00:00:12,530	Welcome, everybody. Um, Mandan Public School district number one. We’re in the Mandan City Hall. Today is Monday, August 17th at 5:30 p.m. Please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

00:00:48,830	All right. Uh, approval of the agenda. Do we have any changes to the agenda? Doctor Retterath. Yes. We have two additions to the agenda. Uh, under new business. One, we have an open enrollment seeking a deadline waiver. The copy should have been at your spot. And then two, we have a group. Nobody fights alone.

00:01:07,000	That’s here to present us a check for some school hot lunch money. Um, to offset some of the debt we have there. So we will add them to the end of our agenda as well. Any other changes to the agenda? If not, what are the wishes? I would move that. We approve the agenda with the two changes. Second.

00:01:28,300	Motion and a second. Any discussion? Mister Lagasse, please call the roll. Yes. Okay. Yes. Yes. Yes. Peters. Yes. Yes. Yes yes yes. Except we have public comment. Anybody audience wishing to speak anything on the agenda? Anyone in the audience? Once. Twice. Okay. Next up we have administrative support. First up we have 20, 26 2027 enrollment update.

00:01:58,470	Doctor Retterath. Yes. Right now, as of just two minutes ago when I pulled it, we’re at 4505 for an enrollment. I was able to pull some comparables of September 1st from last year. We were at 4418 September 1st, so we are up right now showing about 87 students.

00:02:18,000	However, I will say with Bismarck starting school this week and us not starting until next week, I do anticipate we’ll get some records, requests and some transfer out. So I’m not. Would not be surprised if that number drops a little bit from where we’re at, but that’s consistent.

00:02:32,130	Our September 1st data from the last couple of years is we’ve been up 20 to 50 kids depending the year each year. So hopefully we continue that trend. We are sitting at 310 kindergartners. If you remember last year we have a we had a kindergarten class of 301.

00:02:50,270	However, we were at about 329 at this point because then we always kind of lose again for some transfers. So we’ll see. I’m hopeful that we can continue to gain some at that kindergarten level. And if there are any questions on enrollment, I’d be happy to answer what I know now. Any questions? Okay. Um, next up, Parent Square and Infinite Campus campus update. Yes, I’ll start with Parent Square.

00:03:11,070	This is if you remember, it’s replacing remind and remind is the, uh, app that we use primarily to communicate things like weather delays. Schools use it to communicate out with parents newsletters. We’re hoping now with Parent Square to be able to do things like lunch balances and attendance as well on that.

00:03:28,470	So parents should have gotten a message from us. We also sent out flyers in the mail that people should have gotten, both in Spanish and English. If somebody reaches out and says they have not gotten anything, they should reach out to their child’s school, make sure that they have the correct email and

00:03:44,130	the correct contact information for them. This will be a really important for school communication. It functions. It’s a lot cleaner than reminder. It looks a little social media like. We’ve had good feedback as far as it’s easy to navigate from those that have logged in. And then Infinite Campus is what is replacing power School.

00:04:02,230	So a parent portal email went out on the 12th. Same thing. If you as a parent or you hear of somebody as a parent did not receive that, they need to reach out to the school their child goes to to make sure that they have the appropriate contact information from them. With things flowing back and forth.

00:04:17,530	Sometimes things get missed or the wrong email pulled, and just making sure that they have the correct contact information. That’s where parents will be able to see things like grades and attendance and some of those pieces as well. Any questions on that? Just one question.

00:04:35,370	So for grades from the summer school, are they able to pull those grades still from power school to see what they are? I would reach out specifically to the high school. I think they’re going to probably have to do paper reports for you on those.

00:04:46,470	I’m not sure how they were able to pull them across if they were, so I’d reach out to the high school. I don’t want to give you the wrong information on that. Any other questions? Okay. Next up, North Dakota school board convention, new members seminar October 8th through the ninth. I don’t know that we need to spend a lot of time.

00:05:04,830	We’ve talked a lot about this. Just a reminder, September 18th is the deadline for early registration. So if several of you have reached out and we’ve gotten you registered, but if you have not and remember, you can attend one or both days. The first day is the new member and it’s also the law seminar.

00:05:19,530	And then the second day there’s usually relevant topics. So even if you can’t make both days and want to go to one, please let us know. Yeah. Uh, under the consent agenda, we have approved previous board minutes from the August 3rd, 2026. What are the wishes? I have to approve the consent agenda. August 3rd. Second.

00:05:45,170	A motion and a second. Mr. Lagasse, please get a roll. Yes, yes. Jacobchick. Yes. Miller. Yes. Peters. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes yes. We have nothing under unfinished business. Under new business we have reviewed. Consider approval of the fiscal year 27 consolidated application, tribal input and consolidated application. Um, Mr.

00:06:10,730	Meschke? Uh, yes. On on pages five and six, your packet lays out our consolidated app for our federal funds, which falls in three different areas.

00:06:29,600	Our title one, which is our biggest chunk, our title two and our title for um, if you look at the if you look at the chart down below, you’ll see that our district poverty level, uh, taken from one month from last year, is at 37.07%, which is an increase of about 2.13% district wide.

00:06:52,070	Um, title one, uh, part of part of what? When we submit this, uh, we need to get board approval to do that after we get, um, after we do our tribal consultation and we’re scheduled to do that tomorrow and get their get their blessing to move forward as well. Uh, you’ll see that our title, one dollars have been, uh, have increased by about 2.6%.

00:07:10,530	Um, we’re asking that we use mainly that money for salary and benefits for title one staff that eats up a good portion of that allocation. Uh, well, you’ll also see some set aside for district homeless liaison, parental involvement. Uh, each school would give parental involvement money and then some smaller expenses funds for supplies, equipment and some student support. And then also we can use it for some district wide professional development.

00:07:30,330	Uh, you’ll see the poverty rates by schools down there. You’ll notice that Custer is not on there. Uh, obviously, uh, the way the way title one funds work is that we it’s based upon our poverty as a district. Um, we get a piece, we get a pie.

00:07:49,070	That pie doesn’t really, um, the pie doesn’t grow or shrink, depending upon how many schools we have. Uh, so, so by by closing. Custer, uh, that piece of the piece of pie will go to two schools and maybe get a little bit larger based upon their poverty level.

00:08:05,600	Uh, you’ll also see that we do have three, uh, private parochial schools down at the bottom of that chart. You’ll see the Mandan Classical Academy is just going to be doing, uh, titles two and title, $4. Uh, um, when we get to the next page, we’ll explain what that is. But they just weren’t organized.

00:08:21,770	Uh, they they do qualify for some title dollars. Uh, they weren’t organized, uh, uh, for the timeline that the state requires us to submit the the app on the back, you’ll see title two. Uh, that has a lot to do with our instructional coaches that we have in the district. Our allocation is up about 3.

00:08:42,970	5% from last year and then some. Also some school and district wide professional development. And then you’ll see title four. We have an increase of about 1.3%. Uh, this goes to our school nurses. One of our family liaisons, and also supports technology integration.

00:09:00,730	And then on the bottom of page six, you’ll see that we have a couple lookalike programs. Um, we are allowed to run some lookalike programs in our non-title schools, and you’ll see Fort Lincoln and Red Hill are listed there with two FTEs per school. And what those cost the school district, um, using our general fund dollars.

00:09:22,430	So we’re just looking for approval tonight, uh, for the consolidated app. And then once we have our tribal consultation tomorrow, uh, it can be submitted and be approved by the state. Questions? Mr.. Meschke, I guess as far as what? That the poverty rate. Um, only a 2.3, 2.13% change. Any school districts change dramatically between from one year to the last year. As far as.

00:09:48,170	I would, I don’t I don’t think a school district our size. You’re going to see a sizable increase. I think we’ve seen, um, in the years that I’ve been here, uh, a steady increase, um, the way those are calculated, we take our district average and then our title one schools, uh, take

00:10:03,700	their individual averages. And if they’re above that district poverty rate, we do qualify for title one funding or those individual schools qualify for title one. To piggyback on that, we did see an increase in Lewis and Clark. They were already title one, but they did increase their poverty rate higher.

00:10:20,530	And with the way we have to allocate funds, we have to rank them. So if you see, like Mary Stark is our highest poverty rate, they have to get the biggest allocation. And then we have to go smaller from there.

00:10:35,670	So that’s always a little bit tricky when you’re talking a bigger school like Lewis and Clark is quite a bit bigger than Roosevelt and Lakewood, but we can’t give them more money because of the poverty percentage, if that makes sense. We have to go in that rank to order. Um, we try to play with it a little bit, but we do have some limitations on that.

00:10:51,570	Any other questions? I have a question. I have a question regarding the title two funds, the three full time instructional coaches is that at the elementary level. I believe all three are at the elementary level. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? I’ll move approval of the consolidated application for federal funds and including the two lookalike programs. Second.

00:11:19,300	Okay, we have a motion and a second, any discussion? Hearing none. Mr.. Lagasse first. Yes. Yes. Jacobchick. Yes. Miller. Yes. Peters. Yes. Yes yes yes. Yes. Next up, we review and consider approval of the certified letter of resignation. Witness Mandan middle school band instructor, Mr. Doctor Retterath.

00:11:48,900	If you remember, this is the individual that we discussed the leave of absence for two weeks ago, and she has made the decision to resign, uh, to take care of her family. I would recommend that we accept the resignation, uh, pending, uh, liquidated damages. We did meet, if you remember, we have a committee that considers liquidated damages.

00:12:07,930	Tom, myself and a member of me. And we just felt because of the time of year in the circumstances, that it was appropriate to leverage liquidated damages.

00:12:25,170	However, the middle school does have a plan to fill her role, and both this semester and next, between a long term sub and a student teacher, and I’m comfortable with our plan moving forward for this year, and we can appropriately advertise in the spring. So pending the liquidated damages being paid, I would recommend that we release her from our contract. Any questions on that? I would move that we approve the letter of resignation. Letter of resignation from Whitney Nass. A second.

00:12:59,700	Do you want in that motion as far as damages or not? Are we. As long as you recognize that we’re going to ask for liquidated damages with it? I thought we had done that last the last week. Yes. With you. You could be correct in that. Yes. Then I think we’re good.

00:13:14,900	Okay. Let’s make sure. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Mr. Legaspi, please go roll. Yes. Okay. Yes. Jacobchick Yes. Miller. Yes. Peters. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes yes. Except when we open enrollment seeking a deadline waiver. Yes. You’ll see the open enrollment in front of you.

00:13:41,670	It’s a student that we’ve had who has moved to Bismarck. Is it Mandan High, Uh, 11th grader would like to stay with us. I would recommend that we approve. I’ll move approval. Second. I have a motion and a second approval of the deadline. Waiver. A discussion. Mr. Lagasse, please. Carol. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Peters. Yes.

00:14:11,230	Yes. Yes yes. Yes. Next up we have donation for the hot lunch program. Yes, I will introduce, uh, nobody fights alone. Is the group that is coming up to share with us? Uh, they’re a nonprofit that’s dedicated to supporting local youth who fall in between the cracks.

00:14:30,230	And they’d like to share a little bit about who they are. And a wonderful donation that they’re making to us. Welcome. Thank you very much for having us here. Not most of our school board members and everybody else.

00:14:50,270	I am the president of Nobody Fights Alone, and I see in this community that we need more people. It takes a village to raise kids, and we need to start becoming more of that village again. More like when I was growing up.

00:15:13,230	But our way of helping is we did a fundraiser earlier this year, consisted of a dart tournament at Powerhouse Bar and Grill, who are very great at supporting us, and we raised $500 to donate to the Mandan School District, and $500 were donated to the Bismarck School District to help pay for those unpaid lunches. We do have a Dart tournament coming up on August 29th at Powerhouse Bar and Grill, and we are gathering school supplies.

00:15:36,730	Yes, it is after school started, but we know school districts always need school supplies because unfortunately there is a lot of kids that it’s too much to pay for. So we you guys are all invited to come through darts. Powerhouse is very welcoming and we do have other fundraisers coming throughout the year.

00:15:59,130	What we are doing, what we can to help the youth in our community so they make good choices and unfortunately not make those poor choices that involve other staff and police and everything else. So thank you for all you guys do. And we have a $500 check. That’s great. And after the meeting, we’d love to take a picture with you if you are willing to stay. Yes, I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

00:16:31,630	Thank you very much. That’s very.. Okay. That’s. We’ve got future meeting dates. So we got August 27th, insurance Committee, 4:00 at the Brave Center. August 31st. Facility and Finance Committee, 5:00 at the Brave Center. September 8th. Regular school board meeting. 530 is City Hall. September 21st regular school board meeting. 530 City Hall. September 21st.

00:17:01,630	Right after that, 6:00 we did the budget hearing. September 28th student Achievement Committee 6:00 at the Brave Center. October 5th. Regular school board meeting at 530 City Hall and October 12th Policy and Personnel Committee for 5:00 at the Brave Center.

00:17:21,330	Any other meetings were pretty full already, but all right here, none gets to meet. This meeting is adjourned. Thank you.