With only one meeting in December, Monday December 11, 2023 was the school board’s last meeting for the year, so this was a regular meeting and not a work session. Superintendent Elstad began with Mission Moment, recognizing our orchestra teachers who recently received a string award. Present at the meeting tonight was Ms. Lisa Revier who works at our elementary schools, Ms. Jennifer Bellefeuille who works at the middle school, and Ms. Sandra Justice works at our high school. I am so thankful for our music departments and the ability of OPS to offer such great programs. Thank you orchestra teachers!
During public forum, Mr. Roger Wacek reiterated his comments from the August meeting, stating the importance of apprenticeships for our students which helps to prepare them for success after high school. Thank you Mr. Wacek.
Owatonna Public Schools recently had its annual audit through CliftonLarsonAllen LLP and presenting this information to board was Mary Reedy, CPA, CGFM, along with Lori Volz and Sarah Cramblit. Overall, the report was “clean” with no compliance issues or material weaknesses. For fiscal year 2022-2023, the estimated total adjusted average daily enrollment was 4,826, reduced from the 2021-2022 year when it was 4,880. The district’s unassigned fund balance is exceeding our goal of 8-10% of the general fund expenditures, and is currently at 12.45%. As stated in the audit report, ” A district’s fund balance is an important aspect in considering the district’s financial wellbeing since a healthy fund balance represents things such as cash flow, as a cushion against unanticipated expenditures, enrollment changes, funding deficiencies, and aid prorations at the state level and similar problems.” Also noted was the “budget to actual” summary stating that the total net revenues were 0.26% lower than estimated and total expenditures were 1.24% lower than budgeted, resulting in an increase of the total fund balance of $829,964 more than the final budget plan. Mr. Elstad commented on how well our finance team has managed the district budget and we are sitting financially much better than many other Minnesota districts.
At 6pm, we heard the Truth in Taxation presentation, given by Lori Volz. As outlined in the notes, there are 6 steps in the school district property tax process.
Step 1: City or county assessor determines estimated market value for each parcel of property
Step 2: Legislature sets formulas for tax capacity and school district levy limits
Step 3: County auditor calculates tax capacity for each parcel of property, as well as total tax capacity for each school district
Step 4: MN Dept of Education calculates detailed levy limits for each school district, based on formulas approved by legislature
Step 5: School board adopts a proposed levy in September. After a public hearing, board adopts a final levy in December. Final levy cannot be more than proposed levy, except for amounts approved by voters. (Current step)
Step 6: County auditor divides final levy by district’s total capacity to determine tax rate needed to raise levy amount
The full meeting notes including the TNT presentation can be viewed here: https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Agenda/1055?meeting=613199
The enrollment report was reviewed with no significant changes.
During board forum, I asked about the annual organizational meeting in January 2024. At this meeting, we will have several votes, including those for school board officers (Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer, Clerk) as well as approve the committee assignments as placed by the board chair (Board Committees, District Committees, Outside Agency Committees). Due to medical reasons, I was not able to attend this meeting in January 2023 and am researching these procedures to prepare for this meeting next month. At the school board meeting this week, Mr. Sebring stated that he will be contacting each board member to discuss placements for the upcoming year. As I understand board work, each board member is equal, and we should be equally divided to represent the board among these committees. I will look to see how this is done in the coming weeks.
Superintendent Elstad commented on the Guiding Change document previously referenced and is a work in progress to determine elementary school boundary lines. They hope to have a final determination by March 2024. He continues to work with the organization Schools for Equity in Education to lessen the tax burden for Owatonna residents. Finally, praise was given for the completion of the roundabout on Hwy 218 and 18th Street which has improved traffic flow and safety for our staff and students at the high school.
Votes taken:
Consent agenda approved 6-0 which included the 11/27/2023 meeting minutes and the personnel report
Audit for year ended 6/30/2023 approved as presented 6-0
Tax Levy Limitation and Certification approved as presented 6-0
Policy Revisions approved 6-0 for policies 416, 506, 507, 532, 534, 603, 604
Policy Revisions approved 5-1 for policies 413 and 601. At the last meeting, I raised questions and concerns about these policy revisions and have restated them here. The policy committee elected to not make any further changes and the board had no further discussion on these concerns. I do not feel that these policies are written with the ultimate safety and protection of our children and our education system, and therefore I voted no.
Policy 413 Harassment and Violence
III. Definitions
D. Protected Classifications: Definitions
6. The original definition to be replaced: “Sexual orientation” means having or being perceived as having an emotional or physical or sexual attachment to another person without regard to the sex of that person or having or being perceived as having an orientation for such attachment, or having or being perceived as having a self-image or identity not traditionally associated with one’s biological maleness or femaleness. “Sexual orientation” does not include a physical or sexual attachment to children by an adult.
The new definition will state: “Sexual orientation” means to whom someone is, or is perceived of as being emotionally, physically, or sexually attracted to based on sex or gender identity. A person may be attracted to men, women, both, neither, or to people who are genderqueer, androgynous, or have other gender identities.
My proposal in this change is to maintain the last statement of the original definition and keep this statement in the new definition. My reason for this is to clarify and state that a physical or sexual attraction by an adult to a student is not acceptable.
Policy 601 School District Curriculum and Instruction Goals
III. Definitions
D. “Culturally sustaining” means integrating content and practices that infuse the culture and language of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities who have been and continue to be harmed and erased through the education system. (This is a new definition not previously in policy 601.)
My concern for this definition is that the second half of the statement is an opinion and should not be stated as fact and policy. I fully agree with integrating a variety of ethnic cultures into our education system, but do not agree that “we continue to harm and erase” any cultures. I do not believe our teachers do this or that statutes and policy should state this. This policy definition comes from MN Statute 120B.11, and a simple reference to this statute in our policy would suffice in place of this statement. I do not imply that we do anything against the law.
State statutes provide law and a foundation for our policies, MSBA provides model policies to guide us, but we as an individual district can decide what we want our policies to be, within the boundaries of the law. If governance and policy development is the board’s primary work, then I believe that we should be discussing and evaluating these with more precision and thought.
Guiding Change document approved as presented 6-0
Resolution for Acceptance of Gifts to the district is approved as presented 6-0.
Meeting adjourned 6:39pm.
Elizabeth for Owatonna Schools 