Okay, terrific. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Next on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. And Wendy, would you mind leading us? >> Sure. >> Thank you. Thank you. Next is the consideration of the agenda. Does anybody have any modifications they'd like to make? Okay. Hearing none, we'll move on to the consent agenda. The consent agenda contains routine matters that typically do not require board discussion. Individual board members may remove an item from the consent agenda for discussion, separate action. Tonight, those items are as follows. Approve the minutes from the reg regular board meeting held on September 8th, 2025. Approve personnel recommendations. Accept donations totaling $4,37963. Approve the treasurer reports for May through July 2025. Approve electronic fund transfers for May through July 2025. Approve bill vouchers, EP register items, EFT voucher, and Capital One items. Do I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. I have a second. Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I didn't hear anybody else say anything I, so we're just going to go with that. Um, and next is the superintendent's report on excellence. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, first, um, I would like to begin my report this evening by recognizing and expressing our gratitude to our six Orno school board members during Minnesota's schoolboard recognition month of September. Thank you. On behalf of our students, families, and staff, we are very grateful for your unwavering commitment to Orno School District. Your service extends far beyond monthly meetings and includes hours of preparation, active participation on committees, and meaningful conversations with families and community members. We deeply value the way you collaborate as a team and the vision you bring to guiding our schools. Your dedication helped create a strong supportive environment for our students and staff alike. And we thank you for your leadership and for the positive difference you make each day in the life of in the lives of orno students. Homecoming. Last week was homecoming in Oro if anybody didn't know. Um with scores of fun events and traditions that make it so special each year. We were delighted to be able to hold our parade between rainstorms and cheer on our first responders, students, community leaders, and alumni. Thank you to our staff and our families for their flexibility as we moved um many events. Um and we also moved the tailgate indoors. We're grateful to the Orno Foundation for Education and Orno Student Senate for organizing the event and to the OF school year sponsors and helping it keep it free for the community. Despite the weather, attendance exceeded expectations and may have even topped last year's turnout. It was it was incredible. Thank all of you who attended as well. Many of us were honored to also attend the dinner in recognition of this year's promising and distinguished alumni award winners, Claire Gagny, Alli Charlie, and Tex Ofig. Award recipients. It was incredible. um they fondly reflected on their time in Orno, the impact teachers made, staff members, coaches had in their lives, but it was one of the most inspirational nights that I have experienced um in terms of all of the deep connections um and so um very proud um of our graduates. Um speaking of graduates, the class of 2000 reunion um also took place over the weekend. Proud alums walked in the parade. I don't know if everybody saw that um with the foundation and it was wonderful to have our graduates on campus again and we hope to engage more alumni in the way in the future. Um it's just good for community building. Um next I'm delighted to announce our National Merit Scholars. We have two semi- finalists and three commended scholars. Um, these students in the class of 2026 are recognized by National Merit Scholarship Corporation for outstanding results on the PAT National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Exam taken last fall as juniors. Semi-finalists are the highest score entrance in each state. The nationwide pool of semi-finalists represents less than 1% of US high school students. And the semifinalists for this year are Evelyn Miller and Parker Stevens. Congratulations to Evelyn and Parker. Semi-finalists now work with Miss Brandy Randall, our secondary challenge coordinator, to complete an extensive application packet and move forward in the competition. Our commended scholars this year are Kaia Ericson, Canon Lewis, and Cara Vaughn. Um, these students will also receive a letter of commendation from National Merit in recognition of their outstanding academic achievement. All five students will be invited to our recognition program before the November 10th schoolboard meeting as well as Capstone and AP Scholars. Um so congratulations to all of our students. Great, great job. Um for an activities update, um last week was a very busy week. I'll share just a brief athletics update. Um in football, congratulations to our football team who bound West Hanka 37-0 on Friday night in spite of the rain and lightning delays. Um, we get to keep the anchor with this victory over the White Hawks and we're very proud of that. Uh, the boys play now an away game against Zimmerman this Friday. So, please come cheer on our Spartans and cross country. Um, after moving return running the ball from Mount Westona to Orno for the homecoming football game. Our cross country team was in great form to complete in the Roy Griak Invitational on Saturday. The boys came in 19th out of 45 teams in the championship race. Gabe Helen and Eddie Lberg finished in the top 100 out of 444 runners um for boys and girls came in 12th out of 44 teams in the maroon race. Out of 364 runners, three Orno girls placed in the top 100. Ula Coffee, Marin Liry, and Taylor Walsh. Congratulations to all. Um really great showing. Um in soccer, after a win against Bloomington Jefferson, boys soccer tough defeat um with Delano on Saturday. Um they are five and four as they prepare to play Wakonia this Wednesday at Waconia High School. Please come cheer them on. Girls soccer lost a tough one to Blake on Saturday and is now three and five um on the season and they look forward to their contest also against Wakonia this Wednesday. Um girls swim and dive congratulations to the number two ranked girls swim and dive on their winning streak. This last week um during homecoming, senior Grayson Andrin recently broke her own pool record at the meet with West Tanka. And the girls are back in the pool racing um in Waconia this Wednesday. And then girls tennis is continuing to have a wonderful season. Um they were on the courts today versus Weisetta with another match this Thursday at home versus Chesca. U we wish our girls the best of luck. And finally, girls volleyball. Um shout out to girls volleyball. We're five and seven record so far this season. They are on and one last week um during homecoming. They are on the court again tomorrow here at home versus Big Lake. So, good luck to all of our Spartan athletes. And that concludes my report for this evening. >> Thank you very much. Next, we have board members questions and comments. We'll start with the finance and facilities committee meeting update. Todd. So, I'll just do a quick overview because tonight we're going to get into a review of the uh preliminary fiscal year end report for 24 and 25 and we're also going to do the consideration of the proposed preliminary tax levy for 26. Um, just to state that these actions are part of our annual financial oversight responsibilities um to make sure that we are being transparent and in compliance with state requirements uh and continued fiscal health of our schools. Uh the district remains in stable financial position, meeting fund balance policy targets and planning responsibly for future needs. Um we'd like to thank our community for their continued support through things like the tax levy, which allows us to continue to invest in our schools and meet the demands of a lot of the things that we've been talking about as far as the Wi-Fi uh and our uh staff, etc. Um, your investments in the student, staff, and facilities allows us to deliver high quality education and maintain a strong financial stewardship that makes our school great. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, I will do the policy committee meeting update. We um are we have the policy the new the three policies for the first reading for tonight, but in general, we will be working on the uh 500 series this year. So, tada, that's what you will be reading um in the next eight months, nine months. So, um we're um looking forward to that. And then I wanted to just mention um I forgot to mention at the beginning of the meeting, we do have um uh coffee and conversation every other board meeting. Um and then um the ones where we don't, we have we invite the public for public comment. Um no one came to coffee and conversation again tonight. So, I just want to remind the public that we have those. If you want to come, you are welcome to. So, Laura, do you have any um board member updates you'd like to share? >> Uh, well, we did meet for Oro Action, as you may remember, that's our legislative action committee. Wendy and Tim and I were there along with our other committee members uh to help plan our coffee that we have annually for our elected officials. Uh we're going to expand that this year to mayors as well as county commissioners. We have two in the district and six mayors, obviously. Um, it's part of building relationships and and connecting when we're not actually asking for something. Uh, and nobody's up for re-election this year. So, it should be hopeully hopefully a good time. And then we're also looking to plan for the spring and we will be going to the capital to see them again when we will be asking for something. So, hopefully they will remember us fondly at that time. That concludes my report. >> Thank you very much, Todd. >> Uh, I will acknowledge that there were several meetings that I did not attend this week. So, um, but otherwise I have nothing else to report on. >> Thank you, Wendy. >> All I have to report on, it's not a, um, it was not a committee, but I did attend the highly selected admissions um, the college and career counseling office put on and just really fantastic. Um, more kids than I expected to be there actually. Um, and I just I love just the ramping up of thinking about these kids beyond really creating that network for them and creating opportunities for them to learn about their options for later on. So, that concludes my report. >> Thank you, Andy Gavin. >> I have nothing to report. >> Thank you. I don't have anything else to report either. All right, on to old business. Uh the first is the 2025 2026 superintendent goals. Dr. Flesher. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Before you tonight is the second reading for superintendent goals for the 202526 school year. Um there were no adjustments since we um last spoke and these are ready for action tonight. >> Perfect. Uh do I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Uh any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Any abstaining? Okay, great. Thank you. Any other old business as necessary? Hearing none, we will move on. Next is new business. The first is sharing excellence. I know I'm supposed to know how to say this because it's been said presenters. I was just going to say, so sorry, Dr. Fletcher. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I invite our team of national presenters from the ISTY conference, which is the International Society for Technology in Education acronym. Um, welcome, Mr. Mr. Sean Bersonson, director of technology. Miss Bailey Net and Mr. Paul Ivers, our digital learning specialist. Miss Laura Young, Schuman Elementary teacher in second grade, and Miss Jennifer Ivers, Orno High School instructional development teacher and also English and reading teacher. Um, they're here tonight to both share their learning, but also to share about their experiences presenting at an international conference. Um, I just want to pause for a moment and express gratitude to the Orno Foundation for Education and the Excellence Fund that provides the resources for this type of learning and this type of experience. As a reminder to our greater community watching tonight, the Excellence Fund was created as a result of the generosity of the Orno School community. There was a $1 million pledge made in honor of Dr. Karen Orchid's service to the school district and it's dedicated to expanding resources and innovation and excellence through staff professional development and you get to see that here tonight. Um we're thrilled to build opportunities for our students through invest investing in our incredible Orno faculty. Um and the excellence in front of you here tonight. Um you get to hear their shared work um with educators across the country and frankly the world. Um impressing audiences. Um, we wanted our board and community to hear about this work. Um, and I'm excited to hear the details. So, I turn it over to Mr. Bersonson to start. >> Good evening, Madam Chair, Superintendent Dr. Flesher, members of the board, and members of the public. It is an honor to be back here to get to highlight um what I'm calling elevating excellence from problem to presentations. Um, so I am going to I am going to talk off the cuff >> for just a little bit here. Um, >> that seemed really important. That's what I was >> in this moment. I just want to say that I saw you featured in the MSBA um magazine. Um and I just I meant to bring it tonight. I'm sorry I didn't. So, thank you. >> Yeah. >> Oh, you did? Oh, great. >> That was Dr. Roman's work and I just helped. So, this looks like Oh, there you go. That's good. Uh okay. So, picking up where we left off. Um uh also want to make sure to thank uh our educator excellence grant and the Oro Foundation. Um through that grant we have had the opportunity to send three different groups uh to ISTY over the last three years. Um that uh originally started with just an idea of trying to spread enthusiasm through the district by having teachers attend uh a conference that I had been to previously that I know to be inspiring and um have an amazing perspective. And this was before um some new emerging technologies were even on. It was just a way to get started. Um I'm going to figure this out now. Okay, there we go. So um excellence and impact. Uh this year's ISTY conference had 17,000 attendees, 12,000 people in person and another 5,000 people online. Uh representing people from 82 different countries. Um the images I have here are our teachers uh presenting and talking to people from all over the country and we had um the live simal cast going as well too. So we even had some questions from people from outside of the country as well while presentations were going on. 28% of the proposals are accepted and we had two and so um what I really want to take the opportunity to reflect in this is both of these presentations the idea for these the moment that these started precede my time here and so really I am just fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to work with this team but these ideas that you will get to hear about are ideas that I uh recognize and just support but trul truly truly um uh reflect the excellence that um I was able to join when I joined Orno public schools. Um the entire reason uh for them doing these presentations is because they uh had a problem of practice, something they wanted to solve. They tried a few things to solve it. They reached a solution and then the thing that I love the most is they got so excited by that solution, they were inspired to share it with others. To me that is excellence and particularly in our profession and it is the way that teachers learn best is from each other people that are practicing in the classroom. So it is an incredible honor to have the opportunity to come up here and acknowledge this group of professionals and then um to have them share a little bit about their experience with you. So uh I'm going to pass off now to Bailey and Laura Young. So, I'll start by just um telling a little bit of the story of kind of how we got here because like Sean said, it was not just last summer we decided to do this. This is many years in the making, but um one of the things is as educators, we're always trying to think about how do we make this better for our students? That's something teachers ask themselves every day. Um and so for me, in the role that I play in supporting teachers and coaching them, I get to be that collaborator and work with them. Um so when teachers come to me and say, "Hey, I have this problem. I would like to help with this." I get to be the that gets to come up with the really fun solutions. So, um the best part of my job is that I get to use technology and the expertise of our staff and marry those two things to come up with some really engaging and really amazing things for our kids, which is the ultimate goal. Um I think the presentation that Laura and I did um is called igniting STEM learning across the elementary curriculum. We'll talk a little bit more about that, but um I just think it's important to note that the technology wasn't necessarily the focus in this. It was more just providing our students with a really amazing experience and something we knew that they needed. Um, and then like Sean said, being able to share that with more than just our school. >> Um, this I'll kind of tell the process of how we started this. So, it's been a couple years more than that. Um, but it really started with a problem kind of. We had this amazing STEM lab that was um given to us by the PTO and I figured out ways to get kids involved in the STEM activities, but I felt like it wasn't really connecting to their learning and the things that we were doing in the classroom. So, I went to Bailey and I said, "Help." and um her and I just started on this like journey of um figuring out how to embed STEM and um the tools that we had in the idea lab into the learning that the kids were doing. So we got together a lot and we decided to start with um a unit or a uh a project per unit in math. and um we've just kind of dug into the curriculum and figured out, you know, where does it feel right for kids to use technology to showcase their learning. Um but then we really as we evolved over the couple years um and worked out some kinks. Um we really figured out that um the focus was on collaboration and really like those 21st century skills where they're working together and partnerships and problem solving. And so we really figured out how to do embed also the engineering process in all of this and um challenged their thinking with that and we created these wonderful units that um we were able to share um at ISTY but also within the school um with the grades and what I loved about ISTY was that when I went three years ago I felt like there wasn't a ton of K2 things. It's a really interesting age to think about where does technology fit. And so our purpose was really trying to figure out, you know, what does that look like for six, seven, and eighty olds? And once we kind of figure out a really fun way and saw the joy that the kids had in these units and the memories that were made, it was exciting to share that. Um, so it was kind of a no-brainer to apply and see if it was going to be accepted. >> Piggy back on anything? >> Yeah. And I think I'll just add to um going through the process of actually filling out the application and planning our presentation, everything. It really made us think about, oh, well, this was great, but then we could also add this in, and what if we tied this in, too? And, oh, and then we could scale this so it could be more than just one classroom. this should be a whole second grade thing and we should so like the process of um preparing to present made us really think about other ways that we could expand upon what we had already done. So that was really neat. Um I'd say like it was very natural like to present with Bailey as well. It felt like one of our collaboration sessions. Um, and so it was really fun to be up there. And I think next steps is with my transition to teaching first grade is hoping that we can continue to build units in first grade and across that grade level um for kids to, you know, spark some joy in learning. >> Yeah. Wonderful. >> Would you would do you mind if I interrupt for just a second? Would you be so kind as just because I got to go down and see it. Would you um would you just share what the lesson maybe that's the next slide? >> No. >> Oh, okay. Would you just share what it is? Yeah, please. >> One of them. >> Well, I just got to see the parade. >> Yeah. So, >> that was really cool. >> So, our favorite one was called um a parade over Schuman or Balloons over Schuman. Um a parade of character and it was based on the New York City Thanksgiving Day parade. Um, so students would pick a character from a read aloud that we read and think about how that character showed one of the six pillars of character and then they'd have to bring evidence in from the book to show that and um prove why that character is showing that pillar of character. And then using um math they had to build the skyline out of base 10 blocks. So, they were decomposing three-digit numbers using hundreds, tens, and ones, and then building um skyscrapers that we could make along the parade path. Um and then they were to build a um code or code a path for their robot to take through the parade. So, they were working with measurement and angles. you mean some things that we don't really touch on in second grade, but was fun learning opportunity for those things. Um, and then all while they were decorating a balloon that matched their character. So when their little character went robot went down the path, the little balloon was flying over the skyway of Schuman. Yeah. >> Yeah. So that was one of our favorites. And now it's a tradition in second grade and a family event. So, every um year, second grade families are invited to come to um parade uh or balloons over. >> Yeah. >> Thank you for involving the families. That's a great opportunity. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> So, I had the opportunity to be in the audience while the two of those while the two of them presented and um I at this point in my career um I just absolutely adore great teaching. Um, I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for it and I have said to others like my face genuinely hurt because I was smiling earto ear as they presented and the thing that moved me the most is the fluency with which they talked about education on behalf of children. The the project that they just mentioned has three different elements to it and with engagement built into it and an opportunity for the families to come in. And again, I just would highlight like that was going on before I got here. And so that is the work that we continue to support and are um I I feel tremendously honored to be able to um say I can support. Then the second presentation that we were invited to present um was called closing the feedback loop and this was the Ivers and Bailey as well. >> All right. So, I'll begin by sharing that this um this began back in November of or December of 2021. >> Long time. >> Yeah, a long time ago. Um when I I just reached out to Bailey and Christine at the time, her partner, um and asked for help. I was looking at scoring um 90 epic narrative essays of about 8 to 10 pages each. And then we were starting Hamlet where my students would be turning in at minimum one journal for every active Hamlet. So it's five journals times 90 students. And that was not for my entire case load of 120 students. That was just for one class. And I was at a point in my professional practice where I I couldn't keep up. Um and I felt like I was failing my students and that I would bring so much grading home and I felt like I was failing my family. and in our district. Um the beautiful part of the size of our district is that I knew someone who could help and I could reach out for help. And I think um it speaks to the trust in our district too that I felt I could be vulnerable and say I want to do what's best for my students um that I I need someone to help me um conceive of a different workflow. And so I reached out to Bailey and Christine um and they came to the rescue and uh they presented an idea on how to provide better formative better feedback um and in the process of essay writing not just at the end. Um and so I was so compelled by this idea and I saw so much benefit with my students that I then brought it to my PLC from my PLC I brought it to other staff members in our building and then it just made sense to bring it any teacher that we thought could benefit from this. Um, knowing that it made my work um, it made work with students so much more meaningful to capture learning in that um, in that most important time when they can really continue to craft their writing and to learn from your feedback before the the game is over, right before the essay is turned in. Um, so that is how this began. Um, and then in my current role, I because of that relationship and because of how um, profoundly that impacted my instruction, um, I reached back out to our digital learning specialists and I brought Paul to the table when we had similar problems of practice at different tiers of instruction at the high school. So knowing that um when students are served in settings where we need to provide even faster feedback because they may have um intervention needs, we were having a hard time um making that feedback loop even tighter where it's most important. And so Paul came um to work with our guided study teachers and some of our special educators and um helped to conceive of another solution. And I'll let Paul share a little bit. >> Yeah. One thing I have learned a lot in the year and one month in this current role is that when teachers come to you, they are the experts of their content area and the students that they're serving. They just have so many things on their plate that sometimes they don't know what is possible. So Jen talked about that back in 200 2021, right? Not 2001. Um how like she knew that there was something out there but couldn't didn't have the time to figure it out. I have felt a lot of uh I guess it's been very rewarding I would say to work with teachers who come to me with that same thing and they know that they can be doing better for their students um and just need some help brainstorming and maybe figuring that out. So when I was brought into this project um for our guided study program um you know Jen explained like here's what we need there a lot of like many of the students in guided study um have a variety of needs including executive functioning um we want to be able to check in with them regularly without adding like an immense amount of time and energy to teachers and without adding a lot of work to students as well. Um so you know just having the space to explore that and be a part of that team to say like hey let's see what we can do here. Um we found a way to make sure that that feedback loop was a lot quicker daily even within a class period multiple times. Um and you know on top of that like these students one of the biggest things is connection and to be able to give that feedback so regularly from their teacher. Uh I think it really establishes like a strong foundation of connection which all students need especially those who are um in places with additional support. So, we knew that this was worth sharing. Uh, you know, it's not that other places can't do it, but the success that we saw and just the the payoff really, but the benefit to students and to their learning and to their success, like why wouldn't you share that? So, um, I think those opportunities are great to they have a great impact here at our own district. And then if it's working for us, like teachers want to help teachers. >> One of the things that um when I was speaking with them about planning for this presentation um you know, one of the things that we talked about is it really isn't about the hour that they present. It is the time and preparation before that and then how that brings impact back to the district. And so the the the time and preparation that they're putting into this when it's reflective and professional teachers, it deepens their practice. So that's why I think that presenting at conferences is is meaningful is because of what it what it brings to them, the confidence it brings to them, but then also what that then brings back to the district. Um, so I I guess maybe I'm using the word honored too much, but I just am thrilled and honored to have had the opportunity to support uh this team. So, um, continuous improvement, as I mentioned, um, the whole goal of doing any of this is to bring it back to Oro and, um, have it live in Orino. And so, we've mentioned this many times. Uh, but we continue this work along this year. So we have two emerging tech cohorts, one on its first year, one on its second year with a plan to continue for a third year. Uh this year um based on feedback from last year, they ba Paul and Bailey have developed some flexible meeting times to meet teachers where they are at in those cohorts to have a better chance for them to connect throughout the year. Um and I just remind we still put together the ondemand PD which is asynchronous PD where teachers can get CEUs on time that works for them and then um both Paul and Bailey partner uh regularly with the ILT and so it's connected to the leadership at the buildings as well. So um with that it's a it's a real joy to have had the opportunity to share. I appreciate the invitation. It's um it's a lot of fun to be able to have people highlight their work and so I appreciate the invitation. I appreciate all of your time and effort uh to get ready for this and to get ready for and that's my end. Thank you. >> Questions. >> I have a specific question about closing the feedback loop. Was this just used in high school or is it used in middle school or how broadly was this applied? >> That's that's a great question. Um I can say that in the current form that we use this strategy that we've been using. Um I've seen it used in the high school. Um so I think there's opportunity for sure to share um with our colleagues at the middle school certainly. um it's moved from my classroom to my PLC and now to um a pure world language to our social studies department. So we're seeing it um spread and I think one thing to know is that it also has really enhanced our PLC work tremendously um because it has helped us to capture that feedback in a way that's easier to the data is easier to analyze so we can um I think it it has a lot of potential to be shared. >> Yes. What's your impact that you've had with the students on it? I understand the impact on you, but what have you seen with the students? I'll I'll share um we an anecdote um from one of my colleagues Sarah in my PLC and we presented this at this year we had Sarah um share through video but um our students because they can submit writing to us pretty quickly um they instead of sitting and waiting for us to come to all 32 of them you know in a in a single class period um they submit and then they keep writing and then we can go through it and give them pretty quick feedback through this strategy or this tool. Um, but most importantly, when they get the feedback, they've been um like resubmitting as fast as they can because they just want to be proficient or exemplary. And they'll be like, "Hold on, Miss Ivers, like why isn't this proficient yet?" or "Why isn't this exemplary?" And to tell you like the difference between that and how come I didn't get three more points is just incredible. like they have really become students who are like striving for excellence in their language and in their in this process. Um so I think it's helped us just reconfigure what it means to to like improve your writing and and why you're doing it. So um I I remember the day Sarah sent me a message and she's like you're not going to believe the conversation I just had. I was like I think I will believe it. So it's been tremendous. >> Yeah. just share one anecdote. When as you guys came home from ISTI, um Sean was in the office and he was he was like flying high and he's he was bragging on you said you guys were the best. So, >> and I don't want to discount the importance of I'm going to guess going outside of your comfort zone in presenting to people internationally. I don't know how big of groups you were presenting to, but that's growth. And I just want to say congratulations because it's difficult and um I you know it's important for us individually to have continuous improvement and so you are uh being you are modeling excellent behavior for your students by continuing to try to expand and improve and so um thank you. >> Yeah. Amazing. >> Yeah. >> I just think how much time this must have t I'm creating a presentation right now and it is taking so long. I can only imagine. So, thank you very much for your work. It's incredible. >> Thank you very much. Really appreciate it. Thank you for being here tonight. >> Thank you. >> Okay. I know that normally I like to say that policy committee is like the most fun, but that's hard to follow up. So, um the next is new business policy review for the first reading. Dr. Flesher. >> Okay. It's purposely just me. So, um, thank you, Madam Chair. Um, tonight we are presenting three policies for first, uh, reading that required the annual review on behalf of our policy committee. Um, and our policy committee is chair Sarah Borchers, Vice Chair Todd Madson, Director Tim Usett, Dr. Aaron Ruland, Dr. Scott Alder, Miss Kristen Palm, and myself. Um these are policy 506 student discipline, policy 722, public data and data subject requests and policy 8006 crisis management. So our committee reviewed these reviewed these last week and there are no substantial changes to any of them with the exception of a few commas and format. Um so all content is exactly the same though. Um I want to thank our policy committee as we start our review and the revision of the 500 series this year. Again, this is a first reading for these um these three policies, but please let us know if you have any feedback prior to second reading. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next on the agenda is the preliminary year-end financial results. I'll hand it back to you. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I invite Mr. Nick Tainter, director of business, to the board table um for presentation this evening on two topics. He's going to begin with a financial update to the board just on wrapping up 2425 school budget and then present on the preliminary levy for pay 26 which is the 2627 school year. Um the preliminary levy is as um Todd described is an annual board action. Um as a reminder the board we will present final numbers in December when we certify the levy. Um this is only preliminary at this time. Um, and we discussed this information at the facilities and finance committee in depth. Um, and I turn it over to Mr. Tainter for both presentations tonight. >> Thank you, Dr. Flesher, madam board chair Borchers, and esteemed school board members of Oro Public Schools. Thank you for having me tonight. We will uh kick off with the preliminary financial report. I always love following uh presentations like that because it makes my job a lot easier when I'm talking about numbers. So that was a great and this is another great reason why we have such great programs in this and we can afford to do so. Um I'll always start with the mission and vision. Um as we all are geared towards that including the financials uh and and the in in particular the financial stewardship of the district. Um we are uh we're all rowing the same way and going towards the same mission and vision and that includes the finance operations of of the school district as well. Uh as you all know uh government fund structure is a little different than what you would normally see in the private world. Uh we have several funds that we have to are legally bound by to uh account for in certain areas. While most of the operations and and uh and whatnot uh relate generally to the general fund of the operations of the school district, there are several funds that are still critical to uh to running a a good district. Um and each for their own purpose. Um but certainly the general funds the most uh I would say most uh um represents the operations of the and and most risky I would say overall. Um so Oh, okay. I lost my interesting >> the numbers went away. >> The numbers are away. You have to guess. >> Uh so um I will just mention here on the general fund revenues that uh this is this is the preliminary financial results for the general fund revenues which include state, local and federal. So as you can see in the red pie, the red section of the pie, the majority is state your state uh funds um which make up uh over 60% of our total funding in in in this particular fund. While the blue dark blue section is our are our local sources which includes some um levy dollars. Uh and then the the small little um uh blue piece light blue piece is federal um and those dollars as well. Um I lost my lost. Let me just see if it's in a different Yeah. all the no numbers on any of these. Okay, we'll figure that out later. Um, let's see. >> This is only preliminary. So, >> that's what we needed to see right there. Thank you. Um, I'm now we got it. So, our total revenues, as you can see, and you can compare them to last the prior year. So, we have prior fiscal year's actual this preliminary. Um, and I say preliminary because our audit is still going on. Our audit um is underway. majority of it's been um already gone through. So, we're not anticipating anything significant. But with that said, I always want to say just in case um our audit would be will be presented as early as the November board meeting. Uh and that will they'll be conducted by LB Carlson. And I just want to say a big uh thank you to Rachel McQuiston, our controller. Um she does a great job every year conducting that audit, getting us prepared uh early enough. Um it's an ear typically an earlier audit than normal. Um so ensuring that we get everything ready and everything of that nature from August is is certainly um quite the feat. Um so with you you as you can see here local sources um are down a little bit from the previous year. Uh most of that has to do with um you know local local sources are you know donations those um investment earnings I we we've obviously that that's gone down a little bit since we utilized some of uh those funds um throughout the year and interest rates weren't as high as the previous years state sources we have a 5% increase over the previous year and that's mainly due to the fact that we did get an increase in the state uh g uh general education formula as well as our enrollment was up about a 1% increase since the previous year and you'll you'll see that as well later. And then finally, federal sources, you can see down about almost 13% and that's mainly due to the fact that we had COVID funds uh that either ran out, expired um or we weren't able to carry over um any more funds uh for for those purposes with the small amounts that we received. Anyways, we uh the general fund expenditures pri program. This is important because this really kind of signifies the different programs that the district offers within the general fund and the impact of those funds. Um, as you can see here, um, the majority of our funds go to instruction, go to instruction. So you've got pretty much everything from elementary and secondary regular instruction all the way down to pupil support services makes up almost 80% or over 80% of our of what we spend on administration district support services sites and buildings and fiscal and other are your kind of on your operating and overall um that total is approximately 17% of our total expenditure spent um annually. You'll notice that our increase in expenditures are higher than our revenues in total in the general fund. We had a higher surplus in the previous fiscal year. This year was a little bit tighter. We had about $200,000 surplus in the general fund whereas we had over $900,000 surplus the previous fiscal year. Um so and that's because again our expenditures are a little bit higher and I'll and I'll go um the next slide will we'll have some more information on that. as a PI uh um as and for those visual learners uh this is a great um way to really see kind of where we drive a lot of our uh expenditures and like I mentioned before majority of our expenditures obviously if you can just look at elementary and special education instruction alone you're at 70 almost 70% of our total budget spent. Um it's also important to look at our expenditures not only by program but also by what we're spending them on. So uh what we call objects um in in in the UAR's uh coding and that ma mainly means what uh salaries, benefits, purchase services, you know those kinds of things that you see here listed. Um you'll notice that quite a bit of our salaries and employee benefits were up um and then everything else was down with the exception of capital expenditures. capital expenditures up a little bit increased due to the fact that we had some additional needs in the district and we hadn't been spending a lot in the capital expenditure area in the last several years. Uh and with that I'll just mention that salaries and benefits alone make up over 80% 83% of our total budget. Very sizable. And I just want to mention too back on here where you look at the year-over-year increases. Um you can see that salaries and benefits have been our greatest increase overall. Um and which is rightfully so. We want to make sure we're putting this into people just like you me you saw here up here earlier with the ISTY uh uh review. having talented people that can go out and do things is and and give and give what they learn in other areas and give back to um our community is even more important. So we want to do that with human beings. Um lastly and the best part of it I guess is the fund balance summary. Um so overall like I mentioned a good year where we had over $200,000 surplus. Our budgeted surplus was far less than that. um and we exceeded our budgeted s uh our bud our revised budget that we had presented in June. Um you'll notice that the uh some of the different factors of the fund balance were judged on our policy as on aside fund balance. Um but I also like to note that statuto operating debt. So that's m Minnesota Department of Education's calculation on how they feel like we're operating. Um, and if you're negative 2.5% you are in statutory operating debt. Uh, and right now we're obviously way above that with an 8.29 and an increase from the previous year slightly. Um, you'll notice our unassigned fund balance stayed pretty pretty flat. That had something that had a lot to do with some of those restricted fund balances. um and the designations there among also ha needing um a larger surplus overall to ensure that we're meeting our needs and expenditure side of things. Um oh you'll notice that the history of our fund balance um that we've gone kind of down from the co years and now starting to work our way up. Um you know it's still a challenge. We're I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It's that, you know, in school finance these days, it's even in our even in our district where we have grow we have steady stable growth and steady stable increases to the gen formula and and also to the levy um as well. Uh it still is a demand. Uh we we still have a higher demand um of those resources and needs. Uh we'll we'll you know we'll see how the next few years brings. But is, you know, I'm I uh I I do reflect on that quite a bit knowing that we have a great team of administrators and a great cabinet that um will ensure that we continue to u be a good steward of our funds and start and and continue to increase that. Um, as we all have spoken about before, a larger fund balance um of anywhere between 10 to 15% is is is fairly stable for any um as you can see, we were at 14% back right before COVID hit and and then a situation out of anybody's control for the most part, but we were we had enough funds that we didn't have to make significant cuts. We were able to use that balance down and that's exactly why you have a balance of that nature. Now, we want to bring that back up and we're going to have to make some decisions in the next few years to to start to increase that over over a set standard time and facility finance committee talks quite a bit about that. Uh and and we're continuing to find ways um to to grow that. Uh enrollment overview. Uh you'll notice that we've been very very stable as far as enrollment goes over the last several years. um in particular the last few years where we've increased on average about 1% increase and we're actually seeing that um carry through to this year as well. Enrollments um while in September they're hard to look at because of all the transient nature of kids not showing up or they're moving on to different districts or they're coming here. Any of those types of situations happen through the end of September. We should have a better stable look at it in October. But we're hopeful that 2973 is a good number. Whereas last year about this time, we were a little lower than what we had originally projected. Lastly, just wanted to talk uh kind of what what I mentioned to summarize everything here. Um I do want to make sure that uh everybody understands that 83% of the district's expenditures go towards support of the direct direct instructional needs of the students it serves. Whereas operational and admin costs are uh have about 17% of the total budget spent. Um, and any benchmarking industry average on anything under 20% is is fairly normal and and comparable. The district continues to prioritize salaries like I mentioned and and we have you know made made large large increases in those areas and continue to make sure that we are uh keeping those you know keeping good talent um and in in humans here at the district. Um overall our uh you know our revenues grew by 2.63 while expenditures grew by 4.48. That's a real situation and and and certainly something we're going to have to be mind mindful over the next several years and we'll continue to ensure that we're still meeting our needs, growing the fund balance uh and ensuring that our expenditures do do not continue to outweigh our revenues overall in the future. Uh but all good things. uh we still uh continue to have a 5% fund balance minimum fund balance percentage um per our board policy and uh and and and we're very stable this past year and I'm happy with the results but there's certainly a lot of work yet to be done and then lastly if you can read it uh um I've tried to put this all on one slide here but these are all the funds I just want to make a mention that uh outside of what we just talked about of the general fund which is that top line. Essentially, we have the capital fund which in our audit will be will be presented together. Capital fund is your long-term facility maintenance, your operating capital. All those have a certain purpose and restrictions on how you can use those funds. Um there you can see that we have a a fairly healthy 20% balance there. Most of it's in operating capital which we can use uh at our discretion, but it's always nice to have some rainy day funds there in case um a boiler were to go out or a roof were to collap, you know, any of those kinds of things that we would have to take care of. And none of those things are happening. So um uh and food service, you'll see the food service, the community services, total building construction um fund. We also have the debt service fund and the internal service funds um as well. all with stable um uh uh stable financials across the board. Um we are looking at ways to spending down the food service and community service funds. I will mention that the fund balances are are on the higher end. And so we've already talked about what ways we can use to put back those funds to the purposes that they fulfill and the needs that they require uh in order to use those funds for whatever purposes are allowed by the state statutes. Any questions on the preliminary financials? Well, with that good news, it's always a good news to go right into the preliminary tax levy. >> Can I actually >> Yeah, I didn't know we were transitioning. >> I didn't know we were transitioning. >> Oh, play. >> I wanted to interrupt earlier, but you were on a roll, so I didn't >> I know he's fixing it. This is a good time. Um I um I just wanted to make it clear anybody who's watching, you know, if they're concerned about the expenditures more than the revenue. I mean, schools have been slammed with so many unfunded mandates um that were not foreseen and it is causing a headache for everybody. This is not something unique to Orino. Um and so I just felt like that was something worth mentioning. Um, also looking at special ed numbers, um, looking at the expenditures were up compared to last year and knowing what potentially could happen to special ed. I mean, I'm assuming we're looking at, you know, he's looking at, he has a commission looking at where they can cut 250 million or billion dollars. Can we punch or we can I mean >> we just have to keep watching the spad numbers. So >> yeah, >> thank you. >> Yeah, thank you Wendy. Good questions and good observations. >> I just wanted to call out one thing about we grew the fund balance by $200,000 and decreased the percentage of our fund balance. Right. It's important to know just how how tight a rope we're on with our with our uh fund balance. Um but I appreciate the amount of attention and effort that we put into growing it and we did grow it. Um but it just also shows that our expenses continue to grow and we have to keep pace with that and that's a challenge especially to tag on to exactly what Wendy said. So I thank you for all the efforts that we make and I know we put a lot of emp emphasis on it and focus on it. Um thank you. >> It's important. So I appreciate that. I also just add that um as you recall last spring we talked about just the need to be more conservative on our enrollment estimates and that is what we've done and um for this school year and it appears right now we appear well on target um because if you're underneath that target um then that is a significant financial impact. So we're being more conservative. >> Yeah. Yeah. As you noticed earlier, the pie that talked about revenues, um the the state sources being a considerable amount of ours, that's heavily heavily based on enrollments. Um say uh 90% of that number is is based on enrollments. >> Thank you. If you would like to now move on to the the tax levy. >> All right. So the 2025 pay 2026 levy uh and I'll kind of explain to uh to you all and the public on what that means u here in a couple slides uh because it was definitely confusing to me my first time here on this side last year it's hard to get down. Um so as as we always uh start things with mission and vision um as we mentioned the last presentation stewardship falls under uh is a great example of what we bring as value to the district. And I want to just talk about a couple po very good points of of of what that how is that how that's determined really couple great examples is the district credit. you know, Moody's uh is our rating agency uh for any bond um or any uh any money that we're going out for via bond or whatever it may be. And and even in a non-bonding year, we're required to have an annual surveillance for Moody's. Uh they just recently had done our surveillance in May. Um because we are in the process of doing a bonding deal which the uh the board had approved in June. We uh we were able to affirm our A3 rating. Um and this is important because it's considered high quality signifies very low credit risk and it means the issuer is has a strong ability to meet their demands um and financial commitments. Um that's so that that speaks volumes. Um very much so we're um based on the size of district we are we're right there with our uh very similar to a lot of other districts in the state for sure. Um financial performance also is a great metric of our financial stewardship and as we just mentioned um maintaining our f 5% board policy um unassigned balance is is is quite uh remarkable especially if there if you noticed the unbalance decreasing through the co years. Uh so when I said yeah so when we talk about when you see all these numbers 2025 2026 2027 what what does that all mean? Um here's a great example and a great visual of this. So you'll notice that we're using the 20 fiscal year 25. So, uh, school districts are on a 630 year end cycle versus a city or county which is on the 1231 calendar year cycle. So, we have to take our results from the previous fiscal year which ended June 30th, apply them to help us base an estimate for the 26 levy, but then we won't get those funds until the 26 27 year. So, it's a three-year cycle that we're working within. We're trying to complete last year. We're kind of forecasting for what everybody's going to pay us for the levy in this next year and then oh now we got to wait another year before we get those funds. So we will uh we certainly are are you know always projecting always looking forward um which isn't a bad thing either. We rather look forward than backwards. Uh so we we definitely take a lot of uh efforts into just understanding how where we were and how that applies to what we're going to be doing in the future. So constantly talking about the future uh the truth and tax uh taxation timeline. Just want to overview for you all as well as the public on this concern uh by September 30th. So this is what we're doing tonight. We're recommending that the board uh approve a proposed levy, a preliminary levy that will be sent to the county and Minnesota Department of Education. the county uses that info to prepare the tax statements after they receive them from the city and count um cities and whatnot and then those count those counties will then be sending out those statements in in November. They'll come to your home and then obviously in December we will come back again and talk about the final certified levy. It's preliminary because a lot of things can still change uh and and we do have a few um uh uh you just things that we're kind of waiting on for M Minnesota Department of Education to confirm u before we finalize everything. And we'll we have the best estimate that we have currently um in front of you tonight which I'll show you in a few slides. So overall uh this is all funds. So, I want to make sure that everybody's aware of that this is all funds um that come into the to the district. You'll notice that state revenues make up almost 50% of all of our funding and 17% of local revenues. Now, again, um federal is a smaller chunk of that. Um, and I want to me and and then and then the pink box which you can't see the something with the data on there are the the levy dollars and which makes up about 30% of our total budget. Um, so if you think about it, federal revenues very low 1%. We have our local revenues at 17 um which are donations and just fees that the community ed charges for their programming and whatnot. Um and then the state side on uh state revenues which are really all just what we get from the state based on our enrollment. And that pink slice is our property tax amounts. Um overall uh this is or I'm sorry this is our enrollment again enrollment projection. So we talked about this on the last conversation last item knowing that we have stable increases in enrollment though um overall and we try to keep that as stable as possible so we're not having huge fluctuations. our points of pride. Uh this is always a great uh thing to know that that pink shade of that that pie is really helping again ensure that we can utilize the levby dollars towards instruction which are 80 make up 87% of our total budget. Uh that ensures that we're also meeting metrics academically. And this all kind of comes together in the fact that the community believes in this district and that we can also answer to the community's um you know their desires to have a good education for the students that are coming out of Orno public schools and that certainly exemplified with this slide. Uh there's a couple more slides on uh just the process so like or what affects the lobby I should say. uh the you know student enrollment obviously that that's a big uh that's a big piece of it. Um you'll notice in a uh when I get to to the details of what makes up this versus la the last comparing last levy to this current levy um enrollment estimates have been updated and are more I would say in line with what we've been seeing the last few years. It was very hard obviously coming through co and out of co to really estimate what who what kids are going to be coming to the district. Uh and certainly we've now we've had some stable stats and now we can use those those going forward. So you'll notice that that's uh a little bit of a change. But then also property values are affected uh affect our levies. Uh so as our property values increase so do our so do the the fact that we you know we have a potential of increase in levies as well. Net tax capacity that's overall value of the district. uh those are complicated measurements on ensuring that we can capture everyone in our district here uh and and whatnot. The referendum market value, then there's voter approved items. There's the capital projects levy, uh LTFM, long-term facility maintenance and and and whatnot. And then there's also adjustments. So, as I mentioned before, we're estimating quite a bit of this information because a lot of it's not even settled until we get the money in 2627. So throughout that two-year cycle until we get to 27, there will be adjustments next year to this levy and you know any of those kinds of things. It's heavily monitored by Minnesota Department of Education balancing off of our enrollments that we give them, but then they also check that with actuals that we've after the fiscal year. Um there's there's all they check on the long-term facility maintenance. They ensure that we're spending what we're spending and what and what's allowable and ensuring that what you know what we've told the public this is what we're going to be taking in for LTFM this is what we're spending and those are all checks and balances that even happen uh two two years up to two years after the the the actual levies are set overall though uh the levy uh is the preliminary levy decreased uh is going to decrease by about half a million. That's the preliminary currently right now or negative 2.13% for pay 26. Uh m majority of that is like I mentioned earlier better estimates and enrollment. Um we're a little more conservative as well and ensuring that we don't have huge adjustments and swings um in future years. Uh but then also the the um I will mention the long-term facility maintenance. We had some I indoor air quality projects for the last several years that we utilized um funding for. Uh those have now been completed and we no longer have a really huge uh increase or a hole to fill that we don't necessarily need to for any other purposes currently. So that's why you'll see uh you know a negative um uh levy currently right now. Um, and we'll value we'll we'll evaluate this as we go on. Like I said, this is still an estimate. Um, but ensuring that by December 8th when we come back to the to the board tape to the board to have the actual final levy approved that that will be a very a final final levy amount. Um, you'll notice uh certain things like the debt service fund leveies uh and abatement bonds. So, we did that abatement bond and some and some debt service related capital uh operating capital and long-term facility maintenance. Um though that debt was issued in early June. So, this applies to these levies as well. Um again, not necessarily increasing it based on the fact that we went out for bonds, but uh but it it meters out a little bit better of what we could expect or will expect. So we can balance that throughout the throughout the term of that that that bonding that bonding period. Lastly, questions and or feedback and then there'll be the recommendation. And then just as a reminder to the public and the board, the annual troops and taxation meeting will be held on Monday, December 8th, 2025 at 7 pm. >> Well, I would just comment that that we usually do go for the maximum available amount at this meeting just to cover ourselves for the future, but the past several years we have gone with less than that when the the time actually comes. So maximum is a frightening word, but it's it's not necessarily where we're going to land, but we need to make sure that we protect ourselves in case something should happen that we would need more. >> Thank you, Laura, for pointing that out. >> Any other questions or comments? Okay. So, the recommendation is that the board of education approve the proposed 2025 20 payable 2026 property tax levy as presented and direct the clerk to certify to the Henipin County auditor the maximum available levy amount. Do I have a motion to approve that? >> So moved. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? All the All those in favor? >> I I >> Any opposed or abstaining? Okay. Thank you. Thank you all. >> Thank you very much. >> Um, okay. So, uh, the next thing is any other new business as necessary. Uh, I don't believe there is any. So, um, the next I just want to call out, um, the next regular bit regular meeting will be held on Monday, October 13th, 2025 at 7 p.m. here in the district office assembly room. And, um, now we'd like to adjourn for a work session. Uh, do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. Do I have a second?