May 16, 2014 at 4:00 PM - Superintendent's Weekly Update to the Board of Education

Description: 
We received surprising news on Wednesday that Carlson Highland will be unable to perform our annual audit for fiscal year 2014.  Mary will address this issue, along with her recommendation, during the business manager report.  Below is a message she provided me, in advance, to share with you. 

Our audit firm, Carlson Highland, called on May 14th to inform me that they will be unable to perform our annual audit for this year and going forward due to problems they are having with staffing.  I have been very satisfied with the service they provide and the price so I was disappointed to hear this news.  We did a request for proposal last year and I have two other firms that sent proposals at that time.

The next lowest cost firm was Schlenner Wenner, which employs the lead auditor from our former audit firm, Gary Paulson out of Little Falls.  A few years ago there was question regarding the quality of work done by that auditor and a change was made at that time.  I would prefer not to use that firm even though the price is less. Their pricing is attached.  They would complete the current year audit for $9,645 and next year’s for $9,830 and would be able to accommodate our audit on our time frame.

The other firm that sent a proposal was KDV.  They audit many schools in the area and those that I’ve talked with are very happy with the service they provide and their level of expertise.  They have given me a quote of $13,850 for the audit this year and $14,100 next year, and they have indicated that they have the staffing capacity for our audit.  They can also work us into their schedule in July which is when I typically schedule audit field work.

I would recommend using KDV as our audit firm for the current year and next year based on their experience and expertise.  After that, I will evaluate whether it’s necessary to request proposals from other firms.  Quite often schools employ audit firms on an ongoing basis and only consider making a change when there is a problem or question regarding their service.  This is an extremely valuable service and more importance should be placed on quality rather than making a decision based only on cost.

Mary Plante
Business Manager
Royalton Public Schools

Description: 
You will find in the board agenda a discussion item about hiring an architect and construction manager.  My thoughts/recommendations are to hire Paul Youngquist and interview for a construction manager.  We'd interview Kraus-Anderson; Contegrity Group, Inc (Little Falls).; Winkelman (St. Cloud); and any others the board or community members feel would be a good fit for us.

You will find attached a proposal by Paul.  I ran it by Tom Ollman and he said it looked good.  He liked that the services included the engineering fees for electrical, mechanical, etc.  

The one good thought/recommendation Tom had was to establish a sliding fee for the 7% commission.  In Paul's proposal he asks for 7% on the first $5 million.  What if the project is only $10 million?  Tom agreed to send me a recommended sliding scale fee. 

Description: 
Tuesday, January 6, 2015 is the date for our building referendum.  

Please see below two messages we received in response to our question about election dates.  It was important to Mary and I to have the available date(s) given to us in writing.  It's too important of an issue and date for the board and community for us to make an error. 

You are only limited by the 74-day notification period and the blackout days around township, primaries and general election dates. But yes, you could go out for a special election more than once a calendar year. (The only provision is that your request must be at least 5 percent higher or lower than the previous question – it can’t be the exact same question for the exact same amount).

Greg Abbott
MSBA Director of Communications

January 6, 2015 would be a legally allowable day for the District to hold its proposed bond election. That date is outside the 56 day window from the date of the general election during which other elections are prohibited. That window ends on December 30, 2014.  Please be advised that the Board would be required to adopt the resolution calling the election at least 74 days prior to the date of the election (not later than October 23, 2014).  If you have further questions at this time, we shall be available at your convenience.

Thomas S. Deans
Attorney at Law
Knutson, Flynn & Deans, P.A.

Description: 
Bill turned in his retirement letter to me yesterday afternoon.  Although we cannot discuss reemployment after his resignation date on June 30, 2014, I would like to explore the option of hiring Bill back 15 hours/week for another year or two.  

Bill could be extremely valuable in mentoring the new hire.  More importantly, however, he could remain on staff and help us on the facility project.  Any additional time he'd have would be devoted to helping with deferred maintenance items.

Again, at this time we cannot visit with Bill about reemployment.  There is a brief period of time we have to wait.  I think it's 30 days for non-licensed school employees.  I'll have to verify that on Monday.   

Description: 
In Kathy's employee exit questionnaire she talks about the challenges and setbacks our MAP program is having with hiring and retaining high quality employees.  She states the top reason is our pay scale in comparison to other area school districts.  

I know Little Falls pays their employees more than us.  I asked Sarah Funk to gather some data and make a recommendation to us.  We probably can/should raise our hourly pay  a little, but we'll still have our a top end below Little Falls.  Little Falls pays significantly  more in most all of their positions.   

Description: 
Joel asked me to include in this week's Friday letter his map of where the board members will be seated on stage at graduation.

Description: 
This is the year our Pre-K-12 teachers and principals have been reviewing science curricula.  The purchases will be made over the summer months.  

As part of their curricula review, they're looking at adding Foss kits in the middle school grades (elementary has been using them) and PLTW in the elementary grades.  PLTW calls their new elementary program PLTW Launch.

The PLTW Launch elementary curricular program is designed to provide primary school students (grades K-5) with the foundations in STEM that will encourage collaboration, analysis, problem solving, and computational thinking and provide a cohesive introduction to the PLTW middle and high school programs.

There are 24 elementary modules, with four (4) modules aligned to each grade level which are mapped to Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for math and English and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Each module provides 10 hours of instruction and is designed for flexibility. These modules can be implemented at the grade level chosen by the Entity, provided that the students have the appropriate background in math and science fundamentals to successfully engage in the program.

Additional information can be found in the attached document on page 5. 

Description: 
I received the attached document from MASA.  A few positive highlights Mary and I want to point out are the following:

a)  added .5% on the formula in FY15,
b)  fully funded reduced price lunch, and 
c)  increasing Safe Schools $5.00/per student.

IMPORTANT:  These supplemental bills still need to go to the full House and Senate, along with the Governor.

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We received a nice thank you from Ashley Hackett and Kayla McClintock!

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Please find attached the weekly bills for your approval.