00:00:07,500	Good evening. I’m Josh Hager, vice president of the Bismarck School Board. It’s 5:15 on Monday, September 23rd. I call this meeting to order. Welcome to those of you who are joining us both here and also online, you can follow or you can find our agenda and follow along online under the school board tab at Bismarckschools.org. Mr.

00:00:29,430	Cher, will you call the roll, please, Mr. Eastgate. Mr. Hager, here, Mr. Lee. Mrs. Peterson, Ms. Preske. Mr. Sher, make sure you note that both Mr. Eastgate, and Mr. Lee were unable to make it tonight, both are. Out, um, Traveling today. Uh, Dr. Fastant, would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

00:01:26,630	Item 1 CBPS mission vision and values, the BEPS mission is to empower every learner to thrive. The BPS vision states together our strong relationships build inclusive, collaborative, collaborative and innovative environments that create agency and inspire a passion for learning, excellence and discovery. BPS values are inclusion, excellent excellency, innovation, and leadership.

00:01:52,230	You’ll also find a link for the agenda to the BPS strategic plan. On the agenda. Uh, item 2. is to adopt the agenda before I ask for a motion on that. I just want to remind, um, Everyone that our public hearing on the the 24, 25 budget will happen at 6:00 p.m. sharp.

00:02:10,430	Um, we will jump to that portion of the meeting at that time. On the agenda items A and D. Under matters reserved for board action will be held until 6. with that, what are the wishes of the board? I would move that we adopt the agenda. I would second Mr. Sher. Peterson Yes. Preske Hager, yes. Uh, moving on, item 3.

00:02:39,230	Uh, focus on success, responsible use. Use policy for use of educational technology, Dr. Fassna good afternoon board members. Nice to see you 3. Glad to have you here this evening, um, yeah, for a focus of success tonight, uh, the topic of cell phones has been in the news around the nation, um, and, uh, had a lot of discussion across the US, um,

00:03:02,300	many educators, educational educators and leaders, um, have shared concerns about cell phone use or, uh, misuse in their classrooms. I just felt it was a really good opportunity to hear from some of our leaders, uh, within the district, uh, to get a firsthand account of how they have.

00:03:22,430	And adapting our present policies, um, to meet the opportunities and challenges that technology, um, provides. So I think, um, this evening I’d like to introduce uh Misty F Fink, Russ Re, and Mr. Steve Madler, who will be sharing some of their insights tonight and tech in our schools, so. It’s free. Nice to see you. Fantastic. Thank you so much.

00:03:41,770	Um, I’m just gonna talk a little bit about our policies around this issue. So that would be our, um, responsible use policy. Oh, thank you. So the, um, just kind of, first of all, like what is a responsible use policy? Oh, did I do it wrong? Thank you. So what is the responsible use of technology policy.

00:04:03,570	So there’s really kind of two ways that a lot of school districts go. Um, if you want to go to the next slide, one is the acceptable use policy and one is a responsible use policy. They’re both designed to guide students and staff and other users about the proper use of technology resources within a school.

00:04:22,730	Um, they’re both, um, address issues like online safety, privacy, the appropriate use of school technology resources and. All areas. Differences really, um, are philosophical approach that AUP is more rule-based and restrictive, while the RUP is more principal-based and encourages thoughtful ethical use of technology.

00:04:48,600	So the acceptable use, um, often has a narrower focus on what’s allowed and what’s not allowed is where the responsible use encourages broader thinking. While both policies serve to guide technology in schools, the REP is about fostering your deeper understanding of what it means to use technology responsibly. As a district, we chose to move toward the responsible use policy in 2015.

00:05:09,200	This came with a recommendation from the school board association, but also because the principal-based approach, better aligns with the dynamic nature of technology. So as technology rapidly evolves, it’s difficult to create black and white rules that stay relevant over a long periods of time.

00:05:31,230	For example, guidelines that may have worked for social media use a few years ago may not address AI and, um, the RUP just allows for the flexibility to adapt and for staff and students to both understand their responsibilities. So, um, to ensure that students are preparing for the digital landscape. We integrated digital stewardship into our strategic plan in 2020, so we encourage that purposefully to align with that responsible use policy.

00:05:56,900	This initiative emphasized the importance of explicitly teaching students how to use technology responsibly, ethically, and effectively. And then the last connection I just kind of wanted to make for you is really around the curriculum.

00:06:18,570	So over the years, I’ve shared with you our successes in our instruction around these concepts, building a guaranteed and viable curriculum, being certified by our third party, which is our common sense media piece and building systems to support students in these foundational skills. This work was the foundation of our cybersecurity integration plan that we approved, um, last fall. We are very Intentional in building strong digital student learners.

00:06:38,900	And so I’m now going to turn it over to Mr. Real and Mr. Madler to talk about what the responsible use policy looks like in the buildings. Thanks, Misty, um, school board members, um, just to talk a little bit about how this looks in a middle school and, and the first thing I have to say, it looks a lot different for 6th

00:06:57,200	and 8th grade in terms of what, what students need, expectations, and, and those type of things and. Um, we are at one school, this policy allows us a ton of flexibility, and I think that’s what’s been very nice.

00:07:16,370	We were probably too, um, maybe two, Judicious with it, you know, in terms of, of the policy. So what we did this year, our, our teachers and and and even some of our parents, we thought we maybe needed to to make some changes there.

00:07:29,630	So what we did this year is we started the year and I really challenged my 8th graders because our 8th graders are, they’re the, they’re the upper classmen. If you can believe that 8th graders are upperclassmen that’s something you don’t see or hear every day, but they are upperclassmen and we knew that they could kind of set the tone and so we’ve asked our kids, they, uh, primarily use their Chromebooks uh during the day, that’s, that’s their device.

00:07:45,330	The, uh, cell phones, we asked them to put them in their locker at the beginning of the day. They grab them at the end of the day. It’s working extremely well. That’s a change we made from last year, um, you know, and, and, and, and kids have responded very well.

00:07:57,570	We’ve had a lot of comments from kids, from parents. Thank you for minimizing those disruptions, those distractions, and it’s been easier on our staff. However, it is still nice to have the option.

00:08:13,400	So for example, if kids are, um, I just know a few years ago we had to change a choir concert because of weather, so we just said, kids could you all bring your cell phones to To choir class so you can text your parents, your grandparents to let them know that we’re changing the date. So there are those opportunities where students need it or when we have students who go to the park and they and they need to get something for their life science class.

00:08:25,700	They’re looking at leaves or whatever. It’s nice to take the phone to be able to use that, but then it goes back in the locker, goes back there and I, uh, and it seems to be working, um, you know, extremely well. Uh, students need practice. Uh, it’s no different than a sport or or or or music or anything.

00:08:40,070	They have to practice. They have to have opportunities to practice responsible. So I think it’s our job to give them those opportunities, but also some guard rails, so they are, um, doing well with it. Um, and again, um, we, we want to teach students skills to Get ready for that next level.

00:09:00,370	Career, community, all the things that we’re talking about career readiness practices, we want students to develop those skills, not giving them the opportunity and just saying no, uh, you know, we just felt that this is a, is a great way in our policy has been very, very responsive to that and uh I think it’s something that we should celebrate when you talk

00:09:16,470	to my colleagues in some of the other districts, um, they’re struggling with that. I don’t see us spending a lot of time on it, and I think the policy allows us to to do some of those things and our teachers, our teachers do an incredible.

00:09:31,000	job of reinforcing it or lunchroom supervisors, or bus people, all of those people. So, anyhow, um, I would stand for any questions when we’re done, but I’ll let Mr. Mather go next. And thank you, uh, members of the board, uh, for having us here this evening.

00:09:50,800	Uh, certainly from a high school level, one of the differences we see probably the most is that, you know, your high school student in general is going to be a lot more mobile than your middle school student, and so, you know, not only are they on our campus, they’re taking classes on other campuses as well.

00:10:09,270	They’re taking classes maybe online, and so the their ability and their movement of even their after school activities, uh, this idea that they’re not going to have their cell phone is, is. Very limited and limiting in some situations and so we really have increased on having more of a focus on that appropriate time and place to utilize that technology, uh, but certainly from an instructional standpoint, Chromebooks, cell phone, they

00:10:29,730	are commonplace for learning tools within the classroom and I’ve just got a few things listed there, but often you’ll see it in formative assessment where teachers are trying to find these real quick ways to get feedback from their students and sometimes though that’s an. The ticket it out the door.

00:10:45,100	Sometimes it’s, uh, you know, here’s a little, you know,,, 23 question quiz that we want your information so I can tell before you leave, what kind of points of confusion we need to bring back uh for class tomorrow and those, uh, quite honestly, when you see kids, um, use a Chromebook versus their phone.

00:11:04,830	They will be in and out and answer those with their phone much quicker than they will that Chromebook and so we do see kids gravitate to some of those. Obviously when you start.

00:11:24,030	To get to some of those presentations, tools and some of the other approved apps, whether it be Google Docs or Microsoft 65 Desmos, some of those, the Chromebook is gonna do a better job than that, but uh what we do see is kids, the, the cell phone has become their number one research tool. Anytime they’re looking for an answer for something, they’ve got that phone out and they are looking that up and they’re getting that information for some of that just in time learning.

00:11:42,700	And there’s some Pictures that are on that slide, but you’ll see some of the things I’ll point out that one where uh there’s a picture, a student, uh, at a Chromebook, another student had the phone. Why does the student have the phone? They’re doing the same two things, same activity.

00:12:01,430	So I asked the student who had the phone there and and she forgot her Chromebook and uh her car or her friend’s card so she didn’t have it, so that was a way to continue to access that learning, you see the one over there. That’s just got the screenshot with some text. That’s actually the directions that the teacher has for the day.

00:12:20,630	Google Translate that’s brought up that is uh actually showing that in Spanish and so here’s the teacher’s directions. Here’s it in Spanish, and that’s how I’m using it, uh, the slide on the far right or the picture on the far right.

00:12:39,900	That’s a, that’s a we call it cell phone jail, but uh there are times that there has to be an interruption. There has to be a separation for technology from the learning and when that is an activity that needs the focus of the student with the teacher and the interaction is between the teacher and the student. We encourage our teachers to employ these.

00:12:58,130	I certainly some people have their opinion whether that should be a thing or not, but what I can tell you is that form of intervention. is far less obtrusive than the games of saying, you, you can’t have them in the classroom, but kids still have them in their pockets.

00:13:17,970	They still have them in their backpacks and that uh argument or that interaction that that um ends up taking place when a student has it out when they’re not supposed to, so you check them in, you check him in at the door when you come into the class, the teacher managed that from a classroom management standpoint and we found that to be very effective and so that’s.

00:13:34,370	Commonplace and, and we encourage our teachers to utilize that as a very unobtrusive way to uh disrupt the learning. So with that I guess uh we’ll stand for questions that you may have. Board members. Ms. Peterson.

00:13:57,170	I thank you guys so much for presenting today and I really like the, the switch from acceptable use to responsible use, so I appreciate that. Just wondering from your guys’ perspective, we hear all the positive and I agree that it’s a research tool and it’s another way to use it.

00:14:14,970	How much of your day would you say is spend um with use of disciplining students regarding things that are maybe happening in in Cyberlander or because of their cell phones, um, for you guys, your yourselves and also your assistant principals and deans. Well, I can talk about when I was an assistant principal and I was getting cell phones.

00:14:35,770	We had a, we see it, we take it, uh, approach, and I would say that uh from 1:30, uh, till the end of my school day, every day was consumed with cell phones. Um, it didn’t take me long to figure out that that was not the best approach. I was at Bismarck High at the time and actually Century uh decided we’re not going to take that approach.

00:14:54,500	We’re going to take the approach that um when learning is happening, your phone needs to be put away so it’s more of that responsible use, uh, so that’s what we ended up going to. I can tell you that the number of phones that get brought down to the office for non-compliance. Uh, we might see. 2 to 3 of them a week. Whereas it was a.

00:15:15,770	3 hour every single day when we had the, uh, if you want to call it a zero tolerance policy. I would agree. I would say maybe 1 to 2 a week and it may be the same student both times. Mm But that’s middle school. Thank you. Ms.

00:15:36,270	Preske I know the two of you are a small sample, but respect your, your opinion if, um, do you, Like, do you think your teachers would support a cell phone ban or what would be the opinion of your, of your teachers? We essentially have one, you, you know, we, right now, I mean, so, so we don’t have cell phones in class, um.

00:15:57,530	You know, I, I, I can’t speak for them. I’ve not had one teacher come up to say we need a cell phone ban. I think we need to do better. We need to have less distractions. I that no one has come to me with that, so I, um, I, I, I can’t say for certainty uh that that that would be there.

00:16:11,970	I don’t think that’s where they are. I think they believe with a lot of the work we’ve done with digital citizenship and those types of things I do believe that that’s the path they would pick rather than doing it in silos of bands and, and, and stuff and and you know.

00:16:26,830	When I talk about it, it might be the same student twice, we would still be dealing with that student. That that wouldn’t go away. I, I just want, want to be real clear that that would still be, we’d still be. you know, working with the family, working with that student or whatever.

00:16:48,770	You know, I, I think a question like that, uh, there’s two pieces of it. Do you support a ban and do you support enforcing the ban and so those are, those are really two different questions and you know, I think about vapes, vapes are illegal for juveniles, yet kids still show up to school with us and so that that intervention that takes place we’re still going to be dealing

00:17:11,770	with situations where students are not using them, still bringing. The even if a ban were in place and so it’s, it’s what’s what’s the enforcement and what’s the support, uh, behind it, and so I don’t know that I could give a percentage, but I do know that the amount of, of instructional time that

00:17:31,430	they would lose by uh. Trying to manage an all out band. I don’t know that the. That there would be a a good balance there. I think it’d be an unhealthy balance and they would regret what they had after the fact. Well, Miss, Miss Frank, Mr. Madler, Mr. Real. Thank you guys for, for being here. It’s.

00:17:57,570	It’s a topic I, I know I, I hear from it just. Last Saturday I heard somebody asked me about, hey, I wanna talk to you about cell phones in school, so it’s it’s, it’s nice to, to hear you guys’ perspective and and what you guys are dealing with in in the schools and kind

00:18:10,830	of how each of you handle things maybe, you know, slightly different like you said Mr. Real, every everyone knows the expectations which, which goes a long way and. And Mr.

00:18:25,430	Ma, like you touched on the responsible use and and how it can be a tool and in some cases, that’s great, and other times, hey, maybe we need to put those aside for, for the learning today. So thank you all for for being here and presenting. Thank you. With that, we are on to item 4 public comment, uh, just, just a reminder for folks in the audience at home, um, There’ll be 2 portions of public comment, if you will.

00:18:46,230	There’ll be one associated with the budget. This public comment period is specifically for the, the rest of Legion and not, not budget. The budget comment will wait. Um, So with that, the, the board recognizes the central role parents play in education of their children and supports active parent involvement in the education process.

00:19:06,900	The board board’s practice of public comment reflects and aligns with policy BCBA. In the spirit of its intent. For classroom issues, it’s best to follow the chain of command, teacher, principal, assistant principal, superintendent. For district issues, please reach out to Dr. Fossnot, uh, Dr. Fast, I don’t believe we had any.

00:19:25,570	thing that needs response from last meeting, um. So with that, if you do wish to speak tonight, we simply ask that you be responsible, be helpful and be respectful. Our BPS students deserve to have adults model the expectations that we have for them. Uh, groups are Urged to select one spokesman spokesperson.

00:19:45,400	Individuals will be limited to no more than 4 minutes and we’ll be notified 3 with 30 seconds remaining to conclude the remarks. The board will not debate issues as presented, but will take such matters under advisement. With that, uh, please stand and approach the podium if you wish to speak tonight. President Hagar and board members. My name is Mike Conley.

00:20:12,030	I’m an advocate for a citizen driven um effort brought forth by some elderly citizens and disabled citizens within our community. Um, they were able to achieve the signatures required, and they have city measure, um, one on the ballot this November and it uh focus is to supply a funding source for public safety and public transportation needs.

00:20:43,030	And this morning I was at um the uh coalition meeting and the consensus, one of the consensus council members shared, um, That The public transportation system shares a common, um, struggle that, uh, the schools have, and that’s, uh, is finding drivers for their buses.

00:21:11,300	And right now our public transportation resource, also known as transit is struggling with that as well. So there’s some shared um efforts going on to where how they can merge their resources in order to, uh, um, meet some of the needs that both systems, uh, have. And I would just encourage people to learn about measure one, the ins and outs.

00:21:32,700	Um, there’s another measure that threatens some of the funding that uh could uh. Uh, make it more difficult, and this would be moving, um, that resource um the public transportation resource from a property tax designation to a sales tax destination and, um, provide some security plus the transit itself is bleeding reserves right now and they’re going to be very limited on funds by

00:22:00,500	2026 and this effort, if passed, will be enough to bridge the gap regardless of of Where the other measure turns out. And so if anybody has any questions they can certainly contact me, um. And That’s essentially it. Thanks, Comm. Connelly. Anybody else wish to speak tonight? Seeing nobody, uh, public comment is now closed.

00:22:32,530	Uh, with that We’ll move on to item 5 which is monitor district operations, A OE5 financial planning. Dr. Foss not to turn it over to Mr. She will be, uh, yes, very perceptive, uh, Chair Hager. I am going to ask Mr. Sher to, uh, share, um, OE5 financial planning.

00:22:56,570	Thank you, Vice President Hagar, members of the board, um, tonight we’re going to talk about OE 5, another, um, Operational excellence that we are operational expectation we work on is OE 6. So OE 5 is the planning that, that we do and very appropriate that we’re talking about that tonight when we have our budget hearing.

00:23:16,270	And then OE 6 is all that planning now, how do we make it work every day? So today it’s, it’s all about the planning, um, I am happy to point out that we, we’re recommending that we’re in compliance in all categories. Um, and we can talk in detail on some of them if the board has any.

00:23:37,570	Questions on any any specific, uh, indicator, um, so I’m not gonna really go over all these, the only one. Maybe that probably should, um, Address or we should address is, remember, this is a year old, so we’re, everything’s fresh in our mind from this summer. We got to go back to the summer before.

00:23:57,570	Um, so if you remember stuff like the revenue and expenditures, the over budget, some of the ending fund balance, um, those discussions happen not this summer but the summer before. Um, so with that, I don’t know if the board would have any questions that maybe one more thing to point out is that, uh, Board member Josh Hager is part of the operational excellence.

00:24:17,100	Committee, and we did, um, Work on some things, for example, the budget impact report, the variance report, that hopefully is helpful for board members to really understand what are those areas that we’re really maybe need to address where either we’re overfunded or underfunded. Dr. Paulson If if I could, um, board to complement what Mr.

00:24:42,770	Sher’s sharing too, um, and before some questions, I know some are raised. I’d like to make sure you point out 5.8, um, again, remember, this reports for last year, but some of the things that you’ve asked and we’ll be on the agenda coming forward tonight are really referencing some of those same indicators, some of those same things you

00:25:04,100	expect of us to do to build a budget that is, uh, Appropriate and reasonable for their community and the BPS community. So I just want to pick pay your attention to that. Again, it’s about last year, but we’ll be talking about 5.8 again later in the budget or in our agenda tonight, so. Ms.

00:25:27,030	Person, thanks, Dr. Fasna and Mr. Sher. I think, um, one of the things that I know, um. We talk about quite a bit in here that we have different budget retreats and we have budget conversations that are kind of ongoing throughout the year and, and all of those are public meetings as well.

00:25:43,230	And I’m glad you brought up the 5.8 and 5.9 because I think it’s hard when you read these pieces that says it’s in compliance when it the data underneath the indicator kind of talks about the fact that they are not. So if you could just talk a little bit about some of those historical conversations, Mr.

00:25:59,200	Sher, just that the board has sort of directed, but also that we’ve also had. Conversations about where we are at that time that we are kind of under that 10% um in our general. Ending, um, fund balance. OK, so let’s start with 5.

00:26:16,130	9, so we have this goal set in here that we’d like to be at 10%. And there’s a, there’s a lot of reasons why that number is 10%. You could say, well, we need one month of operations, that alone is 8.

00:26:36,500	33%, right? Another big reason that’s hard sometimes for people to understand why, why would you need a reserve that large and really with our Moody’s rating, which really drives taxpayer payments for bonded projects. Um, they actually would like us higher. So it really becomes a balance. What’s the balance that, you know, where we could actually get, uh, a lower percentage rate on our bond, um, but then it would require so much more in our ending fund balance.

00:26:55,230	So the board is well aware that we’re not at 10%, but they, they have a clawback, so we’ve been trying to grow that back to 10%, um. That’s kind of where we’re at.

00:27:11,230	We did, uh, not this summer but last summer, we did present some options of what it would take to get us there through taxation or cuts, and the board at that time said, well, no, let’s have a goal to claw back what we’re not going to do is we’re not gonna be that drastic for budget, um. Mill levy increases or tax cuts. Now, on the other 1, 5.8, 5.

00:27:30,200	9, um, that’s something we talk about all the time, revenues and expenditures and that we would like that to be balanced or positive, which means we should bring in more revenues than we expend in any one year. Now, I, I, I will say that although historically we’ve we’ve started where our revenues were under our expenditures, but we always end opposite.

00:27:51,700	We always collect a little more than we say and we always. Spend a little more than we say, so we always into the positive. So, um, and that’s 5.8. Now, you know that our preliminary budget, uh, which Dr.

00:28:10,900	Fostna said we’re going to be talking about did start that way or we still had a little, uh, Negative there, you know, considerably less negative than the year before and, and that too was also clawing it back, but we were able, uh, and I’ll talk about that in a little bit, sorry to give you a sneak peek, um, we’re able to do, to actually do a proposed, you know, the board has not directed us to do that, but we want to show you

00:28:24,370	an option of, you got the preliminary budget, you know those, that’s been available to the public on the website. Now you’re gonna get to see what a proposed budget would look like that’s balanced. Yeah Just a quick comment from from me before we, for a motion, um. When it comes to the, the budging process, Mr.

00:28:49,330	Cha, the accounting group. really appreciate the way you guys have been approaching it like you mentioned a couple of the items that we get now the.

00:29:04,830	ar report the impact statement for the budget, but, but really the, the, the yearlong process now that we get a little peek behind the veil as, as you guys are going through it and, and kind of understanding. Your guys’ thought process as you’re making the decisions along the way building towards that final budget.

00:29:22,970	I know for me has been extremely helpful to to kind of understand, OK, here’s the give and take that you guys are making throughout the year because it, it, it’s tied to every year, very, very tight, so. Something’s always got to give if we’re going to add something and and just knowing the thought process you guys have kind of throughout the year has been extremely helpful, so just want to, want to thank you guys for, for that.

00:29:45,430	Miss Preske, a motion that we accept OE 5 financial planning, um, That report and accept it as that we are in full compliance. And I would second. We have a motion in a second, Mr. Chair. Preske Peterson, Hager, yes. OK, so that takes us down to item 5 B. Uh, GC3. For job description. Um, I will read The governance policy.

00:30:20,700	And then we’ll determine whether or not to retain or amend that policy and then find ourselves in compliance, in compliance with exception. Her out of compliance. Um, so GC 3. For job description. The board’s job is to represent, lead and serve the citizens and to govern the district by establishing expectations for district results, expectations for quality operational performance and monitoring actual performance against

00:30:45,570	those expectations. The board will one, ensure the results are the dominant focus of the district’s performance, too? Advocate for the district and the students it serves. 3 initiate and maintain effective communication with the citizens and other important stakeholder groups as a means to engage them in the work of the board and the district for develop a

00:31:07,670	written governance policies that address a results. The intended outcomes for students served by the district B operational expectations, statements of the board’s value and operational matters delegated to the the superintendent, including those actions to be accomplished. And those prohibited, see.

00:31:32,230	Governance culture Definition of the board’s own work, the process it will employ, and the conditions within which it will accomplish that work. The Board superintendent relationship. The role relationship of the. Superintendent and the board, including the specific authority of the superintendent and the process of monitoring the district and superintendent’s performance. 5 and ensure acceptable superintendent performance through effective monitoring monitoring of results and operational expectations policy.

00:32:02,300	6 ensure acceptable board performance through the effective evaluation of board actions and processes, and 7, a point an independent auditor to conduct an annual external review of the district’s financial condition and report directly to the board. That concludes the reading of. GC3 For job description. Ms. Peterson. I would move that we retain GC3 board job description. One second. Mr.

00:32:33,200	Sher, we have a motion in a second. Peterson Preske Hager. And I would also move that we are in compliance with GC3 board job description. Second, sorry. Mr. Sher, we have a motion in a second. Yeah, Dr. Freston. I wanted you to get through that portion before I add this comment.

00:33:07,800	I just, just, oh sorry, thank you, Ms. Bresky. Um, I wanted to make sure you got through the retention of that and you’re in compliance because I do agree you’re in compliance, but I did want to pay special attention because of the future board action tonight again on GC2 governing, um, commitments because you’re making a revision to that

00:33:27,130	policy tonight. I’m just gonna point yourself back to your job description and GC 3, and say, You do commit to effective evaluation. You do do that, and even though you’re having the changes later tonight, I think you are still holding yourself accountable for that.

00:33:45,170	It’s still in GC3 and remember a lot of those things as far as board evaluation, self-evaluation, and annual self-evaluation is in your board handbook. So you still have a lot of things even though you’re making a change later to GC2. They’re holding you accountable for self-evaluation. So when we do make that change, don’t feel too bad. You still have many mechanisms. was in place.

00:34:03,830	Thanks, Dr. Fassant. Uh, Ms. Sher, we have a motion in a second. Preskey Peterson Hager. Uh, item 6 matters reserved for board action, um, most for skipping a. Till 6 o’clock, so we’ll jump to. BSR one single point of.

00:34:37,730	Connection Um, yeah, board members, you, you, um, reviewed this last meeting and then you asked me to come back with some changes actually we looked at those really about almost as a first reading last time, I think sorry, single point of connection, get these in order. Um, we brought this to you as first reading last time for signing authority. So it’s your second reading.

00:34:56,930	My recommendation that you to approve. You could do a public Do you, do we need a public reading on that? Um, if you wish, I can read it for you. Sorry, I could do that.

00:35:19,630	There’s a change to BSR one, we’re adding a second paragraph to single point of connection signing authority, the superintendent of the designee is also authorized by the board to sign agreements, contracts, and other official documents on behalf of the board. This delegation of signing authority does not extend to matters explicitly reserved by the board. Again, my our motion is to recommend approval of second reading. Ms. Preskey.

00:35:42,630	I would approve a move that we approve policy BSR1 single point of connection for the second reading and final adoption. And I would second Uh, Ms. Char, we have a motion and a second. Peterson Yes, Preske Hager, yes. It takes us to item C. GC 2 Uh, governing Commitments and again, this is 2nd reading you made these revisions at the meeting, um, the other night.

00:36:10,430	This is in, uh, governing commitments GC2 in part two, I’ll just read the whole part for you. The board is responsible for its own performance and commitment, commits itself to continuous improvement. The board will ensure that its members are provided with training and professional support necessary to govern effectively as a means to ensure continuous improvement, the board rely and systematically will monitor all

00:36:29,100	policies in this section and may assess the quality of each meeting period. Um, we have removed uh Will with me and we’ve got, um, rid of the debriefing of the meeting following the conclusion. And again, I think you in that regard anyway based on other policies and the information in your handbook.

00:36:49,900	So, um, we again would recommend if it’s all right with you, to approve second reading. Ms. Peterson. I would move that we have uh approved the revised policy GC-2 governing commitments after the, for the first reading. Second. The share of a motion in a second. Preske Peterson, Hager.

00:37:17,630	Uh, saving D for the, the budget portion will jump down to the consent agenda. What are the wishes of the board? I would move that we adopt the consent agenda. I would second Mr. Peterson, Preske Hager. So that takes us now down to. Animate superintendent’s report, uh CTE update.

00:37:45,370	You’re gonna get me pressed to do this within 8 minutes, aren’t you? OK, I can get it done, um. I do want to give you an update on the CT, uh, as you remember we talked about this last time, the board gave unanimous approval to move forward with the change, um, from a school-based, um, CT program to a center-based program, um, Dr. Johnson, Mr.

00:38:06,770	Char, myself and many other people, so we had 4 representatives from surrounding school superintendents in the region. Uh, we had Mr. Phillips, um, Mr. Kruger was there as representatives from our CT Center and CRACTC and uh met with the state CT board today to to share their, the proposal that you heard last meeting and if they would do that, I am

00:38:30,230	very pleased to to say that we spent over an hour with them answering questions, sharing our vision of what that could look like in our region, uh, again, to help support students, help support our support our educators and support workforce needs and communities.

00:38:48,470	and Bismarck in the whole region, um, they ask really great questions, uh, I took them as supportive and uh they were gonna contemplate us good board, they heard it, they’re gonna give themselves till next meeting to take action, but we’re already heard today that they want to meet with us and, and what’s the path forward working with the office, the NDCTE office.

00:39:07,500	So, um, looks like that’s a positive direction and I will let you know more as soon as they take formal action on that, but all things look positive, um. As far as that direction. Any questions? Ms. Peterson. Um, thinks, Vice President. Er, um.

00:39:26,030	When was the next meeting? Is it a month from now or sooner than that? OK. Month for now, but we are already scheduling, I think the earliest date was they wanted to meet with us maybe even before October 4th to start. Prediscussion, address some questions, so that’s a good sign.

00:39:47,100	I do have one more we can squeak it in before 6 o’clock, OK, um, I did want to remind you, um, the board members, we’ve, we’ve talked about this several times, but also I guess for the community, um, the community, uh, transportation community forums, um, we have been advertising those, uh, for, um, hopefully parents have been receiving that information.

00:40:08,600	But remember, this is about organizing or we’ve been organizing these community forums, uh, led by the consensus council, so we’re gonna have them come in and help, um, Guide that discussion, but this is to discuss ways to improve the quality and reliability of our transportation systems. It’s, it’s really stemming from that trans bar, um.

00:40:29,370	Um, evaluation last winter, last spring, that you received as a board and the feedback that they gave us and how to make our transportation system better and some of the recommendations they gave, so we’ll be taking some of those recommendations to our public in these forums, um, and then setting that up to for a listening session, um, board members, hopefully, you know, you’re invited to all three and

00:40:46,900	I’ll share the dates here in a second, but you’re invited to all three. Your role is really to listen. We’re not gonna have you do anything more than that, which should be.

00:41:04,500	But we’ll, we’ll give a short presentation on the recommendations for Transbar, um, we will, um, just set the conditions for, um, breaking out into small discussion groups, we have, um, some facilitators to help guide that with the consensus council, some record keepers, and then really over the course of these three meetings, then we’ll collect all that feedback, uh, the consensus council provide us a summary kind of to, to kind of put that all up and encapsulate it and then provide

00:41:23,170	it back to. the board and our operational excellence Committee. So hopefully we’ll bring that through operational excellence and bring a recommendation back to you as far as what we think the path forward is as far as our transportation system and ways that we can improve it and we know we have ways that we need

00:41:39,170	to improve our transportation system, um. But just for everyone knows, the first one is this week, September 26th, Thursday at 7:00 p.m. at Sili. OK, so if you’re interested in being, that’s the first one and. You can go to any of these.

00:41:59,500	You don’t have to do it by feeder if whatever works, because we know parents have crazy schedules just whatever which one works for you. Um, so September 26th at 7 at Sili. The next one would be October 3rd, also at 7 o’clock at Wachter, and the last will be Monday, October 7th at 7 p.m. at Horizon Middle School.

00:42:18,630	And again, board members, whichever one’s worked for you, patrons, whichever one’s work for you, and, uh, we hope to hear your thoughts, um, on those, so. Important discussion. Ms. Preskey.

00:42:39,300	And I assume that these, um, dates and times are posted on being advertised on social media and on the website as well, yeah, already out so I just, I believe that this is just a A real valuable piece in the whole puzzle of trying to solve this problem, and I hope that our citizens come out and express their opinions on it. So thank you for holding those.

00:42:59,300	Yeah, and, and just uh and we’ll, we’ll bring back the recommendations we got from a consultant to make our system better, but we also, uh, we’ve been asking questions, Mr. Sher and I were just at study council comparing ourselves to other large school districts and how they do transportation, what we can learn from them. So I think we have some opportunities to improve. Thank you, Dr. Frost. Yeah, that’ll be.

00:43:18,030	Be nice to to hear from the Ken and get their perspective and their opinions. It’s a good time to, to come talk to us directly one on one, you know, finding one of those. One of those sites and in times that hopefully hopefully work for. For you to to come in and share your thoughts.

00:43:32,270	Um, I show we’ve got. 2 minutes till 6. So I guess we. Wait, because we’ve made it through all the rest of the agenda items, so we’ll, if you want, I could say all of our educators, secretaries, so many staff were together today because we didn’t take your kids today.

00:43:54,930	Sorry, um, but we spend a lot of good time today working, um, at all grade levels, all departments, uh, again, had, uh, uh, even support staff in doing training today, so to eat up all the time, that was a very productive day across BPS, you know, helping to get our adults ready and. Prepared for um the kids who come back tomorrow, so it was a real positive.

00:44:12,970	Thank you for allowing us to do that. I know sometimes, uh, a one Monday PD day right in the middle of the school year seems a little frustrating for a parent, but it really is valuable time for us cause we don’t in the education realm, we don’t get a lot of days to do that because you expect us

00:44:27,530	to be, um, teaching and caring for your children. So we really look forward to and appreciate those days we can do this work, so. Thank you, Dr. Preston.

00:44:42,570	I know I got a middle school boy at home that was pretty excited to have a bonus day of fishing, so I’m not sure they were as productive Yeah, they probably, they weren’t as productive as you guys. I can tell you that much. So we’ve got just Probably 30 seconds or so here. All right, I’ve got 6 o’clock, so Mr. Mr. Sher, I’ll turn it over to you.

00:45:14,370	Thank you, Vice President, uh, Hager, members of the board, tonight we’ll just do a little recap and then, um, we’ll open up the public hearing. So if we can, there we go, and I do. So the first one is just to kind of go over what what our budget goals and guidelines are. So we did talk already about OE 5.8, um, and where we’re at with that.

00:45:37,430	And then also revenues over and under expenditures was this thing that you can see up there, we had uh approved a preliminary budget of just over $1000 deficit.

00:45:56,870	Um, so through, uh, our director of accounting and myself, what we’re able to do is, um, we found some additional revenues and some expenditures that we could cut and I’ll just give you a few examples. Um, a couple of big things on revenue. So when we build the budget, the preliminary budget, we don’t actually accrue those throughout the year for. S. So once that happens, we can do that. So there’s a little bit of savings there.

00:46:13,570	Um, I can tell you on, on student contracts for special ed. That’s an administrative rule where Department of Public Construction is going back to the old method for determining what those.

00:46:32,370	Those amounts will be that we can collect from the state, OK? So that was another example of a revenue and then that was an example of an expenditure that we’re able to cut. So between both of those, we’re able to get that down to approximately $30,000 to the positive. And we’ll talk a little bit about that in our next slide. I wanted just to talk a little bit about budget efficiency. Um, I think that’s something that Dr. Fossnott’s team works on all year long.

00:46:49,530	We look at things, OK. What’s working, what’s not working. Um, unfortunately, a lot of times, um, if it’s not working, we might need more money, but there’s also things that, you know, maybe there’s things that we can cut. So that’s just a continuous improvement process that we go through. So here’s the comparison.

00:47:07,570	So the first column really talks about. Where we ended the year, so you can see we were roughly $9,900,000 to the good, um, and then you can see the preliminary budget the board approved, uh, before the deadline in August.

00:47:29,000	And then the proposed budget that the, the board could consider coming up, um, at its meeting, which I want to remind everybody that will be a call-in meeting on October 9th because it’s due to the county by October 10th, and our next board meeting is not till the 14th, so we have to have that special meeting, get that approved.

00:47:46,030	And from that you can see that, uh, roughly $32,000 to the good, which leaves our ending fund balance at 8%. Now, my hope is again we’ll have a swing so that we can end more positive and, and if you, if you look at the data over the years, that swing is becoming less and less, and I think that’s due to us trying to tighten up every little

00:48:02,030	piece of that budget. Uh, when I first started, we’d have $6 million swings on a much lower budget, so higher percentage now we’re. You know, we’re getting a couple $2 million swings and, you know, maybe we can get to a day of utopia where it’s the same.

00:48:21,770	Little bit more about the revenue discussion. Um, so I think this is important to put both of these in context because it is, these are real dollars that both the state and local taxpayers and the federal government are paying, so you can see that, uh.

00:48:41,130	General fund local sources are projected to increase by $3 million now, that’s just for the general fund. I want to make that very clear that that’s not some of those other pieces like building fund and all that. This is just the general fund.

00:48:59,600	Um, And here’s the interesting part of that $3 million with the integrated formula,, $20 million gets deducted on our formula to create equity within our state for all school districts. So that’s, that’s key that we got $30 million more. Well, technically not because it gets deducted on the formula. And then just I guess, kudos to the school board. This is our 5th straight year for holding Mills flat.

00:49:25,900	I’m not sure anybody else around here could say that uh for the their political subdivision, um, Now they will increase for some people based on valuation. If your home was valued more, ills are flat, you’re still gonna have increase. I mean, I, we want to be very clear and transparent to people that that’s, we’re not telling you that your taxes will remain flat. The mill levy remained flat.

00:49:42,100	So if your valuation remains flat, yes, it’ll remain your school taxes will remain flat. And then the other thing that’s I think important is, you know, you actually, we, we don’t certify mills. We certified dollars and a lot of political subdivisions, if let’s say evaluation decreases, they’ll still get those dollars because they’re certified. The meals will actually go up.

00:50:06,370	Well, for school districts, that’s not necessarily the case. We don’t have that ability because ours are also capped. So it’s, it’s either or. You get the dollars or you get what the cap generates so that’s kind of a safeguard I believe for local taxpayers related to school district funding that’s different from others.

00:50:24,600	Um, you could see the state sources are projected increase by about 6.5 million, and that’s a combination of we did get 4% increase on this the per pupil funding and we had some additional kids. So that’s where that comes from. On the federal. Pretty interesting, very, very minimal increase.

00:50:44,330	So that continues to be a challenge for us to figure out, especially if we’ve got staffing, because you’ll see in a slide coming up, you all know it. We are in the people business and that’s where we have to figure out how we balance our budgets based on people.

00:50:59,770	So you can see the total revenue is just under $1000. Now, the one thing I will say is you guys probably remember this, we usually budget $1,000,000 on both the revenue side and the expense side for grants, but we were pretty successful in additional grants last year, school-based mental health, cybersecurity grant.

00:51:19,030	So what we decided to do so that we don’t have to amend budgets is that is plugged in both on revenue and expenditures, so it’s a net. 0 To the budget, but you’ll see that that’s different this year than other years. As far as the funding formula, this is another thing that we talked about as far as the the imputed formula.

00:51:39,370	So we, they say you get 11,000 bucks, just over 11,000 bucks per kid. But then they do this little thing where they say, well, the balance, the property poor, the property rich school districts across the state, we’re going to deduct, so we’re going to impute your formula. So we actually only get 8743 based on that.

00:51:58,570	What happens now we do get to keep the local, but then it gets deducted off the state. We could keep both that’d be awesome. Uh, next, this just on the right. shows a pretty good graphic that’s pretty powerful to me. Um, you look at our total budget is the dollar bill.

00:52:17,870	And there’s just a huge portion of that that makes up salaries and benefits. And then you can see all the little things in the box on the right. Those make up what’s left. Um, so we really, if we want change, it, it really involves people, um, couple other things on salary and benefits that were big ticket items for the district.

00:52:38,030	The state mandated a 4% increase for staff. So that’s in there, that took a big chunk of money, um, contracted bussing, which again, we’re working on and we’re hoping we can turn that number to go in the other direction, hopefully after we have all of our listening sessions and we can maybe make some changes, um, for bussing.

00:52:55,300	Uh, building maintenance, we did an increase, utilities, we did an increase and supplies and materials. Now those are kind of the big items, so you can see total expenditures. Um, about $12 million. Yeah. I think if you can go back a slide, Mr. Sher, I think coming into your our district.

00:53:18,030	I almost said that wrong, didn’t I? coming into our district, I think, um, Every school I’ve worked in salaries and benefits make up the vast majority, I think, uh, Mr. Sheer said, we’re in the people business and people educate, you know, um, kids, so that’s a huge part of that, but I will say when you get to those middle columns, the maintenance, utilities and

00:53:38,870	supplies as your new superintendent coming in, that’s where, um, as you said, you’ve kind of cut the budget, really, you cut it tight so that that revenue over expenditure at the end of the year isn’t as much as it used to be.

00:53:54,370	I would tell you that that was one of the things like we are overspending in these areas we have overspent in those areas for years. Well, if that’s reality, we need to put some, we need to put some money in there and then make other choices where the money is not gonna go because we are, we’re hurting ourselves by not being really good, um, faithful, um.

00:54:13,030	Business people and being realistic with where the money is having to go. So that’s why you see some of those adjustments. We’ve just been, uh, patching some holes in the budget. Uh, the next thing I just wanted to remind the board of their um.

00:54:32,430	Kind of what, what are allowable and what they control and what the voters control and what, what is Max and what’s not Max. You can see there, that’s the makeup of our total mills. Um, In 1957, the citizens of Bismarck voted to create a 10 mill building fund. Um, that is still in place. It was recalled in 1981 unsuccessfully they, so we still have that.

00:54:52,070	Um, you can levy as much as you want for your special assessments. Our recommendation is one, we make the minimum payment and we’re able to pay off some extra. So we are, we’re bringing that down also, uh, debt service, you know, we levy 110% of what’s needed for the payment.

00:55:08,670	Um, I will tell you that this is different than maybe some when we get to the end of a bond payment. We use the extra money because we probably don’t collect 110% because some people don’t pay and all that, but that extra, the extra dollars that we raise, we use to pay down debt service so we don’t transfer it to any other

00:55:25,230	fund. Um, the intent of the laws to pay down the debt service, but, uh, some don’t necessarily do that. We don’t have a tuition levy. We don’t have a special reserve levy.

00:55:40,670	I think in the future, this board would be wise to look at something with special reserve, just based on some of the long term maintenance things we have coming up with turf fields, for example, so that future boards aren’t saying wow, we are in trouble.

00:55:58,800	Um, and then the next slide is, it’s always good to say, well, where do we rank in the state? So you can see, um, these, these are the top districts at the top, Class A, if you want to call them that. But we also included the larger districts. You know, um, those schools over 3000 students, for example. So you can see we’re near the bottom, but we aren’t at the bottom. And just to remind everybody under, um, business and operations under the budget section.

00:56:18,970	The preliminary budget is actually out there for review and then, um, depending on board action later, we’ll either bring The preliminary budget back for approval or the new proposed budget back for approval. And oh that’ll be all available on the website also. Yep. Go back one slide, Mr. Chair. And it’s not on here.

00:56:39,570	You can see it on your, your. Handouts and if people are lying, but there is one Jamestown is at 102. So I think again, as Mr. Char said, we tried to pick out those large. Companion schools or at least schools that have over 3000 kids. And Jesson’s got 1800, but we, we like Jamestown.

00:57:07,670	So I, I turn it back to you, Vice President Hagar for the public hearing. Thanks, Mr. Chair. So with that, I’ll open it up, um. For public comment? Anybody in, in the audience wants to. Come talk now is your chance. OK Not seeing anybody making a move towards the podium. So we’ll Close public comment on the 2425 budget.

00:57:46,670	And move to our last item. Uh, the 25 budget. Dr. Fos, yeah, I, I think, uh, just based on feedback that we’ve, as you said, um, Vice President Hagar, we just continually have discussions about the budget.

00:58:12,800	It’s just something we bring back and we talk about, um, and uh it’s it’s a process, right? So again, um, hearing some of the input from board members and what you’d like to see, we’re bringing you back, you know you approved that preliminary in August.

00:58:31,700	Things change, you hear, you hear feedback, um, I think what we’re hearing what you’re saying to us, so we’re bringing forth the uh recommendation of a motion to. I direct my office as we’re already working on, uh, to bring back a revenue to expenditure neutral budget. So if you like that, then we would recommend the motion that we’ve given you. Ms. Preskey.

00:58:50,630	Yes, um, I think that’s the direction that we want to move to, so I would direct the superintendent to revise the fiscal year 2025 budget to ensure a balanced revenue to expenditure budget and compliance with the board policy OE 5 Financial planning. These revisions will be presented to the board for our review and approval at our next board approval meeting. And I would second I have a motion in a second, Mr. Chair Preskey.

00:59:14,670	Peterson. Hager. Yes. And Mr. President, can we still comment on our budget? Sure, OK. I just have a few things that I want to, to say, um, appreciate all the work that’s been done on the budget. Um, I do have a question for you, Dr. Fastno. In our budget for, um, 2025.

00:59:39,770	What stands out to you? Is there anything shiny and new? How would you summarize the budget to the public? I think you asked me this question before. Um, I would tell you, um. I am very proud of the work that we’re already doing and I, I won’t say it’s shiny and new.

00:59:59,070	Let me just brag about some of the work we’re already doing and sustaining that part of the budget, um. Student behavior and mental health. The amount of good work we’re doing with some state supported dollars and BPS dollars to help support student behavioral mental health is, uh, we, we are definitely a leader among our peers across the state, um, that is good work.

01:00:24,570	We need to continue to do, um. I would tell you we’re receiving a lot of traction over our personalized learning pathway for kids and you’ve had that in your budget for years and Power it, um, that and the work we’re doing in Creer and Tech Ed is allowing our kids um opportunities that many kids around the nation are not able

01:00:45,530	to afford themselves within their public schools, um, to follow their personal passion and find the pathway to their future success, um, again, not new and shiny.

01:01:07,300	It’s what we’ve been doing for years and we just got to continue that, um, it kind of compound that with the discussion about CTE and how we’re beginning to transition from a school base to a center based, um, not really new and shiny, but it’s a a good positive step forward and there will be hopefully financial and programmatic, um, advantages when we do that and uh you’re gonna see some changes again, not new and shiny in the budget, but good work we’re doing, um.

01:01:29,800	Wow, I’m, those are huge issues for us and huge uh work as you know with even CT getting our silver inch our project up, continue to, to work on our Hughes project for middle school, um. Let me think for a second. Yeah, I, I mean, um.

01:01:59,130	The work we’re doing with facility or with transportation here coming up, um, I think is not again, new and shiny in the budget, but is giving us an opportunity to look at how to use our dollars more wisely, and as Mr.

01:02:15,770	Shar said, um, I will applaud my team, is that that is what we spend a lot of time doing is how can we provide a really good service, really great service, and try to find the corners. I will tell you board members, I do think as a concern, OK, for the future, Um I, I came into the district that had a pretty lean budget. We have a leaner budget, um. You just need to be aware of that.

01:02:34,900	There’s not many corners that we can find that aren’t going to affect people. You’re gonna to make. To make budget constraints in in the present environment you have, um. When those messages go out, someone’s gonna be disappointed cause it’s gonna be some they’re gonna lose something, they’re gonna lose a program, they’re gonna lose a person, they’re gonna lose a service

01:02:54,100	that maybe they’ve become accustomed to. But that’s featured, that’s future dilemmas. We got to deal with that in the future and make tough choices, but that’s not a bad thing, I don’t think we all have to make tough choices. We do them with our own personal budgets.

01:03:08,070	It’s not a bad thing to do that at our level too. We have to make choices, so I don’t know if that answered your question at all, Ms. Rey or not. Uh, yeah, and I appreciate your honesty in that, and I think that’s exactly what I wanted to, to try to, um, to.

01:03:26,100	To bring up for the public is that, um, we’ve done some amazing things in recent past. We just, you know, we, last year we were celebrating the completion of two new elementary schools. We just this fall expanded on to Lincoln Elementary.

01:03:46,570	We’ve done the CTE project, so we’ve had a lot going on in a short amount of time and, um, to take some heat off of you a little bit. It was the directive of the board in our discussions that really said, um, there’s a lot of, uh, climate isn’t right for, um, for any increases, um, we were also feeling, you know, some com or hearing the comments from the public, um, about this year’s budget.

01:04:05,770	And so, you know, really our conversations as a board was we really need to work to stay within, um, this tax rate and our current mill, um, mill levy.

01:04:27,030	Um, I’m very proud of the work that the board has done since I’ve been on here and previously to me that our mill levy has remained unchanged since 2019. Um, I do just think that it’s important to highlight that. The valuation growth has allowed us then to, um, to soak up some of those expenses that have continued to rise. Um, one of the greatest challenges in putting this budget together is recognizing that 84% of our budget is salaries and benefits.

01:04:52,630	And it’s negotiated on a two-year cycle and like Dr. Fossna alluded to, um, Some of that was mandated by the state. And so I think it’s important for the public to realize that while We did, yes, take advantage of those value valuation growth and the new growth in our community, those are necessary in order to

01:05:15,570	make up for rising costs due to inflation, transportation costs and the salary and benefits that we have. So if my math did me right, um. I mean, our expenses went up about $12 million in our revenue only went up.

01:05:41,200	You know, shy of 13 million, so it is a very lean budget, um, When I looked at the revenue increases in taxes, it was about 4 million and salaries and benefits alone was 7 million. So, I mean, that’s telling us right there that the increase that we did take in from the valuation increases didn’t even make up what we saw in, in, um, the salaries and be benefit.

01:06:03,800	Portion of what our expenditures are. So, Um, agree. It’s, it’s a lean budget, um, and, uh, And, and just necessary in today’s climate to to do that, um, but I think that BPS has a lot to be proud of in what we have invested in, um, just in, in recent, very recent, um, time.

01:06:29,300	Um, Just to circle back on my or circle my comments back together. Um, I was, I was just thinking as an average citizen you mentioned where the, the, um, budget is linked on the website, but in our agenda, I just for future, maybe that, um.

01:06:52,700	The link to our preliminary budget should be attached to the agenda so that those that may be seeking to provide public comment would be able to have easy access to find that information. Um, I personally even just had to go do a little digging today to find it. And so, um, I just think that we should, uh, keep that in mind for the, for the, Public out there.

01:07:11,430	But thank you, um, BPS staff for putting together this budget. I know it’s not probably what a lot of people would have liked to have seen, um, and didn’t get some. Um, wants addressed, but I believe it does address our needs. Thanks, Ms. Preske. All right, well, with that, all uh gen items have been considered. I declare this meeting