Latest news with #BrandonBaumbach
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Career Impact Academy on track for May 1 completion date
Mar. 31—GRAND FORKS — The Career Impact Academy is on track for a substantial completion date of May 1. The Grand Forks Public Schools Facilities Committee heard the construction update following the regular School Board meeting Monday evening. In the report, district officials noted that the project progressed much more quickly than expected and no delays are anticipated. "We have a plan to absolutely get this building completed on time and ready for students for the fall," district business manager Brandon Baumbach told the committee. Furniture for the academy is expected to arrive in July, and a ribbon-cutting and open house is tentatively scheduled for August. The project is expected to come in at just under $31 million and was funded primarily through the district's building fund. The building fund is being used now to drive forward an air handling unit project at Kelly Elementary School ($88,135) and the Central High School pool recommissioning project ($181,075), but after the completion of those projects and the academy, the fund will be given a bit of a breather, Baumbach said. The Facilities Committee will discuss long-term projects and other priorities at its upcoming meeting on April 16. The committee also received an update on the new Valley Middle School, which is now roughly halfway through construction and has a projected substantial completion date of December 2025. The $55 million project is now 8.72% under budget, although the numbers aren't yet final. The project is making good time, district Building and Grounds Director Jonathan Ellwein reported, but a bathroom bill currently being considered by the Legislature could set the project back significantly if passed. As the proposed policy is written now, Valley's bathroom designs — separated by gender but with a common hand-washing area — would likely be deemed noncompliant. The district is seeking clarification on whether the in-construction bathrooms would qualify as existing facilities under the proposal. "That is the one thing that could derail the finances on this project, but I think even getting some clarity on some of the language in the bill would help," Ellwein said Monday. Other updates heard by the committee Monday include the new Central High School kitchen, which achieved substantial completion last month and cost $5.136 million, coming in nearly 15% under budget, and a number of safety and security upgrades districtwide, which are now 2.25% over budget and with few exceptions are expected to be completed by the beginning of next school year. In other news, * School Board members approved a guaranteed maximum price for safety and security enhancements at Kelly Elementary School. The board approved a GMP of of $727,905 with a total project cost of $862,567. * The board's finance committee also recommended the board sign off on allocating Building Fund dollars to replace Lewis and Clark Elementary's broken intercom system, which is obsolete. The project is expected to cost $36,994, including a 10% contingency. Board members approved the funds. * Board members heard a financial update from Baumbach. Between July 1, 2024, and Feb. 28, the district's revenues are $84.5 million and expenditures are $72 million, "right where we'd expect us to be in the year," Baumbach said. Other expenses are also down 52%. The board voted to accept the general financial report. * The board voted to adopt a slate of policies without changes since the last reading. Among the amended policies is new guidance that School Board members do not have authority to resolve complaints about unlawful harassment or discrimination, and guidance that the board "will not hear, consider, or act upon personnel complaints and must remain neutral and uninvolved in the investigation process."
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Grand Forks Public Schools seeing few of its legislative goals advance
Mar. 26—GRAND FORKS — Just over halfway through the legislative session, many of Grand Forks Public Schools' policy goals are on ice. Forty-eight days into the 2025 legislative session, few of the proposals administrators and School Board members hoped for — and floated to state lawmakers — seem likely to become law. Bills increasing overall state funding or support for specific programs have been cut back or died on the floor, while legislation directing state dollars to private schools has trucked forward despite widespread opposition from public schools and teachers unions. "Even if bills showed strong support in the first half, this is the part where the rubber hits the road," district Business Manager Brandon Baumbach said. "I take the position of patience and doing the work." School funding bills appear largely set to fall short of the district's hopes. Superintendent Terry Brenner in December floated a 4% increase in state aid to schools for the 2025-26 school year. House Bill 1013, which passed the House 72-17 last month, only allocates a 2% increase for next year, with another 2% for 2026-27. A competing funding bill, HB 1369, at one point included funding formula increases for English learners and special education students — a cost the district has increasingly shouldered in recent years — but saw that provision stripped out in the version passed by the House. Bills offering free school meals for all students died in the House, and funding to cover cost overruns for the Grand Forks Career Impact Academy and other career and technical education centers across the state didn't make the Senate bill funding the Department of Career and Technical Education. Meanwhile, two bills that would create educational savings accounts for North Dakota students continue to work their way through the House and Senate. District officials oppose any kind of school choice legislation, though Brenner acknowledged last year that some form of school choice was likely to pass. At last week's Government Affairs Committee meeting, board member Jay Kleven floated the prospect of backing one bill over the other as a "pragmatic" compromise measure. Baumbach said Friday he's hopeful a lackluster revenue forecast earlier this month could tank school choice for another two years. "Even if they want to establish educational savings accounts — if it's a priority of this Legislature that might remain a priority, but with the budget forecast, it may say, 'things are getting too expensive, maybe we won't do that this time,"" Baumbach said. Grand Forks has racked up at least one win. On Monday, Gov. Kelly Armstrong signed Senate Bill 2149, which will allow school districts located on Air Force bases — like Grand Forks Air Force Base's Nathan Twining Elementary and Middle School — to access low-interest loans from the Bank of North Dakota reserved for public schools. That will help the district bankroll its 20% share of the new school set to be built on the base. A student transportation funding bill that cleared the House, HB 1214, includes specific funding for transit to and from career and technical education centers. "I'm happy they're considering it," Baumbach said. "Making sure all kid have access to the Career Impact Academy is a priority." Another bill, HB 1381, would reduce how much state aid is deducted from Grand Forks and other school districts' state payments based on their local revenues, potentially increasing overall spending for schools. Though the government affairs committee was established in part to lobby lawmakers — and has changed its regular meeting date and time three times to accommodate them — Grand Forks legislators have been largely absent from committee meetings since the session began. Only one lawmaker, Rep. Mark Sanford, called into a Feb. 20 committee meeting, for 11 minutes. Baumbach and committee and School Board member Josh Anderson separately defended lawmakers' absenteeism, pointing to state legislators' busy and often hectic schedules. Anderson further said lawmakers remain accessible to the committee via email and other forms of communication. According to his weekly schedule, Brenner met with lawmakers as part of a weekend meeting of Team Grand Forks earlier this month. He did not respond to a Herald query asking if he could share details from that meeting. Though the House and Senate must sign off on the same version of a bill before it becomes law, bills that have advanced from one chamber to the next are not necessarily final. If lawmakers vote to amend a bill received from another chamber, House and Senate members must meet to work out a compromise bill that can then be voted on. Asked for his feelings at this point in the session, Anderson deferred judgment. "I don't know if I can directly say how we feel right now at this point, because we're really just past crossover (in the Legislature)," he said. "There's a lot of things that could still happen and come out of this." Aimee Copas, executive director of the North Dakota Council of Educational Leaders, made a similar observation to the Herald on Monday. This session got "mixed reviews" for public school support, she said, but most of the K-12 bills in the Legislature had not yet been signed into law. "Much of the priorities really come down to the final days and how the big K-12 funding bills shake out and how the final policy bills pass or die," she wrote in an email to the Herald.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Grand Forks Public Schools has recovered approximately half of $2.2 million swindled last year
Feb. 25—GRAND FORKS — Law enforcement has been able to recover more than half of the $2.2 million defrauded from Grand Forks Public Schools last summer, according to Business Manager Brandon Baumbach. Authorities were able to recover $1,296,935 of the more than $2 million defrauded from the district, and received an additional $100,000 payout from social engineering — otherwise known as phishing — insurance, Baumbach shared at Monday's School Board meeting. That leaves the district with a net loss of $842,730, taken from the district's building fund — meaning the loss has not impacted funding for day-to-day operations. Baumbach also shared that the fraudulent wire transfer took place on Aug. 16, and was discovered during the following billing cycle. A police report was first filed by the district on Sept. 13. In the aftermath of the discovery, Baumbach said, the district froze all external transfers, and contacted its bank, the Grand Forks Police Department and the Internet Crime Complaint Center, run by the FBI. He reiterated the fraud is an isolated incident, and that there is no reason to suspect internal fraud or embezzlement. He said staff followed internal protocols, but this had not prevented the fraud. "It is important to highlight the district personnel in the business office were victims of a crime," Baumbach said. While the district's IT system was not breached, Baumbach said administrators were providing new cybersecurity training and implementing multifactor authentication across the district. In response to a question from board member Amber Flynn, Baumbach said the district had looked into increasing its phishing coverage but found most insurers were unwilling to increase their coverage past $200,000. Grand Forks Police Department Lt. Andrew Stein told the Herald the fraud investigation remains active and ongoing. Police provided no new documents relating to the investigation in response to an open records request filed by the Herald. "It is true the investigation is not quite done, and it's my understanding it might not be for a long, long time. We thought an update to the community was deserved," Baumbach said. In other news from Monday's board meeting: * Board members decided redrawing school boundaries needs more time and resident input . * IT specialist Logan Corneliusen was honored as the classified employee of the quarter, while Lisa Vojacek, a Valley Middle School instructional coach, was the certified employee of the quarter. * Board members signed off on a Head Start Quality Improvement Plan. * Finance committee members are considering a request for proposal for new busing software capable of electronically tracking students and sharing bus route updates with families, among other improvements. * School Board members signed off on a bid with a guaranteed maximum price of $690,556 for safety and security upgrades to Lake Agassiz Elementary, coming in $85,571 under projected expenses. * The board also signed off on a plan to replace the district's aging Apple laptops by leasing new Macbook Airs. IT Manager Darin King said the district is pursuing resale options for its current laptops, which were purchased outright using federal coronavirus relief dollars. * The 2025-26 school year will begin on Wednesday, Aug. 26, for kindergarten through ninth-grade students and Thursday, Aug. 27 for 10th- through 12th-graders, and end for all on Thursday, May 28, 2026. Board members also tentatively OK'd start dates of Aug. 26 and 27, 2026, and an end date of May 27, 2027, for the following school year. * Board members approved establishing a virtual high school for district students, effective for the 2025-26 school year. * School Board members again found Terry Brenner's performance as superintendent to be satisfactory in his latest evaluation, though some board members dinged Brenner for not communicating proactively with them and again complained about the breadth of the evaluation.
