September 25, 2015 at 4:00 PM - Superintendent's Weekly Update to the Board of Education

Description: 
I will be attending the state superintendent conference in Duluth on September 27-29.  I should be attending this conference every year like others.  It's been over three years since I've attended because of the building project.  I look forward to going again this year. 

Description: 
I will not be in attendance for the special board meeting and policy committee meeting on Monday.  I will be at the state superintendent conference.  Michelle Hauber will be there to take notes for the policy meeting.  The special meeting is approving a few contracts recommended by Winkelman.  The special meeting should take less than 10-15 minutes. 

Description: 
Please see attached information for the bids and contracts in BP2.  These contracts will be recommended for approval at our special board meeting on Monday at 5:00 PM.

Matt sent me the following message, "Attached is the letter of recommendation for BP-2.  I have also attached a copy of the bid tab with the budgets from BP-2.  These budgets are from the schematic budget updated July 2nd which was $440,000 over the available funds at that time. In comparison BP-2 is under budget by $48,410.  Please let me know if you have additional questions, or need any additional information for the board meeting."

We're under again because of the good cement prices and there was another line item to help pay for steel. Matt forgot about this and so we actually had more than $900k available for steel.

The bad news is we started these bids down $440k because of the HVAC ordeal we experienced this summer. So now we are down approximately $250k going into bid package 3.

Visiting with Jay and Matt from Winkelman at around 4:30 PM they were still hopeful and somewhat confident in the alternates. They are going to spend the next week and one-half going over the latest designs from ARY due to them today. 

Description: 
Our school attorney has suggested to the City of Royalton and Royalton School District we write an encroachment agreement for the elementary addition instead of a quit claim deed.  The reasons and specifics can be found in the attached email from the school attorney.

Andrea and Tim have both agreed with the school attorney that the encroachment agreement is a better way of giving the Royalton School District the requested land.  The people at the City of Royalton have always been really good to work with.  It's their engineer, attorney and others that respond much slower and with more problems/concerns than we generally do.  We'll get there eventually.  

Mary Plante had to followup email Leah at the City of Royalton the following:

Hi Leah, Our attorney has not yet heard from your attorney regarding the encroachment agreement. He wanted to briefly discuss the issues with him/her so he can draft the necessary documents.  Would it be possible for you to send me the name and phone number of your attorney, and could I get your authorization for our attorney to reach out to him/her? We want to get this wrapped up very soon.

Description: 
Jim text messaged me a few good questions yesterday.  Jennie at MCR wanted a few comments by our Board Chairperson.

Answer 1:  The total tax increase in approximately 40%.  85% of the 40% is the voter approved building project.  Also, not everyone's school district taxes will increase 40%.  This is the total.  Some households may be 36% and others 42%.  This is something no school district can answer for people.  

The tax statements will be all over the board, as it normally is, for each household or business.  Did your property value increase or decrease?  How does your property value increase or decrease compared to others in the school district?

Answer 2:  One would think our $26.1 million building project would place us somewhere in the middle of other school districts for facilities/other revenue per pupil.  Also, with the recently new $300/per pupil and $424/per pupil we would be in the middle of general education revenue per pupil.
  
Here is what I sent to Jim and Jennie.... 

Please see attached 2015-16 revenue rankings by school districts in Minnesota.  There are 332 school districts.  You’ll see our rankings are the following:

1.  302 for general education revenue (per pupil unit)
2.  150 for special education revenue (per pupil unit)
3.  323 for facilities/other revenue (per pupil unit)
4.  300 for total revenue overall

Description: 
Please see attached the agenda for Royalton Elementary's in-service on September 28.  Dr. Gurbada emailed it to me yesterday.  I thought you too may be interested in knowing what our elementary teachers will be working on Monday.

The elementary teachers will be spending a lot of their time working on the new science curriculum, continued PLTW implementation, and teacher evaluations (i.e., iObservation growth plans).   

Description: 
One of our MS-HS special education classrooms has lots of discoloration in the new floor tiles.  Tony is looking into the problem with the flooring supplier.  We couldn't say if it was mold or not.  A test revealed the discolored tiles is not mold growing on them.

The tiled flooring and mold testing brings up an important informational item for everyone.  No exterior windows in the project will have the option of opening.  Time and time again we find out the interior air quality is far superior to the exterior/outdoor air quality.  All nearly 90,000 SF will have the latest HVAC systems with very good heating and cooling.  Opening classroom windows for "fresh air" is actually the complete opposite.

Total Fungi in special education classroom is approximately 1.500
Total Fungi outside (reference) is approximately 36,500

What a difference.....leave windows closed for people with allergies, especially seasonal.  

Description: 
A good question was brought up at the board meeting on Monday about cameras on buses.  Sue wrote me, "We have 6 cameras installed already and have 3 buses that still need one.  That doesn't include the handicap bus that goes to Upsala everyday nor any spare buses."

Sue said we've been adding two cameras each year with a grant.  It's my thoughts/recommendation we just keep adding the two a year as long as it's grant dollars.  If we weren't I'd say do all buses now and be done with it.  Sue is going to order the next two now.

Description: 
David and Mr. Coppicus are researching sound systems that'll best meet our needs for board meetings.  We'll have something ready for one of our next meetings.

Description: 
Liz and I attended the MSBA Advocacy Tour in Sartell.  We both felt it was well worth our time to go.  We had good conversation and discussion about a variety of current issues facing education.

Description: 
David Lemm sent me the email message below on September 15.  Then, as I'm writing this I see David sent out a similar message to all employees (see attachment).  I'd like to thank you for supporting David's department needs in regard to staffing.  The same is felt about the AD/Community Ed Coordinator.

"I just want to send some interesting info your way. I was working on the ticketing system tonight for the helpdesk and was looking at some ticket history. In the last 30 days there have been 202 tickets created on the helpdesk system. There are currently 41 tickets that are open and Michelle and I are doing our best to get this to a much lower number. Hopefully we will see 0 in the near future! I know that we have been busy and this explains just that. 202 tickets in the last 30 days is a lot," David.

Description: 
Please see attached the weekly bills for your approval.