- I now call order themeeting of the School Board of Independent School District 624. (gavel bangs) Will the court please call the roll. - Arcand.- Here. - Daniels.- Here. - Ellison.- Here. - Skaar.- Here. - Streiff Oji.- Here. - All right, if we could 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. - We have before us an agenda. Can I get a motion to approve? - So moved.- By Ms. Ellison. Do we get a second?- Second. - Second by Streiff Oji. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, this will be a voice vote. All in favor say aye. - [Members] Aye. - All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. We also have a consent agenda. This contains a variety of business items that comes to us monthly,including donations. We're always truly grateful for the support shown everymonth to our staff and students. We want to say thank you. Can I get a motion toapprove the consent agenda? - So moved.- Okay, by Ms. Daniels. Second?- Second. (members laughing) - Streiff Oji. Is there any discussion? This will be a roll call vote. I'll ask the clerk to call the roll. - Sorry, Arcand?- Aye. - Daniels? Aye. Ellison?- Aye. - Skaar?- Aye. - Streiff Oji?- Aye. - Okay, and we have anagenda in front of us. Nobody requested to speakfor the public forum, so we will not have that tonight. That'll take us to C1 StudentRecognition, Dr. Kamierczak. - All right, thank you, Dr. Arcand. Tonight, we proudly celebrate the achievements earned by students in Scholastic Art Awards, VFW Auxiliary Young American Creative Patriotic Arts Contest, All-State Band, Choir and Orchestra, Hennepin Theatre Trust Triple Threat, Boys and Girls Track and Field, Boys and Girls Golf, Girls Softball, and Boys and Girls Ultimate Frisbee. Congratulations to eachand every one of you for state-level recognition. We also extend our sincere gratitude to the dedicated staff andsupportive family members who play a vital role in these successes. In recognition of their accomplishments, students have received a certificate, bear pin, and letteracknowledging their achievements. Now, please join us in watching a video highlightingtheir accomplishments. Go Bears. (bright music) (bright upbeat music) (members speaking indistinctly) - Congratulations to all the students that were in all the successthey've shown this spring. This takes us to information item C2, Superintendent's Report, Dr. Kamierczak.- Thank you, Chair Arcand, members of the board. For the last couple of weeks, schools throughout thedistrict have celebrated the end of a successful school year and honored students weremoving on to their next chapter. More than 700 White Bearstudents have completed programs at White Bear Lake Area High School, the Area Learning Center, orthe Transition Education Center were celebrated in theceremonies last week. This year marked the beginning of a new 9-12 building tradition as the White Bear Lake AreaHigh School ceremony took place outside the district'sfirst outdoor commencement since 1983. That was the final time WhiteBear had two high schools, White Bear Lake High School and White Bear Mariner High School just before the district moved to the split campus ofNorth and South that fall. Thank you to our retirees whorepresent more than 641 years of service to the district. Later this week, we willhonor our retirees in-person with a celebratory event. All retirees receive BearAwards and certificates to commemorate their time in the district. Thank you for all your service to White Bear Lake AreaSchools and to the community. Pre-summer meals are available for kids and teens age 17 and younger. There is no enrollment and no cost. The healthy meals are basedon USDA nutrition guidelines. Additional information is available on the district's website. District representativeswill be back this summer at Marketfest, which runs Thursdays, June 19 through July 31 indowntown White Bear Lake. Stop by the district's boothfor pencils, bear paw tattoos, and conversation. You know, this year is anOrange Out on July 10th when the district sponsors the event and hosts a White Bear LakeArea School Spirit Night. 4th Street will be filledwith district booths, activities, and a pop-upemployment affair opportunity. Please bring your friendsand family and wear orange and join us at 6:30 for thescheduled Orange Out photo. And finally, the districtrecently received 2025 Awards of Excellence, which isthe highest award possible from the National SchoolPublic Relations Association for the following communicationsdepartment publications and projects. The '24 annual update,the '24-'25 calendar, community E-newsletter, thefall 2024 Bears Bulletin, the video series, theweekend 62.4 seconds, and building our future impact on teaching and learning video. So hats off to Tia Quirk and Marisa Vette for leading these efforts. - All right, thank you. Okay, that brings us thento discussion item D1, Fiscal Year '25-'26 Preliminary Budget. Mr. Wald and Ms. Johnson. - Thank you, Chair Arcand,members of the board, Dr. Kamierczak, we werehere in the May work session and we reviewed a draft of the preliminary budgetfor the '25-'26 school year. At that point, we noted thatsome of our revenue assumptions were based on our best estimates of what we thought thelegislature would, you know, would finally decide on and that process is still in progress. I think their special session today and I have a feeling it'sgoing to be a long day in St. Paul. So tonight, we're going tomove forward on the budget. Just a reminder that statestatute calls for school boards to pass a budget before July 1st and so we need to move forwardwith this budget proposal recognizing that some things might change depending on what comesout of legislature tonight. Our budget, this budgetcycle we like to put up whenever we review budgets, recognizing that we are at the final step in that budget process, or I should say one of the first steps in the budget process. So there's really nobeginning and no end to this. We'll get the preliminary budget, we're bringing that to you today, and we'll start right away with the audit of the current schoolyear beginning in October, excuse me, in July, and thatwill continue through the fall. We reviewed this in May aswell, and it's important, I think, to recognize as youlook at the orange dotted line that shows the studentformula going back to 2003. And I would say school districts probably weren't flush in 2003, but if we use that as a starting point and just follow the student formula as it relates to the rate of inflation, then you can see that it has lagged. And as we get more and morerecent years especially, the budget impact, our buyingpower is $13,365,000 less had the student formula kept pace with the rate of inflationover that period of time. Okay, Andi will take it from here. - So starting out, I'm gonna talk about just broad categories ofhow our funds are received and then where our funds are spent. So the largest majority of our funding comes from state sources. You can see at the bottom there, 53% of our funds come from the state. And then if you go up to the left, special education andstate revenue as well. So when we put those two together, 72% of our revenue comesfrom the State of Minnesota. The next largest pot ofmoney is our property taxes. And our long-term facility maintenance is a form of property tax as well. So when we combine those two,we get to 24% of total revenue from property taxes. So in total, 96% of our moneycomes from either the state or property taxes. We have very little say inany of the other avenues of our revenue. So how do we spend them? We look at this in two ways. This is based on theobjective of the expense. This gets very granular when we report it to the State of Minnesota. But in broad categories, thelargest portion of our revenue or of our expenses goestowards salaries and benefits. So you can see there, that amounts to 80% of our total expenses. And then the next largestis purchase services and that includes both our transportation, our contracted transportation and our long-term facilitymaintenance expenses. Those all get grouped into thatpurchase services category. And a small amount ofmoney goes towards supplies and materials and thencapital expenditures and then other we have duesand some of our bonded debt that goes through, lease levygoes through there as well. So that's how we spend ourfunds in that category. And then we group it outkind of by department. And so the largest amountof our spending does go towards regular instruction,that's over on the right. And then if we look kindof down into the left, the next several categoriesall also are attributed to kids in classrooms. So vocational ed, that'sthe technical MDE category or career in tech we call it. Special education instruction at 22%, instructional support services that includes departmentslike our teaching and learning department,the media, technology, staff development, and thenour associate principals. And then pupil supportservices is also very connected to our students and thatincludes counselings, our health, social workers,and then our school sites. So then as we look upat the top of the graph, those are the items thatare maybe a little bit more on the administrative side. So transportation we breakout sites and buildings, so like our custodial departments, long-term facility maintenance, small amount of otheradministration includes like the superintendent,school principals, the school board and thedistrict support services are largely the departmentshere at district center, so finance office and resources,communications, et cetera. So as Tim had said wehad assumptions in May and now we have new assumptions based on what's going to thelegislature for approval. We think this is what's going to happen, I really thought in Maythat we were going to know for sure by today, but we don't. So I'm highlighting thechanges and the assumptions that I've rolled into the budget. First, no change in our enrollment, we are still projecting 8,308students for next school year and no change in the formula allowance so 2.5% increase for nextyear or 2.74% increase for next year and then 2.5%in the following years. The summer term unemployment, we do anticipate that this isgoing to be a positive impact for a school budget. Previously, we were projectingthat in the second year that would be an unfunded state mandate and now it looks likethey're going to continue to fund that through '26-'27, but not in those out years,so stay tuned for that. And then the Paid FamilyMedical Leave Act. There's no change at thelegislature in this area that we're seeing, but as we've been talking aboutthe implementation of that, we think that we need toincrease our sub costs because we know we'regonna have more people out and we didn't have an associated increase for the substitute expense. So we have increased that in fiscal '27. And then on the special education transportation reimbursement,we had been projecting that we would receive 95%proration in that second year. And actually what we're going to think, we're gonna end up realizingis a 90% proration. So there is an extra costrolled into the budget for that. So then what does that all mean when it's rolled into the total budget? We'll just focus on the preliminary column in the shaded column, '25-'26. So for revenues for the general fund, we're looking at $146,700,000 of revenue and $147,050,000 of expenses, so a deficit of $267,000,205,000 of that will roll into our unassigned fund balance. If you recall, that's the fund balance that we tend to focus on, we have a school boardpolicy that requires that we maintain an 8% fund balance. So all of that activity rolls in and puts us on that blue lineat an ending fund balance of $11,650,000 and that puts us above our fund balance policy at 8.2%. And then when we projectforward to '26-'27, total revenue of $151,700,000expenses, 152 million so a deficit of 235,000. The largest amount of thatdeficit though in '26-'27 is a planned decrease in ouroperating capital fund balance you can see down below where we're spending thatdown by about $444,000. We're actually seeingjust about flat operations and the unassigned fundbalance for that year revenue of about 67,000 going into that. And so the ending fundbalance and that year will put us at about 11,700,000 or 7.9%, it's not quite at that 8%target we'll watch that closely as we come up to the revised budget for our next school year andthen the preliminary budget for the following. And then no changes ineither of these three funds so the other three friendsthat we bring forward for your approval is thenutrition services fund, the community services fundand the debt service fund. So again, the nutrition services fund, we're looking at a deficit of$831,000 for next school year. But if you recall, we'rejust now in the second year of the free meals for all,the universal free meals. And so we don't havereally solid data yet. We don't have a full yearprojection of revenue for this school year. And so when it was timeto build this budget, we took a conservative approach. So we think that it's prudent in this case to do that in the Nutrition Services Fund. We also have someplanned one-time spending and the expenses. but we do know that when itcomes to the revised budget, it's gonna be a littlebit better than that, and then we'll continue to watch to make sure we return tobalanced operations going forward. And then in the Community Services Fund, again, in this area, COVIDreally had a drastic impact on the Community Services Fund. When people don't participate,the revenue goes down, and we weren't able tojust shut off expenses 'cause we had people on staff. And so they've been working on a deficit for the last couple of years, but we have a good planthat we're gonna get there. For next school year,we're looking at a total of about $150,000 extrarevenue over expenses, and that $115,000 will thenreally cut that deficit into half at about$115,000 remaining deficit. So by the following school year, we should get to a place where we're back at balanced deposit, fundbalance in community end. And then our debt service fund is again, where we essentially payour mortgage payments. So as a school district, we issue debt to pay-offall of our improvements in our school construction. And the revenue comes inthe form of property taxes, and then the expenses are essentially our mortgage payments come under there. And so that's set by theDepartment of Education. We provide to them ourdebt service schedule, and then they levy 105% of our expenses in the form of property taxes. And then as that fund balancegets a little bit too high, the Department of Educationwill just hold back a portion so that government can continue to build. So in total, about $800,000extra revenue over expenses for next school year forthe debt service fund puts us at 19.6%. So, any questions?- Thank you. Anybody have any questions? Mr. Skaar. - Here's a question on your question. Are we going to be able to havequestions later on for this, for the budget presentation? - Do you want to ask it here, or do you want to ask it whenit comes up for approval? Theoretically, you can do both. - What would the Chair prefer? - We can do them nowwhile they're here, so. - Okay.- If you have them now. - Well, does anybody else have questions? - I do.- Okay. - Well, you can go ahead. I'll wait.- Okay, Ms. Ellison. - Thank you. Again, this is always avery complicated thing, the district budget, so Iappreciate all your time. So I'm looking at the charts,where do our funds come from and how are our funds spent? And so we get just shy of $28million for special education, but it costs just shy of 33million for special education. So when things like that happen, it just comes directlyout of a general fund- - Correct.- Right? And so where are we this yearwith special education funding as compared to previous years? Is the gap widening? Is it shrinking? - So this year, the gap is roughly thesame as it was last year. The proration is going to have an impact. I haven't calculated therevenue over expense of that. The proration is definitelygoing to have an impact. One positive thing is legislature did approve an increase to the special ed classsubsidy percentage. So it was previously at 44%. In fiscal '26-'27, it'sgoing to go up to 50%. So part of that 95% and 90% proration will come back to us in theform of cross-subsidy aid. You know, just like everything school finance.- Can you explain what proration means?- Yeah, so what the legislature, whatit looks like the legislature is going to approve isthat instead of having 100% of our special ed transportationcosts come back to us in the form of revenue,they're going to prorate that. So next year, it looks likewe're going to receive 95% of our costs back as revenue. And then the following year,it's going to go down to 90%. So it continues to exasperate that deficit.- Why would they do that? - As a cost saving measure, the special ed transportationcosts just statewide have increased really,really significantly over the last number of years. And so I think their hopeis that school districts will be able to find a way to cut costs and realize some savings there. I don't know if thatwill come to my fruition. - Well, I mean, we serve all kids, And so all special ed students who come to this district get service. And so-- Yeah. And those costs are really, they're simplydriven by IEP needs. And so our hands are tied as far as, you know, once that's in your IEP, you have to provide the service. - Yeah, absolutely. And we have great services here. It's just unfortunate that the state doesn'tkeep up with the cost. - Correct.- So, thank you. - Okay, other questions? Yeah, Mr. Skaar.- Thank you. So on the enrollment assumptions,is this the same company? I think, what was it, Teamwork Dynamics? Is that the name of it? - Yeah, Teamwork International. - That was close.- Yes, we had the first- - [Daniel] Were they the same ones that, when we were doing the referendum, said that we'd be at10,000 students this year? Is it the same company? - No, we...(Andi faintly speaking) - Yeah, this enrollmentprojection is based on numbers that we have. One portion of what we areable to use from them on the annual enrollment projectionis life or birth rate data. So that's helpful to us to look at. But it doesn't reallytell you how many families in their census stayed in the district over the last five years or have moved, how many have moved in or moved out. So some of that is justworking with experience that we've had. But Teamworks International'sdata that you referenced was, there were two demographers who looked at the data at that time. Hazel Reinhardt was theretired state demographer, and then Teamworks International. - Okay, thank you.- And they both came up with roughly the same numbers. - So it looks like thatone comment that they had was that we're going to grow market share, but the numbers are flat. So I imagine you're justbeing conservative on that. - Yeah, it's actually,we're improving market share because birth rates are lower. - So just one thing on enrollment, and I don't know if we have stats on this, but it'd be interesting tofind out how many people, or how many families, orstudents are coming back to our district thatwere in private schools or in homeschools. That would be a good metricto kind of show a trend that, hey, we're bringing people back. We're getting market share. Just a comment. On the funding versus expenditures, I was looking mostly at cost, not funding, because we have morecontrol over expenses. On administration, we wereprojected to have an increase of about 300,000, 5.4 from 5.1. District support services, about a half a milliondollar increase compared to the previous year. Instructional support serviceswent from 10.2 to 9.6 to 10. So, something must havehappened last year. Was there an anomaly there? You know, if you don't know, that's fine. You can answer it later. The other one was pupil supportservices went up $200,000. And then when I look at thenutritional services fund with the $800,000 deficit,you're being conservative. What's the potential upside on that? I mean, could it be zero orthat's not going to happen? - [Andi] Repeat that onebecause I was still focused on the instructional supportand people support. - [Daniel] Okay, we cango through each one. - Yeah, okay, so that one, it took me a minute, but I remember now. What ended up happeningis we have some items that we had budgeted in the elementary andsecondary instruction. So if you look at thatincrease from $56,404,000 to $59,292,000, we have a shift in where expenses are being coded. And I apologize, I rememberlooking at this really closely last month, and then Ihaven't refreshed my memory, but that's what we're seeing as a shift. I think if we would groupthose two groups together, I think that the increase would be roughly like a 3% increase or something like that. So that's really just a coding shift that we're seeing in those two items. - [Scott] Okay. Is thatthe instructional coaches? - Yeah, I think it mightbe how we were coding our instructional coaches,where we had been coding them as instructional and then partially, then we changed it to codethem as teaching and learning. I think that is where the group of folks that we're recording. And then, okay, and thenwhat was your next one? - [Daniel] The nutritional services fund, you said that you're being conservative. Is there any, is the upsidezero or is it half a million? Or what's our range of risk there? - I think it's going tobe pretty significant and I can't commit to a number on record, but what I will say isso it was, you know, a couple of months ago that we were working ondeveloping this budget and at that time then, your revenue is a couplemonths old, right? And so it's differentwhen you just don't have that full history oftenwe look back at five years of history so we can kind of figure out where we're going and at that point, we probably had one schoolyear plus maybe three or four months of operations to kind of get a feel for where we're at and so we are, you know, thenintentionally conservative, especially knowing that we can be based on where our fund balance is in that fund so I won't be surprised ifthe deficit is half or more. We're also conservativein the staffing just, you know, we don't knowwhat's going to happen, we do see that theremight be some decrease, actually in state revenue, even that's going tocome forward on there. So the revised budget isconservative and we know that and then we built the preliminary budget based on that.- It's the department that's seldom ever fully staffed. And so it's, you know, we budget it as if it were to be fully staffed and it's typically isn't.- Yeah, they have a plan to it as well. - [Daniel] So, on theprojection, we have a... - [Wayne] Can I add something to that question?- Sure. So, just to Mr. Skaar's questionabout nutrition services. So, what's changed, for example, from the actual fiscalyear '24 compared to now? Has there been anything that's dramatically differentstatewide or federally? So I would go on record as saying, I would bet that it's goingto end up being positive. But, you know, I wouldn't putany money on it if I were you. But, I suspect--- What about you? - I suspect. I mean, just knowing, I think being conservative innutrition services is prudent just because the statewidefunding of all meals, although the session isprobably not going to change, but there was some question of whether that was sustainable long-term. Federal funding is sometimes in question, so being conservative there makes sense. However, those talkingpoints are very similar to a couple years ago and we ended up in the black,fairly healthy, you know, pretty healthy in black. We've also, there aresome capital expenditures, correct?- Correct. - And you've factored it in this time. - Yep, some of the-- That would be one difference from fiscal '24, so thatwill be one variable that would be different, somaybe I take back what I said. - Okay, last question has to do with, you know, we have a deficiencyof 267,000 and then 235. Is there any way thatwe could reduce costs so that those are at zero? Can you go back and look at that to see if we can reduce the cost so that we're not adeficit, we're at zero? - Yeah, probably, youknow, and particularly in the projected '26-'27, because that deficit is really folding into the operating capital fund balance. And part of that isplanned. It's intentional. The operating capital fundbalance at 1.3 million, it's quite high. It's, I don't remember,30% or 40% of operations or funding that we receive there. And so we know that there's not a need to maintain a fund balance quite that high in the operating capital. We also have some curriculum purchases that we have to make due tosome changes in state standards. And so that deficit inthe operating capital is because of those one-time expenses, those one-time curriculum adoptions, and those needs actually godown in a couple of years as far as curriculum. Those are really large purchases. And so we feel comfortablebringing it forward like this just because we know that the reduction in operating capital, it'splanned, it's one time, and going forward it won't bequite as much of a deficit. - [Daniel] Would you becomfortable if it was at zero, so we didn't have a deficiency? - I don't know that I would actually on the operating capital just because we do havethat one time need. So I think it makes sense forus to bring forward a deficit just knowing we're stillin a comfortable place with our operating capital fund balance. - So is that a no?- Yes, it was a no. - [Daniel] Okay. Well, I'm thinking thatyou could find $235,000 worth the cost somewhere to cut, and it'll come out in thewash somewhere, right? - [Andi] Yeah, we could, we could, but it's not administration'srecommendation at this point to bring that forward. - [Daniel] Okay, all right, thank you. - Thank you, other questions? We're hearing none. Thank you. We'll have you back up in a few minutes. - I think we'll just stayon here for a little bit while you do business.- Yeah, we got one more. The next, we're going tostart with our discussion D2. First Reading of School Board Policy 613. This policy has been reviewedby the policy committee. It will come back on July 14th. There are another agendafor the second reading. If you have any questions, canyou give us the page number so we can find it in the packet? Yes, Ms. Ellison. - Just one clarifying comment. These are the changesthat are made to shift to the trimester.- Yes, ma'am. - Okay. That's all I wanted to clarify. - Other questions? - I just have one question. When I look in there, thatpolicy is going to be as if I'm a freshman moving all the way through. So we are going to have, ifI'm coming in as a senior year, it'll adjust to match, butwe didn't put it in there. But for the classes that arealready on this semester, the adjustments will be there, but we don't need it in the policy. All right, that's what Ithought, but I was going to ask. Other questions? Yes, sir. - Just a quick question. Who came up with the credit requirements on a trimester basis? (Jen faintly speaking) - Jen, why don't you come up and... - Hi. So we follow the MinnesotaDepartment of Education and their requirements for our standards. So there are specific standardgraduation requirements for each of those areas, asyou can see in the policy. - Okay, thank you. - Any other questions? Okay, this policy willbe coming back in July. Thank you. We're going to move on nowto our operational items. Operational item E1, Action on the Fiscal Year'25-'26 Preliminary Budget. Mr. Wald and Andi Johnson. You've heard the recommendation, can I get a motion to approve? - So moved.- By Ellison, a second? - Second.- By Streiff Oji. Any additional questions? - Well, can I just...- Yes, sir. Mr. Skaar. - Can I make a friendly amendment that they would look for$235,000 of savings and expenses? - Okay, we have a motion to amend it, so if we have a second? Do we have a second? Do we have a second?- Well, I would just say this, if the budget changes, it would need to go to theboard again before July 1st. - Can I have...?- You may have clarifying question, yes. - What does that mean? (chuckles) - Well, it means thatthis is our final meeting before the end of the month. And by state statute, we have to have a budgetapproved before July 1st. - Oh, gotcha, I understand. - Okay.- We don't have to... - So at this point, I did not receive asecond on that, so that- - So I'm counting I'm 0 for 4 in counting. - All right. So we have in front ofus a motion to accept the preliminary budget. Any further discussion? Okay, this will be a roll call vote. I'll ask the clerk to call the roll. - Arcand?- Aye. - Daniels? Aye. Ellison.- Aye. - Skaar?- No. - Streiff Oji?- Aye. - Okay, motion carries. Next we're going to go onto operational item E2, Actions on the Workers'Compensation Agreement for '25-'26. Mr. Wald. - Thank you, Chair Arcand,members of the board. Yeah, we bring before you tonight the workers' compensationinsurance proposal for '25-'26 school year. The proposal is that we work with RAS and Dakota Truck Underwritersas we have the previous. In some years, we bringit out for public bidding and we did that last year. So we're recommendingthat we stay with RAS. They've actually beenour carrier since 2014. They've been great for us to work with. We asked our broker from Gallagher to work directly with them and negotiate the rates for this year. And so the rates are before you, 561,375. That's a 9.7% increase. And we just note that factors that impact workers' comprates are payroll expenses, which increase each year. Your rate per payroll, we havea 5% increase in that rate, so, 58 cents per $100 ofpayroll up to 61 cents, 5% increase there. But over your payroll, ithas a significant number. The experience mod factor,which compares your experience with workers' comp claimsin your district compared to others in similar industries. We had one outlier yearthat really impacted us, and that's on our ratesfor three more years. That was '22-'23, and yousee that jump in '24-'25, that's the year that thestate changed the calculation for mod factor. So, '22-'23 was actually our outlier year, but normally you wouldsee that on '23-'24, but then they changed the calculation, which makes that year amore significant portion of your mod factor. Loss history and market adjustments play out over time to impactyour worker's comp rates, so. The rate for next year, 561,375. The recommendation is thatthe board move to accept the renewal quote from riskadministration services for workers compensation, insurance effective July 1st, 2025through June 30th, 2026. - All right, you'veheard the recommendation. Can I get a motion to approve? - So moved.- By Ms. Ellison. A second?- Second. - By Daniels. Is there any further discussion? Yes, Mr. Skaar. - First of all, thanksfor your transparency and showing the trendrate on your xMod factor. You know, I worked a lotin schools as a contractor, and you know, usually, theyrequire you to have an xMod of less than one do work. We're at 1.25, which meanswe're paying a premium because of our incidentrate, safety incident rate. What is our incident rate,our OSHA incident rate? Do you know off the top of your head?- I don't know off the top of my head. I know that typically ourclaims come to about 260,000, 250, 270, in that range. The outlier year was 550,000, And so that is just havingthis to give some impact on our mod rate. - [Daniel] What was thenature of the incident? - It was two... I'm not sure what that was. I've looked at that, I just don't recall. But there were several injuries that year that were significant brain injuries. - [Daniel] Are we on anykind of probation or anything as a result of having an xMod of 1.25? - No. No, we believe it's going to improve. And our custodial training addresses, custodians and nutrition services are oftentimes where wehave the most injuries. Oftentimes, from lifting,it can be pinch points in the kitchen, and so wedo training with our staff to try to keep that, well, keep them safe, but also keep them hydrated. - [Daniel] What about hands and fingers? Is that a high rate? - No, I don't think there'sany really big red flags there. It's, you know, it can besomeone falling as they, you know, it just kind ofa slip, those same things. - Who is the safety officer?- Kevin Klecker. - [Daniel] Okay, thank you. - Other questions? Hearing none, we'll go ahead.This will be a roll call vote. I'll ask the clerk toplease call the roll. - Arcand?- Aye. - Daniels? Aye. Ellison?- Aye. - Skaar?- Aye. - Streiff Oji?- Aye. - All right, the motion carries. Next, we have operational item C3, Action on the Property andLiability Insurance for '25-'26. Mr. Wald. - Okay, yeah. So, yeah, before we tonight, the property and liability insurance, this is actually the '25-'26 property and liability insurance. I missed that little detail, but we have it on the bottom here. So a significant increase in our property and liability insurance for next year. White Bear Lake Schools is a member of Insurance Cooperative, the Minnesota Insurance Scholastic Trust, which has traditionallyprovided really favorable rates for the school district. In fact, when we went toMIST about a decade ago, our insurance rates dropped significantly, I believe by over 50% at that point. But the industry has changed a lot over the last several years. A lot of pressure ongovernmental organizations. And that's where a lot ofsignificant increase has occurred, is within public andgovernmental entities. So things that affect our insurance would be our square footage. So this year, like thisbuilding for example, we had Sunrise Park was coveredby construction insurance. And so this square footageof about 35,000 came off the construction insurance went into our propertyliability insurance. When we brought the high school on, that was an additional square footage. We added cyber liability insurance, increased that by our coverage by 50%, with a $12,000 increase. Had a huge amount on this,about just a little under 2% of that increase was for cyber liability, which we think is probablya pretty wise move given that governmental organizations, school districts specifically, have become more vulnerable in that world. Outside of district influences on rates, it has been probably themost significant influence on rates is the extremeweather and climate disasters that have occurred across the country, and even though we haven'tseen those so much here, the pain a few years laterstarts to be felt more and more as that gets spreadall across the country. And so that's a big part of it. 27 extreme weather and climate disasters of greater than a billioneach in the US in 2024. Also, public and governmentalmarket has increased. Part of that is increasinglitigation expenses for public and governmental organizations. And then finally, ongoinginflation that's had an impact on our property liabilityinsurance as well. The providers that we havehere are pretty much generally the same providers we'vehad the last several years. And so, MIST, that's them and does the bidding with those providers that feels comfortablebringing them forward. So all that being said,the recommended action is for the board to moveto approve the property and casualty insurance package renewal with the MinnesotaInsurance Scholastic Trust in the amount of $935,037effective July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2025. - '26- 2026, thank you. - All right, so you've heardthe recommended recommendation. Can I give a motion to approve? - So moved.- All right, Streiff Oji, a second?- Second. - Seconded by Ellison. Is there any furtherdiscussion or questions? Yes, Mr. Skaar. - I would just have one question on the, do we have to use the Minnesota Insurance? Is it just called MIST? Do we have to use MIST? Or could we ask Gallagher totake a look at this to say, "Hey, can you guys doany better than this?" Is that likely? Does any other school district, does every school districtin Minnesota use MIST or does some use brokers like Gallagher? - Some use brokers like Gallagher. And yeah, we could decide to go out and test the market on this. Gallagher, or excuse me, MIST has been really awell-performing organization. And so- - That's how we did prior to... What's the first year of MIST? '14, '15 maybe, 2014,'15 school year, I think. Prior to that, it waslike you're describing, we just had a broker that shopthe market for us every year. MIST has a group of, I don't know, I don't know the number,25 school districts that have come togetherto do this collectively to get better rates, and it's proven. - That makes sense.- Very well worth it. - And there's an elementof self-insurance in it too where the first $750,000 of the claim is covered by the carrier andthen there's a self-insurance that picks up about $550,000 before you go into the excess insurance. - Right.- So you wouldn't have the benefit of theself-insurance I guess when, if you went to the market. - I guess you could probablystructure it that way, but it might be a little bit clumsy. But 24.3% increase. I mean, that's just a toughone to swallow, isn't it? That's 200, that's over $200,000. That's a lot of money. - Yeah it's about-- You know what? We're in the wrong business, right? We're in the wrong business. (chuckles) So you think that's a pretty good number. Have you talked to otherschool districts as well that are seeing a 24% increase? - Within the MIST world,we're right in the ballpark. Some are saying a little more, some are saying a little less, depending on their district situation. Right. All right, thank you. - Okay, any other questions or discussion? Hearing none, I'm going to go ahead and ask the clerk to call the roll. - Arcand?- Aye. - Daniels? Aye. Ellison?- Aye. - Skaar?- Aye. - Streiff Oji?- Aye. - Okay, motion carries. Now we're going to go onto operational item B4. This is going to be action onthe school board policies 702, 720, 729, and 732. These came before the boardfor the first reading in May. May I get a motion for approval? - So moved.- By Daniels, a second? - Second.- Second by Streiff Oji. Is there any discussion orquestions on these policies? And if so, if you could pleasegive us the policy number and the page so that we can follow along. Any questions? Hearing none, I'm going to go ahead and just call all in favor, say aye. - [Members] Aye. - Opposed, same sign. Okay, the motion passes. Now we're to the board forum. Now this is the time forboard members to share about upcoming thingsthat they'd like to share in the district. Anybody have anythingthey'd like to share? Yes, Ms. Streiff Oji. - So I attended anevent a couple weeks ago on celebrating teachers and educators. It's called Elevate Teaching. It's really about elevatingthe profession of teaching and all of the good thingsthat go with that profession, within teachers at a timewhen they may not feel as supported. So I highly recommend thatas they do their work, it started here in Minnesota via Roseville school board member. So while I was there, I did come across this Kids in Need Foundation. It's an organization thatpartners with teachers working in underservedschools where 50% or more of the student populationqualified for free reduced lunch to ensure students are preparedto learn in the classroom. And they provide, it's ateacher resource center located right here in Little Canada, where they serve educators, helping to create an equitablelearning environment, they allow teachers to come and shop for supplies and information. I will pass the information on to Rachel to share out with theschool. (faintly speaking) - Okay, thank you. Yes, Ms Daniels. - Well, I wanted tothank all of the teachers for a great year and families and students and congratulate all of ourseniors who are moving on and congratulate our retireesfor all of their final work in the years of servicethey've given our district. And I wanted to mention too, with all the graduations,I wanted to mention the 916 Northeast Metro District. I went to several of theirgraduations last week. We had students that wereplaced at or had graduated from some of their programs. And those are just outstanding ceremonies. And I wanted to congratulatethose students as well. So, thank you. - Okay. Mr. Skaar. - I just want a couple of things. One on the graduation event. I mean, he took a risk having it outside with all of those folks. It really paid off. It was really a nice event anda memorable event, I think, for the families and the students. So, that was well done. We have our...(Wayne faintly speaking) Pardon me? - It's a good thing it wasn'tplanned for Tuesday events. - Yeah, right. (chuckles) So, the other thing was we have our Education FoundationGolf Event on June 16th. If any of the staff or board members are playing golf behind me,please don't hit into me. And then the summer mealsprogram, I just had one question. What do we do to communicate that that's available to the community? - I can take a stab at it, but principle is probably right, that communicate all to the families. - We put something in the local press? - Yeah, there's something- (staff faintly speaking) (Wayne speaking indistinctly) - That's great. Thank you. - All right. - I had one more thing.- Okay, Ms. Daniels. - Just being out on the field and looking at the beautifulhigh school for graduation. Many of us have lived in thedistrict for a long time, I've been here since '81 and in '83 when our first son was born that's when the school split up and it's going to be temporary. Of course, it took a long timefor us to have this vision and it came to fruitionand it was so beautiful and so wonderful and just so grateful to the community for thesupport and the staff and everyone that puttogether that ceremony because the speeches were wonderful, the weather was very positive. And Wayne told me he puthis order in for next year already for the weather,which is great, so. - Temporary means 41 years in White Bear. (members laughing) - Anyway, it was great. It was like a dream come true for people in thecommunity for a long time. And we're, to have it happen, and I say thank you to everyone. - Anybody else? I just wanna say thatI loved the graduation. It brought me back to when we graduated. I was one of them thatgraduated out on Price Field. It was nice to see back outside. I like the opportunity, too,that at the end of graduation, that siblings and parents could come down, the pictures and the smiles, they came down on the field. We never, you know, atAldrich, we went out and they kinda had to find a, they had an opportunityto come walk right down, and I think families werereally excited about that. So we hit it out of the park. Yep.- Sorry, I did think of something. I think the other benefitto being in the stadium is that you can have more thanfour people from your family. - Yes.- You know, I think all the grandparents and aunts and uncles and family members that I saw there, that wouldn't have beenpossible at Aldrich. So that was a gift as well. And then kids couldn't just run around, because kids get antsy. That's a long ceremony for littles. And so there were just so manybeautiful things about it. - I believe we went from 3300 to 5500, so we're about 2,000 persons gain. So that was nice. Congratulations to allthe graduating seniors. And we set a high bar for next year. So, all right. We are now at the adjournment section. Can I get a motion to adjourn? - Motion.- Okay, Mr. Skaar, can I get a second?- Second. - Ms. Ellison. All right. All in favor, say aye. - [Members] Aye. - Opposed, same sign. Motion carries, we are adjourned. Thank you.(gavel bangs)