00:00:06,370	Share, president of the Bismarck School Board. It’s 5:15 on Monday, September 22nd. I call this meeting to order. Welcome to those of you who are joining us both here and also online you can find our agenda and follow along under the school board tab at BismarcksSchools.org.

00:00:24,530	Uh, item A, roll call Dr Sher, what do you call the roll, please, Mr. Hager, here, Mr. Eastgate, Mr. Lee, Mrs. Peterson, here, Ms. Preskey here. Dr Dr Fossnot, would you lead us in the pledge? and the Republic.

00:01:07,870	for One nation uh individual this is for all Item 1C is BPS mission, vision and values, the BPS mission is to empower every learner to thrive. The BPS vision states together our strong relationships build inclusive, collaborative, and innovative environments that create agency and inspire a passion for learning, excellence, and discovery. BPS values our inclusion, excellence, innovation, leadership. You’ll also find a link in the agenda to the BPS strategic plan.

00:01:30,500	Item 2 is to adopt the agenda or are the wishes of the board. Mister Lee, I move that we adopt the agenda I’ll second. We have a motion in a second. Any discussion? Dr, share a role, please. Eastgate, yes, Lee. Yes, Peterson. Yes.

00:01:52,100	Bresky, Hager, yes Item 3, focus on success, um, kind of a fun topic. AP dual credit updates. Thank you. Good afternoon board members. I’d like to introduce our invite to the podium, uh, Dr Ben Johnson, who will invite his team tonight. We have some representatives not only from BPS, but Bismarck State College.

00:02:13,730	Thank you, uh, President Hagar and Dr Fassnnatt, um, we’re excited to share with you about how Bismarck Public Schools, dual credit program is transforming opportunities for students The promise and the reality of dual credit for us is where a high school student isn’t just preparing for college, but they’re beginning college well in high school.

00:02:34,330	They’re earning genuine college credits before they even graduate high school for students this means saving time and money for families. It means less tuition, a head start on higher education for our community. It means more skilled and confident graduates ready to enter the workforce and succeed beyond that.

00:02:53,070	Today, our team will walk through how dual credit program works at Bismarck Public School s with representatives from Bismarck State College. It’s how we’re structured, the benefits challenges, and how we support students with a real outcomes and faculty and school partnerships, um, as well as considering paths forward and where we might look to um provide a greater access and success for students.

00:03:12,800	I hope you have, um, a deep understanding at the end how this is a powerful catalyst for us to reach that mission and vision of empowering every learner to thrive by providing that educational access and achievement in our district. um, first up will be uh, Mr.

00:03:33,170	Miller Thank you, Dr Johnson, President Hager, members of the board, uh, I get to start off talking a little bit about the history. I think that’s because I got chosen to be old, um, but, uh, honestly, uh, I was a classroom teacher back in the, um, you know, late 90s, early 2000s when some of the dual credit uh conversations started to take place and so I remember

00:03:53,370	sitting around uh uh room up on the BSC campus talking about what is it in the BPS curriculum? What is it in the uh curriculum and some of the offerings at Bismarck State College. And so that’s when we first started to have some of these dual credit discussions.

00:04:07,730	Initially, um, we had just a couple classes that we uh we offered. It was the speech and the college algebra, and then in around 2010, that started to expand.

00:04:30,270	And um while we were expanding that, we then quickly ran into a, um, change in the Higher Learning Commission standards that requires a teacher to have a content major or a master’s degree, and, uh, 18 credits beyond that. And so what we found is we had a number of faculty who had been doing some of the dual credit that we’re no longer able to.

00:04:48,370	Well, in the past few years, uh, we’ve had an increase in the number of teachers that have been able to do that. We’ve also as a district helps support those plans for our teachers to get highly qualified in that area and then have been working with our partnership with ESC to get teachers on some credentialing plans, and they’ve been able to

00:05:04,530	work with a number of our faculty. And as you’ll see on the next slide, it’s resulted in some exponential growth. And so as you can see here, and I said it was in 2010 that we increased it, then we backed off and so our reality pre-pandemic in 2020, 2021, you can see in blue is the number

00:05:25,170	of, uh, dual credit courses that we’re offering and that really attributed to the number of people that we had in our buildings that met the qualification standards under the Higher Learning Commission. and then the number of uh AP offerings uh that we had.

00:05:46,170	And so that’s what it looked like uh pre 2021 and this past or this actual current year, this is what that number looks like. And so, as you can see, the total number of offerings, uh, for both dual credit and AP have increased over that time. And then if you look at the actual enrollment, if we look at uh 2020, 2021.

00:06:06,870	This is the unique number of students and so how many kids are sitting in those seats and uh you can see where it’s at in 2020, 2021, and then where’s sat in 25, 26. And so you, it’s more than 2 times growth, sometimes even approaching 3 times the growth as far as the number of students that are engaging in that.

00:06:27,730	And so the next slide, I’ll turn it over to Karen Erickson, who will talk a little bit about unique students and their enrollment at BSC and how that’s changed over the last 5 years. Um, so my name is Karen Ericson as, uh, Mr.

00:06:46,430	Maddler already said, but I serve as the Dean of Enrollment Management at Bismarck State College and with me I have Ashley Matson, who serves as our advisor for all of our dual credit programs and coordinates the dual credit programs and then I have Dr, uh, Kim Wiseman, who oversees all of our general education and the academic area and works heavily with the faculty that we’re hiring from

00:07:03,470	within the high school. So, um, dual credit, we just really wanted to thank you for having us here today to speak with you about the dual credit program because it’s a program that we really believe it changes lives.

00:07:18,970	At the heart, dual credit is a benefit for one reason and one reason only, and that’s to benefit our students. Du credit is a huge benefit for our students. We offer dual credit to students and our students do win, um, they gain access to college level courses while still in high school they say valuable time, they save money on their path to a degree or

00:07:35,530	even their next career, um, and even more importantly, they, they gain confidence, they gain experience, um, and they, they head toward their they they get a great start on, on meeting their future goals. So this is more than just a program.

00:07:51,700	Doual credit is really an investment and it’s an investment in the students within this area. It’s a great investment within the students at Bismarck Public Schools and so we’re really excited to share with you a little bit about how dual credit is making a difference and why we’re so thankful that that we have this partnership.

00:08:12,330	Hello, my name’s Ashley Mattson, and I serve as the dual credit coordinator and academic advisor for our um BPS dual Cre students. So up on the slide, if you take a look, we do have our BSE dual credit student headcount by the 3 high schools, um, from 2020 up to 2025. So it’s just really exciting to see the jump from 2020 to 2025.

00:08:31,000	Um, showing this means we’re giving these students so many more opportunities to get college classes done while still in high school saving them time and money.

00:08:48,630	So what I do is I help out the students with getting registered in the process for a student to become eligible to take dual credit, they must be a sophomore, junior or senior in high school and have at least a 2.0 GPA. They then enroll into BSC as an early entry student and they get the same benefits as a BSE college student as well.

00:09:05,730	They can attend our, um, sporting events for free, attend our homecoming, um, get a student ID, get the discounts around town, so really treating them as that true college student as well and then we help them with the enrollment process by going into all the schools and helping them enroll in those courses, then I will turn it over to Kim, Dr Kim Wiseman.

00:09:27,100	So on the slide you can see how this this really shows the earned credits that the students are achieving during their time at BPS but also while they’re at school at Bismarck State. And you’ll notice that we saw a significant jump from 2022 to where we currently are now.

00:09:46,900	In some cases, you might notice that there was a small decrease. Part of that is because we are adhering to the Higher Learning Commission’s standards for accreditation. Most instructors at the BPS level are very good about getting qualified to what they need.

00:10:04,970	There’s a few who maybe are during retirement and just didn’t want to spend that extra money, which we can understand. So, ultimately though, we’re still seeing a lot of growth. We’re working with your instructors to make sure that they become our instructors too.

00:10:24,270	And so then they are able to offer the students a variety of different classes and opportunities throughout their, their coursework. And in fact, I just met with one today about how can he get more credentials so he can continue to teach dual credit. So with that, I will hand it over to Mister Phillips. Oh, is it you? Sorry, Mister Westoff, sorry.

00:10:46,170	Good evening, board, and I get the fun slide, um, just to, to show the, the economic impact on our families and I think that’s one of the best things about dual credit is, you know, we’re looking at $89 per credit for students when they take it at the high school level and that 295 is just an average of what it costs at the universities themselves.

00:11:04,170	And so at 295, and so it’s a huge savings for our families. And the other thing this doesn’t account in in the handouts you have BSC put together like when you figure Reuben board into those credits too, um, and if you have kids in college right now, you’re feeling that and so, um, just, just a real service to our to

00:11:18,600	our students and our families, um, and the bank in North Dakota has some scholarships to help with free and reduced, um, so maybe kids where there’s a financial hardship where they’ll step in. But, uh, you know, 1.8 million is what we feel, uh, this, the savings have been for BPS families.

00:11:35,730	Now I think Mr. Phillips is up. way off. Dave said he gets the fun slag. I get the fun slide. Um, my name is Thomas Schmidt principal Legacy High School in Bismarck. So I’d like to, before I talk about success stories, I’d like to make sure we do a special thank you.

00:11:52,800	Um, Dr Wiseman mentioned the credits that teachers need to go ahead and get to be certified and keep their accreditation up. Most of those credits that are teachers are getting are paid for by a total of $2 so there’s huge fear this summer. I’m sure you’ll remember that about losing Title II and Title $4.

00:12:05,070	So a special thank you to the board, Dr Fassna, Mr. Sheer, um, Dr Johnson, Mr. Bernhardt about going ahead and making sure to secure those funds. It’s been a huge get for the district to go ahead and keep those teachers certified.

00:12:18,630	Also, a huge thank you to our teaching staff who have, this hasn’t been forced upon them to teach dual credit. This is something else in addition to what they’re doing and the willingness to step up and provide more opportunities for our kiddos across the district is very commendable.

00:12:33,900	Um, on the board, you see a success story, and there’s many stories similar to this, but this was pretty unique in the opportunity that Kelly Schultz has. Kelly Schultz is a legacy grad of classic 2025. He is currently serving his LDS mission, um, in Brazil, doing a two-year mission. Prior to his leaving for Brazil, he was delayed entry into Purdue University for engineering. because he had his associate’s degree already from BSC.

00:12:53,170	He’ll be able to enter Purdue in 2 years as a junior and being in class with his cohort. So he’ll be not missing any of his schooling. He’ll be right on track for graduation like any other student would be plus he gets to go ahead and and do his mission without having any impact on his academic career.

00:13:07,000	Mr. Phillips now I think is up. Is it Mr. Phillips? This one’s me. Oh, this one, there we go. This is the legacy students from um 2025 spring graduation, and correct me if I’m mistaken this year, but I believe we have, I want to say 13 Ashley, they’re on track.

00:13:28,630	I think we have 13 students this year who are gonna be on track to get their associates prior to the end of the school year. So we’re highlighting uh our work with Bismarck State College and also of note that there’s been some combined work with the University of Mary as well.

00:13:48,630	But when we look at this, one of the programs that we’ve talked about is growing our own teachers. And so, um, we know that many of you are very familiar with our peer to peer program. Um, that is one opportunity to provide students who might be looking into education, but we’re also teaching in education, um, methods courses, um, Mr. Maddler worked with, uh, Mrs.

00:14:08,870	or Dr My, uh, Billy, his wife, and we have intro to nursing courses. Again, those things, uh, intersect with uh Mr. Pat Phillips’ world as well, but we’re looking at opportunities where we can continue to show where students can have that, um, growth opportunity to be able to provide, whether it’s

00:14:26,270	through a local uh college or a local uh private university again, great partners. KidsWin in the end, um, but I’ll pass this on to Mr. Phillips to talk a little bit about another aspect of dual credit.

00:14:51,630	regarding CTE So, uh, lastly, I guess one more opportunity that Bismarck students have is, is the idea of articulation agreements and, um, these are actually uh a really wonderful opportunity for students to take an even deeper dive into a passion or an interest area, um, and get ahead.

00:15:13,000	Um, we currently have articulation agreements with Bismarck State College in graphic design and electronics that allow students to articulate multiple credits and then enter into college uh at a specific level, um saving them time and again, more money, um, even significantly more than simply a dual credit, uh, offering would, um, and the thing that I would really like to call out here is the idea of this boosting not only students, um, engagement with their high school education and moving into post-secondary, but really in postsecondary perseverance

00:15:35,900	and the completion of those degrees which we know is also very important for our learners. So, um, having said that, I hope you can see that together the idea of AP dual credit and articulation can create a comprehensive set of pathways for our students to succeed, um, not only while they’re in high school, but also beyond high

00:15:53,600	school in our K-14, uh, collaborations, um, and with that I believe will stand for questions. board members Mr. Lee, thank you, President Hager. Um, yeah, big fan of the dual credit, uh, big fan of our partnership with with BSC I mean it’s just been so fun to see.

00:16:21,370	It’s kind of interesting because right when BSC came on, uh, as a polytechnic uh institution. Um, we started to expand our CTE and it really wasn’t by well, some of it was by design, but, um, but how they, how they fit together so nicely.

00:16:41,100	So, um, just appreciate all the work, all of you have done, um, and one question I guess I had was on the articulation. It’s probably for, for Pat, um, but is that made possible because of shared facilities or could that be done otherwise? Yeah, I, I think that could probably be done otherwise, but certainly our shared facilities and the proximity of those professors and students and teachers help students to make connections to what they’re going to be doing

00:16:59,870	at BSC and, and probably interests a lot more students than we would have otherwise. OK. Yeah. And that’s one thing that, you know, that’s really been unique about Bismarck Public Schools, and that started a long time ago, right? I think my brother in 1976 was taken welding up at BSC in a

00:17:17,000	shared facility, but, um, something that’s grown organically and I think it’s such a a positive uh um aspect of of how we do CTE that’s quite different than how it’s done around the state. So I don’t want to lose that. Our partnership with BSE is just incredible.

00:17:32,900	Um, I like the exposure our kids get to BSE in the programming there and how much it’s grown and, and how many fantastic things are going on. So, um, yeah, it’s just, it’s just wonderful all around.

00:17:49,470	This is Peterson I am not sure who the best person out of this great crew that I see in front of me, um, would be best served to answer this question, but how are the kids doing? And, and first of all, shout out to the counselors and everybody and you guys for supporting this.

00:18:03,870	Um, I know most of us sitting around here have children who have uh taken advantage of these opportunities and, and I think it’s amazing, but just in general, I mean, those courses have have grown. They’re taking multiple.

00:18:18,730	I, I, I mean, I’m just thinking that just in general, how, how are the kids succeeding at the classes and and um and are they, is it actually kind of lifting their abilities even in other coursework as well, that’s not, not, um, just dual credit. So just general comments. Thanks. So Karen from BSC, we appreciate the question. Thank you. Um, your students, Bismarck Public School students are doing very well.

00:18:35,370	We see an extremely high pass rate from our classes, and it just goes to the preparedness that that these students have when they’re coming in. Also, many of the school counselors recommend students to take the courses based on their ability that they they feel that they would have to succeed, um, and so we see a strong pass rate

00:18:52,900	these courses are, are very difficult and they can be challenging, but students, even if they’re walking away with a C, they’re earning college credit. If they’re walking away with a B, they’re earning college credit, and we have many students that received honor roll degrees or honor roll, um, uh, accolades, um, this past year, and that’s

00:19:13,230	exciting to to see as well. And, and so they do receive the Dean’s list um, early and they can put that on their resumes and we notify those students and so that’s another breaking point, but your pass rates are, are very high when we are looking at the student success.

00:19:29,270	Mr. Eastgate. Yeah, thanks again, everybody on the team. Appreciate all the collaborating to make it all happen. Um, obviously, what jumps off the page in the report is the amazing growth and how many do a credit offering, I mean, at least that’s what jumps off for me.

00:19:45,430	Is that something, is that capped based on offerings at BSC or is it based on teachers at BPS, um, or both, so we offer everything that kids sign up for or we try to, uh, the, the only thing that’s limiting is, you know, we go through, uh, sometimes you’ll have a faculty member that’s retiring.

00:20:06,600	And so that faculty member retires and then all of a sudden we don’t have somebody in the hopper that has that credential. We end up losing that program, you know, um, Dave’s a prime example. He had a science teacher that moved to my building. I didn’t have AP environmental science because I did have a faculty credentials.

00:20:24,730	She comes to my building. I automatically am able to offer it. Dave’s no longer able to offer it. And so those are some of the things that, uh, would be the limiting factor, but we try to offer as many sections as kids sign up for and have interest in.

00:20:43,470	Awesome thank you Miss Presky Yeah, thank you guys for being here. This is just truly a wonderful program. Um, a couple questions. One of the slides had, um it showed a rise in the dual credits, and it was greater than the rise in EP. It was kind of one of the earlier slides.

00:21:08,000	And I guess I’m just kind of curious, um, is that because students recognized I think it may be another one, that one, right there. Um, like they flip flopped in their growth, like, so is that because the students themselves recognize the value and benefit of doing a dual credit over an AP or what would you attribute that to? The, uh, you know, the, the chart looks

00:21:29,970	different, but we’re comparing 13 to 1414 to 15. So it looks kind of skewed. The numbers are relatively constant. The AP offerings that we have, the only ones that we offer are ones that we know will be accepted by most universities for Jaed course requirements, and there’s some other AP

00:21:52,330	offerings that are out there that don’t articulate very well to the collegiate level. So we’ve kind of stayed away from those, um, but, uh, as our dual credit has grown, have we seen, uh, fewer kids taking the AP exam? Yes.

00:22:12,600	Have we seen a decline in enrollment in our AP and that answer would be no cause a lot of our AP classes are now dual credit and so kids will make the choice, do I take the test for $90 or do I guarantee and have a college transcript, uh, that goes into a GPA.

00:22:31,330	uh, which has some, uh, different amounts of leverage depending on what the student’s plans are. uh, and then just a clarification, I think it was said that there’s 13 students on track to get their associate’s degree in, in May.

00:22:51,730	Is that of all the schools then, or? Hi, so that would be for legacy at the moment and so when these students are working on their associate’s degree, they reach out to me typically kind of through their counselor and then I work with them to make sure that they are on track.

00:23:06,530	Usually about their junior years when they reach out to me to just verify that they are indeed on track and making sure they don’t need to take anything additional to meet those requirements. Um, so right now that is legacy. They have a majority of the students that do the associate’s degree um, we have had students from BHS as well. Um, we had one last year that also earned the associate’s degree. So, so then I guess.

00:23:29,000	13 students right now in BPS that are tracking to get their associates. Thanks. Kate. Well, thank you, board members. Thank you all for presenting tonight.

00:23:46,600	This is as, as you can see, it’s an exciting topic for us as well to, to hear you guys talk about it and show kind of the success stories that are going on within this district and continued to expand. So thank you all for, for being here.

00:24:05,900	Thank you Uh, that moves us down to item 4, which is public comment, um, we had public comment, um, at the last meeting, which will take some response to it now, but just, just ahead of that, just a reminder for folks in the room, um, and folks that might be watching online, just kind of reiterate our practices to listen during public comment and, and hear from the folks in the community and then at the following meeting we respond to that public comment if a response is necessary.

00:24:23,970	So that’s, that’s kind of our, our process, um, so with that I guess I’d turn over to Dr F Fassnnott. Yeah, thank you, uh, President Hagar, members of the board.

00:24:41,700	I did have several questions after kind of reviewing the uh comments we had last meeting just went through, kind of found the questions and as you said, President Hayer kind of summarized some what we’re repeating. We had some people who say the same thing, but I just wanted to kind of, uh, do my best to, to provide a response to some of those questions.

00:24:59,730	So, one of the very first questions was, um, what’s the criteria for stops? Concerns with the in town and rural stops, do you have a criteria, and BPS, um, we are revising our criteria for rural stops, particularly. Excuse me using from the base criteria that Transpar gave us during their routing process.

00:25:19,530	Um, we are updating that right now and I’m going to kind of hit the highlights of that to reflect really a lot of the concerns people have brought to us through emails and phone calls and even at the board meeting last time, um, to ensure consistency, transparency, and student safety, and one that Transpar did not have, which you’ll find again in my responses, um, uniquely, um, how you address weather because

00:25:40,370	of weather in the Upper Great Plains. and some of those things, we wanted to make sure we had some specifics dealing with weather and stops that we could pass on to our bus drivers because who’s who’s on the bus when those decisions have to be made a bus driver, so we thought we need to

00:25:55,370	empower bus drivers with good guidance. So, um, the revised criteria that I can tell you we’re working on now, uh, focuses on, um, safety, um, kind of safety first, that is dealing with visibility at the stop, like how many feet of visible roadway do we have on either side of a stop? I can

00:26:12,530	tell you, um, due to apparent concern, um, before school started, we moved to stop because it was kind of between two hills, and it didn’t seem like the best location based on reality, maybe on a map, but it wasn’t in reality. So we’ve, we did some of those modifications.

00:26:32,330	We’re also taking into account roadway conditions, um, hills, bridges, curves, those things, um, lighting if available, and we know that’s a challenge in a rural area, but where we can find ambient lighting, and then where we can find shoulder pull-off areas if we can find something that accommodates that, that would be something we look for. The next criteria is this proximity and accessibility.

00:26:52,470	Um, we are making some revisions due to parent or Patron feedback, um, due to confusion about intersections. We have a lot of intersections. I think I’ve mentioned this that have the same name in two different locations. Um, so we’ve revised and began revising Transpar’s guidance to say, if we can, let’s use a real student’s physical address.

00:27:13,170	If we have a student who’s writing that’s in the center of a congreg congregate group of kids. Well, let’s use that address. Everybody knows that’s, you know, 1111 1st Street. That’s Jeff’s house.

00:27:33,530	We can meet there, right? Um, so that’s preference, but then after that, we kind of work out to another physical address, maybe again, a place that has some of those safe locations and lastly, if we need to go to that intersection, but again, intersections with controlled stops. We’d like those preferable.

00:27:51,630	So we’ve put those into a kind of a ranking criteria of preference, um, in the rural areas, we’ve, um, we begin to mod ify and look at our walking distances. We know in town that walkout’s a half mile. That’s what we’ve used for elementary schools, right? So a half mile walkout, that could be to your school or to your bus stop.

00:28:06,600	We use that same walkout to a bus stop location in the rural areas. We’re looking at revising that target to equal or less than 0.25 of a mile for elementary or 0.35 for secondary, just to make some revisions on that and use that as guidance when our setting stops.

00:28:24,230	And again, we want a cluster stops, um if you look at some of the maps, I know you’ve asked for and I’ve provided, you can see geographic areas with little dots representing kids were trying to cluster those around kids, and I would say that’s why some stops are moving a.m. to p.m., um, 60% of our riders ride both AM and PM. 40% of our riders choose one or the other.

00:28:42,870	Um, so we have AM stops at that cluster of kids, moves compared to Pm stops. So we tried not to make people walk. farther than they have to the cluster of stops moves from a.m. to p.m. Um, we also are looking to operational efficiency.

00:29:04,900	Obviously we want stops that, um, don’t really affect the overall ride time if we can, we want to minimize time on the bus. We want to minimize backtracking. Um, we want to focus routes on right turns. I think you had a parent, um, that spoke a little bit about a, a late bus stop last time.

00:29:17,700	Um, really, when you look at the route, it’s very much like UPS and FedEx. They try to work those around right turns because it’s safer. It’s safer for the bus, it’s safer for the kids to just continually be making right turns in the traffic than to necessarily crossing particular ly double

00:29:35,370	lane highways and, and very busy roads. So, uh, we’re going to try to work on that. And then again, focusing on student density, where are those stops the best, uh, for the kids that are riding. Um, the last three components are win winter weather adjustments, um, we’re already working at and uh some of our transportation team, Mr.

00:29:53,900	Middelstead, is out looking for alternate stops that maybe say, hey, during winter conditions, we need to be prepared to move a stop and then giving um powering our drivers to say you have the authority if winter conditions weren’t, to move a stop, maybe from an intersection that has large

00:30:10,900	amounts of snow in it, you know how that works with the winged out snow. Move that to a residence, move that to where we have a cleaned out driveway and making sure we articulate that with our drivers.

00:30:27,100	And then obviously on the most extreme conditions when Jeff for some reason hasn’t called off school and we have winter weather in our area, um, giving that empowering our drivers, say if you need to slow the route down. if you need to be, take longer time. If you need to make some more stops, that’s OK.

00:30:42,900	We trust our drivers to do that on the fly while they’re driving, and just being really clear that we’re empowering our drivers to make those decisions, um, the second to last one is community coordination. Again, I think we need to continue to work with, um, our families, but then also Burleigh County Sheriff’s Office, Bismarck PD, um, Burleigh County Highway Transportation, just to say, you know, what are the accessible roads, um, which

00:31:03,970	ones are, do you believe, have safety concerns and, and have an open line of communication with them. And then lastly, you review and adjustment. I can tell you we’re reassessing stops, have been for the last 5 weeks. We’ll continue to do that.

00:31:20,470	Um, if we have incidents on routes or in locations just like we do in town already. If we have a preponderance of accents at any one location, we would begin to question, are we there? Are we causing it? Should we not be there? Uh, we’ll do that with these stops and then just continue to have a feedback loop, I think, um,

00:31:35,470	you’ll hear a little bit later in the agenda today about the plan forward. It continues to have a uh an openness to our parents about how we do that. So that was kind of six key components to a criteria for stop locations.

00:31:52,070	Any questions on that one before I go to the next one? OK. Another question we had is, what are we doing for safety and how are we fixing it? Again, as I just said, we’ve adjusted and added stops where those things, uh, concern.

00:32:12,630	Transpar is coming back in October to reevaluate and reassess our routes as they sit now to provide us um some update on what they think any uh new adjustments should be, and so we’re looking forward to that, um, as we just talked about, the updated stop criteria, which we’ve been working on and then again, I’m asking families to help. I mean, um, I used to live in Ellendale.

00:32:29,370	I live by a fire hydrant on my corner, and to some degree I took that neighborhood responsibility to clean my fire plug out during the winter, right? Um, in Mandan, I lived right by the communal mailbox, and it was an assumed responsibility of my address to keep that mailbox clean, um,

00:32:49,700	and so everybody could get their mail, and I would ask kindly to our parents and our community that there’s some of that too with stops. We know where kids congregate in town or out, um, just like we do with our fire hydrants, just like we do with our mailboxes.

00:33:08,170	If we know this is a congregationary congregating area uh for our kids. that becomes a little bit of a community norm too. How do we do that in neighborhoods to take care of our kids in our neighborhoods and provide a little safer location for them to gather before and after school.

00:33:24,170	Um Next question, are we going to take accountability for school accidents, or if an accident occurs, I think, uh, I know student safety is our highest priority. Um I, I would say I have that concern in many areas, not just transportation. It doesn’t matter the safety and security of the doors of our schools.

00:33:44,100	It doesn’t matter if it’s, uh, strangers and people coming in our building, uh, I get to meet all the sex offenders before they get access to our schools. It’s many different ways that we have to ensure safety of our kids.

00:34:00,530	This is just one more, and I think by being proactive when we’re answering people’s questions, addressing concerns, we are being proactive to ensure student safety Um the question was, why not test the changes in one feeder, um, you kind of heard we’ve even dual credit and AP, those started in one school, right? They started in a small version, then they built out to what they are today.

00:34:21,430	Uh, we see that many things, um, I would tell you that transportation system is much new too interconnected with assets coming across the town that they don’t just work in the Century feeder. They don’t just work in the legacy feeder.

00:34:40,070	They’re crossing those feeders to provide an efficient and reliable service, um, to do that in one location last year, let’s say spring of last year and say we’re going to just change the, the legacy feeders start time to a try at two tier, um, would have been very confusing and disruptive, so we did not entertain that idea.

00:34:54,370	Um, I respect the idea of trying a test in other ways, but in this one, that was much too complex to try. Um, so we went with the idea like we’re just going to inform people for a good year before we make that move and hopefully people can ask questions and adapt.

00:35:13,100	Um, why haven’t we talked about, a question was asked about reaching out to law enforcement and public works. We have a good um partnership with them. Um, could we have engaged them more, maybe. I don’t know what they would have offered, but we continue to engage with them now.

00:35:27,700	Um, we do continue to talk to him and how can we better improve our system? Um the question was asked about what about changing Bell time back to 8:30. Would we do that? Um, I think just to be real transparency, we’re gonna review attendances, tardies, community and staff feedback before making a recommendation later for 2627, I would tell you there is thousands, there was thousands of hours of

00:35:52,730	planning to change the time to what we are now. Um, every, there wasn’t an employee division, department, um, there wasn’t a system really in the district that wasn’t really affected by the time change. It’s a it’s amazing how much it affects, um, changing at mid-year is not possible. It just, it’s too many widgets.

00:36:11,370	There’s too many moving gears in that clock to make that change. That being said, I think, uh, I’ll be going into next year. We need to look at that.

00:36:27,070	And if we’re going to bring forth a recommendation to alter it, um, even 10 minutes, 15 minutes, um, we’ll bring that back to you mid y ear so we can plan for next year. Um, the question was about academic performance, like, are we going to look at academic performance. I would challenge that and Ms. Peterson hasn’t given me my data yet from DPI yet, so, um, uh, for our, our spring test, but it’s coming.

00:36:43,470	I would, I would be hesitant to do that, at least with the state test, because I think the state test is one snap of time. It’s that one week our kids take our test, and, um, there’s many variables that I think we could attribute to a gain or a decline in that

00:36:58,530	test, besides just the bell time. So I’d, I would caution that one, but it’s something we always look at. I think you guys look at test data all the time.

00:37:10,170	You see all those reports that come to you, um, and you get to see it, and I think that’s just part of the equation. Um, if we do move time, I will say, um, looking at it and we’ll ask Transpar in October, but I think, um if we move time, then we have to be ready to, the whole system to adjust a little bit.

00:37:24,470	The whole system will probably move, and we have to be OK with that. And then the last question was how can we put 7 and 8 year olds on winner, uh, roads in the wintertime, and again, I hope um neighborhoods help each other out.

00:37:40,630	Um, the walking distances on, you know, can help with the stops in rural areas. So they have very limited exposure, and I’m very happy to say that as of last week, I think all of you, if your parents, got a message that our stopFfinder app is kind of back up and operational. Um, we sent out instructions on that last week to parents.

00:37:58,170	so they could be ready, and then the invitation, new invitation should be going out to all parents this week. I think that will improve a lot when you’re in rural or town to say, OK, I know when the bus is coming. I know when to send Junior outside. It’s not gonna be a long wait.

00:38:13,600	They’re gonna, if it takes them 2 minutes, I know they’re gonna be there right when the bus gets there. So I think that’s an improvement that we’ve been waiting to get, uh, finalized. So, um, I would stand for any other questions you have before you open up public comment.

00:38:31,170	With an open it up to board members if you have any comments you would like to share. Mr. Eastgate Thank you, President Hager, and thank you, Dr Fossnott for, um, for you and your team for putting together answers and response to the public. We certainly appreciate it.

00:38:46,870	And for folks, you know, just kind of just some reminders that President Hager brought up as well when we do public comment, um, for us to be in a, you know, we’re in a listening posture.

00:38:57,800	We are taking notes, we’re jotting it down and we know Dr Fasnant’s doing that as well so we can come back, um, following that, I just wanted to, I did have a few comments from last time. Um, first off, just thanking the parents, individuals, the guardians who took time to come to our meeting to share their experience and concerns with us.

00:39:09,170	I think we’re all open, uh, to all the feedback that we get good, bad, or otherwise. Um, also I know we as board members, we take commentary, um, that’s not during public comment, and you know, it’s not just here where we, we hear what’s going on in the district and how it’s going for parents.

00:39:23,000	Um, we hear it when we’re out at the grocery store on our phone calls, and there’s a lot of, and we, I asked for that, you know, um, when I have personal friends that call and we talk about something else, and by the way, Dan, if I could, you know, since I have your ear for just a minute on something I

00:39:33,100	want to talk to you about bell times or whatever. And I’m like, no, please, I want to hear how it’s going for you and your family. I wanna hear real life stories.

00:39:42,900	Um, sometimes just the nature of our meetings though, you know, the BPS, it’s the BPS business meeting and so it can appear a little bit, I think, to sometimes people that are even watching online or maybe here oppositional um from community members to the board. I just want to remind people again that we’re listening, uh, we’re taking notes, uh, that this is a, it’s a we thing.

00:39:57,170	It’s a we is the district thing, not the board versus people’s comments on it. If things aren’t going well, we want to make improvements. I think we all, you know, can nod our heads and agree on that. Um, we’re trying to serve in the best way we can for our students and for our families.

00:40:10,530	Uh, the transportation belt times are ones that we all share. We all have kids in the district. It’s a we issue, as I said, you know, when our board has to make some tough decisions and sometimes uh underneath recommendations from the district and, uh, as even some community members pointed

00:40:23,730	out last week, you know, Dr Fossnt really did a great job. He’s who we asked to be the head of our operations, and he’s not afraid to take responsibility when something things didn’t come out as, as great as we wanted at the beginning of the year, um, but I’ll say at least speaking from

00:40:36,800	my chair, you know, that we’re in step with him and that we know that we’re working as a district to do better. um so with that is that the last meeting we agree that we’re hoping for better results and we do continue to monitor how those operations are going, as you’re hearing.

00:40:51,100	Uh, just lastly, safety’s important, getting kids, this all goes without saying, I hope, but I think it’s important that board members still say it on the microphone at times that safety is important getting kids to school and back home timely is important, alleviating behavior issues after school is important. Thank you to our educators for that.

00:41:06,730	Um, and in a district our size, it’s hard to say that our system is just going to be perfect for every single household out there, but we’re certainly doing our best. We want it to be as good as it can be for every household.

00:41:17,470	So we want to continue to hear from parents on issues that come up, whether it be bell time or transportation or whatever else is going on in our schools. Um, we can all work towards better results for our students and families, and I think that’s what we’re committed to serving on the board and for our staff in the district. So.

00:41:29,700	with that, thank you, President Hagar and for our community members for their public comment. Well said, Mr. Eastgate, uh, Miss Preskey. Yeah, thank you. Uh, echo a lot of what, um, Mr. Eastgate said in his statement as well, um, I, I mean, last week was difficult to hear a lot of the concerns and not respond.

00:41:50,530	And I think that is, you know, it’s a policy that we as a board have to take and listen, um, and in no way do I, I think the public should take that as that we are not caring because this is an issue that I think we all care about. Um.

00:42:10,600	again, student safety is number one. and it starts from the moment that they are, are out at that bus stop or walking to that bus stop. So, um, it is a high priority for us.

00:42:29,370	Um, I, I used to live in a rural area, and I think too about what would, what would that walkout, um, to an, a neighborhood stop look like for my daughter when she was, um, a kindergartner, if, if this was in place. And so I get the concerns It’s, it is a very personal and passionate issue. And so those that brought forward their concerns have, have the right to do so.

00:42:52,270	Um, I’ve also been frustrated with how this program has rolled out, but yet we as a board set a lot of trust in our administration, um, not trying to meddle or micromanage, we say yes, let’s move forward with a different plan.

00:43:14,170	We knew that it was necessary to move forward with something else and something different, and we put our trust in administration and how it’s going to be operated. Um, and I think that’s important for the public to know as well that we are not knowing every single detail of how a plan is going to be rolled out.

00:43:33,900	Um, a lot of lessons learned from this, from, uh from the beginning, and yes, there could have been better communication with parents. There could have been a better rollout of the program. There could have been more eyes ontops in the rural areas.

00:43:55,170	Um, but again, change was necessary, and so I guess we’re not perfect those that are put in place to make a complete change in a program aren’t perfect. And so, um, I just hope the community can have some grace with us in this, and I appreciate the, um, revisions that have been made and the continuing assessment of it, um,

00:44:15,530	it, it’s gonna take a little bit of time and hopefully some of the bumps can get worked out before. bad weather comes in, which is hard to imagine. We’re sitting here with a beautiful fall day in North Dakota.

00:44:37,430	Um I think it’s important to note that transportation putting your kid on a bus, that’s a, that’s a choice. And I’m not trying to sound insensitive here, but it’s a choice. We, there are other options of getting your child to school. Um, and it’s, it’s a perk that some districts don’t offer.

00:44:56,630	Um, and as we continually look at our budget, um, and what that 3% cap on taxation means there, there may be a time where we have to really, really even dial it down further. And, um, look at other options for it. So, um, I just think that that’s also really important to emphasize, um. I also just want to. address the tone.

00:45:19,700	Um, it really bothered me last week that, you know, we as a board have set a dignity index and um we did that together, recognizing and hearing, um, a speaker talk about it and saying that it was a really good way to put a measurement on, um, respect for each other, um, the public’s respect for

00:45:42,700	what we’re doing, for how we respect the public that comes to talk and visit with us, um, and I just want to remind everybody that that that dignity index was put in place, adopted by our board for a reason. Um, that we all need to have respect for each other.

00:46:01,270	And, um comments like if a child gets injured, it’s on you and can you accept that? I think we’re so inappropriate, um, none of us want none of us want a child to be injured or anything else of a more dramatic, uh.

00:46:28,600	result, um and we all care about the kids, and that’s why we’re right here today, um, sitting at this table, um, and so I just want to remind people that we do have the best interests, interests of all of our students in mind, um, and that respect it’s a big thing, um, but we can all work together on all these issues in both ways, uh, but we need to be

00:46:51,470	respectful of of. of each other Thank you uh, Ms. Peterson Thanks President Hanger, and I’m gonna only speak for because I just think that both of you, um, you know, board member Eastgate and board member Pressy said it so well and and touched on so many of the different things that I

00:47:10,630	think we were all thinking and feeling. And the only thing that I would add is some of the comments that made it seem as if the decision is already made or before we engage in public comment or any of those.

00:47:27,270	I just hopefully you just really want to emphasize that that is not true, that I’ve really appreciated, um, some, you know, last year, the stake h old er consultation. Yes, there were, there was recognition that changes need to be made, but what those changes actually look like, I don’t think any, any of us certainly um are experts in this area, so we leaned into not only expertise,

00:47:42,730	but then also listen to the community comments and I think when you look at the survey information, and I know there were a lot of different comments about that, and it, it really is often, as is a lot of situations when there’s like, um, you know, it’s a, it’s a 50/50 split.

00:47:58,170	So sometimes you have to make really difficult decisions that are gonna, you know, maybe benefit some families and not benefit others or benefit some grade levels or or not others, and so I just really appreciate the opportunity. I think this year to continue to engage with stakeholders through the different um structures that we have in place um to listen.

00:48:15,900	I think even the public comment plus the, the continued operations, uh, teams, and then also just the the feedback we’ve been hearing throughout and then you know, not only just in the public meeting last time, but we ’ ve got lots of different calls and made a lot of different adjustments, um,

00:48:32,900	and I, and I, I hope that, I mean, that the public recognizes that we’re going to be taking those in to consideration along with budget impacts, along with, you know, what it looks like in terms of um workforce and um just there’s just a host of things that go into this decision and

00:48:50,470	so to, to assume, I mean, I can tell all of you listening right now, I haven’t made a decision. There’s been times um where just like, you know, Miss Presky said is we’ve we’ve gotten to that place where we, it’s a perk and this might be something not not worth the

00:49:04,970	logistical hassle, and then other times where as an educator myself, knowing um that if you take something like transportation away, you end up really um diving into the absenteeism issue and all of the people and families who rely on it, um, struggle to get their kids to where they need

00:49:23,330	to go. So, so I’m torn, so to make it, uh, make an assumption that I’ve made in a decision that I don’t even know. myself, I think I just wanted to express that I’m eager to continue to hear the feedback and um look forward to the recommendations, um, brought forth by people that I said

00:49:41,170	like I much more expertise, um, than I have, and, and I just uh I really appreciate the opportunity for the district to have responded, really make some immediate changes and then also kind of create their to do list for what needs to be done in a rollout.

00:49:58,730	In school, and education, we get a calendar year and you don’t get to redo. You can’t go back. I mean, we can’t go back to August and say, oh, can we, that didn’t roll out. Oh, the app didn’t work. Let’s start over. The, the, the kids are coming.

00:50:12,630	So you only get to redo the next year and by this time there’ll be other changes and so I just appreciate what we did to recognize the issues, band together for for changes, the the entire district. Um, I really, um, went into kind of, uh, I don’t want to say crisis mode, but, but really went in to answer um community feedback and then have presented continued um recommendations.

00:50:32,500	So I, I just appreciate the public’s response and the district’s response and then just know we’re still making decisions so that’s a, it’s an ongoing process. So thanks for everybody, and thanks for your guys’s comments because I think you guys said it really well. Thanks. Mr. Lee.

00:50:50,630	Thank you, President Hager, and yeah, thank you to my fellow board members. I think it’s good for us, uh, on these bigger issues to, um, share with the public our thoughts and come from the heart. I think what we saw tonight from the superintendent was great.

00:51:10,370	This is just a, just a very small part of the work that’s already been done, and, um, it’s an incredible lift. So when you have a really big changes, um when big changes are made, like we just made, uh, challenges are inevitable, and nothing is ever perfect. It’s certainly never perfect for each individual or individual family family.

00:51:35,370	So you’re looking at it holistically, but this year’s, this year’s bussing, uh, coupled with bell time changes, did create an especially uh difficult situation for many of our families, um leaving them scrambling at the last minute and, and for that, I wanna, I just wanna say I sincerely apologize, um, it’s not how I envisioned it rolling out.

00:51:54,170	It’s not how any of us envisioned it rolling out. Um, uh, as board member Peterson pointed out, it’s, it’s in the past we can only look to go forward and, and, and get better, but I am especially concerned about reports from rural areas where, where students lack sidewalks or or street lights and safety must come first.

00:52:13,900	And I think that was reiterated tonight. I it’s on the forefront of all of our, our minds. Uh, I feel we can’t treat, uh, door to door service as a mere budget line item as, uh, if it compromises student safety.

00:52:29,000	So we, we, we have to really weigh those things and, and make sure, you know, we have our, our ducks in a row and that we, we feel good about the plans we make. Um, um, I trust our administration, uh, I trust them to continue working with families and to review routes, um. here’s what I would say.

00:52:46,630	I trust them to review routes using common sense, not dollars and cents as their guide right now. Um, making whatever adjustments are needed to prioritize safety. When it comes to budgeting, we can always find cuts in other areas that do not directly affect students in classrooms.

00:53:07,370	Um, every issue that I’ve personally heard uh involves rural routes, uh, which is where the lack of infrastructure can can make walking unsafe and those, uh, particular areas should be our top priority. Um, I don’t think our budget restricts us from getting those routes right.

00:53:28,700	I don’t, um, but there’s an urgency to fix this now before the weather turns and and fix things this year, uh, so we get a clear picture of what safe, effective bussing actually costs, um, because I do think there’s an increased cost to doing things the right way.

00:53:44,100	But only then can we make sound decisions about future budgets using accurate numbers rather than projections based on what could potentially be seen as a broken system. Um I believe based on communication to the board, and you’ve seen a lot of that communication tonight, uh, that we’re headed in the right direction. No doubt in my mind Um, all I would say is, you know, as a board, as a, as a district, let’s, let’s get it right.

00:54:03,330	Prioritize safety, focus on the real costs, and build future budgeting plans on solid data. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lee. Thank you, board members and Dr Fasnot, um, all of you for your comments. With kind of reiterating everything else that’s already kind of been said here, um.

00:54:22,530	you know, it, it was a big change when we start talking about bell times and bussings and financial impacts that that was having on our district. I think Mr. Lee summarized it very nicely. in saying that you were not going to prioritize the financial aspect, the budgeting aspect over safety.

00:54:46,530	Safety is, is a concern as a rural resident I don’t have street lights I, I can relate to what those families are feeling when they’re out there and you’re sending out my case, my youngest being a 4th grader. If he was riding the bus, I can’t, I can’t imagine what it’d be like for him to.

00:55:02,000	you know, stand on the side of the street and, and I can understand the passion, the concern that, that parents have. Um with that, I, I appreciate Dr Fossnott.

00:55:24,530	You, your focus on safety, um, continuing to try to get this right I mean, we all, we all agree, we, we heard it here that the rollout wasn’t what any of us would have liked to see. So again to the community, we apologize for that. um. But now as we move forward, continuing to evaluate what we’re doing. the process we’re seeing, the routes we’re seeing, and, and I know are uh administration is doing that. We’re trying to get it right. Safety being the number one.

00:55:48,000	concern. um so with that I’ll move into the public comment portion of our meeting. Uh, the board recognizes the central role parents play in the education of their children and supports active parent involvement in the education process. The board’s practice of public comment reflects and aligns with policy BCBA in the spirit of its intent.

00:56:14,070	for classroom issues, it’s best to follow the chain of command. Teacher, principal, assistant superintendent, superintendent. for district issues, please reach out to Dr Fossnnott. If you do 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.

00:56:36,530	Groups are urged to select one spokespersonman, individuals will be limited to no more than 4 minutes and will be notified with 30 seconds remaining to conclude the remarks. The board will not debate issues as presented.

00:56:53,630	but we’ll take the matters under advisement With that please stand and approach the prodium if you do wish to speak tonight. Kate, seeing no one, public comment is closed. Uh, item 5 under monitoring district operations OE 5 Financial planning. Dr Cher Good evening, President Hager, members of the board. Uh, tonight in front of you have OE 5, Fan planning, um, pleased to announce that, uh, all indicators are in compliance.

00:57:32,700	Uh, I’ll just summarize, uh, a few things for the board and the public’s uh consideration, uh, financial planning is a key is key to maintaining and improving any business BPS uses the following items to improve financial planning and transparency. We use monthly financial analytics we do financial forecasts twice a year.

00:57:57,330	We do monthly and annual reports for transparency parency for both the board and the public. We do on-time reporting for buildings and departments. We do a long range financial plan, um, and then we also, uh, in, we’re into a couple years of a budget variance and budget impact reporting for the board.

00:58:18,470	Budget documents are designed to be understandable and to provide assumptions used in creating the budget for the district. BPS conducts an annual budget workshop to address any questions, concerns, or comments the board may have concerning the budget.

00:58:36,100	The budget balances revenues, expenditures to adequately operate the district Uh, employees were compensated at a fair rate that the budget supports. The only one thing I would add to that is, um, I’m not sure this year’s the right year with everything we have going on, but with an updated strategic plan, it might be time to look at our long-range financial plan, like a refresh of that, um, so that would be something that probably the um

00:58:56,370	operational excellence committee can work on maybe next year. I would, uh, with that, I would take any questions on any of the indicators that the board might have. board members questions Not seenan Dr Cha, thank you. Thank you. Uh, with that, I would, uh, entertain emotion. Miss Peterson I move to find OE 5 financial financial plan.

00:59:28,470	planning as in compliant. We have a motion and a second board members, any, any discussion? Uh, Singan, Dr Sheridge Calol. Lee Peterson, Preskey, he skate? Yes. Hager? Yes. Uh, item B GC3 4 job description.

00:59:58,870	So this will be, uh, our public reading of the board job description Uh, 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 of operational performance and monitoring actual performance based on those expectations. The board will, one, ensure that the results are the dominant focus of the district’s performance.

01:00:22,800	2 advocate for district and the students it serves. 3. initiate and maintain effective communication with citizens and other important stakeholders, groups as a means to engage them in work of the board and the district. 4. develop written governing policies that address a results the intended outcomes for for the students served by the district. B.

01:00:49,100	Operational expectations, statements of the board’s values about operational matters delegated to the superintendent, including both actions to be accomplished and those prohibited. C. governance culture definition of the board’s own work, the process it will employ, and the conditions within it within which it will accomplish that work. Board Superintendent relationship.

01:01:16,270	The role, relationship of the superintendent and the board, including the specified authority of the superintendent and the process for monitoring monitoring district and superintendent performance. 5. Ensure acceptable superintendent performance through effective monitoring of results and operational expectations policies.

01:01:50,500	6, ensure acceptable board performance through effective evaluation of board actions and processes and 7 appoint an independent auditor to conduct an annual external review of the district’s financial condition and report directly to the board. That will conclude the reading of we got here GC 3 board job description. I’d move that we retain GC3 board job description. We have a motion. Second. motion and a 22nd. You can pick Dr Sher, Mr.

01:02:19,430	Lee, and myself, but any further discussion Dr Scher, could you call the roll, please? Peterson, Preskey, Eastgate, Lee Hager, yes. And how do we find ourselves with that? I would, I would move that we find ourselves in compliance with GC3 board job description. Second, we have a motion and a second any further discussion.

01:02:47,600	uh, seen on Mr. Sher.. Pressy, Eastgate, yes. Lee, Peterson, Hanger. Yes. uh item 6. Matters reserved for board action. uh OE4, Personal administration. revisions. Dr Foss, um, yes, thank you, um President Hager. This request to make a revision to e4 was really brought to me by you.

01:03:18,530	It was brought to a string or to me during our summer retreat. Um, I wanna just express to you my gratitude, um, to the board for your thoughtful concern and discussion about why this needed some revision in your mind and then allowing myself and my team to, to craft some, um, modification that’s what I’m presenting to you tonight,

01:03:36,800	and, uh, um, so you can consider it. So thank you for that. Um, what you have in front of you tonight is 4 different documents that are all attached at the top, um, in your agenda.

01:03:58,600	The first one is a redline version of OE4 uh personnel administration with the addition of item 12 at the bottom, OK? So we, um, that kind of is in the superintendent Shall portion of this policy, and that was to prevent actual potential or perceived conflicts of interest involving district employees by requiring disclosure, appropriate recrucrusal, sorry, and documented mitigation prohibiting use of position or confidential information for private gain and maintaining records necessary to

01:04:26,900	demonstrate compliance. You have that in, in essence, red line, blue line for you for the addition, then your second document is actually the final with it revised and just total black lines so you can see what the final, if it would get through two readings, um, after next month uh what it would

01:04:44,100	look like. Then you also have uh, with you is a revised OE4 with the policy and the expectations, and that’s probably where, uh, you might say the rubber meets the road. It’s really showing you what we’re going to do to meet that policy, that expectation.

01:05:05,870	Um, so, um, you have a revision on page one, adding part 12, as we just talked about. And then if you go to the absolute final page of those expectations, what you have is a new OE 4.12.

01:05:28,330	You have my interpretation, which BPS will prevent actual potential and perceived conflicts of interest by um requiring timely disclosure of outside employment, financial interests, and close relationships that could reasonably affect impartiality, and then I do provide just a quick, um, definition of conflict of interest and really the indicators which I’m offering to you to see if you would, uh, like those or provide revisions is indicator one is we would ensure that 1% of designated employee s and we

01:05:48,530	are designated those as managers, directors, principals, and coordinators submit a conflict of interest to closure, disclosure by October 1st annually. We’ve picked those out. We’re, we’re already doing somewhat of a disclosure, um, asking people to um assert any conflicts and to make them aware.

01:06:12,000	We have done that to these four groups, um, because they have, um, control over district funds. So you might have a teacher in a building, but they can’t spend district funds without a principal approving it. So the principle is really the controller of the funding.

01:06:34,000	That’s why we’re saying not teachers, but principals have to do the conflict of interest, um, similar to an athletic director would have control over funds myself. or a coordinator, um, and LDI coordinator per se has control of district funds while the people within that department can request funds, can ask to spend funds, but they can’t do it directly, OK? So that’s the rationale for indicator one.

01:06:56,370	Indicator 2, 100% of those, um, conflict of interest disclosures are reviewed and mitigation plans are on file when necessary by November 1st annually, I would tell you that to some degree we’re, I wouldn’t say to some degree, we are doing that now. to a smaller subset of people, so if we expand this subset, we’d continue to do that.

01:07:14,530	That is done by, um, myself and Dr Scher, mostly Dr Scherr, but when needed, he, him and I do that collaboratively. And then lastly, indicator 3. So all people are aware of conflict of interest because we do think there are times where even teachers or coaches or others could be using a business at their affiliated with or aware

01:07:33,800	of, maybe, um, we would require annual notification on conflict ventures and how to avoid it is provided to all employees through training, uh, as we roll back into the school year every year we do that extensive kind of you, you review and sign off on policy.

01:07:52,600	This would just be one more of those things we’d ask, um, our employees to all be aware of is to make sure they’re watching for and mitigating conflict of interest. That was the revised change, aside from moving, um, the old 412 to now 413. Thank you, Dr Fossett Board members, any comments, Miss.

01:08:12,170	Peterson? Dr Frostno, can I just, um, ask one question? And I think I know the answer, but I, um, maybe we could clarify for the public, but I know that the board and yourself and Dr Cher all have conflicts of interest policy as well, and we just

01:08:25,970	revised that, you know, kind of post audit. Where do we find is that in our board governance policy that because that would be dictated in another area than this, correct? Um, we have added that, yes, it’s from our last audit that would have been 2 years ago. I’m gonna get the date wrong.

01:08:41,100	I’m not gonna look around. Yeah, that we had that feedback from the state auditor’s office, and then we did implement a conflict ventures procedure that we just put it in place that I’m aware of. I don’t recall that we put it in policy. We put it in, did we? I don’t think we did It’s just in handbooks.

01:08:58,230	It’s just in her handbook. OK. So, it’s just in our administrative handbook that we’re gonna implement that practice in compliance with what the auditor requested. This kind of this really firms it up even more and expands the groups that we are looking at asking for that, um.

01:09:20,000	disclosure to be announced and then also requiring a training that we don’t do for all staff now. So indicator 3 really reaches all staff that we don’t address now.

01:09:33,270	Yeah, no, I really, I think that this does a really good job and just wanted to kind of make sure that we also then have to fill out a conflict of interest and yourself, so I just didn’t want it to seem like we’re being excluded from this policy because we also have to dictate that. So, no, I really appreciate these changes. Thank you. Mr. Lee. Thank you, President Hager. Um I’m clear, there’s no, um changes or new administrative policy that goes along with this 412 interpretation and indicators.

01:09:58,430	This is pretty much it. Uh, yeah, um, board member Lee, I didn’t change the administrative rules now. Now, if you adopt this and they need some revision, I could go there and revise those. I can revise those quickly, but, um, administratively, I think those echo the similar things. They’re saying the same thing except for the training part.

01:10:18,270	The training part is new in this compared to what is in the administrative manual. So when you, when you speak of reviewing and there could potentially be a lot of these, um, you said it would be you and Mr. Cher that would review them, right? Yep.

01:10:34,730	Is there any mechanism where the board would be um allowed to review or brought in on a review. Um, I hadn’t considered that. I think if there was ones, if you wanted to see the ones that we thought there was a conflict, maybe we could tighten up that so you didn’t have hundreds of

01:10:48,170	them. You could have, you know, the ones that we say, here are some that you should be aware of that were a potential conflict of interest. We’ve had to mitigate. I don’t, I don’t know.

01:11:01,900	I don’t, I think if you wanted to see them, they’re probably also a public record, so it’s not like they’re private. Right. OK. Um, I’m just thinking as we, as we had talked through this over the years, you know, there would, there should be a point where the board is notified, um, uh, maybe it’s at a higher level and administrator or something that there’s a potential conflict here, and it might not

01:11:19,530	be a problem, but it’s something that the board should know about. Yep. So, they’re not, uh, caught off guard to. That would be my only concern, I guess OK Thank you, Mr.

01:11:41,630	Lee If you wish, I would be glad to not working lunch or working meeting, you might say, work with Mister Sher to see if there’s something. I don’t, honestly, I don’t know if that was how many we reviewed this year.

01:11:58,600	Again, how many he had to mitigate actually required a mitigation, but, um, we could look at that and see if there’s a summary document we could provide the board, maybe even part of, um, OE4 reporting that we could provide you a summary document of that. I, I think anything like that would, would be good. It’s, um, as you pointed out, it’s, um, uh most likely anything you’re, you’re reviewing is a public document anyway. Right. So, so the more the board’s informed on those situations, I think the better.

01:12:19,330	Thank you, Mr. Lee So with that, do we need a, a motion or we do the motion when we come back next. Do you need a motion that you just had first reading. OK. So, I’d look for a, a motion.

01:12:54,600	All right, I will move to approve the revised Coherent governance Operational expectations Policy OE4 Personnel administration, and the revised Supporting Indicators as presented for first reading. We have a motion to second any further discussion. Seeing none Dr share. Eastgate? Yes. Lee. Yes. Peterson. Yes. Presky? Yes. Hager? Yes. Takes us to Bin approval for the fiscal year 26 budget. and certification levy. Um, yeah, you’re at that point.

01:13:26,100	Um, board members, you’ve been working on this since spring. It takes a while to get a budget built, but, um, please remember that, and then, um, just for the sake of the audience, um, you receive public comment at the last meeting on September 8th and took that into account as we’ve

01:13:41,530	made final revisions to the budget and tonight before you what you have is you have the, the final budget document, um, which, or Dr Sher and his staff have made. And then you also have a certificate of levy in front of you that are kind of all under this one section.

01:14:00,800	Um, we’re providing the final 25, 26 revenue expenditure budget for you to consider and to approve. I am asking for one motion just on that part of this, um, action, this item in our agenda, and just for the sake of those listening, our expenditure budget for this, um, this year is $221,36,605.

01:14:24,430	And then the other half of the work in this item is then after your action on the budget, I would ask the board to consider a motion approving the 2526 certificate of levy and that uh resolution is included in that document. Thank you, Dr Fausner Uh, board members Mr. Eastgate Yeah, thanks, President Hager.

01:14:44,330	Um, as Dr Fasan said, this is something that we’ve been working on a very long time. Well, we had it put in front of us at a, at a budget or at a workshop, um, and we had a chance to, to hear from the public at the last meetings with that, um, unless there’s other discussion which can come on, but we could, uh, I’ll make

01:14:56,800	a motion to approve the 2526 budget. We have a motion, Mr. Lee. I’ll make a second with comment. I was OK till you said the number. Um, so I, I do think it’s important to recognize we’re not just approving this, this budget because it is a big number, right? I mean, we do look at

01:15:12,870	everything, 85% of the budget is employees. Um, I think it’s important to point out to people that they understand 85% is employees. Those are salaries, those are families. Those are people that buy houses. They, they hire your plumbers and roofers, and that that money gets recirculated in, in, uh, in and around Bismarck.

01:15:34,270	So although it’s a big number when we look at, um, our employees we’re, we’re more than um proud of, of our employees and that we, uh, we pay them fair. I’ve always said I’m not going to say we, uh, we overpay them.

01:15:48,630	I’m not going to say we underpay them, so my. my term is fair. I know there’s always room for improvement, but, um, we’ve got a great system, but um, yeah, a lot of work has gone into this budget.

01:16:03,700	This is much improved over the last few years, the first few years I was on, um, we work on this a lot longer and see numbers a lot sooner. I’m very happy with the, the way, um that we get our numbers, how, how soon we get them, uh, I can’t say enough about Dr Cher and the work he does because

01:16:19,230	it’s a, it’s a, it’s a huge district. It’s a huge lift, and there’s a lot of things to really, um, you know, look through and, and, and figure out together. So, uh, yes, I second that motion. OK, we have a motion in a second.

01:16:38,870	Any further discussion? Miss Preston? Yeah, I just also want to comment on, on the budget as a whole. I think, um, a lot of, a lot of hard work has gone into this, and it’s mainly, you know, we, we as a board have had, you know, in our workshops had conversations about kind of what we want to see the budget?

01:16:53,800	What kind of line, um, we have expectations and then you add into that what the legislature has done with doing a 3% cap on the dollars that are levied.

01:17:13,530	I mean, I can say that you look at the dollar amount that’s brought in because of property tax valuation increases, and, um, I just want to emphasize that a growing community, taxable evaluation increases when you have a growing community. And when you have a growing community, it also takes a lot more services and a lot more dollars to to provide those services to the people who, who want them.

01:17:32,900	um, and we also as a board really recognize that there’s so many more needs out there that, um, that weren’t achieved in this budget, uh, and know that we have, uh, there’s going to be a heavy lift and, and heavy ask of our community of what’s important to them as we move forward after this budget is set. um.

01:17:55,170	yeah thanks thank you, Ms. Presky. Any further discussion, OK, seeing none, Dr Sher. Lee? Yes. Peterson? Yes. Pressy? Yes. Eastgate, yes, Hager, yes. um, certification of levy and I would mention just to add that levy, um, even though your motion is going to ask dollars, cause that’s what you need to do. It does equate, we believe, to 107.

01:18:24,070	19, which has remained constant for the last 7 years, I believe, across, um, BPS. Mr. Lee, Mr. President, I move that we approve the certification of levy as presented. I’ll second. We have a motion in a second. Any, any discussion? Uh, seeing none, is Dr Schr. Peterson, yes. yes. Pressy? Yes. Eastgateate? Yes.

01:18:49,530	Lee, yes, Hager, yes. Item C, uh, both requests for track and field replacement. Dr Fosson. Oh, yeah, this is a unique one. This is coming to you from the bowl Authority and you realizable authority is made up of us to some degree, BPS, um, it’s also inclusive of Bismarck State College, um, you have

01:19:16,800	representation from Bismarck Parks and Reck. You have representation from the University of Mary, all vested partners that have spent years, years, um, maybe longer than I’ve been in the great state of North Dakota, have seen that property and shepherded it through its development and its growth and really became um has I’ve always known it as the

01:19:42,530	shining star of really track and field in this great state of North Dakota. Um, so, um, we as a group meet, um, throughout the year, uh, on occasion and, uh, Mr. Eastgate, Mr.

01:19:59,600	Lee, sit on that um authority for you, um, as members, so does, uh, Dr Scher myself. and I just want to bring forward to you a request from the BO Authority. So collectively with those other representatives and herself, um, we just have come to realization that the ball needs some facility work and the recommendation that the Bu authority has been talking about for well over a year is

01:20:20,870	is this the state of the track, the track condition, and really not just the top layer that people see, OK, is you’re at the game Friday night, you see the top layer, it looks great. It’s really the under um, what’s underneath the track and how that’s uh maintaining.

01:20:35,370	We’ve seen some degradation to that over the last couple of years, particularly this last winter, uh, more than we expected. Um, and so, as we’ve been watching that and knowing the age of the track is really coming to its maturity, really, um, to its full lifespan, um, and just for awareness, the

01:20:55,730	track was built in 1997. and it was resurfaced in 2013 and then um as we talk about the need to do a lift to that track and really bring it up um. replace it, replace not only track surface, but um the asphalt underneath.

01:21:14,970	We’ve also talked about the end of life for the turf itself. So, um, the Bull authority looking at those over the last month is asking you, asking you as a Bismarck school board, um, would you be willing to approve, um, holding the dollars, holding the funds, um bank rolling that project, um.

01:21:39,900	for the Bowl Authority and using some of the, the, the I I wanna say power is the wrong word, but we can move a little faster than higher ed on some of these things, so we can make some of these things work to address the needs of the ball.

01:21:57,000	Would you be willing to, um, do that work and I’ll let um Dr Scher speak to the components that he’s recommending tonight to do that. Um, you have two parts.

01:22:15,630	You have a, um, state aid certificates for indebtedness, in essence carry the debt, but also to look at the school construction loan fund to uh enhancement program to help get some low interest on that. Uh, before I hand it off to Dr Scher, I want maybe the people watching to understand that this project is not born on us. Really, the Bull Authority has the funds to pay for this.

01:22:36,630	They’re 100% from the sale of the um sweets at the bowl from the sale of sweets over the the the duration of this debt and from the sale of, of other fundraising that the Bu Authority does to help keep that that gem of a of a facility in our community running.

01:22:53,870	It’s really about us just carrying the debt for them as they pay us back, um, so they can do the project, uh, this, this next summer. So it’s not BPS dollars per se. It’s bull $30. We’re just helping them carry the debt so they can get the project done. And so I’ll hand it off if that’s OK to Dr Sher to explain the mechanism.

01:23:12,730	Thank you, Dr Fassnnatt. So, essentially what it is is exactly that it’s, it’s, we’re gonna, we’d have to go out for a bond, um, it’s over a million dollars, so it has to be a public bond, which is, I think is a good thing because it’s a public sale that

01:23:24,630	we can then go to the market, um, the Fed’s dropping a 125 point and rumors of uh maybe doing that a couple more times or would be good for this. You could see this would come back for the board’s approval. We’re projecting the end of November.

01:23:42,800	Now, if our financial advisor says uh, we should wait one more month. We can do that. We have, I mean, we have some flexibility with that, but we’d bring it back then for the board approval, either the last meeting in November or we could let that slide a little bit. So that’s the first thing to essentially get the dollars.

01:23:57,170	The second thing is really a, a bond credit enhancement program that should help us with two things. It should help us with those that are looking, um, because it’s backed by the state of North Dakota. Um, and also should help us with the rates also. So it should bring more people in.

01:24:14,430	They want to lend us money, and then it should also help with our rates. So those are the two documents, uh, for consideration in front of you, uh, to move forward, we definitely do need the first one approved. The second one is, is really a uh, a board decision.

01:24:30,370	I would recommend that we do the second one also, but it, uh, we don’t need the second one to move forward. Thank you, Dr Chair 4 members Miss Presky. Uh, so question, does doing this impact our chances of of bonds of the future that we may need Nor are the level that that we can borrow is, I, I can’t remember the exact number, but I want to

01:24:57,900	say about 400 million, unless you’re, you want to do 402 million But I, I just don’t, our needs just aren’t that. We, we’re would be way, way under that. So our, our borrowing capacity, what I’m trying to say is our borrowing capacity is way more than we’d ever need in our district.

01:25:18,070	Thank you, Dr Sher Just one clarifying, I had to read this several times to understand, and I’ve read that line Repayment will not be, you know, will be made by the bowl authorities so thanks for providing that that context. What you talked about the timing of, of our approval.

01:25:37,530	What would be the timing of this entire project? It’s a great question. So essentially, uh, if the board would approved tonight, what we would do is get on the schedule, um and the thought is what we just learned, um, I just learned today that we were gonna do it, start actually the day after the state track meet, but we’re actually hosting the state

01:25:59,530	soccer tournament. So either the state soccer tournament will be housed at Sanford Sports Complex, which would be very adequate for it, or we delay it by a week, um, Mr.

01:26:17,270	Zittleman wants to move it to Sanford because he wants with the variable of weather and everything else, we don’t know we, we have plenty of time to get it done in the summer, but we don’t want to take any chances. So, um, it would start next summer, the day after state track. uh, this upcoming summer, and we would be ready with everything by football season. Thank you, Dr Char. Good question, Ms. Pierson. Mr.

01:26:36,270	Eastgate, thank you, President Hager. Just for some other context for other board members since Mr. Lee and I sit on the, the Bull Authority as well. I think, you know, our BPS staff and, and Ross Horner, who’s up there working for the Bulll, um, but I know Mr.

01:26:49,070	Zittleman and his team in the past have just done a great job maintaining that place, um, and, and Dr Hauser before that as well. And just making sure that they, you know, they, they’ve done patches, they’ve done what they can do to be very cost-effective with it.

01:27:01,900	And from what we know and what we’re being told is it’s just, it’s that end of life, and it’s one of those things that we know as a major user group up there. um, and a number of different activities that the bull like Dr Fasz had said, it’s, it’s, it’s a pretty bright star for our, for our community and for our district, um, and it hosts a wide range

01:27:16,000	of things. So I, I think it’s something that I definitely support, like we said, it’s the Bull authorities making this this request, this recommendation.

01:27:31,600	um, and I think it, it’s time, it’s time for us just to kind of step up again as a as a key partner up there uh and BSC’s been a great partner working with us on it as well. Um, but, you know, the state track we we talk about it.

01:27:45,600	I mean, what a great economic driver for our community as well, and we want to be able to continue to showcase that, hey, when you’re in Bismarck, you’re gonna get a top-notch activity and event and everything else that goes with that, not just for the, not just for the athletes, but for everybody that’s there. So I mean, there’s just a number, that’s just one event Mr. Lee knows about that event better.

01:27:57,530	Um, but it’s just the, the bowl is just a great, great venue for folks. And, and so I thank you to our team for being very conscious of, uh, us being fiscally responsible and also just like I said, I think it’s it’s time for us to do these improvements. Thank you, Mr. Eastgate Any more comments, or to entertain a motion.

01:28:15,070	I impress me. I just, I’m sorry, just, just real quick. I, I do want to point out because some people don’t know, you know, this was an athletic facility and stuff. Uh, it’s not our money. It’s, it’s the, uh, um, the both authorities are going to pay for it.

01:28:32,070	It’s great, but just think about, uh, that state track meet and those 34 days that teams come in, that’s class A and B. So it’s every school in the state and the economic impact that it has on us locally, um, is profound. It really is.

01:28:49,800	It brings a lot of dollars into into Bismarck, uh, it, it does showcase, um, the bowl and it, it, it is something that uh we need to keep that a great facility to, to keep that track me coming here because that’s one that, uh, it’s the perfect, uh, it’s the perfect place for it, and everybody knows it and as long as we keep up with it, we’ll

01:29:08,900	keep, we’ll keep getting them here. So, Thank you, Mr. Lee Ms. Presky. OK, I’ll move that we approve the attached resolution providing for the sale of state aid certificates of indebtedness. A second motion of seconding for discussion? Uh, sign known Dr Scher. Pressy, Eastgate, yes. Lee. Yes. Peterson, yes. Hager, yes. So there’s a second part there.

01:29:38,800	Miss Peterson, with the recommendations and the comments that we said, I think that it would be necessary to also approve the resolution electing to participate in the school bond credit enhancement program. Second, we have a motion a second and discussion. Uh, sign on Dr Schr. Eastgate. Yes. Lee, yes. Peterson, Pressy.

01:30:02,170	Hager, yes. That brings us down to the, oh, I guess school school visits, anybody have a school visit to share this time. It’s a little early, maybe, so um down to the consent agenda or the wishes of the board. Mr. Streetsate.

01:30:23,730	President Hager, I would move that we, uh, approve the consent agenda. We have a motion. Second, and a 2nd. Dr Sherro, please Lee? Yes. Peterson. Yes. Presky? Yes. Eastgate? Yes. Hager. Yes. Uh, superintendent’s report, uh, Dr Fossnnot. Um, just a couple last things, uh, reminder of your North Coast School Board Association Convention coming up on Thursday, October 9th, a law seminar, um.

01:30:51,470	I’m not gonna remember right off the top of my head who’s signed up, but you should’ve been hearing it from, um, Mrs. Esroook about those registrations, and then on Friday, October 10th is a convention, and I would encourage you to check your email.

01:31:07,470	I just got one today that there’s a, a change to the constitution that NDSBA sent out today just to make you aware. So, if you’re, um, taking the role of a delegate and casting a vote, just maybe you want to check that and be aware of those, um, constitutional revisions coming.

01:31:23,870	Um, any questions on that? OK? And the last thing I have is just kind of a, a ginick, a written statement dealing with transportation. I think, uh, for those that were concerned last time, like we’re going to have public comment and it was going to kind of go away.

01:31:38,700	I’m committing that we’re gonna talk about it as we’ve already said, it’s something we need to continue to dig into. We need to continue to talk about it. What’s the path forward? And so I just prepared a few statements today and if you bear with me, I’ll just read them because I wrote them over the weekend.

01:31:52,530	So, uh, President Hager, members of the board, members of the community, um, over the past few weeks, uh, I’ve heard personally and through hundreds of emails, calls, and conversations that concern raised by our new bell time and transportation system, uh, family, staff, students have been candid about the difficulties they’ve experienced, and I want to

01:32:10,370	begin our reaffirm tonight by thanking everyone for your shared feedback. Uh, your voices matter and they’re shaping our next steps, says Miss Peterson said earlier. Uh, since mid-August we’ve been working directly with families to address neighborhood stops as we talked about tonight, challenges in rural areas, uh, moving or adding stops for

01:32:28,000	safety or access concerns are raised. I heard earlier in the meeting that we’ve continued refining those stops. Uh, what we will continue with this collaboration, um, but I also need to be clear, reverting to the old system of hundreds of house-style stops which would add 2 to 3 minutes per stop

01:32:44,700	adding hours of time to routes and making the system financially uns us tain able at the present time. Uh, Nehood stops are not a convenience for the district. Um, they are a necessity to maintain, maintain the basic bussing system we have now.

01:33:01,800	Um, likewise, our two-tier bell system is not a luxury. Um it is a dramatic and necessary cost saving measure that allows us to operate with fewer buses and fewer drivers. Um, without it, we would be forced to consider deeper cuts, um, unfortunately, when it’s 85%, as was said earlier about the budget, uh, deep cuts do affect people.

01:33:21,900	They affect people and programs, um, in, in and around classrooms, student support services and other critical areas that really nobody wants to see go. Um, you can’t mention cuts in my office without it hurting because we really don’t do anything extra. We’re not doing just fluff around the edges. They’re all really affecting kids.

01:33:41,370	Everything we do affects kids in some way, shape or form. Um, while there is room to find start times next year as we learn, uh, from this year, families should understand too any adjustment like moving the time to 8 o’clock or 8:05 or 8:10 would also ripple through all levels of the organization,

01:33:58,800	which could mean middle school times which now get out closer to 4 than 3:30, could be more like 4 o’clock, and is that what we want? Is that OK? Um, I think that’s future discussion Um, we also need to look at other measures as this group has talked about before, um, and you’ll be hearing about

01:34:17,000	these and making recommendations for next year, like expanding walkout areas, um, I was with the large 9 schools last Friday, um, an example is, um, West Fargo has a mile for walkout area and for elementaries we have a half. Um, they have a mile 0.5 for middle schools and 1.

01:34:39,000	75 for high schools. Our walkout area for high schools is 1 mile. So nearly double that, um, which do are not provided bus service in West Fargo, um, to reduce routes and free up resources to, in essence kind of backfill some of the concerns we have with safety in our rural areas could take, um, reducing or

01:34:59,100	increasing walkout areas inside of our community. Um, there’s some schools that charge. I thought it was just Dickinson, but I would say that’s Dickinson and Jamestown. Jamestown charges for in-town bussing.

01:35:21,000	Um so that’s something we could look at and consider, um, and lastly, your testimony actually from somebody who spoke in front of us that talked about other communities. I think, um, board member Presy mentioned it tonight that my aunt Williston have a much less, if not any, 0 in town bussing. Um, I think that’s something that, something we have to consider.

01:35:39,170	Is that a luxury, is that a perk, um, that we just can’t sustain in the future. Um, the financial reality St stark. Last year, and this is on your financial report you were approved last month. Um, the BPS spent $5.1 million on student transportation and additional 1.2 million just for student activities, um, over $6.3 million on bussing and transportation.

01:36:02,230	Uh, the state reimbursement for just the regular red part because they don’t reimburse us for sports. The regular reimbursement was just 1.1 million. That equates to a state reimbursement of 21.6%. of actual student transportation costs, um, state per pupil funding has increased by just 2.5% and we’ll increase only by 2.5% next year.

01:36:26,170	And as was shared today, um, local spending caps due to that legislation has capped us at 3%, um, for local taxation, all those in totality limit our flexibility on what we can do in the coming years.

01:36:46,530	Um, currently BPS pays roughly $3 million annually to Harlow’s for our contract for student transportation, um, as we head into a new request for bids or for proposals that RFP is going out as we speak. We’re talking about it and getting it ready. Um, I can, I will guarantee you with my last breath that we can expect those cre uh those costs to escalate. They’re not going to stay where they are now. They’re going to be increasing.

01:37:02,100	Um, so, um, all those are things we have to look at in the future. Those are all things that we have to take into consideration as we move forward. What I can promise you is in October, as I said before, Transpar’s going to be here to reanalyze routes.

01:37:19,530	Uh, we’re going to continue adjusting stops for safety when necessary. Um, we’re already collecting attendance and tardy data, and we will be, um, garnering educator and parent, um, impressions of how they think both those changes have, have occurred in what they think the future holds.

01:37:39,330	November um, again, is we’ll, we’ll send out some surveys for people to respond or review the findings from Transpar. We’ll continue to look at the data and hopefully by that time we have some feedback on what the new RFP is going to tell us. What are, what are the costs going to be for whatever we decide to do for the future.

01:37:54,870	and then December you can expect myself and Dr Scher, maybe members of a of um of our operational Excellence Committee to talk, give you a, a recommendation what based on those things, what do we see as the best step forward. Um some of the things I shared in this statement were considered last year. We had walkout areas, as discussed.

01:38:15,070	We talked about charging even over a year ago, we just said that wasn’t the best first step. Let’s try the first steps. And again, my apologies for making errors on the first step, but maybe we need to continue with that refinement to get to a better perfect place.

01:38:31,100	Um, so, um, all that leads into 2026 and whatever we decide to do planning for that change because as I stated before, it’s thousan d s of meetings, it’s thousands of decisions, it’s a lot of changes. None of those happened instantly and overnight, so we need to prepare.

01:38:46,600	Um, I do want to affirm tonight that I’ve been listening, um I think we collectively bored and all of us understand the stakes, and we’re committed to making informed, thoughtful decisions.

01:39:03,530	These aren’t easy, but they’re necessary to keep BPS strong and viable and, and providing the best service for our kids and helping to ensure all of our kids can succeed. Um, so I thank you, thank you for being patient with me and my team as we’ve worked through this and, uh, hopefully families and, and staff continue to be patient as we navigate those as well Board members, any questions? OK.

01:39:28,730	I’m seeing none All thegenits have been considered. I declare this