00:00:10,630	The Mandan public school district number one school board meeting or in Mandan City Hall Ed Bosh Froehlich room. Today is Tuesday, September 8th, 5:30 p.m.. Please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

00:00:37,230	One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Approval of the agenda. Any changes to agenda? No. Changes. Are the wishes regarding the agenda? I would move that. We approve the agenda. Second motion and a second. Any discussion? Not. Miss Rebenitsch, please call the roll. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

00:01:15,200	Yes. Yes. Next up, public comment. Anybody in the audience wishing to speak anything on the agenda? Going once, twice. I see you shaking head. No. So, uh, next up, the administrative report. First up, we got the 2026, 2027 Roman update. Doctor Retterath. Yes.

00:01:36,030	Just touching base on this again right now, pulling the enrollment. We’re sitting at 4482. Um, we’ve talked a little bit about with our transition from Infinite Campus to Power school, it’s been a little bit difficult to pull comparable numbers. But from last year, in early October, we were at 44, 33.

00:01:53,700	So we’re trending about 49 kids above, which would be about right. We were kind of we were projecting to be in that 30 to 40 range, hopefully growth we’re still holding at about 315 for kindergarten, which is good. We’re still seeing a lot of flux here. I’m thinking after this week it’ll probably level out.

00:02:08,270	Some school districts don’t start to after Labor Day if we’ve had some kids move. So still getting some transfer of records and things, but we should, I think, after our next school board meeting, have a fairly stable enrollment number for our fall numbers. Okay. Any questions on enrollment wise? Next, we have tribal consultation. Doctor Retterath.

00:02:28,930	Yes. Uh, Mr. Meschke shared a little bit on our title. One. Um, our consolidated application last board meeting. And the only thing that we hadn’t done yet was tribal consultation, because we are within a 90 miles of a reservation.

00:02:47,700	We need to consult with standing Rock when on federal funds. So we do in the fall on our consolidated app. That’s total one, two, three and four. And then we do in the spring when it has to do with title six, which is specific to our Native American students. And the funding we get with that. So we met with them.

00:03:02,630	They signed off on that. We collaborated with them. We had a great meeting. Uh, Travis went down with me. So did Mr. Meschke. And it was it was a good meeting. So you’ll just see that in there. And if anybody has any questions, I can answer them. Any questions? See you. None.

00:03:20,700	Uh, next up, we got North Dakota school board Association board book and evaluation services update. Yes, we talked a little bit about this at our retreat about moving to the board book software that North Dakota school boards offers for our agendas and our minutes just for some more uniformity.

00:03:39,400	And we just, uh, from finalize that with them this week. So we will do some training on that. So anticipate starting in October. I’m hoping end of October we’ll start using that platform. As I get more information. We will send it out to you as a board. We also are going to start leveraging.

00:03:52,570	They have an evaluation service. We can tailor it specific to what we want to use, both for my evaluation and then for the board to do any sort of self evaluations. I can also leverage it to do our business manager evaluation. And so it’s all kind of cohesive and consistent and on one platform.

00:04:09,830	So we’ll start to roll those out this fall as as we get the training. And so I wanted to just give you an update on that. And I can answer any questions as well. Any questions. Okay. Next we got facilities to finance and Insurance Committee update doctor runaround.

00:04:28,970	Yes. So one of the things I wanted to try this year is after committee meetings kind of give you a one page summary. I know we have committee meeting minutes, but to me this is just a nice visual for you as a board and for the public to see what’s discussed in these committees.

00:04:42,030	So on the top part of this is our Insurance Committee report. We met the first week of school, and some of the things to highlight in there.

00:04:54,270	We are trending much better this year after having a really rough year last year, but it just takes time to to kind of come out of a year like we had last year. So we did approve a renewal rate of 11.2%. So that is something that is very real money. And people are going to feel that that’s a fairly significant increase.

00:05:12,500	It’s much better than what we were at one point projecting, but it is still a hefty increase. And we really pulled a lot of levers last year. As you know, redesigning the plan and doing some things to mitigate that, that this year we really didn’t have levers to pull like we did last year. We felt like our plan design is is where it needs to be.

00:05:28,230	And so that’s where we locked in. We also saw a 13.2% increase in our dental insurance rates and locked in there. Um, any questions on the insurance front before? I just want to ask like we know that obviously it’s a big jump and they’re going to feel it. Teachers are already feeling it.

00:05:48,570	So how are we going to mitigate all this struggle for the teachers? There’s people needing second jobs. There’s you know, it’s I’m afraid we’re going to lose teachers. So that’s that’s where I’m worried. Yeah. That’s all a conversation we’re going to have to have when we’re talking total compensation, when we’re talking salary, when we’re talking insurance.

00:06:06,000	I think one of the struggles with health insurance is not every employee takes it. You know, several employees take it. So we can’t we can’t infuse more money into health insurance. But that does not necessarily benefit everybody. If we chose to prioritize more money to salaries, it could benefit everybody.

00:06:22,630	That’ll have to be a conversations we have as a board especially. It’s in negotiations here with it being a legislative session, a lot of that’s going to be driven by um, to your point, we need to pressure our legislature, legislative body about our per pupil funding and needing higher increases than what they have not kept up with inflation.

00:06:39,830	I think there’s going to be extensive legislation potentially around do they take teachers onto state health insurance and take that burden off of districts? Because it’s tough for us rural, tiny districts. It can be devastating to when they see huge increases.

00:06:56,530	So I think it’ll be really important that we’re at stay active in those arenas as well, because with the 3% caps and 64% of our budget coming from per pupil, from funding, we don’t have a lot of levers to pull locally. They’re becoming more and more limited in what we can do on that front.

00:07:17,400	Any other questions on the insurance piece? And then below is just the summary from Facilities and Finance. A lot of this is reiterating from our board retreat. We spent a lot of time just reviewing the budget, reviewing where we’re at, talking a little bit about capital maintenance and property sales and all those things that we’ve touched based

00:07:33,400	on quite a bit, but are just summarized here. Again, if there’s any questions, I just thought this was maybe a good way to kind of a quick glance at what our committees are doing. I’ll do the same after policy and personnel and student achievement. That’s it. Okay. Next up we have on consent agenda.

00:08:01,070	For that we have review. Consider approval of the previous board minutes from August 17th, 2026. Review and consider approval of previous board retreat minutes from August 17th, 2026. Except the Insurance Committee minutes from August 27th, 2026, except facilities and finance minutes from August 31st, 2026.

00:08:23,770	Review and consider approval of the June 2026 bills, and review and consider approval of the June 2026 revenue and expenditures. I’d moved to approve the consent agenda. Second. Motion and second. Miss Rebenitsch, please call the Roll. Yes. Yes, yes. Yes. yes yes yes. Yes yes, we have nothing under unfinished business. Under new business, we have review and consider approval of the school board connections. Program update. Mr. Meschke.

00:08:57,000	Yes, chairman. Horn. Um, this is probably more of an update you’ll see in your packets starting on page 53. You did get a condensed version of this at our retreat. Uh, starting on page 53. As you scroll through there, you’ll see some things that are highlighted.

00:09:15,170	Um, uh, board members Jacob Chick and first met with Doctor Retterath, myself, uh, Mr. Beckman and Mrs. Tomlinson. Uh, to go through the plan. Um, overall, it stayed intact. Uh, pretty much as presented in your packets. A couple you’ll also see a couple handouts in front of you that, uh, Mrs. Jacob chick put together.

00:09:36,500	Um, we couldn’t really decide on the frequency of the visits, um, to the schools and whether it was a rotation. I think more so. Or rotation of members going to our schools and talking to our principals and seeing our schools and talking to staff, uh, is kind of the route we, uh, eventually decided on.

00:09:54,030	I guess we would need direction from the board. You’ll see the two different handouts there. One would be quarterly, uh, and board members would be able to visit four schools or four areas. Um, or if we want to go monthly, um, where we’re able to see every school at some point during the school year.

00:10:11,230	So we need a little bit of direction from, from the board and on how how you’d like to proceed with that. Do you want to start big? Do you want to start small? Um, you’ll also see a reflection paper in there in the form, uh, in a word form.

00:10:28,830	I guess it’s, uh, something that we talked about that we could convert to a Google form of some sort to collect some data and use that, and then look for our commonalities amongst our schools, uh, areas, our strengths, and maybe areas that we need a little bit of help in, in our schools, uh, and use that data to help with policy

00:10:45,370	personnel. Our student achievement committee, things like that. That’ll drive our committees, um, hopefully helping our schools and ultimately our kids. Thoughts? As far as frequency monthly, quarterly.

00:11:14,200	I, I would, uh, I could make it more often I suppose, too, but I think quarterly to start out with would be easier to manage for everyone and for the administrators. Also, though. Um. But that’s just my $0.02. Could I, could I clarify, are we trying to decide between as far as frequency as the four visits? Would that be at the same school, or would we. Um, in your packet, I believe that, um, Mrs.

00:11:36,770	Jacobchick put out where there would be a rotation. So you would visit four different schools, one each quarter as a board member. I like the idea of quarterly, too. I think it’s more manageable. And I know we discussed, like when we come in, it’s a little bit of a distraction to the schools too. So maybe being less distracting.

00:11:59,530	And that would be the goal of this program not to be a distraction. Right. So quarterly. To be there, to be there and learning about the school that’s and I think I know administrators are excited about it.

00:12:15,870	And I think one of the goals, too, is to have board members come back and share out what you saw to not just feedback, but to the group, um, as well, because I think that’s an important piece of it to, to, to share back, um, your experience. I would agree with Mr. Peters, probably quarterly to start with would be a good starting point.

00:12:37,500	Um, you know, and as we look to, uh, hopefully implement the program going into future years, we would make sure that board members would be able to get to every school at some point and have those conversations.

00:12:59,900	Just looking at this, uh, mock up schedule here, it seems like we’re whether it’s monthly or quarterly, you’re constantly moving schools. Didn’t we kind of discuss about staying with one school for at least a period of time to kind of make that connection? Yep. That that was that was an option. We we could still do that. It’s really kind of how you guys would like to see it.

00:13:14,300	I I’ve heard both sides, uh, from administrators, that one they’d like to meet all of you and have you come in in the year and one and some are like, no, I just I want to create a relationship with the board member for a year and then

00:13:26,100	switch it up the next year. So really, I would say, um, that would be about a 5050 on how you’d like to do that.

00:13:40,330	So I think, I think getting it started and reevaluating the program after the year would be a good way to a good way to start. Um, but but it’s really up really up to you guys. But this is what came out of our little subcommittee. With Ashley and whoever else was on the committee. I mean, that’s what you guys kind of decided was the rotating would be best.

00:13:55,400	I just made it that way just so we could kind of see it. I I’m okay with however the board wants to do it. I think neither is wrong or neither is right. It’s however we decide to go forward. Thank you. Yeah.

00:14:13,100	And I think we also wanted to kind of put that back towards the administrator group to, to see what they were thinking. And it sounds like what you’re saying is it’s pretty split. Uh, that’s the feedback I got. Yeah.

00:14:31,870	The only input I would give on that, you know, on a quarterly basis, um, was a three year term, you pretty much are going to hit every school during your three year term on the board. So you’d get to see them all, which has some benefit. Or if you do it yearly and you’re only one year on a three year term, I’m only going to hit three schools.

00:14:45,300	So that’s to give and take on this thing a little bit in relation to it. Personally, I, I kind of like to be it to every school over time, over my three year term on the career, even though I’m almost done with mine. But, you know, I think that’s always a good thing.

00:14:58,930	And I don’t think there’s anything saying that you can’t do that. If you want to visit schools, you’re more than welcome to do that. And I would encourage I would encourage that. You reach out to that principal and. And all of the administrative principals and always have always been open about inviting us to come into anything.

00:15:16,800	They should do it. So. I guess. I don’t. Know, that personal opinion would be I, I’m all right with quarterly and rotating or sticking with the same school. It does not make a difference to me. To me. I. think I think. Quarterly is good.

00:15:42,830	And to Sheldon’s point of three year term, you’ve got 12 opportunities over a three year period. And of course some will be up for election next year, in the year after.

00:15:59,830	So yeah, it, uh, I think it’s a good idea to rotate between schools because at first I was wanting to build a relationship with, you know, maybe a school and get to know it, but there’s value in in meeting all of them at all different levels. So. I don’t know that we need necessarily a motion, just more direction from the board.

00:16:18,570	Um, so until we finalize this and even then, I don’t know that we need a motion to accept it, but just just to get the ball rolling. Uh, wanted to hear your input on how we went forward. So I’m hearing that we should do quarterly and rotate. That’s kind of what I’m hearing more of a consensus. A lot of see a lot of head shaking. Yes. Okay.

00:16:31,870	I would say take the plan that we have and run with it and see how it goes. Okay. And also before you, I do have contacts for every, uh, school administrator with that. Is there, uh, school phone number and email address? Um, all nine of them are on there.

00:16:50,030	I will pass around a sheet right at the end of the meeting. I have all your emails, but I don’t have all your phone numbers. If you want to share them. Um, just confirm your email on here, and I’ll. I’ll get this to administrators.

00:17:05,770	Um, my plan would be administrators reach out to you, um, because scheduling, uh, might be difficult if we try to reschedule them. But whatever works best for you and that administrator and your visit time. So I’ll. I’ll pass that out at the end. So they’re going to contact us. We won’t. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Okay, okay. We got a plan, so that sounds good.

00:17:31,970	Next up we got reviewed. Consider approval of the fiscal year 26 business manager’s report. Mr. Lagasse. Yes. Included in your packet is our DPI financial report starts on page 65. Uh, most of this is what we’ve talked about during our retreat and our preliminary budget.

00:17:49,230	So you’ve heard this, but I’m going to go through it page by page. And if you have questions, please stop and ask as we’re going through it. Um, I’m going to start on page one of the financial report. Um, this starts our general fund revenue. On the left column.

00:18:07,130	You can see our revenue from local sources near the very top. It shows total property taxes for the year of 14.2 million. Just one note line. 1138. Uh, miscellaneous fund levy. We took in $806,000. Just a reminder, we did not levy for that last year. That is back taxes that we took in, um, that were owed to us.

00:18:27,400	I just want to make sure that you’re aware of that. Next year, we will be levying the full 12 mils in that line item on the right column. Uh, line 3110. Our per pupil state aid, uh, 44.5 million. That’s our state foundation aid based off of our student enrollment.

00:18:47,630	That accounts for two thirds of our enrollment. The state funding formula. I know people talk about it. There’s differing opinions, but the state funding formula is very, very good for Mandan. On page two, um, on the left column is our revenue from federal sources. These are going to be our title programs. We took in $2.7 million this year in title funds.

00:19:12,030	This is a little down from last year because we no longer have the closed grant. So if you’re comparing to the last couple of years, one less grant that was available to us on the bottom, our total revenue for fund Group one, $65.8 million. And this report is a little backwards.

00:19:31,830	If you go down right near the end, you can see our total expenditures of 66.39 million. Um, we did have a deficit this year of roughly $600,000. We knew that going into last fiscal year, we were going to deficit spend. We’re still in good financial shape moving forward. Page three.

00:19:49,870	Do I see a question? I just had a quick question regarding federal money. Was that 5% of our budget? Yeah. Is federal. Yeah. I guess it’s interesting what they control. I guess it’s not. It’s just a comment that what they can control with such little input.

00:20:14,600	We have, we very little of our money comes from federal government and those title programs that we have, they’re all revenue in and out. And they are very, very strict on how we can spend them. Title one is our largest grant. Um, and I know we shared the consolidated application and what that goes for.

00:20:31,630	It’s it’s reading and math supplements in our buildings. And it is very strict. And it takes a lot of time to fill out the federal reports. All right. Page three. We get into a breakdown of our general fund expenditures. The top half of page three, um, is 30, just under $31 million. This is kind of our regular instructional programs.

00:20:56,570	These are going to be our costs for the first grade teacher, the counselors and the building administrators and their secretaries in those buildings. The bottom half is our expenditures for federal programs. So you can see the title programs are listed there individually. And what we spend on each federal program.

00:21:16,970	Page for the top half is they call it undistributed programs. But this is going to be library services, technology, school board expenses. Those are the and then our operations and maintenance are building overhead. Uh, they get lumped into what they call undistributed programs.

00:21:38,970	Not sure why they name it that way, but those costs all go into our cost of education. And to our towards our cost per pupil that we’ll talk about in the very last page of this. Page five. The top half is our other programs and services. These this number does not get included in our cost per pupil payment or average cost per pupil.

00:22:01,870	Um, this is going to be our student transportation regular edge transportation. Sorry. Um, and also our extracurriculars that we pay out of our general funds. So we have about $4 million that does not go towards our average cost per pupil. The bottom half is our tuition payments that we pay to other other districts.

00:22:24,770	And Carlson Center Boys and Girls Ranch for those students that we cannot educate on our own. Um, this is important. We spent $600,000 last year. If we ever bring the tuition levy back on, that’s our max that we can levy.

00:22:39,170	I just want to make sure you’re aware of that, that we have to go by what we report to the state. It’s all we can levy. Page six. Uh, we have one debt service payment out of our general fund. That was a cold trust fund loan. Uh, that legislature made available to us when we were building the high school. So that payment was $306,000.

00:23:02,700	And then you can see a transfer to food service of $88,000. We ended with a deficit. Uh, hot lunch cannot end in a deficit. The general fund is required to make that payment. So that’s why there’s a transfer there. Page seven. This is our breakdown of special education costs. You can see by each program the top portion, the $10.

00:23:27,230	2 million that goes into our average cost per pupil as as a factor there. And on the bottom we spend just over $700,000 a year on specialty transportation services. So our total special education costs in the district are just under $11 million. Page eight. We can skip that.

00:23:50,330	We do not have any special education expenditures from federal funds. Page nine is a detailed breakdown of our career and technical education programs at the high school. We spent $2.6 million last year. You can see how those are, um, broken out by each program. This number also factors into our average cost per pupil.

00:24:16,870	Any questions on the general fund? Mr.. Mr.. Legacy. So with that, um, grand technical, that’s our side of things. That’s not the Heart River CTE. There are Heart River CTE assessments that we have included in the 300 2330 line item. There. You can see just over $1 million.

00:24:37,030	There are some assessments that we have at other districts that get included in their. Yeah. Great question. I should have noted that. All right. Page ten. We jump into our different fund groups. We do not have a special reserve fund. So I’ll go into fund Group three which is our building fund. Um, we took in $5.

00:24:58,670	4 million, spent just over ten. We have an ending fund balance of $26.5 million, which is probably larger than I’d like to have. Just to note, this financial report ends on June 30th.

00:25:18,900	We have a millions of dollars in commitments for projects that didn’t get spent at Roosevelt and Mary Stark this year, and there’s also money included in that, that 26.5 that we are holding for debt service payments. We have two sinking funds out there. Um, basically building towards a balance to pay off two loans, um, that are, that are near completion. So there’s millions of dollars in commitments in that 26.5.

00:25:39,800	So that is a little, little deceiving. So put it that. Way. Fund group four on the top of page 11 is our debt service fund. Uh, this is the fund we use to pay back our voter approved debt. So the bonds and loans we have for the high school, uh, Red Trail and Lakewood are included in here.

00:26:01,600	We took in 10.3 million. We spent $12 million. And we have an ending fund balance of just under 900. Um, we had one of those sinking funds included in fund group four. That’s why it shows a deficit spend. Last year.

00:26:21,570	That bond has been paid in full, um, going forward, in the future, you shouldn’t see a deficit spending. The fund group for so. Fund Group five is our food service fund. We took in 3.3 million. We spent 3.6. And that includes that $88,000 transfer from the from the general fund. It was it’s been a tough couple years in our in our hot lunch account.

00:26:43,730	I do have moving forward $300,000 budgeted for next year’s budget that we’re going to have to transfer in at some point. Do you know what that amount was last year as far as a transfer? We transferred 88, $88,000. Um, and our deficit was right around $350,000 total. 330. So. Top of page 12 is our student activity fund.

00:27:09,370	This is going to be for our FFA, FCC, FCCLA, you know, the band boosters, um, this is a self-sustaining fund. Spend very little time in it for all of our groups. Um, we have a balance of $876,000 in there. Have no concerns.

00:27:32,700	Um, our advisors are on top of their their activities, and I feel confident with how they’re managing their funds on their own. Fund group seven. Um, this is our health insurance fund. We had a tough year, as you have all heard about. Um, we took in 7.5 million and spent $8.6 million deficit last year in our health insurance fund.

00:27:53,100	That’s the reason that you’re seeing our health insurance premiums rise. So much is that we need to recover, uh, that cost. We cannot operate at a deficit. Um, that will have to be covered by the general fund at some point. We are not required to transfer funds into that, into our health insurance fund. However, somebody’s got to pay the bills.

00:28:12,530	So as we’ve deficit spent, we have paid that out of our general fund. So that is going to be on our books going forward as a payable from the health insurance fund, back to our general fund, just so you’re aware. So ultimately, you can see that ending balance of a -$300,000.

00:28:30,670	We would like to have about three months of reserves built up in that account. So really we should be having 1.2 to $1.5 million as an ending fund balance. Um, in that fund every year going forward. So.

00:28:54,730	Page 13 is just a summary where you can see, um, deficit surplus for each fund and our ending balances in each fund. Page 14 is our outstanding debt. Uh, you can see we have just under $71 million in outstanding bonds in loans of 35 million. Um, that is all almost all primarily right now to the high school and Lakewood. And on page 15 is our cost per pupil breakdown.

00:29:21,200	There’s six columns. I, I see this every year. Um, you can’t read too much into our average cost per pupil. Um, based on the kindergarten or grades one through 6 or 7, eight. We do not code our expenditures this way. The state forces us to report them.

00:29:42,070	So if you look down in the bottom, our average cost per pupil for grade seven and eight is $15,431. If you look right above that, it shows our average daily membership of 715 students. We know that’s not true. We’re forced to report sixth graders with our elementary instead of our middle school. So the costs get a little out of alignment.

00:30:04,430	Um, however, the right side, the total, uh, is an accurate representation of where we’re at our average cost per pupil. Last year, $13,633. Uh, just so you’re all aware, that is down from the year before of 14,109. So that did come down.

00:30:25,800	Um, the reason for the reduction is going to be the cloud grant is no longer there. And then we had some one time technology expenditures for new devices for our staff, um, that were included in the previous year’s expenses. So. Ryan, what’s the payment from the state, including the 60 mils. $11,663 is our guarantee from the.

00:30:47,700	State, 11,600. So we’re about 2000 short of student. Okay. Yeah. And I will stand for any questions. I know I go fast, but we’ve talked about a lot of the details through many meetings already. So. Any questions for Mr. Lacey? I’ll move approval of the fiscal year 26. Uh, business manager’s report. Second.

00:31:20,730	A motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing? None. Miss rabbinic, please call the. Roll. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes yes. Yes yes. Yes yes. Except we have review and consider approval of the open enrollment application. I asked applications seeking a deadline waiver. Uh. Meschke. Yes. Mrs.

00:31:54,370	Rebenitsch did hand out a packet of six open enrollment requests. Uh, requesting a deadline waiver. Um, they’re all attending here in Mandan at a at a school right now. Um, some of them are old enough to apply for them for themselves as opposed to a parent. Um, but I guess we would recommend that, uh, the board approve a deadline waiver for all six.

00:32:22,670	I’ll move approval. The open enrollment applications. And. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing? None. Miss Rebenitsch, please call the roll. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes yes. Yes yes. Yes. Last, we have future meeting dates.

00:32:54,330	We have September 21st regular school board meeting, 5:30 at City Hall. September 21st budget hearing you right after at 6:00 there at City Hall. September 28th student Achievement Committee, 6:00 at the Brave Center. October 5th. Regular school board meeting 5:30 at City Hall. October 12th Policy and Personnel Committee, 5:00 brave Center and October 19th, the regular school board meeting at 5:30 at City Hall.

00:33:17,130	Any other meetings? Okay. Can I make one? Correction? We did move student achievement back to 5 p.m. as opposed to 6 p.m. I did not check that on the agenda. We have the Wellness Committee officially scheduled. It is scheduled. It’s on the calendar.

00:33:39,030	We’re just I think we’re still waiting to, um, make sure all the members are still on there. And to get the agenda and packet ready to go. So. Nothing else. The meeting is