00:00:05,970	Good evening. I’m Dan Eastgate, president of the Bismarck School board. It’s 5:15 on Monday, August 10th. I call this meeting to order. Welcome. And thank you to everybody for joining us tonight here at the Tom Baker Room and also online for anyone wishing to follow along with us this evening, you can find our agenda under the

00:00:21,630	School Board tab at Bismarck Schools.org. Doctor Johnson, will you call the roll, please? Mr. Auckland here, Doctor Jonas here. Mrs. Peterson here, miss Preskey here. Mr. Eastgate here. All board members are present. Accounted for, Doctor Fastnacht? would you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance? Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

00:00:53,500	And to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Item one C is the mission, vision and values. The mission is to empower every learner to thrive.

00:01:23,030	The vision states, together, our strong relationships build inclusive, collaborative, and innovative environments that create, agency and inspire a passion for learning, excellence and discovery. The values are inclusion, excellence, innovation and leadership. You can also find a link in the agenda to the Strategic Plan. Item two is to adopt the agenda. What are the wishes of the board? Mr. Eastgate yes, if I may, before you adopt the agenda, I’d like to ask the board to consider removing item.

00:01:44,170	Seven F off of your consent agenda. Just administratively. We don’t need it anymore, so you don’t need to approve it. Okay. Thank you. I would move to adopt the agenda while removing seven F off of the consent agenda. Second. We have a motion. And second, any discussion. Seeing none, Doctor Johnson. Mr. Auckland. Yes, miss. Doctor Jonas. Yes. Mrs.

00:02:13,500	Peterson? Yes. Miss. Preskey. Yes. Mr.. Eastgate. Yes. Motion passes. Item three focus on success. Mr. President. I’m sorry. Do we need to? Oh. She. Approved it. Okay. She approved it while removing it, approving the rest of the consent agenda. Yep. Thank you. Item three. Focus on success. Doctor Fastnacht, I believe we have three. A introduction to infant campus.

00:02:39,200	Yeah. I’d like to bring up to the podium today three people before I let them have the mic and share their presentation. Um, you’re going to see, uh, Miss Amanda Meyer, LDA or LDI director, which you’ve seen before, Mr. Casey Mueller, which many of you are aware of.

00:02:56,330	He’s a he’s a blessing to PS for many years since he was a teenager. And Miss Danica Nelson, who is our student support services director, all of which I would tell you, we would not be rolling out.

00:03:12,300	I see the way we are to our families and our students. Um, we might even say we might not be doing that well across the state if it wasn’t for these three people. So there you go. There’s your introduction, Miss Meyer. Welcome. Good evening, President Eastgate and members of the board. As Dr.

00:03:29,970	Fastnacht said, we are here this evening to provide you and our community an update as we have transitioned to a new student information system through the North Dakota K-12 Data Modernization Project. Bismarck Public Schools has moved from several long standing systems into Infinite Campus, and we’re here to share with you this evening.

00:03:48,100	So before we go too far, what is a Sis for anybody that hasn’t been living in our transition world? Assist a student information system is essentially a student information warehouse. All of our addresses, grades, anything that has a district operation is connected to our student information system.

00:04:11,570	And what does it impact when we change from one system to the next? On the screen, you will see that it impacts almost every district operation. So under instruction, it’s going to impact our grade books. Our learning management systems, our curriculum integrations and some reporting processes for our assessments and our transcripts. Under Student Services, it impacts attendance discipline, our special Education Ell and 504 plans under daily operations.

00:04:34,030	It impacts. And some of you may have already experienced this. How we register kids, how we communicate, our schedules, our transportation, our food services, our athletics, and the way that we collect fees, our health services, and even our safety plans for a family that’s watching this evening.

00:04:50,570	What are you experiencing? You’re experiencing us asking you to have a new parent portal for a student. We’re asking you to go somewhere new to get the information that you want. And our mass communications. You’re probably experiencing a change.

00:05:07,630	And finally, just daily district operations, state reporting how we’re going to do some accountability things and even some HR and data security has changed. In addition, these are the systems that have went from one place to the next. We talk in education a lot in words that don’t always make sense, so hopefully this helps when I say transition to Infinite Campus. What that used to be is Power school.

00:05:25,830	It’s 25 years actually. So think back to what you were doing in 2000 2001, what the world might have looked like. We’re trying to move 25 years worth of that work into this new system. In addition, something called Tie Net was retired, and we’re moving into Infinite Campus. Bright arrow was an integration for our communication.

00:05:44,000	We’re moving into Infinite Campus and so on. Down the list you will see that for the public, our nutrition system is not impacted at this time. So for those of you that would like to put money in your child’s lunch account, you’re still going to do that in link. Who is impacted as you’re probably getting a theme here.

00:06:02,100	Everybody. So our teaching staff is impacted. Our secretaries are impacted. Our substitute teachers are impacted because the way that they get into a system is going to look a little different.

00:06:17,330	And all the way around the circle there, you can see who has experienced a little bit of change in their life. And I’m going to invite Mr. Mueller up now, and he’s going to dig into exactly what our community is probably most interested in knowing for first day of school operations. Thank you. Good evening.

00:06:40,030	So as Amanda mentioned, everything has changed and everything that you can think about does plug into our former system Power school. And now we are trying to get that figured out in Infinite Campus.

00:06:53,530	With all of that change, what we’re trying to make sure of is that we have a smooth transition for families so that they don’t have to worry and be obstructed by all of that change that’s going on under the hood, so to speak. So for parents and students, um, again, they have a separate portal, a child nutrition. They’ll be using link, which is what they had in the past. Transportation. Last year we had Stop Finder as well. We’ll continue with that.

00:07:12,770	And the communication system that we used. Parents will still get messages, but it will be from a different platform within Infinite Campus. I’ll go into each of those real briefly. Again. Child nutrition link I’ll cover here. They’ll continue that going forward. Um, some behind the scenes of where we’re at with parents and guardians.

00:07:31,530	Uh, they will be using the new parent app, which they can get out of their Apple Store or their Android store. And so far, since July 29th, there have been approximately 32,000 logins from parents and approximately 30,000 from students. Now you should stop me and say, how’s that possible? We don’t have that many parents and that many students.

00:07:52,100	Well, believe it or not, schedules are extremely sacred and very important for these families. So what we did is we tried to roll out in a phased way starting on July 29th with Century High.

00:08:11,300	We rolled on just that school and kept going from there, trying to help us adopt the new app and help parents get familiar with the thinking to getting into that system. And along the way, parents and students were certainly doing the refresh game, trying to get that schedule figured out. So that is why that count is so high. Um, some patterns though. We’re still working through things with with families trying to get email figured out to make sure that they can get in.

00:08:28,900	Maybe they have the wrong email, maybe something didn’t transfer right from our school. We’re working with those families daily to get that figured out. And then back to the data migration. Some things with household contacts that need to be updated.

00:08:46,000	Um, each family can go into the app themselves and update that information, whether it’s their phone number or other things. And our secretaries have been so wonderful on making sure this information has been validated before the first day of school. So overall, it seems like we’ve had a good rollout with that. Obviously not perfect, but we’re getting there. Uh, transportation.

00:09:07,030	So yeah, last year we introduced stop finder. Obviously some bumps and hurdles with that. We were getting better working to refine that. Overall, we’re looking to be able to use it as a great communication tool for parents and families so that they can see the routes of their students and see when the bus arrives at school or

00:09:22,300	arrives at home, so they can know that their student is safe. Um, this slide does talk about all the finders we call them. Um, one thing that will help. We hope this year with the accuracy of Step finder is Wayfinder. The the buses at our contractor Harless will be leveraging Wayfinder itself.

00:09:41,000	Uh, instead of some middleware like it did last year. So the short of that is less things in the middle of making sure that data can flow to make sure we have accurate information for stop finder to function.

00:09:59,100	Um, stop finder, we did send that out on last Friday, and I believe our, our counselor working working their way up on people getting into that as well. So that’s good news. Um, other things that we have been doing with our finders, uh, with Harlow’s, we do a lot of bus conduct reports and hopefully sometimes safety videos to make sure that, uh, things are tracking the way

00:10:15,830	they need to. We worked with higher lows and with our Bismarck schools teams to make sure that we’re finding some efficiencies in that versus old paper and pencil options. One last on transportation. There’s many things going on making sure that our staff can find the bus routes.

00:10:35,700	They used to be in power school right now because we’ve been moving so fast with infinite, we’re trying to make sure that for day one, we can do attendance and grades and schedules. We don’t have our transportation information and infinite yet, so we are leveraging something called viewfinder, which our staff can get into, especially secretaries and principals.

00:10:53,800	So they can know that their students are safe on the bus. And last communication. So we we have moved on from a different communications platform because within infinite I sometimes think of it like the Swiss Army knife. It has many different things. Um, it does have a messenger platform.

00:11:13,000	So we’re, we’re leaning into that and going to start leveraging that within our infinite. There’s something called an inbox that parents will be able to use, which is not your email and not a text message, but something within.

00:11:30,730	Maybe someday that’ll help us on the instruction side, where we can start doing some communication right out of the classroom. We’re learning more about that. Uh, where does that leave us with all the other communication tools that exist while we’re still working on trying to unify and working towards, um, reviewing where we’re at with those things and with that, uh, if you’re willing. Yes. Thank you. All right. So.

00:11:53,330	Um, in an earlier slide, we had talked about that the special education forms platform that we used to use was called Tie Net. And so as we’re moving out of tie net into Infinite Campus, the role of a special education teacher stays the same.

00:12:13,100	But how they do business is going to be completely changing. Um, that is also the same for our section 504 um, forms. The beautiful thing that Infinite Campus is offering is that in the past, we weren’t able to have our special education forms live in power school, and so we will be having one unified system.

00:12:36,630	So as an administrator, I can log in, I can look up the special education forms, I can look up the section 504 forms, and I’ll be able to see the information that I may have had multiple logins in previously. So the state is still currently working on data migration.

00:12:57,970	Uh, decision that we made a few years ago, which, um, we are greatly appreciating is that we move from paper records into, um, electronic records. And so our document lock system is really going to be helpful to be able to have all of our, um, documents electronic, where we can copy and paste if we need to, or move that over into new platforms.

00:13:19,830	So super grateful about decision makers and decisions that were made that are impacting us currently. I would also contribute that the collaboration between our State Department and us, they’ve been really receptive to calling in and saying, hey, can we make this tweak? What does this look like? And so really moving that

00:13:41,770	forward. So from a special education standpoint, um, BS is ready to go. We’re actually starting training with our team leads and any special education teachers that want to come in starting tomorrow.

00:14:04,700	And so I feel like we’re in a very good spot, um, when it comes to that, flags are in for our staff also. So any staff, teachers, secretaries, they’ll be able to see our warning signs. And really the work ahead is just trying to help people get comfortable with a change. And so systems are built. We’re ready. Training is getting deployed.

00:14:32,330	And um, we’re excited about the work ahead and hopefully finding the streamlined benefits that will become in um with the switch for us. So as we think about what how we completed the data migration, for the most part, we have completed transportation routes, child nutrition is ready to go, master schedules are up and running in our online registration is being executed probably hourly right now.

00:14:59,700	Um, we’re bringing new kids in all the time. Access, access, access for still working through that. And so that is always in progress. The special education migration from the old time net system into infinite campus. And honestly, from our perspective, if that doesn’t happen for us, we’re still going to be ready day one. So, I’m not worried about that.

00:15:26,430	Schedule changes I believe all three high schools will be having individuals come in this week and create those schedule changes and try to find the right fit for students, and then attendance and academic progress notifications are still in progress. So ongoing our training and support, our special education implementation, exploring capabilities.

00:15:54,770	Every day we’re finding new buttons or new ways to alert. And then, um, trying to put processes to those. And then system alignment. So comfortable with how our training plan looks for new staff, knowing that new staff, this isn’t going to be a huge change. And then a very supportive training plan, professional learning for our existing teachers and veteran teachers as we move forward.

00:16:21,370	So decisions that, as I said, were made in the past. Document lock, um, some of those pieces that have really helped us move probably further than others right now have been very beneficial. And then lastly, just wanted to take a time to praise and give credit where it’s deserved.

00:16:44,900	Our technology team has done tremendous work with a few, right? So when we talk about the small department, the work that they have done, the project management that has come out of technology has just been outstanding. Our secretaries, um, they are the ones probably impacted the most in our admin assistance with this change.

00:17:07,830	And so they have dove in. They have come in in July when they might not have been working, and they’re going to be answering a lot of questions in the future.

00:17:24,970	So I just wanted to give a huge shout out our learning, design and instruction team with all of the standards building and everything that goes involved with a gradebook, that has been a huge lift and they’ve done a tremendous job. And then the student support service team, um, just getting trainings designed and thinking through. One day we played the game.

00:17:44,370	What has changed or what’s staying the same, and we didn’t have anything on our list. So the entire world process and procedure has changed. But what’s the the most beautiful thing about it is the amount of collaboration that has happened between all of our departments.

00:18:07,100	If it’s HR, working with the secretaries to get that training platform, technology, LDI and student support services, that’s really where the magic has happened. So very thankful for everybody that dove in and said, here we go, goodbye power school. Bring on Infinite Campus. So I’ll stand for any questions. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Nelson. Board members, questions. Board member Preskey. Thank you.

00:18:32,700	Um, so I saw the number of the number of logins by students and parents, but I guess I’m just kind of curious. Do we know a percentage of the total families in the system that have completed this process of going in and registering so that they are ready to get the messages and be in the system? Very good question.

00:18:54,170	I don’t have the number off the top of my head, but obviously something we would track to make sure we don’t leave anybody behind and make sure that people feel comfortable getting into that app.

00:19:11,630	I think the thing to realize, too, is I don’t know that we were ever at 100% parent app utilization back in power school, but this should be simpler, we hope. And the other good thing overall, good or bad on Bismarck isn’t going at this alone. The rest of the state of North Dakota is at this. So this will be a learning process as we go forward. But certainly tracking, um, the adoption of the app.

00:19:27,130	Yeah, that’s the other point that I wanted to make is that this isn’t just a beeps changeover. This is something that really the whole state is, is making the change at the same time. Just so our parents know, why are you throwing something new at us? It’s really something that has had to change over across the state.

00:19:45,800	Thank you. Yeah. And building on that, and even with what Danica said, of course our teams locally have been amazing. Um, but partners around the state are experiencing the same exact thing.

00:20:04,100	And I think to Danica, point of, um, how we’ve all banded together to find our way through this, uh, it’s brought some of us closer than we’ve ever been as far as solving a problem and working on doing the best thing for kids and teachers so we can be up and running for the first day of school. So I appreciate everybody with that. Thank you. Mr. Auckland. Mr. Prescott, I think that’s an excellent.

00:20:22,000	Question due to seeing. What is happening right now versus what will happen on the first day of school, and how many people may be trying to get in. Um, besides, you mentioned, you know, email changes, the household or contact changes.

00:20:38,700	Have you been running into any other, you know, common support themes that you’re tracking and able to respond to? And then on top of that, is the support going well? Are you guys feeling overwhelmed or, you know, you’re saying the secretaries and everybody just trying to make sure everybody’s feeling we’re able to feel them, we’re able to keep up. So far.

00:20:52,000	Great question. One other theme that it didn’t make the board, um, looking in on on our own Bismarck School staff, uh, one challenge that we just didn’t see coming, but we’re already feeling like we’re in a good place with it. More to come.

00:21:11,230	Um, BP’s staff that have students in the system, because of the way infinite is designed, we’ve got about 250 or 300 of those staff that we need to collect a personal email from so that they can get into the app. We’re working on that. I think we’re getting through that.

00:21:26,030	There will certainly be more, as as people start making their way back into the schools, uh, to the support structures. Thankfully, um, Bismarck has had some experience with a lot of calls in the past, and we were able to stand up a call center, so to speak, out of our central office all the way back into early July.

00:21:47,030	Thanks to Stacy and HR and our secretaries and staff at at Cab. Um, that really helped us, uh, make sure that we were ready for the waves of, of, uh, support calls that would be coming in.

00:22:03,170	Remember, we broke, we, uh, released with sentry first, and then slowly after that, and and lo and behold, every time we did that, there was a little wave that came on. So, um, our secretary was out in the field to, um, to say that they haven’t had some, some stresses and needed to, to work a little extra. They have.

00:22:20,800	And thankfully, to their benefit, they were able to come in a little bit earlier this year, like Danica mentioned. And I think that’s helped them with some comfort and ease as well.

00:22:37,270	Uh, we did meet with principals the other day at district leadership, and I think overall it was nice and and welcome that they can get in and start looking around and see where they’re at. Um, the truth of it is, I think the same will be true. And the teachers come back. There will be some that are very quick to learn and have really, uh, dove in.

00:22:50,030	And then there will be others that we just need to help and that’s okay. So that’s that speaks to the structure of where we’re at for support. Well thank you. Working in technology for over 30 years, I assume there’d be some support calls. And I’m glad to hear you guys are able to address it. I also like to thank you for all the work you’ve done with it.

00:23:03,300	Um, I’ve certainly been following the Infinite Campus Power School campus for some time. And thank you to Mr. Coombs and the communications and everything that have been going out. All of you been doing exemplary work. So thank you very much. Miss Peterson. Thanks, President Eastgate.

00:23:20,030	And I’m not sure if this question is for Casey, or maybe it’s for Doctor Fastnacht, but wondering, you know, um, part of what you alluded to, Casey was talking about the call center, and that was something that had been instituted last year with some of our transportation, um, hiccups, if you will.

00:23:37,300	And I just was wondering, and now that we I really appreciated the slide on that. And yet I know we’re not at the first day of school yet, and that was when we kind of were surprised by some of those kinds of components.

00:23:51,600	How are how is the team feeling about the the way that the app is working, the way that it’s supposed to work? Kind of some of the assurances and the things that you guys have been putting in place, how do you feel like we’re going to we’re going to address some of those with, uh, with the rollout, because I know that that was something that was

00:24:04,230	unanticipated last year and caught us off guard. Miss Peterson, great question. I’ll let Casey take the technical question about the app. Um, yes. Did we learn last year during transportation rollout? And really that was to everybody.

00:24:21,900	So we flooded everybody at the same time with the message, we heard incremental. We learned from our lesson on that. Do things incrementally. And then, um, we we propped up a call center with real phones, just like around a table, like here to try to responding to messages. And we did similar. You’ll see that at our office.

00:24:36,000	Now there’s kind of one set up waiting for people. But we also technology helps us. We can roll phone calls to other phones around the district. And I think what we learned last year is when things have changed are like this, when they’re big scale, right. We know that ebbs and flows will happen.

00:24:53,600	The most important thing we can do is have a human answer the phone, have a human answer the phone, help people out, take a ticket. We have a really robust ticketing system. Take a ticket. Tell people like we’re going to get to the right person. We’re going to get back to you.

00:25:06,430	And that goes a long way. So I think that was a lesson I will tell you. I think the app and I’ve only seen I’m not a parent, I don’t I am a parent, I just don’t have kids in school. Um, I don’t have to have the app now.

00:25:17,900	But I would tell you, I think the app is much more robust than the Power School app. So there’s a good reason for parents. Um, and to miss your point, really, if you’re a parent and you live in the confines of North Dakota, you should be downloading the app tonight. You should be on the App Store getting it because it’s that important.

00:25:32,370	So I’ll let you address out. What do you think? Any technical issues with the rollout and the app itself. , and any technical issues with the app? I think obviously we built in our experiences last year and we did push that app out again on Friday, or at least the notification that

00:25:46,770	families have busing. Uh, we actually did a little early message, a preview message in July to help us make sure data was more accurate. That was some of the lessons from last year as well. Bad data in and bad data out. The Star Finder app can’t work as well as we would hope it to.

00:26:03,300	Um, and one other thing. Uh, I spoke to it earlier. We’ve worked with our partner Harlow’s to make sure that the middleware, the middle hardware that was handling the GPS data, uh, we’ve now enabled them to use Wayfinder and removed one variable out of that equation.

00:26:22,730	So a little bit of the jury’s out, but I think we’re going to be in a better place. Uh, from where we were last year. Yep. Board members. Any other Doctor Fastnacht? I guess if there’s no other questions, I do have. Do you have a comment before I, if I may? Yes, you go ahead.

00:26:39,270	So both of these very humble leaders credited some other people. And so I just want to take the opportunity when you’re in a big change process, you look for the helpers and the historians, and these two people check both those boxes. They know more about systems than me for sure, but many, many others.

00:26:56,200	And so the the background, the history, their ability to walk us through processes that used to exist so that we can recreate them in a new system is invaluable. And then their ability to lead their people, they both have incredible teams, and it’s been nothing but a privilege to work with these two in this process, especially being newer to

00:27:11,330	Bismarck. So just want to give them the credit that they deserve. And thank you for having us. Yes. Outstanding team. I’ll start with my last bullet, I guess is outstanding team. Um, it’s been amazing since the transition. This has not been months.

00:27:25,070	This has been years in the making. So we knew about this last spring, spring of 25. So we’ve been working on this a while. I can applaud BS enough top to bottom secretaries. The technology your team KC outstanding. Amanda. Danica your team’s outstanding.

00:27:45,470	Um they they just did the lift and that’s why we’re in a good place. Um, it was mentioned already, but I’ll say if you’re watching this somewhere, every school in North Dakota is doing this. If you don’t know, you should be contacting your school because it is not just us, it’s everybody. Um, but I will say to I’ll give credit to Superintendent Bach Meyer.

00:28:01,300	Um, he’s helped lead us through this all schools. And he’s he’s right. When his appraisal is, it’s going to be bumpy for a while, we are going to feel a little bumps for a while. It is not going to be normal.

00:28:13,030	I might give us all year to not feel normal. Um, as we did with power school. When you have something 25 years that doesn’t smooth out really fast. But I do think he’s right. It’s a better product and give it time. We’ll be in a better place. We’re just in that start of that little J curve.

00:28:26,500	Um, we will definitely see improvement. So, um, yeah, really thank my team. Well done. Yeah. Thanks, Dr. Fastnacht. Thank you. All three of you. Yeah. As you guys go, I just want to reiterate to, uh, Casey Mueller said this a minute ago, but the rollout has been good. Not perfect, but getting better all the time.

00:28:41,900	And the wizard of it at BPS. Mueller himself. I know it’s going to keep getting better. So I appreciate you and educators and parents that are slow to adopt techie. Um, you’re addressing one of them right here. I got the app today though. So I’m I’m rolling. I’ve known it’s coming slow to adapt. I’m on.

00:28:56,830	So I appreciate it. Thank you. I’ve logged in. I’m official. I needed a lot of help, but I got there. Call the call center. Um. Thank you. Item four on tonight’s agenda is public comment. Bismarck school board recognizes the central role of parents planning the education of their children and support active parent involvement in the educational process.

00:29:18,170	Board’s practice of public comment reflects and aligns with policy BC in the spirit of its intent for classroom issues, it’s best to follow with the chain of command here at PS, which would start with your teacher, your school principal, the assistant superintendent, and ultimately the superintendent for district issues. Please reach out to Dr Fastnacht Nats office.

00:29:35,470	If you do speak tonight, we simply ask that you be responsible. Be helpful and be respectful. Our students deserve to have adults model the expectations that we also have for our students. Groups are urged to select one spokesperson.

00:29:50,330	Individuals will be limited to no more than four minutes and be notified with 30s remaining to conclude their remarks. The board does not debate issues as presented will take such matters under advisement. With that, please stand on the podium. If you’d like to speak tonight, state your name on the agenda item you’ll be speaking about. Good evening. Good evening. Board president, school board member.

00:30:16,300	Superintendent. I’m speaking on item six B tonight. Um, I understand we are going to take another swing, or at least proposed taking out a swing at the school bond issue. Um, I also understand that there has been some reductions in assets from the taxpayers.

00:30:33,100	I’m standing here tonight saying that’s not enough. We we have heard before, and I’ve stood up here before and discussed it. We’ve had four schools, title one schools in our district that pleaded with you guys four years ago to have their buildings have safety upgrades, and Ada upgrades, and that fell on deaf ears.

00:30:53,770	I understand we’ve had a large turnover with this group. Um, since that ask was asked of you, but unfortunately the taxpayer has to pay for that. That’s not fair. Um, you know, with the economy the way it is, um, you know, we do have families in our community that live from Patriot to paycheck.

00:31:13,600	We have, um, elderly people that lived on fixed income. I have to ask you guys, where do we stop? You know, in the last several years, I’ve seen very few cuts within public education. We have families in the community that have a lot of wants, and they have needs.

00:31:32,200	And every paycheck you have to make decisions on what you’re going to pay, what you’re not, and what you can go without. And I understand we have building maintenance, but us folks that own homes, we have building maintenance too. And, you know, we plan for that. You know, you guys are supposed to represent us. I don’t feel represented.

00:31:49,270	You know, if you guys would have put some wants on the back burner to make sure those four schools were taken care of, I would probably have a different tone tonight. But you keep saying it’s for the kids. I struggle with that. I really do, guys.

00:32:09,000	Where do we draw the line? Because I remember a couple years ago we cut the fourth grade orchestra program out of Bismarck Public Schools. How do we make those decisions? How do we pick winners and losers? I’ve been paying attention for quite a few years, guys, and it is a struggle to keep up.

00:32:27,430	We cut programs, but then we add to others. We cut positions and we, you know, we add different ones. At some point, you guys have to say, here’s our budget. This is what we’re going to operate within. We can’t keep going to the taxpayer and saying we want more. We can’t keep running. Campaigns fill the bus. We can’t.

00:32:44,770	I mean, it’s like wants, wants, wants, wants, wants, wants, wants. Where do we draw the line? Guys? I think that’s a hard question. I think that’s a hard question that we need to ask at this table, because for far too long, there’s a lot of high fives.

00:32:58,700	There’s a lot of back, there’s a lot of rainbows and unicorns. We need to get down to the nitty gritty and start having those tough conversations publicly. When you start having conversations about transparency, when you start having conversations about accountability, you guys operate under coherent governance.

00:33:19,030	So you, you know, a lot of people understand what that actually means, but you govern kind of from the outside. You govern with policy, but you also set the budget and you approve the budget.

00:33:35,130	And that’s where the power of being elected official lies with you to represent the people is that budget and that ability to adhere to that budget. So I’m a no vote because I don’t feel you guys have like I said, you’ve picked winners and losers, and at some point we have to go back and make sure that those people that we didn’t serve are taking care of before we start creating more wants and fulfilling those wants.

00:33:54,800	So I ask you guys, look in the mirror and I ask you to start talking outside your social circle. 30s start having conversations with people that you typically would not have conversations with, so you can get some different viewpoints. I appreciate the time. For public comment. Seeing none, public comment is now closed. On our agenda tonight.

00:34:25,930	Next up would be item five, monitoring District operations five A is R-1 Mega result. Doctor Fastnacht nine. Board members. I’d like to bring up Doctor Johnson to present the Mega Report. Remember, this is the mega report. This is the big one. That’s not really the largest report by pages or content.

00:34:47,170	It is just some of the big indicators. So those that are watching and I will preempt it. Some of the data in here I know we have we have shared concerns in the past like some it’s over a year old. Part of that is when we can get the data.

00:35:03,570	So we take it out of Indy Insights and we provide you the most recent data we can, even though we’re still waiting for some of our 2526 data to show up. It will be in the fall like it normally is, and we’ll report that next year at this time. But just so you know where we get it from. But so Doctor Johnson, thank you.

00:35:17,400	Thank you. President Eastgate, members of the board, doctor Fastnacht. Um, so yeah, Mega big the overall picture. What do we want for outcomes for our students. So a lot of these are rooted in graduation completer rates.

00:35:38,300	Looking at students engagement and seeing themselves in their future with career exploration and diving in and owning their education and how they’re able to do, um, that and see themselves in the work they do. So out of this, we have seven of nine indicators demonstrating reasonable progress. Two demonstrated reasonable progress, with exception. Um, we can talk about those a little bit, as some of those were some near miss margins.

00:35:55,900	Um, and none we marked that failed to make reasonable progress. So four year graduation at 87%. That’s up three points from the previous year. However, that’s on ebbs and flows. We’re still are dealing with some dynamics, I think, from the fallout of Covid.

00:36:11,470	I know it seems like a long time ago, but these when we’re looking at graduation data, especially a year or so old, and those students were at what grade level like when the Covid happened. And during that, um, year, year and a half where we had that.

00:36:28,030	But again, um, three points above the North Dakota average, as I was told when I went to when I first came and returned to their state, you know, and came here to Bismarck, North Dakota. Um, Doctor Townsend said, Ben, 1 in 9 students attended Bismarck public schools. So goes Bismarck. So goes the rest of the state.

00:36:47,170	So whenever we are at or above a state average, that is incredibly hard statistics to work at, beating yourself. And so I say that from a positive standpoint, because whenever we’re at near an especially when we’re above, I see those as great things is it’s still good enough know there’s real faces behind that. That’s still 1 in 9 students that’s not reaching graduation on time.

00:37:07,430	But we also look at completer rate. And so in that we also can value a GED. I’ve had the pleasure, as many of you have to as you oversee a GED at the adult learning centers. We administer that program. Mr. Calvert used to be, uh, Mr.

00:37:26,700	Sheriff, and again, you’ll see students who’ll graduate at 16 with their GED. That GED test is a very difficult test. It is no longer. Maybe when I grew up, what the GED was. It is high academic mathematics and high standards.

00:37:47,500	So again, 93% of since they’re up two points, one point above North Dakota, again slightly below our target by two points, but again at 93, pretty good post-secondary enrollment. We value. And how we present this is that we do value post-secondary enrollment. 69% of our students, uh, 632 out of 922, again, a couple years past, because it looks for a previous graduates.

00:38:09,000	So again, as Doctor Fastnacht said, we look at the data in the year that it’s reported, but sometimes that data trails because you want to see that it did. Students actually enroll in a campus and in higher ed, but we also know that those that enter the workforce or enter the military service, again, if they are finding the right path, that’s the right selection for that. So, again, it may not be 100%.

00:38:27,000	So 69% might not be a bad number as we have a target at 70% I believe is our target. So just 1% below that committed engagement. We’re flat with the North Dakota average. But we fell a few points and we’re below our 55% that we desire. We have to look at what does that commitment mean.

00:38:45,670	We’ll also say that we have had the state ask us to really work hard to get that high rate of return. The harder we work at getting students to fill that out. Sometimes we’re getting some of those students that are less engaged actually filling it out. So sometimes our data ebbs and flows there. Again.

00:39:03,170	However, there’s a conversation and a story behind that that all of our educators and our schools can engage in and how we can meet students needs and that they can see themselves in that community service just below that 40% at 39.92.

00:39:22,730	That’s an example of one where we marked making reasonable progress, with exception, because technically we’re below. And we slipped a little bit, but we’re just barely below that target. If you it’s a rounding error. Um, if I had eight pennies I could round up, you know, perhaps. And however you want to look at the math of that. Um, but again, we’ve also changed some verification methods.

00:39:38,870	So it used to be self-reported. Now we’re looking that there are forms to be filled out. So then students have to fill out the form. They might be doing the service. They might be engaging in that. But now there’s a little bit more work that it’s taken versus taking someone at face value.

00:39:52,900	So again, that maybe was part of that dip. Um, when Mr. Nelson and I were talking about that with counselors and other services, career exploration, we’re being really intentional. And many of you may know, we did some like Workforce Regional in our city and Burleigh County.

00:40:12,030	So we’re doing activities trying to ensure that students can see not only a future for themselves, but a future here in central North Dakota if they wish to stay. Where are the jobs that are in demand and where is their opportunity? So again, whether it’s job shadowing or going and seeing career exploration, seeing that opportunity. So I’m really happy about that number.

00:40:26,600	As over 96, nearly 97% of our students, um, verified that capstone experience completion again looked at a large jump from that. But again, that’s looking at how we, uh, how we codify and clarify whether or not something meets that need. We used to have a very restrictive definition.

00:40:46,470	We’re looking at more in line with what the state had as their definition for that. So long term connections, we no matter we talk about it and it’s not an exact report, but I allude to it here and I’ve shared with this board and with the public when your students remain, when you stay in our community and

00:41:01,930	we talk about dosage, and I know Miss Preskey, over the years, this has been a stat that you and I have talked about as well as other former members.

00:41:16,400	When students are part of the BS community from sixth grade through 12th grade and we kind of say, hey, you got about ten days, you can move away, come back, not start the year, but come here early on. But if you’re part of our community from that middle school through high school experience and you don’t leave, you have a 96.72% chance of graduating on time. That is a tremendous stat.

00:41:37,030	When you’re part of our community and you stay part of our community, we, the school, the parent and the students and all the educators can be part of the wraparound partnership and support. We know that there’s other dynamics out there, and it doesn’t mean that we don’t care about the son or daughter.

00:41:56,230	The student that moves in here, everyone, someone’s son, daughter, grandchild, and we want to take care of them. However, when we have the supports and systems in place, we know that we can have really good outcomes for students and respectfully to that.

00:42:11,870	And we also know that some students, um, through their special education needs, stay in a program. And technically they count against us as a graduate. Um, because they’re choosing to stay part of their educational rights until they’re up to 21 years and engaging that. So again, we know at that 96.72, that is something I am proud.

00:42:30,970	And I will say I truly believe we are the best school district in the Upper Plains. And that is one stat that I’ll put out there when you’re part of it. And we can engage with you and the parents. We can have good outcomes for our students. Um, we know that we want to engage students in critical thinking and creative problem solving.

00:42:42,330	Again, mega large, big scale things. We want kids to be critical thinkers. We want them to be creative. We want them to see themselves in their community, uh, to be serving their community, to see their school and the communities in the first place of service.

00:42:57,100	So we know all those things are wrapped together. Um, we see a lot of opportunity again, for students to be involved and see themselves in their education. We also know that to that end, we have to put systems in place. We continue to work with Academic Alert.

00:43:12,470	We do some grad roundup, and the whole point is we’re trying to make sure that you’re on pace to graduate and having those conversations. So it’s not a surprise if you get too far off. We also know that, um, that work is done with teachers and, uh, relationships with students. Uh, starting in preschool, kindergarten, all the way through middle school and high school.

00:43:29,830	And again, um, there are teams that come together to talk about how we can support the behavior social, emotional, and academic needs of all of our students, no matter. Um, the, uh, wonderful opportunities that they have and skills they have and or some places where they may find some challenge.

00:43:49,970	Um, that being said, we definitely know there’s some needed further conversation about how we can strengthen that emotional, cognitive, and behavioral engagement with our students so that they find it meaningful, that they feel a sense of belonging, and that they can persist when things get tough.

00:44:04,030	Um, that being said, uh, I hope that DPS really takes a look at this and sees that we have readiness. We have a lot of great outcomes. We tend to be above the state average or right at the state average. And many of those broad categories. But we also want to compete against ourselves, just like in athletics or in activities.

00:44:18,770	I want to beat myself. I want to be the better version of that. And I think that’s how BS approaches this. It’s not good enough to just be good. We want to make sure that we are offering the best opportunity for each and every student. With that, I will stand up for any questions at this time.

00:44:32,670	Thank you, Doctor Johnson. That may result, which as you said, is a big one. We appreciate you and the work that goes into it before you show up here as well. Board members questions. Miss Peterson. I don’t know if I have any questions.

00:44:49,370	I think that this is always one that we we talk a little bit about. The word mega is, is just that it’s it’s these these large scale kind of state results. And so more of my question is more of just a food for thought.

00:45:06,300	And I think that we brought it up at various kind of retreats and, and wondering about the timing of some of these results policies. This might be one that if we, if we moved, um, a little bit down the road to like January, we might be able to then have a little bit more timely and see 25, 26.

00:45:19,170	So it’s just a note that I’m kind of like writing for myself, as we I know we were doing some of those other results indicators and getting more accurate data for each indicator, this one at being state.

00:45:35,800	Just there might be a time where we would maybe have a little bit more timely if we moved it just back a little bit, but either way, I agree with a lot of what you said, Doctor Johnson, is that these are these are good results.

00:45:51,630	Um, they are something that when you’re taking it a at a holistic look of the entire district as a whole, you’re going to see kind of results like this where, you know, moving, moving just a little bit is actually a really significant change on both ends. Right. And so, um, so with that, I think that I would move to accept the report. Our one mega result is making reasonable progress with noted exceptions. We do have a motion. I see, Mr. Rockland. I see you have your light on.

00:46:06,570	You have some commentary. Yeah. I just wanted to thank you for the report. I really appreciate you point out that stat of 96.72%. That’s phenomenal. And also your message to that growth mindset, improving oneself, that really means a lot to me. And something that I help with a lot of students that I mentor.

00:46:22,700	It’s a wonderful message. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Rockland. Miss Preskey. Yeah. Um, I’m just because of, I guess, the complexity of this report. The, um, when I look at the the items that were on that making reasonable progress with exception, they’re very close to meeting what our targets are.

00:46:51,500	I guess I would I would like to see us consider, um, accepting the R1 mega result with accepting it as making reasonable progress. Okay. Are you are you asking us to consider that or are you making that motion, Miss Preskey? Well, I don’t know how the process works.

00:47:10,700	If we put down the if we vote on the first motion to vote on a revised motion, Mr. Doctor Scherr. There was not a second. So right now, the current motion by Miss Peterson could fail without a second and die. That’d be my reading.

00:47:32,630	And you could entertain another motion that is on that has now been not put on the table as well. If I could add to that, Mr.. Preskey, we we have talked about this in the past, um, at over the past years, actually different things that we look at when we look at making reasonable progress and making reasonable progress with an exception a lot like you just

00:47:48,000	mentioned, is that some of them, to our indicators and our goals, and I’m, I’m proud of our district for doing this. But oftentimes we have stretch goals. We have growth goals. And we’re sometimes they even can be idealistic. Right. Like 100% graduation rate.

00:48:01,970	Um, when that isn’t that what we all want? I mean, those kind of goals. And then sometimes we know the reality is we don’t always hit those. And so I think it’s for us as a board sometimes, or that letter of a lot of the spirit of the law as well.

00:48:12,100	Um, and again, it’s sometimes it’s hard to define and maybe we, we also have to ask our, our professionals in, in the academic world to maybe tell us if that’s what some of these are, when we have those.

00:48:25,070	Um, so I just want to point that out that we have done those in the past, that oftentimes if there’s a stretch goal, at the end of the day, the board gets to make that decision. Um, Miss Peterson, I don’t know if you had any more commentary from your motion. I’m certainly not trying to, um, take it away from you, so. Nope, I can go either way.

00:48:39,870	I think that, you know, when I look at sort of some of the recommendations, they had noted some exceptions, but I don’t disagree with, um, what Mrs. Preskey kind of considered. So I’ll just let the the new motion stand. I think the only thing you didn’t ask is if there was a second person.

00:48:53,630	Yeah, I’m going to.. Okay. Do I have a second to Miss Peterson’s motion? Seeing none, do we have a second to Miss Prescott’s motion? Doctor Jonas? Second. We have a motion and a second. Any other discussion, doctor Johnson? Doctor Jonas. Yes. Mrs. Peterson? Yes, miss. Preskey. Yes, Mr.. Auckland. Yes. Mr.. Eastgate. Yes.

00:49:24,130	Motion passes with making reasonable progress. Correct. Thank you, Doctor Johnson. Thank you, board members, for talking that one through. Appreciate it. Next up underneath item five BGC one board purpose. This is where we’ll have a public reading of the board purpose as well as board members.

00:49:48,870	Board members will have a chance to make a recommendation to retain or amend it. And then also if you find us in compliance, in compliance with exception or out of compliance, here is the public reading of GC one board. Purpose.

00:50:04,830	The Bismarck Public School Board represents, leads and serves the community and hold itself accountable to the citizens by committing to act in their best interest and by ensuring that all board and district action is consistent with law and the board’s policies. The board’s purpose is to ensure that the district achieves the results described in the board’s results policies, and that it operates according to the values expressed in the board’s operational expectations.

00:50:23,430	Policies. At the end of the reading of GC one board purpose. Board members. Um, I would entertain any conversation, discussion motions wherever you’d like to take us. Uh, I would move to retain GC one board purpose. I would second. We have a motion and a second. Doctor Johnson. Mrs. Peterson.. Yes, miss. Preskey. Yes, Mr.

00:50:58,130	Auckland? Yes, doctor. Jonas. Yes. Mr.. Eastgate. Yes. Motion passes five zero. And I would move that. Uh, the board find itself in compliance with GC one board purpose. I’ll second. We have a motion and a second. No further discussion. Doctor Johnson. Miss Preskey. Yes. Mr. Auckland? Yes, doctor. Jonas. Yes. Mrs.. Peterson. Yes, Mr. Eastgate. Yes.

00:51:39,170	Motion passes five zero. Thank you, doctor Johnson on the agenda now on item six. Matters reserved for board action. Six A is initial resolution for general obligation to school building bonds. Doctor Fastnacht. Um, yeah. Before I open that up, I for Doctor Jonas. Mr. Auckland, you’ll get comfortable with that.

00:51:57,570	That’s a that’s a kind of a wonky procedural issue. The the policies and policy are coherent governance policies and then keeping them, retaining them and then or not retaining them, amending them. And then also holding yourself in compliance or not. So that’ll get more comfortable I’m sure, with time.

00:52:17,030	So, um, I do, if you don’t mind, before I get into my recommendations, you guys take action on these. Are you okay if I just share a couple of thoughts before we get it, please? Okay. Um, Mr. Barnard, could you bring up my slides? I emailed you earlier 18, 19.

00:52:34,170	Yeah, like the first one? Yeah, that one right there. 18. Yep. I just wanted to bring out for everybody because obviously you guys have talked about this. You’ve had a retreat. We’ve had a workshop. Um, our team’s been working on this for months before we get to this point.

00:52:51,430	And the decision to move forward with a question in November is not taken lightly. I want people to know that it’s not something that just happened because it wasn’t decided the day after the election.

00:53:07,830	It’s been decided after months of work, and I think what I would like to just hit on here for people that maybe aren’t aware of it, maybe they’re new, the community, or they weren’t really tuned in the last time we did this. Just why are we doing this work? And I think, um, Mr. Jensen, have actually hit upon a couple of things that are really important is we want to keep students safe.

00:53:23,100	A lot of the work that we have in the plan is about keeping students safe. And, and some of the schools that he referenced are tied to one. Schools need some improvements. You are you are aware of those you support. Those are, um, operational excellence committee last year supported those. And getting those done is important.

00:53:40,900	Um, so putting them off longer and saying no to them, um, kind of as he said, we said no in the past. Saying no again doesn’t solve the problem. Um, the other thing is better learning spaces.

00:53:55,370	I would tell you, as I walk around the district and I if you’ve had when you get a chance to go visit schools, um, we have exceptional schools top to bottom. We have great schools. I will hold them up to any, um, but I also will tell you a school built in the 1940s or 50s is not the same school as the one built in the 2020s.

00:54:13,000	Okay, um, and not that every school needs to be exactly like that. We don’t expect everything new and shiny. Um, but there are some standards. There’s some learning area standards.

00:54:30,700	There’s some, um, heating and cooling and just the environment that our kids are learning in that kids that are now participating in school in the older parts of town, just they’re lacking. They’re lacking some of those things and improving some of our, our areas like libraries and PE and health education locations or multi-purpose room locations, which not only support PE and lunch, but also after school program.

00:54:50,370	I think that’s still important. And you’re going to see that in this, um, what we call November 26th plan. Um, expanding student opportunities is still something that we, we have talked about and we still need to do work, like again, after school programming.

00:55:07,430	Um, but I think we talked about last time, uh, centralized kitchen. It’s not we don’t talk about a school, but the concept of a centralized kitchen and bringing more locally sourced, um, locally grown food items to our kids when we want our kids to have the best healthy options in front of them, when they, um, have breakfast or lunch in our schools is really

00:55:25,100	an important issue. It’s a it’s a health issue for our kids. And I don’t think that’s why we take that lightly. And then the last key concept that we’re bringing forward tonight with these resolutions is just preserving the investment, this community has, he said. Um, Mr.

00:55:45,830	Jensen said tonight has invested a lot of energy, money, investment into their schools. And I think it is important that we do our very best to preserve it. We need to take care of it.

00:56:00,770	And, uh, um, are we perfect? No, I think like you said, it takes it takes work for a family to take care of their home. And plan and make sure that you replace the shingles when they’re supposed to, and replace the, you know, I call over H.A. Thompson Sons. They come over. I need to fix my my furnace or air conditioner. Um, that takes effort. And it’s hard for families.

00:56:18,970	Um, but I will say when you have over 3,000,000ft of floors and 2,000,000ft of roofs and, um, nearly 30 some facilities, those that is difficult to do and particularly difficult when finances are constrained. And I would tell you, they’re always been under a little bit of constraint. Schools have not had open checkbooks ever. We just can’t go print money.

00:56:39,970	Um, and that constraint has gotten tougher over the last few years. So, um, it is we don’t get to go borrow money from a bank. We don’t get to go walk in and just say, hey, we’d like X number of dollars.

00:56:53,300	Can we do that? When we borrow money, we have to ask voters. And that’s exactly what we’re doing. I’d be like going for a home equity loan on your house to say, hey, we need to do this.

00:57:08,100	Mom or dad, or I’d say, hey, Lisa, do you want to do this? We’d be asking, like, what? Where do we go to the bank to do this? That’s exactly what we’re doing with voters. And so I think that’s best done. I’ve said this before. I think the best thing to do is ask voters. That is our job. That’s what we need to do. We need to answer the questions and present our rationale.

00:57:25,230	And that begins again tonight for the November election. I’m sure people will talk about the investment because, as Mr. Jensen said, again, taxes are hard, right? Inflation is real. I you drive by a gas pump and it’s 3.99. That’s challenging okay. But I think if you go to 19 for me, Mr.

00:57:46,170	Bernhardt, um, we have done work to bring down the cost of this, um, hearing what voters said in June. So we are dropping that and you may say, well, Jeff, from what we proposed in June for $100,000, that’s only $6. Yep. It is only $6.

00:58:07,370	But I would tell you, I thought that the proposal we presented in June and the one we’re presenting now has an affordable option, as any school in the state has offered their voters. We are doing this for a much cheaper financial impact on on taxpayers than any of the big large schools have done over the last five years. Significantly less expensive.

00:58:27,770	And, uh, you know, for an average home in Bismarck, um, that is about $400,000. We are talking about an annual tax impact to accomplish work across 23 sites. I believe I get that number eight, 23 sites. That really is important work as you again, as you heard, Mr. Jensen today, this is work that’s been put off put off too long.

00:58:44,770	We got to get it done. We ought to make tough decisions. Yes, but if money is to do this, are not going to be coming from, um, classroom services. So we got to find it somewhere.

00:59:02,600	Is it worth $170 a year for an average home in Bismarck? To see these improvements in your school? That’s what I would say is the question in front of voters. But, um, your decision tonight is to approve these three next resolutions. And if that’s the case, we will begin to march forward, informing the voters and the patrons of Bismarck Public Schools. So they’re well informed before we get to November.

00:59:22,100	Board members and before any motion, um, is brought forward at all, maybe just a chance for everybody to have a comment if they have a wish to do so. Um, board member Preskey. Yeah. Thank you.

00:59:40,230	Um, I think you hit on a lot of important points there that, um, we did take a look at the dollar figure here, reduce the dollar figure, Knowing that we could do some of the work with the building fund. Um, I think it’s really important for folks at home to know that, uh, we’re really restricted.

00:59:59,500	And when we can ask for this and, um, and that’s done by the legislature, so we can only put forward a bond every two years in either the primary or the general election. So it either happens this year or we wait another two years, which just impacts things even more.

01:00:19,700	And I think the other thing that I’d like to note is that we need a 60% threshold, which is a incredibly high threshold. Now, I see the vote in the primary you have. I part of my job is I work with elections and around those that are, are are running our elections at the local level. And so it’s historically known that primaries are have lower voter turnout. Um, we still got 98.

01:00:47,030	68% of um, of the vote, which tells me that there’s a, a high community desire to, um, to support this. And so I, I believe we absolutely have to put this in front of our voters again to address the necessary updates and additions that this community needs. And our, our students deserve.

01:01:13,270	Um, the other thing that’s really stuck with me is 23 sites. It’s not it’s not a new school. This is this is really affecting a huge number of facilities in our school district.

01:01:34,630	And essentially a student going through the different schools that they they go through from elementary to middle to high school, is more than likely going to see the impacts of of what we’re trying to accomplish here. So, um, I, I totally support going to the voters again and asking them, um, to support us on this.

01:01:58,530	Uh, you know, as, as far as why we’ve waited, I feel that, um, you know, we’ve we as a board or, um, I, you know, maybe not we but those of us that have been on the board in the past really tried to be very conservative with our budgets, not raising any property taxes and taking that action with ourselves, making that decision and keeping our mill levies, um,

01:02:17,700	flat. But there comes a point in time when you look at it, it’s going to take us 20 years to get these projects done. You can’t just continually, continually try to chip away at it.

01:02:39,100	And I think I’ve always had the position that if you’re going to make a large decision like this, um, that the voters should have a say, they deserve to have the say so instead of a board deciding to increase mills by ten, ten mills here or there, or slowly work at it, um, I, I firmly believe that this is a community decision and deserves the community’s, um, voice. So thank you, Mr. Preskey. Miss Peterson.

01:03:02,530	Thanks, Mr. Prescott, and thanks, President Eastgate. And I won’t belabor some of some of what I wanted to say were discussed by Doctor Fastnacht and by Miss Preskey.

01:03:18,570	But one of the things that I also want to address is that I think as a board, when when it’s maybe brought up as whether or not the district has scaled back or had made other cuts. I just want to say that every single time, whether we’re talking at a budget workshop or when we are in this, in this room, we have asked the district to scale back.

01:03:36,170	Um, and, and Doctor Fastnatcht and his team to really look at efficiency of operations, looking at our contracted services, look at how we are. Um, how we are just like working overall. And I think that there’s only so many ways that you can stretch a dollar.

01:03:55,130	And I think that when we when 85% of our budget is on salary and benefits, that the cuts that we make, unless we’re starting to kind of cut back how many teachers that we are employing, the aides that we are, um, serving our kids. There’s only so many different ways that you can can stretch and be fiscally responsible before we’re not actually meeting the needs.

01:04:14,270	And I think that the work that we put into place throughout the community forums and throughout the committee work and really public public comment, um, not just what we heard tonight, but just public engagement over the last like several years is that I, I think that we kept hearing that the public actually did want these things, these these

01:04:32,300	weren’t just what the public wanted, but the what the public felt that they deserved for their kids. And so in a lot of these cases, these are needs, not just wants.

01:04:49,900	Um, and that they wanted that the, this board and each other I suppose like as they, as they have to kind of make that decision through the vote that that these were things that were kind of non-negotiable, that these were things that they expected to have kind of equitable access to, um, through whichever doors that you walk through, whether you’re walking through a title one school or our brand new buildings, they wanted that for for their students.

01:05:07,500	And so I feel that as we’ve really scaled back, not only just slightly for what we’re asking for, because we were able to meet some of those needs, that that’s kind of what we’ve been asking the last several years, and you just don’t do it overnight.

01:05:21,970	And to Danielle’s point is, if we don’t ask today, the costs are only going to go up. The needs are only going to get greater. What we want for our kids is only going to go up. So we we owe it to our community to give it one more shot.

01:05:36,070	Um, this this year, while we have the numbers that we do in order to decide whether or not they’re able to kind of meet that threshold. Thank you.. Sure. Sorry.

01:05:53,770	I’m only going to respond because your comment about the budget, um, let me just for sake, it’s in my annual report, but I’ll mention it here is you know this already, but we’ve we trimmed $3 million out of our expenditure budget this year. During the year, like on the fly, we constricted 3 million. So, I think that probably goes unnoticed by most people. But I think that’s the work you’re asking us to do. Thank you, Doctor Jonas. Yeah. You know, as one of the.

01:06:14,400	New. members on this board. I think it was important that I went back and looked at the work that the previous board did, and I looked at, um, what we’re asking the public to support.

01:06:31,900	And I think I did a very thorough job, and I don’t see anything that is be honest, not necessary. And also, since I’m the old one on the board, I’m on a fixed income. I don’t want to pay any more taxes than anybody else. Um, but I look at my own grandkids. They were at Solheim this last year and that was teaching in portables. Not good. Good for anybody more.

01:06:54,830	So anything just you’re not involved with the school. So I think there’s we have so many schools involved. I think it’s very important that we support this. And second, I looked at the uh, the mill levies that will be required and we’re below Fargo or below West Fargo or below Grand Forks. We’re below Williston.

01:07:15,030	So I think it was a prudent decision. And I think the tipping point for me was more so than anything, nothing’s getting cheaper. If we don’t do it now, when will we do it? And then the last point I’d make is, why not put it in front of the public where more people are going to vote?

01:07:32,230	Then we’re really going to know if the public’s behind this yes or no. In a primary. You we I think we had 17,000. Whatever. There’ll be more of this and we’re going to find out if the public is really behind this.

01:07:47,870	So I want people to know that as a new board member, that’s how I looked at it. And I think it’s a prudent decision. Thank you, Doctor Jonas. Any other comments? I would just share a few. I think, um, you know, we’re going to get asked. We have an aspect community members as far as putting it back.

01:08:03,970	And I just say that community members have a privilege. And in my opinion, a duty to vote on all things that come in front of us as as voters in North Dakota. Um, and they have the opportunity to vote yes or no. I think as board members, we also have a duty.

01:08:17,200	Um, you guys have done a great job of talking about what that duty looks like. And for me, I always just say our duty is to students, educators, families and overall or just our whole community because schools are such a heart of a community.

01:08:32,500	Um, and so I do believe it’s our duty to bring this in front of them again, for all the reasons you guys just laid out. Um, I just think it’s I think it’s the right thing to do as as school board members.

01:08:43,930	Um, also, we’ve talked a little bit about some of the time frame and some of the other schools that had pressing needs. And I just want to make the note that no school has been put on a back burner, picked on or not cared about by this board or the previous board. Um, we’ve continually asked questions and tried to do what’s best with what we can. As we talked about stretching a dollar year by year.

01:08:58,230	And unfortunately, sometimes the timing doesn’t work to be able to address some of the things that we all wish we could right away. Um, if we could snap our fingers and wave that magic wand, we certainly would.

01:09:11,100	Um, so we’ve looked at and we’ve looked at as a board and as a district, what else we could do if we didn’t have this bond? And we’ve talked about it and we’ve they’ve done the math. Um, I’m going to say today, I mean, Doctor Scherr, Doctor Fastnacht not getting together and 23 years to do it all through a different alternative way of getting this done.

01:09:25,500	And to me, that’s just, again, that’s just not good enough for our community. Um, again, we are going to be we’re still even if we would pass this bond, as Doctor Jonas just pointed out, we’re still the smallest amount of mills assessed for a big school in this entire state. It’s a big deal.

01:09:42,130	Um, and it’s because, as we talked about, we’ve continually tried to be very fiscally responsible. We’ve tried to be and continue to try to be good stewards of our own and all the rest of the taxpayers money for what we’re trying to do. Again, all that money, um, being pledged, being used for educators, kids, families in our community.

01:09:59,670	I just want to keep hitting that because that’s where this is going. Those are the four categories that it is going to, um, which really just like we said, it applies to 23 schools.

01:10:12,830	I believe it applies to our entire community in some way, shape or form, because we know how much use our facilities get. Um, with that board members, I would, um, open up to any motions. Well, let me give you let me give you tee up the first one, the first resolution is the key resolution. That’s your initial resolution for general obligation bonds.

01:10:31,570	That is in essence your resolution saying you would like to go to the voters to ask for this debt. So, um, that’s that that’s the first one. So let’s start there. Miss Preskey. I would move that. We approve the initial resolution for general obligation school building bonds in an amount not to exceed $116,500,000.. We have a motion Doctor. Jonas second. Motion and a second.

01:11:04,070	Any other discussion? Doctor Johnson? Mister Auckland? Yes. Doctor. Jonas. Yes. Mrs. Peterson? Yes, miss. Preskey. Yes. Mr.. Eastgate. Yes. Motion passes five zero. Okay. Your next one is to on the resolution to put it in the ballot. So you have not only the resolution, but your pen. Uh, exhibit A, which should be in your packet.

01:11:25,970	Is that ballot language which I know will share multiple forms later. But this puts it on the ballot. Board members. Mr. Auckland, I would move to approve the resolution, submitting the question of approving the initial resolution for general obligation school building bonds to the voters of the district at the November 3rd, 2026 primary election. General election. General election.

01:11:47,870	I’m sorry we have that wrong. Yep. Miss Peterson. I’ll second. We have a motion and a second. Doctor Johnson. Doctor Jonas. Yes. Mrs. Peterson? Yes. Miss. Preskey. Yes. Mr.. Auckland? Yes, Mr.. Eastgate. Yes. Motion passes five zero. All right. Your last one is your application for, uh, state school construction loan funds. Uh, you did this last time.

01:12:17,770	Failed. So you have to reapply. Um, we’ll be in the next application window. So, um. Yeah, if you choose to wish to do that, I would recommend that it’s very cheap. Loan funds or funds for the school. Board members. Miss Preskey. I would move that.

01:12:39,170	We approve the resolution authorizing submission of an application to the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction for participation in the state School Construction loan program. Doctor Jonas. Second. We have a motion and a second. Doctor Johnson. Mrs. Peterson. Yes, miss. Preskey. Yes, Mr.. Auckland? Yes, doctor. Jonas. Yes. Mr.. Eastgate. Yes. Motion passes five zero. Thank you, Doctor Johnson.

01:13:04,770	Thank you, Doctor Fastnacht for working through that with us. Um, on the agenda, six D 2026 2027 board appointments. We did have a chance to discuss and go over these at our workshop. Um, we have the recommended, uh, appointments on their board members. What are your wishes, Mrs.

01:13:21,870	Peterson? I would move to appoint Tony Auckland to the Bismarck Public School Foundation board, but also appoint Dan Eastgate to the Bismarck Community Bowl Authority. I would assign board members to the strategic plan priority portfolios as follows I would take learning excellence. Uh, Rod Jonas for personal excellence.

01:13:42,170	Uh, Donnell Preskey as operational excellence and Tony Auckland as environmental excellence. Mr. Auckland, so we have a motion and a second. Any other discussion? Seeing none, Doctor Johnson. Miss Preskey. Yes. Mr. Auckland? Yes, doctor. Jonas. Yes. Mrs. Peterson? Yes. Mr. Eastgate. Yes. Motion passes five zero. Thank you.

01:14:12,030	And item seven, we come to the consent agenda with the noted earlier changes where the wishes of the board. Mr. Auckland, I would move to consent the agenda to approve the approval of the consent agenda. We have a motion and Doctor Jonas. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, Doctor Johnson. Mr. Auckland. Yes, doctor. Jonas. Yes. Mrs. Peterson? Yes, miss. Preskey. Yes.

01:14:41,930	Mr.. Eastgate. Yes. Motion passes five zero. Thank you. And item eight. Superintendents report. Doctor Fastnacht. That was one of the good times of the year. I always like sending out reports. You know, I like colorful documents to send out to the community.

01:15:00,200	Um, my intent with this one, just so, uh, anybody watching this is kind of my annual report. It’s a little bit of review of where we were and a little bit of casting, uh, a focus on where we are going to be going for the year. So, um, for those, I should be going out.

01:15:12,930	Heck, it’s probably out right now. Um, a social media link. I’d encourage the patrons of the community to take a look at it and and review the report. But you’ll see first, just a letter from me to the community about what we did.

01:15:28,770	Um, well, this last year, what some of our challenges were and maybe where we planned ahead in the future. I added this year a new page, which was page three, which was you, the school board. I didn’t have that in the last two years.

01:15:41,470	I don’t know why I didn’t think you needed a page, but I think you do need a page. So I did, um, because it was really a report about last year. I did include, uh, the last year’s board, but then also acknowledged, uh, um, Doctor Jonas and Mr.

01:15:57,770	Auckland for being added to the board this year and, uh, some information about the strategic plan. So, um, just so you know, I did take a more condensed report on the next few pages, too. It was a little bit tighter last year, and one of my people said a little hard to read.

01:16:10,970	He had so many facts and bits in there, we’ll spread it out. So the first page is just about our kids. Um, one thing I’d like to note is you can see that our spring average daily membership, which is the total number of kids we had in school, it’s kind of what we use for state funding purposes is down this year.

01:16:29,330	Um, not to say we didn’t know that, though, because if you look right below that and the RSP report, we knew last year, this year we were going to see a dip, um, we might have a little bit of a year left, but then we’re going to start seeing us come out of that.

01:16:41,170	Um, so hopefully we can see some growth in the community and we know we’re gaining a thousand residents every year. Um, in Bismarck. So hopefully we can see us start to climb out of that. And but it’s a nice steady increase, which I think we can we can manage.

01:16:58,770	Um, I have a few other tidbits on there, but I’ll go the next page. The second page is, um, about achievement. You’ll see just some broad, um, results from the NDI insights dashboard, which anybody wants to look at. NDI insights on. Google it and you will find a plethora of information about every school in the state.

01:17:19,030	Um, we are, as we say on many of reports, we are outpacing the state in our DSA results for math and reading or Ela. So that’s a good thing. You’ll see our Act results. And please remember Act. Not every kid’s taking it anymore.

01:17:38,730	So, um, I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but when we’re comparing our best, they are ranking right up with the rest of the state. Um, as you saw today, are put the four year graduation rate in.

01:17:54,170	And then at the bottom, I simplified this a little bit this year just because I think people want to know how many kids are taking dual credit by grade, and then also how many kids are taking AP by grade and then what their pass rate is. The AP test is hard. They beat test is harder than passing the dual credit course. Um, and you can see that. But still a 75% pass rate and AP courses is really good. That’s that’s well done for our kids.

01:18:10,700	So and to our instructors for, for helping our kids get there, um, on the last page you have some of the, the business operations. You might say, um, this is reflective of the 25, 26 budget. So you can see last year we did collect 220 million. We spent 217 million.

01:18:31,630	And I would tell you, um, again, that 217 is because we had a budget that was pretty flat, like exactly flat. Um, we’ve trimmed some dollars out there during the year. Um, it’s 3 million, a lot out of 217. Um, probably not. I don’t know if you define a lot, but it takes work when you’re talking about people.

01:18:46,830	And I think to Miss Peterson, your comment is it’s hard to save 3 million in paperclips, right? It doesn’t happen. You have to make real programmatic changes. And those are hard. But we’re working on that. I would also go down if you compared last year’s report to this year, I think you’ll find that we have less people.

01:19:04,570	Um, we are doing it with less people. So again, about the idea of making hard cuts and constricting, we are doing that and we’ll continue to do that as opportunity arises.

01:19:22,700	But I would like to point out, um, teacher retention, this is something Doctor Jonas and I mentioned we got we have a working group on teacher retention and keeping the high quality, amazing teachers that we have a 94% retention rate for our teachers is a really good number that I mean, we are 95 last year we were 94 this year. But I know schools.

01:19:39,600	I just talked to a colleague from a class A school in North Dakota that’s under 90, like in the 80s. Um, we are not seeing that same pinch. And it’s I think it’s because of how we, we respect our educators. We talk to them, we want to know what they’re doing.

01:19:54,370	We want to know how they believe we can make our schools better. And I hopefully we take care of them. And I and I know we can do better, but they’re really important. And some of the other data on that slide, I think I always bring up the number of lunches and breakfast because we’re the largest, uh, restaurant in town by far.

01:20:11,300	And just this year, number of miles this year, because I love the trip. Artemis two to the moon. Just how many miles we drive would get you almost, uh, nearly to the moon and back twice. That’s a lot of.

01:20:27,370	That’s a lot of amazing magic school bus trips to get to the moon and back. So, um, that’s a lot of miles. And lastly, I’ll, I will not go over this, but people can read it. Um, just worth noting about there’s just a couple things about what we see in our future of our schools.

01:20:44,970	Planning for a little bit of, um, kind of re digestion about our transportation changes. I made some references to Bell time’s because bell times are changing, so some people don’t. Don’t. Well, you shouldn’t be late for school because if you show up at the time you did last year, you should be on time. But it’s changing a little bit.

01:20:59,000	And then, um, just making sure we have an article about preparing our kids for the future and some broad discussions anymore about AI, screen time, technology and how it’s affecting our kids and letting people know that we’re having those same conversations. So, um, you’re not alone.

01:21:14,230	So I give you this report. I hope you enjoy it. I hope the community enjoys it. And, uh, have me a little more in touch of what’s going on in their schools. Board members, any questions for Doctor Fastnacht? Not Mister Auckland. I don’t have any questions. I don’t have any questions. Just more commentary of.

01:21:31,730	Really happy to see these numbers of graduation rates partnered with the numbers of Doctor Johnson as to how well our students are doing that 96%. Um, very excited to see that.

01:21:48,770	And the dual Quran and AP, uh, what a lot of students are getting before they graduate high school really says a lot to what we’re not only being able to offer, but their determination to succeed and do well. So I’m really thrilled to see that partnered with those, uh, numbers that we got in the Mega Report or mega result. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Auckland. I see no other commentary. All agenda items have been considered. I declare