001Good evening and welcome to the January Duth School Board um business meeting. I'm calling this meeting to order. I'm going to turn it over to clerk Mikeell for roll call. >> Member Banks >> here. >> Chair Durer >> here. Member Laughler Kemp >> here. >> Lold >> here. >> And clerk Mikeel I am here. Treasurer Sidowski >> here. >> Member Williams >> here. >> Superintendent Maggus >> present. >> Assistant Superintendent Bonds >> present. >> Deputy Clerk Zunich >> present. >> Board Secretary Pquette >> here. and making their schoolboard meeting debuts. Uh, student representative from Dunville, Tama Bulls. Student rep from East, Kalina Matila. Oh, so close. And our student rep from ALC is excused. Thank you. And we're so excited to have you here. Welcome. We will now do our pledge of allegiance. So, please
002stand if you're able. I pledge algiance 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. I'm looking for a motion to approve the agenda. >> Member Laughler Camp has made the motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Member um Saddowski has seconded it. Do we have any discussion? Seeing um no discussion, all those in favor of approving the agenda as it stands, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed. We have an approved agenda. Now, I'd like to um turn it over to Assistant Superintendent Bonds for this month's school and community recognition. >> Thank you and good evening everyone. Uh thank you for um joining us and the producers the producer is uh producing. >>
003Um so step up just a little closer and just we are really um so proud of uh what was accomplished. Uh so members of the board, tonight I am incredibly honored to recognize a remarkable student and parent dynamic duo from our district, Elani Hurt and her mother, Ashley Hurt. Elaine was recently named the 2025 2026 Trailblazer Fellow by the Anra Foundation. This prestigious fellowship provided her with the opportunity to launch a powerful and deeply personal project. It was a podcast titled Mom and Me Navigating Mental Health Together. What makes this project truly special is the partnership between mother and daughter. Ashley, she has stood s uh she stood beside Elani's side as the co-host. Together they have showed immense bravery by opening up to their audience their personal experiences with mental health. By sharing their
004journey so publicly, they are breaking down barriers, reducing stigma, and providing a sense of community with each other. And for those who face similar challenges, please join me in congratulating Elani Hurt for her fellowship and for thanking both of them. Elanie as well as Ashley for their vulnerability, dedication to mental health awareness. Congratulations. And of course, I always like to provide them an opportunity to share. And Elaine is ready to share as well as Ashley. >> Thank you for having us here today. Um, it's taken a long time. Sorry, I'm losing my voice from hockey. Um um been a long four years since we moved here to Duth, but we've learned a lot and with the help of the community, I've gained resources and the strengths and the courage to develop this podcast to spread
005awareness about mental health and to bring another resource into our community to help others. I I try not to speak for Elanie a lot, so I wanted her to have her say um there's a lot to be said about mental health. Um from what I've seen, a lot of it is surrounding crisis management and there's a lot that has to happen once they're past the crisis stage to still take a while to get back into normal life. you know, you break an arm, there's recovery that's involved. Um, the Luth has a tremendous amount of resources for as small of a a town as it really is. Um, there's members of this community that have pulled all of our family out of a dark hole. Uh, I've never done a podcast. Elen sure hasn't. If it
006weren't for Asher and everything he does for the community with his creative studio, um, DUTH creative studio, I we never would have been able to do this. If it weren't for, um, our good friends Jeba and Diana and your coaches who are, um, Casey Mickelson, also our guest speakers on the podcast, I don't think it would have quite had that extra cherry on top sort of impact that it does. So, um I don't know if we have plans for the future, but really the community helped us make this as well. So, um if there's any decisions that you're a part of going forward involving mental health, please take it seriously and and thank you for doing so in advance. >> And Laney, um before you sit down, can you just tell us all all us
007in the board and in the room and watching on YouTube, how can we listen to your podcast? Um, we have we're what are we on? We are on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple. So, those are the ways that you can listen to us. >> What's it called? >> Um, Mom and Me climbing mountains together. >> Thank you. I will listen. >> Thank you. >> I just subscribed. That's amazing. Congratulations. That was a great um school and community recognition. Thank you so much to all of you. Now we will move on to the report of the superintendent. So superintendent Maggus. >> Yes. Thank you. Let me just cast here a moment. All right. Well, thank you everybody. Um, here we are on January 20th with our superintendence report and uh for our new student representatives that will
008introduce themselves in just a moment, but uh just share usually as part of the superintendent report, your reports come as part of that. But I start off by sharing our mission which is every student every day will be empowered with learning opportunities for growth, creativity and curiosity in preparation for their future in a global community. DUTH public schools provides an academically engaging, safe and inclusive environment with high expectations and responsible use of resources and our core values are learning, excellence, equity, collaboration and belonging. So, our topics for tonight are are first of all our 2026 student representative introductions and I'll introduce our our folks in just a minute or allow them to introduce themselves. I have an update on the uh Minnesota School Board Association with the conference we attended just last week, a legislative
009update and then an update related to our board work session which is a week from today and then any other topics that come up. But first of all, uh we have three new board school board representatives and and we really appreciate the work that's done by our school board representatives providing voice to our board and for the public to hear about what's going on in our schools. Really, I think about you as the um you are the consumers of education and the most important people here. We wouldn't be here without you. So, your voices are incredibly important to us. So, uh, tonight we have, uh, two of our three representatives from the ALC. Our our representative was not able to be present, but, uh, that is Osiris Garcia Hendrickson or Henderson rather. And then, uh,
010today we have Tamia Bowels, BS, Tama BS from Denfeld, and Kina Matila, >> Matala, Kina Matela from East. So, uh, normally there's there's like a little presentation just kind of like what what you've been doing this past month, but really we just want an opportunity for you to introduce yourselves and tell you tell us a little bit about you. So, who um since they're listed here, uh, Tamia, why don't you go first and then just click the button. >> Um, I'm Tama BS from Denfeld. Um, I'm a junior this year. And then, um, I a couple clubs and stuff that I'm in is student government, uh, dashboard, which is Denfield after school happenings. Um, >> yeah, I think that's probably it. >> That's great. >> Thank you. >> Hi everyone. My name is Kina Mala
011and I'm the representative for East High School. I'm a part of a couple different things at East and that includes student government. I'm also one of the officers for our duth key club which is a volunteering club and I'm a part of sources of strength duth deca and I'm also a part of circle of friends and hound pack and then outside of east I also am a part of youth and government and I'm I also play piano and those are kind of some things about me and I'm really excited to be working with all of you. Welcome. We're so so glad to have you on our working with us and and representing your the students in your your uh uh buildings. We'll also be setting up an opportunity to meet with your principal and with
012the board chair and myself just to kind of talk through, you know, the different role and and what it looks like and also talk about like when you're putting together your board report, what what it can look like and then also, you know, talking with the principal about what the what is in the board report. So maybe, you know, if there's something that he can fix, you know, there and then for you, that's something that helps out too, right? But really appreciate you being here and I join the board and saying welcome to Duth Public Schools School Board. The next is our Minnesota School Board Association conference update. We went to our conference on uh Wednesday night and attended all day Thursday and then on Friday uh learning about uh many different topics whether it
013was um uh topics provided by even some of our own presenters. We had um we had Danette Sibo and um Todd McGawan were presenting on emergency response and crisis response and so that was really awesome. Uh so that was that was one of our our conference uh presentations. Uh but but we had a wonderful time and here's our annual photo standing next to the MSBA letters. Uh all of us there that that attended. Uh but a couple of highlights that I want to particularly mention. Uh one one of the biggest highlights, the biggest most important award given across the state for Minnesota schoolboard uh work is the all state school board. And uh this year, Jill Lo was recognized as a member of the 2026 MSBA allstate school board. She also was unanimously um elected
014unanimously to the district 11 director position for the MSBA uh board of directors. So So want to first say congratulations, Joe. And actually, it's two years in a row that we've had with I mean, there are only seven people that are on on that board. And so to have a nomination ever is really quite a feather in our cap, but to have back-to-back winners with uh with Rosie Laughler Kemp having won last year, that's excellent. So, we'll see who can win next year, right? Uh but we also want to say uh congratulations to Sarah Mel. She was recognized for having uh received a leadership development certificate. And I've got that for you here uh for having completed all four phases of the MSBA training. And so this is the uh certificate that Sarah has uh
015won and I will be bringing it over to her. Great. Congratulations. >> I didn't want to pass it down. And then for our legislative update, uh we are coming into the 2026 legislative session uh very soon. Uh we're scheduled actually to meet with our local representatives a week from today in preparation for the legislative session. Uh we have quite a few people that will be part of that meeting. Uh then we also worked uh together to and facilitated the drafting of a joint letter from 11 state organizations urging bipartisan support for the reinstatement of protected status to schools related to immigration enforcement. So again, that uh letter was just about um trying, you know, not not trying to dive into the the uh the the debate going on uh across the state, but just to
016say let's let's keep our schools out of the immigration uh piece. And that so that was what we're hoping for. And so 11 state agencies signed on to it. And we there's uh pretty massive support for that. We're also planning for our 2026 legislative session lobbying efforts which include um the AMSD preview on February 6th. So I'll be attending that and if if a board uh representative might want to join me that would be great. And then we also have the Duth St. Louis County Days on March 18th and 19th and many other opportunities like the MSBA day, MASA. And so, uh, making sure that we're lobbying for our needs as a district is one of our important roles that we have. We also have a work session coming up. Our work session is coming
017up um from 4 to 7:00, one week from today on the 27th. And we'll be focusing on uh the following topics. Uh, legislative platform. Again, we'll be meeting with our legislative representatives. Uh, quite a few are able to join us, so that's great. Uh, we'll also be uh working on our book study. Uh we'll having more conversation on growth and capacity. Uh and then we will also be having some conversations about budget. But I would uh recommend Oh, looks like I have the number seven twice. Uh in preparation for the book study, board members are reading chapters seven and eight from our book. It's only about 15 pages, so it shouldn't be uh if you're just getting to it now, it shouldn't be too bad. Uh but it's the school board members guide book, becoming
018a diff maker for your district. So that concludes my brief report from Superintendent tonight. >> Thank you. Do we have any questions for Superintendent Magus? >> Member Laughler Kim. >> Just a comment. Um I just wanted to uh thank Superintendent Maggus as well as assistant superintendent Bonds for joining us at the NSBA conference. It's always great to have our superintendent there with us and uh uh going to workshops and and uh just being a part of that. So, thanks for supporting us to go and grow as uh schoolboard members and learn, but also for you taking the time to be there with us. So, thank you. >> Thank you. And I really want to say thanks to you as in as a board as a whole, but also as individual board members for uh giving
019up, you know, nearly three full days of time to invest in in uh going from good to great and and learning. Uh and so really appreciate everybody's time there. And also thanks to uh executive assistant uh Patty Pquette who uh did all the coordination, arranged the meals, arranged the rooms, everything else. So thank you everybody who was part of part of that effort. Thank you, member uh Wler Kemp. >> Seeing no other discussion, we'll move on to a report from standing committee. We'll have um Assistant Superintendent Bonds. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Attached to your board book, you can see there is a schedule of meeting and events. And as Superintendent Maggus um pointed out, we have a schoolboard work session on Tuesday um January 27th at 4. And then we also h Yep. Tuesday. And
020then uh then we also have some other meetings that week. And then following February 5th, we will have our February um monthly committee of the whole not report but actual meeting. Now we will have our committee of the whole Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see um >> I just turned it on. >> Um just I was just thinking of our student reps who are here. Um if you have questions, just push the button. We'll see your green light and then um the chair will call on you. That's all. >> Thank you, Member Williams, for pointing that out. >> It's one of the little technicalities that we have to figure out. Um, okay. So, we did our SK uh schedule of meeting and events. Now, we'll move on to reports of our standing committee. And now
021we will turn it over to Assistant Superintendent Bonds for the report on the monthly committee of the whole meeting. >> Thank you. And thank you, Member Williams, for pointing out to our student reps and your input and thoughts are always appreciated. So, don't hesitate. You can push that green light and we will call on you. So, um please do that. Um so thank you again. Um for the cow meeting under supporting every student there was a presentation provided by the director of secondary schools Jen Larva. Uh she provided the 26 27 course changes. So I do encourage individuals to um please uh go on the uh website and you will be able to find the course changes that were being presented for uh approval um this evening. So thank you to uh director larva and
022everyone who worked on developing those courses and for the uh changes that we made for next year. Uh also under the umbrella of um teacher learning board summary reports there were four provided um during that session under keyone. Melissa Fanny and Kate Corbett provided a summary report related to their programming with our child care provider in our schools which is Keyzone. also a presentation by uh director Lara. She had several um that day. Um under that uh provide an update related to uh our check and connect programming which is our mentoring programming um that we provide our high school students. Um it's more than mentoring but um to capture it in in a succinct way I think of it as our mentoring program for our students. Um our check and connect uh uh update was
023provided by Jen Larva as well as the secondary schedule update provided by Jen and the course credit update also provided by director larva. So just want to say thank you to uh director larva for getting those uh summary reports and working with the team to uh create those things because a lot of information was gathered and provided. So I want to say uh thank you to her publicly and to everyone who worked on it with her. And that concluded our cow meeting agenda. >> Do we have any questions for Assistant Superintendent Bonds? And I think I see member Loalts. Member Williams, could you slide yours out a little bit? Okay, perfect. Um, member Loeld and then member Laughler Camp. So just a quick um thank you about um I just some feedback because I think
024this was our first cow meeting >> where really it was our second cow meeting but the first cow meeting I didn't quite understand the whole um kind of what are we calling it informational presentations >> what is it called >> board summary board reports >> summary board reports so we had one on key zone and then again on check and connect and even secondary school schedule and I I just want to give you some feedback that I found am refreshingly strong and you know not I think I panicked a little bit because we've been been doing a lot of you know kind of longer presentations but looking at all of the things we have to cover and cow meetings are so incredibly interesting they're incredibly important to us and so I thought that key zone
025and check and connect especially you know you captured you know kind of that essence and gave us some great feedback so I want to um I want to continue to re, you know, refine that, listen to that, make sure it's working for everyone else. I I thought it worked this this month and so I just want to give you that feedback. I really want to appreciate I it seems to me we just start this the school year like it's like September and our curriculum and our leaders that are sitting back there are already visioning for the next school year. like once we get it started, you guys are well on your way because to bring to us in January your course catalog changes and then to see all of the um course offerings, all of
026the opportunities for our students, all of the alignment to standards that you have been doing behind the scenes for the last five to six months, maybe even much longer because your visions are going there. I just thought that was incredible and um and overwhelming and I had to spend more time afterwards just sifting through it and I I did sift through it again tonight and I'm I'm ready to support those course changes but you know just a real appreciation for the what we're doing for a district to move our district forward. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> I'm sorry. Okay, great. Um, I I also um just wanted to comment on the course catalog and I appreciated the additional information uh and clarifications on the broadcast journalism class um course uh and uh the
027continued u rationale for the changes. Um, I'm going to uh I I look forward to um hearing kind of those next steps for staff involvement in uh the the creating of that course as well as um future opportunities for student involvement uh and uh and feedback on what they like and what they felt uh might be missing as well. So, I just appreciated the additional information because we did talk quite a bit about that and I know there were other board members besides myself that raised some uh questions on on that switch. So, appreciated the followup on that. And, you know, I I concur like we talked about at the meeting too, just we offer so many rich courses here in our district and and new electives and and we're uh we're very um we're
028very fortunate that we do. Our students are very fortunate as well in the the community. So, uh, thank you for all the staff time that put into, um, rethinking the courses and, um, uh, working to meet the, uh, working to see that they meet the needs of, um, our future. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Seeing no other excuse me comments, we'll move on next to our human resources and business services to member Stouski. >> Yep. We had our HR business services committee meeting on Monday, January 12th. And um you can find that meeting on YouTube. I'd really uh recommend everyone to kind of check out our YouTube for all of our committee meetings. Um that's where you can see us go through our whole meeting. Um, we address a lot of different reports. Um,
029in that meeting, we had a a little over an hour meeting that day. I'm going to hit the highlights here and then open it up to questions. Um, hopefully everyone had a chance to review our HR packet um on board book. So, my first update from our HR report um is that the um Minnesota PFML paid family medical leave has begun and our district has seen 20 applications so far. Uh we asked a few questions about that. There's a 5050 contribution. So, that's a um a benefit where the employee contributes a little and the employer um contributes a little. Um and then I had asked um a few other questions about that including if we're allowing um topping off of it's PFML's just been in my brain because of work. Um so I had asked
030about that and we're not doing a top off which means if someone qualifies for PFML um they they get a percentage of their wage um and that's what they get. Um, let's see. We also received a request to bargain from NCBA, which is the non-certified business division administrators association, and we're currently still in negotiations with the DEWA group, which is the DUTH districtwide um administrators association. Moving on to our enrollment report, um we are still above where we were last year. So, that is good news. So, that's what I would say about our enrollment report. Um we've talked about how our enrollment is growing in the district and we're very uh thankful for that and thankful for the work of um everyone in our district for creating robust uh electives. Uh the work that we've
031done on our uh secondary schedules and our middle school schedules um our Spanish and our jiuway immersion. I think there's a lot of reasons um for increased enrollment. Seeing no questions or buttons pushed. So far, I'll just keep going on. So, our child nutrition report, a lot of information in there, but one thing that we talked about that director Zunich pointed out is uh that we recently added an extra serving line window for Orine lunches. And that has been a really great thing for our dean students, making sure that they're getting through the line quicker, have more time to eat, have more time to take a little take a little break and get through that lunch line. So really appreciate the work of our staff uh who made that happen for our DNA students. I
032know um that getting through the lunch line at any of our schools can sometimes be a challenge. So appreciated hearing that from a parent perspective too. Our facilities report uh construction on the first street uh building remains underway. Uh and then there was a long list which hopefully you got to review of many projects happening at all of our schools across the district. And uh we also gave a shout out to our facilities staff uh for maintaining operational standards despite um recently in the last month flu has been going around. I think we all know that but they've experienced that too. So a lot of times that work still needs to happen and it falls on fewer people. So, we really appreciate our facilities staff. Um, for our technology report, um, we heard a little
033bit about this in public comment today, but Google Gemini, uh, was enabled for staff in the beginning of January, uh, after educators were provided additional AI training. So, there's that staff piece. Um, and then we're still hiring for um, several key technology positions at this time. And later I'll talk about uh in our expenditure contracts something one that's kind of related to that to those gaps. Actually that was more related to HR actually now that I think about it. Seeing no lights on so far. I'll keep going. Um so for transportation um we have a like a driver trainee program and we had a driver trainee who passed his test and is now licensed uh to be a bus driver which is really great to hear. And we have 29 buses in our district with
034an average mileage of those being 100,141 miles of of roads. It's a lot of roads to travel in Duth. For our resolutions, we just have the resolution for donations to DUTH public schools coming from our committee. Uh we are I just would point out that a great majority of these were for the ALC student holiday auction which is a really special event each year. I know that um member Mike Cell at our HR committee shared that she was able to go I think along with member um Williams. So, appreciate you both going on on behalf of the board and um it sounds like it was another special event. And then on our consent agenda, um there is an individual contract for our director of human resources, Steve Johnson. We're uh really glad to have Steve
035on our team. Um so, you'll see that on there. And then, of course, our financial report, which is on page, for me it's page 31. And I'm going to flip to that and just make a few comments. Hopefully everyone heard the full report. But there are a few things to point out on here. So I would just point out that um for the food service, we're sitting at a you'll see in the kind of the far right hand column a percent spent line. And that's more of a a guideline because it really depends on maybe when we spend money throughout the year. For example, if we spend um a lot on technology in the beginning of the year because we need it at the beginning of the year, you might see a higher percentage based
036on the percentage of where we're at in the year. Um but for food service, you'll see it's at 73%. Uh and you may remember that in December, our auditor said that we're in a good position. We do buy a lot of um materials for our food service upfront. So that's why I'll see that. Member Banks, I just saw your lights on. >> Yeah. >> Do you want to May >> May I? >> Yeah, please. >> So just a quick question for our student representatives. I don't know if they have the answer to this question. um wondering how the lines are for high school lunches and are you experiencing any of the same kinds of things that Wordine East has experienced? >> I think I can speak directly about this even though I'm a junior this
037year so I'm able to go off campus and I don't usually eat the school lunch this year. I know last year a lot of my fellow peers, they had the issue of not getting food until sometimes the last 10 or 15 minutes and I feel like it's been an issue since middle school and I'm really glad that they've had that accessibility and I was wondering if there was any way we can make that for East High School cuz I know there's still a lot of students that are getting their food late and we do have a lot of people there. So that's something I want to touch on too. Um, I would probably say that also at Denfield there has been like a lot of like the lines are really long and then um I
038also would agree with her. A lot of the time we have to sit at best especially in the hot food line um we end up having by the time we get our food there's only 10 minutes left of um uh lunch and I think for me and a lot of my friends um when it takes that amount of time then we just end up leaving which then leaves that us having to spend our own money on food because it's going to take too long and we won't have enough time to even eat it especially if it is just the hot food and I would also say that a lot of the times um we do run out of food quite often, I would say. Um, even though like it's just like too it is majority
039of the food, even if it's just the hot food. Um, but yeah, so I think that's something that could that might need work on just making sure that the lines are more efficient for everybody. >> I'm excuse me, I'm hopeful that we can look into that as well. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, thank you for that good question, Member Banks. And I know um I have a junior at East who um usually packs a cold lunch from home. Is lucky that he can do that. Um but yeah, I think one of the reasons he does that is the long lines and not wanting to just wanting a little more time to eat. So thank you for those comments from our student schoolboard reps. Seeing no other lights on, I'm going to continue with the kind
040of some comments on our um budget summary. So, I was talking about our food service. We're in a good position there as far as where we're at with the budget anyway. And for transportation, we're at about 64% and really at this time um of the year, it should be closer to that 50%. So, we're running over budget on transportation. A lot of that has to do with um increased busing needs, fu fuel costs, and then um our third-party contracts with Voyager Bus. So, just wanted to point that out. And then our general fund is sitting at about 40 49%. Which normally we'd like to see it around that 43 to 44%. Um, a lot of this is because we have um a lot of special ed needs that as we know aren't cut fully covered
041and so then when they're not they're pulled out of the general fund. Um, also increased busing and then just increased staff needs as well. So, those are some of the reasons. And then I also would just kind of point out um a couple of the um kind of unfunded mandates that are kind of happening uh with the Reed Act, which is wonderful. Um but that also comes with lane changes. Um steps or lanes, one of the two um which is our teachers fully deserve, but that is a cost to the district. And then uh another one was subs um for PFML I believe. Was that right, Director Zunich? So if it was one subs for hold on >> overloads. Yep. For PFML. So you know the PFML is paid family medical leave from the state,
042right? we pay in the the employer and the employee both pay in um but that doesn't also doesn't cover a sub that might be needed during that. So that'll be something that's coming up. So just wanted to point that out. Any questions or comments on the budget? Member Eer Chair Eater. So, I know you said we had 20 applications so far and this um new act has been that went into effect in January 1st or >> so are we do we have any idea what we're thinking of the number of people that are going to apply for this and do you think tw does 20 seem reasonable right now for an act that's just been for about two weeks two two and a half weeks? So, I'm just curious your thoughts on that. Um, it's
043hard to tell because we have leave options with the district and with the state and because you can't combine them both. Uh, people can look at what the best option is. Um, I can tell you as of today we had 40 applications. So that's doubled since our HR business meeting. >> Member Lald or were you done chair? Did you have a followup? Okay. So then I'm just thinking about as we think about our legislative agenda moving forward and then already sort of being somewhere between 6 to 7% outpacing where we should be for our general fund budget. I know that we have these increased costs due to special education and transportation and other things, but what are we thinking? Um, did we think ahead in terms of how this PFMLA was going to affect our
044sub needs and how we're going to address that as we kind of move forward. >> I did build a number into this year's budget when I built it last uh spring. Okay. And then lastly, how long will are we going to be getting contributions from the state of Minnesota for this program? Is it just a one-year where they're sort of doing some reimbursements for us or not? Or am I misreading that? >> No, it's a it's kind of like Medicare or something like that. I would let Steve maybe chime in, but it's a employee both paid by the employee and the employer. >> So, we do have to chip in. There's a tax that the state >> has on employees and the employer and there's a cap on how much it can be and then
045the employee and the employer are splitting that tax. >> So we are as of right now we are receiving money from the state to cover some of this or no that's another I'm thinking earn we're paying money for the benefit of it. >> Okay. >> And then if they go on the leave through the state we aren't paying that leave the state of Minnesota is. >> Okay. But it all depends which option they're using. >> OP. Okay. Thank you. >> I'm done now. Thank you. >> Glad you're here, Steve. Thank you. U member Loalt. >> Yeah. Glad you're here, Steve, too. Um are we are we adding staff to our HR just to cover some of the mandated um earn safe in sick time and the PFLM? Did I get that? P. Is there more?
046I mean, do we need a staff person just to oversee that? >> We have a we have two benefits uh people. We have a coordinator and a specialist. And as of now, that's what we're expected to to use. And it's it's working. >> Okay. Okay. >> It's just a matter of us communicating with the state, the state approving it, and then us getting the letters out. So, as of now, it's definitely manageable. >> Okay. That's really good to hear because sometimes I think for me personally I'm I'm going to go to the legislators and say see this is the unintended consequence of you know really good legislation. I you know I appreciate that but you know there's always that extra either staff and I'll go into that letters thing too. That's another thing that we
047certainly um are are grateful and and appreciative and um lucky to have teachers and staff that have trained in the letters and are bringing that kind of instructional uh excellence to our students. But what I want legislators that I sit right at the table with and I want them to say I want them to know that we appreciate it but that with that it's also puts a little bit more of a strain and not that I think they should pay for that letters thing but although there's some continuing money we'd like for more training right back there Jen and Brenda. Um so that could be something I'm just trying to think of how we go forward and ask legislators with stories. they like examples and so we want to do that too. And then my
048last comment is um we are so fortunate to have Simone Zunich at the lead of our CFO. Um the fact that over my years on the board I have learned so much about finances but but the tools that that our our work has done. I mean we funded and and and have allowed our district to buy and and use tools to help Simone. the fact that she's got future forecasting, she can go four, five years out so that we're not caught with like kind of a gotcha year. We we know percentages of where we're at every month. I don't think there's a lot of boards as I listen to other board meetings, they're not getting that kind of budget updates and budget finance. So, just really um feel confident about even though it's a tight
049budget and yeah, I'm appreciative of that. >> So, >> thank you for your comments. Oh, go ahead. Sorry, >> Superintendent M. >> Go ahead. If if I could uh comment though, there previously before um Mr. Johnson became director of human resources when we were doing our budget reductions when we're looking at the human resources staffing, there were some different considerations of where we might make reduction. Uh but because we knew of this uh impending change, we uh there was there was a position that we decided we needed to keep or you know basically within the department because we didn't want to uh take away from that knowing that we had these added added needs. So even though we're not adding, we didn't take away partly because uh we knew this was this was coming. >>
050Great. Thank you. All right, I will continue under our miscellaneous information. Um, on page 38, at least in my packet, you'll see that we had a I wanted to point out that we had a notice of intended projects. And these are, um, projects that are embedded in our LTFM plan, our long-term facilities maintenance plan. It's strictlyformational, but you can kind of get a update on some projects that are happening or upcoming. So, I just wanted to point that out. And then under our expenditure contract, um you'll see one a couple that I wanted to point out. We had a quite a few, but one was for uh solar and that well was for Whipfly and it's our solar project audit. And so this is kind of the last piece of the solar. And I made
051sure to go connect with some of our climate club students that were here um after public comment just to kind of let them know about this final piece. Even though it's kind of an administratively boring piece, it's important. So there's this audit that's going to happen that Whipley is going to do for us. It's where we'll submit our last invoices and then um we may get a $200,000 tax credit back. That's something that we'll see uh probably in FY27. But um just wanted to point that one out. Kind of one of the last pieces of that. And then also at the top you'll see a couple human resources um consulting contracts and that's really going to help fill gaps, some current gaps and provide just some extra support to our human resources team. Superintendent Magus,
052do you have anything to add to that? uh just that um we have somebody going off going out on an extensive leave that is part of uh that one of those gaps and so this is uh more to uh fill that key position because that key position has uh content knowledge specific to payroll. Uh and we we want to make sure that our our payroll continues as as it should. Uh yes. >> And so so it's um it it is providing a little a little bit of support to um Mr. Johnson as Director Johnson as he moves into his position. Uh but it's more about uh filling that position as opposed to being an additional contract because sometimes we have questions about additional contracts and just wanted to clarify that. >> Thank you for clarifying
053that. I appreciate that. Um, member Loalt, >> I hate to keep, you know, hogging the the microphone, but that that was one of my questions after listening and and taking notes during the f during your meeting last week. I just I just don't understand what a solar project audit is and that it cost $6,250 and is that part does that come from the grants that we've gotten? I just don't know what a what that is. So, I know that some >> I'll let Director Zunich speak to that. I think she could do that a little more clearly. >> Thank you. So this is the la as um member Saddowski said this is the last part of our solar project because of the monies that we received for it. Um we've also were able to apply
054for a tax credit but we have to hire a CPA. It can't just be done in house. The CPA has to follow file these tax credits. It's an intensive process. So, one of the auditors at auditors at Whipley will be doing that work for us and they can't do it till FY27 because it was installed in FY26. They have to wait for the school year to be done. So, this is the last piece and now we should be able to receive a significant amount of money to offset the original purchase. >> Great. Thank you for that. Chair Eater. >> Um, you said once the audit is done, we have the potential for a $200,000 and that's cash back to us. >> Cold hard cash. Okay, good. Cuz I'm like tax credit. Who do we pay
055taxes to? But okay, so that is cold hard cash back to us. And then if I did my math right and I was thinking district, we have somewhere around 1,00 employees. Do you want me to answer? It's uh over 1,600 to 1,700. >> 1,700. Okay, never mind. Then my math is wrong. Cuz I was trying to look at what percentage of our workforce is um applying for this. So I'm just curious if that's something that other districts and other businesses are tracking to look, okay, once this is now we have a percentage of our workforce that's applying for this. Does that seem high? Does that seem low? Just I'm just trying to wrap my arms around what this is going to look like for us. and it is very unpredictable, but I will go back
056and redo my math on that one because it's probably now around 2 to 3% I would think. Okay, thank you. >> Great. Thank you. And uh the last couple things I'd point out is uh we had one revenue contract on page 116. Um and this was for the St. Louisis County Family Services Collaborative who's providing funding for our MTSS uh multi-tered systems of support. And then our grant applications uh are on one page 119. And I would just say that we had a handful of grant applications and I really appreciate the work of the folks that are writing those grants. That's a lot of work to do and we really appreciate um especially in these times folks that have that skill set and are willing to put in that work for grants for resources for
057our schools. Any other questions or comments or um members my cell and banks if I forgot anything important that you think I should have brought up. Okay. Thank you. Member Laughler camp for our policy review. Yep. Thank you. Um so our policy committee met on Tuesday, January 13th and our policy committee this year uh includes uh Joe Lo and Stephanie Williams. So thank you uh both. Uh, and also want to um uh as always uh thank Patty Pquette for all the work that she does to um uh the research and the work to um bring our policy committee together. Uh for the uh student reps that are here, just to let you know, all of our our policies that you're going to hear us talk about uh are on our website. Uh, and so you
058can go and do some research on uh um uh they're all by different topics um on what they're about. Uh and uh the um many of our policies uh most of our policies are based on state statutes and laws. Okay. So when you go through that. So uh I I did not ever think policy would be something I would be really interested in when I think I was your age, but I think it's pretty cool now. So um uh but if you have questions along the way, please feel free to ask. So um we um uh had one policy for first reading. Uh that's policy 612.1 development of parental involvement policies for title one programs. And this is replacing 1067 parent community involvement policy. And uh we always like to read just the purpose of
059the policy. uh so the community can hear but all of the policies have many other sections in them uh as well but uh so I'm going to read the purpose of this policy is to encourage and facilitate involvement by parents of students participating in title one in the educational programs and experiences of students. The policy shall provide um the framework for organized, systematic, ongoing, informed and ti time timely parental involvement in relation to decisions about title one services within the school district. The involvement of parents by the school district shall be directed towards both public and private school children whose parents are school district residents or whose children attend schools uh within the boundaries of the school district and uh a lot of input was um uh brought forward uh with this policy and want
060to thank our uh principal Dr. Darren Sheldon uh who is our oversees our federal programs with bringing together um some of the different committees um that brought this policy forward. Uh and um you can go through and uh see the legal references and cross references uh that go with this policy. So this is a first reading uh and it will come back next month for a second reading. Uh the next policy uh oh the the other thing I just wanted to say on that um we we have another policy that's being worked on uh that's broader than title one and it's policy 909 which is the family community school engagement policy and um I just want to highlight this we're replacing uh uh 1067 but there's a separate policy that we're that's in the works
061um that you'll continue to hear about. The next um uh thing on our agenda then was uh policy for a second reading and policy 709, student transportation safety policy. And this is replacing 3150 and 3160. and the student transportation safety policy. The purpose of this policy is to provide safe transportation for students and to educate students on safety issues and the responsibilities of school bus ridership. Uh we had a good discussion uh this month as well just on the variety of ways that uh training happens for our students uh and our staff. And then also uh we talked a bit more about the student transportation safety hazard committee that school boards uh may establish and we have established it. Uh and um we have a board rep I believe it's Henry Banks that is serving
062on that as well. So that is our uh uh this is the second reading for policy 709. And again, this policy um is replacing 3150 and 3160. And then the last uh thing that we spent time on uh was policies to consider for deletion. And um board members know we've been going through all our thousand series. Um and the last two series is 8,000 and 9,000. And um we reviewed those policies. There were nine in the 8000 series under school board and four under schoolboard bylaws. And uh we uh recommend um deleting it for now. Uh many of these policies that fall fell under the 8,000 and 9,000 series uh we already had passed and they went to our 200 series and we uh adopted them. uh in between April 2024 and and June 2024.
063Uh so we are recommending um those be deleted. Uh and we um uh all of the series that we've been reviewing over the last year in the thousand series um we either deleted or they're in committees right now being worked on and they'll be brought back to us. So, um, that was our policy meeting, uh, for January, and we, uh, are just really excited to have gotten to that, uh, drum roll point of reviewing all of the the thousand series. So, >> thank you. Is right. Thank you. Um, any quick questions, members? Yep. Just a comment. I really appreciate the work of uh everyone who's served on our policy committee over the last four to six years. I remember having conversations about how to tackle all of these policies um probably four and a half
064years ago now. Um and so just appreciate your work chairing that committee throughout the last four years. And uh again, I would just echo your thanks to Patty too for uh her work on the policies. >> Thank you. U member Loalt, >> members beat me to the punch because I was going to say the same thing just um we just finished a year my first year on the policy committee and um I learned a lot and really appreciate all of the the years that you have been doing this. Um and and the fact that we can delete these series is a a real um testament to you know the the work of the committee, the work of your staff um here because the people sitting in the back of the room too are the ones
065that are really bringing the people together to sort it all out. And then we have our MSBA colleagues that double check and give you all the legal ease and all the the double things. And then I just want to thank member Mike Cell too. That was your your first you were on the policy committee for two years and just really I know you're moving to the finance committee and we get to welcome back member Williams and um but I just want to thank you too for your work there. I learned a lot. >> That's the Oh, >> just uh one one comment. I know we've we've gone through the series for the most part. We do have the six the 6,000 and the 7,000 series to come back to. Uh so we've got those those
066to do yet. Uh but but really appreciative of all the work and I today more than ever I just think about how irreplaceable Patty is and she's an amazing amazing uh support to all of us. >> Thank you. Okay. Any other comments? Okay. Thank you. Thank you for those committee updates. Now, do we have any general board committee updates that the board would like to share? Member Saddowski. Yeah, I'm just getting out my notes. One second. I have the page I think I have the right notebook open. So, yeah, I was just going to give a report about the Head Start Policy Council meeting. Um, let's see. I forget which date it was exactly. Hold on. Sorry. I have this electronic notebook and sometimes it doesn't want to cooperate. But regardless, I would Oh, it
067was on um January 8th and um these are uh held at Lel Elementary in one of the Ojiway immersion classrooms, which is kind of fun. Um, but a great group of parents again and I would say an update from this meeting is that um, I might get the name wrong, but Jen Fuches, a mental health coordinator, was there to kind of give an update to the Head Start Policy Council parents and those of us that were in attendance. Um, she talked about current needs and responses to needs um, especially in regard to mental health in preschool. So, that was really interesting. And then um one of the parents has been collaborating with um one of our education coordinators in Head Start to kind of put together uh extended learning kits. So when kids are not
068able to go to Head Start, maybe for illness or one reason or another, they can have these little kits and usually um they identify items that anyone would have in their home. um so that the parent can then be kind of the teacher at home with their kids. So that was kind of neat. >> U member Loeld. So to just like um members Zidowski, all of us sit on committees and they're all rolling out now this month and we've got new committees that we've been assigned, but I know that um I think ours was also on January 8th, but member Mike Cell and I attend the quality steering committee. It's the committee that goes from 8:00 till noon. um once five times a year or so every other month or so. Um and it's a
069as schoolboard members, we're really there to listen. It is a meeting that brings together our administration team, our um um DFT president and the officers for DFT. And then there are representatives from all of our our our our people like our principles and our teachers and our sped department. And so it's really a a bringing forth. And if you have never seen the kind of scaffolding as well because this is a group that has already met in other smaller groups with just their um colleagues to you know talk about um successes and challenges and then they bring um them to the quality steering committee and I I'm sharing that I we we went um member Mike Sel and I we are representatives of the school board. our job is to to just listen and to
070be there to watch um this labor management process. And so I just want to really assure other staff and workers in our building and our district because there's been some comment that board members need to be more involved in our labor management and um this is where we are involved and it's a big it's a big lift and we're there um and we really do listen and we understand and we get to listen to every voice there and then we're there that that's where we get information. And so I just want our community to know too that not only do we attend other functions, but this is a regular, you know, formal, it has an agenda, it has a process, um, and it is, you know, factual and it's credible and it it is what
071we do to help our district move and and and celebrate and to pro um and to move forward with challenges. So, just want to be clear that the school board is um a part of the labor management and I'd like thank you for being on the um putting me on that committee, but I also know that all of us would like to serve on that committee, but again, the meeting time and the commitment for those of us that have 40hour a week jobs. I'm blessed that I'm retired and can serve the board and I'm honored to do that, but it is on behalf of all of us that were there. So, I just want to um and and the notes are the minutes are on our staff um monthly um newsletter that goes out. So,
072I encourage all of us to read those minutes and if you have any questions, you can certainly work reach out to member Mike Seller myself. >> Thank you, member Laughler Kemp. >> Thank you. Um and I had served on that committee for many years and I I'm not this year. And um uh I do encourage everyone to review the the minutes and that and I appreciate uh what member LoD said that the two of us who do who have served or are currently serving on do go there on behalf of the whole board. Um I uh one of the committees I serve on is the Duth Public Schools Endowment Fund. um which is an endowment fund that um allows uh school staff and uh buildings to apply for grants of 500 to building wide 5,000
073uh dollars. Uh and uh today was the day that the um the uh it opened up for uh staff to start applying and it goes the application process goes until February 19th and then um the there is a committee that will review the grants and then it'll come in front of um our board in April uh for approval. Uh we generally give about 20 grants from um schools across the district. Uh and many of them are um a staff or two that uh do a grant application together. Um but there's buildingwide grant applications and um that has a focus on mental health funding. Uh so it's uh we really appreciate the community that uh supports this DUTH public schools endowment fund uh and the other um board of directors for this uh are often retired
074teachers in our district uh or community members and it's um administered by the boreal foundation the uh former duth community foundation. So, I just wanted to announce that uh the applications are open today. Uh and you every uh the applications are really easy for staff to apply for. It's it's very streamlined. So, uh spread the word amongst your um friends in the district. So, thank you. Seeing no further um excuse me, seeing no further clubs or I don't know why I just said club. Seeing no further committee reports, we will now move on. Sorry, I lost where my agenda was at. We will now move on to the consent agenda. Do we have a motion to accept the consent agenda? So move. >> Member Loalt has made a motion to accept the consent agenda. Do
075we have a second? Member Williams has seconded seconded the motion. Do we have any discussion on the consent agenda? Seeing no discussion on the consent agenda, all those in favor of passing the consent agenda, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed. We have passed the consent agenda. Moving on to resolution from committee reports. Um, member Saddowski, you have acceptance of donations to the Duth Public Schools. >> Yes. I move resolution B-1-26-4154. This is the resolution for the acceptance of donations to Duth Public Schools. >> Thank you. Member um Saddowski has made a motion to accept the donations to the Duth Public Schools. Do we have a second? Member Banks has seconded it. Do we have any discussion? >> Seeing no discussion on acceptance of the donation to the Duth public schools. All those in favor
076of this motion, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed. We have accepted the donations to the duth public schools. Moving on, we have special resolutions and action items. We have a resolution for employment of a school board member by the district. Member Laughafler Kemp. I move resolution HR1264152 uh employment of a schoolboard member by the district whereas the schoolboard member below uh will be employed by the duth public schools doing their service as a school board member and whereas Minnesota statute 123 123b 195 board members right to employment requires that the member receive a majority approval by the school board to be uh initially employed or to continue in employment at a meeting at which all board members are present. And whereas Minnesota statute 123b 195 board members right to employment states that the employment
077relationship will not exceed $20,000 in a fiscal year excluding compensation for being a schoolboard member. It re resolved that the school board authorize the employment of the following schoolboard member as listed not to exceed 20,000 in a fiscal year and it's board member Jill Lo January through December 20 2016. Do we have We have a motion um for HR1-264152 by member Laughler Camp. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Member Williams seconded it. Do we have any discussion? Member Lo, >> I just like to explain to the board that I'll be um I'll be abstaining from the vote. So, just want to tell you that out front. But I've also had a couple of questions which have not always happened. You have voted on this resolution for my whole eight years now going into
078my ninth year because I am a speech coach at Denfeld. And so, um, re according to that statute, I I know that, you know, sometimes they think that that's could be a conflict of interest, but, um, listening to the Minnesota School Board Association, they they know that there are districts where there's bus drivers and there's food service and there's, you know, substitute teachers. And at times, I've been a substitute teacher and I hope to do that, more of that um, over the year. So, I just appreciate this um state statute that allows that to happen, but sometimes I've been asked in the public and I know that there's new um schoolboard reps and there's no more community people coming. I just want you to know that um I take that um role seriously and I'm
079glad that there's an opportunity for a school board member in any um district in our state to also give of service back to our district. So, thank you. I appreciate it. Do we have any other discussion? >> Just one comment. Oh, yeah. I just wanted to say on behalf of the school district, we really appreciate your service uh to the district as a speech coach. Not just a regular speech coach, but a but an amazing uh state nationally recognized coach. And so your service back to our community, to our students, uh to our families is is much appreciated. And we've also appreciated previous work, as you've mentioned, by other board members as sub substitute teachers and other things. So really want to say thanks uh on behalf of the district. >> Member Sidowski. >> I
080I would just add for just for a little bit for the conversation that um you know one thing I've learned through MSBA trainings is number one this is obviously allowed by state statute. Number two it's um it's really important that we were able to uh have this especially for a lot of smaller communities. um there in small towns like where I grew up 300 people you have a few people often doing a lot of different things and wearing a lot of different hats and so that's one reason for the state statute being as it is and I would just add uh to member Lald just thank you for your work coaching speech and debate over the last many many 49 years um my kiddo is in speech and debate and I know has learned a
081lot from you and uh really appreciate your work uh mentoring students in that way. >> I second that. Um do we have seeing no further discussion? All those in favor of resolution HR1264152, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Motion carries. >> Oh, I'm sorry. And do we have an abstension? >> I me. >> Member Loel is abstaining. Resolution passes. Do we have any other questions at this time? U member Banks? >> Yes. Thank you very much. I looked at the resolutions and all of those items that are in my file and then I see the superintendent's contract in there. And so what I need from this board is clarification as to when we are going to accomplish solidify approve the contract. Um because we've been waiting a long time to get this accomplished. We
082have one of the best superintendents in the state of Minnesota and I just need to know when we're looking at getting this accomplished. >> That um contract as we all have it in our folders. We are still continuing negotiations and there the reason why this month it couldn't be done is that's on me because I still had some final checks to do with our legal counsel. So that is apart from what is going on with the superintendent but falls on the board chair because the board chair still had some clarifications and things just to make sure that that was getting done. So that's on me. So that contract will be coming up in February. >> February. >> Yeah. >> Well, in my opinion, one of the best superintendents in the state and I don't want
083to lose our superintendent, nor would I want to see our assistant superintendent leave either. So, for me, it's important that we get it accomplished. And I know I know February is coming up, but I wish we could have uh accomplished this sooner. >> I agree, Henry, with that. And and I take full responsibility on that. That has nothing to do with the superintendent. That has to do with an inexperienced board chair navigating through um this contract negotiation. So, that's what I have for that. And I um would also lift up as it has been thrown out in the community several several times as we've all done it is um we have given in the six years that superintendent Maggus has been our superintendent. No, it's longer than that, isn't it? >> Oh, six years. >>
084Six years. Okay. Six years. Um he has always earned very very high superintendent evaluations from this board and so um we have worked very diligently on that with him. And again, this is due to an inexperienced board chair navigating through this negotiation. So, I would like to um thank Superintendent Maggus for his time and attention and um being patient with me about it. So, thank you. >> And I'd just like to say thanks to the the uh board chair and the board for for continued negotiations. And then just a rhetorical question for you, member banks, one of the best. No, just kidding. Just kidding. Thank you. And I appre I appre I appreciate I appreciate uh the work of the board and and uh the work of the district and uh look forward to uh
085you know hopefully continuing with the service of superintendent to the board and community for the coming years. >> Yeah. Thank you superintendent Magus and thank you member Banks. And before um I ask for adjournment, I just want to let our new schoolboard reps know that don't be getting too used to being done here 10 minutes before 8 o'clock because that doesn't happen very often. So make sure you have all your homework done for these Tuesday nights. Um after that, I will ask for a motion for an adjournment. Member Williams, do I have a second? >> Second. >> Member Saddowski. All those in favor of um adjournment, please say I. >> I. Opposed. We are adjourned.