The Northern Branch’s school attendance policy may be stricter than state law requires, and one school board director is considering changing it.
A written attendance policy allows a “school district attendance officer” to identify “habitual truant children” (children who, based on age, are late for a certain number of days as defined in the policy) and their It requires the legal guardian to be referred to “appropriate services and services”. procedures defined by state law.”
School Board Director Adam Trump said this referred to Minnesota statute section 260A.06. This uses the word “may” when referring to the attendance review board referring the family to the county attorney after the discovery of habitual school truancy.
After the policy’s second reading, Trump told the school board:
NBAPS does not have an attendance jury. If concerns arise, it is up to the school board to act on its behalf, said school board chair Tim McMillan.
McMillan also said NBAPS manager Sarah Paul is meeting regularly with the Chisago County Attorney’s Office to review a no-attendance policy.
As a result of Trumpe’s opposition, the policy was not approved as written. MacMillan instructed his Trampe to email his concerns to staff, who instructed him to include his Trampe in policy editorial discussions.
financial update
NBAPS Director of Finance and Human Resources Todd Tetzlaff released preliminary financial statements for fiscal 2022, which ended June 30 of this year. The statement is being audited.
The main point of discussion on this agenda item is that NBAPS has not provided detailed information on the actual local property tax implications in its tax statement to taxpayers mailed this month. It was true.
McMillan expressed concern that other city officials have provided detailed explanations for these statements, and argued that school districts should provide similar explanations.
“I think we can do better there,” McMillan said, later adding that he would like to speak to the county auditor about the matter.
Tetzlaff noted that all local school districts, like other local tax authorities, end their fiscal year in June instead of December, so they have the same problem. The school district will miss the September 30th deadline and will not be able to obtain audited financial information for the statements.
“We try to be as transparent as possible, but we just don’t get the information when we need to turn it in,” Tetzlaff said.
The information is now available on the district’s website, Tetzlaff continued, and director Heather Nägele added that the statement should be posted on the website so that taxpayers know how to access the unlisted information. I suggested including a link or referral to the site.
MacMillan countered that city and county budgets were also not finalized by Sept. 30, and added a disclaimer to notices that financial information has not been audited, which could address potential changes. I argued against it.
