Fargo School Board, ND 2017 Board Meetings, 28 Nov 2017

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From YouTube: School Board Meeting - November 28, 2017

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Fargo Public Schools - Board of Education Meeting - Live Broadcast - November 28, 2017

A

School board into session and before I asked for approval of the agenda. That sure has two additions to it under item 5b. There is an HR addendum I, believe you all have a copy at your work, location and based upon that HR addendum I'd like to add a business item which will be 6c for lack of knowing how to title it. I'll just call it the superintendent search process, actions and I've got a couple of updates to share when we get to that.

A

With those two changes, I'd entertain a motion to approve the agenda, I move.

B

That we approve the agenda with the additions that our president added.

A

All those in favor signify by saying yes, yes,.

C

A

Of those signify by saying no motion carries, we had no one signed up to address the board this evening, but you're all welcome and those of you at home thanks for tuning in moving on to staff reports. Turning over to the FDA first thank.

D

You last night, at my rep assembly, I, said to the building reps. Tell me what school going on at your school and I heard it was a good night for a long report, so there's so much cool Gong on whose liaison at Clara Barton, okay, I'm, stealing your thunder here- sorry because wow, what they have going on at Clara, Barton on December 9th, that's a Saturday they've got a school store going. Everything is a $1 and the kids can go Christmas shopping and there's a holiday boutique, everything for sale.

D

That kids have made and that's a moneymaker for the kids programming.

D

Washington Elementary has a service-learning project. Their first graders are ringing The Salvation Army bell. Before and after school, McKinley I think these are fifth graders. Did a book drive that turned into kind of a book swap and they're also doing the same thing: toys student-led, student-driven anyway, lots of really cool stuff going on today was just all about Elementary's. That's it.

A

Thank you very much. Laura moving on to item four be updated. An enrollment report from RSP I'll turn it over to dr. Schatz. Thank.

E

You, as you know, over the past five years, we have excuse me need to move this over otherwise we're gonna get feedback.

E

We've contracted with RSP a demographer company to work with us as a district to analyze our overall enrollment trends and, as you know, every three years they've also been doing the demography reports and we're not due for that for another year or so, but so tonight we're here to talk about their findings of our enrollment report and I, provided that for you prior to the meeting so I hope you've had a chance to take a look at it because I'm certainly not going to go through every single page, but just bring out some highlights that I think are important and maybe some comparisons to, because now that we've done this for five years, it's it's.

E

You know we have the data to be able to look back and say: okay. What did we know five years ago? And what do we know today and are we tracking how we thought and what are some of those trends? And so I've tried to crunch some numbers and look at some things. So I'll try to present that to you in a way that you understand and and and really the the news is that it's been very consistent and what we have expected and what the reports have brought to us have played out.

E

What I really like is the fact that we've had very accurate reports 98 to 99 percent accuracy, which, when you think about it, it's pretty amazing. When you look at a you know, a catchment area as Bob would call it as large as what we have and considering over 11,000 students and all the territory that that covers so so what I'd like to do is go to the report.

E

This planning for the future report that you all received, because that's what I'll be looking at one other aspect to that I wanted to talk about tonight is Bob and Rachel went out to the elementary and middle in Middle School in high schools, and you have a sheet that's on the inside of that. That shows some adjustments to what we believe if the facilities are being used today. The way they are being you is this is what capacities might be. What we know is that's very fluid in that we could say.

E

Capacity of a building this year is a certain number, but we might have a programmatic change in that building the next year, and that means the capacity numbers, maybe would be less, and so what we tried to do is come up with some kinds of formulas to look at that and, as you see in the notes on the bottom, looking at the elementary schools, what we looked at is what would have capacity be in the K through two grades, at 25 students per classroom and what would the capacity be for students in grades 3 through 5 at 26, and so these numbers are representing that kind that number okay we're using that as kind of a high point now we know that as we put classes together and we put sections together, we see numbers go up and down a little bit in sections, depending on how many students there are and whether we split a section and so again this is just trying to get a number to give us some feel for what that capacity might be if it was 25 and 26, and so that's what this report really shows.

E

So it shows what did we have down for current capacity and those current capacities? Most of them were crunched over 10 years ago and so taken another look at it and how we're using the abilities. Today you see the adjusted capacity, and so you see the most changes in that adjusted capacity at the elementary level, and if you have any specific questions on those I can certainly have Rachel, explain to you what why that is. When you look at the secondary level, it really came out pretty much the same.

E

You know you see some changes in some of the buildings, some up and some down, but overall it's about the same.

E

So the good news is this is that we have capacity in our buildings to take on additional students and/or the growth that we're seeing the modest growth that were seen, and we knew that when we put ed Clapp together and we put Eagles on the map- and there was some very proactive thinking there and so I'm going to talk about that, a little bit more when I get into the numbers at the middle school in high school I'm.

E

Also going to talk to you about some of the numbers that we saw four years ago to what we see today and what was the difference in those numbers with regard to the boundary changes that we made some of the moving of students further north to Ben, Franklin and North, we're starting to see that trend now, and so it plays out pretty well on the numbers so anyways. That is there for your for your information, we're still using the old capacities in the report from RSP.

E

Just so you know that and I think it's okay, that as we look at growth and we look at capacity and usage of buildings that we kind of keep both of those side-by-side and use those as kind of our measurement of what what the capacity and buildings are all right. So if everybody's, ok with that I'll start moving through the report, the first page that I would draw your attention to is page 17.

E

It's called past school enrollment and when you look at that report, what they try to look at is what Rob calls the pig and the snake effect. Basically- and that is where do you see your largest groups of students coming through the system, you know, obviously, if you see smaller numbers at the earlier grades and larger numbers at the older grades, that means that you're, possibly coming you're, possibly going to see more declining enrollment.

E

If you see that larger grouping of numbers as they're starting to move through the system, k, 1, 2, 3 and those are bigger numbers that means you're, possibly setting yourself up for growth and seeing more students, and so what he identifies here is just what is what are some of the nuances within that that whole grid that you're, looking at so the largest class right now, 1718 is 5th grade at 9:27.

E

Smallest class is at 12th grade, so we're still seeing the trajectory of an increase of students overall in the district, and that plays out when you look at it holistically. But this is a way to look at it as as those kindergarteners go to first grade second grade third grade, and you can see when you look down at to 15 to 16 to 17, you see the numbers in kindergarten you're in that nine hundred range okay, and then that starts to play itself through the whole chart, as we move to the right.

E

So I just I bring that to your attention just as another way to take a look at the overall numbers, and if you look at the tolls on the far right, you can continue to see that upward trajectory. That one of the things that you need to know is that the ECSE located at agency and the Woodrow Wilson is not calculated into these numbers. So you always have to be careful. When you look at the totals, you say well, gee we're saying we have eleven thousand four hundred, but here it's eleven thousand 150.

E

Well, if you take into account those other students, because we count all those students when we look at it holistically, then that's what it is it's around at eleven four hundred eleven 350, whatever it is and I think currently we're right around eleven three ten I think is what I saw today, as we naturally kind of moved down on those numbers with our mobility throughout the year, so we're pretty close, and but you can still see that upward trajectory and the numbers total if at anytime. Somebody has a question.

E

Just please ask if you go back to page 29 what you will see, there is enrollment conclusions, and so what are the? What are the kind of the big things that Rob is seeing with his team projections, indicate enrollment will increase over the next five years when you look at it well how much well we're still projecting over the next five years about 700 students.

E

So if you look at that, it's he's he's estimating about a one to one and a half percent increase each year of our total student population and again, we've talked about that 100 to 150 students and that's a pretty modest increase, and it's one that's very manageable, and we still see ourselves within that within that cone. If you will the second thing students have elected to take advantage of the district school choice options. We know that we have mobility within our district because we do allow that fluidity with transfers, and so that's something to that.

E

When you look at the numbers that he calculates, he calculates where students live, and then he calculates where students are actually going. So we have some sense of how some buildings might be a little bit more full because they have more transfers and some buildings may be a little bit down because they have kids transferring now. So we can look at those numbers and that's in that bigger grid, as we look at that, but we typically try to go with where the students live.

E

To get a sense of you know how many students are in that attendance area now if they start transferring out. That's all part of the the mix it goes on at the beginning of the year when those things are decided. Enrollment in the southern portion of the district will continue to increase, as new developments are built in younger aged households moved. We continue to see that growth and I've talked to you about the city maps and we've shared those with you.

E

Growth has slowed down in some of those areas and it's it's again, probably a little bit less than modest growth right now, but that that is where the growth is. You know in the city, enrollment n tends to increase from grade to grade each year at the elementary middle schools decreases at the high school, and that's that that bubble that we see at the lower grades coming through. So that's gonna work. Its way through and I think we're gonna continue to see those numbers go up and eventually for the high schools.

E

You'll see that going up. Enrollment change has occurred in many older development areas of the community. He calls it regrain or gray in the madison neighborhood you're, seeing more gray, we're not seeing as many kids in families moving into the madison neighborhood. So it's a it's in a downturn right now, so we call that grain of a neighborhood in other areas like Clara, Barton and Hawthorne, and it's remained pretty robust and so that's kind of a regaining right. So we always talked as a neighborhood flip older folks, move out younger folks, move in I.

E

Think the Clara Barton Hawthorne neighborhood is an example of where some that goes on now. Is it? Is it just? You know, overwhelming with regard to the old, the turnover? No, but it is maintaining their enrollments at a pretty robust level. So in his case, because that a rege reading of a neighborhood longer sustainable families that have children, that will be there for a long time.

E

That kind of thing, okay, district, wide capacities at 85%, not including ancillary program space, and when you go over here and you look and you see our totals of the current enrollment and then look at the capacities, we probably have a little bit more than 85% of capacity. But the challenge there is again where kids live and the students live and what buildings they go to. We know we have capacity at Fargo South and at Fargo North, whereas a Davies. We know that we have very little capacity or our ability to grow very much more.

E

So I think you have to look at that overall capacity numbers compared to current enrollment and be careful not to judge that too harshly, because you have to again break it down and to say you're getting into the each neighborhood and then look at what does that mean? And why is it that way? Yeah so just another way to look at it and then we know Discovery and Davies are the two schools that we're going to see the most growth and where we're worried about capacity eventually exceeding now.

E

He always mentions Clara Barton, because when you look at capacity of Clara Barton, we've always had about four or five students. Above what capacity is so he's just highlights at, but it's not that they're way over capacity, it's just that they really maintain a robust capacity, but it's not putting the school in any kind of dire straits, because there's so many kids, it's just that the barometer we're using gives them that yellow line in the overall chart, so I think it's still pretty good.

E

He does make mention of Bennett and we'll look at that when we get into the chart a little bit nearing capacity in twenty twenty two, twenty three, you know we downsize Bennett, we downsize Kennedy, so that we can absorb the growth, but eventually that girl's gonna come back and eventually there will be capacity issues at Bennett and someday at Kennedy. So that's you know, as you look at long-range planning and long-term planning, do you have to be cognizant of that? Because will there be a need for a new elementary school someday down the road?

E

Where would that be? And would that help them down? Load? Those kids out of Kennedy and Bennett, so you don't have what we had basically almost six years ago, overcrowding at Kennedy so again having this information really gives you some tools to be aware of. So, as you look at long-range planning, I'll go on to the next page, page 31 mmm-hmm.

E

What has or is changing these are his assumptions that he gathers for all the different organizations and groups that he visits with housing. Market changes, new plots Millennials as first-time buyers, question mark. What's gonna happen with the housing market. Is it going to continue to be fairly flat right now, or will it take take off again but right now, it's not what it was two or three years ago. It's just where we're at economic conditions, residential developments, slow down a bit infrastructure, enhancements, sewer water, road infrastructure and the timing of all of that.

E

How those things occur. Have some impact on what we see future residential growth patterns, flood diversion smaller Lots. What's going to happen with all those decisions that still have to be made for flood protection, those kinds of things have some impact and some of the modeling.

E

He does demographic trends median age year, younger 33.3 than us average, so we're younger okay, then the median average age, but what we also know is we have 60% apartments and 40% homeowners and so that's a whole other piece to the pie, and you know that I know even at the economic development, the City Chamber, when they look at all these factors that that sometimes can be a challenge for cities, because it also leads to higher mobility because of the apartment, kind of mentality, a capacity of facilities largely adequate for future challenges.

E

In some small areas like we talked about, ok, so I want to get you back then to the actual charts on pages 40 to 43 and I. Prevent I gave this to you a few weeks ago. Just so, you could have a sneak peek. Yet what we see.

E

So what I really want you to focus out on in page 42? Is we look at basically two pieces of this?

E

The past school enrollments gives us some of that past data that we can kind of look at some of the comparisons of where they reside, where they attend and those kinds of numbers, typically again, I'm going to take us right down the middle reside, okay and when I looked at the charts that we started to do back in 2012 to 13, and if you look at 217 18, let's look at Kennedy right now and you see the number at 533 back five years ago when they were planning out five years.

E

They had to 17 18 at 528, so 533 and 528. That's pretty darn good numbers right I mean that's pretty close, and- and so you know that that kind of that kind of forecasting is really what we look at here with all of this Lewis and Clark.

E

We were we're at 508 with what they said, we're at 499 right now, back five years ago. They were at 594, but remember we made a boundary change and we moved some kids because they were really getting full, and so you can see how those numbers game so I'm not gonna, go through every single one of these, because some of these are just very static and we and in what we saw, are very similar numbers to what we realize five years ago.

E

What it tells me is that we're spot-on with our planning and understanding where we have capacity where we don't, if you look at, let's go to the secondary one and look at that. Here's where you see the Ben Franklin, Carl, Ben, north and south numbers at Ben Franklin when we looked out the if you go backwards five years for four years, four and a half years, it was at 688 today, they're projecting next year at 8:11 today, where it I don't want.

E

That's absolutely part of the judge, the adjustment we made to get more kids into the northern schools. Okay. So it's it's right there! It's perfect! When you look at Fargo North come back when we were looking at the numbers a few years ago, we were at about 817 today, they're at 8:15, but we're projecting in what he's saying is they're gonna continue to see the growth there, because the numbers are going to come out of Ben Franklin start feeding in the north.

E

Remember we're not we're only into a couple years of the trend of the transfer of students to the north side, so eventually, you're gonna see those numbers go up. So Rob is indicating on this report: 973 944, nine. Eighty five north is working its way back to a thousand students. So that's that's what we wanted to see when we did all that planning back a few years ago, and then you see Ben Franklin kind of holding pretty steady right now with the numbers that he has. Where do you see the two downturns?

E

You see it at CBE because moving some of the kids north. We were at 917 four years ago when they were projecting out at what would 17, 18 or 18 19 look at and actually we're at 796. But that's that change that we made so what we know is we have a little bit more wiggle room at CB and probably more than we thought we did so that sparks the discussion.

E

Do you do something with some of the discovery attendance area to kind of fill back in to CB so that you don't have to do some drastic things with discovery, because their numbers are going up conversation piece simply, but you have some data there to work with and then, when you look at south their numbers, if they were projecting back for five years, would have been 1186 today, it's 992 because those kids and CBE and those adjustments we made it- has brought that down. So you have capacity and salt.

E

You have some capacity, it's at CBE, your numbers that Ben, Franklin and North are going up and your trouble spots as you see in this chart when you see those yellow or gold lines. That means you're starting to reach capacity, and we've talked about that since last summer. So there's no surprises here, but what's encouraging to me, is it's all playing out exactly the way we thought it would as close as you can get okay, so you have I guess the message I have to you is that you have really good data to work with.

E

So you know, that's that's really the report. The other thing that I'll just that I wanted to highlight. The other thing I would bring your attention to. Is the heat map use this before and you have that copy on your desk?

E

This shows you the highest cluster areas of where our students reside, and we monitor this to see as developments continue to go south. Where are the hot spots and that's those red spots there that you see. So when you look at the red spot up around sixth Avenue, what that represents.

E

Is the community homes neighborhood area right off of 25th between 25th and 23rd, lots of high-density Apartments low income apartments there, and that is the feeder to number eight, which is Jefferson, okay, and so that we've seen that over the last four or five years hasn't changed a whole lot where we started to see some shading in and it got a little bit more pink or red over the last three or four years is when you come down University, so I'll get closer to the river, but you'll see back in some of these areas.

E

Around 25th Avenue, 26, 30th Avenue. Some of those areas in there continue to get a little bit more pink if you will or working more towards red. Some of those are some of the apartment areas and things that were realigned or readjusted or development of some more apartment areas within those areas. And then you go to the far left off at 32nd in that right.

E

There, on 32nd and 32nd basically is a whole nother cluster, low-income housing plus a huge apartment, complex sir, that our mini blocks long, and so that's where we see really high density students, that's where they live again, those that hasn't really grown much. It still remains about the same again. That's why, when you put ed Clapp on a map number five, you created a school that probably has the best walkability factor for students, because the students are right there.

E

Okay and you truly did create a neighborhood school by doing that, and then look out of Kennedy in what we see at Kennedy way out here is we continue to see that stretch going down and what the assumption could be is that as the growth continues to move down you're going to start to see, those numbers fill in well, we've been watching is 44 to 47 42nd to 47th on the other side, and that is that whole development that has four or five years ago there wasn't much there that continues to be Gilmore, colors and no that's homes.

E

That's that's housing! That's at apartments most of it, and so as that continues to build incomplete itself. Those now become some of the bigger factors of attendance for Kennedy and the question will be for the future. Is, does develop and start to move towards 64,000 right now. It has not, but eventually that growth and some of the growth that's going to be across the highway potentially will have to be the kennedy area and that's what I'll fill Kennedy back in.

E

So let's hop across the interstate and go over towards the river, let's get down by Bennett when we look at Bennett elementary and discovery. So let's go up to discovery, that's 19 and then you come down and we get to number one is Bennett and then Davies is further south at 20.

E

Bennett area now is pretty much filled in with housing around Bennett, but the growth continues to go. So when you see this green down by 70th Avenue in this green, that's over here on the other side of 25th more towards the interstate you're gonna continue to see those pop up on the map and that's where the growth is going to come from and I was going to get darker as time goes and you're gonna see new green spots as the infrastructure in he starts to develop.

E

So that's the challenge coming forward for discovery, then it in Daviess basically and that's what we watch each year. So hopefully that makes sense to everybody. We go back up north. You can just kind of see where most of this has stayed about the same. The concern we have right now is number 13 over on the far left.

E

That's the Madison neighborhood in the numbers at Madison are indicating that they're moving more towards a hundred and twenty students in that school versus the 198 or the 200 that we thought they might have and that at one time they were so Rob and his report has said that, or he has told me personally, he said his biggest concern. He has right.

E

Now is not so much the growth on the far south because we know that growth is coming but is what's going on with the Madison neighborhood, because the numbers are just not there, and so we continue to see lower numbers and that's becoming the struggle that Rachel brings to you all the time. When we're looking at staffing and one section versus two Shack of the sections, do we get the 30 kids? Do we split it?

E

How do we manage those smaller numbers, four sections and that's eventually going to be a problem, so that has to be part of your discussion as a board and as an administration moving forward with what might occur there.

E

This isn't something that you have to make decisions about today, but that has to be the conversation moving forward from my opinion, okay, so I've presented a lot of things talked about a lot of things, some assumptions, but I guess my summary statement is you have really good data and it really is playing out well and it's data to work with this. You have to make decisions moving forward on some of these things and I think you're in a good place, because of that.

E

So if there's any questions, I'd be more than happy to try to answer some.

A

Looks like everybody read it well, David I brought.

F

This out for but going up on, 17th Avenue, just before you reach Interstate around that 34th Street, there's two very, very large apartment buildings being built there. Don't they have the potential that is Lewis and Clark correct? Oh don't they have the potential where at Lewis & Clark we're currently at 528?

F

Don't we have or the capacity is 528 and we're at 504? Don't we have a prospect of getting 30 or 40 kids out of there.

E

I'm, sorry, it's not indicating that because of the types apartments, but if that did materialize, you have an out because Lincoln because of opening eagles was brought down to a point where, if you had to add some more kids in the Lincoln you could and so again it would be a minor boundary change. But at least you have an outlet there.

E

So if over time it starts to play out like that because of those apartment buildings, then you can make some decisions, but right now the indications are that that's not going to bring a ton of kids just like the apartments are building up on the north end. A lot of that is college housing and it's not young families with young kids that are coming in. So that's that's what we monitor and right now it's not indicating that, but that could change, because we saw that happen a couple years ago around the Kmart area.

E

Okay, but it's a good point David do we need to keep our eye on it.

A

Thank you, Jeff. Moving on to our next staff report looks like brock and perhaps jim. I have a long-range facility update.

G

Mr. president, members of the board were working on, projecting we'll put this on the screen here, rather than have a handout. It's easier to see. You know larger picture while we're getting that loaded.

G

I'll just remind you that, as part of the long-range facility plan, we've talked to you over the past year to 18 months about the fact that we know that, due to the attendance area of discovery, as well as the current enrollment at discovery, that it was going to present some challenges for us and things that we needed to do in the district and possibly upgrading as well as the possibility of maybe needing to expand discovery to account for some growth.

G

Well, you then, in the early summer, authorized the administration to in fact go out and seek assistance through an architect to help do an assessment of discovery, and in doing that assessment, we're really focused on three things, one.

G

What would need to happen with discovery today if we simply wanted to serve the current population, no growth simply have better traffic flow within the building more useable space, more efficient use of. What's there today to meet the current needs step two was for us to do an assessment that said, if we need to grow to X and what you just saw in the enrollment report, the X is 1,100 students if we're gonna, take discovery and make it workable and serviceable for 1,100 students.

G

What would it take in the current structure to make that happen, and the third option was, if we've reached a point of capacity in which sticking with the guiding principles of the district, once you get to 50% capacity of a new facility? Is it time to be thinking about a fourth middle school at some point, and so we really went out and and looked at those items in doing so. In late summer, we hired surberg architects through an RFP process and interviewed seven firms and and selected them to really do that.

G

Assessment for us and they've been working on that assessment throughout the latter parts of the summer and early fall, and then we presented this information to the planning committee on the 14th of November and we're here to give you your first look as a full board tonight. As to what we found as we've gone through this, and as we looked at the enrollment data that came that dr.

G

Schatz just walked you through as an administration, we have said: if 1100 is the target at discovery, the concept of now being the time to build a fourth middle school really was taken off the table because the reality is given the capacities you have at the current buildings. If you open a fourth middle school, if you start on it now and open it theoretically, within two years, it's half full and that does not stick with the philosophy is what we've done with the district. So we've told zou burg.

G

Let's take that option off the table and let's take a look at how do we get discovery to 1,100 students and and what would need to happen, and so we're gonna walk through that here. I'll make this a little bigger for us, so we can take a look at what we've come up with consistent with our long-range facility plan and really some of the things that we've heard through the years at Discovery is three really real primary focuses.

G

One is that discovery today does not have the same type of secure front entrance that a lot of our other buildings have. If you recall what we've really done, especially adjusted our other two middle schools is we've guided traffic through the vestibule into the office before you can get into the building, so you have to sign in, and we know who's in the building discovery does not allow for that. I don't have a pointer. Is there a pointer in there bill? No sorry, the office today is right there, where Jim is pointing.

G

So when you get into the main front door. That office is is to the right, so when you're in you're in okay- and so we view that as something that is a concern with discovery, no matter what you do with enrollment and a number of students that are there. The second concern that has always been out there is discovery because of how it was originally designed and set up did not have adequate space for multi-purpose spaces such as for wrestling for dance for cardio and fitness equipment.

G

So today, between these two gyms, this is actually split. In half and you've got some cardio equipment in one part and you've got storage in the other part. You've got really no place for wrestling no place for dance. Currently, that's either happening in the Commons or it's taking up some of the gym space that would otherwise be used for PE or things of that nature, and so you really don't have a good useable space in that facility for those purposes. So we know that's a need. That's been out there, the other need that's been out.

G

There has been in the music area today. This is your current music wing and we're doing some small group and instructional things on the stage and that again isn't consistent with what we'd really like to see happening in our middle schools and so there's a need for additional space for practices and things of that nature and instruction within the music wing. So what we show here then, on the map is that which is in blue, is what we would consider to be a need for new construction. The green portions on this map are remodeling.

G

So when we talk about okay, you're gonna do some new construction, you're gonna move the office, you got to remodel the existing office and make it usable for some other purposes. So what types of remodeling in the building need to happen in order to be more efficient to serve an eleven hundred student population providing for some better project-based learning spaces, things of that nature, widening corridors to make better traffic flow.

G

When you have that many students in the building, so that's what we consider in the remodeling area, the yellow space is some refurbishing, which is really going to require us to do some some higher level of fluorine lighting, maybe some light mechanical things of that nature, and then this peach, color or tan color. Whatever. However, you see that on the map, there is what we have categorized as a light refurbishing and those are things like flooring and paint that this building is 23 years old and really nothing's being done to it.

G

In that period of time it has stood the test of time. It's a great facility when you drive by it you'd be may be surprised to know it's 23 years old, and so it's just time consistent with our long-range facility plan that we do something with discovery and some of the internal components, and some of that is in gym free and his team's long-range facility plan on that deferred maintenance list. So what happens if you make a decision to do something with discovery?

G

Now is there's items on that list that get taken care of in this plan that then get removed off that list, as this ongoing need, and you can juggle some other priorities as you do that so there's really those four components.

G

What we see as primary needs on the front end and I'm going to show you a picture of the exterior as we talk about the trap, the the actual vehicle traffic flow and what would happen there, but first and foremost, we really think it's important that we do something with this front entrance and and design and build a new front entrance today, right where this marker is coming along here.

G

That's the exterior wall today, okay, so what we would be proposing is to be putting on an addition that will will come out into what's currently the sidewalk area and the bus loop and we'll be putting in a new office area with a secure front entrance as a vestibule here, where the traffic left to come into the office before you can get into the building. This would be the main administrative office wing and in the front of the building. You'd have a conference space here and you'd have a larger multi-purpose space for some staff meetings.

G

Things of that nature that will now be very consistent with our other buildings and having a much better secure front entrance. The other thing is, you know, and you experience this a little bit even when we had our public forum out there today we're serving nine hundred and eighty I believe is the current number of kids in our. This is our current Commons right here that just isn't large enough for a couple of reasons. One it's just too small, but the other is you've, got a number of columns that run right along this line.

G

Okay, so you don't have any use that became this becomes the main hallway into the Commons and you're, not using any of the space between the Commons and the wall, because you've got all these pillars in there.

G

So we would basically nearly double the size of the Commons we'd, be removing two pillars between each one of these main load-bearing pillars to open up that space and make it more usable which allows for just much better traffic flow and allows for a better ability to serve those students, not only from a perspective of during the lunch period, but really just the flow throughout the building for other purposes of that Commons.

G

This also would be having us put in an additional service line in our kitchen area, which will just give us better flow for a population of 1,100 students.

G

So we would really see that as one of the main priorities of this building and in doing that, we also change the entrance right here by the theater, as well as over here by the gymnasium, we're taking out those rounded kind of almost castle looking entrances and we're squaring that off and creating a true vestibule, where you're coming in and you've got more of a staging area and just think about, even when we did our open forum and how congested it got in here now, you've got a better flow of that traffic.

G

You got better entrance into the facility and we think that really solves a number of problems in that front entrance. Okay. In doing that, we also know that there's a need for an addition here that would put on this would be a wrestling room. This would be a dance space and then your cardio space we'd remove that wall and and remodel this into a cardio space. So now, you've got a better PE and extracurricular area here and also widening this hallway right now.

G

The hallway is this wide, and so when you come in here, you're funneling a lot of traffic through a very narrow hallway. We will be opening this up redoing some of the work for these public restrooms, as well as these locker room spaces for PE and coaches locker rooms and we'd, be opening up a much larger area. I believe this would be 24 feet is that right Jim? This would now be a 24 foot wide hallway for traffic flow for PE and use for extracurriculars and things of that nature.

G

So it really expands the usability of that end of the building from a PE perspective and again thinking about 1100 students down the road instead of the current 980 that are in there.

G

The other addition, then, that we think is important, is the the piece here that would put on a small wing for some additional music space for either individual lessons or for just curricular use for music that gets that off the stage and allows the stage to be used for things other than teaching small group or larger group music and then just allows us to to better utilize. Some of this space gives a little more storage things of that nature. So, from an editions standpoint, we don't feel based on the current demographic study.

G

There's a need for an additional pod to provide additional classrooms, because what this will give you is. This now provides for ability to remodel the old office into some needs for potentially special, add or additional classrooms that you would need. There would be some remodeling in each of the pods to make better use of those pods and having project-based learning in the center of those pods, as well as better use from from a locker area and and and just access to those pods.

G

So it really just opens up the building a much greater for the purpose of having 1,100 students in there. The other thing that we think is important is the exterior of the building, and what currently happens with traffic flow has been a challenge for us in that neighborhood, and we think that there's a need, as we do this, to redesign the front entrance. So, if you think about first of all those additions, I talked to you about this is what the building would look like going forward.

G

The addition for the multi-purpose here that new office and secure front entrance, which pushes out the front end of the building further and then the music area here what happens is today, there's a drive-through right here that would be eliminated. If we put on that addition. Okay, we also because the current bus loop comes in right here and comes up into here and then flow out vehicle traffic as well as buses.

G

We would move that out more into some of that green space because of that addition and we'd have better fall traffic coming in to here. This would be all parent drop-off traffic and we would actually create a bus loop where there's current parking. So now buses would come in on 18th. They would come into this loop. You could stage them along the loop students would get out. They would go into the main front entrance here, potentially into this entrance. They get back out of the loop on the 18th and out and no longer congesting.

G

Any of this space, as as they're coming in it, doesn't really impact what happens with parking, because, although you would lose some parking discovery currently has significantly more parking than code requires, and even in this model you would still have sufficient parking west of the gym, as well as south of the music wing, and so we get much better traffic flow coming through here. We've got some specific visitor parking spots that are close to the front entrance now and a much better flow for bus traffic.

G

That's not intermixed with the other traffic that's coming through there, so that's really a synopsis of what we see for additions as far as the remodeling again, many of these things would be part of our ongoing long-range facility plan.

G

We would just try to make a better use of this while we're doing it now and try to kill two birds with one stone and get it upgraded, and as we've worked with the administration at Discovery, sir burgers really looked at the learning spaces, the quality of those spaces, the lighting, what we would do with the secure front entrance, it really makes it more usable for 1,100 students, and so this is really your first look at that.

G

On the second floor, it really is remodeling and refurbishing carpet paint flooring, different lights in some of those areas, there's some heat pump replacement. That is part of some of the remodeling. That would have to be done. That's more of things that would be needing to be done long term anyway, and so we bring this to you for information. We can certainly answer any questions you might have. The plan is that we will be bringing this to the planning committee for a second look on the first, which is Friday to really look at.

G

What is the cost of the project? Potential funding sources? Is the project phased and if so, what types of things would be addressed first and the plan would be for the planning committee and the administration to bring a recommendation back to the board at the December meeting for possible action in light of what we've seen with the enrollment report, what we've seen with what needs to be done with discovery and what we might want to do going forward, based on a timeframe and and when we would need to start that process with that.

G

I can take any questions if there are any at this time.

F

I got a couple brach with the when you add on that new entry during that time period. How are you gonna get into the school.

G

So if we do this new entry, I believe we would still have access to in these two points and tell such a time that we would have a main front entry. The other thing is, you would probably be doing this work through the summer months and we've talked to discovery already about not having summer school this year.

G

If this, if the plan is to move forward this year to be ready for fall of 18 or if you do it next year to be ready for fall of 19 not having summer school in there, so we're gonna limit the traffic into that building through the summer months there would always be other entrances on the backside for administration, those employees that need to be in there, so I think we would have a plan. 2A Douce traffic in there be have access through these other doors.

G

Until you would get to that part of the addition to make that happen,.

F

That probably answered the second question: do you think you could get most of this remodeling done during May to September.

G

I think the short answer is no the I think if you were going to do this whole project. It's it's unrealistic to think this could happen between May and September. We're I'm meeting with zur Berg tomorrow or we're meeting was er Berg tomorrow. Some of the questions that planning had was, let's give us a time table of each phase and and how that would come forward.

G

I think it's feasible depending on when we take action that this portion could be done between May and September, ready to be open and that's what we're gonna try to hone in on reserve Berg tomorrow, the real issue: there is less about ability to get the work done and more about getting the materials here, so you're ready to do the work and the sooner a decision is made. So we can get out to bid to get the materials ordered that really drives when we can get that done.

G

But the reality is because you're living in the building, while you're redoing it you probably have to do it in phases, and you have to most likely do the addition in one phase and the remodeling in a second year construction period. In a second phase.

A

Grab Jennifer.

H

The parking slide that you had or the drive through slide in the front, yet one of the additions would eliminate over here this one. But what happens to the one on the west side way up? You have to go up or down. You have to move it down right there. What happens there does that one is that one eliminated as well. It.

G

Is not eliminated, but what you lose. Is you lose the parking that's right here by creating the bus loop? Okay, so you you retain all of this parking that you currently have. You lose a few spots that really start here, and today you see here's the drive in for that parking right here. You can see it in the background, so you lose that. But what you gain is a bus swoop, and you don't now you no longer have buses in other places where you might have vehicles, so what you lose in vehicle traffic.

G

You gain then in having buses in a different area to help change that fall as well as you get better flow for for parent drop-off in this area. In here so they're coming in and out and you're gonna have less of them, congesting that otherwise would be used for parking. Well.

H

And the reason that I asked, if I mean, is if we're getting to 1,100 students and I, don't know how many Drive in the mornings are it in the afternoons to pick up their kids versus how many take the buses but currently they're, all three used, and so, if we're eliminating and the hope is that they're all going through the center, are we going to have major congestion in the middle, even though it's better for buses correct.

G

Currently, they are all three used, but they're not currently all three full and so there's not a lot of student driving traffic in six.

H

Seven eight yeah yeah.

G

I think that, as we've worked with that with zur Berg as they've talked to the city is we've looked at traffic flows. We feel very comfortable that we don't create a bottleneck or too little parking in this case and I think the best example of that is when we had district-wide PD at Discovery month ago to say in September September 25th.

G

We had all the teachers, half the teachers and some from other districts, because I know I, think there's some West Fargo folks here and then that entire area was plumb full, but that's probably the most people you had in the building that drive at any one time. So, on a regular day of traffic, you wouldn't have that same level of parking need, so we feel very comfortable. We'd have adequate parking here. Even in this new plan, I, don't.

H

Necessarily mean parking, I mean dropping off and picking up yeah.

G

Not to, and and actually we better because of the flow of that being more usable and separating the buses from the other in traffic and you will and we're very comfortable and zur Berg has worked with other middle schools that they've designed to feel very comfortable about the traffic fold. This is one of the first areas they actually addressed, because I think it's been a commonly held belief that that traffic flow there between buses and parent drop-off has been really congested, so there needed to be a redesign of that outside flow. Thank you.

A

I

A

Very much Brock and Jim and planning they'll be looking forward part two on Friday morning that gets us to our consent agenda.

B

I move that we accept the consent agenda.

C

A

It's been moved and seconded all those in favor or approval of the consent agenda with the HR addendum. Please signify by saying yes, yes,.

I

A

Signify by saying no motion carries I think before we go on to our business items, we're going to take a short break so we'll take a break until 6:30.

A

Like to call us back into session or to our business items- and the first item is our 2017 out of report- memo number 54 in your package on behalf of the Planning Committee I- guess, I volunteered and Kristy accepted my volunteerism to kind of walk the board through the audit report from a board members perspective. Obviously, dr.

A

Schatz and Brock are here to answer any specific questions that get too difficult for me, but I want to start you at the very back of this booklet, because that's the important page for those of you that maybe don't study, accounting or faz B or Gatsby rules. The goal when you're being audited is to get unmodified, which is kind of a strange term. But that means they look through all the numbers and they didn't feel there was any material misrepresentations nor nothing that had to be recalculated.

A

So they said we had an unmodified report on our government activities or major government funds and our aggregate remaining fund information that is like a five-star gold, star, double-a report card for Brock and his accounting team. If you just page back a couple of pages from the back I just want to point out some highlights in the actual report, we got from the office of the state auditor on the bottom of page 70, actually, the second to last paragraph.

A

Given the limitations of the audit, they did not identify any deficiencies in internal controls that we considered to be a material weakness.

A

Many many years ago, I think at the time Dinah might have been the only other person on the board. We had a couple of audits that came through. That said, you really don't have all the internal controls you need in place.

A

Things from inventory management systems, for instance, so over the years rocks, predecessor and now Brock have worked to make sure those internal controls are not only in place but are in compliance with the most recent Gatsby requirements, so hats off again to the accounting team, which reports to Brock luckily he's got accountants that can keep the numbers accurate and then the very last sentence on this page.

A

The results of our tests disclosed no instances of non-compliance or other matters that are required to be reported under the government accounting standards, so in full compliance with Gatsby on page 72. It sounds like it's saying about the exact same thing, but this is in relationship to our federal dollars.

A

The state auditor not only looks at the revenues we get locally and from the state, but they also look at our federal program dollars and have to give a report out on those again on the bottom of page 72. In our opinion, the Board of Education of the city of Fargo complied in all material respects, with the types of compliance requirements referred to above that could have direct or material effect on each of its major federal programs for the year ending June, 30th 2017 and on page 73, the very first sentence of the last paragraph.

A

We have audited the financial statements of the Board of Education of the city of Fargo, as of and for the year end of June 30th 2016, and have issued our report thereon, dated October 16th of 2017, which contained an unmodified opinion on those financial statements. So again, the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval not only on our overall accounting, but also on the federal programs, to highlight a few things in the actual document itself.

A

That I think at least from a board members perspective are worth noting. I referenced you now to the front end and we'll start at page 4. The first section here, starting on page 4 for a number of pages, are really a narrative put together by our team. Our management team that is required as part of the out of process and I just want to highlight what they've pointed out in our financial highlights number one. Our net position decreased by 1 million two hundred and thirty, two thousand as a result of the current year's operations.

A

That's a function of a number of things and, as we drill through this, the number one big one is the pension liability and the impact it has on our overall net position as an entity. It's not a huge negative at all and we'll see that when we get back into the the meat of the matter later in a couple more pages, total revenues from all sources were a hundred and seventy five million nine five hundred ninety two thousand six hundred and thirty three dollars, and we spent slightly more than that by board action.

A

We actually deficit spent last year and we knew we were doing it. We spent a hundred and seventy six million eight twenty five and eighty four dollars a long story short. When we looked at where we started the year. What we took in for revenues, what we put out for expenditures we at the end of the day are going to have approximately 31 million four hundred and thirty, two thousand four hundred and forty seven thousand or forty seven dollars of unassigned fund balance in the general fund.

A

If you look back a couple more pages to page eight for those that like to look at things graphically, you can actually see where our revenues came from and where our expenditures go out and, as we all know, the bulk of our our revenues come from both the state and local property taxes. They make up pretty close to eighty seven percent plus of our revenues and when it comes to the expenses, obviously our personnel costs and drive the bulk of the expenditures of the district.

A

If you flip back to page 13, I just want to make sure everybody understands how the fund balance looks and how it's been looking and I actually I believe the graph on the bottom of page 13 is really a bad graph, mostly because we're dealing with such small percentage shifts. When you look at this increase in fiscal year, 17 on the bar chart, it looks like it's a huge increase in fund balance, but that's just because of the actual reference numbers on the left-hand side of that chart.

A

You can see up above and the numeric data again that 31 million 648 277 is our ending fund balance and you can see historically, we've been hovering anywhere from the high 20s to the low 30s really for the last decade or so, and that is on the general fund side of things. We're gonna get back to a consolidated page where you'll see not only the general fund balance, but the capital project fund balance. The food service fund balance all the different piles of money that make up quote-unquote the total fund balances of the district.

A

If you jump over to page 15, there's just a couple of things. I wanted to note here because I to me they were kind of aha moments at the very top of page 15 you'll notice that our total expenditures for capital projects dropped significantly last year in 2016, we had fourteen point, eight million that we put out last year. It was eight point six.

A

This is really because of the completion of the Eagles Elementary occurred in the prior year, and that's why we add such a significant drop in the middle of that page can struction in progress. I had to look at that for a moment said: okay, what the heck is that nine million that's actually our ops center, because, even though we're in it and its operating today at the close of the books in 2017, we hadn't closed out all of the contractor payments and other other debt associated with that project.

A

Obviously, when we get to the end of this year- and we see an audit unless we start something new- that's going to be a much much lower number close to zero over on the top of page 16 is what I alluded to gave us a negative position in growth, and that just shows you all the outstanding long-term liabilities and the big one is the net pension liability in 2016.

A

We were told by TF, F, R and pers that our combined net pension liability to them was 153 million, seven hundred and fifty thousand and change due to just stellar investment performance by the boards that handle the state funds for retirement, longevity increases and actually salary increases and a recalculation going forward and what they think their average rate of return is going to be.

A

They have now told us they think our liability is a hundred and seventy six million two hundred and fifty three thousand and change so an increase of twenty three million of long-term liability that, quite frankly, we have no control over and I'll I'm here to tell you, having looked at what they're using for their assumptions, I think the 176 million is way low. I think they still have a pie in the sky assumption on what they're gonna grow the pension assets at so I would expect at some point in time in the future.

A

We're gonna get a re up of this liability from the state agencies and it it's actually going to be greater than 176 million and was something was to happen, and the state would step to the plate, decide to fund some of that liability. All of that being said, I don't on anybody to think, especially none of our staff to think that the sky is falling on our employees pension plans.

A

This is very, very typical of a defined benefit pension plan, especially for an entity the size of the public employees of North, Dakota or all of the people in the tff. Our plan, in fact, by government, defined benefit pension plans. Ours is one of the better funded ones in the entire country right now, but it's still an unfunded liability that happens over many many many years.

A

One of the people that I'm sitting next to in this room will be accessing his retirement funds probably next year, but we have lots of teachers in this district that are decades away from when this liability actually shows up for payment to them. So, while these funds are certainly underfunded, today, I don't believe, there's any jeopardy of a default and the state pension plans whatsoever, but it impacts our books and that's the bottom line.

A

If you go to page 22, that's kind of the big picture page in my opinion, because it shows most of our activities on one page, you'll see our general fund, our debt service, our capital projects and then what's called non major government funds and that encompasses a number of different budgets from food service.

A

I believe the activity fund is in there. Probably the special assessment fund is in there as well and I might be Miss OH the health insurance fund as well. Anyway.

A

If you look to the very bottom you'll see, the fund balance totals of all of our different budget areas is really a total of 53 million, eight hundred and seventy nine thousand five hundred and six that doesn't mean we have 53 million to spend on a new middle school, because the unencumbered amount of that is that 31 million that's sitting in the general fund, the others, are really tied into the debt bond indebtedness that we have or other obligations that the district faces.

A

But it gives you on one page, really the consolidated balance sheet for the district, their window just.

J

A quick question on page 22 that top-line revenues, local sources, capital projects, that nine point five million- is that the two different levies added together the building levy and the specified I believe.

A

So, thank you. We have separated those out, but in the gasmer recording they're still put into the same line and the last thing I wanted to touch base arm and then, if there are questions, I know you probably all studied this and fell asleep with it.

A

A few nights in a row but I wanted to take you over to page 24, because you know we have had this self-insured health plan for a number of years and we really, as a board, haven't taken a look at the finance mechanisms behind it so much we approve it in the budget.

A

Each year we approve whatever the funding limits, are going to be for the district and for the employees, but this activity on the internal service fund on page 24 is our health insurance plan and you'll see there that it shows the cash and investment assets. Prepaid expenses talks about the liabilities. The important number there for us is what they're calling them IBNR claims.

A

That's the runoff claims they did anticipate if we were to shut the plan down right now and then obviously our net position, and because of where we saw our claim number going versus our fund balance number going. We actually made a conscious effort this last year to transfer additional dollars into this fund to shore it up, and so hopefully we would not have to put as big a premium increases our employees, so we utilize some of our fund balance. That was the action we did I want to say in April or May.

A

It was late and last school year anyway. I just thought that was pretty interesting to actually be able to see out in one page. What's going on with that health insurance fund with that I'll turn it over to any questions. Anybody has or open up for emotion. If anybody cares to make one John.

K

I just want to say as well congratulation to Brock and your team, and thank you very much. You make our job very easy when we get reports like this from auditors. Thank you.

B

I move that we accept the audit as presented for.

A

C

I'll second, it's.

A

Been moved and seconded any further discussion Amory. Will you call the roll please.

L

Goldenberg, yes, can you it soon yeah Paulson? Yes,.

K

L

Baker, yes,.

K

L

Yep Bonnie Benson, yes, Boyd, yes, Johnson, yes,.

A

Motion carries our next order of business. Is the recognition of the.

A

Go ahead, Brock mr.

G

President members of the board, I certainly appreciate the kind words and especially for my team and I, want to make sure to recognize them publicly. Patty Richards, one of our accountants, really does probably 90% of the work with the audit team and when they're in here and just does a phenomenal job but patty Jackie GAAP, who most of you know and Haley burns, and you should be very proud that we have three CPAs on our staff and they do a phenomenal job and I think they need to have that credit for the work they do.

G

They make my job very easy and I get to come here and hear all the great things that you say about what we do financially, but they do a lot of that heavy lifting. So thank you all for the kind words for my team. I just want to make sure to acknowledge them as well.

A

Thank you Brian and do pass along the board Spang to the workers. Please.

A

Our next order of business is the recognition of the petition from the FAA to be the representative body for negotiations in the upcoming teacher negotiations and I'd open it up for a motion. I.

J

Would move to accept recognition of the Fargo Education Association as the negotiating body for the teachers.

A

Deserve second.

A

Moved and seconded any discussion.

A

Amory call the roll please Knutson.

L

Yeah Paulson, yes,.

F

L

F

L

Yes, Ani, yes, Benson, yes, Boyd, yes, Goldenberg, yes, Johnson! Yes,.

A

Motion carries our next item is when I added on business item 6c I've got a couple of things. I wanted to share with the board on the next steps going forward, as we start the process of trying to find somebody that can actually fill the shoes of dr. Schatz, which will be a large task for this board. First I want to give you a little background on time frame. I've been through a couple of these in the past.

A

We are at a pretty critical juncture in time right now, technically speaking, we're gonna want the world of potential superintendent candidates and I do mean the world not just locally, because I'm pretty sure everybody locally will know it by the time I'm out of this board meeting.

A

But we want to get the word out to potential candidates long before Christmas, okay, because most people that are looking to either change from one district to another or new their contract, with their current district, are going to be doing that really over the next 60 to 90 days. So schools of our size that are in the search mode, some of them are already out there fishing and trying to find good candidates interviewing people. Others are just beginning the process, so I think luckily for us and dr.

A

Schatz chose this time because he understood if we act accordingly and with some measure of haste, we're gonna be in fine shape, getting a good pool of candidates to look through. That being said, knowing that time was of the essence, I asked Anne Murray today to actually send out RFP proposal requests to a number of search firms. In the past, we've used, rayon associates, I, think for the last three superintendent searches in this district, but they're not the only firm they're, actually out of Des Moines, Iowa and I believe amry connected with Grand Forks.

A

You've, probably all aware of the fact they're going through a superintendent search Moorhead by the way is going through a superintendent search and she pulled back the records of who we had went to the last two times around, and so we sent out requests today to six different executive search firms that specialize in education area. So these are folks that we'll see- and those of us that are in San Antonio most of these folks will have a tradeshow booth at the national conference each and every year.

A

So those letters went out today and I think if I correct me if I'm wrong a Maria I think we've requested that they get back their proposal to us by February, 8th December.

L

A

December 8th.

B

A

Into February, so hopefully at our December board meeting we'll be in a position to pick a search, firm and we'll have their proposals. Obviously we're gonna have a committee form I'll talk about that in a moment, so Amory has a little help between earn Brittany and they'll kind of get all of that matrix together for us to look at it or a next board meeting with the hopes that we'll select one of those firms doesn't mean we have to.

A

If we choose not to I'm just here, to tell you that we may be operating with an interim superintendent, because the last thing I think we're gonna want to do is start doing.

A

A superintendent search, mid-january I think we're going to be too late in the game, but I think we're fine right now and I actually confirmed that with the head of one of the search firms, what he thought the drop dead last date to make a decision to go forward would be, and he said well as long as you have picked a firm by December 15th you're going to be fine. So they can.

A

These folks know how to put things out in a hurry: it's what they do day in and day out, so that is first and foremost what we started with we talked a bit. Emery has a magic notebook over here. She kept really good records on everything that happened. The last time we went through this process, and one of the things that became apparent to me quite frankly, is I need to form an ad-hoc committee to be of assistance to both Brittany and anne-marie.

A

To really do the nuts and bolts work in between board actions and board decisions. The committee has no authority to make decisions. They are going to be the worker bees that really figure out. Who are the groups that are going to be interviewing and who's going to be in those interview groups? What are the questions?

A

The different groups are going to be asking what is the timeframe for bringing people in for interviews and where are we going to put them up, and where are we going to hold the interviews so when I get done with sharing the information? From from my perspective, I'm gonna ask that you'd approve the ad-hoc committee.

A

That's gonna be made up of Linda Dinah myself, Brittany and Ann Marie and I'm gonna ask Ann Marie to chair that to really keep this ball moving in between our board meetings and make sure whatever decisions come forward are coming to us at the right time. I'm hopeful that we will not have to call a special board meeting during this process, but be aware of the fact.

A

If we come to a time crunch- and we only have one meeting in December, there may be a need for a special board meeting to be called, but I'm hopeful under Ann Marie's guidance, she's gonna, put a timeline together. Working with that team keeps us from having to do that, if at all possible.

A

Specifically what I want that group to be working on is coordinating the different interview groups for those of you that weren't here when we've done this before it isn't just the board. That's gonna interview, superintendent candidates. When it comes down to the finalists and we're gonna have some of our administrators interviewing those people.

A

We're gonna have some of our teachers interviewing those people, probably some of our support staff interviewing those people and all of those different groups will then provide their sense of feedback to us as a board for us to take into consideration, as we make our final decision on a selection.

A

That decision will be made by the nine of us, but we certainly want that input from all of the the stakeholders internally in the district, we may even end up with a community group doing interviews, that's all for that ad-hoc committee to come up with a plan, bring it back to the board for acceptance and action on. So that's number one number two as I indicated, really put a timeline together for us.

A

It would be my hope that, maybe by about February 8th, we might actually be to the point in time when we're doing interviews, I'm, anticipating some time in February, would be when most of these people would be brought in for an interview. Whoever we vote selected as finalists again once we get a search firm and that process gets out into the public, they're gonna have from their perspective. What they think is going to be the timeframe that the pool of candidates should have done to them. They'll then, do some background checks.

A

Make sure that whoever they're gonna forward on to us for consideration would pass mustard if Britney put them through a background check. So a lot of that is gonna be done by the search firm. Then we'll get all of those candidates and they'll come with resumes varying from 20 pages. I. Think one was a hundred and some pages last time around and you as an individual board member are gonna, get them all to read.

A

We're then gonna be figuring out a process. I don't have a magic method, but we're gonna figure out a process to narrow down to probably three to five finalists I would guess, that's probably the maximum we're gonna want to bring in for an interview we may not. At the end of doing our interviews, think we found the candidate, that's not the end of the world either. We actually have some pretty talented people here.

A

So if we need to operate for several months without full-time superintendent and have an interim I, don't think that's going to be really anything to lose sleep over, but hopefully we'll get some very, very strong candidates, so we certainly have in the past. My thought would be if our interviews can happen in February, we're then probably putting an offer off to somebody in March it's doubtful and less. It would be an internal candidate which certainly happened last time around it's doubtful.

A

Whoever we'd be hiring is going to be in a position to come to the district until the school year is over wherever they currently are located, they're, probably either an administrator or a superintendent in some other school district under contract through the remainder of this school year, where it would be ideal to have some time for them to maybe kind of spend a couple of weeks with Jeff to really understand from his perspective. What's going right? Where is he still thinking more axle-grease needs to be put?

A

We may or may not have that luxury, but maybe we can pull them out of retirement for a couple of lunches along the way. You never know it's possible, so that's kind of from my perspective, the timeline, a lot of work is going to ground.

A

Work is going to have to be done by the ad hoc committee between now and December 12th, so we can hopefully have the search committee or the the search firm selected and then a fair amount of work is going to happen again for that committee between that selection and probably Christmas break as they finalize job descriptions. Getting information on the district for candidates to look at what publications are we're going to be advertised in?

A

All of that will come from recommendations from the search firm, but obviously, at the end of the day, we're going to weigh in as well as a board and hopefully through the ROC committee and anything that needs board action is going to be brought to us in a timely manner. Any questions Jennifer so.

H

Just to clarify the committee doesn't go or doesn't do all the interviews and come with final finalist interviews the whole board. The.

A

Whole board will be doing interviews and.

H

So the committee is just really setting up the places for interviews and times and.

A

Actually, I'll go on record and tell you most of that. Won't really be done by the committee when we're at that stage. It'll be done by this person that my left over here.

L

A

Probably be taking care of, though,.

L

For the last superintendent surge, the ad hoc committee that was formed did things like proposed advertisement placements, the salary range that was posted through the search firm. They worked on the per fir'd qualities the requirements for the positions, the promo flyer, the online application that type of those items that they were then forwarded to the full board for approval. So they did a lot of that legwork. That information came to the board for approval.

L

Then they did work on setting up the interview is in that figuring out which groups would interview and where to set that up as well.

A

When it comes to the actual interview of candidates that we'd be bringing in we're going to try and schedule that or all nine of us can be present now, I get the fact that that may not work for everybody each time. In fact, I'm pretty sure I missed one guy's interview the last time around, because I just had to be at work, someplace else, and then they went and hired him. In spite of me, turned out. Okay, I guess.

I

A

Other questions, obviously governance- we'll probably be talking about this a little bit this week. It'll certainly be on our agenda for some action items when we get back together in December, but at this point in time, I would appreciate a motion to approve the ad hoc committee I.

C

Would like to entertain a motion to approve the ad hoc committee, sir.

A

A second second, any further discussion and Marie. If you'd call the roll.

L

Paulsen, yes,.

K

L

K

L

Right: yeah Arnie; yes, Benson; yes, Boyd, yes, Goldenberg, yes, Knutson yeah, Johnson! Yes,.

A

And I do want to take this moment to actually thank Brittany, Emery, Dinah and Linda for rain to serve and I promise most of the work I'll get done before Christmas there's certainly going to be some for this committee after Christmas, but the heavy lifting. Hopefully it will be done by them.

A

That gets us to our board reports and first thing up the evening. Is NSBA Sharon, Rebecca I, don't want to put you on the spot. Did you bring your stuff with you to Rochester, or do you want to have me wait and have you report out when you're here in person.

M

A

Sorry, it's Christie. That's up! I.

M

Do have my stuff with me: okay,.

A

Well, why don't you go ahead and start Christie? Okay,.

M

Christma I think that was really interesting and I've seen you know both of them present before, but I think it was very important for all of the people at that conference to hear what I deal with in here on a regular basis. I think there's when you, when you guys were talking and I, hear people shaking their head and looking amazed of the things that are happening. Everyday I. Think that's really good. So I applaud you, dr.

M

Schatz and Chris as well for doing a great job on that then I went to all of John Draper's events. I thought he was very good and excited to hear that he's going to be coming for the kickoff one.

M

That stuck in my mind, wasn't when he talked about paddling upstream and how we need to stop comparing and just not allowing our test scores to define our school I look at the people that are in their buildings, the students and the principals and the good things that are coming out and when they're at our school board meetings reporting out. It's amazing what we're doing and I think it's important to not just let a test score, define us and celebrating the successes. I see that in the buildings that I'm dealing with right now.

M

So it's nice to reiterate a lot of the things that we are doing and building communities was the other one that stuck out to me how important it is for our kids to succeed when they feel a part of the community.

M

I think the Sonia trainer review from Washington I thought. You know her take on some of the things happening with Congress and with the Supreme Court was good. Sometimes it was hard to capture it because she did speak extremely when we were there and then the other one Karen crinkle and Cory Peterson that what I thought was a good input regarding what's happening in the juvenile justice system and I was aware of some of it before and I knew that dr.

M

Schatz was heading out to Washington, but it's nice to know that again we're already, on top of some of the things that they're reporting out there and I think the Prison Pipeline terminology that is used in a last previous job of mine. We heard that terminology a lot and the fact that Karen said she doesn't necessarily like that and I would agree with it. In my mind, it's more of a negative and let's find the positive in it and then Rocky Bleier I was there I think he was interesting.

M

I know that Brock got a kick out of him. It's nice to just have a little bit of inspirational speaking. It was a deep and super thought-provoking, but it was interesting to hear you know some of his words of wisdom. So that would conclude my report.

A

Thank You Christie brandy.

C

Well, my report is kind of short I, just kind of took and grabbed some of the top ones that I that I felt and I do think that the paddling upstream was one of my favorites just for the fact that they did go into the fact of eight million public school employees love their jobs and kind of elaborated a little bit on how much people do love enjoy working with their schools and then just not to make it always in a negative way and stop.

C

Comparing don't allow test scores to the to define your school inspire teachers with success stories, plan and celebrate success, use stories to overcome villains, put a face on children of poverty and then build connections with organizations like first responders veterans and such and then John Draper again in the hidden wits roots of declining support for public schools.

C

He just kind of went like the the fertilization and farm machinery and kind of how that was back in the day versus what we have now with the cell phones and everything and how much different it was, for you know, being patriotic versus selfish and how its flipped completely over and into our century now. So that was kind of interesting to to find him elaborate, a little bit on that and then David Compal.

C

His was also on the five personalities of being demanding, arrogant, whining, uncooperative and unreliable, and so he just basically touched on on on those, and it was he was pretty interesting, but I still overall find that John Draper was probably my favorite as far as the speakers go and then the last one was just they touched on the medical marijuana and how that would affect the schools and, as far as that goes with the schools, any kind of federal funding would not be granted to those that would allow that in their school.

C

So I guess that was basically the one thing that I found on that so or than that trying to make it short and sweet. So that's my report. Thank.

A

You brandy diner.

B

So I'll just make some general comments, since I went to most of the same sessions that everybody else has commented on. This is my twelfth Wow state school board convention and in general I think it was almost the best, if not the best overall, in terms of the lost the quality of the law seminar and the general quality of all of the sessions that I went to you know.

B

We all know that when we attend these kinds of conferences, often you go to a session that you're expecting to be one thing and as something else where the presenter isn't as good. As you know, you'd hoped and I really think that they did a great job and I know.

B

Jim will say he had nothing to do with it, but I do believe that, as the president of the State Board, you do give some guidance, at least towards the quality of the programming and I, certainly have seen a difference in the last couple of years in terms of the quality of the conference in general, so that I would say, and also of course, we all reiterate how much we like John, Draper and he's already coming next year.

B

So I don't need to tell you to hire him again and repeat that, but I think that I learned stuff from all of these various sessions that everybody else mentioned and I think I'll. Just let you read what I wrote and leave it at that. Well,.

A

Thank you Dinah and thank you all for first of all attending the conference, those that were able to and then ensuring your insights and Brock I, don't know, probably isn't going to help you, but there's another former Steeler, that's going to show up at the national school board as a keynote speaker he's got just about as many rings as this last guy had I. Think it's name's Terry something I bet yeah.

A

Yeah, let's move on to our Committee on ways on reports and Rebecca I'm gonna start with you.

M

A

How about you, Christy I, have.

M

Nothing to report either well.

A

I'm gonna report for you that Friday at 7:30 in this room is planning right.

M

Yes, that's correct and I will be back in Fargo for that sweet.

A

John, how about you.

K

Yeah back on the 15th I visited Ben Franklin. It was a really excellent visit, a lot going on there. You know I got there early to drop. My daughter off got to walk in with her and it's just astounding how quickly she disappeared once we walked through the doors and the the main focus I.

K

It's been probably an hour talking with the swift person there Jamie the Student, Wellness and family facilitator, and just about her her day to day activity, and we could activities, and it is such a vital program, I'm so proud of her schools that we have that in there.

K

Thank you for that legacy, Jeff and and I hope to see it grow and strengthen going forward. Other things I saw there. There was a big article in the forum right before Thanksgiving about I think that it started with the focus on the food and and critical needs at North, but really all of our schools have that facility now and in the middle schools have.

K

Is it Liz's closet, a very similar need really driven by the staff and students in those schools who recognize that we have a lot of people in really deep, desperate need and and having those safe places to get food get winter clothing? Get real household basic sort of things is so important, I'm so proud that we have that available to our kids, really. The I've also visited Washington and in between the two.

K

Our public schools in Fargo are just so excellent and there are such critical centers to their neighborhoods every time I visit them I'm, just so proud of our school districts and how we're helping our community, through our school districts at Washington, I I spent not as much time there as I would have cared to, but the I spent a session in mrs. drone ins, art class with the third graders.

K

What are the third grade sections and they were learning how to draw these snow-covered Christmas trees with various techniques, and it was so neat because I is well beyond any sort of artistic talent that I have at my age or that I've ever learned that have been doodling. These little things all day long and was so fun, was to see her at the very beginning, using some of the techniques.

K

I think that we've seen demonstrated in the past few months of you know the nonverbal communication of the kids and and directing the classroom and showing off the new techniques to do this sort of tree and then the kids all going back and open up their sketchbooks and starting to express themselves. And you know, mrs.

K

dronin had her way that she had shown to do a tree and then every different kid had their own expression of that, and some of them was really eager to take it to that sketchbook and get a tree down on there and just that energy out, and some of them were just okay, howdy mrs. drawn and do it.

K

Okay and very, very careful and and I think it's so critical that we have that in our elementary schools and I've seen it with my kids going through the school district here, how it allows them to find a way to express themselves that otherwise they might not be able to do and and again just a really great important piece of our school district.

K

Yesterday we had our first negotiations committee meeting changing the subject, a little bit, just real initial kind of road mapping and strategy, we'll be meeting again on the 11th of December, a Monday at noon. Right here to continue that conversation, and that concludes my report. Thank you very much.

K

B

Okay, thank you. So, since the last meeting fun things I did, I was able to get to the mission of Herman Stern movie screening. That was immediately after our board meeting, and that was another excellent film made by video arts who you know we collaborated with for the opening of Jamie's high school so and there's a curriculum involved in this too, and just in case any of you missed it or oh they're, showing it again tonight.

B

It's oh well, if you're missing it now, I forgot, but the video is available for purchase or to see, but it's the story of a silent, savor, so to speak. Jewish man here who saved 125 Jews from Germany and Austria just prior to the Second World War, and so it's a really important story relative to what's going on in our community now and I am excited that that's going to be part of the curriculum and and available for teachers in the school district and stuff to use too so that was good.

B

I went to see the production of the Davies production of Cabaret and of communication committee Matt and unfortunately, we had a few absences due to unforeseen circumstances at the last minute. But the few of us who were there had interesting conversation and we'll continue our conversation next time as to where we're going with the communications committee. But the one thing that we did do is we had identified based on previous discussion, some of the community events that are happening in our area.

B

That would be worthwhile for board members to perhaps attend and make connections with other individuals in the community, because one thing we've consistently talked about is ways that we can be more visible in the broader community and with all of the demands that we have as board members as they keep growing. We don't want to infringe on people's time too much and adding too many more things, but we did identify several items, such as you know the eggs and issues breakfast.

B

Some of us have been attending and so on and now anne-marie has this list and we'll be notifying board members. When some of these things come up. That are relevant to a the school district. So you'll, you know sort of have a heads up and a reminder about it happening. There's. No.

B

Obviously we don't expect everyone to go at every event, but it will help us to notify you of things that are happening so that you don't you know, sort of miss it and, if you're interested in going, so that that's really the main thing from the communications and we'll meet again in January no date yet set.

A

Thank you, Donna Linda thank.

J

You last week, I had the honour of attending very special event at Eagles, along with dr. Schatz and Mayor Mahoney, and several doctors and nurses and other folks in the community. They had an event called a community hero, superhero celebration and it was put on by the students in the autism center. So that is now the the destination center for the students who are at the more extreme end of that spectrum. And it was the one of the sweetest experiences. They did a very good job, but it was.

J

It was really important to see that program in person to see that one-on-one requirement of a pair with each student certainly- and it was especially fascinating to me because during my school visitation a few weeks prior to that I had been given a tour. It was after school by this time and I was able to hang out and kind of sit in on a meeting that so Brock and dr.

J

Audrey came and some of the teachers, and we were talking about reconfiguring one room into two instructional rooms and then how they're going to redo the separate sensory room and so I. Just kind of hung around because that was very fascinating just so than to see those spaces reconfigured and put into action was was fascinating, so that was that was unforgettable.

A

F

Wrapped up my school visits by spending pretty good part of them of the day with Todd Burch over at South High, and we had a really good visit. I know the school district is proud of and should be of, the number of AP classes and whatever that we have but I'm.

F

It's very important to me that we're addressing the kind of the other end of the school population just as strongly, so we spent most of our time going through the building trades area. The the metal woodworking shop and the stuff that were those kids have to work with is incredible. They have industrial, CNC, lathe and cutters. They had a float in the parade of lights, parade, they I mean they're, they're, just doing some great stuff they're building the last couple of years, they've built houses on site this year.

F

The city didn't come up with lots of they're building right behind South High, but I thought he said that house was already sold I, they have I mean it's great. They basically do everything, except for the plumbing the electrical and the siding and we're we're really doing a good job with our schools. I'm very, very happy. Every time I visit one of the elementary, so our middle schools or high schools, I just I, don't think the kids in the United States could get a better education than they could right here in Fargo.

A

Thank you, David Jennifer,.

H

The health insurance community met this afternoon and they previewed a benefit tool, and you know with the rising cost of health care, which everyone is aware of right personally and organizationally they're. You know, businesses are forced to look for ways to help.

H

Employees and themselves be wiser consumers of their health care, and this is just one tool that is out there and being offered, but I think it's great that the committee is is taking a look at that and really trying to customize and personalize it to their each and every employee who enrolls in health benefits. So that's what they did today.

A

C

Well, Dana touched on the communication, so that's pretty much all I have, but I did want to make a comment on David's Auto, because my son is an auto over at South High and they did the float and unfortunately, I couldn't be there with the light for the Parade of Lights, which I heard was very chilly and he was on that float and they had a two snowmobiles on that float and they decorated it and Brad was there and took a lots of pictures.

C

But yes, I want to say I, think our schools are doing fantastic and the leadership that that dr. Schatz has done for the schools. I would like to thank him for that and for the just being being him and making sure that all those schools are intact and and that they're doing great and thank you again. Thank.

A

You Brandi I think you all got a copy of a Murray's president's report. I just have a couple of things to add to it. If you're planning on getting the candied bacon from the Fargodome make sure you RSVP by December 4th and their event is second fiddle to John's negotiation committee meeting, which will happen earlier that day.

A

Please note at the bottom we have some homework coming out: yell, seven, eight, nine and ten we'll want to get that back in by December 7th I had a SEEC board meeting earlier today, just because I didn't have enough meetings on my calendar this week, so we were out and Castleton and nothing too exciting going on at the SEC, except for we got 2/3 of the way through our audit with the same folks that are up that we use the state auditor Justice Department and the auditor got a call from the Attorney General tone them.

A

You can't audit the SEC you're not authorized in statute to do that. Come back so now we're apparently there's a list in state statute of who the state auditor's office. Cannot it and it's got CTE school districts got a lot of things in it, but no reas, so I think there's a senator. That also is involved with the SEC that probably I'll try to get that changed in the next legislative session.

A

So we're are f, peeing right now to find somebody to come in and do our audit, because that's a requirement and the state can't do it. We also had a state school board meeting since our last meeting, mostly to look at the benefit package for the association's employees and authorized the 2018 benefit package which apparently made the employees pretty happy, and but we did take a shift of philosophy. There I'm sure it's not one. Anybody in this room's ever heard from me before that.

A

As an association, we are going to pay a hundred percent of the cost for a single employee to have coverage if they have family members. They'd like to have covered they're gonna be a hundred percent responsible for the costs on top of the employee rate. So there is no discrimination going on any longer at the state school boards association when it comes to benefits and compensating employees and that's the extent of my report.

A

Obviously our next meeting is going to be on December 12th, although we have a governance meeting Thursday at 7:30 in this very room, a planning committee meeting on Friday at 7:30, I think in this very room and December 11th for negotiations. That's at noon and those of you on the ad-hoc committee, I got a feeling the Chairman might call a meeting between now and that December 11th date, but I'll leave that to her with that, we were just.

J

Wondering, mr. president, if there are any plans for the traditional holiday, a president hosted get-together after the December board meeting.

I

A

Just got through Thanksgiving I hadn't even thought about more to come. Thank you. Can.

B

I play a John and wish Lind a happy birthday for tomorrow.

A

We are officially adjourned.