Thanks to Great River Bodywork and Massage and Bisanz Brothers for their support.
An achievement gap for Native American students and next year’s budget were the primary items on the agenda, but the ISD 197 School Board also had a performance from the Black History Month Choir.
Black History Month Choir
Monday’s meeting kicked off with a performance from Mendota Elementary’s Black History Month Choir, which has performed at a variety of community events over the past month. For their final show of the season, they performed “I Can See Clearly Now” and answered questions from board members.
American Indian Parent Advisory Committee
Nicole McMahon, chair of the district’s American Indian Parent Advisory Committee (AIPAC), presented information on the committee’s annual vote of concurrence, in which parents of Native American students can weigh in on district efforts to meet their needs. The advisory committee is required by state law for any school district with more than 10 American Indian students.
- To start their presentation, they provided information on smudging, a traditional Native American medicinal practice that involves burning herbs, and provided board members with bottles of smudge spray, which they also give to students so they can engage in this practice in school without lighting anything on fire. The smudge spray bottles are also a part of their recruiting and outreach efforts, reflecting their goal of growing the committee’s membership.
- The committee sponsors educational field trips, provides education around Native American Heritage month to all schools in the district, and provides native language instruction to students, primarily in Ojibwe.
- After reviewing some of their outreach efforts, McMahon shifted to talking about the academic achievement gap between Native American and white students, which is stark: Native students score 32% lower in reading and 37% lower in math than their white peers. The district ranks in the top 15 for worst achievement gaps in the state, and second worst among large districts.
- In light of these numbers, AIPAC voted non-concurrence this year. This is a formal signal to the district and the state that the district is not meeting the needs of Native American students.
- To help close this achievement gap and get concurrent votes from parents in future years, AIPAC is asking for more staffing for support positions for Native American students. Nell Barri, the district’s current American Indian education coordinator, is spread thin in her role and, in the opinion of AIPAC, is underpaid. They would like to see another staff position added to work specifically with elementary school students, and they would also like to see more district funding for Barri’s position, as part of her pay currently comes from AIPAC funds.
- McMahon stressed that they have a positive relationship with the district and love working with them, but the realities of the achievement gap forced their vote.
- Jon Vaupel, who was filling in as board chair for Sarah Larsen at the meeting, thanked AIPAC for their frank feedback and clear recommendations for how to improve.
- By law, the board has 60 days to respond to the vote of non-concurrence.
Long-Range Budget Framework
Brian Schultz, the district’s director of finance, provided an update on the district’s budget for the coming years. This review is the first step in the process of planning the budget for fiscal year 2026-2027 budget, and is strictly informative. According to state law, the district must have a budget for the next year finalized by June 30.
- Audits and revisions of previous years have been running behind schedule, but are almost complete, and should be ready to present to the board by April.
- Planning for next year requires actual spending numbers for this year, which should be available in late April or early May.
- Enrollment will play another key role here, and Schultz is in regular communication with the enrollment team to get updated numbers on the coming year.
- The district’s overall finances are improving. Whereas the 2024-2025 budget was projected to result in a deficit of about $2 million, the actual deficit was closer to $300,000.
- Superintendent Peter Olson-Skog provided some context on these numbers. The district’s cash reserves are holding out, but they’ve been eroding in recent years due to economic shocks like COVID and inflation and funding from the state not keeping up with required spending.
- Over the next few years, this trend is likely to continue. Budget projections show revenue failing to keep up with expenses, to the point where the district will be running an 11% deficit by 2030 without changes.
- Because of this, the district is looking to cut $2.5 million from the budget in coming years. These cuts would focus on non-classroom areas to the greatest extent possible to minimize impact on students and teachers.
- Despite these financial strains, the current plan is to keep average district class sizes the same for the 17th year straight. Olson-Skog emphasized, though, that class sizes at specific grade levels in specific schools are always going to vary based on enrollment and staffing numbers.
Other Items on the Agenda
- Mandatory reporting policy: Tye Michaels, the district’s director of human resources, conducted an administrative review of the district’s policies around mandatory reporting of maltreatment of vulnerable adults. The review was regularly scheduled, and suggested only minor tweaks to existing district policies. Technically, enough changes were made to the policy to require the board to vote on the change instead of leaving it at the administrative level. With no questions from the board, the policy was put on the consent agenda for the next meeting.
- Legislative update: Superintendent Peter Olson-Skog provided an update on the district’s state lobbying efforts. They have three major goals for the coming year:
- They’re seeking flexibility in how they can spend state funding. The district gets funding from the state via several different laws, accounts, and budget items, all of which are designated for specific things. If the district had more freedom to spend money outside of those parameters, they could close some budget shortfalls.
- They want stability in how state funds are distributed to various districts. Pending shifts in state funding formulas could slash six figures from ISD 197’s budget, and millions from other districts.
- They want impending cuts to special education funding to be repealed. These cuts won’t take effect this year, so this is lower priority for this legislative session, but it’s still a looming threat to the district’s budget.
Engage
- More: Agendas and minutes for ISD 197 School Board meetings are available online.
- Watch: School Board Members Marcus Hill and Jon Vaupel gave a recap of the meeting.
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