NEW ULM – The New Ulm School Board voted to certify the 2026 tax levy during Thursday’s board meeting.

The District’s business service manager, Mathew Moline said there had been changes to the budget or levy since the Dec. 4 Truth in Taxation meeting.

Board member Jonathan Schiro made the motion to approve an $8.92 million levy, which represents a 0.78% decrease from the taxes payable in 2025. The motion was approved by the board.

The board also received an audit report for fiscal year 2025 from Sterling Statek with CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA). Statek said the district received a “clean” and reported no compliance issues.

Highlights from the report showed that over the last five years, the district has had stable enrollment, with total students currently at 2,183. General funds revenues and expenditures have remained nearly equal over the same five year period, but in 2025, expenditures began to outpace revenues.

General fund revenue dropped due to a decrease in federal funding. Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds ended in 2024. Inflation also created an increase in expenditures. Overall, expenditures are up $2 million in the district from last year.

In other news, Superintendent Sean Koster said the school is working to prepare staff for the implementation of Minnesota’s new Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) program that begins Jan. 1. Under PFML, Minnesota employees are allowed up to 12 weeks of Medical Leave and 12 weeks of Family Leave in a year. An employee qualifying for both medial and family leave is limited to a maximum leave time of 20 weeks.

Through the law, employees receive a portion of their wages while on leave and job protection when they return from leave. The program is funded by premiums made up of contributions from employees and employers. The initial premium rate is 0.88% of wages. Employers must contribute at least 50% (0.44%) of the premium, but could pay the full premium. Employees can only be asked to contribute up to 50% of the premium.

A new employee handbook was created to include PFML information, including eligibility, qualifying leave reasons and premium contributions.

“Most of it is fairly standard,” Koster said “but there are a lot of questions still a lot of questions we don’t have answers to because it has not been implemented.”

Since the PFML is new, the district is uncertain how the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) will implement the program. Employees applying for leave are required to apply through DEED, instead of their employers.

Koster said in the last few weeks, the district’s business office has been inundated with questions about PFML.

“We do know it is going to be utilized at least for maturity leave and bonding time,” Koster said.

The city council agenda originally included a review of the Employee Use of Social Media policy. Koster said this was removed from the agenda because the administration is still in the process of selecting a districtwide communication solution that meets ADA requirements and provides language access for families.

Until the communication tool is implemented, Koster did not want to place extra limits on how staff communicated with students and families. Once the new communication tool is implemented, the social media use policy will be brought back before the board.