[0:04] All right. I'm going to call the Monday, September 21, 1, 20, 26, independent school district, number 77, in school board meeting to order. Ms. Bailey, please call roll. Mr. Baker. Here. Mr. Hinky. Here. Mr. Kind. Here. Mrs. Pratt. Here. Mrs. Radcliffe. Here is Roberts. Mr. Sinney. Here. All right. Move along to item two of the approval of the agenda. Cheers. Sinning. There's one agenda tonight, and that is under personnel. All right.

[0:32] Okay, do we have a motion to approve the agenda with the addendum?

[0:36] I move to approve the agenda with the addendum.

[0:39] I'll second.

[0:41] Any other questions, comments?

[0:43] Otherwise all those in favor say aye.

[0:45] All right, all those opposed?

[0:47] All right, move along to item three, the special recognition.

[0:50] Thank you chair, sitting members of the board.

[0:52] As you're aware, from time to time, the school district receives gifts and grants or donations

[0:58] that require or go to a level of a special recognition and tonight is one of those evenings.

[1:06] I'd like to call up to the front board table, our Director of Student Support Services, Sam Steinman,

[1:10] who is here with a very special guest to talk about a long standing gift and grant

[1:16] that has benefited our school district for many years. Sam,

[1:22] welcome.

[1:23] Welcome.

[1:25] All right.

[1:26] Good evening members of the board.

[1:28] It is my privilege and honor to recognize

[1:30] the Greater Mancado area United Way

[1:33] and its chief executive officer, Barb Kouse,

[1:37] for her extraordinary leadership, partnership,

[1:39] and unwavering dedication to the students and families

[1:42] of Mancado area public schools.

[1:45] The Greater Mancado area United Way has demonstrated

[1:47] what it truly means to invest in the well-being

[1:50] and success of young people.

[1:51] Under Barb's leadership, United Way has continued to bring together community partners,

[1:57] resources and people around shared commitment, ensuring that students and families have access to

[2:03] the support they need to thrive. This commitment is reflected not only in words, but in meaningful

[2:09] action. Through the Youth Mental Health Navigator Program, over $119,000 goes directly towards serving

[2:17] students within Mancato area public schools. This investment strengthens our ability to connect

[2:22] young people and their families with critical mental health resources, helping students receive

[2:27] support when and where they need it. And the impact extends far beyond a single program.

[2:34] Over $474,836 goes towards directly to supporting students within maps through a variety of programs

[2:43] that Barb will share about in a moment here.

[2:47] These numbers represent a remarkable financial commitment,

[2:50] but their true significance cannot be measured in dollars alone.

[2:54] Behind every dollar is a student who may feel more connected,

[2:57] a family that has somewhere to turn

[2:59] and a young person who knows there is a caring adult

[3:02] available in a community that stands beside them.

[3:06] Barb, your leadership has helped create

[3:08] and sustain partnerships that make us a tangible difference

[3:11] in the lives of our students and our families.

[3:14] your dedication, advocacy and belief in the power of community exemplify the spirit of service

[3:20] that makes Greater Mancato such a special place. On behalf of Mancato area public schools

[3:25] we extend a heartfelt gratitude to you, Barb, to the Greater Mancato area, United Way staff,

[3:31] and to the donors, volunteers, partners, and community members whose generosity makes this work possible.

[3:38] Thank you.

[3:42] Great.

[3:42] Thank you.

[3:43] Well, it's definitely right back at you to say the least, recognize you guys for partnering

[3:49] with Greater Mancato Area Nightaway with Paul's leadership and mine together with our teams.

[3:56] Great things are happening here.

[3:58] And like I've shared many times when we do our campaign rallies together and that we don't

[4:03] see that very often throughout other areas.

[4:06] So we're very very thankful for the teamwork and how the children are put first and that's my philosophy and running the United Way and I know that that is the school districts to children are so important there are future.

[4:20] Their future leaders we need to invest in them and always we can and that's where United Way comes forward very strong.

[4:27] And I'm thankful for a lot of different things that we're doing within the school system

[4:31] that were embraced to be able to do that.

[4:35] And yes, you're right, Sam, it's all of the donors and the volunteers and all of that

[4:39] comes together as a front united to make things happen.

[4:44] So thanks for recognizing that.

[4:46] A couple of the things I want to highlight that you may not be aware of.

[4:50] But we have, it's Lincoln's, Lincoln logs.

[4:54] We have Audra here, of course today.

[4:56] But auto has some beautiful programs that we're very happy to be supporting.

[4:59] So one is the Lincoln Logs Learning Center.

[5:02] Maps preschool are definitely important in the ones that we finance quite a bit.

[5:09] Promoting respect workshops is really important.

[5:12] We're doing that within the schools, making sure that that's happening.

[5:15] Peer education, project for teens is very important.

[5:20] That's another relationship piece that we're a big part of making sure kids feel good.

[5:24] And then we have the reading core and the math and a lot of people don't realize that, but that has to go like and come into schools if there's a match in our greater Mancato area is that match so they can come into the district 77 in tutor.

[5:42] All of the children and there's a lot of children that are getting help through that program.

[5:47] So again, that's the donors that come forward to United Way that donate that believe in the work that we're doing and then we are getting that match to make sure this beautiful program comes in and tutors children where they need to be.

[5:58] And then we have sex trafficking prevention. There's a program going on with that and connecting kids. That's another piece for Audra.

[6:06] It's out of school activities, but we as we know it is very important that kids are connected to the really positive things outside of school.

[6:13] So United Way is very supportive in that, and that alone has over $90,000 that's going to scholarships.

[6:20] Then we have the fourth grade book project, the Shell Silverstein book where the sidewalk ends poetry is in the curriculum now with all the fourth graders, that because it started at District 77 as a pilot, it's on out now to the rural areas of United Way. So it's all a blue earth, Nicklet, the sewer in Wiseke County. So there's 13 districts getting that.

[6:40] but it started here at District 77 as I call it, maps.

[6:46] Also, the Kindness Booth book is one we wrote ourselves.

[6:49] It's about all about being kind.

[6:51] All the first graders get that book now for free

[6:53] and has for a couple of years.

[6:55] And that again is the Fort County area, 13 districts.

[6:58] And that happened again because District 77,

[7:01] maps allowed us to come in,

[7:03] and then it ripple the fact from there.

[7:05] I'm gonna go back to the navigator position.

[7:08] that wouldn't be in place today if one of your social workers wouldn't have

[7:13] spoken up and said about the need. And this is during right after COVID. And how

[7:19] there's so many children that need to have an navigator. Listen to that. But

[7:24] more importantly, I thought of who am I going to go to first, only for a second. I

[7:29] knew it was Paul to say, hey, will you work with me? I'm doing a pilot position to

[7:33] see if this position will even work. And both of us knew right away that it would.

[7:37] I'll come should be really fast. I want a lot of outcome, right? I want a large number

[7:42] Because we wanted to grow as big as we needed to go and also the rural area because United Way has all the rural area as

[7:49] We're responsible for so need us to say within about a week two weeks

[7:53] We had hired Patrick Clark at that time and we had numbers flowing in of

[7:58] Wonderful results, but again that wouldn't have happened had we not had the partnership we have between us and the district

[8:07] 77 maps. So what's decided here, what happens here, what gets approved, ripple affected

[8:13] out all over, and now we're actually going into want one county with it. We've been

[8:19] in Marshall area and actually other states are making having the same position. So great

[8:25] things. So thank you for what you do.

[8:31] Thank you very much. Any other questions, comments?

[8:39] All right, we'll

[8:45] move along to item 4, the consent agenda, which includes a, the approval of the minutes of September 8th, 2026, the regular meeting, b, approval of September bills, c, personnel with the addendum.

[8:56] Do we have a motion?

[8:59] I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda with the addendum.

[9:04] We have a second.

[9:05] I'll second.

[9:07] Any other questions, comments?

[9:09] Otherwise Ms. Bailey, please call roll.

[9:11] Mr. Radcliffe?

[9:13] Yes.

[9:13] Ms. Roberts?

[9:14] Mr. Sinning?

[9:15] Yes.

[9:16] Mr. Baker?

[9:16] Yes.

[9:17] Mrs. Hanky?

[9:18] Yes.

[9:19] Mr. Kind?

[9:19] Yes.

[9:20] Mrs. Pratt?

[9:21] Yes.

[9:22] All right.

[9:23] Let's approve.

[9:23] We move along to item 5, the business portion of our agenda.

[9:26] Letter 8, 2027, the 2028 school year preliminary property tax certification.

[9:33] Thank you.

[9:34] Good evening.

[9:35] Good evening.

[9:35] Tonight we're here to talk through our preliminary lovey certification process.

[9:40] There's several steps to this process as we go along each year.

[9:43] Lovey inputs start in mid-August, so we put all of our inputs into the system, the state gets

[9:48] all of those inputs they take them and they make their first run at the calculation and they

[9:53] have to have that out by September 8.

[9:56] And they get it out by September 8th at like 4 p.m.

[9:58] So, you know, we got that right away on September 8th.

[10:02] The third step is that we now come to you and we ask you to certify at the maximum

[10:07] level, which is what our recommendation is, just because there will be changes.

[10:11] There's changes every day.

[10:13] They run a new levy report as the state is putting inputs in from other districts and as

[10:17] they're recalculating and recalculating, they have until September 30th to recalculate and

[10:21] get the final numbers in.

[10:23] And so we ask that you, we recommend that you do maximum just so that if there's any changes

[10:29] We can take that into consideration through the end of September.

[10:32] The fourth step is that after all that is finalized, the county then sends out truth and

[10:36] taxation notices in November, so that everyone knows when to come to the truth and

[10:41] taxation meetings.

[10:42] And the final step is that we hold the truth and taxation meeting as required under law,

[10:46] and then we adopt the final property tax levies.

[10:48] So here in our district, our truth and taxation meeting is set for December 8th, and then

[10:52] we come back at a separate meeting on December 21st and ask you to approve that final levy.

[10:56] So, those are the steps in the process.

[11:00] In the public meeting for the Truth and Taxation, like I said, we already have established

[11:03] the date.

[11:05] In that meeting, we must discuss the current budget, the proposed lobby, and then allow

[11:09] the public to speak.

[11:10] Those meetings have to be held between November 24th and December 30th and after 6 p.m., they

[11:15] may be part of a regular scheduled meeting, which is what we do, however, then we come back

[11:19] at a separate meeting to adopt the final lobby, as I mentioned earlier.

[11:23] So, as I said, we have two different options for recommending that we certify at maximum,

[11:28] which allows us, like I said, MDEAs until September 30th to do all of those calculations

[11:32] and make changes.

[11:34] Or you can specify a specific dollar amount within that level.

[11:37] What happens to that if we specify a specific dollar amount, any changes that are made by the

[11:42] state through that September 30th date, we would have to come back to the board if we wanted,

[11:46] if it was higher than what we had originally specifically specified, we'd have to come

[11:50] back and have you redo that again.

[11:51] And so that's what we recommend the maximum just so that it gives us the flexibility to allow for those changes at the state's making through the end of September.

[12:01] And just to talk a little bit more about it, it's not an arbitrary number.

[12:04] It is a whole page of like 40 pages of the state with all of these different categories and all of the state formula.

[12:11] So it's specifically anything that state mandate, we have inflationary factors within our operating levy, any enrollment changes that we're projecting forward.

[12:20] And then so all of that is put into that calculation and done so it's not something that the district can just arbitrarily decide this is the number we want.

[12:28] It's all based in state formulas.

[12:33] When we take a look at what the current estimated increases right now when we look at what the amounts were when we last Friday it was 3.02% overall for all funds for an increase in our levy.

[12:43] The city is at 5% right now and the county just, I think they did 6.9% for their increase.

[12:49] So we're well below both of our governmental counterparts in town.

[12:54] And so like I said, we're requesting that the board certify the maximum tonight so that

[12:58] we can move forward with the process.

[13:01] And we take a look at how we compare.

[13:04] This is per 80 average member daily membership for fiscal year 25 because that's the most recent

[13:09] data that we have.

[13:10] So when we take a look at that, school districts have like size for us.

[13:13] you can see our debt service. We're at $2,108 per ADM just above the state average there.

[13:20] And then you can see for total taxes for everything included, we are at $4,750 just above the state

[13:26] average of $4,502.

[13:31] And when we take a look at all funds, our total revenues are 166.4 million,

[13:37] 24% of that comes from our property tax levy, 65% of that from state aid. So we're asking for you to

[13:43] approve the maximum for tonight is at 24% category for the property taxes.

[13:49] That's all I have.

[13:51] Thank you. Do we have any questions at all, Mr. Nell?

[13:55] Go ahead.

[13:56] I would just like to state and kind of reiterate the point that you made about the current number on the same that it can and likely will change, but at 3% that would put make area public schools at the lowest increase in property taxes of any of our government counterparts in our region.

[14:12] and I think that's important to emphasize.

[14:14] That's dedicated a lot by state law

[14:17] and all the formulas, right?

[14:18] But it also represents I think the fiscal stewardship

[14:22] of this board has and that you have for property taxpayers.

[14:26] So thanks for pointing that out.

[14:29] Anyone else?

[14:35] Do I have a motion to certify preliminary?

[14:41] I move that we certify the maximum allowable

[14:44] lovely for the preliminary property text is $27.28.

[14:51] Any other questions, comments?

[14:55] All right, all those in favor say aye.

[14:57] Aye.

[14:58] All those opposed?

[14:59] All right.

[15:00] That's passed. Thank you. And then we'll move on to item 6, celebration. Yes, thank you, board chair, members of the board. It is September, which means that in the state of Minnesota, it is school board member recognition month. And so at your seat tonight is a certificate of recognition that you are hopefully able to take or will take with you tonight.

[15:27] on behalf of not only our school district, our employees, our students, the families that

[15:32] send their kids just, but also the greater community. It's really important that we do

[15:37] take time and honor and recognize the work that you all do. School Board service is one

[15:44] of those areas that is so personal and immediate to the daily life of kids and community that

[15:51] that it can oftentimes go, there can be many a thankless days, I'm sure.

[15:58] And I remind colleagues that I work with all the time that we are dealing with some

[16:03] significant structural and futuristic ideas, and oftentimes we're asking people who are

[16:10] either retired or are working full-time jobs to enter into that system and make sense of

[16:15] it very quickly.

[16:16] As you all know, school boards have big, large governance responsibilities, hiring and evaluating

[16:24] the superintendent, adapting policy.

[16:27] The fiduciary responsibilities, Director Heilman today just offered up $166 million budget

[16:34] that needs to be governed and there needs to be oversight.

[16:39] But even more importantly than all those things, school boards set a vision and then they also

[16:45] also set the tone for how the public schools are going to act and interact within community.

[16:51] That isn't done by an individual, but that's done by a full board.

[16:56] And full boards don't always agree.

[16:58] There's diverse perspectives and opinions, votes are taken, and we move on.

[17:02] But the tone that this board sets for the community is really, really important.

[17:06] We can take a look around the state and nationwide examples and be very thankful that this is

[17:13] board that does their homework, ask tough questions, provides follow-up, and then works together

[17:19] for the common good of our public education kids. And so thank you, like I said, on behalf of

[17:25] not only those within our community, but also for our staff for the work that you do, it's really

[17:29] important, not only the work you do, but how you do your work, as that messages and models to the

[17:38] rest of our system, the strength, and the importance of public education.

[17:42] So thank you.

[17:45] Thank you.

[17:46] We appreciate recognizing us.

[17:48] And mine's printed on the back of Mason's math test.

[17:50] I appreciate saving paper like that.

[17:52] Good job.

[17:52] All right.

[17:53] Do we have any other questions, comments?

[17:55] Otherwise, we have a motion to adjourn.

[18:00] Motion to adjourn.

[18:01] Second.

[18:02] All right.

[18:03] All those in favor say aye.

[18:04] Aye.

[18:05] All right.

[18:06] Meeting adjourned.

[18:06] Let's head over to the work session.

Sep 21, 2026 School Board - Mankato Area Public Schools

Transcript