00:00:10,630	Public School District number one. Monday, April 20th 26th meeting Order. It’s 5:30 p.m.. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

00:00:37,900	Thank you. Next item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda. Um, I just have one thing that I. That I’m going to move around here is new business. Uh, item a, uh, the school district audit. We have some guests in the audience, so we’ll jump that up to the top, if that’s okay with everybody.

00:00:54,000	I don’t think we need to make a change on the agenda, but just to make everybody where we’ll probably handle that one first. What are the wishes of the board on the agenda? I would move that. We approve the agenda with your said change. All right. We have a motion. We have a second. Second.

00:01:11,170	We have a second. Any further discussion? I forgot to look over there. You guys had nothing, right? Okay. Um, not seeing anybody. Please call roll. Yes, yes, yes. Yes yes yes. Yes yes. Next item on the agenda is public communication.

00:01:34,000	Anybody in the audience wish to address the public? Anybody wish to address the public or address the board? One of those days it’s been on Monday. Anybody else wish to address the board and not seeing anybody? Then we’ll move on to the next item. Like I said, we’re going to jump down to item eight, new business review and consider approval of 2425 school district Audit.

00:01:52,100	Um, Abigail Martwick from Haga Kommer here. Welcome. Nice to see you again. Maybe. No, I’m just kidding. A lot of look pretty good. Quite a few years. Yeah. Um. Good afternoon. My name is Abigail, as you mentioned, with Haga Kommer.

00:02:08,900	Um, we have completed the audit for the year ended June 30th, 2025, and I will cover just a few highlights from the report. We did issue a clean audit opinion, which is on in the auditor’s letter on pages two through five of the report. We also performed a federal audit as required for federal funding.

00:02:34,870	Over $750,000, and issued a clean opinion on the schedule of federal awards. Government wide financial statements on pages six through seven report all capital, assets and debt, including pension liabilities, total assets are 210 million and total liabilities are 185.8 million. The decrease in net position for the year was $2.4 million.

00:03:09,700	Fund statements start on page eight. These do not include capital assets or long term liabilities and report activities by fund. The net increase in all government governmental funds is $3.1 million. On page ten, the increase includes about $29.7 million due to capital outlay. This also reports bond proceeds of 21.

00:03:43,170	5 million and principal paid of 4.35 million, as well as interest paid of $3.77 million. Page 49 is the general fund budget comparison? Uh, the district was overbudget on general fund revenues by about $1.96 million. And we’re also over budget on expenditures by about $2.1 million. Uh, page 52 is a report of the federal funding, which was approximately $9.

00:04:20,700	8 million for 2025. Page 54 through the end of the report is our letters on internal controls and compliance with our findings on page 59 through 63. Um, our findings include limitations in the segregation of duties, preparation of financial statements by the auditors, and journal entries posted during the audit. Um, that concludes my presentation.

00:04:52,430	Uh, if there’s any questions from the board, I’m happy to answer those. Or you’re always more than welcome to contact our office. Thank you, Miss Martin. Any questions for her? Anybody have any questions? Go ahead. Rick. Um, as far as what the.

00:05:10,730	The findings of the the segregation of duties and preparation, financial statements, how common are those for most governmental audits? And those are pretty much standard or or. Um, yeah, those three are very standard within the governments that we perform. Um, just because of the size of the government. Um, we don’t see much variation in those. All right. That’s been kind of an ongoing right. Go ahead.

00:05:37,170	Yeah. We’ve had those findings on our statements probably forever, as long as we’ve been audited. I think I’ve made the argument that we could remove segregation of duties, but, uh, I don’t blame them. We.

00:05:55,170	We’d have to hire probably an additional 5 or 6 staff members to really, truly have our duties segregated enough to remove this from our audit report. I just don’t think we could ever have the staff to get it fully removed. And, Mr. Hogan, I’ve argued that one too.

00:06:13,000	I haven’t one either, because, I mean, I say we got some mitigating controls with everybody looking at them because we publish them in the paper and everything like that. But that doesn’t seem to cut the mustard either. So it’s just small office space. I mean, we could probably do it if we hire a few more people, but that’s not efficient.

00:06:32,070	Anybody else have any comments? Any questions? If not, thank you very much for the wishes of the board on the approval of the 2425 School District audit. I’ll make the motion to approve the 2425 school district audit. All right. We have a motion. We have a second, and we have a second. Any further discussion? Any further discussion? Seeing none, please call roll. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Chandler. Yes. Yes.

00:06:59,100	Yes. Thank you both very much. Have a nice evening. Enjoy it. It’s beautiful out there. All right, now we’ll go back up to the top, to the administrator’s report, and we’ll start with update on the Larson annexation hearing on April 6th. April 6th. Doctor Bitz. Um, yeah. This probably could have went in the consent agenda.

00:07:18,500	Doesn’t require any action by you, but, um, annexation hearings are a little uncommon. They don’t happen very often. Um, I’ve been a school administrator for 35 years, and this is the first one I’ve been involved in, um, open enrollment. People can usually open enroll to the district they wish to attend.

00:07:34,900	However, there are times where they want to run for school board or vote in the school board election, or be a more involved. Um, and if they’re contiguous, contiguous, if they touch that area they can move from, they can move their property from one district to another district.

00:07:52,700	Um, this is a family that open enrolled their daughter into Sweet Briar last year. Um, the gentleman attended his his whole school years in New Salem. Um, just prefer a smaller school. Um, so 12.34 acres is going to be leaving our district and joining Sweet Briar. Um, the Mr. Wolf attended the annexation hearing with me.

00:08:18,630	We did not oppose the annexation of the property, but we did say the default position in the law is that all existing debt. So our high school red trail, um, Lakewood Elementary, the the mills that we levy that were voter approved, um, will still this property will still be required to pay for that debt until it’s expired.

00:08:42,100	Any new debt that we add, um, will not they will not have to pay. Um, I can answer any questions or. Mister Wolf, if you have something you want to add. No. Just next steps on it, because it’s not done. This was the county one reorganization. It’s got another step.

00:08:56,730	Correct. It will go to the state board in early May. I can’t remember the date. Um, and because there was no opposition to it. Um, it’ll kind of be on the state board. I don’t know if they have a consent agenda, but they won’t.

00:09:14,800	I assume it’s going to be a procedural matter, and it’ll be finalized in early May. At the state level. Any questions on that? I got a question. Go ahead. So with this then. So they have a child going to Sweet Briar, but they don’t have any high school there. So that’s down the road. Then they get to high school.

00:09:30,630	That land still going to Sweet Briar. Can I go back? They will pay tuition. Sweet Briar will pay tuition for this student and any other students on that property to attend high school. Um, sweet Briar students generally go to the Salem, Mandan, or Saint Mary’s.

00:09:52,530	Um, so I’m not sure where I assume they’re going to go to New Salem. This is a new Salem family. That’s the way I would say it. All right. Anybody else? All right. That’s for your information. Only then we’ll move on to State Superintendent Levi Borgmeier. Visit to mana and High School May 5th, 1030 to 1230. Yeah.

00:10:14,470	Just, uh, really hope that a few of you at least can attend. Um, I think he’s going to visit Mr. Miller’s government class. Um, Mister legacy is going to walk him through the building. Um, I think it would be a nice opportunity if you can get away from work for you to attend. All right. So if you can attend at the high school.

00:10:31,530	Right? Correct. Where are we going to meet this? In that open front area. I will leave a I told Superintendent Bok Meyer I would meet him by the big am out in front. Right out in front. All right. May 5th. And with Mother Nature the way it’s been, it could be 80 degrees or 20 degrees.

00:10:45,430	It’s going to be 80. Okay. All right. Next item. Uh, retirement recognition, dinner venue, 25th May six. I was talking with Miss Mrs. Rabbinic, and she said several of you have already let her know that you’re coming and chosen your meal. Um, if you’d still like to go, she would like to know by tomorrow.

00:11:04,800	Um, so that she can get a count in venue 25. All right. Please get that in if you’re going to go. All right. Make sure we get that done. Anybody have any questions on that? Do you have a time on that at 6:00. Right. Okay. Uh, next item on the agenda is the consent agenda.

00:11:22,730	And the consent agenda is review and consider approval of previous board minutes from April 6th, 2026. The Sep student achievement minutes from March 23rd, 2026. Review and consider approval of March 2026 bills and March 2026 revenues and expenditures.

00:11:42,330	Review and consider approval of a second and final reading for the following policies G, r I g sick leave bank g b RIAA political leave h k ratification and implementation of negotiated contracts h a board negotiating agent h a b a d negotiations, objectives, goals and duties icf a content standards and curriculum Ida Career and Technical Education IDB Drug Education Program IDC, a summer programs IDC, f

00:12:15,630	Cooperative Work Experience programs, IDC H independent study and correspondence courses. What are the wishes of the board? I would move that we approve the consent agenda as stated. All right. We have a motion. We have a second. I’d like to ask a question or two, if that’s possible.

00:12:33,800	Or not. Normally we pull them out of the consent agenda. Um, which one you want to ask. About the, uh, student achievement minutes. Um, just kind of. All right, let’s. Can we just pull the student achievement minutes out and we’ll put it under unfinished business? Sorry about that. And then we’ll deal it there.

00:12:51,000	So let’s just pull that one out. Yeah, let’s put it down there. Yes. I amend my motion. All right. Now, if I have a second excluding item B and we have a second, please call roll. Yes. Okay. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

00:13:20,800	Uh, next item on the agenda is Unfinished Business Review. And consider a request to release a certified teacher from a signed contract. Faith U.S. English at Mandan High School. Yes. If you’ll remember, we, uh, tabled this last meeting pending finding a suitable replacement. And we have been able to secure a new English teacher.

00:13:39,100	So I would ask the board. I’d recommend to release her from her contract pending paying of liquidated damages. That’s what the subcommittee, um, met and determined. Um, as a recommendation was to have her pay be assessed, liquidated damages. All right. So the recommendation from the administration is to release her, but pay liquidated damages.

00:14:01,370	What are the wishes of the board? I would move that. We, um. Approve the, um, the liquidated, liquidated damages and and her resignation. Okay, we have a motion. We have a second. Second. We have a second. Any further discussion? Any further discussion? Seeing none. Please call. Roll. Yes. Yes. Yes. Peter? Yes. Peel. Yes. Yes. Yes.

00:14:34,100	Yes. Next item on the agenda here. And the unfinished business will go to the student achievement amendments from March 23rd, 2026. Go ahead with your question. Yeah. Um, just kind of reading through the minutes there, like, is the plan kind of to figure out maybe some sort of hybrid system? Maybe, maybe.

00:14:52,100	Um, part of what we talked about is just the timeline in moving to Infinite Campus. You know, we’re moving away from power school, um, next year about the realistically of doing something next fall just wasn’t there on the timeline. So, uh, Mrs. Tomlinson, the middle school principal, is going to work with her team.

00:15:08,570	And in the fall, when we meet, we’re going to start talking about the potential of looking at some letter grades for eighth grade and what makes sense. The middle school.

00:15:22,000	Um, but do that in a larger conversation around just grading practices in general, around things like missed work and late work and those sorts of things, and how we can maybe find the balance. Just to clarify. I. Uh, Doctor Roth talked about Infinite Campus, but currently we use Power School. Every every school in the state is required to use power school.

00:15:40,170	And it’s what we take attendance and do grades in that is going away here in about. Well, sometime in May I think they’re telling us and we’re going to go to an infinite campus. Um, but we don’t have access to Infinite Campus. We don’t know what that’s going to look like.

00:15:56,170	So I think there was a little uneasiness of making promises or writing checks that we can’t cash. So I think that we wanted to see what Infinite Campus looked like, what ability that had next year. So and then I think there’s a couple other options for doing that. So just kind of see what the landscape looks like, see what that team can come up with.

00:16:15,000	And it possibly is a hybrid system. Yes. And then um, just kind of seems like is there quite a few teachers that kind of want to move away from this system or not really. You know, it’s hard to tell.

00:16:31,000	There were group of teachers there that were, you know, presented that are in favor of moving away from it. Um, I don’t know that it’s would be accurate to say how much of a that represents or not represents compared to those that are in, in favor of it.

00:16:46,870	So I think there’s been enough conversation around it that the committee just agreed that in the fall, it made sense for us to just continue to explore what that could look like and what our options are, and maybe what’s the best fit. Thank you. And just to clarify that none of the teachers want to get away from standards that that that was never the discussion.

00:17:04,000	It was, you know, there’s other things, but everybody still wants standards. It’s just how to present it for families. And if I may. One more thing. I think one of our big focuses next year is going to be working with parents on understanding and and how can we just increase, continue to work with parents to increase, um, knowledge and understanding

00:17:21,600	because everybody wants to know how to help their kid. And I think that’s one of the hard things with standards is if I look at my daughter has a D in algebra and she’s missing six assignments, I know what I can do.

00:17:36,000	You’re going to sit at the kitchen table and you’re going to do your six assignments, standards will operate a little differently. And helping parents to kind of recognize if my child’s at a 1 or 2, and I want to help them get to a three, how do we provide some guidance and resources so that they understand how to do that

00:17:48,530	and feel like they can help is going to be a real big focus to next year. Thank you. Sorry for screwing that up. Oh, no problem at all. Yeah. Great question. All right. Uh, what are the wishes of the board on the student achievement minutes? So we need to approve those. I get a motion.

00:18:04,800	I move to approve the student achievement minutes for March. We have a motion. We have a second. Second. We have a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, please call. Roll. Yes. Yes. Yes. Peters. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Next item on the agenda will go to New business.

00:18:26,730	Item B, a was already done. Review and consider a motion to set bids for Mary Stark and Roosevelt projects. Mister legacy. Yes. Included in your packet is a bid opening summary. From April 15th, we open bids with Icon Architects.

00:18:43,270	Uh, just real quick, the projects we’re doing at Mary Stark and Roosevelt this summer, uh, pending your approval, um, is going to be a new flooring in the gymnasiums with new cafeteria tables. We’re going to renovate the small individual bathrooms that you find in the classrooms in those two schools. And then we’re going to do a lot of major electrical work.

00:19:00,470	Um, our new, um, switchgear and branch panels will be fully replaced. It’s going to be a busy summer in those schools. Uh, this is kind of year, one of a multi-year project. So this will be stepped in.

00:19:16,530	Um, we’re also going to be doing some flooring replacements at Roosevelt, and then that will continue next summer. We’ll do more. We’ll get back and go through the flooring and doing some LED lighting upgrades. Um, in the future. Um, but for year one right now, uh, Kraus, Anderson and their estimates, they estimated these costs about 1.5 million. Uh, the lowest bid was northwest contracting their combined bid at just over 1.2.

00:19:37,900	Uh, so underestimates. Which is good for us. Um, and I would stand for any questions. I would recommend approval. Um, we do need to get going on this and get orders done as soon as possible. So.. All right.

00:20:00,100	Any questions on it? I did notice one of the other ones had, uh, a comment about the switchgear coming in at 1120. Uh, that’s not an issue going with, uh, northwest. It is not, uh, we’ve been told to have a 6 to 8 week lead time on there. Switchgear for northwest contracting. Switchgear is difficult to get right now.

00:20:17,000	If you remember, last year we approved switchgear getting replaced to the brave center that took, I think it was like four months just to get it in. So we had to shut down the Brave Center over Christmas. To do that will not be the case here. Okay, I was just checking to see if that was an issue. I just happened to see their note. Yep. All right.

00:20:30,600	Anybody else have any questions or the wishes of the board? I would move that. We accept the bids for Mary Stark and Roosevelt projects. All right. we can get going. We have a second. Second. We have a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, please call. Roll. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Next item on the agenda.

00:20:56,970	Review and consider approving an extension to the real estate agreement to sell the lots surrounding Mandan High School. Mister legacy. Yeah, just just to clarify, this is for the property at the new high school. Um, this would just be a one year extension with Knudsen Commercial.

00:21:16,800	Uh, there has been very little development in town or in that area. Um, we’re hoping that with trilogy cynics, they’ll be starting to build here within the next few weeks, that hopefully that can kind of spur some development. Um, I guess it would be my recommendation that we extend with Cam Knudsen and Knudsen Commercial for one more year.

00:21:34,800	If we don’t get any activity this time next year. I would entertain that. We just do sealed bids. I don’t think we want to play developer and sit on this too long, but let’s give it one more year and see if, uh, with tri energy building that, maybe we can get some more development going.

00:21:48,730	All right. Sounds good. Any questions or wishes for the board? I’d make the motion to approve the extension and the real estate agreement to sell the lots from the high school. All right. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. We have a second. Any further discussion, please call. Roll. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

00:22:15,700	Yes. Yes. Next item on the agenda is reviewing. Consider a request to hire an elementary principal for Nicole Eckhoff, elementary principal at Roosevelt. Yeah. We would recommend that you approve this hire and welcome our demand. And we’re really lucky and excited to have her. She’s, uh, born and raised in Mandan. Already has students here in our district.

00:22:36,730	So we’re really lucky and excited to have her be a part of it. All right. What are the wishes of the board? I would move that we approve the to hire Nicole Eckhoff for elementary principal. We have a motion. We have a second. Second. We have multiple seconds. Any further discussions? Seeing none. Please call. Roll. Yes. Yes.

00:23:02,700	Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Next item on the agenda is review and consider request to hire the following certified staff. Kylie Dahl, SLP at Red trail. Alana Anderson building and trades at Mandan High School. Mark Sheldon, Speed at Mandan High school.

00:23:27,800	Cassie Suter, English at Mandan High School Mary Cooper, music at Fort Lincoln and Mandan Middle School. Doctor Herath. Yeah, just to note, Cassie is the replacement for faith that you approved in the previous motion. And we’re excited to have all of these individuals join Mandan Public Schools. All right. What are the wishes of the board? I would move that. We approve the hiring of all listed certified staff.

00:23:51,270	All right. We have a motion. We have a second. Second. We have a second. Any further discussion? Any further discussion? Please call roll. Yes. Yes. Yes. Peters. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And welcome to all six of these individuals. The men in high school. Welcome to the team.

00:24:16,330	Uh, next item on the agenda is review. And consider a request to be released from a signed teaching contract for Kelsi Isaacs, counselor at Lewis and Clark and Nikki Hafner, instructor at MVA. Um, I’m going to deal with them probably in two separate, if that’s okay for us.

00:24:34,600	Um, so Kelsi Isaacs, uh, normally we I would suggest doing something like we did with Faith of tabling it until we find a suitable replacement. However, we are interviewing tomorrow for school counselors, so there’s a real possibility we could have a suitable replacement tomorrow. It’s not a guarantee, but it’s possible.

00:24:52,730	So I would suggest that we approve releasing her pending finding a suitable replacement and enforcing liquidated damages. That way, if we are able to find a suitable replacement, we don’t have to wait till the next board meeting to release her. All right. Uh, what are the wishes of the board on Miss Isaacs? I would move. To release her from her contract.

00:25:14,070	Um, pending the hiring of another counselor and including liquidated damages. All right, we have a motion. We have a second. Second. We have a second. Any further discussion? Any further discussion? Seeing none, please call a roll and Miss Isaacs. Yes. Yes. Yes. Peters? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

00:25:40,430	Next item on the or next one on the agenda is Nikki Hafner. Anything you want to add on that one? This one I would recommend we have a solution for filling the opening, so I would recommend releasing her from her contract. Again. No pending liquidated damages. Uh, with liquidated. With liquidated damages. Excuse me.

00:25:57,870	What are the wishes of the board on this? After I would move that we release her from her contract with the liquidated damages. And we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Any further discussion? Seeing none, please call. Roll. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

00:26:28,270	Um, in case anybody’s wondering what we’re talking about with liquidated damages, once they sign a contract with us, uh, if they’re going to get out of the contract, there’s a liquidated damage clause associated with it. And that’s what we’re referring to when we’re talking about that. And I’d like to thank all three of those individuals that we mentioned today that are leaving.

00:26:41,430	You know, best of luck and thanks for everything you’ve done in mind. And we appreciate everything you did. So thank you for that. All right. Next item on the agenda is consider, uh, before we go to that one, I’m going to go to the future meeting dates. May 4th. Regular school board, 5:30 p.m., City Hall. May 5th.

00:26:58,730	Uh, state superintendent visit 10:30 a.m. Mandan High School meet at the M um May 6th. Retirement recognition. 6 p.m. Venue 25 May 25th. May 18th regular School Board 5:30 p.m., City Hall. May 24th graduation 2 p.m.. Starion Sports Complex. Start thinking about if you’re going because they’ll need to know for setup.

00:27:19,630	Uh, June 22nd regular school board meeting, 4 p.m., City Hall. Any other meetings that we should add here? All right. If not, then we’ll go back to G. Uh, consider a motion to go into executive session to discuss negotiating strategy on the sale of a school district property in accordance with North Dakota Central Code 4404 19.1, or the wishes. Of the board.

00:27:39,400	Make the motion to go into executive session. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Any further discussion? Seeing and hearing. None. Please call. Roll. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Um. So at this time, we’ll go into executive session.

00:28:08,900	When we’re done with that, we will come out and either have a motion or not, and we will adjourn the meeting at that point in time. Thanks, everybody, and have a wonderful