e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] he [Music] good evening it is Thursday June 6 2024 at 6 p.m. we are at the district service center in Cottage Grove Minnesota we would like to acknowledge that the land on which We Gather is the land of the mawakan Dakota people mawakan means dwellers of the Spirit Lake our first item on the agenda is roll call Dana Ryan Clark here Sharon vleer Eric Tesmer is absent Pat Driscoll is absent Melinda dos Simi PN here Katie schwar here uh 2.0 Pledge of Allegiance please stand okay 3.0 approval of the agenda can I get a motion to approve so moved second motioned by Sharon seconded by Ryan all those in favor I any opposed motion passes on to 4.0 our Workshop items we have one this evening it's 4.1 title three English language learner services introduced by Kelly Jansen assistant superintendent good evening thank you um I'm here to introduce our multilingual services update we have two members of our department uh Nikki Kimber our El supervisor and Danilo McCarthy our e family liaison uh Den Danilo was also one of our sashko Allstars this year if you were at the employee banquet he was nominated as an Allstar um he does amazing work with our families so they're going to talk a little bit about the families we serve in El and title 3 um what types of services our students receive and um in particular some of our new to Country students and things that were um happening in our schools and then some of the opportunities for our multilingual Learners in general so I will turn it over to them hello good okay okay everybody hear me okay no okay I'll try to talk a little louder is that better okay here we go um so we we want to share with you some information um are our multilingual Learners how do we ensure all perspectives are valued and how do we equitably serve all students and some of the things that we will um discuss are um student demographics languages spoken El identification and our wonderful staff in our department so um the the very F first onboarding that all um families participate in is um what's called our home language survey and at enrollment um families are asked to um indicate if another language is spoken at home and from the responses that families share with us we um get to work to um identify if those students are eligible for El service and that that process is mandated by the Minnesota Department of Education and so we we follow that procedure very very tightly and this needs to be done within the first 30 days of the start of the school year so uh the beginning of the school year is a very uh important time for for our staff and students once students are identified as needing e service it is the law that they're entitled to an education program that provides access to core content and opportunities for English language development across K12 um we differentiate our EO service depending on the needs of our students and what English Prof proficiency level that they are at and so just as an example we might have a student who is near um nearly proficient in English and they might be supported in one cotat um class at a secondary school and we Al have students that come in with absolutely no English so our service is differentiated by that so who are multilingual Learners well it's growing there are more than 1450 students K12 um we have representation in all of our all of our buildings and schools and many of our students are emergent multilinguals who often speak three or four languages um they're comprised of of 82 home languages which is really amazing just let that sink in for for a minute um if we look at some of our Mo most dominant languages this uh Spectrum rainbow represents all of the languages Spanish M Chinese Mandarin and then you can see Somali Amharic Vietnamese Arabic and every seems like every week there's there's a student that comes with a language that we have to look up and and learn about so it's been really fun to welcome students with all different backgrounds to our district our multilingual Learners are a very diverse group of students and um they they come with many different backgrounds and many needs and just keep going um here's some examples of different kinds of um multilingual Learners most of our multi lingual Learners are born in the United States and that often surprises people we have students here that are refugees we have students that are um what we designate as SES um these are students with limited formal education we have long-term um English Learners we have duly identified English Learners and we have new to Country students so it is a very diverse group of learners we have um we've we've noticed a increase of our new to Country students across the district and um this is defined as a student that is born outside the United States and the Department of Education um defines this as being in the United States for the last three years and this makes up about 16% of our El identified students in our district um we have we also have recently arrived Els and these are students that have been here for less than 12 months and these students are reported um to mde annually so um these numbers were taken in January and so um they have they've gone up since then um again some of our new to Country students come with um very little educ ation or they have gaps in their education and so this has been a unique group of students that we have um been working to support um this year and build District supports for these students where do our students come from you can see that this is an incomplete list mostly because we ran out of room on the slide we kept adding to it um but a lot of our students are from Central and South America as well as sprinkled in from from all over the world so it's pretty cool we have new to Country students at every grade level it's pretty consistent too if you see that um bar graph and so we we've created some goals for our department and for our district to support this group of students first and foremost we want to welcome our our newcomers to a safe inclusive and thriving School environment we want to concentrate on supports for the their social emotional and mental health needs we want to work to provide high quality instruction might look a little different it does look different for our new to Country students and we are working tirelessly to establish Partnerships with our families um we've also prepared this um newcomer toolkit that was shared with um every building so that when they have Stu students and families arrive just provide some good resources for for the schools our department is growing um we have myself and we have our wonderful El as on Danilo we have 10 e par professionals and 42 e teachers and building Community is is one of our priorities in our department and I am going to um let my esteemed colleague talk about some of the things that we're doing um right now um to make that happen good evening as Nikki say my name is Danilo mcarthy I I have been working for sashco school as a Elation science October 2022 one of my responsibilities is to create and Implement inclusive system of support for multilingual families and students across the district I also have been working assisting um multilingual families during the enrollment process and connecting them with resources and welcoming them to the school district so what I learned in these two years uh that we have great resources in so waska school district and also aside the Southwest SCH school district and my responsibility is connecting families to those resources and access to those Services some of those um resources just to mention some of them uh we have Mento program that have been very helpful for our families is supporting families that are are homeless or experiencing uh inequitable housing uh for example we have families that is sleeping in the floor in a basement and when we find out about that situation we connected with a homeless leason and we are able to find uh air mattress or pillows blankets for those families so is very helpful for them and also um sometime they need um self-care items like essential c car items and we can get those things through this program uh so was is good to uh especially in Winter we have families came here during uh winter without winter clothing and some students um I know that some student went to school during winter in sandals so we connected right away with so was coers and we able to get um um winter clothing for them and for their parents too so wco Community Education they have really great programs there and we are connecting the families to those programs for example Early Childhood programs Early Childhood screening especially those programs that where families come coming from we don't have those program in their home country so we have to educate them and make sure that they access to those um um programs uh kids club is very um helpful for families because some of them has to work um since early hours in the morning to night and this create a safe place for the families that can take the students and before or after school and many sports and activities that uh so watch school um Community Education offer for them so waser school also provide a job opportunity for our MultiLing well families new to the country some of them they're professional from their home country and we are able to help them to navigate the system to um TR transfer their credit here in United States and those diploma are ballot here and they were able to apply for a job in the sashco school district as for example we have two teachers that they got hir here um two three prayer professional and custodian outside the school district uh we are connecting family with those resources too for example foot shelves we have so many great foot shelves around this area and uh South Washington County at the beginning of school year we invite a a health worker from South washing South Washington County uh to come and provide information to families and after that meeting we got us some phone calls families telling us that they were able to access to um um paying for Bill energies uh also for insurance and there was a family that connected us telling us like they had a health emergency and um she went through three surgery two heart surgery and the bill was over $150,000 and they at the county they have a program that they were able to help the family to pay for this program um another program that we recently find out and we are connecting and working with them very closely is Solid Ground housting program where there um assist family the to find a house and they pay the rent for those families so we were able to um um help four families for multi families new to the country signed up for this program and few weeks ago one of the families got a house and the program will pay for the rent for one year um next SL as one of the first uh things that I do when I got hired here was connecting with parents to find out about the challenges and also how we can support them and one of the parents that I've been working is Alma Valencia she has three students in our school district uh elementary middle school and high school and she has been here for four years and she kindly recorded this video for us to learn about her experience at sashka school in in high school in man here [Music] for for for like um Alma we got phone calls about parents thanking the school district for supporting them uh we got many phone calls about that they're seeing more um interpreters in open houses um conferences and also for special events and information and getting home in their home language they really appreciate that um next next SL so also we offer um many multiculture opportunities for our families and students not only for them to share about their culture but also they have the opportunity to learn about other cultures and connecting with uh other parents and students and staff some of the programs that we have is the E family engagement that is required by T 3 SEO by literacy um this offer opportunities any any student that is bilingual in the school district offer an opportunity to test uh show Proficiency in English and other language and they can get up to four College uh semester credits [Music] and uh it's good because parents are telling me like oh we canot afford to pay but the school district pay for this so it's been very helpful for families also the eel Department organize Multicultural family picnic every other year so next year we're going to have a an event and also many school sponsor cultur event through the school years and we also working as I say before um very closely with the Community Education um referring uh our parents to the ESR classes and we are partnering with the Department of equity and inclusion to make sure that everything that we're doing for our families align to the core values or the school district um Nikki you can see why he was a alcer um we um really enjoy off-site learning opportunities and um here are just two examples of some of the the things that we did this year we um had an opportunity to go to Carpenter Nature Center with some of our multilingual students at ultman high or middle school rather um we actually did build fires um so that was interesting but great um we took a group of high school students um to participate and Feed My Starving Children one thing that was really great about this opportunity is a lot of these students didn't have a lot of intern experience on their resumés and so um their El teachers um found an opportunity for them to add that um during the school day so that was a fantastic opportunity so we really feel that um sashko is a great place to be a multilingual learner and we are working to um make this a school district of choice for multilingual Learners thank you thank you both anyone have any questions okay sorry I was looking around first um thank you so much for this so I had um just a couple questions so at the beginning you talked about all the different kinds of multilingual Learners we have in the district are there some types of multilingual Learners who are more um quicker to progress out of multilingual learning um adaptation than others like for example kids who were born in the US or kids who are new a country or whichever subgroup that is generally speaking generally um students that speak a language that's similar to English um tend to progress quicker through the the the levels so so is that like a like a Western European language or like Spanish Italian French um but it there's aot lot of variables um it it depends on the level of support it depends on the students um first language and their level of literacy in their first language um so there it's hard to say you know it's hard to make a prediction so if they're more likely to be literate like say they can read fluently in Spanish and they're 10 years old or whatever they're more likely to be able to adapt or get um move out from getting services in our district versus someone who is still learning how to read in their native language that is true okay yeah um and so you were mentioning that the number of el students we have has grown a lot since January and so how frequently do we get a new El student in the district almost every day okay yeah I mean um I would say almost every day and I I could provide more specific data I could get back to on that but yeah it's it's it's rolling right now we have a lot of of enrollments that are coming in for next fall okay um or you know the end of the year were for next fall but we've had um we've had people at the at the window every day oh wow okay yeah um and so in these students families do you know for some of them are do they have any English speakers in their families um you know so for example um well I'm thinking of my spouse right who was an e student when he was a child but his parents spoke English right but he didn't speak English when he moved to the US right so um and he's presumably learned English at this point but you know how do we have are there a lot of those kinds of families or any of those kinds of families or is it typically the whole family is in need of e services so a lot of our brand new to Country students a lot of our Spanish speakers right now do not have a English-speaking um family member um so you know it really varies if who who you know somebody lives with if they have access to an English speaker um we have a little bit of everything but um we have noticed that um many of our new to Country students are arriving with very limited resources and um limited education and um their their English is very much at the emerging stage okay um and so do you have a lot of multilingual staff on your I mean I know Danilo is right but like do you have and I um and what languages do they speak or because if there's 82 languages presumably you don't have 82 yeah so we we really um we rely on our language tools we rely on um language line we use um interpreters to help us when we don't have a staff member that speaks the student or family's home language um that's that's what we do right now and um you know it is it's a it's a growing need in our District so for like for the interpreters you know you were mentioning at open house danila having families are are noticing that they have interpreters at open house do you how do you just know that in advance you know oh we have this family and they're an identified El family and so we'll make sure to have this interpreter there or um is that something that yeah you well well we we do the best we can to plan for that um at the secondary level um we don't always have like a set schedule like at the elementary schools at the elementary schools we um arrange conferences we make appointments and we ensure that we have the the correct language you know through an interpreter at the secondary schools we look at our um list of families that need interpreters for that school and we make sure that we have um interpreters available on site okay um and then lastly I well I can't say lastly but I think lastly um for the Seal of biliteracy how many students in our how many El students in our district if they're like 20 students in 12th grade what percentage of those get the Seal of biliteracy um 26% of the students that were awarded seals this year were awarded a seal in their home primary language so we'd have to look at that and break that down a little bit um more and I can certainly get back to you with that but um that they might have been eel at one point and exited so I mean that's our hope right like yeah so and then do we you know for any student who wants to take the stamp test or whatever we give for this seal of VI I'm assuming that's we have something similar um what um are there any barriers or are there any students who want to take it in a language that we don't provide and then if so what do we do for them yeah so we um there's a list that um Minnesota provides and this year um we had 21 languages that were requested and we were able to meet those needs we awarded seals in 11 languages oh wow yeah that's all I had yeah I promise thank you I'm you should have any other questions okay not seeing any thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you okay so on to 5.0 information items 5 .1 is preliminary budget for 2024 25 fiscal year and that will be presented by Chris Blackburn Director of Business Services well good evening that's going to be a really tough deck to follow I think so um I'm always excited to wave at denil or hear him visiting with families up front or see Nikki as well so um we did get pictures last year so we in finance support just through the title three programming sum and so last year we did get invited to the picnic even though we couldn't attend we got pictures later and we're like oh my gosh please keep inviting us because some year we're going to get to go and it looked amazing so it's fun to hear a little more about that as well so tonight I'm providing the financial update um or my financial update is the 2425 preliminary budget um that will consider and speak about tonight and then consider approving for at the next meeting the agenda on it on the next slide is just talk about budget notes and terms where does the money come from we'll talk about what it is spent on just some high highlights of the budget itself some challenges we face as well as a future schedule so our budget is the general fund budget alone is more than 18,000 lines I actually um had fortunate to update that we had 21,000 lines for quite some time and with the absence of some of the uh federal funds during covid we were able to reduce that so that's kind of exciting for us that said it's still if we do just one minute on every line it would take about 300 hours um which I did the math on and I think it came up to S and a half weeks if just one person worked on it so I'm extremely grateful to have uh Dan and I both have a team that works on that budget so many of the revenues and I would say at this point all of them are estimated we certainly might know some specifics about maybe a specific salary for a individual um because on the next line you knowless we calculate salary benefit for each employee but to that end we also know that there is open enrollment for benefits and things so we do a lot of estimation on salaries benefits um what utilities costs I always joke that we should just in fact I do now have a magic gate ball on my desk but we haven't not used it for Budget um but sometimes it does feel we make the best educated guest based on the information we have in front of us the salary and benefit as I said we do each employee um I think Dan has teased me about it nearly every year we started out doing it just of abundance of caution because our budget um our fund balance was so low when D and I first started and so we continued to do that process just because we provide it provides the most accurate um and with 80% roughly of our budget being on salary and benefits we feel it's extremely important to be as accurate as we can um the budget itself is just a guide so it's not a this is how exactly we're going to end up um I've heard people say before in our industry the one thing we can guarantee is it's incorrect um but it is that guide to keep us on track and so again we make the best um assumptions based on what we know today for next year so it helps us keep solent for the budget terms um we have fund balance typically the one that we focus on is unassigned balance so that is really the funds that are available for just general operations and so we talk about instruction so the teachers and Paras um instructional support whether it's um counselors or account um APS Transportation maintenance activities and administration as well whether District School level that's all utilized by unassigned fund balance we focus a lot on the percentage of fund balance which is really just the balance divided by the as a percent of the expenditures it's kind of our savings account um and our board goal um is up by policy is 16% by 2027 that does not include any funds too that are reserved by Statute and there you'll see on the next slide there's quite a long list of reserved funds by Statute these can really just only be used for the purposes that are allowed under statute and so whether it's School nutrition it has to stay there Community Services um you'll see construction we can only use construction funds for construction projects capital projects Levy which we recently um through tremendous support again of our community um increased and that can only be used for technology and some other specific purposes and statute um the last one I'll point out is the bottom one for alternative teacher professional Pace system or atps I will note that right now now as a district we've committed those dollars and so um the state just changed that it changed it to a restricted balance but that does um help provide that a program that we are able to participate in and we will be moving that so it's more just a highlight and a um foreshadowing of that we will ask for a need a revision to our committed fund balance resolution um which is required when you commit fund balance so some notes on the budget that again if we reduce or increase spending in those Reser ve funds it does not affect our unassigned fund balance um if and then spending in those funds is limited by the targeted revenues so not only in amount but in purpose of those revenues tuition agreements so for students living outside outside outstate like not just I don't mean where I grew up in out rural Minnesota but actually Wisconsin Iowa any other state in the Union tuition is 13, $31 cents for secondary students and 10,876 5 for elementary based on the latest state aid projection so we're not actually allowed to allow students from out of state just attend our schools for free um the state doesn't provide Aid on those either so we have to recu the cost via tuition within our state students who live outside District boundaries boundaries that are receiving special services um they create tuition dollars and so there's a state process by which they um adjust our special education Revenue so whether they're students of ours that are being served elsewhere in that first bullet or if they're living in our schools um I kind of probably said that backwards if they're living in our district getting Services elsewhere or if we're providing services for another District so that billing process works both ways new funding so last year we had a whole long slide on new funding um they were real active last legislative session this past most recent one um there wasn't a lot as far as dollars which makes sense it wasn't a typical funding year but there was some additional funds for the read act um which I know we've heard a lot about and um super excited about as well but the preliminary allocation for southw was 773 um 773 th000 and then there's additional amount um of nearly 700,000 that will be required to be used for Teacher compensation and so there's um kind of a variety of restrictions around um who that can be paid for and how it can be paid and so we'll be working our way through that I would anticipate in the next year as well as we get more guidance education funding in Minnesota so this slide just um indicates our total revenue which now has gone over $328 million um which always I sometimes when I first started here I was like we're big we just have lots more numbers so I grew up it didn't graduated with 62 in my class and so I always think holy cow um State AIDS though so description next to it is where those funding sources for those dollars come from so State AIDS come from income and sales tax as well as fees that are paid from the state and then to us 69% of our Aid 226 million comes from that source so the largest percentage when we talk about having increase in basic funding that's the line that gets increased a portion of that local levies which is really generated by local property taxes and we've had extremely supportive taxpayers um so we have 88 million currently in local Levy about 27% of our Revenue Federal AIDS which we get a real minor um percent of the total budget so it's less than 2% now at just over 5 million and then other revenues which is local participation fees and interest are the largest components of that and that's 7.8 million just over 2% this chart then shows the 2023 actual the 24 revised and the 25 preliminary revenues in those categories and so you can see we're projecting overall a six just a shy of 6 and a half% change in total revenues for next year the largest component of that is the change in um State AIDS as far as dollar change um is the most significant and again that was the 2% raise which will or increase in basic formula um along with special ed local levies um it's largely an increase in part to do the capital projects Levy that we increased uh again super appreciative of our taxpayers as well as the inflation Factor now that we um successfully the voters supported on our operating referendum as well we do also Levy for ltfm which is a board approved program um and we'll be seeing that the next presentation not significant changes otherwise so many times and I believe when I did my um first update to the board we talked about enrollment and student count really drives the budget so we do a cohort survival methodology um and you'll notice that line looks pretty flat if I took a ruler I don't know that I could make it a whole lot more flat but we know that we are experiencing and projecting for next year declining enrollment this year we'll graduate our anticipated to have our largest um number of students at 18886 and next year we're projecting only 18718 um as you can see on the chart too that it does um it really just stays kind of declining to flat and we know that with the demographic study um kindergarten classes and people you know there's just fewer children that coming into our school so that'll be a continue um for us to monitor as we move forward and how do we adjust and look at you know whether how we structure schools or what program we have in which buildings and things what how can we do that uniquely uh because we know that'll impact our funding on the next slide then the revenues um just some other notes so again the enrollment decrease projected to be 168 students that's based on what we know today we know that will change um but as of today that's what we're anticipating the basic formula again that approved in um this not this past session session before was 2% for this year and so that was I remember recall Dan saying we were a little disappointed with just 2% in the historic funding year um but we're still appreciative of the increase so now the basic formula is 7,281 per student special ed is another major source of state aid we are now um pushing $52 million in state aid on special head part of that was there's a cross subsidy reduction Aid as well which reduces that um portion that the general fund previously paid um both on El and on special ed federal government used to always promise that they would fund 40% of special education services mandated and they um have never achieved I don't think over 20% I think and I think it's actually even lower than that the other Revenue again that operating Levy that was approved in 2021 we're super appreciative of our taxpayers and the support that our community has provided for us that provides about $1 1992 $1,992 per student and then we do have the increase increase with inflation every year so this slide um is then just the summary of our 25 2425 preliminary budget summary and so there you can see the revenues which we spoke about the 328 million increase of 6.46% and the expenditures that we are anticipating at a higher Pace at 8.69% um I will note in the bottom line is a net um right now projected to be a deficit of just over 5 million I would say that was a planned um you know when we were talking much earlier I said you know as we've with 2% and that basic formula increase and things and it certainly reflects the investment that we made in our staff in this last um contract negotiation cycle and I think it was um much needed we had a lot of Staff members who were experiencing a lot of inflation pressures on their own households as well um and you look at what even in the private sector what people are being paid um just the challenges that we faced with Staffing to be able to attract and retain employees was part of our um operational plan as well that how do we make ourselves really um an attractive place to work and stay and so we mindfully made some investments in that area and so hopefully that will we'll see the um fruition of that and I think we have in our staffing models already um as we've looked to special education being better staffed this year as we're looking to next year year um nutrition services Transportation around that we have definitely seen improvements in those so unfortunately the um State funding is still running behind inflation so even though we're experiencing it and our staff are experiencing it um our funding hasn't kept pace with that so thus the deficit that we're projecting right now again revenues increased 6.46 expenditures um outpaced that at 8.69 and again that net reduction to fund balance currently projected to be be 5 million the biggest on the expenditure side special education has an in U projected increase in expenses of 13.6 time that most significantly is salary and benefits um and I'll refer you to the budget book that was provided as well there is some more details about um those expenditures by category within regular instruction again which makes up the predominance of our expenditures increased um 8.65 projected instructural support is 9.5 and again those all impacts students every day sites and buildings were expecting an increase of 12.31% and that's largely ltfm with the um which the plan was approved last July for spending for the 25 year and then Administration and District support and expense increases combined of about 1.61 so again I'm pleased to say that where we're spending our dollars is on our students directly this is expenses by program or I used to call it by function kind of like what do we spend it on not just the um kind of the who or the what but how like in what areas and so Administration um District Support Services which includes Finance HR technology regular instruction which again is our classroom teachers um PA professionals that are in the classrooms as well vocational instruction which would be any Career Technical education special instruction which is the special educ students receiving Special Education Service Services Community Services we have a small part for our voluntary pre-ap program as well as our School Readiness plus which has now been rolled into voluntary pre instructional Support Services which is um consists not only of our TLS department but also um assistant principles and such um some Technology support in there as well that's direct to classroom and pupils pupil Support Services is largely Transportation um and are such things as lunch recess par would be included in there as well and along with counselors um and social workers are in that category sites and buildings which is really um all of our facilities that we have many of and so last categor is other and I'll just make a note that that's scholarships that we um run through our general fund that are outside sources but that we control through here expenditures by programs here's our lovely dollar bill um CL instruction we're still at 44 we're at 44 cents on the dollar special ed is now at 22 cents and student support is 11 and I highlight those three because 77 cents of our dollar goes directly to our students um supporting their education instructional Support also kind of um I would say more impacts the staff to some extents our TLS and our assistant principles as well 5 cents and then facilities is 12 cents again when we have the square footage we do we do need to invest in custodians as well as even that's utilities um snow plowing which we'll hope for a nice another winter this year um District support again three cents on the dollar and administration is also 3 cents both school and District administration is in that category the next slide is unassigned fund balance projection so we um take a look at all those reserved fund spending in those categories and um take a look at what's unassigned as well and um come up with dollars and this is that percentage we were talking about earlier of the whole expend or the um unrestricted expenditures as well and so right now we're projecting at the end of 24 to be at 13.5 and at the end of 25 we would be at um 10.6% so again we are seeing a decrease that was um certainly anticipated and we'll continue to monitor that look for efficiencies and how we can um make adjustments where we can um and continue to take a look at that because again our board goal is 16% by the end of 27 vors as we look forward um enrollment it's by far the biggest driver our revenue and always so important as we look and to make sure that we're reporting kids accurately as well as that we're reporting all students and just what that does are we having more movements are we having more new to Country students you know what does that look like and we continue to um kind of hope for the best and sometimes plan for the worst a little so contract negotiations we want to be sure that this cycle again we made some significant investments in our staff and we want to um as we look for forward because 80% is on salary and benefits we do just have to be mindful of what that impact is as we look to the next Cycles inflation right now we know that you know we've gone to the grocery store or I think talking to we sit near food service and what food costs have done in the past year for them which certainly is not a general fund cost but we've certainly experienced it as well on our supplies and such Staffing um I put this on here because with earned safe and sick time um which many of you probably have experienced as well as your own jobs but the just the substitutes um with how we have to do with um some of their leave time and what we can ask and how we can um and some employees are earning it that didn't previously earn it and so we'll know that there'll be some impacts a little bit what we aren't sure is what that looks like for substitutes are those always in categories where we need to have a substitute is it are we able to manage without um I did take a look back and even as we have just talked Staffing period as far as over all substitutes for um teachers and pars we spent um $2.9 million on contracted substitutes in fiscal year 23 which was reflected on that slide $3 million is our anticipated for 24 and right now we're projecting 4.4 million for our next year um again really just a lot of uncertainty and I think um we'll continue to be cautious on that and then if need be we can reflect that in revised budget if we can decrease that number utilities is always that unknown again do we have a warm winter a cold winter do we have a heat wave in the middle of some odd month um what does snow plowing look like and so that's always a little we do our best to estimate does there a rate increase that we're not anticipating or unaware of and then the last factor that I put on there is still the unemployment Aid this is our second year um where between terms employees which are those that are hourly paid um that otherwise don't work in the summer qualified to apply for unemployment Aid through the department um of Economic Development and so it's outside of our control at all U but we do certainly see the impacts it is we spent last year it was about $750,000 was the expenditure and they are funding that through Aid so that's good news what we're uncertain about is what year two looks like because there was a cap on how much the state allocated for that um so far in Staffing I think it sounds like I've been hearing good reports um that our summer Staffing looks quite well um and so hopefully that reflects that perhaps people are choosing to work instead of take advantage of that program so I'm gonna step off budget for just a moment and talk internal service fund um and so I did bring this to cfac um and so wanted to bring it to the board as well because we do um are recommending some action and so just some background the definition of an interal internal service fund so in our audit every year there's a page probably 80 pages in that's talks about our internal service fund and it's by defined by fars um which is the uniform financial and accounting reporting system from mde it's our codes that are really long it's used to account for the financing of goods or services provided by one Department from another and so uh we're not required to use internal service funds when I used to be in public accounting we commonly saw it in like a motorpool or a fleet vehicle service where they're charging the using vehicle a print shop would be another example of that as well we currently on the next slide um some background on ours we've historically used our internal service fund currently um for post-employment benefits Severance pension benefits for retirees as well as other post-employment benefits or OPB for retiree health insurance the severance too quick Sean the severance pension benefits in 201718 we did establish an irrevocable trust for that portion and transferred 4 million um of assets to the trust sorry for the retiree Health at that time into the OPB trust so we're just left with the severance pension portion what's happening is we have not contributed as a district funds to the internal service Fund in more than 10 years so we haven't had any inflows other than interest earnings into that fund and so on the bottom bullet says basically the Auditors have told us that it's not operating the true internal service fund any longer um per the governmental accounting standard board and so at June of 23 the cash balance was was just over 2.6 million and in that same year we paid about um 3/4 of a million in um Severance pension benefit payments so as we look at that we have about three and a half years remaining roughly in there and so on the next slide our recommendation would be to close the fund um as of this June to transfer that remaining balance whatever it is at the end of 24 to the general fund and then commit that balance for the purpose of the sever b um pension benefit payments again with the intended that was the intended purpose and we would want to hold true to that since it's not acting like an internal service fund we feel like this is the best action what also happens is if we did nothing and in that three and a half years then the general fund it does become a cost of the general fund um regardless of the action here and so we just felt it was an appropriate time to recommend that change now so on that we will bring a resolution um next board meeting to close that and then to commit those funds as well as with that change in the atps next steps board approves the 2425 preliminary Budget on June 20th um so in two weeks we'll continue to monitor the enrollment um and hopefully you know that will uptick some but we do want to always be cautious we'll start begin the audit of our 23 24 year they'll be here in July and then be back I feel like they're going a movie in pretty much the month of October the levy work starts in September um school board will approve the final levies in December and then we'll present the audit um to the school board as well typically in January just with the timing of our audit on our um cycle with our Auditors that um with only having one board meeting in December it makes that difficult and then we'll turn around and work on 25 26 budgets so I tell people all the time we have two seasons really in finance and that's audit and budget so um with that I'm open to any questions thank you Chris does anybody have any questions I just have one quick question um so you were talking earlier in your report about students that come from out of state and I'm guessing more like Wisconsin I wasn't aware that we had that and they paid tuition around how many students do we have that and do that you know melind I will get that answer for you all that um feed it through Julie I don't know that offand we don't get too many very often um I know they work through student information so we'll get asked most times I think we see it on students coming from out of country even that on visas that are coming through like a Exchange program so but I'll be sure to get that information for you I was wondering if it was more like teachers or staff that live maybe in Hudson or right outside and they want their kids to come we've occasionally been asked about that I don't know that we've too often seen that they truly have come but I will certainly get that information thank you oh so um You' said that out of country do we charge exchange students tuition it depends on what kind of Visa is my understanding and so I see Kelly nodding too so I was like I was pretty sure that it was on the Visa um and on which program they're coming on so not just anybody that comes do we charge tuition but there are certain scenarios in which we do and I like I said if you want more details to P I could certainly get that okay I was just waiting um so my questions are all around the internal service fund um and the potential elimination of it and I remember the auditor saying that we should probably think about doing something um so my question is if we are um does this does eliminating the internal service fund um have any like potential long-term like Financial exposure issues for us um so we did ask um our financial advisers Ellers to just check in with Moody because we know that that's always as we have rating calls just to see in their eyes if there was any impact and they didn't feel that there would be any significant impact from that change um so to that end we don't the long term otherwise we will end up that $700,000 that has previously been funded for the last many years will now become a general fund expense um and so that's you know once that money is gone in that fund anyway that will become a general fund and those are negotiated benefits through contracts but and so we don't anticipate that that $700,000 number would materially deviate from any given year to the next not that it couldn't because again we know that our um teaching staff are very experienced and have been with the district long term and so and I say that group in particular because that's um you know just the largest bargaining group that has that benefit as well and so it's very challenging to say that it um couldn't the past history since I've been here that's it stayed reasonably constant but we certainly have seen fluctuations um and I could get you if you want even just some more history on what that's looked like as we look forward I would anticipate that there's certainly um you know as an old auditor we talk risk all the time and there's certainly risk that number could change both up or down um and so we can right now have that lens looking backwards and not always be certain you know people make decisions to stay on longer maybe or to not retire and not everybody qualifies for that benefit either oh okay um with the um so this is not a it's currently a reserve fund right the internal service fund or the internal service fund is actually its own fund right now yep so it's like nutrition services okay and so when it moves into the general fund will it become then like an assigned fund within the general fund and that's where so we would have the opportunity to either commit or assign those dollars and we're recommending committing um which is just a so the difference between committing and assigned assigned basically the board says you know superintendent and or design or Director of Finance Director of Business Services or design that you are able to um calculate that number at the end of the year for this assignment committed actually takes board action to do that and so we to me it's a little stronger statement to say that we knew those funds were intended for that purpose and we would like to say we're absolutely going to continue to use these funds for that purpose okay so when those $2 million and change go into the general fund it won't have an impact on our unassigned fund balance because it have been committed to something correct I think that's all the questions I had thank you any other questions okay thank you thank you okay now we will move on to 5.2 long-term facilities maintenance plan and that will be presented by Dan pan Executive Director of Finance and Facilities uh good evening thank you for the opportunity to talk about some of our construction projects uh tonight we just wanted to give you an update um on what long-term facility maintenance projects will'll be doing this summer and in the same vein I would like to just prep you for the next board meeting in which we will ask for approval of the 10-year long-term facility maintenance um expenditure plan and at the same time with we have a revenue application that we will submit to the state yeah construction I I do have a couple sons that work in construction and uh one's a welder and and one's a it works in HVAC and the HVAC guy one time my son he before he went commercial he was doing a house call to fix air condition he went to this guy's house and said well how long did your air condition been out and it was really hot and he said about two weeks and he goes two weeks why'd you wait so long to call and he goes um well my in-laws are here and they were going to stay for a month true story so long-term facility maintenance revenue is generated through a combination of Levy and Aid um this Revenue can only be used to repair and replace existing structures and lands it may not be used for new construction and we have plenty of that going on with our $200 million bonds um most of repairs includes roofs parking lots heating ventilating systems classroom auditoriums and other facilities um this Revenue will be generated with a combination of bonding Aid and pigo Levy and we'll talk a little bit more of that next week but the bonding part we generally come to the board to bond for long-term facility maintenance every two years um the MD requires the school board to approve a 10year ltfm plan every year so it'll be a rolling plan I've attached a copy of the application uh we're still doing some fine tuning may change a little bit but if once you read it it's really fine print one you have to look at it but you can zoom your computers but um it's generally about 22 to $24 million a year um the ones we're the projects we're going to do this summer which would be of interest uh first of all as we talk about what do we what do we need to close for buildings because of the construction uh Central Park um that will be closed you know we use a small part of Central Park the city of Woodberry is doing a project um we will not be back into C we're out of there now we will not be back into there um till the end of June of 2025 um and at that point and at some points you a lease will be brought to you that's negotiate between the City of Woodbury and the school district the district Program Center is entirely closed um Pro most of programming is um going to be done at Armstrong Elementary School the Park High School stadium will be closed um Wood high school is going to have extensive work on their electrical system um most of the building will be closed but we will keep the gymnastics room open the Fieldhouse open the competition gym open the weight room open the pool open and the outdoor spaces will remain Opera so why are these buildings uh needed to be closed the projects that are going to happen at the district Program Center we're going to replace all the hvx systems um for those that work in this building you're not on the schedule till 2027 um uh fire panel Replacements uh cabling for the ethernet for ethernet uh roof replacement and ceilings and Replacements at Park High School on the outside we're going to replace the Press Box uh we're replacing the Press Box for Uber High School um as we speak if it's gotten here yet we it was all planed to be replaced and then uh the truck that was hauling it had an accident and rolled it over into a ditch so they had to take it back and fix it again um hopefully this one will be good um Stadium concessions will be improved the St and the restrooms will be renovated um Stadium lighting replacement would be very similar to what we did at Woodbury High School uh we're going to power wash the stadium and um we also need to renovate the boiler plant Wood high school most of the work is on the electrical systems bual electrical systems um we're replacing the Eastwind rtus and um fixing and replacing original windows at the transportation station we're putting new fuel station in uh we have a underground tank now we're going to have two above uh ground tanks um we'll also reconfiguring how the bus is going to to fill um creating a larger space for them to turn around and to be more efficient uh fixing the the parking lot um the parking lot lighting and the roof on the Bus Barn we were replacing the Valley Crossing playground and at Woodbury Elementary School we're replacing the playground there too so those are the projects working on the summer if you're driving around and you see and you go oh that's right we're going to do that we're going to do that and and next week's uh two weeks the uh the board report will include um actually a list of all the projects for the next 10 years so you can refer back to it but that will change every year as a kind of a um as needed um ltfm plan sometimes but we we need to look out that far as our financing people looking sell bonds and such thank you Dan any questions hi Dan um how does the ltfm plan how has it changed with the results of the bond election and all the new construction and stuff that's happening have we put off a lot of projects that would have been on the on the list to get done because we're doing all of this other work at various schools yeah for the ones that were doing the major but they were actually marrying some of them together so like for Woodbury High School um say they I don't know what the number is I'm sorry but say their budget is 35 million we also have like another 15 million at ltfm that we're doing at the same time using lot of the same resources and being a lot more efficient and getting it all done at one time but um most the stuff in at least the first phase actually probably both phases they're separate looks at it they were considered you know we didn't try to throw a bunch of stuff in the bond knowing that we could use ltfm to do other stuff oh okay so when we could have used ltfm if we could have used ltfm we pulled it into ltfm instead of adding it to the bond yes we tried to do we tried to look at it as a merge them together just to be more efficient on the bond okay thanks any other questions okay thank you Dan thank you okay 5.3 first reading of proposed policy changes and that will be presented by Julie neelson superintendent thank you we are rolling right along tonight and maybe before I start policies uh it's kind of that time of year we approve our last set of policies and then we take a little break in July I know people sitting around the table are like thank you one month um and a board member commented to me in in the call just saying how grateful they were that we've stayed on track with our policies and I think for the board to know that's really a tribute to the people who sit around the table um it does take consistency and persistence to stay on track and I think over the course of the last three years we've had a schedule we really worked to stay on track but we also wanted to make sure that we reflected accurate policies and we took the time to review them um especially those big policies you know making sure that our attorney um also got a look at them so a thank you to the people around the table as we wrap up this uh year and this kind of session of reviewing policies um this evening I am presenting um six policies being brought forward as usual uh these policies are reviewed by our board our board policy committee along with executive cabinet members who have also vetted the policies through the appropriate user groups um this evening policy 2113 Schoolboard committees um that one you will see just reflects uh the list of updated committees and titles um to make sure that when you serve in that advisory role and you participate um that those committees are accurate policy 604 instructional curriculum really just updated to reflect the changes in statute 901 Community Education and 902 Community use of school district and Facilities there were no proposed changes 906 Community notification of predatory offenders um just updated to reflect statute and 9007 rewards that was just updated again um around the referenced statute and so um this evening I am open to any questions um executive cabinet members can also help with questions if there are any okay Dana did we have anybody sign up to talk okay and no questions so we will move on to 6.0 reports and comments superintendent I get to go first that's a little bit of my voice I will just tell you that this week is just the whole spectrum of a rainbow you all saw the rainbow last night everybody get pictures of the rainbow last night after it stormed Dan and I happened to be at the Cottage Grove City council meeting and we were told it's going to hail so Dan and I finished our presentation and we were out of there headed north and we hit the sun and the rainbow um but much like the school district um having gone earlier in the week to a kindergarten recognition and if you haven't had a kindergarten in a while I mean you certainly would have thought that this was college graduation I mean the waves the flowers the oh my goodness my child is graduating from kindergarten and I am watching um some of our parents thinking oh it gets so much bigger gets so much bigger so much bigger but just the sheer joy and love of watching kindergarten recognition um and really to extend a thank you to our students for a great school year our staff and our families um and with that just to conclude and wrap up our year um our board knows um as well as our community we celebrate well over 1500 graduates um during this course of time on Saturday we will graduate students from the alternative um high school or South wash Alternative High School along with students who have participated online and then Sunday we will have our three comprehensive of high schools yes it is a whole day of fun together and truly I would rather not be anywhere else but in that um Arena and so we will start with Park uh move to Woodbury and Easter idge will be the closing graduation ceremony um and congratulations if any of you have graduates I know Christine Schaefer has a graduate so um our attendance uh from this group around the table and Dr brookens has a graduate as well so our attendance may not be as consistent because we just have a lot of people having graduates right now um but but we certainly again extend a great thank you to our students we just have the most incredible kids um most days they make us laugh every once in a while we might get a little disappointed but really sheer joy and just to have that full spectrum of from kindergarten to watching these high school graduations um really makes our work worth it and it makes the difficult conversations I think as board members uh the decisions you make around policies around um budget cuts around doing the right thing for our school district it really matters to the kids we serve so thank you and thank you to our executive cabinet thank you Julie any board members have any events or anything that they would like to share I just have a quick one um anyone if anyone's a golfer out there the um the foundation for the 35th annual um golf tournament for 916 is on June 13th um all the money goes towards the school to help the students in the programs so if anyone's interested let me know and I can afford you the information Melinda I didn't mention in my update it wasn't that important but we did have golfers so what people may not know in the community is we do have a team you know obviously people take vacations we all contribute our own personal dollars but Kelly and Dan I'm looking around the space uh golfed in the Woodburry chamber and we will have the Cottage Grove Chamber coming up um the executive cabinet along with our principal's Association we sponsor H so we contribute dollars to the holes um did we win anything Kelly and Dan Woodbury I don't know if they want anything I just know that I went for the Social and I got a what's that I know that I went for the Social and I want a free mini bun cake not the mini one but the next one and someone's like wow I said I ate the whole thing not that good but thank you for representing so 9:16 is what day did you say Melinda June 13 June 13th all right thank you thank you I got a quick addition if that's okay yes uh so the Easter EG Raptor trap team has their state championships this weekend in Alexandria and then in July uh some of the kids qualified for Nationals and there'll be a a team representing East East Ridge High School in the National Championship in Michigan perfect thank you okay on to 7.0 future meeting dates June 20th uh we will have a Schoolboard business meeting here at the district service center at 6 p.m. then July 18th we do only have one meeting in July so that will be also a business meeting here at the district service center at 6 p.m. and with that 8.0 we are adjourned for