November 25th 2025 welcome to all of our visitors guests and media we're going to start tonight with the board administrative roll calls Mr felt here Mr Burns Miss Danielson here miss Schultz here miss Geto here miss nthon here Mr onell here Mr Schuler here Mr henon here Mr girton here all right please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for [Music] all all right um since this is a work session we do not have any public comments so is there a motion to approve the agenda and addendums moov second motion made by Miss Danielson seconded by miss naton any further discussion hearing none all those in favor say I I I'll oppose nay motion carries moving on to the review and information items it's the review of the preliminary audit report by m Raider and Mr Schuler moving right along hi hi tonight the audit is going to be presented by our auditor um Carolyn stman I yeah I got it right um and the uh Finance meeting no the finance committee met about a month ago a couple weeks ago 3 fours ago least and we discussed the it was a Prett preliminary at that point but we discussed um the audit and it's better than we predicted um I predicted that we were going to probably deficit spend now you have to remember the $1.7 million floating around and there'll be more on that issue in on uh in letter see um so we did increase our fund balance about 1.4 million plus the 1.7 so it was more it was not one of the best um budgeting years I had I was over I was under in revenue and I was um lower in expenses by about 4.25% and my Revenue I was off about 2.4% so it's not a bad thing but it's not exactly where I told you we were going to be so the finance board we do have about 4 million dollars worth of roofs that we have to do and it's 4 million right now so if we wait it could be more it could be less depending on what the um Market is um so one of the options for um looking forward for the roof project is to take 1.25 million and put it in an assign fund balance so then we have that to use when we do the ri projects it's not going to be total amount but it will help defer any of borrowing that we do at that specific time and with it being an assigned fund balance if something does totally go arai with budgeting in the future we're now putting it at the roofs but we could change it if something happened so it it's it's a easier way to have it assigned for a specific purpose because it can be released and reassigned if the need is there um one thing I did want to say is um last year has nothing to do with this year and the future years um we do have about $600,000 that we're deficit spending this year um our enrollment did decline as you'll hear in the audit by about 35 um I just looked at what I projected the budget and what the seat count of course the seat count and ADM is not the same but there I'm about 25 shy I mean actual seat count is 25 lower than what I predicted the budget to be so that's going to come into play I haven't I just got over the audit so I haven't really jumped into looking at where we are how we're going to um redoing the revised budget yet that'll be December's project so um I'll be able to give you more information on how we're doing in 25 on what I predicted the budget to be so good news um so uh good news so so M Raider with with the expenses you said you're off about four what where what 4% yeah what constituted that where did that and I know we'll probably dive into it a little bit more she really doesn't touch a lot about anything you'll see the thing in the um the audit presentation it'll show the original budget the revised budget and then the actuals and it's 4.5% of 20 million so I mean it it's not that bad I mean really in the grand scheme of things it's not but it's not right so the things that swayed um there were and just the big ticket items more there special ed there was a lot budgeted that we weren't able to fill so I think there was three pair positions um that we weren't able to fill so that was Staffing related um the subs it was about $40,000 that we didn't use um ltfm was a big one I had um 28600 ,000 put in the budget that we didn't utilize and that pretty much is our overhead um what was that called yeah the speakers yes speaker system it was Peg to go but he didn't get it installed until July so I couldn't use it for 25 so then it's on it'll be on next year's go yep yep yep um and now curriculum that was one other thing that I don't know if anybody read the budget uh report but there is a financial highlight and two things that I did state in that Financial highlight was the um that I did an assign fund balance for the roing project and then an assign balance of about 999,000 for curriculum there was a balance of about 123 in the curriculum budget that wasn't used so I did Reserve about 100,000 for next year cuz he does have an language arts curriculum that he has to purchase so that will help off set that so that was one thing and then facilities was 45,000 which is just I had it in the budget because stuff's going to break so that's a gist of what happened so and that's the good news bad news right yeah and electricity it was only about 34,000 but still 34,000 is 34,000 so MH um so that's the budget and the revenue the main difference there was special at I was a little skeptical that the state was really going to come through with um the increase funding so I had to add I think uh 25,000 at the end just because the numbers say now we'll it'll be interesting to see next year if they actually come to frion because this is all guessing right so um it could not come and next year it gets true it up right yep absolutely one other thing about the ltfm um so much of our what we've been doing um facilities wise has come out of our bond and we've been able to stretch those Bond dollars if you remember into our ltfm budget to knock out some of those projects so we haven't had a dip into ltfm which is a good problem again um but it creates a little wonky um overall general fund budget so and that's another thing to mention when she goes over the G funds of operations she'll hit on the reserved fund balances and our Capital fund balance Reserve is at 245,000 which isn't huge it's pretty much in line with all the other years but our ltfm is the 920 it's at $927,000 but if we would have done that $250,000 project then we would have been closer to what we have been in the past and um you'll notice on the fund balance there's a couple new fund balances of the state funding they they did um one was L literacy Aid um literacy incentive Aid which there's very specific things it can use be used for so um I was not able to spend that all down so there's 31,000 in that fund balance and then um basic skills I'm usually able to um totally deplete but because it went up so high um and they narrowed the scope of what you can use them for I am leaving 98,000 nope I lied 92,000 in that fund balance and then we made another new fund balance it's the year of fund balances um our dental insurance is self-insured so we have always carried a balance in a liability account and for a couple years the um Auditors are like you really need to get that out you need to get it out of that and put it into a reserve fund so we finally did that so there's 98,000 in a reserve fund for dental insurance and it can only be used on dental insurance and that's all that can be used for so just a little update on all the reserved funds um anything anybody have any questions comments concerns so the other bigger question and again that's why Mr Hen and Mr Girt are here is we went into the school year we were projecting to cut you know between 400 and $800,000 so given the the better budget forecast via the audit um that's kind of where we want you to kind of weigh in to see where we want to go next um you know Bob will explain a little bit about the work he's been doing on the sixth period day um at the high school and kind of the process he's taken there I know some of you have been a part of that process with him um along the way um but um we just want to let you know we're are we are looking to continue on that march to uh make that schedule change but we want your feedback on that too just making sure that we kind of have that rubber stamp uh moving forward because we're at that point where we've got a pretty good framework and Bob's done a really nice job of putting that together um um and ready to kind of take that next step um and there will be some reductions naturally with that um it won't be at the 800 you know th000 obviously but it it could be anywhere between 150 probably and uh in that range possibly just with some natural reductions so um Elementary is another building where we may have a retirement coming and um you know would we replace that teacher potentially probably not just because of our class sizes they are getting smaller and so uh there could be a natural reduction there so we're going to see some natural reductions um by attrition possibly in some of these areas um but I guess moving forward we're starting to look for some preliminary feedback from you on just all right how deep do we go do we not go at all um you know and Bob can explain a little bit about some of the details too where he's at with the schedule because what's the adjusted now like budget reduction I mean number that we want to be because it's not 400 to 800,000 any that's kind of what we're trying to okay talk a little bit tonight get that preliminary and need to kind of figure out where that fund balance really is next year and looking down the road too right CU When the fund balance starts dipping you kind of have to go back at least a year if not two right to start the wheels in motion right so you know from a finance committee I don't think we've seen that really Lisa quite yet so from a forecasting perspective we haven't seen much of that yet but I still think we need you know we still need to kind of keep that in the back of our mind um as we kind of go forward there with with where we are at in the fund balance whether it's 25 26 27 28 I know we talked about too reducing our percentage right because where we at and I believe our fund balance policies that next year it's up yeah so I think at that point we need to just to let you know and I forgot to tell you this but the actual unassigned percent it's of the expenditures of this year it's going to be at 15.69 so I don't I'm sure you all have memorized every page the audit I know it um in 22 it was 3.6 our fund balance it dipped in 23 because of the 1.7 to 1.8 and now it's at 3.1 so we're pretty much I think maybe I said that the hope is that 24 will be like 23 cuz we did the dip and now we we paid it back and it's pretty close Okay has it gone down at least a little bit well the fund balance has but the expenditures did also so the percent is I think yeah but the unassigned fund balance as a dollar amount went down okay good but the total fund balance is like at 27% because of the 1.2 million that's in the assign and when you're looking because that came out of unassigned that right so when you look at and the state reports um fund balance with all of the assigned and the reserved and everything so ah yeah they're our friend so that still doesn't but our our it still doesn't take it out completely out of the per solve our problem no but we also have to remember forecasted to be in deficit spending going forward and our butts and seats are not going up so right we are in a better position than we thought we were going to be three four years down the road that's why we're proactively kind of getting ahead of correct to try to it out instead smooth it out more instead of saying okay we got to cut seven people if we can do it in four years by attrition right then it's not right a huge H and I'm not saying that we would have to cut 7 an example correct on the seats for a minute so where that is happening is in our elementary school correct primarily yep yep but we're trying to make all these changes at the high school right now does that make sense for are we concentrating in the wrong area I guess is my question yeah um the elementary took more of the hit the last couple of years and I know high school we did have some reductions you know last couple of years as well um you know high school you can look at it a couple different ways and we've talked a lot about this um and Bob can explain this in more detail but currently in the four block schedule given the Staffing that we've had to reduce it's becoming now really difficult to have the same offerings that we can we had in the past so right now he's really trying to get I don't's he's offering a lot more work experiences you can explain this better than I can but um a lot more work experiences than courses right now because he has nowhere to put kids because we just don't have enough teachers to teach those courses given our some of our reductions by moving to the sixth period day now we're increasing the amount of offerings because we can do that with the the six period day I think it's something Heidi that we have to do regardless either this year or two years or three years down the road we're just we're just we'd be stalling um you're right though in terms of it doesn't make sense in the fact that our high school enrollment is staying steady while in buildings are in definitely declining that group is coming through and it's going to be in the middle school here shortly and then all the way through so I mean we can argue that and certainly that is legitimate question we can do a little bit now s and then a bucket load later or we can do it in small chunks to smooth it out that's that's kind of where my thought is anyways I mean is the one natural you know retirement in the elementary school is that enough I mean I guess to your point too is that going to be enough or will we have to continue to cut staff there could be I mean that's a decision we're going to have to look at too is where are their class sizes at at the elementary going into the school year and um and that there could be other positions there we we could review and look at yeah Bob do you want to come up and give a little update quick I guess a good time to probably transition to that discussion so an update would you like every single detail all right well me give you what I got um I have met with every Department again for a second time recently and you know we are moving on with with the plan to my recognation is a six period trimester um you know I've been in the water to for 27 years and I've been in a block pretty much every one of them um kind of to what Darren said I mean right now we have 120 kids this quarter either in some sort of like work experience free Block internship you name it it's not bad but we're just you know as we redo staff the last two and a half years we've lost sections and you just lose places for kids to go and and I think one of the things we're most concerned about at least I'm most concerned about is what makes us really unique of high school is our opportunities and I'm worried if we wait too long to change the schedule that we're going to have to go to a schedule and some of you have seen this like if you go to a semester based schedule your four cores take up pretty much all of your day and then you get you know hardly any other choices and I think if you wait too long that's what you that's what you end up having to do um the sixth period trimester is going to it's going to ensure pretty much everything we still have right now we'll still have next year um and I think that's really the most important thing we'll still have a schedule where a leap is preserved uh and and I think that to me is the key is and if we can do this I mean a lot of you refer to this where you know we have some natural changes over time we can still make these adjustment in a way where obviously we you know we want to keep this you know staff we have but we also have to be prepared that that's just part of this process and obviously I don't like that part of it but this will give us a more natural I guess process and and to ensure what our kids are getting and I think that to me is the most important and staff has been really you know it took them a while to kind of I guess really fall in love with this idea and some are still struggling but at the same time they're seeing that this provides opportunities that for example a block doesn't have um a block has become again because our limited Staffing our choices are becoming very narrow um and I think that's one of my concerns is that if we keep going down this path the block cannot continue to work in the manner it should unless I would argue unless we increase that it can be run this way but I will not sit up and tell you it's the best model um it's just not as good as it can be Bob a question about that Staffing aside is the block even an efficient model in the model of declining enrollment we only have so many students to go around and you've got these blocks even if we had unlimited staff the classes are going to be so small right yeah it and it gets tricky because you know at the high school level you even if we go down by 30 you can't just say well reduce one teacher it's like 08 here .16 here so it's not an effective model to make adjustments in to be honest and you're right I mean it's not it's it's probably not the best for that and plus it's not the most efficient way of of scheduling anymore uh I I actually because like right now we're having problems with you know you have one section and you can only put it in a spot it's hard for you to find that with if the kids in band require for example these have such limited options so I mean again one of with the sixth period that I think that more and more people are seeing is that you have more flexibility with scheduling and I think it's forced all of us myself included to find some creative ways a schedule where I think we're actually be able to offer again kids can get more I they can get two more per year technically which is actually a benefit for them um and when it's a more efficient way to as these enrollments you know fluctuate it is a way more efficient way to staff you won't have to respond and say oh now we're down 25 kids cut a staff member on you might be able to fluctuate up and down in a way where it doesn't necessarily impact us in a way that so I mean I I do think like I said I I as much as a proponent I was at the Block schedule I I do think this is the right thing to do um the university partners for college and schools will absolutely love this they hate the fact we are a block schedle so I mean they've been begging us to change for a decade um and I think again it's going to be helpful to to expand this over time so uh the biggest thing I think that calmed a lot of nerves when we said we can preserve that leap time Student Activities Comm meet was a big thing for a lot of people so I can take specific questions I mean it's it's a big thing that I could talk to you guys for a long time about but it's leap time every day not just like week just like what we have now so Student Activity groups can still meet there still be that natural study hall for kids y still that time to check in with teachers every day good cuz that's one of the concerns I've heard from students you know is just not having the ability to get homework done during the day because they're able to now and it helps when they have after school activities I mean like my daughter who was in swimming and then the musical if she wasn't able to get her homework done I mean she'd be up till midnight yeah no so we'll have that every day yeah it's so that's good I think from a student perspective and I think the other meth on was like I don't again is there going to be homework for kids there will be but I think the one thing I keep and teachers are working on too is the pacing is going to change it won't be 42 days it's going to be 57 days right so we can start to extend some of those things and and it will change and there's going to be some adjustments obviously but we're still going to have like you know academic resource signs for kids with free blocks and actually one of the nice Parts is a junior who never could ever get rep might have those opportunities sure uh again there are some positive features of this schedule that we cannot do right now so so Bob for those of us that are haven't done this in a while last time I was in school I think there were seven periods in the day a long time that was a long time yes espec I feel sorry for the old people in the room that I guess when it was the one room school now so four periods are what what do what does a day look like it's four equal blocks or four 80 minute periods what we currently have um the proposed we go do we have six periods out about 55 minutes each and seven seven periods were like really short seven periods 47 yeah 46 and our CT CTE courses or C the teachers did not really like that they thought even that extra 8 to 10 minutes makes a big difference so was kind of the the happy spot of kind of what we ended up being and um and why not five so I think here's why we didn't do five to be honest because um I can't in good faith get in front of you and say that five would be good for all of our departments I think would absolutely decimate some of our our departments and the reason I say is because let's just say that an average kid takes our core and then they take ban require they would have such limited choices left so then they have to make a choice do I be in egg Woods business or fact do I take electives or do I drop ban inquire and I know some big schools run the five period but they can afford to lose 15 to 20% of their ban inquir kids or 15 to 20% we can't and I in good faith I can't get in front of you and say I value all Department areas and then schedule that and do that to those Department are and is the current schedule that's quarters then yes quarters so it's four to six and quarters to trimesters you hey Bob I don't know if these guys have seen the presentation that you did the parent meeting but I I think that that really laid it out nicely and really pass it around more of my Buy in though because again still having long class time so you know almost a full hour plus um having getting extra choices like realistically adding two more what you say two more choices a year two a year um because I think that's always a struggle too is the kids are like well I it's this or that and kind of stuff beefing up our you know the necessary classes like you said and mental health maybe on part of the health requirements and the reason so we didn't go to a six period semester base is because then it would actually go down from 16 choices in a year to 12 so they would actually lose 16 choices over four years again when they did this last time when I was in the middle school at spr that time I remember it decimated the music programs it decimated Aon Industrial CU kids just simply didn't have choices anymore and I just again I fundamentally think one of things that makes us unique is that we have 13 Department areas and I think all 13 are valued and promoted um and I just don't feel like I I wasn't going to start picking and choosing the ones that should be valued and promoted we've done this before we went from block to something else what was it six period semester six period semester I think you also pointed out that a student would never be able to get to calculus and that version yeah so in this six period trimester every single class we have now at the highest level they'll still be able to get to so there there's nothing they're going to miss out on um obviously there's different tracks like we we we have different tracks now so I mean but they're still going to get to every single thing but even like one of the things for example that we're going to have next year that we didn't have Mr sto's mentorship so senior year their third and fourth court and they can do mentorship we can only offer it once because we just had one Mr stow and you only teach so much next year we're going to actually allow for two sections of mentorship because we have more teaching capacity to do that so that's an example of 15 to 20 more kids are going to go get a on the job experience that we couldn't do right now and and I think the more I keep thinking about those things I mean that's really what has swayed me that this is going to be better for kids in the long run what's your greatest concern right now going to this um yeah yeah like what keeps you up and down I mean the greatest concern honestly is just perception and I think I was really happy that night that a lot of parents show up to those meetings I've talked to a fair amount of kids and once they hear from me they're like no this isn't so bad um I think it's just an idea that I think people have to be patient too it's not going to be a one year like it's going to be a perfect thing it's I there's going to be some some adjustments especially as we transition from for some from a block to a quarter or see a trimester but you know actually I mean I I will regret probably saying this but I I feel really good about this right now um because I feel like as a staff we've done a lot of work um and I think we're at a point where the one thing I made a point to staff is I have not showed them like what a Delo or monacello or aonia or Hut triest look like and I I won't until they ask because I want this to be the watert a schedule I don't really care what the other schools do to be honest I want to do what we do and then if we need help then we reach out to those schools and and I have reached out to them so I mean know the the format but I want to come up with the ideas that work for our kids and so going back to what Jim asked about the five the reason I didn't as I researched the five more just wasn't okay with losing out on progams can we talk about um so the longer uh trimester so more days but we talked about that might affect start times and break periods and things like that is that so we just did a survey and we said yeah yeah would you do this and there was a kind of vly like no but weirdly enough actually like you know so our our first trimester break will probably be well maybe this week thanks tomorrow will be the end of the first trimester most likely okay so it actually has a natural break of right before okay um second trimester is that a little different time where it's probably that first second week of March you know so there are things going on you know again is that when you have a spring break is that when you know and again I you know I think there's different ways that you get around that I mean there's there's probably no no simple perfect natural breaks all the time but I mean again you can kind of rearrange where it's most schools it's that week of Thanksgiving it's almost always the natural break of the first trimester it's the first week second week of March it's always the break so I mean starting after Labor Day that's with starting after Labor Day so people can still get their week of spring break it's just going to be potentially early it just might be different or it might start on a Thursday right which you know like we flights will be cheaper than any well that's the one thing we are looking at is you know do we switch our spring break to a Thursday through a Tuesday possibly you know like that rather than the full typical week of Monday through Friday just to work around that because the one thing if you go earlier and Bob has talked about this too is that we run into some of those state tournaments so if we are in the wrestling state tournament or if we're in gymnastics we're butting up against some of those so you know when we've had the traditional late March most of the time those seasons are done everybody gets to go on a spring break so I think that's we're getting a little bit of push back from staff going what about us if we're in a state tournament I know Delan all went through that this past year in their calendar they went earlier in March and their spring break and got a lot of negative feedback from community members saying you know hockey state tournament yeah from a high school perspective there's never a great time to have a spring break CU then you you push it late in March and then all of a sudden you're either the middle of a trimester spring sports or go you know what I mean so it's just kind just have to pick but I mean there are some natural breaks where it it can be done where it want and and the idea is for the high school middle school to go to the trimesters and then maybe next year kind of filter it down to the elementary school is that kind of that maybe that's more of a question for you Darren yeah I think that would be the goal as they start everything so they would have different vac or holiday for this year that's what's going to make a little tricky is to get them uh on the same schedule as there would be the endgame goal I don't think they be a mean it would just be the quarter breaks and then the workshop dates would be impacted the calendar stays the same for everybody right just workshop dates potentially you might have to look at you how that looks but people got remember like we're only going to need two Workshop for transitions no we won't need three more because you don't have that the four quarters one so I mean other schools I mean again I re there are some schools that you know their high schools are trimesters and their middle schools are are quarters I mean it's it's done and I think we can that's the where we can go to the schools and go how do you do it um and one thing to add with this Nick and I I we talked pretty much daily I mean I know this is a 7 through 12 model we're looking at for more efficient Staffing um we also we're looking at using some of our staff to provide some opportunities for some electives like the middle school kids that previously have not been offered to them because we just haven't been able to do it you know we looked at some of our like our CTE areas maybe we can expose our middle school kids to more of that because they should have more capacity to do that so and and just so you guys know I'm looking at the enrollment that's in our board material we're as of right now if the numbers hold true to the end of the year we're 45 kids down next year there's 88 eth graders going into 9th grade and there's 133 graduating so regardless of if we kick this can down the road in my mind change would still have to happen next year because we don't have the student population High School numbers High School numbers High School enrollments 45 y That's 10% yeah oh that's a very small class that's always that's Vin's class it's the smallest class class has been I'm just asking how many you get so a lot of these parochial schools are done in 8th grade what do you get from 8th grade to 9th grade because that that's going to be that's normally a bump right we typically pick up 10 or 15 okay so we're still 30 plus down [Music] low what um what class areas suffer the most by going from that longer block to the shorter block is there anybody that makes that significant I mean if the CTE areas are okay with it yeah I mean I I think you know they know they're going to have to adjust and brings obvious you know um I think science labs could but they just talked about they Pace things differently uh you know I really to be honest I don't think anybody I think the CTE ones would be the biggest ones who potentially could and I think what they said to me is they actually like it better because they can focus their time more I had for example say 80 minutes is tooo long 40 to 50 minutes is enough time so I don't think anybody is going to really be negatively impacted if they're good with it I think we're fine I think the biggest challenge is going to be for some classes just the pacing model of it it's just going to be a different pace and you know you go from 57 at 55 minutes versus 42 at 80 minutes is it the exact same it's not but I would argue again I've been a while I've in the classroom but it's changed a lot technology speeds things up it makes it more efficient um it's just a different time than what you know what I mean so I don't think 80 minutes and plus kids cannot hold their focus for 80 minutes yeah all the research shows that's a real struggle for our kids and it is a real struggle well I suppose depending upon who we hire in CTE right so somebody that might already be used to working in a six block model with Mr dos true his departure yeah yeah you know I mean mhm yeah I mean so I mean that that was not as much of a concern as I thought it was going to be they actually all were like that's 55 minutes is is good is the did you say is Leap period the same or the Le it's the same amount of time so okay so the lunch periods and everything would be pretty much on I was going to say just in an effort of time we have about 20 minutes left or so you know we we've talked a lot about the high school Mr girton is there anything from the Middle School perspective I know I just that that you know with with you guys working together again we're we're on is there is there any staff that we have like needs to be eliminated to do this change they don't need to be eliminated okay but I I think again just to be really honest I mean part of this is there is I mean the simplest math I can give you is again and I think there's going to be some shifts with some potential interventionists maybe we can use other poxon but the simplest math I can give you is right now for example if I needed 60 sections taught I would need five teachers at 12 sections each if they teach 15 next year I would need four now again that's that's just a simple without taking lers in but I mean there's going to be a natural right reduction just because of more capacity sure so in the Middle School what we're really doing is we're we're we're recording on our phones so you don't need to worry about the mic oh so we're at a seven period days we're reducing down by period so we're minimizing diversity in terms of offerings for kids what we're gaining back is about 7 minutes a day in those other periods core teachers in the Middle School are class are all year so that's that's 4 six of a six period day they're going to value that especially language arts and Math teachers that are saying they don't have enough time um I think what we're going to end up doing because we're not where we were either as a school we're going to look at our programming and we're going to look at using our data more efficiently and the two classes that we have those two periods we're going to be much more deliberate about electives which may include tapping into some of the high school classes and making sure that if kids aren't ready they're getting those intervention classes as well um we're going to try to preserve what we have in place in terms of what we value our music programs our stem program those kinds of things but I think there'll be some um what what'll happen is that seventh period right now the exploratory period where we've created some diversity and we've given teachers opportuni cre classes like shark P we're going to be taking that away and core teachers think are going to say I can focus more on my craft and less will be more if that makes sense some of those exploratory classes are phenomenal others are a push for teachers because they're trying to plan for an exploratory class on top of trying to manage the load they've got in front of them in core classes and teacher to teacher class to class that varies if I'm going to be just very honest so I think six period day in a middle school as a happy medium we were in a block years ago um we had fantastic MCA scores and language arts and math we had too many kids that I was overkill for in terms of sitting in a 85 to 90 minute class and middle schoolers their brains are wired differently in this digital era they cannot and they should not he's sitting in a classroom at a desk for 65 to 70 minutes so teachers are either going to have to really construct instruction differently or we're going to reduce down those minutes so I'm I'm a fan of a period schedule for middle schoolers um I think for us um it'll be a smoother transition um maybe it would be when you're trying to really look at high school kids and graduation credits but I'm following the high school's lead too I'll be really honest we have to let Bob and the staff do that more sophisticated work and then tie our schedules together but um I think it'll be add vantageous I think you know just the obvious two with Staffing we have some loose ends when we have two different schedules if we're trying to keep people in full-time positions we aren't efficient that way and the subbing gig has changed reality wise if we have teachers that are going to be out to try to find Subs outside the school district those days are gone we just don't have people coming to teachers on call we don't have retired staff coming back into sub so we value when teachers in our buildings fill in for one another you know the colleagues the kids get a much better quality education and staff need to use benefits they deserve to take sick time they they can take personal time and so I think it just it makes it easier for them too so I think all around it's just it's if nothing else it's time for change so and we were good together so um any questions any thoughts about middle school so I have a question I it's been a while since I had a fifth grader yeah but uh I think when they first when fifth grade was coming in their schedule they they weren't switching classes as cor that's going to stay the same so what happens fifth grade students come in from that fourth grade setting where they're in a home room for all of their core classes in fifth grade we we pushed them a little bit and what we end up doing is giving them two blocks really a language arts block and a social studies block with one Home Room teacher and the second cooperating teacher do science and math we will continue to do that I think the discussion will come around what should sixth grade look like um we can operate any kind of a schedule within a schedule to is the other thing so you have 400 minutes in the day fifth and sixth grade teachers don't need to be on the same bell schedule that's 7th through 12th grade students run just developmentally speaking so I think we will maintain the same transition we've had really good success with fifth grade I don't want to tamper with that sixth grade will be the one that we're going have to sit down and look at and say what is the happy medium transitioning from fifth to 6th to 7 for some kids going right into a sixth period or seven period day is a sixth grader is strenuous for others they're ready for it so we're going to have to take a look at that but I think it's easy enough to tie sixth grade into our sixth period day and it's easy enough to have them stay in more of that hybrid with fifth grade to if we decide to do that that makesense sense but to answer your question Heidi we'll stick with what we're doing in terms of fifth grade transition have you guys identified staff that will be able to work between both schools or is that not even a p yeah no we I mean we've got the whole list of licensers and who can do what and and that's something we're looking at obviously because I mean that does affect Staffing and who can go where and seniority and everything so we have that's all in a big spreadsheet as we're doing all this Tak into account how this affects staff numbers and that's where that efficiency comes into place a lot of these licenses you know like a language arts license 512 so I think you'll be able to better ensure that people can work within their lure area instead of an out of licensure request um it'll it'll Shore up the efficiency piece and when they travel from one end of the campus to the other you know um we won't have these these disconnects like we do right now because we do have high schools teachers coming over to help sub um but it's it's really off-kilter if that makes sense so but that'll be the work we do moving forward um and we'll involve our leadership teams I mean it'll be I think really a transparent process yeah I mean all the high school teachers are probably so sick of me I mean we've met and talked forever they know it's but I mean at the same time this is it's a big change and I mean but I do think you know 7 through 12 This Could Be an Effective model for us to and again help kids transition to high school even a little quicker a little easier as we do some of these things together versus and we're already having some kids that are doing eighth grade you know eighth graders that are doing ninth grade math they would just be coming the high school it'd be easier to do that they versus separating them all the time and so on so there's a lot of programming that we could do so a question in regards to that I mean if you have like an eighth grade student doing nth grade math I mean that obviously ly doesn't work towards their High School requirements or does it not until they actually hit nth grade got it but it just it's like a college model or it's speed sure you can just get to things that a faster take he as a Junior versus a senior example and then just a time check we got about 10 minutes left okay so I mean I think first all thanks for all your working because process sounds like things are very transparent and good I guess I'm want transition a little bit because this is talking about you know cutting that from a classroom kind of side but what else are we talking about from other cuts that might have to happen with this budget kind of moving into item C that's a very good transition yeah from a finance committee um you know we've met and and Lisa has given us a little bit of background going into the audit and where we were at to be honest we've kind of paused in terms of discussion about cuts um at this point in terms of what that looks like I think we always have probably a short list of things you know in our back pocket that we could grab on to but for the most part right now um we're just waiting to kind of see where our group as a whole here is kind of feeling um I do think like I said earlier if we were to make this transition to six period day we would be able to make some natural reductions um how much Bart I know he was going to ask that um I think here's what I would say you can just speak up you don't need to come up to it depends on the positions and that's you but I mean what I would say is it could range from on transitions anywhere from one to three teachers maybe even a little bit more depending it really depends on what you want to do now with that St it could also be like I've talked to Lis about some of these teachers transition like compensatory Aid if we go to a different Staffing model like of interventionist things like that but again kind of the map they Ed before I mean every five teaches it takes now it takes four but that's excluding lure so that's it's not a it's not that clean of you know any that's so there's going to be that reduction L can you put a dollar sign in front of that for me please say 60 to 70,000 per FTE and that's a so 60 to 180 he said 1 to three 60 to 180 so looking at 100 Grand and it depends if it's you're not going to get an experien teacher but if someone retires that is up on the then that could be area that's we're facing there we have $120,000 are you are you just talking salary talking benefits and everything than that right your step one lane one is 42337 and take that by 20% for your benefits so you're about 6ish so again we we you know we talked about what 4 to 800 I think was kind of our last you know last year we were talking about this year and you said this is about 250 is that what you said I'm sorry or one depending on that natural attrition which we don't fully know um I I think once we kind of have more firm number and and in talking to Lisa I think we need to get the finance committee back together and look at that um that run for our unassigned fund balance because we need to keep that low but at the same time I don't see us my personal opinion I don't see us cutting 800 this year no no I thought you know 400 maybe probably not just by the financial win but again knowing that we can't stay the status quo continually otherwise we're just going to end up in statutory operating debt and nobody wants that but at the same time we can be more accurate with a scalpel as opposed to a hatchet exactly exactly and and I think that's the thing that the finance committee needs to more you know Lisa you you know for us to get more into that that scalpel where are those targeted areas that we might feel are a little bit bloated or what can we you know do we have too many of the same Technologies So Lisa I don't know if you'll know these m I'm going to just ask really quick um how much did we cut last year ballmark she got it on paper was 420 what was it on paper 420 mhm and then we were going to cut 4 to 800 this year yeah but now with the return of the audit we didn't need that came back better than we expected right so that 420 was probably more like 300 or I think that would be pretty accurate okay mhm it's never as probably as much as you say it is on paper because yeah right okay so we need to cut we just don't need to cut as much is that what I'm hearing yeah all right yeah but I mean I I think the smart thing is to like that's wait instead of not cutting we want to keep it going but we also don't want to again take the hatchet to it right now but being more prescriptive with the whole thing not the whole Peaks and valleys but more of a flat trend line yeah don't shift from reverse and J forward and hit the gas let's let's keep it in reverse but slow down a little [Music] bit I've said this before too with the fun balance stuff you know we have in our policy right where we want our fun balance to be isn't that 7 to 20 7 to 20 it is 7 to 20 M and we talked we did yeah because interesting point though tonight um when um Miss stutzman comes to give her audit report and we did bring that to her because I've said we've had board members who inquire about this on a regular basis and to get her opinion on this um she said you should be you're at where you should be is that's what she for district our size that from a fund amount fun say fund balances okay but on the polic I'm saying from the policy perspective I don't I would like see a more narrow because I think that that get us inou ra it does get us inou well you're saying change it to 10 to 20 or 12 to 20 years well one of those you know being on the msba side haven't discussed discussions with some of the other board members there's a very large District on the western Metro their fund balance or fund policy is 6 to8 oh I mean it is that narrow wow like bigger school districts can have smaller margins like that but but ours ours doesn't need to be there we no I think ours should be ours I want to move that bottom number up to protect us because we don't have I think from my we're more sens to Downs Y correct so from a policy committee and a finance committee when that policy comes du we should have a discussion we should have a discussion find out when that comes up that policy it's within the next year yes no kidding W assume you could probably can't address it that's what I'm wondering can't we just do it well we'll be having a policy meeting between and the 18th of December so but but you know kind of Heidi to go back to your initial question you know if we're doing all Financial talk we should be doing it all together at the same pen yeah so you know once once the finance committee meets you know me Erica and Jeff kind of get our hands around it with Lisa a little bit better you know obious on the policy committee can just oh yeah exactly um well Jeff's on the bo with me too so there you go um do we just have we'll come back with another meeting okay and and just kind of have all of us sit there and hash I sending what we did last year shut up thank you any other comments concerns complaints [Music] questions no just thank you thank you for all of your research and what you've done because it's a lot yes thank you guys great job with the visibility too yes I've gotten good feedback and I don't even have anybody in the high school so I have all right with that being said is there a motion to adjourn oh yes go ahead M raider one thing um there is a resolution on the school board agenda and that is because um in we all know that we pre- expended abatement funds and all the literature that I got said that we should run that through fund one well we found out that we shouldn't have run it through fund one should have gone into fund six so when you find an error or a misrepresentations like that they make you do a permanent transfer instead of recognizing Revenue so that is what that resolution is and you'll be able to see it on her revenue and expenditures I'm like a million one under on top but then there's nothing on bottom on a 1.8 million so it's just a yeah it's at a different position so I just wanted to let you know that all right is there is there a motion to adjourn the meeting second motion made by Miss dson second by miss getco all those in favor say I I all oppose nay motion carries meeting is adjourned at 5:59 p.m. motion