Instead of doing the recording. >> It's started. >> Okay. Thank you. Good evening everyone. We do have everyone here. Thank you for coming. So we have formal pledge pledge of allegiance. So pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to >> 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. >> Great. I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented. >> So moved. >> Okay. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Patrick, all those any questions or discussion on that? Okay. All those in favor of approving the agenda, say aye. >> Aye. >> Uh all those the same sign. Motion carries. On to discussion items. We're going to review the community survey results. >> You're up, Sue. >> All right. >> Here we go. Everybody can hear me okay? >> Yep. >> All right. You can see the screen. So we We are winning already. Great. Thank you for letting me remote in tonight. Just got to get busy in the night sporting events across the Midwest. Um let's jump to it and get to the results. I remember the last time I was with you I talked about the survey distribution. We mailed out 4,718 postcards to all residential households within your community. In addition, we pushed information out on social media and pushed out emails to our staff. Uh you had a nice response rate. So 1,929 people completed the survey. Um so that's you know, if you look at that, we've got a great response rate there. Um we then go in and we look at the data to say who took the survey, who responded. Um first thing we do is we want to look at who took the survey based on age. And I would say this is very typical response rate. So you're going to see most of your respondents are going to fall between that 26 to 55 years of age. Um we're really interested in those 56 and older folks because we know that they never miss a chance to vote. Um and typically you're going to see if you're looking at that 18 to 25 year old and think, "Oh, that's low." Um you're typically going to see that between 3 and 5%. So you you're sitting at 4%. So age breakout looks absolutely great and what we would have expected. We also want to know if the folks who took this survey live within your school district. The reason we're interested in that is what we know, you can only vote on a school district issue on the ballot if you live in the district. So 11% of those respondents were non-resident respondents. We will remove them when we start looking at the support and their feedback regarding um what the district should do. So you're thinking to yourself, "Well, if you mailed this out to um to residents, who would take the survey that was a non-resident?" Remember we emailed it out and let all staff and parents respond to the survey. So that 11% is likely school district employees that will vote for the survey and weigh in or parents that don't live within the district. So again, we want them to be educated, understand the challenges that the district is in financially, Um but we're not going to consider their responses when we're giving consideration to what your next steps are in the two new school proposals. We then asked where people live, so what municipality they're in. And so this breakdown you can see 60% are in Chatham, 11% in Manville, and 12% in the Township of Manville, and then there's some cats and dogs in your other townships. So again, that really makes up the the your district's um you know, kind of everything that is correlate to to your district. I think it it does. So we're comfortable with that data. Of the responses, 13% were school district employees, 87% were not. Um that this is very common when you look at your response rate. So we're extremely comfortable, and this is exactly what we would have expected. And then we said you have school-age children. So 70% of the survey respondents reported that they have school-age kids, 30% no. Um so you were a little high here than what we typically see on what I would call the no's of non-parent respondents, but not by a lot. So you're really um we typically see maybe a 65 um 35, so you're at 70/30. That That's We're not concerned though, because as I move through the other responses, I'm going to disaggregate the data into three mutually exclusive groups. And so the folks that answered no, I don't work for the district, and no, I don't have children, that group we're going to call general citizens, and we're going to look at those responses independently. And the reason we do that is because we that the majority of voters, about 75% of voters, would would answer no to both of these questions. No, I don't work for you. No, I don't have kids in the district. So, while we just looked at overall survey responses, it's you know, it's unfortunately too many parents responding and they're likely extremely supporting this of the schools. So, I'm going to show you how we disaggregate the data and consider it with what we know about the voting habits. All right. We also asked about if you guys had children, where do they attend? And obviously folks could check more than one, but that's just information that we have that we wanted to add. Do some some direct marketing. Remember the survey had really two purposes. One was to make sure that we educated your community on the challenges that you have in counseling and enrollment. And we wanted to let them know that you have no voter approved operating levies. And that looks different than many of your neighbors. And then substantially different than many of your neighbors. And so again, this was an opportunity for us to look at and continue to do that moving forward of letting people know what your neighbors are gaining with a voter approved operating levy and how that is different from you. We also really wanted to make folks understand that the state funding formula has created a challenge for school districts. And how that funding formula has not kept up with inflation over over the last two decades. And then as a district like others, you're you're facing many new mandates and then those mandates really have additional costs associated with them. So, So let folks know that we you know, we needed to secure additional funds and that without additional local support that the district's going to have to make some reductions and those reductions do have some impacts on students and then on programs. And so ways that the district ultimately could consider making reductions of increasing class sizes and reducing teaching and support staff positions and budgets and eliminating programs and offerings. Not something we want to do but certainly something we might have to consider. So we got to our first point in the survey where we said, "All right, given all of this and given our challenges, what advice would you give the district?" So this is the first time you're going to see those three different columns of what should we do and so these are three mutually exclusive groups. So we've got the general citizens in red. Remember they make up 75% of voters statistically. Parents make up about 25% of voters, 24, 25. So you say, "What about staff?" School district employees are very important to know what they think and feel regarding our referendum and regarding what's happening in the schools but when we're saying what would happen at the polls, school district employees only make up less than 1% of the voters just statistically. So when we look at this without saying to people, "Well, how should we cut the budget?" or "Here's what it's going to cost you." What we see is that your general citizens, 45% of them are saying, "Yeah, you should explore a referendum." They looked at that early information and they understand it makes sense to consider going out for an operating levy. 63% of parents are supportive. So, those two numbers together, when we do that weighted average, so we say that we weighted support. So, what is the formula that does that? 45% support times 0.75 from residents, about 3/4 of the voters are those residents of the vote. And then the 63% times 0.25, so about 25% of voters are parents. And when we put those two together, we end up at 49% support. And I say that that's great cuz you're just dancing at that 50% line. You haven't done a ton of educating. And you also see over in that not sure need more information that you're sitting at 25% 25% of general citizens and 23% of parents going, "Hmm, I'm not sure what we should do." What we typically would find through an information campaign is it would go to election, that you're going to move about a third of those undecided will will move to support you. So, in that case, you're picking up about another 8% there. So, if you factor that 49% and plus another 8% on, we certainly pass the 50% threshold of support or just that leaning to indeed we should consider an operating levy. So, we wanted to explain to folks that another option is that you know, we can we can make some reductions and make some cuts to balance the budget. So, again, you're going to see those three mutually exclusive groups. We did email this out, so if you don't have your bifocals on, I might have to read the case screen. But this again, I mean, none of these are ideal, but we just want to say, all right, what is it? How should we if we can't get money from citizens, where should we make reductions? And these do present an opportunity to educate your community on why some of these might not be good options or perhaps things that we've already done. So you can see with your general citizens reducing administration as the highest of the unchecking boxes or where can we make cuts. You can see that there. I'm going to tell you that if I had a dollar for every time that reducing administration had the highest percent, I probably wouldn't be joining tonight. I'd be sitting somewhere on the beach with a rather large drink. So not uncommon for folks when they're taking a survey to say, yep, reduce administration. So that doesn't concern me or shock me. That's just people need to understand and give thought to the leadership that you have and the important role that you do. It does present an opportunity to share that information. Second, you'll see that highest of bar of second highest bar with your general citizens and your highest with your parents is saying increase fees for participating. Well, you could do something with that. You could increase some of the fees for clubs and extracurriculars. And what you find is that that's going to be a very small amount of money to help people close the gap. But it's where people go to and say, well, it's not everyone. It doesn't impact learning per se. So again, very typical that we see that. Then you see increased class size from your general citizens, delay updating technology, reducing the offerings, and reducing things for our students. So very typical responses I would say of what we of what you see. I always look at this as a slide where we want to say to people if no is where we end up, something has to change. And so we want to start thinking about the back end. The change is going to impact how we operate as a school district and how the programs and services and the offerings and the good things that we do for students. And so really you know, this this doesn't surprise me but you see see where people are leaving and again an opportunity for just supporting and educating people on the roles that people have in in the district. So we then moved along to how do we solve the problem that we've got an operating deficit, we need to do something. So we gave folks four options. The first one was that do nothing, just let's make some cuts based on what you told us to balance our budget. Option two said that you know, we had a digital format for people. We started out collecting about $850,000. That's not going to solve all of our problems but it's going to get us closer and we'll have to make some some adjustments over time but it's going to certainly help us. Option three was going to get us a little over a million dollars. Again, you know, we we probably wouldn't be able to add any services but we could likely be able to continue offering at least the level of services we're offering now. And we always say that because we know that things change and we might need to just cut services. But this this amount of money would not allow us to do that. And then option four was going to get us over $1.2 million. And so you can see there is that, you know, that was a $600 per pupil. So we said to folks, okay, these are the tax increases at each of those increments. How much of a tax increase are you willing to incur in order to support the programs and services in the district? So this is a tricky spot, and so we're going to walk through it slowly because it's the most important one in the presentation. So all your general citizens, the folks who make up the majority of the voters, 17% said I give you option four. Like let's get you everything you need to make sure we take care of kids. And so that was the $600 per pupil over $1.2 million per year with inflation. So the 17% and 33% of parents, which are 25% of the voters, certainly isn't going to find success at the polls. We need to cross that 50% threshold. So we look at option three. That was the $500 per pupil. You're just going to get a little over a million dollars per year to support your programs. I take the 17% and the 16% and I add those together. So I would say you've got 33% support for a $500 per pupil levy. Why is that? Because the tax increase is less at option three than it is at option four. So so this question is really asking about well, how much of an increase in taxes will you support? And so because it's less I bring them along. 33% of 75% of the voters that read on it is still not enough for me to say that it makes sense for you to go to the polls with that $500 per pupil option. But as soon as I move down to the $400 per pupil and I add another 18% support to the already 33% I end up at 51% support from my general citizens. We we cross that line of 75% of the voters. We also know that you got extremely strong support from your parents at Lumer. You cross the 50% threshold there easily at option three of the $500 per pupil. So when we add the 14% on top of that, you can easily see that we're sitting nicely at 66% support from your parents. So now I say okay, what's that weighted average? If we were going to go to the polls tomorrow in Casselman, what do I think would happen based on the information that's been provided to us? And a weighted average of the general citizens and parents puts us just under 55% support. We also know that you got folks that still need more information. So you look over at that first status set, 7% saying I'm not sure I need more information from your general citizens and 13% from your parents. You're going to pick up another three or four percent there of your parents and about 2% of your general citizens. So given that, I would surmise that you're probably sitting 50-56% of support, maybe 57%. Why do I jump all the way down there and I don't look at the I would support a smaller levy or option one that would make cuts? That 34% of folks that are saying making cuts, we've seen that third of respondents really continue on through this whole survey. So, there's folks that are already stating their ground and they've said, "I'm not interested in supporting this." That hasn't changed. But, but those folks that are still curious, that still are saying, "I'm not sure." Those are the folks that we know we've got an opportunity to influence and educate and likely move them along towards where the majority of your community is. So, that's really what that data tells us. And I would tell you that I feel comfortable that if you are feeling like moving to an operating levy, that 400 people would have success. I would also say that all referendums these days certainly need a lot of information being pushed out to your citizens so that they understand. This is not an ID eight block. But, I certainly feel like these folks that are sitting at the support three, two, or one options, four, three, and two are likely going to stay with you. Folks in this survey also had an opportunity to provide comments. And so, what we do at this point when having me analyze the data, is we don't want to get caught up in the comments because you might read a comment and you'd say, "Yeah, that's what everybody thinks." And then the reality is that's what one person wrote. So, you want to make data-driven decisions. This is the data that you want to consider, especially knowing that we're very comfortable with your response rate. We're very comfortable with the breakout and the age distribution of who took the survey, and that is representative of all of your municipalities. But, if we were to say what types of things are people still curious about or commenting on, better things we want to focus on in an information campaign as we move towards an election. Things about how will we aligning district staff with current school enrollment? So, we talked about the fact that you have some enrollment changes. So, how are you right-sizing district staff? What does that look like? How do your administrative positions, are they proportionate with other districts? What are those specific roles and responsibilities of your district administrators? Have you as a district already made cuts? So, did you just come to us or have you looked under every rock? Are there things that you've done already to address your budget shortfall? Certainly, there are. We just need to make sure your citizens understand. Um how is financial information and decisions being shared with the community? So, transparency. People really want them to make sure that the decisions you're making, they understand. And again, a lot of that happens in an information campaign. And then, is the district exploring all possible revenue sources? So, when you start to ask folks for money, they start to go, "Well, are there grants you could write?" Certainly, there are grants, and there's different avenues you can do. But, what we do know, again, that those will bring in a small portion of money compared to the amount of money that you will need in order to balance your budget and meet all of your needs. So, those are really those five key areas that if you were like, "What should we focus on? Or what are the things going on in people's minds?" Then I think those would be areas you would want to pay attention to and find ways to message. So, with that, I'm going to stop sharing so I can see y'all and open it up for any comments or questions. >> All right, uh Thank you, Ms. Pearson. Uh any questions or comments? >> Um I have a question. I'm just getting back to it, but the second option that was the most supported uh would still require the district the district to explore budget cuts. So, sometimes schools go out and get a levy, but then they have to go out a year or two later. What does that look like generally? Are those supported? Or is it more annoying for citizens to like be going through the similar process and the school asking for money again? >> Okay. I want you to ask you to ask the question one more time so I can follow along. >> Okay. So, it um this data shows that option two is the most supported, which would still require our district to explore budget cuts to balance the budget. So, what I've seen in the past is that a district will go out for a levy, but then within the next year or two be asking for additional money or like doing it again to help cover those costs and prevent the cuts. Are those levies then supported is cuz like after going for money once, I assume that the community will feel I I know, exhausted. Like they supported one already, why should we have to do this again? What does that look like? >> Great question. >> So, you know, we kind of set this up with a how much you you there's there's a lot of we have a lot of needs and what are you willing to support? And knowing that if you give us the 400 people, there's going to be some changes. And so you're telling folks that out of the gate, but it's you're you're not going to see significant changes because what we have an additional approximately $800,000 in revenue. There are other districts that then make make reductions and in a few years they may say, "Well, let's let's ask again either because we have to make even further reductions or they go out and say, "Well, if you'd like us to return some of those programs and services, we need an additional dollars." In some cases, people start to see how how much it hurts programs and services that aren't offering and have success. In other cases, your community is you in that thinking you know what you're referencing is your your tax threshold, right? That people are saying this is I'm willing to support you, but at just this level. And so a district really has some consideration to when do they go back out, if they go back out. I mean, this is 10 years that you'd be asking for. There are districts that after year three or four might say, "Well, let's see if we can add to or add another levy on." But yeah, certainly you know, you got to at least keep what you've got that will allow you to continue to close that gap, that inflation gap, that program and need gap that you have. Um sometimes it works that you can go back out, in your four years from now, but I would say going out now and saying let's go with option three, which again you have a little more money but didn't have enough support, I would say you would have success. >> Okay, thank you. >> I just had a question there. Um When you're into balance in the budget, can you look over that under increased fees to participate in athletic / minor / club / activities, I'm really surprised that the parent one was the highest. Is that typical? >> You know what you'll see is when you think about all parents in your district that responded to the survey. If I am a parent in a pre-K through maybe sixth grade, which was 40% of the parents, they haven't how would I say hit the activities fees stage of life yet. So some don't know what what does that actually mean or look like. And some might say oh I'm already paying extra or I'm not paying any because I'm already paying anything to do this or that and my kid plays club this or private that and so people are in those programs are are used to a fee and so they might say well that makes sense. So it means there's a couple things. One, people who are already in it in many cases are used to paying something so that might resonate with them like maybe they need to pay more. You have other people who may be not not yet engaged in things where the fee would be higher. So to them they see it as an opportunity. But again um, an opportunity to educate is if we raise all fees to X, whatever that is, that still only would bring us this much money. Or if we capped out families, and they may already do that at this much, the additional revenue would only be this. It's always that you're kind of like spitting in the ocean. So, not uncommon that that is a place where people easily capped because I feel like, um, I think the psyche of people when they're checking that is it's not impacting the classroom. Even though every one of us that's around the table tonight probably knows that whatever happens and any experiences that happen in extracurriculars and clubs and activities is certainly getting the attention of their classroom. >> Okay, thank you. And then the other one is in which municipality do you reside? I I Under the other category, that really surprised me there's 7% cuz what other what other districts do we have voters from in our school districts? >> Well, so you remember you had 11% of people that didn't live in your district. That lived in the school district. So, that So, of that 11%, that that thinking that's going to pick up seven. So, then your other non-resident respondents might fall in some of those outlying townships. So, if that makes sense, but that's why you're picking that up. So, there's probably a little bit of a disparity in the number of respondents. So, if I didn't live in the district, I might have skipped that question, but those who answered the question 7% said other because I don't live in the district. So, um, that was what I would expect to do there. >> Thank you. >> Mhm. No, good Other questions from anyone? >> I have a question. So in your experience, have you had school districts before that get results similar to this where the lowest option is is around that 54%? If they chose not to go for it this year and we did and tried to educate the community more on the needs, would they have more success the following in a following year or two? Would you say that like it's something that would help with this? >> Yep, good question. So when we designed the survey, we really talked about what it's like people know we have a need and let's let people know based on the tax increase, you know, there there will be consequences to how much we you know, we can only get a certain amount of money. So we ripped out that language to let people know you've got a challenge, a financial challenge. So sometimes districts will toy with well, that's not enough. So let's just do nothing and you've got to wait another year because you can only go in November. So if you wait, there's a snippet of concern that I have and I've heard in the same another project done like this where people go, well, if you needed it but then you decided to wait, did you really need it? So we started to play the hand that you do you do need some you need some support. Similarly, if a district goes out and doesn't find success and then does nothing and says, well, we can actually make it work. And that's a little bit of a did you need this or not? So your case I think the survey is good news. You got it. A large percentage of your community that's saying we get it you need some you need some additional support. But they're also saying I'm willing to care for you all of my bills and and here's where I'm going to land. So you know 30% or 33% saying how to put in their work in around the I don't know. That's that's pretty common which means really you got 65% of people in general that are with you just at different places and you got some that are saying I need more information some that are saying I can't give you as much as you want with the 400 book bill last but I but I get it you need something. So in my experience taking your foot off the gas at this point I think it's a little ill-advised. I want to be super clear like going going out for a lobby in the bond as especially in the last few years is working and it's working for the board and working for the leadership and working for the school staff of letting folks know where you're unique. Most of the others around us have a lobby and we're struggling to do what we need to do with the amount of money that we've been given. So I I think that I think it's less advised. And if you feel like oh we could really use more the inflationary factor is helpful although that's just going to kind of get you where where you need to be and it's nice that you can now do that. But I also think if you need to take what I'll call like a baby bump in a few years and go back out you know it's easier to ask for a slight increase after you've got something than doing a giant jump in a year or two from now. >> That makes sense. Thank you. >> I I have another question, Susan, but it's going to feel like I'm beating a dead horse. So, if you could just bear with me. >> Uh-huh. >> Yep. >> Sorry about that. Um The amount that is supported now is without community education about where we're at. And if you look at the number in the neighboring school districts per student levy is it's substantially below the majority of those numbers. What we'd be asking for and what I'm hoping is that if we have the right messaging or the right stamina behind it, the difference between the two at most is like $10 a month and that would maintain what we have and there wouldn't have to be future cuts. And I feel like that's so minimal that maybe if more people understood that it wouldn't cost that much more to just maintain where we're at, that would get more than Uh I think you said there was like 8% that we could sway into support. Is that being like overly hopeful as a parent and as a board member? Cool. Cool. Okay. Okay. >> Let me let me tell you why. It's easy to look at So, you you want to you want to go a couple places and you're doing what we're bringing to the table, right? Like they get 1,200 per pupil and you guys get zero and you only get 400. >> Yeah. >> The citizen is saying the 400 costs me what? So, we're relating what the the voters that have 1,200 per pupil costs the taxpayer that lives there compared to what the 400 per pupil cost the taxpayer in your district. You can't Like those could be different in your district. Like they whatever it costs folks there because of the makeup and the property valuation in another community. You're trying to correlate things that are you can't correlate if that makes sense. So we've taken like it what it means for for $400 per pupil in your district and here's what that tax increase is and we analyze that. Okay, there it is. If I was going to do this exact same survey with these exact same per pupil amounts in six different districts, these numbers would be extremely different. >> Yeah, I'm just looking at what's happening to the school. I understand what you're saying. But per citizen it's a different cost. >> Right. At at the end of the day, your your taxpayer while they may love students, they're all going to what is the student need? They're looking at my property value >> The graph that shows the increase. Slide 16, funding to support operations, just between option two and option three, those are just for our houses though. >> True. >> Yep. >> Okay. That's the amount I'm looking at cuz then both step at 700,000. It's 3583 a month or 4483. >> Right. >> Yeah, it starts to go it's not that different. >> Yeah, it doesn't feel like >> Yeah. So I mean some communities you might say well you could maybe do a two question ballot like and identify certain things for a second if you're like I would want to get to 500. Would I do it? I'm just telling you based on where you were sitting at option if when we added option four and option three together and you're sitting at 46%. I might say go for option go for a 400 and then another $100 per pupil that has specific programming for it. I got to tell you just kind of knowing what the numbers going to look like and looking at your data I'd say put your heads down, go for the 400 per pupil. Um get it across the finish line. Look out 2029 2029 and run run another one for a second levy on top of it when you need it. >> Okay. Okay, thank you. >> I know I know it's I know it's unpopular but it's like the data just doesn't I like I'm a broken record if you've ever heard me speak before but just the data doesn't lie. >> Yeah. >> You're just not going to pull enough people with that option three. >> Yeah. >> Cuz you said something about a dual question. What would a dual question look like? On the ballot? >> Yeah, again it would advise but if you were like really stuck on that not wanting to make cuts. So some districts will will do you know like a base question for the 400 per pupil so you have two questions on the ballot. Now we're educating people on here's what you know question one is and three is this. And then we could use an additional $50 per pupil maybe a technology level levy or some specific programs and services and you say those things are going to be you know that levy is going to cost yet this much more. And so you think like oh maybe we'll get those people that were you know that were with us all the way that we can sway enough and you get old. You're not likely with your data going to get more questions across the finish line. That that second when you when you look at where you were at with option three, when you added option four and option three together, you're just not close enough to the finish line for that to work. You I I think you'd be way better served to get the 450 across the finish line. Love people, love thank them, transparency, all of the things. And look at two years out to ask for more. To the levy. >> How so how so so how far out do the questions have to be submitted? Like we have to have finalized This is the question we're going to go with. >> Yep good question. So really you're you're at a place where I'm working with a lot of lot of districts right now. You would want to adopt your question in July. And then there's going to be early voting will start in >> August. August. >> August September yep. And so what you may be thinking like is this too fast? It's not. The survey has done a nice job with educating people, ripping the band-aid off. And your messaging campaign would start like about the third week of August. If you wanted to start your back to school campaign, September you're doing a lot of information. October you're really starting to motivate people to get them out to vote. So so it's kind of that 65 70 day campaign is what that's going to what it would particularly look like. So you're right on track, but I would say if you're going to move on this, you would want to be directing your leadership um as you leave tonight to be contacting your bond counsel to write a question and to take action next month. >> I just had a quick clarification here. Um to our guests out there, that I'm not staring directly at you. I actually >> She's on our screen. >> Yeah, she's on our screen right there. So, I didn't want to make anybody feel uncomfortable. Okay. So, I have So, I'm kind of putting this on both and 500. Is it possible that we come back and say we've gone over the survey and we come in and then we'll do a 450? I I'm just I'm I'm trying to get the most that we possibly can the first time cuz I don't see it coming. I don't see people saying yes the second time. It's just my just my intuition, the way that I've been asked, the questions that I've been asked, the research that I've done. I don't see that happening. So, I'd rather do it as much as we can in in this initial. I might be wrong. And I prob- I probably am. >> Can I throw a wrench in this? And I think it kind of piggybacks on your Back to the questions, I was curious, can you not ask a if-and question where, you know, I'm somebody who really wants to support option three, the bigger one, and that's why I want to vote for it. But, if that's not going to pass, then option B would be or option two, sorry, is like I want A, but if A's not going to pass, I want B. So, at least we have the option and hopefully we can educate people all the way through November and can sway enough people that, you know, option A's the best, go into the bigger one, but, you know, if there's still some pushback, option B has already had the support 400, it's still on the ballot, you know, and everybody who voted for the bigger option is still float just the way you flushed I guess my other question. >> Have you ever you do it in you do it in reverse of what I you do it in reverse of what you just described and what I previously described. You did the 400 and then 100. So you do the 400 per people. You'd want to get that in the back. That would be question one. Question two would be for an additional 100 on top of the 400 per people. And you'd specify out specifically what those things are. If you felt you wanted to go to 500. I'm going to just remind you to go back to the dollar for the 500 staff. I think that's what you'll find. You just have to kind of decide if you would want it or you can do a 50 per people as a second question. >> Do you think though how they're presented, like if 500 were the minimal option, that the data would still reflect the same thing but just people going for the lowest option regardless of the amount? >> Yeah, that's always been a million dollar question post survey, right? Like, "Oh, we should have had that be our lowest number and then that would have worked." And I just about lost it that we just haven't seen that because you know, already you're getting at five options for folks. You know, so it's not a huge lift but it's really people saying, you know, I think that there's when you when you when you look at what that level of support was for option two, the 400 per people, and then you're you're sitting just over 50%. And when you think of that first question I asked, that was the slide that said, "What what advice would you give to the school board?" And you have a weighted support of 49% without any other information and you know, explore some sort of a lobby. Like you haven't Like people are either with you or they're not. And so you've got to ask your people that are with you. You picked up some more people and you started to say here's how much it is. You've got a third your community about 10 of them out. uh uh uh You know, you got to make some cuts. I got to I got to see some I got to see some stuff happen or this is what's important to me given all of the things where my money is needed right now and give us the state of the art money. But it's not uncommon to feel like we should have gone you know, 876 or 765 is our lowest. Um, that that does not uncommon. But I think what Beth and Bob did was like, okay, what does this really mean and what to do? >> just going to say, I think you can blame it on me. I I needed that four to be on there. I was leery to go any lower. I'm the one that slided slid it down. So, you can blame it on me. It's okay. >> No, but you wanted to ask otherwise you're going to end up with a half a no and then then you're going to have the item worth something lower and then you're going to look at me and say, "What what is lower mean?" And I'll be like, "I don't know." >> That makes sense. We're just really hopeful on this part. Can you tell? >> Yeah, that's right. You want to be. And so and that's why I mean they just you know, repeat repeat repeat like if there's anything the state of Minnesota has learned in the last few years it is that any type of election can now be blind and requires all hands on deck and the information campaign really making sure your community knows the importance of the money you're asking for and the consequences and not the success. >> Well, and that's just it. I mean then that that kind of leads into the the runway to move forward, right? So, if by the We have to adapt the question for July. But the the actual information campaign that we're saying August, that kind of starts? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> This would be my fourth levy, and we've always kind of kicked that off in August. Um I have found that if you go too soon, that information gets swayed and changed, and she's shaking her head yes, but you know, doing it too soon doesn't really benefit a campaign. Um that I found, and so you can certainly correct me. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Campaign fatigue is real. >> That's the word. Campaign >> Okay, that's one last question. Maybe it's not even a question, or a bizarre question, or a statement. How much of the results were do you think our community was caught off guard by the survey? Cuz I don't feel like it's I I could be wrong, but I don't think it's been people uh perceived the school district as being in any kind of financial trouble. They look around and look at Byron school district, look how much trouble they're in, they're struggling, that's why they're asking for a levy. And then the school suddenly out of nowhere we're sending out these postcards saying, "Hey, we need a levy." Do you think the Do you think the results reflected all people might have caught off guard, like, "Oh, do you really need money?" Like they they never talked about this, this isn't an issue. You know, DCI hasn't been reporting for months that we're financially super far behind, or we're making huge cuts. And I don't know if that's your question, just >> in our community, the history of it, it hasn't been publicized well, like our the need for it until uh Dr. Thompson came and started to talk to some local groups about it, and then we had Mr. Ends who didn't go anywhere with it. So, I I don't think it has been very publicized that we are operating with L1. >> And I guess my question would have been, do you think we would have had different results if, you know, we were in a different situation where in the last year or 2 years we've been talking about huge cuts are coming, we are struggling, like, you know, we have huge class sizes right now, uh next year we're definitely $1.5 million in a hole, please take the survey. Do you think we would to different results from just kind of just having over recently these postcards of hey, we're considering this November. >> I The only challenge I would have to that is I mean look at how often we talk about enrollment and where that trend has been and where that trend line has been for many years. >> I feel like it's a board we've talked about a lot and it's understood in the board, but the general community, I don't think they're clicking on the enrollment link on our board meetings and see oh, yep, yep. Definitely we see that coming. >> So then then it's a challenge, right? Like how do you those conversations are being had and are being managed even within the district. And I would say from a from a community member perspective, having those conversations as far as like the strength of the district financially, like that that conversation in has to go in tandem with enrollment because one drives the other, right? And so I don't know. I I wouldn't say at least in Sorry, I'm just stuck. Um I don't know if it was too much of a surprise for many just because if if they were paying attention, right? Like but if they if they weren't hearing the conversation or looking at even the last two or three years worth of data for trend lines in our enrollment, you're right, then it would have been a surprise. >> And I think Aaron that anytime you do a survey versus just going to the voters, you're doing two things and I think Sue hit on that. You're educating the public. Like hey, maybe we will, maybe we we won't, but here's the information and we want, you know, and a we want to acknowledge this information. Many people didn't know that we were the only ones without. Um those calls that came in said, "No, I see it on my taxes. I know that you do." Well, that's a bond. You know, and educating people the differences is what's on their their tax statements because they see 0204 on there, right? And so, I think the survey maybe wasn't a surprise, but maybe a tool to kind of pre-talk about things. Whatever you decide to do tonight, that's why you do a survey versus There's many districts that don't do a survey. They say, "This is what I need." The business managers run the numbers. We have looked at the revised budget. We look at having a shortfall in about 5 years. Um and our you know, we can educate them that that is not tomorrow that we're going to have this dip. We're trying to slowly make sure that it doesn't happen. And so, I look at it's not a surprise, rather an an opportunity to educate. >> And so, I I didn't mean it as a surprise cuz I thought it was a a bad decision. I'm just saying I think I was just kind of curious, you know, if you know, we're not in that struggling financial position right now, and then we send out these postcards and you know, majority of people haven't been tracking or following, and they see it, they're just kind of caught off guard. Oh, why are they asking for money? That you know, we haven't heard anything about this. This is just a surprise to us that we're we're pushing the ball around around. I was just curious, would we have had different results, I guess, is my question. >> say that remember that um the percentage of your public, despite the fact that your school board members that are dialed in on the school operating budget is limited. Um but also know that nationally, it certainly isn't a shock that funding for education is a challenge. And so, you end up benefiting of what what we've heard just across the country as far as um our schools our schools are struggling with the amount of funding that So, probably um those that are dialed in are not probably even hearing community dialed into the very specific specifics of your district's financial state, but but just the fact that the funding formula and what's happening with the needs in education across the state and across the country, um those are things that they're hearing repeatedly. >> Can we go back to one of the questions about you know, in between that option two and option three on the ballot, what that would look like? I do feel that what we've kind of heard is tell me more. I mean, they do want to be educated. They do want to be involved. So, I feel like there's a lot more that we could do in using this time before that. What would be the risk of having that two-part question, I guess, on the ballot? Maybe the city >> The risk would be complication. Like it gets confusing. Um, you know, a one-question ballot is completely you're in or you're out. It's 400 people, here's what we've got. We're going from zero to this. Um, here's what it costs. Now, you're going from zero to 400, that's going to cost you X. But, if you want to give me another five $15 per floor, $100 per people, that's an additional this many dollars. And that additional $100 would be used for X, Y, and Z. Saving this, just that. So, you'd have to very specifically, um, call out what the additional dollars, like like what the question two would or would do. So, it's a bit less clean, but if it's there, I think I would just push back to, um, you know, what what where where about the bomb felt like within Remember, you got an inflationary factor on this, as well. So, you're going to get the 400 people with that inflationary increase each year. So, there is some benefit in that that you'll pick up in those years moving ahead. >> How clean or complicated or is there a reserve set criteria that need to be a part of a question for a bond? >> Yes, that's why you have your financial advisors do that. We've already spoken with others. They would draft that up. Um it's not something we would do. >> Yes, on behalf of all easily confused people, I agree with Pearson fully. >> I know that some districts that have done the dual um and the additional 400 and then the additional 100, you'd be shocked how many people skip over the question asking for the 400 and they skip right to the 100 and check yes for that. It doesn't help you because they did vote for the first one. So, it it does get complicated. I'm not wrong, am I, Sue? That >> Correct. >> You see actual voting error and they don't mean to. You can spell it out as much as you want, but they'll skip to that because they feel like that's what I can get. And so then >> I I do want to say something too, but it's not about the data, it's about the survey. You guys did such a fantastic job putting it together and making a lot of complex information very clear. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Are there any other questions for Ms. Pearson? All right. Well, thank you for all your time and we'd like like >> All right. >> Okay, so you did a great job. We really appreciate it. We We have any questions that you have any answer to that we tonight, we uh we assume we're able to reach out anytime. >> Absolutely. >> Okay, thank you. >> All right. Thank you, everyone. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. We will move on to communications. Do we have a resolution for acceptance of gifts? >> Before you move on, do we need to >> Yeah, I was going to say >> take any action? Are we reaching out to others having them draft the question for to prepare for you in July to vote on? >> I think you can probably reach out to them, but I wouldn't I would like to digest some data. We just got it in, and I think if we can I can put it on the agenda for next month. >> But I But I think you're saying we need to like approve the actual question in July, which I think if, you know, you want to digest this, do we have another meeting coming up before that? >> work session then. For sure. And that's that's fine. >> Could we just vote? Cuz I don't think we need a a work session and for it. I think the community shows support unless you're thinking the number would be different. >> You could also add discussion at the July board meeting and just vote at the end. So, your work session happens before, you don't have to schedule a whole new date. >> Okay. Could we do that? >> But I think you should say >> Yeah, I'm sorry, but you're you're asking someone to prepare a question. I mean, there is a cost that goes along with that. I wouldn't do that if if we're not going to go forward. >> You're We can We can definitely do a session. I don't want to put words in your mouth. Bob, you what do you think? >> I mean, we could have Jeff draft the question. We can certainly do that. I don't know if I have enough information exactly how you want me to do that, but >> I think what you're saying is that the next meeting is on the 20th, we need to have a finalized question the finalized question that we're going to say yes or no to. >> Correct. For that for the >> For the meeting approved, and I think waiting till the 20th to discuss it, you know, if it's a if it's a draft and we don't like the draft, we haven't seen it until the 20th and we're sending it back and, you know, they're saying that we need to have this question approved >> We would add a work session then. >> I would definitely add a work session. Two weeks, that'll be good. Yeah, it's time to draft that up so people can take a look at it. >> Because you wouldn't want any changes after July 20th. You know, I I think it would be wise to have a work session. At least it gives you that time to digest it, kind of chat with people, get the information out there. The results are public, they can see that on the webpage. I don't know, you're the one that spoke to Jeff, would he be comfortable with that? Great. Okay. >> Thank you. I apologize. >> No no problem. I don't We'll find out at the work session and voting on it at the next regular >> Great. Thank you. >> Um Mr. Mason. >> Yes. Resolution for acceptance of grants and gifts. Whereas the following have generously offered to donate to KMFCCLA class class projects and leadership conference, KM Lions, $2,550. KM Youth Fishing Team, $500. Kasson Laser Graphics and Kasson Variety, 175 yards of fabric valued at $875. Empowered Your Wellness, $100. McKernan Financial Group, $200. Kasson True Value, $200. As we're Michelle Zana has generously offered to donate an alto sax valued at $1,600. Whereas the KM ES PTA has generously offered to donate $1,257.32 to KM ES for field trips and experiences. Whereas Class Act Wards has generously offered to donate $5,000 in parts and labor to Cain schools for the repair of the crows nest. >> All right. Thank you. We have a motion and we have a second. >> I'll second. >> Thank you. >> Go ahead. >> Um any questions on that and this? I hear none. All of them favor of approval resolution seconds of yes. Say I. >> I. >> All those things I. Motion carries. On to board committee reports. It looks like the shrine you're the only one that's done any work this month. >> What on June wasn't there a student activity? >> June 1st we had. >> Yeah, we did. Do you want me to go first or do you guys want to go? >> I can go. >> Yeah, go ahead. >> So yeah, June 1st we had our student activities committee and we actually did nice job on our general updates of people going to sections doing very well. A lot of positive things going on in the district. Uh the biggest takeaway that I had is when we asked about participation in clubs activities, um it was 86% of student participation. So that was a very high and um I just think that they're doing a great job of getting kids involved. Um there was a few new clubs. Uh diversity club would be starting. There's a new business club that started this past winter. Um and just a lot of positive things uh that are happening. Anything to add to that? >> No. I think the diversity club is going to start offering like different foods, right? Like once a month. >> cultures and different countries. Yeah, well >> I'm excited about that. Was there any mention of any clubs that are >> maybe struggling and could use some help. >> Uh we did talk about it gets reviewed. Um >> Is it every year? >> Every year. >> Every year. So, maybe it was really a a well-attended club. Um maybe the those students graduated and so it is looked at every year. And um and then look taking a look at any new ones. So, we request that committee. The other thing that we talked about, too, is the the fundraising review because there's so many different uh clubs and behind outside of the school doing fundraising, so maybe um for JO volleyball, example, uh try to have a better track of who's doing what fundraising, so the community is not getting taxed and to get done with one and another group is is doing it. So, we're going to um there's going to be a uh a fundraising review try to keep track of that, though. >> I have that pencil >> that all year, but >> I have that pencil per July, I think. Keep on going. >> Any other questions for us tonight? >> I will make that So, finance committee also met, but we talked The items that we discussed are dominant action items. So, we'll go over greater detail here about those, so that being said, the lots for construction package and then our annual annual budget. >> I'm on track, I guess we're not. >> Sweet. Okay. I'm happy to go. Um Z had their graduations, which were awesome, and um Ms. Keith and I attended. Um they celebrated a lot of the end of the year stuff and they had one of their classes that actually got to go and I think they spun it on like a physics learning but went to Mall of America so that was awesome. Our business manager is going to stay the same. They had some business like whole system adjustments and I think that bought by a different company but we get to keep Jack Paradise who's been fantastic so we're really excited that Z for that. And then next month I'll be bringing in or it will be on our agenda to approve their LTFM plan. They will submit to all the districts to get approved so just a reminder our percentage is 21.475%. This Thursday is our next meeting so if you guys have any questions or want me to bring anything up, I will be happy to if you could just email it to me before this Thursday at 6:00 technically so. And then those percentages were developed when Z said like was being built. So I think Patrick came and spoke to those a little bit when there were questions previously. Um and then per year it's around $36,000 that they're hoping to save or bring in. Right now they have nothing. Um so again if anything did happen to their facility, all of the member districts would be taking that out of their general fund and we don't want to do that or have an unexpected cost so. I may have dismissed it but was there any public input today? >> I didn't hear sorry and you are I'm grateful you brought that up. There was no public input at all. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Did you have the administer attached to this? Is that something we can get on the next one here? >> Yes, let's attach both to the next one. I apologize. Usually I forward them to Carlin, but I must have missed that. >> Um I guess for the legislative, there was a safe meeting. I was the audio was so terrible I just had to give it a thumb. Miss Heusdens, is your audio any better? >> It was good until about midway through and then it was Yeah, exactly. It was really, really hard to hear. They did send out updates. You know, huge surprises. The session ended kind of where we all thought it would. >> All right, so did you have Anybody have anything else on committees? Okay, we'll go ahead and move on to certain Senate communications. >> Well, I sent those out prior to me leaving. I've been negotiating like crazy and I sent that out to you via email. So, give me questions on it, I can certainly answer that. Um but I was in Tennessee, so not getting up fancy with You're getting the email that I sent But certainly, um if you have any questions, um we kind of go into the session where we get caught up. A lot of planning for next year. Um I think a lot of people think things get quiet for us in the summer. It's actually quite the opposite. It's our time to really ramp up and be prepared for everyone to come back. Um a lot of budgeting things. Bob and I unfortunately have spent a lot of time together, right Bob? Going over a lot of things and just making sure um that we're listening to the people that are reaching out and making sure that we're making everything ready for next year. But negotiations has been the um highlight of my last few weeks along with evaluations. I really believe in evaluating everyone on the leadership team, and to do that effectively, it takes a lot of time. But, it makes better leaders when you do it the right way. I do invest the time in that. >> Any comments or questions for Ms. Gates? Uh we'll move right along to the personal information items only. Is there any questions or discussion on any of those? Okay, hearing none, we'll move on to the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So moved. >> Thank you, Mr. Sackett. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Mr. Sackett. >> I have a question. Do So, keep my husband got his best driver's license, which he also encouraged me to vote now for him tonight. But, do I just abstain from this vote because of that? >> You should abstain. >> Yeah. Okay, so I will plan to abstain from >> I didn't catch that first time. Thank you for that. >> either, and it's not Um yeah, sorry. >> If you could abstain, that would be great. >> Okay. >> All right. Uh we have a motion and a second. Any other discussion on that? Ms. Ryan will be abstaining due to a personal personal conflict with one of the employees. Uh all those in favor, state aye. >> Aye. >> Aye. >> All those in same sign. Motion carries. Um action items. Old business, we have none. Um uh new business, we have two here. Um approve the FY 26 revised and FY 27 proposed budget. Did you get a chance to look into those? >> No questions. All right. >> It's such a great report that I was glad I could understand it. >> That actually got out of the park. >> Um do I have a motion to approve? >> Is there anything to touch on though that you guys talked about in the committee meeting that you could highlight? I actually think Bob has a short summary that might be really good for this just so you can understand the budget for next year. Would that be awesome? >> So, basically just going through that first page in the budget document itself, I'm just looking at our projected enrollment. Again, as in the past number of years, the incoming kindergarten class is much smaller than the outgoing third grade class. So, we're projecting that our enrollment will be down probably about 35 to 40 kids heading into next year. As we continue to look long term over the next 5 years, we're projecting that trend to continue. People are just aren't having as many kids as they used to. Um, we're hoping that with maybe some new construction in the town here, that maybe some families will be moving in, but first of all, what we have just isn't telling us that right now. Um, so when Beth and I do the enrollment projection, we always try to be somewhat conservative because we don't want to over staff. We don't want to over project our revenue. It's much easier to come to you in the fall once school starts and say, "We were short." Or we underestimated our enrollment by 10 kids. Um, so we have 10 kids more, but that's not what we're projecting will happen. Um, um, kind of on a similar note, um, we have made some reductions going into '17. We eliminated or we reduced a piece teacher, a high school math 12 instructor. Um, we also reduced some of our technology staff. So, over the last number of years, we have as these smaller grade levels have moved start moving through the system, we have um, reduced number of sections at the elementary school. We will continue that trend as um, and once they start moving into the middle school, we'll start taking a look at uh, the number of teachers that are required there as well. Um, on the revenue side of the budget, the state increased the general formula by approximately $203 per student. Um, and that's the rate of inflation. Um, one thing that I did not mention in my notes here is this coming fiscal year, for me the first full year of the Minnesota paid leave program. And if we spend every dollar that we have budgeted for wages, um, our total payments will be approximately $80,000 for this coming year. So, basically a a teacher is what that's costing us. Um, I don't know if you have any questions. I could go through a a whole bunch of numbers that may or may not be of any interest to you. Um, but I guess I'd rather take the time to answer any specific questions I may have. >> I've got a general question and you don't necessarily have to answer right now, but just maybe to help me wrap my mind around the vote for the levy, is this the same five years, you know, if we continue to keep right-sizing as classes get smaller, what's our like budget deficit or what shortfalls are actually going to be at in five years, you know, we keep doing all the right things, but we don't have a levy, class sizes getting smaller, we're increasing class sizes, we're getting rid of teachers as you know, we're condensing classes. What like what what are What's the future look like in 5 years if we don't have this levy? >> I'm guessing that maybe within the next couple of years you're going to be looking at probably about a $200,000 deficit. And I think that will just continue to kind of start snowballing as time goes on. So, I'm guessing that probably could potentially be in the $700,000 range. >> By year five, no levy. >> Yeah. >> We continue to try to streamline the five years. >> And that's even with us doing the financial right things of continuing >> Yep. And I think we will continue to do what the right sizing even if a levy does pass. It's not as though we're just going to just blindly keep all the staff that that we currently have. So, it's I I would assume that we would continue that process as well, so. >> I don't know if that answers your question. >> No, that's good. >> It's what we know today. It's what It's kind of what we know today. I mean, who knows if we have an influx of additional students. I mean, that changes the share as well, so. Cuz typically, if you have more students, well, then they don't all just come in one grade level. Typically. >> Thanks for explaining that. Um it's a good opportunity to go over it, especially after what we talked about earlier. Um and just looking at what we bring in for revenues under our general fund, it's pretty tight with our expenditures in the next school year as well. >> Exactly. >> Exactly. >> We almost spend every dollar we make, so. There's not a lot being saved in that general fund. >> Any other discussion on this? Okay, we do have a motion and a second, correct? >> No. >> You don't? Okay, okay. Do I have a motion to approve uh 6.2.2? >> So moved. >> Thank you. >> Mr. McGee, I'll second. >> I'll second. >> Okay, Mr. Tucker, we have a motion and a second. Uh any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> Opposed, same sign. Motion um we do this every year. It's a identified official with authority to approve this. Even though it we approve it every year, it's your first year on that, so. I'll make a motion to approve that. >> I'll second. >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Mr. Ryan. Any questions or comments on that? Hearing none, uh all those in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> Opposed, same sign. Motion carries. 6.2.3, purchase agreement for two Cassin property lots. Um I'll take a motion. I'll make a motion to approve uh I'll second. >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Discussion, and I know there's some but discussion. >> First, I would just like to Yeah, say thank you for the effort that went into acquiring those lots for the rate at which we're buying them for. That was a very good purchase. And in support of that program for >> Yeah, will you talk more about the plan for that because I think in land facilities we talked a little bit about changing that program or trying where we weren't selling houses, so what's the plan moving forward, especially if we don't if it slows down any more with all these other new houses going up? >> Right, and I know Buck can interject here, too. Don't be afraid to do that. Um, you know, we were really looking at a lot of different options because we weren't sure where we're going to go with this program and it always makes you a little nervous if you don't have that backup plan. Um, obviously when lots vacant are right next up to, you know, your property line, you certainly want to look at those. So, we haven't investigated that. It's not off the table for down the road. Who knows, right? Um, but we are going to always try to keep this program going. As Patrick said, the lots get really expensive. Cassin is a very desirable and a very desirable place to live. So, our lots are just more expensive. But, when you run the program the way we do and Bob does a great job with that, we have to make sure that we're getting them at a reasonable rate so that we keep this program you know, something that we can afford to do. So, it's not that we've ditched all of our other ideas. We are just staying the course with what we have. Um, and that's probably why we didn't really bring into facilities first because this is the program that we've just continued to have. We haven't reduced it. We were just exploring other options that at this time have not come to fruition. >> And and just to elaborate on that, I think one of the other options that we were looking at was utilizing that construction tech program to build concession stand or like something on our property, right? Like whether it was the concession stand or storage shed and things like that. Turns out there's rules that we got to follow for being like an actual general contractor or licensed or >> It got so complicated. I mean, there's times you have to wait 21 days before you can take your next step. Well, what do you do with, you know, 24 young adults out there ready to build a house and they're just waiting for the person to come do the next inspection. So, >> For this though, so what made us want to buy two and how much of a savings is it for the district? What went into that when you talk about it? >> So, for the lots versus market value, um, we were able to get they were able to negotiate at 365 grand per lot. And >> So, what's the usual That's a I I'm just not in the market. >> Uh, just just in a as a pers- perspective, the last lot I bought was at 70. >> All All the lots that we've recently built on behind my house, they were all listed This is from 4 years ago. They all started around 60 to 70,000. >> The ones that we purchased were 80. >> Nice. How did we do this? Was that you, Bob? Was >> It was Bob. >> Bob. Bob. >> So, Beth and I had talked. Um, we thought sometimes if you buy in multiple, the developer might give you a little bit better deal. These were on the market for 68. So, we offered 65 and they accepted that. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> And I'm I'm assuming this gives us a little breathing room, too. I mean, more than one year where we're not just struggling each year to find a new Is this the last One lot will last us all next year and then >> Yeah. >> So, we have 2 years of lots. >> 2 years of lots. >> These homes will be more affordable as well. Just the location they're out on. I just called it the dump road. Is that the official name of it? >> Yeah. >> It is. >> Okay. Do you guys all call it that? Cuz I didn't know you did that. Sorry. Okay. Okay. >> If you called it that, we wouldn't know what you spoke of. >> So sorry. Anyway, they are there and the back side lines up there. It They're going to be beautiful lots, but I'm I'm excited because they'll be very sellable. They will bring families into our communities and that's part of this program is not just the building process. It's building something that families can move into and some of our homes have gotten quite expensive and not starter homes and those kinds of things. So, we're excited about this. This I mean, if you vote yes, but this is a >> Will they be slab on grade again? Is that usually what we always build? >> The first one will not be. >> Really? They will they will not be. >> Cool. Thanks for explaining all that. It's good to know cuz I know there's a lot of behind the scenes works, you know. >> Bob was on the phone with the general for like plenty of times. He did great. >> Yeah, and we had to get really creative. So, I'm glad to see that it's continuing and it provides us opportunities. That's really >> We have some of the highest enrollment that we've had in the class. So, that speaks volumes too that kids really want this program and we're giving it to them. So. >> Yeah, it's a good point. >> Just out of curiosity, with all the lots we have in buildings right now, do we have do we get any kind of tax credits or refunds or anything cuz it's educational and it's for the class purposes? No? I think it's >> Probably the government lot that one. >> It's through the education education foundation. >> I think it's five years we don't pay any property tax for five years out in the lot, Or we we pay just >> You pay basically what the open lot is valued at. And then if that gets developed, you know, like this. Let's say that Let's say that the house gets half built in year one, they would whatever that value that you have into that at that point in time, that's what it would be taxed at. We can tax up to the full value of >> Do we Does our Does our Does our school property Do we pay property taxes on our school property too? No? Is there any kind of loophole or not loophole, but I mean I I mean I'm saying we we are educational system. We have these classrooms that we provide teaching to our you know, our kids in the building that, you know, we don't pay property taxes on. And this How Why can't we just say this is an extension >> is if you went to a housing initiative and created I mean, it's a huge process that you'd have to go through a an outside community would have to run the program. Very similar to what they do in Cannon Falls. It's called the housing initiative. Then you can get some of those benefits, but otherwise no. >> I believe the reason that we pay taxes on it is because we won't ultimately sell it. So like the roughly 25 acres to the north that is farmed, we do pay taxes on that because it's considered ag property. >> What do you get out of one of these vacant lots? I mean it's not all for nothing, but it's only like a couple hundred dollars >> But I'm assuming like the house we had would sit for a year before we could sell it. I'm assuming we were paying property taxes on what the house was worth for that entire year, which that would be a significant chunk of money if we could save lots in our hands. >> I guess that's the mistake I was thinking of. The developer or whatever. I don't think the developer has to pay taxes on those empty lots till they sell. Okay, I got you there I guess. Then it won't affect us. I'm sorry. >> Um do you have any questions for us? >> I don't have a question about it, but I just want to say I think it's a wonderful program that we're able to offer here. Um I came in to the district not knowing anything about it and now I have a student that's been in it for at least a year now and loved it and learned so much from it. So I think it's a very valuable program. >> All right, are there any other questions or comments? I hear none. All those in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> All those against say nay. Motion carries. On Tuesday, select 2.4, approve resolution relating to the non-renewal of probationary teacher contract. Um Mr. Davis Uh I'd like a motion to approve that. >> So moved. >> Sorry, yeah. Great. Uh do we have a second. >> I'll second that. >> Okay, thank you, Mr. Knight. Uh any discussion on that? >> I have a question. How come this one's coming in a little bit later than the other ones? >> There was some confusion about whether he was hired as a long-term sub or not. She thought she hired him as an LTS, but the paperwork did not reflect that, so we had to go through the motion. >> Okay. >> a question. >> Okay. >> He's also a new staff placement out of the area. Um he's going back to school to be a counselor. >> And we had him in as a special education teacher. He was a para in a neighboring district and we brought him over to help out in a mid-year. So I can see why her confusion. She thought he was a long-term sub. We actually put him on contract. Makes sense. >> Okay. >> He's out of He He doesn't have a license to teach anything that we currently need, so. >> I understand. >> Wonderful teacher. >> Yeah. >> He did a great job. >> Wonderful. >> Okay, uh any discussion on that? Any further discussion? Okay. Are you done? All those in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> Any opposed say nay. Motion carries. On 6.2.5, approve all 2026-2027 handbooks. And I think um the teachers and the administrators have really got to work pretty hard on this to kind of make more more of a unified type of thing. handbook, so I think that's a lot of work that they did, so I appreciate that. Um do I have a motion to approve those? >> So moved. >> Thank you, Mr. Knight. >> I'll second >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Mr. Knight. Any further discussion on that? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> Any opposed say nay. Motion carries. Informational items, we're uh next scheduled regular meeting is at 5:30 uh June 20th in this room. And then in July we have a special board meeting uh 5:30 in this room on the August 3rd. And I think we need to vote that up to be required. We can take a look at that and it will be your calendar as far as when we can do. Um and notice the school board filing period is going to be from the July 14th to July 28th. So, anybody interested? >> And Oh, never mind. Sorry. I was going to ask how many people are up. I think >> Three. >> Patrick, yeah. Great. Okay. >> All right. >> So, we are going to do a work session though for the to discuss the >> Can Can I give some input on that? >> Sure. >> He's I was just going to say doesn't he gone through 20 days >> Seriously, yeah. >> Well, I think we're pretty flexible on the date. I would like to have all board members here for that. >> Right. >> Maybe Carmen can do a poll on that. If you don't have it on Monday night, how about that? >> So, I'm going to be gone the first half of July. Like out of the country. So, if we could do it at the end of June or next week. I don't know how much time you guys want in between. Um and even then I might have to attend virtually. Maybe we could figure out a date like on a poll. Like just a heads up. >> be available to do virtually. >> In June, not in July. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> So, like June 29th or something like that. >> Cuz I'll be gone most of July, too. >> Yeah. We're being reasonable. >> What would be a if you you know you I don't know if you know this Matt, but how long would it take them to draft up those papers? >> They're pretty quick. They don't >> I don't think it would take much more than a couple days. >> June 29th would be really for me. You have a problem? I can do June 29th. >> You know, I've got half of June and half of July next >> Two weeks from today. >> I can do the meeting. >> Good. >> I can do that, too. >> Rising Sun >> Motion to adjourn the meeting. >> Awesome. Thank you guys. >> We will get that done. >> I will do that. We'll leave that up. >> Uh, prepared and >> Um, okay, and then we do have an Okay, that's it, I guess. So, then I'll take a motion for adjournment. >> So moved. >> Do we have a second? >> I'll second. >> Mr. Clark, all those in favor? >> Aaron votes yes, everyone. >> Yep. And if there's no question or concern about adjourning, I will take a vote. All those in favor? >> Good night. >> All right. >> Okay.