6/24/2024 Regular Meeting

Our board meeting began per usual at 5:30pm at the city chambers board room. After the formal call to order, pledge of allegiance, and approval of tonight’s agenda, Mission Moment was presented by Superintendent Elstad. He recognized several OPS district retirees, noting their leadership, commitment, and passion for our students and schools. None of the retirees were present at the meeting as they are hopefully enjoying retirement! Congrats and best wishes to you all!

No comments for public forum. During board forum, I made note that I will be absent from the one school board meeting that is held in July.

The enrollment report is reviewed with no significant changes.

If you haven’t heard yet, here is the brief summary about the upcoming new school bond. Based on necessary facility maintenance updates and repairs, majority of which were unexpected for 2025, the school board will likely be approving a new bond of $7.7 million. However, most Owatonna citizens will not see a noticeable difference in annual taxes paid for this. Some will see a small decrease, some will see a small increase.

Here is my best explanation of the details of the bond and its financing at this time:

Matt Hammer from Ehlers financial advisors gave a presentation in follow up to the information given at our work session 2 weeks ago. This information included recommendations from SiteLogIQ (our Long Term Facilities Maintenance Fund planning tool) for necessary air quality updates to the HVAC systems at Owatonna Education Center and McKinley Elementary School. Additionally, the board was given information for financing these projects with considerations to minimize tax impact to Owatonna citizens.

The projects for 2025 include the new HVAC systems noted above ($5.3 million), fire alarm and suppression projects, and asbestos removal, totaling $5.8 million. Other needs include the OMS pool restoration, among a few other smaller projects listed on the chart given by SiteLogIQ. The total amount needed for 2025 Long Term Facility Maintenance is estimated to be $8.2 million. A new bond ($5.8 million), plus $1.97 million remaining authority as noted below, and the approximate $1 million LTFM funding in our preliminary 2024-2025 budget, will give us the needed funding, with some left for other or unexpected needs that come up.

It is noted that the 2019 election gave the district $112,000,000 in bond authority and $110,030,000 has been issued thus far. Therefore, the district is able to use the remaining $1.97 million for the upcoming project needs.

Combining the 2019 bond authority of $1.97 million with the new project needs of $5.8 million, the total new bond is $7.7 million for 16 years at 4.75%. Despite the new bond, the taxes paid by most citizens of Owatonna will actually decrease or just slightly increase. The estimated decrease is based on tax base growth, with projected 8% increase in home market values (average home value in Owatonna in 2023 was $250,000). New homes, new businesses, and home improvements offset taxes and will actually decrease the tax burden if your home value is $250,000 or less. If your home is valued at $300,000, up to $1 million, your estimated tax increase will be $1 up to $79 annually. Estimates for Agricultural Homestead and Non-Homestead property values up to $12,500 show an annual increase of <$0.50. The Homestead Market Value Exclusion will also result in a net decrease in property taxes. Commercial Industrial property valued $100,000 up to $1 million will have increases beginning at $10 and going up to $134 annually.

The estimated timeline for this, pending approval of certain projects by the MN Department of Education:

1. July 15, 2024 School board regular meeting with public forum: school board adopts Resolution of Intent approving issuance of bonds
2. September 23, 2024 School board regular meeting with public form: school board certifies preliminary levy for taxes payable 2025 (including facilities maintenance bonds)
3. Winter/Spring 2025 Bond closing date and issuance of funds

The presentation from Ehlers financial advisors and SiteLogIQ can be found on the district website/school board/agenda/attachments on 6/10/2024 and 6/24/2024.

I did my best to understand and explain this information, but please contact the school board or Superintendent Elstad with questions or concerns. Or, please come to any of the future regular school board meetings and speak at public forum. You need to come early and fill out a card before the meeting starts at 5:30 and then you will have 3 minutes to voice your opinions, concerns and questions during public forum. After the school board meeting, someone will reach out to you.

Other items reviewed included the 6/17/2024 policy committee meeting report, the 6/10/2024 work session report, and the first reading to review policies: 410 Family and Medical Leave Act, 416 Drug Alcohol and Cannabis testing, 506 Student Discipline, 507 Corporal Punishment and Prone Restraint, 510 School Activities, 514 Bullying Prohibition Policy. In light of the policies being reviewed, I asked about determining policy effectiveness and data that is available regarding incident reports for student discipline, bullying, substance use, etc. Superintendent Elstad noted that all incidents are reported to the MN Dept. of Education and an annual summary data report is received by the district. Our upcoming school board retreat in August will give us time to review a variety of data sets, including that from the MN Dept of Education.

Superintendent Elstad gave the administrative report, noting the district offices will be moving into the new space on School Street beginning June 26. There will be no district phone services beginning June 26, hopefully being restored on July 2, 2024. The district will have a voicemail system set in place with instructions if needed, otherwise it will be best to use district emails during this time. Staff will be working from home until the new offices are in working order. They expect the district to be back online with working computers in the new space on July 10, 2024. Also noted is summer school which is in full swing for June and July, then preparations for the new school year ramp up in August. Elstad also informally recognized an OHS student for her recent win of the girls golf state championship, a formal recognition is to come this fall!

The consent agenda was approved 5-0 and includes 5/28/2024 meeting minutes, the disbursement report, and the personnel report. No discussion amongst board members.

Several other votes were taken, all approved 5-0, with some discussion:

1. Indoor air quality projects at McKinley and OEC, pool restoration, and other long-term facilities maintenance priorities. This approval is for the scope of the project only and is not a commitment to funding or bond changes.
2. Casual worker pay schedule, mainly updated last year, with only a few updates this year.
3. 2024-2025 Preliminary budget; a formal presentation was given recently and a one page summary was reviewed for this meeting
4. 2024-2025 School board meeting schedule, with meetings to continue on the second and fourth Mondays each month and only one meeting in each of July and December.
5. Minnesota State High School League membership. As I noted last year, the MSHSL is the only option MN schools have for competitive sports and arts programs at this time. As part of this membership, one board member (Chair Sebring) and one school representative (Marc Achterkirch) is appointed to represent the high school and vote on matters as needed. Faculty are appointed to represent each area: Girls and Boys Sports (Marc Achterkirch), Speech (Marcia Anderson) and Music (Mr. Guenther). There is also an advisory committee to the district representatives that includes a board member (Chair Sebring), a faculty member (Tami Langlois), a parent (Pat Bogen), and a student (Blake Davison). There may be votes and decisions made by our representatives on behalf of the district; I mentioned that I would like to be included in this information and will contact the reps above about this.
6. Minnesota School Boards Association membership (fee $11,000). The policy committee works closely with MSBA for policy updates and development and MSBA gives the required and many optional trainings for new and existing board members, as well as gives an annual conference for school board members.
7. Schools Advocating for Fair Funding (previously Schools for Equity in Education) membership (fee $7000). SI Elstad commented that this organization helps to lobby at the state capitol for rural communities to receive necessary funding, also provides data and resources and professional development. This organization helped OPS receive the Ag Credit (admittedly, I am not too familiar with this credit, but Elstad and Weisenburger agreed that it has been very good for our school).
8. Policy revisions-second reading and approval: 709 Student Transportation Safety, 806 Crisis Management, 950 Public Data and Data Subject Requests. It is noted that public data requests that are to be taken off school grounds do need to be paid in advance by the requestor, otherwise the district absorbs the cost of data requests.
9. Resolution establishing dates for filing affidavits of Candidacy for the school board; remember to file at the new district office (333 E School St) beginning July 30th through August 13, 2024.
10. Gifts to the district, specifically recognizing Mayo Clinic for their $15,000 annual “installment” toward the career pathways program.

Lots of information! Thank you for reading and please keep in touch with questions or concerns. Take care.

Soli Deo Gloria.