School Board Update

Each month the school board is presented with non-action and action items for their consideration. A few noteworthy items that were approved at this month's meeting are included here.

Items Approved by the Board

• Gifts and Donations
• 2024 Band/Choir Student Trip to San Antonio, TX
• 2024 Model UN Trip to Chicago, IL
• 2023-24 Minnesota State High School League Foundation Fund Request
• Policy 201 - Legal Status of the School Board
• Policy 203 - Operation of the School Board - Governing Rules
• Policy 203.5 - School Board Meeting Agenda
• Policy 616 - School District System Accountability
• Policy 701 - Establishment and Adoption of School District Budget
• 2023-24 Employment between C-I Schools and Kevin Gross

With the first month of school behind us, our students and staff are hitting a rhythm and school routines have taken root in most parts of the district. October is the month when we turn our attention back to our budget and financial planning for the school year and beyond. Now that we have our October 01 enrollment numbers, we are better prepared to make the necessary adjustments accordingly. In this update, I want to provide some information that plays a part in these considerations, discussions, and plans.

Last May as we were awaiting the close of the Legislative Session, I penned a column for our local paper expressing concerns about the close of the legislative session. As the legislature and Governor celebrated historic funding increases, school districts also saw historic new mandates. Our leadership team spent much of the summer sifting through more than 300 pages of new legislation for school districts. Some of the new mandates were funded, and some were not.

For example, literacy training and curriculum required by the READ Act were not fully funded. School districts will also have increased costs in unemployment insurance after a change in the law, making all hourly school employees eligible for unemployment over the summers. The legislature provided one-time funding to cover the additional unemployment costs for last summer, but we can’t count on that funding in the future. Another unfunded mandate that will have an impact on our system relates to changes to earned sick and safe leave requirements. Once again, school districts were provided no additional funding to implement this change. As an employer, we support all of these initiatives, but wish that the state would have provided sustainable funding to go with it.

Most importantly, the general education funding formula (the largest source of revenue for school districts) increased by only 4 percent for the 2023-24 school year and 2 percent for the 2024-25 school year — far short of projected inflation. An analysis by Ehlers Public Finance shows that the basic formula has lagged inflation since 2003 — the year the Legislature repealed the statewide general education levy and committed to funding education with state income and sales taxes. As the graph below shows, the basic formula would be $1,356 higher in FY 25 if it had kept pace with inflation (represented by the blue line). Actual funding is represented by the orange dotted line.

In addition, federal resources that were provided in response to the global pandemic are expiring, creating a looming fiscal cliff. Those funds provided additional student supports, custodial/maintenance time, air quality improvements, and technology needs. And while the funds are expiring, many of the needs are not going away.

School districts are in a precarious position, with key funding lagging inflation, historic new requirements, historic inflation, a federal funding fiscal cliff, and staffing shortages across all industry sectors, including education.

In Cambridge-Isanti Schools, we are grateful for the community support of our schools and voter approval of our referendum in 2021. This year we were able to hire more teachers to reduce class sizes at the middle school and high school. We are continuing to expand partnerships and enhance our career-technical education opportunities for students, as promised. Without the additional local support, we would be making budget reductions despite the state’s investment.

By: Shawn Kirkeide

HR Newsletter

New this year, we will be providing staff with a newsletter covering various topics. We hope this will be a benefit as we move forward with streamlining communications from the HR departments. Our first newsletter was emailed out on September 26. We covered topics such as approaching deadlines, EAP monthly promotions, and benefits. We welcome suggestions for topics to be covered in future months. The inaugural edition of the HR Headlines newsletter can be found here.

Substitutes

We are busy recruiting and onboarding new substitute teachers and instructional assistants. By offering group training sessions we are able to meet with multiple new employees at the same time. This creates a great opportunity for Q & A, as well as expediting the hiring processes for all. We have offered three sessions to date and will continue to do so as the need arises.

By: Christopher Kampa, CFA

Finance

We hope to wrap up the majority of the FY2023 audit in October, although it won’t be finalized until the end of December. We are working on our policy renewal for property and liability, workers compensation, and cybersecurity insurance. We’ve made a lot of great strides on the workers comp and cybersecurity aspects. This has helped the district considerably from a financial perspective. We do expect a tight market for property and liability insurance. Rising replacement costs and insurers leaving the market will put some upward pressure on renewal rates.

Transportation

Overall, it was a successful first month of school. A lot of planning went into Transportation to ensure a smooth start to begin the year. This was the best start we’ve had in five years. We are planning an exciting day of PBIS training for our October 6 in-service day. We’re using the month of October to shore up a number of areas; including revamping our training office processes and procedures, updating our cleaning processes and supplies so that the drivers have the tools to meet our expectations for cleanliness on their buses and vans, strengthening our PBIS initiative, fine-tuning up our evacuation drills and student bus safety with the schools, defining accident procedures, and streamlining hiring procedures.

Food Service

Minnesota Free Meals For All has unsurprisingly turned out to be pretty popular. We still have the same struggles with staffing and the supply chain, but it has been great to have the kids back in the lunchroom!

On Friday we will be conducting training for Foodservice Sanitation and Safety. This is an annual event running our team through the NRA ServSafe class, which is either an initial go for our new staff or a continuing/recertifying education for our returning staff. Our CIHS staff were able to play a small role in helping out with food service at Homecoming last Saturday. It was a great event, it looked like the kids all had a great time, and we were glad to be a part of it.

Building & Grounds

We’re still trying to dry-out from the rainy September. We had a number of areas where water came into our buildings. We are moving forward on long-term fixes to prevent water leakage in the future. The lightning storm blew out one of our lighting banks at George Larson Field. Fortunately, we were able to get it fixed in time for the scheduled homecoming football and soccer games. We only have a few remaining punch list items on the large LTFM construction project. Most are small, but we are still working on blinds for the CPIS complex. The challenge is identifying a way to attach the window coverings without drilling into the frames, which would void the warranties.

By: Christina Thayer Anderson

Volunteer Services

We have already had many volunteers serving in classrooms, at events, and supporting the work of schools and teachers this year. Last year, we finished the year with more than 1,000 volunteers having donated over 12,300 hours of their time to support the work of schools. In addition, we had many local businesses and organizations donate more than $7,500 toward supplies, snacks, and other much needed resources for students and families. All of these hours and donations made a significant impact on the success of our students and schools. Our community is so incredibly generous with their time and financial resources, and we are so grateful. We hope to surpass last year’s records. If you are interested in serving or donating, please contact us at c-i_volunteercoordinators@c-ischools.org. We look forward to partnering with you!

Middle School Programming

The past two summers, we have offered a Middle School Hangout for students. This program is intentionally designed to support positive peer relationships and includes activities and skill-building opportunities intriguing enough to keep middle school age students attending. By leveraging our levy dollars, we have been able to keep program fees low in order to provide access to as many students as possible. Though staffing and space can be a challenge, we are dedicated to providing this enrichment and recreation opportunity to more students and expanding to school year programming. Program details and registration information will be shared through middle school newsletters this fall and the winter community education brochure.

By: Dr. Brenda Damiani

Curriculum

K-5 ELA and 6-12 Science are piloting curriculum to meet new state standards. The Curriculum Committee met on October 3 to review these updates.

Professional Development

Flexible professional development is offered again this year with a roll-out date of October 6. Many teachers accomplished their hours over the summer with literacy training, part of the District Strategic Plan. Secondary teachers will be taking courses related to assessment, also part of the strategic plan. Other teachers propose their own topics they would like to learn about or select from a list of pre-approved courses.

Teachers are participating in professional development on October 6. Sessions support the Strategic Plan. An update will be provided at the School Board Meeting.

American Indian Education

The American Indian Parent Advisory Committee met on September 26 for the first time this year. There is a parent (non teacher) who has volunteered to be our new chairperson. The meeting was also offered through a Google Meet link, and four parents participated through that virtual method. There is a possibility to partner with other local districts in order to increase support and cultural offerings.

By: Dr. Julie Williams

McKinney-Vento Report

Each year, the district is required to submit data to MDE for the Consolidated State Performance Reports (CSPR). The CSPR is a data collection tool administered annually by the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE). The CSPR tool collects information relating to activities and outcomes of specific ESEA programs, as well as information relating to activities and outcomes of the McKinney-Vento Act. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is federal legislation that was passed on December 10, 2015. It amends three separate federal laws: the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, and the Education Flexibility Partnership Act.

To be eligible for services according to the McKinney-Vento Act, a homeless student must meet the Act’s definition of homeless. The McKinney-Vento Act defines homeless children and youth as “individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence” [42 U.S.C. § 11434a(2)]. Lacking any one of these three conditions would make a child eligible. In other words, if the residence is not fixed, regular, and adequate, it is considered a homeless situation. As the District Homeless Liaison, I work with the building liaisons to determine eligibility for students based on their unique situations. Eligible students then receive assistance that may include transportation, reduced activity fees, and Title I services.

For the 2022-2023 school year, Cambridge-Isanti Schools had 21 students that qualified under the McKinney-Vento Act. Students were in situations where they were doubled, in shelters or unaccompanied youth according to the data.