only people within your council, but also people from other councils. Um, and then also while we were there, I received a scholarship from the state of Minnesota for student
009council. So, that's one of the reasons I was able to be there. And then my co-president William Walker got an award for being the division president for our division. So we were there. Um but then overall that was a great weekend. We had a lot of fun. So um for prom coming up on April 26th at Big Rock Creek, we are as student council are kind of just down to the last couple of meetings. be our last second to last committee group meeting today because next week is the day before we start setting up. So, it's we're kind of counting down the days here, but I think we have a really good plan. The theme is night on the bayou. So, our colors are just I want to say swampy because like that doesn't sound
010very good, but I mean you get kind of like those greens, purple, like different princess and the princess and the frogish colors. So, that's a better Yeah. and it'll be from 8 to 11:00 p.m. Tickets are on sale now. Um, and yeah, it's always a blast. You know, that's a junior senior thing. And then if if brought, sophomores can be brought as well. Um, and then basically the last thing I have is a couple things. Dates to remember, May 12th, high school spring choir concert. May 19th, high school band concert. And then sports updates. I haven't been able to go to see many. All I know is that boys tennis has been having a good start to the season. I went to the I went to their first tournament and they won two of the
011three like matches, I think. So, that was good. Uh, girls lacrosse, I think they're crushing it actually. I think they're doing very well. Um, track and field seems to be getting into it pretty well. They have a meet in North Branch tonight, so I'll hear about it tomorrow, I'm sure, from a few of my friends. Baseball I think is good. I haven't heard much about it. softball to Anukica later and golf also started. And then the last thing is last week Lakeside celebrated staff appreciation I believe and we as a council are preparing our staff appreciation campus coming very soon as well. You guys would know more about that than me. So they'll say that. But otherwise, thank you. And to all who celebrate, have a great Easter. And those who don't, have a great
012weekend. Wow, that was so well put together. How do I follow that? I know he takes all of his stuff every time. I know. I guess let's talk about the spring play. Um, as you know, community ed has this is the second year that community is kind of running it. The first year it was um through the high school. So, I definitely not only see like a lot of alums from the community coming back to get involved in the theater program, but you also see a lot of new faces and getting to work with adults and working on more classical theater um projects is it's a really unique opportunity um throughout the various extracurriculars I'm in. and I network a lot with other students um from other schools and districts. And so that's definitely um
013a really advantageous opportunity I think because sometimes community theater can be very hard to get into if you're a younger age, but working with older actors is a really valuable experience and especially doing classical shows like Arttown. It brings a lot to the table. Um in other news, Anukica is also involved in this. I'm so sorry I'm going to take this from you. We're hold on a speech team. Um which is also why we'll be leaving a little early tonight as we have our season end for our speech um team. We had a really great season. been a long season. It runs from honest I think end of December to now. Um and so we had our sections and our conference uh we had a lot of awards at conference and then Anukica and I
014are the two qualifiers from our section our for our team to go to state. So we will be representing um Chisago and our section at the state conference which is the same day as prom unfortunately. Oh my goodness. It it's always it's always something. It's always on someone's prom, someone's Yeah. But yeah, I mean um congratulations. Thank you. Um and then I'm also involved in business professionals of America. Uh and we had our state leader conference last month early in March right before spring break which was another crazy turnaround. Um and we had a lot of success. We got to network with a lot of students. Um you get to see like not only the business aspects but um a lot of different people. We have camp speakers, a lot of leadership um workshops and
015all of that. And so getting to meet those other students and talk to them. I also serve um on our regional board and so um talking about like how we can improve our program and how we've seen it grow the last few years. We've seen an exponential growth being four people. We now have 15 I think. So still small but we'll take what we can get. Um and then we have two people including myself who placed um at stake. We'll be advancing them to the National Leisure Conference which is happening May 7th through 11th. Yes. And then in other news, I just think that um as we're getting into more of the spring sports and kind of things are transitioning, I think school culture has definitely livened up a little bit. I think everyone's getting
016out of their seasonal depression and getting outside. Um the sun has been sometimes there but you know we'll take we can get um yeah people just seem a little bit more energized and more involved and I would say um students are definitely responding more to like certain activities and things as well definitely better and then you know I'll leave the student council teacher thing for you and then yeah on this turn so this is the one part of the year where I do something that they don't so I'm so stoked about that I'm in softball which gave for me because I'm a fit. I I'm on the varsity softball team this year. I'm a catcher. So far, we've had a really great season. We've only played a couple games, but it's a promising start. Uh
017we're we've got grit. We've got a great team, even considering we haven't all played together as one team. Like all these people in one team has never really been a thing until this year. So, we're we're still finding our gel, but it's it's going really well. We had our Could you tell us about your coach? She just said the guy my favorite quote of Erica so far is wow that was a learning curve so it was it was no I didn't you keep going well I mean yeah that's kind of it we've got some we currently have a couple people that are going to go play in college so they're just having their last harrah here for the season and a lot of us are excited to start next year too. So even we've got
018a promising year this year and then next year and the year after. I think the program is looking really great. Got a tournament this weekend in Mano, so that'll be fun. They have nice fields. Hopefully we'll secure three wins, but there'll be some tougher games, which is great. Yeah, it's still the beginning of the season, so I don't have a whole lot to say about it, but I'm I'm really excited. I guess next I'll talk about student council. So Katie and I gave the president co-president, but Katie and I are currently on a committee for student council for teacher appreciation. So coming up soon, we're going to be doing this thing. It's like an award style presentation for teachers. We had the students vote on the Wall-E awards and we're going to do a big
019petfest thing being like glass bomb award goes to and it's going to be really fun. Senior superlatives. Yeah. All the things. So, we're really excited about that. We're also kickstarting this year a mental health week. We're really stressing. It's really important to us that we make the school environment aware and a safe space for mental health issues to be observed and respected and listened to. So, we've reached out to Gold Star. We're getting t-shirts. We reached out to Paul from Sale TV. Hopefully, we can collaborate on the video. We're still working that out, but we're gonna we're going to get that up and rolling. And hopefully, we will have districtwide shirts. Hopefully, we're still working that out, but Gold Star seems to like the idea. In other news, I had something if you want to
020think of that. Yeah, I was going to talk. Yes, choir. Uh, it's like the end of this is for choir and band. It's sort of the end of the year. So, we're wrapping up. We just picked out our senior songs for graduation and we've started the new audition process for next year. So the the music program is like bringing in the new the new year too which is kind of amazing. I al remember one more thing. This is my last thing. It's quick. I promise. So as you know Katie and I are going to state. This is just a fun little fact. We're in the same category for speech and Chicago Lakes. Both of us got first and second. So it was a Chicago Lake sweep. I just it has one more thing for choir.
021We just had our large group contest. Um that's basically where we meet up with a bunch of schools. I was at Zimmerman High School this year. We perform three songs for three judges and they each rank us out of 40. If you get 35 or above from two or more judges, you get what is called a superior. This year, our fire got a 35, a 36, and a 38 from the three judges. So, we got superiors across the board this year. Well, and I was just thinking that it might be capturing Dave's last meeting because you will have graduated by the time we have another school, right? One more. Oh, one more. I'm jumping ahead. So, they should come prepared for the speech. No, I'm gonna get Well, thank you so much for the great
022report. Does anyone have any questions for our student representatives? So much going on. So much you guys are involved in. It's just great to hear about it all. So much going on throughout the school. You give us a good sense of the energy here. Yeah, we appreciate it very much. And I hope the banquet's wonderful tonight. Yeah. And thanks for being here. We appreciate it. So leave when you need to. You have permission. Okay. Thanks. Have a good try. All right. Board committee updates. Is there any updates that has attended any meetings? You know, I did attend the schools for fair funding. Um, this is a very long What I'm going to do is I'm going to pass on what they went over is they talked about the Senate's plan for education, the House's plan
023for education, and the governor's plan for education. Um, and they highlighted, you know, what could possibly happen. And there was a rep both a Republican and a Democrat was um that were there. Um I can pass on those plans if you haven't seen them. Although I think you shared one you shared one. You know there's a few things that when you pay attention, for example, I don't remember if it's the House or the Senate, but one of the two talking about taking away the put on and promised whatever. That's that's troubling to hear because that that is more than likely going to be our only increase with the state budget. So that was not good to hear. And then, you know, it was one of the more vocal meetings I've ever heard um because people
024were trying to talk about the districts in the impacts that some of the legislation had and they were just really asking to be heard about things like paying for summer employees. um you know, feeding all children. Um they were talking about that. They were talking about needing some flexibility with some of the mandates and some of those things. So, it was good because there was someone there from each party listening to school leaders sort of saying the same things like regardless of party, you need to know how this is impacting our schools. So, it was it was a robust conversation. I'll put it that way. Um, and so it and it went on it went long. Um, so they both said and I won't get you their names. I'm sorry I can't remember right off
025the bat, but they both said they want to hear from us. They want to know how this stuff is impacting us. So, um, it was a robust discussion kind of like robust discussions are happening kind of all across the United States right now. But it was good because it gave people a chance to say, "Your idea might have been good with this thought, but here's how it's playing out in real life for school districts." And so, I don't know. I found it interesting this time. Did they talk about the funding formula at all? I'm on the executive board there with a guy to try to preempt the equitable funding in the formula. You know, we've talked about levy authority and some other things like that. We're going to meet with a gentleman who deals with
026this try to preempt kind of the issues of the funding formula for equity here next week. And I don't know if they said anything they didn't probably a lot of stuff. So, we're together next week to do that and bring it to the legislation to try to say here's the problem with the formula make it across the board. The one point they were both clear on is there's really no money in education. So don't count on it is basically what they told us both sides. So they may do some tweaking, they may do some things with these mandates. Um but they said do not anticipate more money. If anything there's a chance we could lose some of the promised money. So it's a little dismal I have to say. So that was that. those any
027other committee reports if you can share that information whatever you got from the meeting. Yes, I will go. I will definitely share and there's a lot you know it's brighter news meeting it's always my favorite meeting they spend a lot the first half's always informational um and we had a really good report from the learning dance team so it's the people serving um our students with the most unique needs that usually you know have quite a bit of these um and just the creativity they bring to problem solving and so this has kind of been a strange year over there for them and it was nice to hear from them just hear all the um the different ways we're supporting these kids. It was an inspiring moment. Um, and then in other scrub news, they're
028really taking a hard look at their budget process, too, and trying to be really mindful that the districts are all having our own budget problems. So, whatever they can do to keep the budget as minimal as possible, knowing that the needs and behaviors are growing. So, that's like the balance, but balance everywhere. So, it is the balance. Any other committee updates? No. Okay. If not, we will move on to the superintendent update. Superintendent just a few things to cover and then I'm going to show you something today too. So, I'll start with um so I'm a member of Rotary, been a Rotarian for a while. We had a great conversation today about mentorship. There's a program through Murray called Strive and the program really focuses on how do you support kids at really critical uh
029parts of their life to get them over the finish line. And after some conversations in district and with our Rotary members, we talked about starting a program with the middle school for next year in the fall. So I was just excited about the opportunity to talk to our Rotarians. um they're very eager to do this piece and I think anytime we can have positive influence in the lives of kids. It's a win for everybody. So um we're going to start looking at uh selections getting people on board and starting the program next fall. I'll come back and give you some updates on this piece too. This it's exciting from the perspective where again it's a community group that really cares about our kids and also I want you to know this ties directly to go
030over for planning where we talk about volunteerism and mentorship and this was one piece that we found a lot of bandwidth on because we feel like we can do a lot of good work for kids. So, uh, we had our first soup of the soup, uh, I don't know what week it was, last week. That's right. Right. Last week and we did the first topic on the bond. I thought it went really well. We had a really good attendance. Uh, good conversation, discussion, and uh, excited for the next one. Uh, going do the date and time. It's going to be May 21st, 12 o'clock at the WCCC. That topic is going to be literacy. We're trying to identify topics and we feel like again there might be some misnomers out there or some ability to
031really educate people on things. Um, you know, the comment I made to a group I spoke to this week was reading looked a lot different looked a lot different when we were in school. And I'm really excited because we're going to go over a little bit of that information, have a couple different activities to walk you through just to get an idea about really what this looks like overall. So, um, again, if you want to come to super bug meeting, come on down the 21st at 12:00 WCC. Should be a good time overall. Uh, the last piece, let me start with this before I show the video. So, one thing we've talked about as a district the last few years is how do we engage, educate, tell our story, and also get information so we
032can start changing some of the narratives that might be out there. So I have the pleasure today, one of our student planning groups has someone in the marketing department. They they work for firm in the cities and she connected me with a person that we met with today that's going to start doing some videos for us or the animation ones on different topics starting next fall. Really excited about that piece because again going through it's been a gauntlet of needs the last month. Um awesome. It's been great talking to our community, but you can tell through the dialogue conversation there's a ton of education to do. It's no different than anywhere else I've been. Education is a really complicated sort, especially financially. So, we're going to work on that internally and try to have something
033that rolls off every four to six months. Um, to just give people some ideas about how things work because I think again in the minds of people, I know we've all talked this before, we might understand it, but for a lay person, they have no idea. and then you're sitting there trying to say, "Okay, here's how this really works. I think we're just going to try some more outreach in that area and do that." On that note though, my association for superintendent uh came out with a video. I saw it at a conference I attended um this past month and we are going to launch this one right after our last bond video. Um we have one more maybe next week which will be the wrap-up one and then the week after we want to
034do this. And the reason I like this is because this is a a first take at trying to unpack school funding people. I think they did a really nice job of that piece. So when you think about and see this video real quick, which I want to show everybody, we're going to take deeper steps into this that will sort of be a branch from there. I just want you to know that's sort of one of the pieces we really want to work on. But I thought I just wanted to show you guys and I know some people already seen this piece but even for our public and again we're looking at after next week's last video for the bond series we will watch this weekend. So if you want to Just a last piece to
035that you're um you're in common things that we're talking about internally with our staff to educate and have them be voices for us as well as our community. So you really like especially on the three points they brought up the first two those are things we're we're educating people on. I want to share one last piece is that we've been meeting our student planning groups throughout the last six months. Okay. It's been awesome. Really good conversations. had one of our goal groups meet this week. number two which is more on the academics that we do and we sort of birdwalked into different conversations and we had a community member that was in the room and talked about the fact of I really appreciate because my knowledge of the school district and he's an engaged person
036but he's like I can now mimic certain things and I think you wanted us to do that so we have a baseline of when I talk about the schools I know boom boom boom I talk about funding I know boom boom boom it was really encouraging to hear that piece And also I feel like even our meetings throughout the bond campaign I see a lot more head and eyes than before. We still have work to do. I there's still a lot more to do but we're we're cracking enough. People are understanding a little bit more and we'll keep working on this piece to get more of this information out. But um I'm encouraged even though we talked about this is a tough time. It's going to be a tough four years. But I'm encouraged and
037again we're getting these messages out that people are starting to understand. So, very good. Thank you. Any questions? Yeah, I got a quick question. Love the idea about the videos. Um, question I have is are other school districts kind of talking to each other about kind of working together maybe to get some of these videos done, getting this information out because seems like all of us as schools, we're all kind of dealing with similar problems. resources. Are those conversations being had or I I wouldn't say no, but I I think that everyone's facing their own challenge at this point. So, I think it's tougher to do that piece. But I think the one piece we try to do is we try to share that information um and make sure that we're talking to each other
038because a lot of the stuff they're putting together is extremely applicable to the next district. Um especially the one that we're working on right now. Uh it'll be for the fall. It's going to be about our story about financial equity for districts spec sharing that with everyone in the corridor and with city members or sorry staff members apologize um because it's important and and you're right we just got to get this information on educator public. Any other thoughts or questions? Okay. If not, we're going to move on to the consent agenda, which includes claims and accounts, personnel, some employment contracts, extracurricular contracts, and then our past meeting minutes. So, I'll need a motion and a second to accept the consent agenda. I move that you accept the consent. We have a motion. Do we have
039a second? Any questions about that at all? I don't have any questions, but I do have a comment. Um, when I was looking through all the claims this month, I noticed that there was quite a few payments to mechanical contractors. So, I asked Robin to just do a casual quick look back three years. And she noted that we paid almost $400,000 since 2022 to mechanical contractors. Now, obviously, some of that is going to be your boiler maintenance, which we'll always have, but a majority of that is going to repairs. And so, if the referendum were to pass, we would be able to then put that money elsewhere. So, I just wanted to Oh, that's actually good. Thank you. All right. Um, we have a motion and a second. All in favor of um agenda say
040I. Again, same sign. The consent agenda passes. All right, we have no old business, so we'll move on to new business. We have some donations. Um, we have Chicago Express Foundation is giving money for scholarships of $1,000. The Elian Club is giving a $750 scholarship and resource training solutions is giving a $5,000 innovation grant. Um, so we will need this will be a resolution, but we'll take a motion to accept the donations first. I'll make a motion to accept the donations. Sarah, could we start with you, please? Sarah, I Jen, I and Lori. The donations are accepted and thanks to those that that gave for our kids. Um, we're moving on to the revised budget. Madam Chair, members of the board, let me know you're with me. Perfect. All right. So, as you know, as
041a board, um, every year when we create our preliminary budget, we're using estimates, we're using assumptions, um, a lot of unknowns that we, you know, don't know at the time. So, at this time of year, uh, we revise that budget to reflect all those changes. But just keep in mind, we're still using some estimates. They're just better estimates. There um, but a revised budget is an adjusted budget from that original budget that we had and reflects those changes. We've got some unexpected expenses that we didn't know of in last June, some changes in funding, maybe changes in enrollment. We've had that. and then some contract supplements that we've had that have come in since that original budget was presented. So the first four funds I'm going to talk about are those that are not the
042general fund. So we've got this is our preliminary budget that we had for food service, community service, debt service, and then our scholarship fund. Um and you can see where we were at at the beginning of that. And what we're doing for the revised budget is we're looking at an increase um in food service. We've got a little bit of an increase in state aid and then some decreases in federal aid, but overall we've got an about $100,000 increase in food service revenue, but we've got an increase of about $277,000 in expenses in expenses. A lot of that is salaries and benefits and food and milk prices have gone up quite a bit as well. Um, and then we've got some of some of the big expenses we already budgeted for, but we're going to
043show a change in fund balance there of about a negative $200,000. But again, that's planned. We're buying a lot of ovens. And I know Jen, you asked me some of those questions last month. Yep, we bought a lot of ovens, which is good. We need to replace a lot of them. In our community uh service fund, our revenues going up about $569,000 with expenses going up about 367,000. So, we're looking at more of a break even budget there. So, you know, following those trends, we're I think we're going to I think we're getting to that where we need to be in that fund. um debt service. We've got um an increase of uh revenue about $100,000 there and that's interest. Of course, I was being conservative with the original budget, not saying we were going
044to get as much interest, but we've still gotten quite a bit of interest this year. Um and then the expenses are pretty stable there. And the scholarship fund, you just approved a few donations for scholarships. So really the scholarship fund is just a flowthrough fund for us. we get that revenue in in scholarships, donations, and we pay them out to the higher ed um to colleges and universities for students that we pay out. So, kind of just flowing in and out and that fund balance really was built up in FY24. So, that's where you're seeing we're spending that fund balance there. So, if we look at where our estimated fund balances are going to be at the end of this year, hopefully our estimated of course, um we'll be looking at food service about $935,000.
045that is down a little bit from the preliminary um budget which was just over a million. Community eds um were showing a little higher fund balance there. We were looking at about 600,000 now 654. And our debt service fund is going up a little bit there as well. Scholarship fund we're going um it's going it's we're showing it to go up but we're actually going to take I mean we're we're spending down that fund balance because it was higher than we thought it was going to be year. Robert, can I ask you a quick question? I was just gonna say, are there any questions after these funds? So, I know that with food service, you're only allowed to carry a certain balance. Yes. What is that? They say it's right now there's they're giving us
046six months of fund balance right now. That's what it's been through co and through all through this time. They are changing it to three months, but I think it's after next year. We're still fine there. We're and that's why we're spending it down as well. We've got a healthy fund balance. We want to use it how we can. We've been purchasing the ovens. We've been purchasing some other things. We're also purchasing um cafeteria tables, which they didn't they've never let us do before. So, this is a new thing. So, we're able to purchase some of those cafeteria tables, too. And I think Laura's been working with a lot of the principles to be able to purchase some more now. So, we're fine. We're not in that point where they're going to take anything away. And
047I'm not going to take it in my 30 years. Just threaten to take away. Well, what they'll say is you need to spend that down. And I know there's legislation right now to have more flexibility with what you can do with your fruit services monies. So curious to see if that goes right. I know my organization and probably yours as well are really pushing for that just because some districts are really building that up and they don't need it right now. Well, no. Can we spend it on, you know, you know, sprucing up a cafeteria? Because before it was all you could spend it was on the in the kitchen. Nothing in the cafeteria. So they're kind of moving it out a little bit that way. So Okay. Thank you. Any other questions on these
048four funds? Okay, so the general fund, our change in assumptions there, um obviously we had a decrease in enrollment, but we did have an increase in cross um cross subsidy special education aid um which of course I was being very conservative at the beginning of of this budget as well because we were never quite sure. There's just so many estimates there. And then we did have an increase in um expenditures, increase in salaries and benefits which were some of the contract settlements, um changes in insurance, just different policies with employees changing um what they're going to do and then actual costs. So we just try and bring that budget as close as we can to possible at this time of year. So in our general funds, our preliminary budget was uh 48 million 161 changed
049that revenue to 48044. So because of that drop in enrollment, we're going to show a little bit of a decrease there in revenue. Um even with the increase in cross subsidy aid. Then on the expense side, we're going to see an increase about $350,000. Most of that being in salaries and benefits. Um just bringing it closer to actual there. We're still going to see our um estimated fund balances. And for us, our fund balance at the end of FY24 was about $500,000 higher than we estimated. So that's what brought that up to just over that $3 million. We're just seeing a slight change there in our unassigned fund balance, bringing it to about 3.1 million. And our restricted fund balance, um, we're bringing that down actually. And the restricted fund balance, that's where our LTFM
050fund balances our capital fund balances, our staff development, all of those that have restrictions on it. [Music] Um, so just showing that unassigned because that's what we talk about the most, that unassigned fund balance. We're going to be still about that 6.3% is where we're throwing. Showing you'll see the number is going up a little slightly about $89,000 and the um percent is going down just because our our um expenditures are going up. So that causes that, you know, just a little math in there, you know, where that fund or that percent is going to go down. Um, I believe that's all I have, right? Any questions on the general fund? Not a whole lot of change in the general fund. Like I said, the biggest change was in our community education fund. Any questions?
051All right. Thank you. Thanks, Robin. trying to get back to. Okay. So, now we're going to talk about the school calendar, believe it or not, for 2027 2028 because it sounds like our families like having the calendar a few years in advance so they can make that. I need a motion to approve that budget. You want us to approve your budget? Okay. Sorry. That's okay. We need a motion in this to accept a revised budget. Our auditors will ask for that. Approve. We have a motion in a second. All in favor say I. Again, same science. The revised budget passes. Thanks, Robin. Thank you. Thank you. Now, we'll move on to the 2027 2028 school year calendar. And remember, we can always make revisions if we need to as a school board, but this is
052just to get the basic calendar out there and I know Brian brought it to the superintendent council to get feedback. Is there anything else you wanted to say about it, Brian? No, I I think you hit the nail on the head. It's just an opportunity. you know, our parents are making plans ahead of time, so we're trying to meet that need as well. And we've started a tradition of bringing this to our students council for feedback. So, we did that process as well. Is there anything different from previous years? No. And again, I mean, I was we had a big year last talking about we looked at the last 5, 10, 15, 20 years the creatures have happened. There's not that time that changes, but as Lori mentioned too, if there are adjustments down the
053road for conferences, different things that might change, we just come back and adjust it later. Any questions about the calendar? There's no graduation date. Does that get later? Yeah. You'd really like the softball game to be on graduation. Well, it's right in the middle of the state tournament this year. So, all right. If no other questions, we need a motion and a second to accept the 2728 calendar. I'll make a motion to accept the calendar. We have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. Again, same sign. The calendar is accepted. All right. Now we have to establish election judge pay. Um it says compensation for election judges for the November for the special election shall be $16 an hour. Is that right? For regular judges and $18 an hour for head
054judges at the precinct. Um, and it looks like we need to take a we need to vote on this to accept that pay. And Michelle, how does that work? Like, does the county set that? Do we set that? The state sets the pay and then any other questions about the election judge agency? If not, we need a motion and a second to accept that. I'll make a motion to accept that. [Music] All right, we have a motion and second. All in favor say I. Again, same sign. Motion passes. Uh then there's a resolution for election judges because we're holding special special election on May 13th. This is something that must be done. Um anything else I need to say about this? You know, this just gives us the authority one to have these people at
055the precincts and it also gives me the authority to assign somebody if we got into a pinch and needed to quickly train somebody on the spot to be an election judge. There's actually a list of people who chosen to be election judges at the very bottom. We'll say this year we have more people doing single shifts whereas like previous years we have people like wanting to do the whole entire day. Um which is a lot of time 7 to 8 or 7 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. to a lot more people just doing like the half days which just as well. So you'll see more names but it's the same across the board. Okay. Any questions about the election judges? If not, we need this is a resolution, so we'll need a motion and then we'll
056go through a roll call vote. I'll make a motion. I'll second it. Sarah, we'll start with you. Sarah, I Jen, I and Lori I. So, the appointing of the election judges passes. Um, all right. We're moving on to the local 284 contract. And Cory's here. Cory, you have a few comments for us? Yeah, I just want to give you guys some information about the contract, but I first just want to start off by thanking a fire group, both local 284 and support members that are involved in negotiations. It's always a daunting task, but we work through it. So, um, we do feel it was a positive experience. Um, it's going to direct us in our partnership with them that we're trying to build with them. Um, just some information about it. The total package percentage
057is 10.86%. Of course, a lot of that does come from insurance because we are um increasing their insurance to the light bargaining units um and they were two years behind on that. So um so that did increase quite a bit. There was also 4% salary increase in year one which would cover the current school year and then going into year two for the next school year was at 2%. We did remove two steps from the beginning of every of the zer schedule. Um that's just to increase our starting wage to align with our comparables that we've been looking at over the years. Um we did have a slight increase to longevity and then um one thing I will say is we did go over our budget amount by about $65,000 but we do feel that
058this year we made the adjustments we needed to make and we'll possibly be monitoring from next year just to align with the budget amount that we have. Um, and then again, I just want to thank everyone that was involved and just look forward to continue working with them partnership. So, I don't know if any board members are part, but that's all I have. So, Sarah, Josh, and Jeff were the three board members that helped negotiate this contract if anyone wanted to say anything. It's just it's nice to see it all put together. There's a lot of back and forth that it was productive in the end and we got a certain place, I think. [Music] Well, thank you for the work that goes into it because I know it takes work, you know, to figure
059it out. So, both parties are happy. I know Jeff, but you want some you want to say something. Well, you know, the progress is made, I think, being collaborative and, you know, so that they're just a more pleasant process. But I think also I hope as we look forward next year just doing some preemptive meetings and some things like that. I think sometimes that we made great progress when we just could get face to face instead of coming in and you know kind of having two sides and working together to get it. So I I think next year if we can have that even meeting to sit down with Robin and kind of come up with what things cost and I think that I'm looking forward to that. That was much better that this year
060I think and I just think we're going to keep continue to progress in all of our bargaining units and how we negotiate just to make it a little bit more amicable process you know and I think the way that you do that is relationships look people in the eye so I think it's just a good experience good process so and I had a question when would retro I mean we'll discuss that our goal obviously to start is to get everyone changed to the correct step by the next payroll and we have meetings set up to get all that taken care of and get insurance as soon as possible. Um and then will follow that. Any other questions about the contract? If not, we'll need a motion and second to accept the Madam Chair. I make
061a motion to accept the uh local 284 contract 24 24 to 26. I will second it. We have a motion in a second. All in favor say I. I. Again, same sign. The local 284 contract is accepted. Um next we have a local 284U regarding flex time and work year for employees. Yeah. Yeah. So during negotiations, um, we spent a lot of time talking about there's employees who are working more days than what they're contracted for at this point. And they've always kind of worked a deal out with flex time. Um, and instead of putting something into the contract, what we decided to do is just meet with them and as of making a decision as a district, we'd rather just pay them for the days they're here um than to try to make all
062these deals and keep track of it. So we all this is agreed to do is we'll meet with the um with the union to to have a discussion around what the work here looks like for individuals. [Music] There any questions about that? If not we need a motion and a second to accept this. I'll make a motion. Second. Have a motion. Second. All in favor say I. Again, same sign. That motion passes. So now we have a resolution for not renewing. Are you guys okay? Yeah. So, we did a resolution like this the last board meeting. Um, this one was just another individual who we knew was coming. It just the timing didn't work out for the last board meeting. So, it's just on this board meeting for this individual to know um that they
063would be. So, okay. Yeah, because I thought I remember doing that last time. Okay. Um Oh, and it's a resolution. So, we need a motion and a second to accept this n [Music] teacher and then I'll make a motion. I'll second. All right. Sarah, I Jen I and Lori I motion passes. Next we have a preschool that I probably won't say as much as I say on other contracts. Um, two years ago, legislation stated that preschool teachers could be part of the CLEN contract. Uh, this was just the process of getting them in there. Um, with negotiations with CL coming up this summer, it was really just let's get something so they're part of it. Um, there wasn't a ton of changes to what they were being offered, what they were already being offered throughout
064the year. And we'll do a more broad look at it when we get to the club negotiations this summer. Any questions about the preschool? So they'll be entering into the club contract. I I you know, we got a message before we came here from Bridget Scout who's been a preschool teacher for a long time and I think they're really excited to be part of it and and looking forward to be part of that and be kind of made whole a little bit, you know, with being recognized as a certified teacher in that area. And I know we're doing some work and they're getting some of them are getting different different degrees and getting that taken care of too. So I just I think it it helps I think over a lot of years you know
065even sometimes we say um when we talk about things we say you know K through 12 this is a K through 12 school well we we kind of neglect the prek through 12 school and it becomes kind of a sensitive thing sometimes where they're kind of like this island of pre prek and I sub prek you got to go in there sometimes it's kind of fun just here a couple weeks ago was kind of fun but um I know that They're excited about being part of it. I still be there. They said a lot of things to you, too. They're looking forward to being a part of that. I see that finally come into fruition. Very good. Any other questions about it? Okay. If not, we have a motion to accept that. I make a
066motion to accept the preschool. I'll second it. We have a motion and second. All in favor say I. I. Again, same time. That motion passes. Now, we're going to be adding some schoolboard listening sessions. And [Music] so, we're opening it up. Okay. So, obviously, this was an idea that you guys have been discussing for a while. Came up the strategic plan as well. Um, and this kind of landed on goal number five, the strategic plan, which is the goal that I chair. So um through the process you know obviously our goal is uh goal number five is to engage families and community members and they really felt they wanted a listening session. So we came up with the process through feedback. I know Jenny had provided a lot of feedback for us as well. Um
067from the community members that are on the strategic plan and from the board members all of that is reflected in the school board listing session uh document that we have. Um I believe you guys all have seen a copy of it at this point. Um, and really, you know, from the strategic plan, they they did review it and they were happy with it. What they wanted out of it is just let's run through a few and then meet back up and see how it went and see, you know, what challenges we're facing and what successes we're having. Um, so with that, the procedures in there and just whatever Brian wants to add or if you have any questions about it. The only just to add is again it was a good process. I appreciate we
068talked about this early in the new year and you guys get a lot of good feedback. we can incorporate that in. Probably seen that in your review of this a couple times since that point. But yeah, we'll launch here in May. That's be every other month and rock and roll. And so we will need to choose two schoolboard members who will be manning the listening sessions. Um I think it might be easier just to do by email where people can sign up for the dates instead of us sitting here with their calendars tonight trying to figure out and we're doing every other month. Correct. Correct. start on so we'll get an email from the district office or me at some point saying sign up for days that work and so on. And I like that
069we put parameters in place so that they kind of know what the topics are going to be. Um and but it does give the public an opportunity to talk to us in a way other than coming and speaking at a big board meeting which is sometimes a little daunting for people. Um or if their topic doesn't happen to be on our agenda they have no way to talk to us. So, we'll see what how it goes. Um, but I think it's good. We'll try it out. See how it goes. So, watch for an email on the dates for that. Okay. If there's nothing further, we need a motion and second to the meeting. Have a motion. Do we have a second or want to stay? Okay. All in favor say I. I meeting. Thank you.
070[Music] Okay guys, I'm just approval.