- Order this School Board Meeting of the School Board ofIndependent School District 624. And I would ask the clerkto please call the role. - Beloyed. - Here. - Daniels.- Here. - Ellison.- Here. - Streiff Oji.- Here. - Thompson.- Here. - Arcand, here, and for the final time I'm gonna make this call, Newmaster. - Here (chuckling).(Jessica chuckling) - All right, thank you. I'd ask everyone to please stand for the "Pledge of Allegiance." - [All] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, we have before us an Agenda. I would ask for a motion to approve. - So moved.- A motion by Ms. Daniels. And a second?- Second. - A second by Dr. Newmaster.Any discussion or questions? All in favor of approval, please say aye. - Aye.- Opposed, same sign. And we have an Agenda. We also have before us a Consent Agenda, which are the various things that come before us monthly, including donations. And if you saw, therewere three entire pages of donations from ourcommunity this month, which is incredible, so thankyou so much to our community for your support of ourstudents and teachers. I would ask for a motion toapprove the Consent Agenda. - So moved- A motion by Ms. Thompson. And a second.- Second. - A second by Ms. Beloyed.Any questions or discussion? This will require a roll call vote. I would ask the clerkto please call the roll. - Beloyed.- Aye. - Daniels.- Aye. - Ellison.- Aye. - Newmaster.- Aye. - Streiff Oji.- Aye. - Thompson.- Aye. - Arcand, aye. - Thank you, and we have a Consent Agenda. It is now the time for PublicForum portion of the meeting. There was one request submitted to speak. Public Forum allows forthree minutes per speaker. The vice chair will keep the time, and then with one minute remaining, an orange card will be held up, 30 seconds remaining, ayellow card will be held up, and at the end of three minutes, the red card will be held upand the gavel will be tapped. Speakers will be called to the microphone and recognized one at a time. Only those individualswho have been recognized will be allowed to speak. School district policy anddata privacy laws preclude personnel and student matters or data from being publicly discussed. Informational Item C1, Recognition of RetiringSchool Board members. Dr. Newmaster or Dr. K? - Yeah, well, I'll start, but there might beothers who want to share. I'll open with what's in the memo. So tonight, the SchoolBoard will recognize the invaluable contributions to White Bear Lake Area Schools, outgoing Board member Marge Newmaster. Marge has served on the SchoolBoard since January 2016, and she has worked forthe district for more than five decades,beginning in March of 1971. - I earned this white hair.(Marge and Wayne chuckling) - [Wayne] So we have just a small bit of information to share. Started in 1971, and Marge,if you wanna jump in, you go right ahead. You've earned that right to jump in and talk about any ofthese stops along the way. But Lakeaires Media Center in 1971, then '82 to Mariner HighSchool as a German teacher. '85, North Campus, Media Center, and then 2016, on ourBoard here in 2016, so. - Missed one.- We missed one. - I was at North Campus,and I know I was teaching German again the year the wall went down. - All right.- So that's... And my son was in my class. - Okay.- He loved it. (Kathleen chuckling)But anyway. It's been a long ride, but a... Oh, there's more picture. - There's more. Just wait, Marge. Yup, you'll have your moment here. (Scott chuckling) If you wanna advance. Oh, back one, unless we're... Okay, there we go. There was a quote. Was this in an interviewwith the "White Bear Press"? Is that correct? Is thiswhere this was from? Yeah. Yup. So this was in the "WhiteBear Press" recently. There was an article, a quote attributed toMarge: "I love books, and I love finding theright book for someone." - If I'm waiting in a lobby or in a long grocery line, I always ask the person next to me, "what's the best book you've just read? Have I got one for you." (everyone chuckling) You just can't take thelibrarian out of a librarian. - [Wayne] Okay, andthen (clears throat)... And here's a quote from that story. "In 1985, Newmastertransferred to the media center at North Campus, which she again worked on her main technical contribution to White Bear Lake Area Schools, providing an online search system. Over the next few decades,Newmaster helps students search for authoritative sources onevery type of research paper." - Other add to that is we actually physically createdthe online card catalog 'cause there was no money inWhite Bear to have it sent out. So I had three years of volunteers, most of them senior citizens, who came in and typed all the informationfrom the catalog card into what was then the top one. So that was, again, communitylabor. So it was good. - [Wayne] All right, you madea difference there for sure. And then just a couple pictures. School Board recognizes theinvaluable contributions to White Bear Lake Area Schools, outgoing Board member Dr. Marge Newmaster. And that was probably yourinitial year on the Board, the picture on the top right, and then a more recent photo as well. - [Marge] First or the second, it was one of those film clips that somebody thoughtwould be fun to make. - (chuckles) Yeah. (chuckling) Oh, that's right. That might have been your first. - [Marge] Yeah, it might have been. John Mullen and others,as we had to dance. - All right, so-- Well, and if I may, really quick before you-- Oh, absolutely. - Yeah, before you give that. - Go right ahead, yeah.- So I did a little bit of math, and it's 644 monthsof service to this district, which is about 13,000 work days, and in that time you encounteredthousands of students. So I figured if every studentwho enrolled at North passed through the media center even once a year, Marge crossed path withover 30,000 students. And if each of those studentsread even one book a year at an average of about 200 pages per book, that is six million pages of books. And if each book page wasabout nine inches tall, then those individualpages of all the books that Marges studentsread stacked end to end would be about 425 miles, or from White Bear Lake to Kansas City. But knowing Marge, theyprobably read two books a year, so it's Kansas City and Back. - We had a book club at NorthCampus. I know they read more. - (chuckles) So that's a lot of service. - Well, it was enjoyable. - Well, Marg, I'm the onlyone sitting on the Board that you had to comeout and tell to be quiet in the Language Lab in 1982. (everyone chuckling) So.- That was my one year there. - And I'll never forget it, so. - You were full of Mariner spirit. - (laughing) Yes, that's what it was. - I was teaching German. It was hard to teachover you guys in the lab. - So Marge, we have a giftfor you in appreciation of your service on the WhiteBear Lake Area School Board, January 16th, January2016 to December 2024. So we're gonna a picture. We'll come up. You'll be inthe front, as you usually are. - Can you see me insome of those pictures? (everyone chuckling) - My kids talk about it.- All right. Yeah, and then if there areany final comments afterwards, we'll certainly take them. - Well, thank you very much. - A step would be good.(Board members chattering) - [Photographer] Got everything? All right, move over toyour right a little bit, if you could. - Ooh!- Oh, nope. - [Photographer] Actually, we'lljust take out the young man 'cause we don't think you're pretty. All right, one, two. (camera shutter clicking)Thank you. So do you wanna do a "go, Bears" at all? Are we okay? Do you wantthat on your Christmas card? - You gave one of her hard ones. - [Photographer] All right,on the count of three. - I'm loving. - [Photographer] I'lldo it with my net hair. We'll go, "Go, Bears," all right? (Marge speaking indistinctly) - [All] Go, Bears! - [Photographer] Good, there you go. (attendees applauding) All right, well, I think Margeis gonna reserve her comments for Board Forum.- Okay. - March case, so we can move into- - This one.- Oh, yes. Ms. Daniels. Ms. Daniels. - Wanted to present a small token from your colleagues on the School Board. - Thank you.- For Marge, some holiday flowers,and thank you so much- - It's very pretty.- For your dedication and all the years of service. We appreciate you, - Appreciate all thepeople I've worked with and been with and all thekids, so it's been a fun ride. Say what, thanks for the memories? (Kathleen chuckling)- Are you gonna sing? - No.- Okay. - I don't sing.(everyone chuckling) No karaoke or noraebang. - Well, then we will move into our second Informational Item C2, the superintendent's report. Dr. Kazmierczak. - All right, thank you, ChairEllison, members of the Board. This Friday, December 13th,we'll honor our longtime coach, teacher, and community member Jim Galvin by dedicating the White BearLake Area High School gymnasium as Galvin Court. A reception will be held in room 1021 at 5:30 PM, followed by an encore ceremony at 6:30 PM before the first boys'varsity home basketball game. For more information, pleasevisit the district's website. And that room that I mentioned is right across the hall from the gym, so it's easy to find if you want to come. The winter issue of the district's Community Services Catalogis scheduled to arrive in residents' mailbox in mid-December. The booklet also containsdistrict-wide highlights in the Bears Bulletin and pagesfrom the 2024 Annual Update with student achievement, finance, and district profile information. Print copies of the AnnualUpdate will be available at school buildings and atDistrict Center in January. Enrollment for the'25-'26 school year opens next Monday, December 16th. Enrollment packets were mailed to incoming kindergartenfamilies last week. The packets include elementary guides and elementary experiences bookmarks in English, Spanish, and Hmong. A special insert thisyear is a flyer featuring the Dual Spanish Immersionprogram being launched by the district forkindergarten students beginning in fall of 2025. And once students are officially enrolled at any of our schools, they will receive akindergarten welcome packet, including a special I'm a Bear t-shirt. And looks like this. Not big enough for you, buddy. All right, winter break. We hope that students andstaff members enjoy themselves during the upcoming winter break. School will not be in sessionfrom December 3rd, 23rd. Third, sorry about that. Ididn't mean to get your hopes up. School will not be insession from December 23rd through January 1st. We look forward to welcoming students and families back onThursday, January 2nd. Bear and I had the pleasure of taping a winterbreak video this morning with a crew from WhiteBear Lake Area High School and look forward to be shared next week. And that's my update. Yeah. - Wonderful, thank you. Anyquestions for Dr. Kazmierczak? Okay, we're gonna moveinto our Discussion Items, but because tonight is the Truthin Taxation Public Hearing, we cannot start thatuntil 6:00 PM or after, and so in order tofulfill that obligation, we are going to move on to other items on the Agenda after that so we can start the Truth in Taxationhearing promptly at six. So we're gonna move intoDiscussion Item D3 on the Agenda, which is the First Readingof School Board Policies. And so the way that this works is that School Board reads policies twice. The first time it comes before us, the Board members have anopportunity to ask questions about any of the policiesthat have come to us from the Policy Committee,and then the next month, they come back to us forapproval in a second reading. So the first reading policieswe're gonna look at tonight are Policies 501 and Policies 526. Board members, if you have any comment or questions about these policies, please give us the pagenumber of the Board packet so that we can follow along. Does anybody have any questions or comments about these policies? All right, seeing none, again, a huge thank you to the Policy Committee. It's a ton of work to gothrough all of these policies, so we're grateful for all of your work. And these policies willthen come back to us for a second readingand approval in January. So we're gonna roll intoour Operational Items, seeing that it is 5:46. We can't do Operational Items E1 or E2 because those are bothfor the property tax levy and the projected budget, whichwe have not heard from yet. So we can move into Operational Item E3. I'm gonna give you aminute to get down there in the Board packet, Operational Item E3. Which is Action, Action on the Acceptanceof Brosius Grants. I'm still scrolling. - I can jump in if you want.- Okay. Yes. - If you're searching.- If you could, Dr. K, that would be great.- If you're okay with that. - Page 106 in the Board packet, 106. - All right, so White Bear LakeArea Educational Foundation has forwarded eightBrosius Teaching Grants and three Ryan Art Grantsto me with a request that these grants be formallyaccepted by the School Board. As part of the internal process, prior to consideration of any proposal, the Foundation reviews theproposals with our administration and we confirm that theseproposals are consistent with our curriculum and,if technology is used, consistent with our technology plan. I will read the recommended action. The grants are highlighted in the packet. I'm not gonna readthrough those, but again, just a huge thank you to our Foundation for their generosity year after year. The recommended action is to accept the eightBrosius Teaching Grants and three Ryan Art Grants from the White Bear LakeArea Educational Foundation as shown in the attached materials in the total amount of $14,745.45, whereas the School Boardbelieves it necessary and appropriate to accept the gifts that are reflected uponthe following pages, and whereas these gifts areconsistent with state laws, School Board policy andadministrative practices, and whereas acceptance ofthese gifts are consistent with the mission and educational programs of the White Bear Lake AreaSchools, and, therefore, be it resolved that theSchool Board authorizes the acceptance and useof the gifts presented. - Wonderful. You've heardthe recommended action. Could I get a motion to approve? - So moved.- A motion by Ms. Streiff Oji. And a second.- Correct. - Second. - Okay, second by, I heardit from Miss Beloyed, sorry. - That's all right. - Any discussion or questions about any of these grants? - Wanna say they look-- Ms. Daniels. - They look fabulous. And I just wanna thank the teachers who wrote the grants orapplied for the grants and the Foundation fortheir generous gifts to the teachers and to thestudents who get to participate. - Yeah, the number of students impacted, if you add them all upfor all of these grants, is pretty substantial, soit's pretty incredible. Any other questions or comments? All right, so this willrequire a roll call vote. I would ask the clerkto please call the roll. - Beloyed.- Aye. - Daniels.- Aye. - Ellison.- Aye. - Newmaster.- Aye. - Streiff Oji.- Aye. - Thompson.- Aye. - Arcand, aye. - And the motion passes. Thank you. We will move into Operational Item E4. Action on the 2025-2026, 2026-2027. - Wow. - On the School YearCalendars. Dr. Gillespie. - Chair Ellison, membersof the Board. good evening. As you at the last Work Study Session, I went in detail about the changes that are coming up for thecalendar, so I'll just summarize. Really nothing has changedsince I presented it at the Work Study Session. Wanna remind you ofthe calendar parameters that we use every timewe look at our calendar. Our collectively bargainedagreements must be followed unless we mutually agree upona change to the parameters. The academic calendarwith key dates is proposed two years in advance, so'26-'27 are all the dates that we're 99% sure won't change. There are still some datesthat need to be placed. The detailed and finalacademic calendars proposed to the School Board, which is what I have for the '25-'26 for you this evening. Non-student days, thisis a paramer we added, a parameter we added a few years ago that we won't have schooldays separated by elementary or middle school, that wewould have K-12 days off. And then our equity decisionmaking protocol is used when we place non-student days along with I do a lot ofresearch of area school districts to find out how their calendars are. They're not similar,so it's hard sometimes to find out the trends of howpeople are placing holidays. The big summary of whatwe're doing is we're moving to a district-wide trimestermodel for reporting purposes for elementary and middle school. We've already talked to you about high school moving to trimesters. This aligns the majority of our system as we move to those trimesters. It also aligns with our reporting with the assessment calendarand the screening testing, which is getting more andmore solidified as we work through the requirements of the READ Act. Non-student days, you'll see, are adjusted a little bit to support this, so the calendar looks a little different than it has in the past. I'm still working withArea Learning Center and Transition Education Center leaders and educators around theirreporting parameters. If I would need to come withan update to the calendar, I don't know yet the impact of that. I will bring it to you at a later date. And then our schools will no longer serve as voting locations. So you'll see those non-student days around election day in November, which have been Monday and Tuesday off. We no longer have thosedays 'cause we'll work to help figure out pollingplaces in other areas. And it really was thispast year only Otter Lake that served as a polling place. - [Wayne] Now I'm gonna jump in there. And Otter was gonna remainfor next year as well, so, but it doesn't change the calendar at all. We've been working on that,but just an update on that. - Thank you.- Yup. - And so then here's thecalendars that I shared with you. There's also copies in the Board packet that you can read better than my slides. And so really my ask or our ask for you tonight isthat you approve the '25-'26 and '26-'27 calendars as presented. - You've heard the recommended action. Could I get a motion to approve? - Moved- A motion by Dr. Newmaster. And a second? - Second.- A second by Ms. Thompson. Any other questions or comments? - That's a lot of work. - All right, seeing none,all in favor of approving the two school yearcalendars, please say aye. - Aye.- Opposed, same sign. And they are approved. - Great.- Thank you. And then we will, it lookslike we have seven minutes, so we will move into Operational Item E5, Action on the '25-'26 Course Proposals. Dr. Gillespie? - Again, I'm providing a summary. Jen Babiash isn't able to be here. She has a sick child at home, but I, at the School Board Study Session, Russell Reetz, principalat the high school, Carrie Barth, associate principal, and Jen Babiash wentthrough these changes. There's a lot, we're superexcited about the opportunities for the trimester schedule. So I'll provide an overview of, you know, why we do our decisions andthen just really the numbers of changes that are there, andthen you have a detailed list that we went over in moredetail at the Work Study Session in the packet as well. And so we make sure ourkey considerations are always looking at to makesure students are college and career ready. We look at our Career PathwaysProgram, student interests. Principal Reetz and histeam did a lot of surveying of students in ways we hadn't done before and really went through a process that is pretty cool to see how we're able to offer some many differentoptions for our students. We also had a really collaborative process where teachers were a partof proposing these changes, looking at what needs to beremoved, looking at changes that we need to havein our Course Catalog, Instructional Cabinet, ourSystems Accountability Committee, which was a large, robust groupof people provided feedback, and then Principal Reetzand his team worked together to finalize those recommendations and presented 'em to you atour last Work Study Session. A summary of the course proposals, 41 new course proposals, 25 name changes, seven grade-level changes, and what that means is nowthat we're a 9-12 campus, we're able to expand the grade levels that our classes support. Four full-year options, whichwould be three trimesters. One change to course description, one change to hybrid option, one change to before school option, and then 22 course removals. The only change from when we presented at the School Board Work Study Session is you'll see two additional removals. They're highlighted in yellowfor you on that packet, and those are two CIS classesthat are actually haven't run for a couple years because, and the Grow Your Own Grant, which we've presentedon, will replace those. So the students will still have options. It's just not those course names. We have additional courses that we added. So the recommendation is toapprove course proposals, removals, and changes as presented. - You've heard the recommended action. Could I get a motion to approve? - So moved. - A motion by Ms. Thompson and a second. - Second,- Second by Ms. Daniels. Any questions or concerns? Comments? Ms. Daniels. - I just have a comment or a question. When you have a course removal, that's due to usually lackof enrollment, correct? I mean that's the main reason or- - Yup.- Maybe there's a few other things, state requirements, or isn't that usually something that- - It's usually, I would say, they would be able to tellyou if it's 100%, but, to me, it's pretty close tothat, that it hasn't run, and it's not just one year. It would be at least threeyears that it hasn't run, and it's due to enrollment, sostudent interest isn't there. And then, we re-look at how tooffer different opportunities for students so they canstill make graduation credits but have courses thatare exciting for them. - Any further? All right, seeing none, all in favor of approval, please say aye. - Aye.- Opposed, same sign. And they are approved. And then finally we'll rollinto our last Operational Item before going back to Truth inTaxation, Operational Item E6, which is Action on theSchool Board Policies. These came before us thefirst reading in November, so this reading will be for approval. So the policies are419, 722, 730, and 805. Could I get a motion to approve? - So moved.- A motion by Ms. Streiff Oji, and a second. - Second,- A second by Dr. Newmaster. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, all in favorof approval, please say aye. - Aye.- Opposed, same sign. And they are approved. All right, so we'regonna take just a minute to roll back in the presentation. Thank you Ms. Vette. We are going to go back in the Agenda, for all of you who are following along, to Discussion Item D1. As you recall, the publichearing does start no earlier than 6:00 PM, so we dohave another two minutes before we will officially begin to allow Mr. Wald and everyone to prepare. Is there anything inRobert's rules for how to. - 'Cause there was a second one, so. - I don't know. A song?- To give space, an efficient- - Sing a song. A song. Wayne's gonna sing. Dr. Kazmierczak gonna sing.- Yeah. (chuckling) - You's first. - (clear throat) We have a large number of students here tonight. I assume that you have somedeadlines coming up, right? With a class. So, yeah, welcome. - We're glad you're here. - Thanks to be here. Yup, you're gonna learn a lot about school district finance tonight. (Board members chuckling) - And when the meeting is over, students, you're more than welcome to come up here and any of us can signyour documents for you. So we're really glad thatyou're here and participating. - Well, good evening, Chairs. - Oh, wait. It's 5:59, Mr. Wald. - You have one minute.- I'll just ramble on here for a few minutes(Board members chuckling) before we're ready again. I should have prepared a joke. There's not usually thismuch anticipation for the- (Board chuckling) For the property tax hearing. - [Jessica] For all the financial things. - Dr. Newmaster satthrough a lot of these. You could probably present this yourself. (Board members chuckling) - [Tim] It's kinda likewatching paint dry. - [Jessica] It is a little bit. (Board members chuckling) - Oh, man.- Never worked when I need it to slow down like this.- Mm-hmm. Or when you've got a speechthat you wanna finish. - [Jessica] All right, it's six o'clock. Mr. Wald, and we'll goto Discussion Item D1, which is Presentation andPublic Hearing Related to the Proposed 2024 Payable2025 Property Tax Levy. Mr. Wald. - Thank you, Chair Ellison,members of the Board, Dr. Kazmierczak, and ourstudent rep Thomas Reese. Thank you for being here tonight. This is our public hearingfor taxes payable in 2025. The parameters for the taxhearing are set by state statute, and this presentation will fulfill all of those requirements. We'll look at backgroundinformation on school funding. We'll look at this year's district budget, the district's proposed taxlevy for taxes payable in 2025, and then at the end of the presentation, there will be an opportunityfor public comment. The state's constitutionprovides the authority for the legislature tofund public schools. In Article XIII, Section 1,it calls for a uniform system of public schools and statesthat the legislature shall make such provisions by taxation or otherwise. And as it is a legislative responsibility to fund public schools,funding is highly regulated. The legislature developsformulas to calculate revenues, assets, tax policies, and maximumproperty tax levy amounts. Additionally, the stateauthorizes school boards to place funding referendums on the ballot as they determine to be necessary. I wanna share two historic, two examples of historic funding,(clears throat) excuse me, funding challenges for schools. First is the state funding formula has not kept pace with inflation, and in spite of a bitmore aggressive approach during the last session,even that increase to the formula was belowthe rate of inflation. On the chart here you seethe funding level in '02-'03, bottom left of the chart, was $4,966, was the general educationrevenue formula per student. If you follow the blue line,if that had been adjusted to the rate of inflationover that period of 22 years, the funding formula for FY '25, our current year, wouldbe $8,645 per student. That would ensure approximatelythe same buying power that schools had in 2002-2003. (clears throat) The orange line represents the actual funding on the student formula during the same period,which provides for funding on the general education formula. This year, $7,281, that represents a delta of 18.7% or $1,364 per student. In the White Bear Lake Area Schools, that gap represents about$12 million annually. And during the last legislative session, the legislature increased funding to 4% to the student formula in the first year and 2% in the second year. The second funding challengethat I'll point out is related to special ed funding. For FY '23, special ed was underfunded by $726 million acrossthe state of Minnesota. This underfundingrequired school districts to provide mandated servicesbut to then transfer from the general fund tomake it for the shortfall in state funding associatedwith special education. These are important services to provide, and we all believe stronglyin providing those services, but the state has not kept upwith its promise of funding, and so that gap is covered by general education. We call this processof using general funds to support special educationfunding the cross-subsidy. And so in the last legislative session, there were some efforts to reduce the special ed cross-subsidy, and I would argue thatit didn't go far enough in that really the state shouldfulfill its responsibility to fully fund special education. As we look forward to fiscal year '27, MDE predicts that the underfunding of special education services will be $455 million statewide, soit's a significant issue. And this underfundinghas really put pressure on school districts to relyon local property taxes in the form of operating referendum. School district budgets are complex, and they're divided into nine funds. We manage nine separate funds, and these funds arerestricted in their use, and we'll look into thesein the following slides. This spreadsheet shows revenues and expenditures for the nine funds. We will go into eachof these in depth here in the next few slides On this pie chart showsrevenue of all funds, district budget of 190,403,123. And you can see that the majority of our revenue is within the general fund. That counts for 76% of theschool district's revenue. And nutrition services,community services, debt service make up the others. Looking more closely atgeneral fund revenue, the majority of thatrevenue comes as state aid. Next is local revenue at 20% plus LTFM revenue of 4.5%. So you can see that federalgovernment aid accounts for a very small percentage, about 2% of school district budget. That includes title funds, a small amount of specialeducation revenue, and grant funds. And again, that is justgeneral fund revenue. And so we look more closelyinto the general fund and look at expenditures, you can see in the blueand orange that salaries and employee benefitsconstitute the majority of our expenditures,combining for about 79%, and this is to be expected in a heavy human resourcesindustry like education. We're not producing widgets. It's really a heavy, heavyhuman resources industry. Next is purchase services at 14%. So that gets into special ed, or excuse me, 916 programming,intermediate district, career and tech programming at 916, tuition for specialeducation services at 916. Some transportation, somemaintenance expenses, deferred maintenancefalls into that category. Okay, capital and otherexpenditures combined for 3%. Supplies and materialsaccount for a small percent at about 4% of the schooldistrict budget, okay? And we look at general fundexpenditures by program. And if you look kind of across the bottom, starting at the gray and moving left, you can see gray representsregular instruction, yellow is vocational ed, special education in blue at 22%, and instructional support at 7%. Pupil support, that wouldinclude counselors, nurses, social workers, and like,and transportation combined for about 12%. Pupil support, I said that, sorry. Sites and buildings,custodians and maintenance, and LTFM, deferredmaintenance, account for 11%. Administration at 4, and districtsupport services combined for additional 2%. This is pretty typical whatyou find in school districts across the street. It's really very close to what you find in school districts across the metro. It's important tounderstand a few more things about school funding,that a change in tax levy does not necessarilydetermine a change in budget. So tax levy is based on manystate-determined formulas plus voter referendums. When the state provides the initial formula packetfor determining the levee, it's about 40 pages long,full of calculations to identifying what the levee would be. Some increases in taxlevees are revenue neutral, meaning that a offset from state formula. So in some cases the state has moved what was provided asstate funding into the levy. And so it looks, maybe to a taxpayer, would look like the schooldistrict's getting more money, but it's offset by adecrease in state funding, and so it's a neutral move in that case. Revenues are limited by state formulas and a number of otherfactors, and bottom line is an increase in schooltaxes does not always or an increase in taxesdoes not always result in a revenue increase forthe school district budget. The school district and cities and counties have different levee cycles. So the school districts ison the school calendar year. Our fiscal year begins July 1st. Cities and counties begin January 1st. And so taxes payable in 2025 will be for the school year '25-'26. Each year, property ownersget a mailing like this from the county, and it identifies all of the taxing jurisdictionsthat levy property taxes, so cities, counties, school districts, special taxing districts likethe Metropolitan Council. Each jurisdiction sets its own levy, and combined, all thesejurisdictions levies, make up your property taxeson your specific property. The counties act as the fiduciary agents with the responsibility ofcollecting funds on behalf of each taxing jurisdiction and distributing fundsto those jurisdictions. The next slides we'll dig into the school districtproperty tax process. MDE calculates limits for each district. Most districts, ourselves included, don't levy to the maximum level. School districts can levy inover 40 different categories. Not all school districtsqualify for all 40 categories. For example, we don't qualifyfor taconite resources, but some school districts up north do. And MDE calculates limitsfor each levy category. This slide outlines thekey steps in the process of determining the school district levy. Any step in this process affects the taxes on a parcel of property, butthe School Board has control over only one of the sixsteps in that step, five. Factors that come into play prior to involving the SchoolBoard include the city or county assessor,legislature, county auditor, Minnesota Department of Education. All of those entitiescan impact property taxes for any parcel, and then finally, the county auditor hasthe last stab at it, and they determine the taxrate for each property. Now this slide walks through the timeline of the six steps fromthe proposed levy amounts to calculating the data onthe proposed property tax. And so we are on the fourth step on this, and the final step willbe for the School Board to certify the final levy, and that is scheduled for later tonight. The property tax levy for theschool district is an increase from 2024, $3,775,000, or $775,448, 5%, 5.7% increase, and thefollowing slides will show where the significantchanges are in the levy, although, most of thechanges are relatively small. There's a few larger areas. This page provides asummary of our levee changes in the general fund community services and debt service funds for a total levee of 70,477,861. That's at the bottom ofthe third line there, and then that ties out, you can see, of the number I mentioned earlier, increase of 3.7 million or 5.7%. And so we'll get into lookinga little bit more specifically at several of these changes. There are changes to the general and debt service funds that are related, so long-term facilities. Maintenance revenue is usedfor the deferred maintenance of school buildings, facilities. There are combinationof general fund levy, state aid, and bond issues. In this case, the generalfund LTFM revenue is decreased by 2.9 million for next year, while there's an increase of3.6 million in debt service due to scheduled bond payments. And this is a common practicewithin jurisdictions really, to coordinate capital and debt levies to reduce the impact on property taxes. The next large adjustmentis a prior year adjustment, and so each year, MDE calculates the levybased on estimates. And so we're estimating our enrollment and a number of other factors,but primarily enrollment. Once actuals are entered, the prior year is retroactively adjusted to what the actuals were. And so in this case, we had an adjustment where we underlevied by 949,284 last year, and so that has added to this year's levy as a prior year adjustment. Last year, our levy was decreased because we had overestimatedthe year before that. And so when you're decreased last year and increase this year, you get kind of a double impact of that. Okay, so each year there aresome prior year adjustments in the levee. Many factors can cause a taxbill for an individual property to increase or decrease. When property owners see anincrease in the assessed value of their property relativeto other properties, it results in them paying a larger share of the property tax collected. If you build a new garage orput an addition on your house, you find that your assessedvalue will go up significantly, and then when the next tax levy comes out, you'll find that your propertytaxes went up as well. Others in the community who didn't improvetheir properties perhaps or in a situation where theirproperty stayed pretty frozen at a certain level, mightsee an actual decrease in their property taxes. Let's skip that one. Impact of propertyvaluations, so this really is, it kinda illustratesthat concept very simply, that if you had a school districtwith only two properties, and both of those propertiesare $100,000 value, and the total levy for theschool district were $500, then each property wouldpay an equal portion of that property tax or $250 each. However, one year later, if the blue house were toput a small addition on, and their property goes up by 25%, and the orange house sees a 10% increase, then their share of theproperty tax would drop. So in this case, the blue house sees their property tax go up to 266, and the orange house seestheir property go down to $234. The Minnesota Legislature madesome positive changes for, provide some relief fortax taxpayers in 2023. Excuse me. Those who know me know Idon't talk very much, and so. And that was primarily withinthe Homestead Exclusion, so the valuation, the top valuation for homestead qualificationgoes from 413,800 to 517,000, and so forthe more expensive homes in the jurisdiction wouldfind a little bit of relief as they get above the $413,800 level. So if you had a $617,000 house, your homestead exclusion now would cover the first 517,000 of that house, then the last $100,000, you wouldn't get the Homestead Exclusion on that amount of your property. The AG Homestead Land is lessrelevant in our community. Okay, now we'll look at afour-year levy comparison. We'll look at examples of property taxes with no change in property value and examples with propertieswhere the change of value was the average within thejurisdiction of 24.3%. This is based on examples arein White Bear Lake, right? Specifically, and, well, their averages, it might not show any oneperson's specific experience. It's simple averages. Okay? So here you can see home values in that second column,residential home values, 200,000 to 700,000 with taxes payable from 2022 through 2025. And if you follow, let's say, the $350,000 home in the blue box, you can see that the propertytaxes for that property actually went down because the value of that property remainedstable, while other properties in the school districtincreased in value, okay? And you'd see this illustrates it just in a graph, but you can see those propertytaxes dropping just slightly. And you see essentiallythe same very stable within the commercial, industrial world. On the right is the apartment, non-residential homestead properties. But we know in the real world, property values haven't remained the same. So in this chart, we'relooking at property values with the 24.3% cumulative changes in property values. So on the left-hand side, you have a $250,000 home in 2025. That home had a value of 201,158 in 2022. And so you can see theirproperties taxes increased from 1,021 to 1,217. The home on the right isa $400,000 home in 2025. That home would've been valued at 321,853 in 2022. And again, you see theproperty tax increased there. The home values increased 24.3%. The property taxes increasedabout 5% less than that, roughly 19.5% over that period of time. The state does havesome property tax refund and deferral programs. We wouldn't provide propertytax advice to anyone. You can find it at revenue.state.mn.us to learn more about theserefunds and deferrals. The Homestead Credit Refund is designed to help lower-income household and has income limits to qualify. It's available to bothhomeowners and renters. Homeowners can get amaximum refund of 3,310. 2,640 for renters. The Special Property Tax Refund, this is a temporary taxrelief program aimed at helping property owners who have seen significant increases in their property tax in a year. So the refund, 60% of the tax increase above 12% or $100. So you pay the property tax. Everything above 12% or $100 then gets a 60% refund. And then finally, the Senior Citizen Property Tax Deferral is designed to help seniorsstay in their home as they age, and actually a little bitlike a reverse mortgage. So seniors with a household income of $96,000 or less can defer a portion of their property taxes on their income. Those property taxes are notforgiven. They're deferred. And then when that house is sold, then the property taxes haveto be paid at that time, but similar to a reversemortgage, I guess. Okay, and so that's thelast of the presentation. And so this point, Chair Ellison, if the Board has questions or comments before you enter it up for public comment. - Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wald. Any questions or comments for Mr. Wald? Right, seeing none, all those who wish to give a public comment about the proposed 2024Payable 2025 Property Tax Levy will be heard. School district policyand data privacy laws that preclude personneland student matters or data from being discussedpublicly must be followed. If you would like toaddress the Board in regards to the proposed '24 Payable'25 Property Tax Levy, please approach the podium. Thank you, if you wouldlike to be contacted by a school official after the meeting, please see Rachael Markusonin the back of the room, and she will collectyour contact information. Anyone else? All right, seeing none, we will move into Discussion Item D2, and then we'll act uponthis later in the meeting in our Action Item. So Discussion Item D2, which will be the Overview of the FiscalYear 2024-'25 Revised Budget and Fiscal Year '25-'26 Projected Budget. Ms. Johnson. - Good evening. This is a familiar siteimage in the budget process to the School Board. We always start off our budgetpresentations with this, so that's familiar to all of you. We're at the midpoint in our budget cycle, where we have wrapped up our audit work for fiscal '23-'24. Our auditors are puttingon the final touches on that audit reportthat'll be coming forward for acceptance to theSchool Board in January. And then tonight we're presenting the revised 2024-'25budget to the School Board. This was reviewed with the administration and then with the ExecutiveFinance Committee last week, and so it's brought forward tonight for the School Board's consideration. So as Tim Wald had said, Iwon't go into this in detail, but we always present this slide as well when we talk about ourbudget presentation, and the budget impact had the state-funded generaleducation formula allowance kept pace with inflation. The budgetary impact toour budget this school year would have been $12 million, so that just puts intoperspective the amount of resources that wouldbe available to students if that inflationary impact had kept pace. So some highlights that are incorporated into the 2024-'25 revised budget, the enrollment deficitsthat school districts across the nation have reallyexperienced as a result of COVID have really stabilizedfor our school district. And those are incorporatedinto our revised budget. And as a result of that, we're projected to meetour fund balance policy for both fiscal '24-'25 and '25-'26. 2025 is a legislative budget year, so we're gonna keep a close eye on that, and if there's any changes that are brought forward in statute, those will be incorporated into the budget that'll be broughtforward in June of 2025. And then after this, the revised 2024-'25 budget presentation will be brought forward forapproval for the School Board. - So here's the detailed of the budget. The 2024-'25 budget isavailable in the Board packet, but this is just a summary. So you can see for the2024-'25 revised budget, we're projecting 144,000,235 or $239,000 of revenue, and then $143,568,000 of expenses, so in excess of revenue of about $670,000. So that folds into that blue line, which is our ending fund balance for our unassigned fund balance of about $11,855,000. So that puts us at an ending fund balancepercentage of 8.6%, so that puts us withinour School Board policy of maintaining a minimum8% fund balance, so. And then when we projectforward to next school year, rolling all of that forward, we have about $145 millionof projected revenue and $146,000 of projected expenses, so there's a deficit ofjust over a million dollars, but you can see that wehave a planned spenddown in our operating capitalbudget of $800,000, and so only $257,000is the deficit related to our unassigned fundbalance for next school year. And so that brings ourunassigned fund balance for next school year projectedto be about $11,598,000, so 8.2%, so still withinour School Board policy. And what that really shows isthat our disciplined budgeting that we've done over thelast couple of school years and rightsizing our budget based on the enrollment has really taken effect. And so as we continueto watch what happens with the state legislaturein the coming year, we'll continue to refine our School Board, or continue to refine our projections. And when we come forward in June, we will be presenting a balanced budget for our unassigned fund balancefor the '25-'26 school year. Looking as well at our operational funds, our nutrition services,our community services, and our debt services fund, our nutrition services fund continues to see really strongparticipation as a result of the free meals for all students and so that we seeincreased revenue there. We also see increasedexpenses really related to that high fund balance that we have in nutrition services. There's statute that limitsthe amount of resources that we can maintain in thenutrition services fund, and so we have a planned spenddown that we're doing in thenutrition services fund. So maintaining about a 29% fund balance and fund balance inthe nutrition services. Then in community services,we have about eight point, just under $8.4 million of revenue for a new community servicesfund for this school year, about $8.3 million of expenditures. So we're seeing additionalrevenue about 91,000. We're working our way outof a deficit fund balance in the community services fund. That's really as a result COVID and the decrease inparticipation, but really not a... We didn't have the decrease in expenses for staffing and such. So we have strong plans to continue to work our way out of that deficit in the upcoming school year. We're making some considerableoperational changes for this upcoming school year and very optimistic thatwe're gonna outperform our projections for this school year and then continue to seeourselves work our way out of that fund balancefor the next school year. And then our debt service fund, that's kind of like our mortgage. So the debt service is where all of our bond payments come from, so that's related toall of the construction around the school district, all of the building improvements. The revenue there is relatedto the planned debt payments that we have related to all of our debt. So about $30 million of revenue there, $31 million of expenses, so about $5.9 millionof ending fund balance in our debt service fund. So as I said, a little bit later, we'll be coming forwardand asking the School Board to approve the revised budget. Any questions? - Thank you. Anyquestions for Ms. Johnson? All right, thank you so much Ms. Johnson. All right, we are going to, now we've completed allof our Discussion Items and we are moving into ourtwo final Operational Items, so that would be Operational Item E1, Action on the Certification of 2024 Payable 2025 Property Tax Levy. Mr. Wald. - Thank you, Chair Ellisonand members of the Board. The School Board approvedthe preliminary tax levy on September 23rd, 2024. The requirement for a public hearing on the proposed levy was metearlier during this meeting, and the final step inthe tax levy process is for the School Board toapprove the final levy amounts or to certify the final levee amounts. In the Board packet tonight, you find the levy's Limitationand Certification Report, provided by the MinnesotaDepartment of Education. The total levy amount to be certified is $70,477,860.93, and the recommended action is that the Board approve the certification of the final 2024 payable2025 property tax levy in the amount of $70,477,860.93. - [Jessica] You've heardthe recommended action. Could I get a motion to approve? - So moved.- A motion by Ms. Thompson. And a second?- Second. - Second by Dr. Newmaster. Any further questions or discussion? This will require a roll call vote. I would ask the clerkto please call the roll. - Beloyed.- Aye. - Daniels.- Aye. - Ellison.- Aye. - Newmaster.- Aye. - Streiff Oji.- Aye. - Thompson.- Aye. - Arcand, aye. - And the motion passes. Thank you. And then we'll move into ourlast Operational Item, E2, Action on the Revised FiscalYear 2024-2025 Budget. Mr. Wald? - Thank you. The school districtstarts each school year with the guidance of a preliminary budget that's approved by theSchool Board in June. In mid-year each year, the School Board approvesthe revised budget. Earlier this evening, directorof finance, Andi Johnson, presented the revised budgetfor the current fiscal year along with the projectedbudget for Fiscal Year '25-'26. The preliminary budget for'25-'26 will be reviewed at the May 19th, 2025 Work Session and will be presented for Board approval at the June 9th, 2025School Board Meeting. The recommended action is to approve the Fiscal Year 2024-'25 revised budget, as recommended. - You've heard the recommended action. Could I get a motion to approve? - So moved- A motion by Dr. Arcand. And a second?- Second. - Second by Ms. Streiff Oji. Any further comments or questions? School district financeis incredibly complicated, and so I'm grateful forall the work that you and your team are doing to keep up on new legislation and changes and ensuring that we're ingood financial shape, so. - [Tim] Thank you. - Seeing no further questions, this will require a roll call vote. I would ask the clerkto please call the roll. - Beloyed.- Aye. - Daniels.- Aye. - Ellison.- Aye. - Newmaster.- Aye. - Streiff Oji.- Aye. - Thompson.- Aye. - Arcand, aye. - And the motion passes. Thank you. We've now reached the part of the Board meeting for Board Forum. Board Forum as an opportunityto talk about things that are going on in the district from where we sit as School Board members. And so Dr. Newmaster, I'mgonna turn it over to you. - And I will be brief. I can't follow all those numbers with anything that exciting. I just wanna express my appreciation to the White Bear School Board and all the staff that supportus and help us do our job. And I wanna say the experience of serving on the Board in a district that I've been in since1971 has been an honor and an inspiration to see the full breadth and depth of all theefforts that educators, students, families,community, everybody puts in to create an educationfor each of our students that fits them and preparesthem for the future. And I'm really proud of this district and happy to have been partof it for so many years. And now I'll take more time maybe to play cards at thesenior center, who knows, (Kathleen chuckling) or read a lot of books. So read a book. But anyway, thank you all. Thank you to this crewand all of you out there who came to hear thebudget stuff and all of it. We have a good community. WhiteBear has a great community. So thank you all. - Anyone else have anythingfor Board Forum? Ms. Thompson? - I just would like to remind everybody that this week kicked offwhat's called Winter Wonderland at the high school, and itis a way for our community to give back to thosewho are less fortunate. So all week long there'sa lot of great activities for students in the highschool to earn tickets, to win prizes for doing things. There's decorating door contests, they have a theme for eachday of the week for dress up, and then they also have a way where students can earn a ticket for bringing in itemsthat they can donate. And some of the things that people are typicallyused to are food items, but there's things thatpeople often don't think of, and that is hygiene products. So thinking of sending your kids to school with things like toothpasteand soap and shampoo and a pair of socks andthings of that nature. They're also doing a toy drive, and all items can be dropped off this week at the high school office, and it would be greatly appreciated. Items will be donated tostudents in our own district who are in need, and thenanything that is extra will be, I believe, donated to Children's Hospital, is my understanding. - Thank you.- I just hope everyone has a wonderful break and holiday season. And it can be difficult for some, but hopefully they can find ways to celebrate what they do have. - Thank you. Anyone else? - Ms. Daniels? - Oh, did I look like I had a question? - You did.- Okay, well, since you called on me.(Jessica laughing) No, I was up at the Winter Wonderland at the high school todayand it was really exciting, and there was a lot ofexcitement with the students. And like Angela mentioned,it's a really way to incorporate studentsat this time of year and get them excited about giving and thinking about otherpeople, so it's wonderful. - We had our first orchestraconcert and band concert in the new Performing Arts Center, and I think the choir concert is this week or coming up pretty soon. And it's a stunning space. It really is. Our students deserveand our teachers deserve to have this space that we're in, and so I wanna thank again our community for supporting the the bond referendum so that we could have thesefunds specifically dedicated to creating these spaces. It was absolutely beautifulplace to watch performances. And I also want to thank Dr.Newmaster for your service. I've been on the Board withyou the whole time I've been on the Board, and I reallyappreciated the time. It's a lot. This is a lot oftime to be a Board member. It's not an easy job, and so I'm grateful foryour continuing service. - I need a copy of your book reading data. - Oh, I will send that to you. Yes. (Board members chuckling) So have a wonderful break, everyone. Teachers and staff and administration, I hope that you get some rest as well. And students, I hope youget to do a lot of nothing for the next couple of weeks.(Board members chuckling) - So.- We're ready to sign. - With that, I would ask- - There's still two weeks of school left. You mean after that.- I mean after you go to school for the next twoweeks, and then lots of nothing. (Marge laughing)Okay. All right. With that I would askfor a motion to adjourn. - Chair Ellison, I movefor an adjournment. - Motion by Dr. Arcand, and a second? - Second.- Second by Dr. Newmaster. All in favor ofadjournment, please say aye. - Aye.- Opposed, same sign. And we are adjourned. (gavel bangs)