School Boards Holds August Meeting

As if it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, the Malta School District held their Board meeting on Thursday, the 15th of August. The schools had opened their doors to anxious and energetic students roaring to learn on Wednesday the 14th. Board Chairman Angel DeVries read the announcement of the meeting being recorded both by video and audio format. The pledge to the flag was recited and business was under way. Board members present were DeVries, Jessica Oyler, Katey Marquis and Kyle Kluck. Katie Brown was absent.

Oyler made a motion to accept the agenda for the meeting, to approve the minutes from the last two meetings and approve the bills presented; Marquis seconded the motion. Motion passed 4-0.

Board members reviewed a list of applicants for various positions within the schools. Oyler made a motion, which Kluck seconded to hire the proposed staff members in the four categories as presented. Marquis made a motion to hire a list of subs, Kluck seconded the motion and the motion passed 3-0, Oyler abstaining.

Item V was Standing Committee reports: Personnel has yet to meet.

The Building Committee report was stated by Kluck who said they had gone to the elementary school and toured the building and checked out the HVAC project. He stated they gave the crew some “suggestions” and changes. One item was that the pipes were too low, Principal J. F. Hewitt stated they had corrected that matter.

The board was impressed with how well the floors look.

Principal Shawn Bleth gave his administrative report. “Second day of school, we had a very good two days so far…I am very pleased with how things are starting. It’s good to have students back in the building, they seemed to be pretty excited to be back in the school, so it is a great way to start the school year off.”

The enrollment is up eight students over last year. Bleth stated that the number of students who are taking AP Classes is way up compared to last year. Students are currently taking 19 dual classes; eight students are signed up for AP courses, 12 are taking college algebra right now. Students met with Mr. Hewitt, Elementary School Principal, to get started on career internships which they need to do to get classroom experience to go into teaching. He added that the size of the freshman class is such that accommodations had to be made.

Elementary Principal Mr. Hewitt gave an update on the new HVAC system, stating that there were a couple leaks that were caught and repaired before the crew left town.

He said dismissal was now going smooth, the first day was a learning session.

Hewitt said it was nice to see how quickly things changed at the school, from the first hiccup to day two when everything went smoothly. “I could throw them some suggestions, but honestly they (the staff) are coming up with the solutions…it’s really nice to see how they are working together. It’s a real joy to walk into this school with a staff of teachers, paras, classified, janitorial…they are working together and it is really, really awesome and I appreciate it.”

Hewitt stated the enrollment is at about 230 to 240 and seems to be about equally divided as far as boys and girls.

Jake Norby stated he is glad to be back as well. He stated some of the large schools voted to change to nine man football. He addressed the concussion testing.

The Northern B Volleyball Tournament will be held in Malta on Oct. 31-Nov. 2nd.

He addressed the Home School enrollment and thanked Mr. Bleth for his work on putting the packet together. This allows parents the option of calling in to get a packet mailed to them.

Norby stated there aren’t any eighth graders playing up to high school level this year. There are 47 boys out for football this year, and 41 girls out for volleyball,

Sports kicked off on Friday, August 16th. He announced the picture days for the various sports, as well.

Supt. Steve Bucks gave the board the names of volunteers and coaches for the year. A motion was made to approve the wrestling coach’s including Shawn Gilkerson and Nolan Simanton as assistant’s, and Steve French as girls wrestling coach and assistant high school girls coach, Trey Simanton. Middle school football coach, Brian Tatafu; middle school football coach Kalen Wiebe, and middle school wrestling coaches, Steve French, Nick Oxarart, Oden Hallock, and Dustin Squires as a volunteer. Volunteer assistants-high school volleyball coach Kate Inderland; assistant high school football coach Kalen Wiebe and middle school wresting coach Trey Simanton and middle school wrestling coach Dustin Squires. A motion to approve the coaching staff was made by Marquis, Oyler seconded the motion. DeVries called for a vote and it was 3 aye votes in favor of the motion and one nay vote cast by Kluck, motion passed 3-1. Marquis made a motion, seconded by Kluck to hire Mendy Estill as vo-ag teacher for two periods and Carter Clausen as transportation director, motion carried 4-0.

Next on the agenda was the out-of-district attendance agreements. Knudsen stated there are four students in the district that live closer to Turner and choose to go to school there. Oyler made a motion to allow the agreement, seconded by Marquis, and motion carried.

The 2024-2025 activity accounts was next on the agenda. Knudsen stated that “The school likes to have the graduating class fund pretty well cleared out before graduation.” Marquis inquired if the funds are kept for a ten year reunion or something. Knudsen said, “The funds that are left over, the Principal usually takes that money to purchase something for the school. I think he goes through it and tries to get it (the class account) cleaned out.

Marquis again asked if the money isn’t kept for a ten-or-twenty year reunion or something. “How long does the school hold funds for the class that is graduating?”

Bleth said, “We try to spend as much as we can before they graduate, I like to not have that money left over like that; some classes don’t leave much.”

Some examples are the projector in the auditorium, the televisions in the hallways for announcements, benches, stations for water coolers and the bleacher curtains in the gym. Marquis made a motion to accept the list as presented, seconded by Kluck and motion carried.

Approximately 48 minutes into the meeting Clerk Jane Knudsen addressed the 47-page Trustee Financial Summary. She stated it serves as an internal audit. She stated it is a breakdown of how much is spent on salaries, how much is spent on books, how much is spent on activities, and other expenses. It is all the expenditures of the district. Marquis moved to accept the report, Oyler provided a second to the motion; it passed 4-0.

The 2024-2025 Budget was addressed, this consumed an extensive amount of time. Knudsen said the taxable value has gone down; the taxable mill levy had been $8,036.430 and is now $8,015,717. Taxpayers will be asked to support the General Fund of $1,189,000, compared to last year’s budget of $1,280,000. She said when it was through she ended up appropriating $14,000 from this year’s budget into next year’s. “I usually try to get it down as close I can each year, but this is where we ended this year.”

The Transportation Fund covers all expenses for transportation which the district can set at what they feel is necessary to run. $700,000 has been set now for three years, and she stated they end up re-appropriating about $200,000; try to keep it steady over the years and try to avoid taking it up and down. She recommended keeping it at $700,000. Last year she had to re-appropriate $233,993 this year, last year it is was $138,000 because they purchased a bus at the end of the year. The school gets unscheduled payments from the state to the tune of $181,500 and the school will go to the taxpayers for $284,506.31, for a total of 35.49 mills, compared to last year of 47.23. It is necessary to budget enough to cover the two payments of $45,000 each for the loan with the Intercap Loan, with the Board of Investments - half of which goes toward the principal and half which goes toward interest.

She explained the Bus Depreciation Fund; “That’s the money we are able to take all the buses and depreciate; and when we depreciate that amount each year that’s the amount that goes into bus depreciation. Page 9 shows all of our bus assets that we have and how much we can depreciate. You’re allowed to depreciate up to 150% of the purchased price of the bus, so this year we are going to be able to see from the tax payers approximately $203,000 which goes into the Bus Depreciation. Because we didn’t end up purchasing anything out of the fund this last year we’ll have the amount we had left over last year which is $268,000 and then we will add the $203,000 that we will get from the depreciation and so our budget authority will be $471,000. Now always keep in mind we don’t always necessarily get 100% of what we mill…people protest or don’t pay their taxes. We’re close to getting 100% but we don’t always know. We’re fortunate we don’t have anybody protesting taxes in our county.”

Knudsen went on to explain that the $203,000 that is depreciating each year goes into the final budget authority of the $471,000. Our total mills are at 25.35, down slightly from last year is 26.55.

The Tuition Fund is a permissively levied fund. It has been kept for several years at $150,000 and that is there in case a student had to go elsewhere for their education; if there was nothing in the Tuition Fund, if would have to come out of the general fund. This year, only $2,672 will be asked for from the taxpayers as this is the amount the district had to pay out for tuition this year. That returns the coffer balance to $150,000.

Retirement funds are sitting at $625,000 and that is where the funds will sit this year. Adult Education will be kept at $23,000; this is the amount designated from last year and Knudsen does not see a change in the budget, as that is where it was last year. Funds were used last year for a GED Class.

Under Technology, there are in perpetuity levies to the tune of a balance of $59,550 and as long as another technology levy isn’t run they will always be in perpetuity. The second a new technology levy is run they automatically turn to ten years, and after that it has to go to the taxpayers. Some state funding does come in, about $3,500. The combined funds from last years’ budget will be set at $101,672.04. The total mills will be 7.43.

The Flex Fund can be used for a variety of things, it is at $164,000 - Knudsen said, “Some of that is what you might call “blue sky” money.” She re-appropriated $119,000 in the other revenue column and put $45,000; $25,000 for income from local sources and $20,000 from local oil and gas money.

Marquis stated that the board had just received the proposed budget and she did not feel the amount of time (which was only hours) before having to make a decision on the matter was adequate. Knudsen stated she had been sick the week before. Marquis stated that the budget was important and a decision of such impact requires an understanding of items before a vote.

The budget was voted on and passed 4-0, Brown was absent.

DeVries stated she would not be available for the next meeting on Sept. 11 and discussion was held on an alternative date. Knudsen stated that meetings are to be kept on the stated dates and time, and discussion was held. It was voted to change the meeting from Sept. 11th to Sept. 18th, 4-0.

A complete recording of the meetings are available online.

The next regular board meeting will be Wednesday, Sept. 18th at 7 p.m. in the board meeting room.