00:00:07,000	of the Bismarck School Board, it’s 5:15 on Monday, December 8th. I called this meeting to order. Welcome to those of you who are joining us both here and also online. You can find uh our agenda and follow along on, on online under the school board tab at BismarcksSchools.org.

00:00:24,100	Dr Sher, will you call the roll, please? Mister Hager? Here, Mister Eastgate, here, Mister Lee, here, Mrs. Peterson, here, Miss Preskey, here. Dr Fasna, would you lead us in the pledge? Pleasure. I pleasure of the United States of America. and to the Republic for which it stands. one nation, or even with liberty and justice from.

00:01:03,070	Item 1C 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 are inclusion, excellence, innovation, leadership.

00:01:22,870	You’ll also find a link in the agenda to the BPS strategic plan. Item 2 is to adopt the agenda. What are the wishes of the board, Ms. Prescott, I’ll move to adopt the agenda. Second. we have a motion in a second.

00:01:42,100	Any, any discussion? Seeing none, Dr Scher? Eastgate? Yes. Lee? Yes. Peterson, yes, Presy, Hager, yes. Item 3, focus on success. We’ve got 2 tonight. First one, the indigenous Education, Dr Fossnot. Yeah, good evening board members. Nice to have you with you.

00:02:02,370	I’m kind of in a different location, but I’d like to take some time to acknowledge some outstanding aspects of the BPS team and, uh, publicly acknowledged the awards they’ve received this year. So I’d like to invite my indigenous team up and first of all, Mr. Donovan Lambert, so. they uh you’re probably well aware each year we receive Johnson O’Malley funds, and that’s a national organization.

00:02:29,630	It helps, um, distribute federal funds for indigenous ed programs throughout the nation. Uh, we’re in Region 5 and um Mr. Lambert, who is, how long have you worked for BPS Diamond? I was trying to count the years in the back. I think it’s been like 78 years, something like that. Yeah.

00:02:48,530	Well, um, the National Johnson O’Malley Association recognized that you are an exemplary educator, so he’s a Region 5, exemplary Educator of the year Congratulations. Thank you. You want to say anything? You know, I, I wasn’t going to say anything, but you know, to me.

00:03:09,170	you know, being in in this role for 78 years, you know, at first when we first came in, it didn’t immediately happen we, we thought it would happen, but I think just like anything else, it was building relationships with uh teachers, family, students, everybody throughout really understand what we do, you know, and, and throughout this time every year I continue to say this, that it, it gets better.

00:03:30,530	because students, teachers know what our program does and what we can do and what we bring to the table and, uh, you know, every year our calendar continues to fill up. more and more, and we’re getting out into the community and doing things, so, uh, I owe this all to to everybody in BPS, you know, and our team is here just to, uh, do our job and

00:03:47,530	and make those connections. So thank you guys. Thank you. And one award wasn’t enough. We are also acknowledged, and I would like to bring this Tommyimerasti, our indigenous education director, um, upfront because, um, we’re also for Region Five, national JOM Award acknowledged as the exemplary JOM program for the region. So congratulations, Tommy.

00:04:16,430	Congratulations to all your people. Well done. Yeah, you’re going to bring them all up? Yeah, yeah. I’ll let you introduce, but congratulations. So figure I’ll let you keep it. Oh wow OK Co. In short. Good evening, everyone. President Hager and members of the board. I don’t even really know where to start.

00:04:43,270	Dr Fassnnott said, Hey, will you come and talk at the, um, board meeting. I said, absolutely. Wait, what? So I just wanted to, um, say thank you. so much for your support for our parents’ support, for our students, amazing, um, efforts in the classroom, out of the classroom in the communities, um, we’re just so proud and

00:05:05,530	thankful for what it is that we get to do every single day for what these amazing individuals get to do every single day. So I just want to introduce them really briefly here. We have Chadwick Kramer, who oversees our Northwest Theater Schools, Chadwick. You want to come say hello Hello, thank you.

00:05:25,800	That was quick enough. All right, and Donovan already spoke, but Donovan Lambert oversees all of our South Side feeder schools, so thank you, Mr. Donovan Lambert. and our newbie. This is Susie Golas. She’s not new to the district because she’s actually been with, uh, the Monarch Project through United Tribes Technical College.

00:05:47,730	Uh, we had a, uh, an agreement, a practice going with Monarch Project for about 4 years and saw some incredible results. So we are trying to take what we’ve learned from that and emulate it and make it bigger and better every year, like Donovan had just mentioned, um, and then we have

00:06:04,800	Anne Marie Deodo. You want to come up and say a couple of words, Ann. Great. Thank you everyone for allowing us to be here, um. so I am new in this position. I’m the curriculum and instruction specialist.

00:06:23,100	Last year, I was a 6th grade math teacher, so totally different ballpark, but I just wanna thank BPS, all the educators, the students, everyone here, thank you so much for allowing, um, this position to be a position. I’m learning a lot and it’s just overwhelming how welcoming and how much people want our support in the school system, so thank you.

00:06:44,270	Thank you, amazing team. I just wanted to highlight a couple of quick things, um, that you may or may not be aware of. I think that a lot of, um, the reason why we got the award that we did this year was because of the groundwork that we did from the very baseline at BSEP, all

00:07:02,070	the way through our kids entering into college, um, we have a variety of different things going on. We have some connections going on with BSC, bringing a bunch of their students in and talking with our kids and making sure that they see their future, um, as possible. That’s one thing.

00:07:22,170	Another thing is that we um started our indigenous student advisory team last year and continue moving that forward. And very briefly, I just wanted to have one of our students come up and speak a little bit, and she can answer any questions that you might have. So, Kallea Eagle Hello, my name is K Cle Eagle.

00:07:43,100	I am a student at Bismarck High School, and I am a junior. so this program really taught me, um about my culture pretty much and about how I can face life without feeling alone. I found most of my peers didn’t know how, you know. most of my peers didn’t know about our culture.

00:08:10,800	They didn’t know how to pray. They didn’t know. how to all the changes in life. how to be a young lady, how to be a young man to embrace your culture when that’s I never saw, you know, anyone embrace our culture as much as you know this program did. I thought that there wasn’t anything. like.

00:08:40,100	in the school district that would point out whatever I was, you know, so into because I am a dancer. I am really into my culture, but then I found peers who are the same. come from the same tribe or other tribes, other neighboring tribes that didn’t know their culture, didn’t know.

00:09:03,530	how to embrace who they are because most of the time they just hid in the background We weren’t always, you know, we weren’t always taught, you know, to love our culture. and we weren’t always given that opportunity to learn how we can grow as young people, how we can improve telling other people to embrace ourselves.

00:09:34,000	and teach other people about us because not many people know about our culture, nobody knows. how much we feel like we’re unseen or unheard. But now I see that many of us can show ourselves and we could be proud of who we are.

00:09:58,000	We showcased in front of in front of the governor, I got to dance in front of the, uh, first lady, all of them. I got to show people who I am, not just as a Native American girl, but as a person, cause we are people too. And I was so glad to meet other people, other friends from other schools because.

00:10:21,500	I just felt always so alone and I didn’t think that many other people were out there just like me. so I got to learn how to be a young lady.

00:10:44,100	I had people in peers teach me different things, different traditions I had elders teach me their ways, the ways that I should learn and how I could become a good person. For the sake of time and respecting everybody’s time. Thank you so much for allowing us to speak. And if you have any questions, I’ll take them now. Thank you, board members, questions, comments. Mr. Eastgate No questions.

00:11:09,600	Just wanted to say a great big thank you, um, you know, Donovan was sharing at the beginning while accepting his reward about the amount of time that you guys have put in in in building a relationships, right? It, it all comes back to that with so many things in BPS, but to say thank you to you guys too,

00:11:21,900	because it takes your team to do that. Andy Donovan mentioned the families and the students and the schools, but we know it’s, it’s a lot of hard work and hours that you guys are putting in.

00:11:35,270	So we just appreciate that you guys are willing to invest in that because that’s what you’re doing, um, and I, I bump into you guys in the schools fairly often and it’s just fun to, to get to see the great work you’ve been doing and being consistent and always being there. So I appreciate that. Um, Miss Eagle, thank you so much for sharing today.

00:11:47,070	It’s not always fun and easy to approach the podium and, and thank you for helping BPS and our whole community, um, celebrate your culture and dancing like you said and you know, in front of the governor’s office and, and celebrate being a demon and being able to do those things as a BPS student.

00:12:03,000	Um, it just, it brings so much more to our school district, um, celebrating all the cultures that we have and definitely excited to, to celebrate what you bring. So thank you. We appreciate you. Thank you all for coming, taking the time to show up here and, and present and like, like Dan said, it isn’t the seagull.

00:12:22,800	It’s not always easy to stand up in front of everybody and, and speak and kind of, kind of share like you did, so thank you for doing that. Um like, like Mr.

00:12:37,170	Eastgate mentioned, thank you guys for all you do across the district, and I, I bumped into Donovan a few different times doing different things across the community, and it’s more than just in our school districts. It’s, it’s, it’s really an impact you guys are having on our community. So thank you for all you guys do and congratulations. Mr. Lee. Uh, thank you, President Haard.

00:12:55,370	Yeah, just one more comment, um, uh, thank you for being here and presenting, uh, this information and Mr. Lambert and Ms. Saurowski, uh, congratulations, uh, Johnson O’Malley, that’s, that’s a huge, huge organization and to be recognized like you have really, really is special. So sincerely, that’s just wonderful.

00:13:14,700	Some of the things I heard that I just really appreciate, um, BSC coming and talking to the kids, you know, no matter the child or the learner, um, that vision casting is so powerful in the life of kids, right? And just to show them a path, I, I think that’s just so awesome.

00:13:32,230	Um, and all of the, all of the wonderful things that are done every day in BPS through our indigenous programming and, uh, you know, finding peers, um, that’s so wonderful what you talk about and saying, oh, it’s, uh, you know, neighboring tribes, how to embrace who they are, you know, nobody wants to feel unseen and unheard.

00:13:48,700	So, um, wonderful to raise, uh, um, you know, your culture and your stature to where to what others see and appreciate it. So just everything you do, um, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, item B, fiscal year. 25 financial audit. Dr F Fassnott or Dr Scher I, I can, I can start, uh, so mini piats, uh, who is, uh, partner with Brady Martz.

00:14:23,370	We’ll be presenting our FY 25 financial audit. Thank you. All right, good evening, board members. Um, yeah, I, as Darren mentioned, I’m Mindy Piaia. It’s a principal with Brady Martz, and I’ll be going over the audit results and some financial highlights at a very high level with you tonight.

00:14:42,070	Um, we’ll discuss the reports or the, and the opinions that we issue and then some financial highlights and then go over required communications. So first off, the objective of an audit, um, is to express an opinion on the financial statements, whether they are in accordance with GAP or generally accepted accounting principles.

00:15:02,370	Our audit is designed to obtain reasonable assurance but not absolute assurance that the financials are free of material misstatement. as part of conducting the audit, we do have our own guidelines that we have to follow by our professional standards which are listed on the side.

00:15:23,170	So for the audit this year on the financial statements, we are expressing an unmodified opinion that’s the highest and best opinion that we can give on the financial statements, meaning that they are materially in accordance with GA.

00:15:42,600	Um, additionally, we conduct our audit in accordance with government auditing standards and so we issue another report on internal control and compliance, and again that is an unmodified opinion or a clean report, um, no compliance or internal control issues were noted during the audit The last report that we issue as part of the audit is for the single audit.

00:16:01,730	And so this is where we do a separate audit, separate from the financial statement audit testing the compliance of federal grants of the district, uh, the 4 programs that we tested this year were the child nutrition cluster, the special education cluster, commonly referred to as Dea, uh, COVID-19 relating to the Capitol Projects fun, and then the Head Start cluster.

00:16:24,530	And based on our testing of those federal grants, there was one find ing related to the Head Start program, um, it was related to the district is required to share credit card expenditure reports with the Policy council, um, this was a, this isn’t a new issue.

00:16:40,100	This was already identified, um, in a Department of Health and Human Services external review, um, but again, it happened during the same time period that we were conducting the audit, and so it’s the same finding as it was was already reported, and BPS already had taken corrective action, um, that we could see that the finding was already corrected, um, by the time the audit was being conducted. So no, no new item, just drawing to your attention again. Next, moving on to some financial statement highlights.

00:17:00,430	So all this information is presented as of June 30th, 2025 with comparison to 2024. Um, so you can see, uh, year over year how the district’s doing. Overall, cash and investments at June 30th, we’re around 37.5 million, so that’s up about 1.1 million from last year. Next, looking at revenues and expenses by fund.

00:17:27,070	So for the general fund, um, expenses of about 2214 million were offset by a similar revenues of about 215 million by the district. And so the general fund had a positive, uh, 1.4 million increase to fund balance. Uh, the building fund was relatively comparable on revenues of 13.5 million offset by 12.

00:17:53,370	1 million of expenses and then you can see for non-major funds, again, revenues and expenses were very similar. Uh, the non-major funds include the Activities fund, the CRACTC fund, food service, um, TLC and then the debt service fund. Next, looking at total general fund expenditures for the year. Again, those totaled about 214.

00:18:18,330	1 million, and that represents about 12.87% of the general fund fund balance. Um, so it’s a healthy reserve that the fund balance has, um, the largest expenditures obviously regular instruction is about 52% or 112 million, followed by special ed, which constitutes about 52%, or I mean 20%, and then operation and maintenance at 9% or 16.9 million.

00:18:44,430	Next, looking at fund balance and composition by the fund on this site is really just to indicate that, um, within each fund, there’s a level of restrictions on how you can spend the money.

00:19:03,370	So in the general fund, the bulk of that is unassigned and available for the district to spend how they need, um, within the non-major funds, there are some designations such as food services, specifically earmarked for food service. So that money can’t be transferred to the general fund for uses. Another item to go over, um, future debt payments.

00:19:24,500	So as of June 30th, you can see all the outstanding long-term liabilities or debt that the district does have. And then on the right hand side is a schedule of the principal and interest payments that the district owes over the course of all these loans running out, um, in total, it’s about $12 million annually for principal and interest payments of what is currently outstanding that the district owes.

00:19:46,330	Next, looking at the general fund budget versus actual. As you can see, revenues came in under budget by about 5.2 million, but similarly expenditures also came in under budget by 5.9 million.

00:20:09,970	And then lastly, as part of our audit, we are required to go over some items with those charged with governance at the completion of the audit, um, I just wanted to highlight that a new GASB or government accounting Stan was implemented related to compensated absences this year.

00:20:31,800	It didn’t have a material impact to the financials, but it does change how the district is, um, accruing those items, uh, as far as significant estimates, um, included in the financial statements, there are, uh, pension li ab il ities other post-employment benefit plan liabilities, um, the methods that they calculate depreciation, uh, fair value of investments, and so we look at all of that as part of our audit, but none of those were deemed to be significant or super sensitive that we would

00:20:48,970	need to do further testing on those. And then also as part of our audit, um, we didn’t come across any kind of unusual transactions. Uh, we didn’t have any kind of disagreements with management. There were no uncorrected misstatements.

00:21:06,500	Uh, at the end of the audit, we do request representations from management, basically just assert them inserting that they’ve given us full access to everything, everything’s properly recorded. Um, and then we’re not aware that they’ve consulted with other auditors in regards to if they didn’t like how we, we recommended an accounting standard or an opinion or anything like that, so. with that, my information is on the screen.

00:21:27,330	If you have any questions or if anybody in the audience watching has questions after the fact, um, but with that, I just wanna, uh, thank the district, thank Jeff and Darren and the, uh, the accounting team. Um, we asked for quite a bit of information when we come in and do the audit.

00:21:42,270	And they’re very timely and get us everything, um, in order to get the audit done in a timely process and have it to you guys here tonight. So with that, I’m happy to answer any questions you might have. Thank you, Miss Petz. Board members, questions, comments? Dr Chair, I, thank, thank you, President Hager.

00:22:00,370	I, I just would like to personally thank Miss Piaiaz, uh, her team, very professional, very thorough, um, and also I, I feel very fortunate, um, that BPS has the business office that it has, um, notwithstanding its business manager, I think everybody on that team is topnotch and that’s the reason why we operate a very, uh, tight ship, good ship.

00:22:28,170	I think that our petition audit proved that, um, and this again another unmodified audit just tells you that we’re doing the right things, doing the right processes, so very proud of the team. So thank you. Yeah, Dr Sher, just to kind of add to what you said there, to, to thank you and, and your team having.

00:22:49,500	been fortunate enough over the last couple of years to kind of work closely with you guys on a few different things.

00:23:00,000	I, I know how seriously you guys take your, your jobs and how, how well you guys do in this, this audit just kind of speaks to that. So, so thank you, thank, thank you to your team as well. I don’t see any other questions. Thank you, Ms. thank you. Item 4 is public comment. The board recognizes the central role parents play in the education of their children and supports active parent involvement in the education process.

00:23:23,630	The board’s practice of public comment reflects and aligns with policy BCBA in the spirit of its intent. for classroom issues, it’s best to follow the chain of command. Teacher, principal, assistant superintendent, superintendent. for district issues, please reach out to Dr Fossnott. If you do speak tonight, we simply ask that you be responsible be helpful, and be respectful.

00:23:42,900	Our BPS students deserve to have adults model the expectations we have for them. Groups are urged to select one spokesperson. Individuals will be limited to no more than 4 minutes and will be notified with 30 seconds remaining to conclude their remarks. The board will not debate issues as presented, but will take such matters under advisement.

00:24:01,070	With that, please stand and approach the podium if you wish to speak tonight. OK, seeing, seeing no one, public comment is now closed. Uh, item 5, monitoring district operations OE6 Financial Administration, Dr Cher.

00:24:32,600	Thank you, President Han Hager, members of the board, um, I think we had the, um probably the most powerful indicator that, uh, we’re doing OK with OE6 just presented to us, so, uh, you’ll see that’s referenced a lot actually in this document. I would report that uh in a nutshell, we’ve collected all the money we need to collect.

00:24:51,270	We’ve paid people in a timely manner, including our own staff or uh vendors, payrolls have been very, very accurate, and we’ve complied with all the necessary reporting required by us. Um, so as you can see that every indicator is in compliance, which makes the report in compliance.

00:25:06,730	And again, a lot of reference back to the audit report, uh, which you had just had. So that’s really it for OE 6. I would answer any questions that the board may have on OE 6. Board members, questions, comments? Signonne, thank you, Dr Cher With that, I would entertain a motion. Mr. Eastgate President Hager, I would move that we accept OE 6 Financial Administration as in compliance.

00:25:33,500	Second, We have a motion in a second. Any further comment? Seeing none, Dr Sher. Lee? Yes. Peterson? Yes. Pressy, Eastgate. Yes. Hager Yes Uh, item B OE 8 communication with the board, Dr Fassnnott. Uh, Board members, I get the pleasure to share this report with you tonight.

00:26:00,700	This is 08 communicating with the board, um, all indicators are being reported to you as in compliance, but I would like to, um, point out just a few things as maybe for you or the watching public, uh, indicator one talks about timely communication with you. 49 weekly emails that go between my office and you.

00:26:16,900	I missed a couple weeks in there. I don’t know what holiday that was, but for the most part, I think I try to keep you informed of the weekly update that kind of keeps you up abreast of the major happenings in the district, um. 8. sorry, indicator 3 within 8.

00:26:33,800	2 also talked about the number of meetings that you have, and I think I’d like to point a highlight to that that amount of time you invest to be a board member and help lead the district. That’s 21 regular meetings, one retreat, one special meeting, and 4 workshops.

00:26:50,330	It does not go without being noticed at least from my office that time commitment. Thank you. Thank you for doing that. Uh, 8.4, getting, um, viewpoints from the community and uh taking those into your, your thinking or your decision making, I, I would put out, um, we have a wide plethora of surveys.

00:27:09,100	We probably overed surveyed people in the last couple months, but all that ends up heading to you and you’re receiving that. I think that’s a positive. And then also the Excellence committees and your community forums, both, um, are really good ways to do that, uh, testified last week in front of a tax transparency interim committee

00:27:26,070	talking about how to get more people in our community engaged in some of these discussions that affect the operations of the district. I would say we’re doing well, but we can’t also rest on our laurels.

00:27:40,700	It’s hard to get out and it’s a challenge to get out in the community and have real honest, earnest communication with, with groups, but I think that’s what we’re charged to do. So I think we’re doing a good job and, and there’s more to come. The other one I thought I’d hit is um 8.4 indicator one.

00:27:59,430	Have you been provided adequate information from a variety of viewpoints and again, I think thou surveys the excellence committees help do that for you. Um, on the next page, 8.5, um, dealing with have you been provided advanced information about issues. I hope you are.

00:28:17,330	I guess if there’s ever time where you feel like you’re not informed, particularly about things that end up in board meetings and you have to make decisions and make hard decisions about them. You need to let me know, but, um, you rated that very positively this year, and I would like to say that that’s, that’s, uh, that’s well done. And then in regard to media coverage, I want to just give a shout out to uh Mr. Koontz. Mr.

00:28:31,870	Koonts does a good job with that, and I think between he or he’ll come over and say, you know, Jeff, you need to get this to board members so they know it’s going to hit the hit the newsreel, hit, hit the press, uh, letting you know

00:28:42,700	about that so we don’t want to surprise you with some of those big items that, that make it on the news. Um. 8. sorry, I got ahead of myself, um, 8.7 was about decision making and making having those information.

00:29:00,100	So, again, you rated yourself very highly on that and having that information and then, um, last one I’d like to hit is 8.9 indicator 1 dealing with these, these monitoring reports and hopefully you receive those in, in time, enough, usually give you, um, 3 to 5 days where you can read through them, ask questions, call if you have questions that we can help with,

00:29:16,530	but giving you that background information so you can make a um a solid decision as you, you review these and approve them, um, and then this one, again, I would say our recommendation is we are in compliance Thank you, Dr Fausstnott. Uh, board members. M. Pressy.

00:29:37,000	Uh, yeah, before I make a motion, I just wanted to say I I really do appreciate all the things you do to communicate with the board, and especially that 8.5 related to significant events that might make it into the media, whether they do or don’t.

00:29:56,600	They’re the issues that people will be talking about, and, um, news travels fast and rumors travel fast and our in our system, um, and and it’s one thing to have, you know, like a parent contact you and say, did you know about this? So it’s really nice to be like up to date on anything that might be hitting their waves, um, as well, so I really do appreciate

00:30:14,970	those, um, quick notes saying, hey, just so you know this happened, uh, this morning, um, at one of our schools. So, um, I really appreciate that. Um, I would move that we accept OE8 communicating with the board, um, as compliant. I’ll second We have a motion to second any further comment? Seeing none, Dr Scher.

00:30:38,370	Peterson? Yes. Bresky? Yes. Eastgate? Yes. Lee? Yes. Hager Yes Uh, down to item C. GC 6, the annual work plan. Uh, this will be the public reading of a GC6 The board will follow an annual work plan that includes continual monitoring and review of all policies dialogue sessions with ownership groups and activities to improve board performance.

00:31:12,870	1, the annual plan, planning cycle will end each year in November to allow the superintendent to properly align internal operational systems and procedures 2, the board’s annual work plan for the next year will include A. Sche scheduled dialogue sessions with ownership groups and persons whose viewpoints are considered helpful to the board.

00:31:41,270	Governance processes, improvement, improvement activities including orientation and training of candidates and new board members in the board’s governing governance process and other discussions by the board. about means to improve its performance, especially board member knowledge and skill. See Schedule scheduled monitoring of all policies and other events and activities that are part of the board’s responsibilities and interests.

00:32:08,470	That concludes the reading of GC6. board members. Mr. Lee Sorry, I got enough OK, seeing no comment. Um, I would take a motion to retain or amend Mr. Eastgate. President Hager, I would move that we retain GC 6’s annual work plan, as stated.

00:32:40,000	And I would We have a motion to second any discussion? Seeing no, Dr Scher. Presky Yes, Ike, yes, Lee, yes, Peterson, yes, Hager yes I would look Mister Eastgate. President Hagar, I would move that we are in compliance for GC6 annual work plan. A second. Motion in a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, Dr Sher, Eastgate, yes, Lee, yes, Peterson, yes, Presy Hager.

00:33:09,270	Yes Brings us down to matters reserved for board action, board members, school visits. I know we’ve got a couple. Miss Presky, are you, are you ready? OK. Yes, you bet. All yours. All right, thanks.

00:33:29,800	Uh, so I visited Horizon Middle School with Dr Shawn O’an, um, and the first stop that we made that day was to the music wing, um, and they really talked about the huge interest in the music program, um, they’re at Horizon.

00:33:50,000	They had, uh, just finished their sixth grade musical this fall and had 85 kids in it, um, and are planning their 7th and 8th grade musical in the spring and we’re talking about how much interest there already is in, um, from, from students wanting to sign up for that, uh, and just almost having to think about how do we, how do we even have a space that’s big enough for, um, for these events cause it’s, it’s filling up for the practices

00:34:09,100	and also for the productions. Um, so really, you know, cool to see and hear about that. Um, and then the other thing, other program I really wanted to highlight is their EL program.

00:34:28,970	And I’ve always had such an interest in this, just because I think it, we play such an important role in integrating, um, these new students to America, but into our community as well and really giving them the skills and the tools that they need to thrive in education, in, in this new country to them. Um, and they have 70 students that are in their program from all over.

00:34:50,730	They speak French, Spanish, Haitian, Ukrainian. I mean, almost everything you can imagine. I, I, I really give kudos to those teachers. I, I can’t even imagine what, um, what that is like.

00:35:11,730	Um, and I visited with one Jess Nasland, who had just a phenomenal story, new to teaching, um, but shared with me her experience, um, related to being over in, um, Africa through, um, efforts with the military.

00:35:34,100	and she herself went to school to learn, um, Swahili and so she knows what it’s like to be in a be from a different country and learn and learn a new uh, language, um, and so I think that brings her to a whole different level where she can use that experience, um, to her advantage and really be a lot more relatable. Um, so I thought that was phenomenal. I really do like how horizon’s laid out.

00:35:50,700	I I toured it before and, you know, the way they have their pod situated in the wings, um, with the lockers and collaboration spaces. It just, it really does show like how this, the, the age of our buildings and the new, um, the new ways of designing them is, is great for our students to be able to have spaces to collaborate and to work within

00:36:10,970	each other in a certain area. Um as far as we talked about bussing and the bells, um, bus transportation, uh, Dr Oban said it’s been, um, you know, it’s gone over very well. I had an immediate impact. Um, kids before were waiting 40 minutes for a bus, um, and now they’re waiting maybe 5 minutes.

00:36:34,000	Um, and as far as the bell time, uh, he said the teachers especially are, are good with it. Um, I’ll keep this visit report short and sweet, but overall it was a it was a, a good day to visit Horizon. Thank you, Ms. Presky Mr. Lee Thank you, President Hager. um.

00:36:57,270	I met with Principal Tony Flaidland at Highland Acres, uh, home of the Hawks, had a great conversation about his transition from Moses, and we just talked about while it’s never easy to leave a team, kids, parents, and colleagues you’ve worked with closely for many years, he shared that the,

00:37:14,530	the change has been refreshing and positive for him personally and I think we can kind of see when you go from bigger school like that to to smaller schools. Uh, you leave one set of challenges for another, um, but he’s made the adjustment really well.

00:37:28,370	He, uh, he has learned to appreciate, uh, the unique value of our small neighborhood schools and the sense of community they create, which I thought was kind of cool. Um, both Highland Acres and Roosevelt are one section elementaries with very tight-knit staffs, Highland Acres, uh, has a young staff, um, but he says they feel, uh, very well supported, um, and he

00:37:51,470	noted that their vital survey results were exceptional, which, uh, I thought was awesome. Uh, even without grade-level counterparts at those schools in the same building, he felt the, the small size fosters strong bonds among everybody that they really do all become tight, which is, it’s, it’s very unique, those two schools.

00:38:09,430	Uh, he’s made it a priority being, uh, you know, this is the second year, but he’s, he’s made it a priority to be present in both buildings, and I asked him, how do you do that? Um, um, not at once, but present in both buildings and listen closely to staff concerns.

00:38:26,270	Um, so they’re working through the new Marzano evaluation system. Um, he’s really excited about it. Uh, he feels it provides more timely and constructive feedback to his staff, which, uh, is very, very important. Um, both schools have been intentional about relationship building across grade levels. Uh, Highland Acres, I thought this was neat.

00:38:47,800	Highland Acres utilizes teams, which we often hear, right? But Roosevelt, uh, organizes themselves into cabins, which, which is very fitting for uh Rough Riders, right? So, it’s, uh, it’s kind of cool.

00:39:12,870	Uh, uh, Principal Flaland is, is proud of, uh, Highland Acres consistently, uh, they’re high test scores and what he considers are very stable classrooms, um, it’s also as we toured, you could tell it’s also a unique building structurally, and I don’t know why I’ve never picked up on this before, but each classroom has its own resource room and bathroom, um, reducing hallway traffic and disruptions, um, so just an interesting side note if we

00:39:30,000	could do things like that again, it would be great, wouldn’t it? Uh, but, uh, those days have long since passed us. Highland Acres and Roosevelt, uh, they also share not just a principal but a social worker, social worker, a counselor, and an instructional coach.

00:39:49,730	Um, Roosevelt, uh, on the flipside has a more seasoned staff. Again, they’re very close. He speaks very highly of their relationships. Um, and they operate their own after-school program. uh, which I thought was interesting. We talked about that for quite some time. He feels there’s a number of benefits to that.

00:40:11,100	He realizes not everybody can do that, but he believes student behaviors have improved because of it, and the activities create an environment where kids are, they’re at school, but they’re not in school. Um, they have a lot of puzzles, games, and rec time. So it’s worked out really well for that, for that particular school.

00:40:28,100	Uh, you can tell when you, when you tour the building that uh Roosevelt older and it uh it’s in need of some updates, um, so deferred maintenance remains a concern, uh, as the years pass, uh, but it’s an issue shared by many of our older facilities. Um, still, the staff, uh, makes the best of what they have.

00:40:45,730	So I just had, I, I had a great conversation with, uh, with Principal Fladeland and uh just his transition from uh a a larger school to two smaller schools and, and, uh, the challenges, uh, that he, he faces now and the challenges he left behind, so you can see the experience he had at Moses, definitely, uh,

00:41:03,500	he felt, um, prepared him very well, uh, for his, his next gig and, and he’s enjoying it, uh, um, immensely. So overall, it was a great visit to two of our unique neighborhood schools and the values of these smaller buildings is unmistakable and truly enjoyed my, my time there. Thank you, Mr.

00:41:29,800	Lee Think that’s it for school visits tonight, um, so that brings us down to the consent agenda Uh, what are the wishes of the board I move that we approve the consent agenda. 2nd. We have a motion and a second. Dr Scher Lee, Peterson, yes, Presy, Eastgate, yes, Hager, yes. down to Superintendent’s report budget projections.

00:41:59,000	Um, yeah, I’m going to hand this off to Dr Sher. It’s that time of year we start looking out to the future, and so he’s created our first budget projection. So thank you, Dr Sher Those Eminem fans out there, Guess who’s back? Come on, that was good.

00:42:19,270	OK, so, uh, before you President Hager, members of the board, um, we have the budget projections. So this is a culmination of things we know and things that we have to make assumptions on, um, some things that we, we don’t know, we don’t know what our local valuation is going to be next year.

00:42:36,530	However, we do know that it’s going to be capped, so we can get pretty close with that. But we don’t know what the new growth is going to be, we can kind of get close based on some assumptions.

00:42:53,730	We know what we did for healthcare, but our healthcare plan, you’ll notice, uh, on the assumptions that it’s our plan year is January to December, but our fiscal year, of course, is July to June. So we essentially have to pick up the half part of 1, then we’re actually predicting, um, hold flat for a year and then an increase again. So we have to pick up the first part of, um, 2 years from now.

00:43:12,070	As you can see from the budget projections that uh we are projecting actually to be um pretty healthy. I would say that right now we’re ending fund balance is projected to be at 8.9 and 8.7, as we know from experience that hopefully we’ll be higher, uh, this year, for example. Um, we have a goal of 9.6%. We’re projecting 9.

00:43:32,370	1, um, my hope is that we’ll actually get close to that goal. Um, the board does want to get us to 10% by 27, 28, so that’s something that we’ll continue to work on um The other thing as far as things that we do know as to date, we have a few staffing things, pretty minor because they’re probably offset by revenue.

00:43:52,100	For example, virtual academy, um, we have, we have a position, two positions actually in there. Those would be offset by revenue that we would generate from students. Um, so that is the mid mid-year budget projection, um, this was timely as Dr Fassnnatt said, We did present in front of the interim committee on Financial transparency.

00:44:13,730	This is one of the things, of course, that we highlighted, um, we, we try to share a lot. Our website’s full of things, um, you will see this again. We’ll do a, probably end of May type, uh, projection so that it’s in time before we make decisions on next year’s budget.

00:44:31,630	So with that, I would answer any questions on the budget projections in front of you. Board members, questions, comments? Not seen any, just a quick comment from you, Dr Dr Sherry.

00:44:51,870	I appreciate you guys putting these together as as early as you do, knowing there is a lot of variables and a lot of things that aren’t necessarily in here that could potentially be missing, but at least lets us have a roadmap of kind of seeing what path we’re on going forward, knowing that there, there, there are gonna be some changes as, as we go so I appreciate you and your team putting this together. Thank you.

00:45:09,530	One more disclaimer, um, I did make some assumptions based on levies, which of course that is the board’s decision, but I just need some general so that, you know, depending on what the board does decide to do with some of those would change this.

00:45:24,000	But again, it’s early on and you have it in front of you where you could say, well, we’re going to do that a little different, or you’re spot on. Understood. Thank you, Dr Sher With that, all agenda items have been considered. I declare