001I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? So moved. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Roll call finds us here except for Miss Marilyn Donahue. And item number five already. Um new early new early learning center 4K wrap-around pilot program. Yeah, so we are very excited to bring this today. Um it's something I think we've talked about since probably just before COVID and then when COVID hit staffing became so hard that uh we were working on Kids Stop and and staffing that throughout the district and we couldn't even do that. Um so this has kind of been on the
002back burner but something that we want to do for our families. So I've been mentioning it with Catherine. Catherine's a go-getter, Jody uh hopped on board with those conversations. Kelly's been looking at data and finding where we can put kids and what we have for space. Uh so the plan is to run a pilot here and they're going to tell you about that. Long term, we'd like to do this more throughout the entire district. Um at our ELC and our other 4K sites, we may have an opportunity um to use other schools as well that don't currently have 4K. I can't speak to all that just yet, but we want to get started with the pilot um for next year, see how it goes and uh then kind of roll from there. So they are
003here to to present on that tonight and we just appreciate them for all their their efforts and all the thought that went into it. Thank you. Um so we do have several Kids Stop sites. Uh at this point, two of them have 4-year-old components, Lincoln and Herman and Cleveland. So, we will just be adding the ELC to our Kids Stop program, which is before and after school. Um the person in charge of our child care is Hannah Smies. And uh the person who she replaced, who moved uh up to a supervisor position, is Austin Koss. So, they've both been uh very helpful when we put this program together. Um So, the Kids Stop component is before and after school, then the wrap-around is in the middle. So, it gets kind of tricky because you're going
004to have all those children at the same time. Um our game plan is 24:00 a.m., 24:00 p.m. in the pi- pi- pilot program. Uh easy for me to say. And then from there, you know, we'll we'll see how that goes, but um that That is that part of program. I don't know. Do we You can move the slides on your computer, so Oh, yeah. Ah, you got to click the arrow. Oh, thank you. I want you to hand it up. There's a delay. Yeah, this is the perfect day. Thank you. All right. That was Jody kind of talked about this. Yeah, you're good. You should be able to go. So, Kids Stop and Wrap Around here would run Monday through Friday on regular school days. Before school would start at 7:15, and wrap-around care will
005support our half-day 4K programs. So, the morning availability for the afternoon students, and the afternoon availability for our morning students. And after school care would be available until 5:30. These programs will provide consistent full day coverage for families within the school calendar. There you can see the cost of the program. At this point it's only a full week option. So if you sign up for any component or all three components you're signing up for the full week. When we put the budget together we tried our best to uh just kind of break even. Um with that in mind these numbers will if if we get a decent amount of enrollment we'll break even. Uh in the future we can look at a three day a week or two day a week but for now if
006you sign up you're committing to paying for the full week. You could maybe you don't come every day or you get picked up early but um you can do any of the three components with primarily we're looking for people that do all three. Um that would be like the first group of people we would allow in the program. We do have a contingency plan and an interest list that uh Catherine will mention a little bit because our assumption is that this will fill up and we have to be strategic about where we place um the children in the program so that we don't have too many mornings or too many afternoons. And at this point there's no discount available like there are for other Kidstop programs. Next year we will be going to um a
007model where everyone pays for Kidstop uh with discounts available. This program does not at this point have a discount available. Sorry. There we go. All right, so what's it going to look like? Wrap around here is designed to extend the 4K experience through a balance of structured activities and choice-based activities along with social development. The schedule will include time to play outside, obviously weather permitting, and uh it will also include meals that will be provided through the district's nutrition department. A brief rest period where children are expected to just rest. They don't have to take a nap, but they do need to rest. Overall, the program offers a consistent and developmentally appropriate extension of our current 4K program. Um our staffing plans we will utilize some of our Kids Stop staff um especially for that
008middle part of the day. We have before-and-after school at several sites. And some of our staff go and work at other child care, so they might be lunch supervisors at one of the schools. Um our hope is to recruit some of those staff members to work um during the middle of the day. And then we're right next to South, so we're going to try to maybe pull in a few of their students before and after school. And then some of the EAs will be able to give them additional hours. Uh if they come a little early to work our Kids Stop program or stay a little later to work the afternoon. Um it'll be a combination of a lot of different mostly hopefully current staff. Um but we will be looking for other other staff
009members, too, to cover that middle part of the day. We uh like Jody mentioned, we established minimum and maximum enrollment numbers for the pilot program based on the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families child care staffing ratio, which for 4-year-olds is one adult to 13 children with a maximum of 24 students in a room. A waitlist will be established as needed and we will use a lottery system to determine excessive available space. And we have two timelines for registration. The first registration is for the interest window and that's May 6th and closes May 27th. Enrollment status will be communicated to families by June 12th. At that time families that are offered a placement must confirm their spot between June 12th and July 1st with a non-refundable $50 fee. This slide highlights what the flyer we
010will be using to communicate and promote the program. Our goal is to provide clear accessible information and reach the families through multiple channels. So we are going to share this on our website, the ELC website. We're going to distribute it through a postcard mailing and we're going to use other outreach additional outreach efforts that we use through at our school. Okay. So if you have questions, we're here to answer them. I'm sure you said this and I missed it, but did you the 7:15 start time come from an analysis of how many people are using Kids Stop at 6:30 cuz it's 6:30 right now, isn't it? The start time for Kids Stop? Yeah, some of the sites, yeah. We we just started a little later at this program. Um mainly financial so that we can
011save money by not being honest 30 or 45 minutes and then um with 4-year-olds it's awfully long day if they're there 7:15 to 5:30. So I want to be clear in my understanding. So this whole model, what you've talked about there in the timing, is only for a 4-year-old if they were to come. The regular KidStart program is not changing. No. Okay. No, this is just an additional additional KidStart location and then the wrap-around care during the day. Okay. Are there any other questions? So, that timing wouldn't work for someone who works first shift. Uh it's a pilot program. We're kind of curious to see how it goes before we we extend the day. Um we had conversations about starting a little earlier, but in the end 7:15 is kind of where we landed. I
012mean, that's definitely we can have that discussion if the suggestion is that we we go earlier. Well, we're worried One of the issues we have at the ELC is we kind of want a smaller, compact uh time for all the kids to get there cuz we're taking them from upstairs downstairs. So, one of our staff members will be transporting throughout the morning. We kind of like that get everybody down there as soon as possible so that we have the full supervision. I mean, we'd have enough supervision, but that's going to be an additional staff member we have to walk the children from the door they will come in down the stairs to the room cuz it's in the it's in the lower level. I I think it's a great idea. My only concern is families
013having the perception that it's there's no discount and there is no timing that goes with first shift. So, it kind of comes across as a program more for people who have white-collar jobs than blue-collar jobs. I don't necessarily want it to look like that. Yeah, I can speak to that because I think we talk about that quite a bit. First of all, that the cost of this is so much cheaper than anything comparable that I don't know that that's true. I think we have a lot of blue collar families that are using daycare, spending a ton more. Um, and we see that, right? We see kids from the L C that get bused to um childcare sites around the the city that are paying 10 times more than this. Um, 20 times more than this.
014So, I feel good about that. How we've balanced this in the past with Kids Stop Plus, honestly, is we charge enough on the students who can pay that it kind of washes out for the students that can't. That's a Those discussions get difficult, um, right? As where as what's ethical and what's not. Um, other ways to fund it, we could raise taxes on fund 80 and take it out of there, but you're going to see a a budget presented, uh, pretty soon from Mark. I think that is going to show tax, yeah, right? We've raised taxes what, 15, 16% this year on most people. So, that's not a great option. Um, so all said and done, I really feel like for the price that families are paying, this is an incredibly affordable good deal, um,
015to get the service. I wish we could do it for you for free and reduce lunch. That's always where my heart is as well. Um, but I understand why we needed to go in this direction. As far as starting earlier, again, we can do that, but everyone I think pilot it for a year and see where we land. Everyone's going to end up having to pay for that, right? Like if if we have to pay staff to be there 30 minutes earlier, everyone has to pay for it. So, that 35 might not cover it. So, now you got to charge 40, 45, and families who don't need it before 7:15, that So, we just got to we got to find our sweet spot there. We have to survey a little bit. We have to see
016how families like it this year. We have to see how the the organization goes, but um we will continue to to look at this, to analyze the budget, and figure out how we can do it as cheap as we can for families cuz we know they're stressed. Is there Is there anything and I'm not 100% on this, but there's some kind of a state program where daycares could get money for 4K? Yeah, and Could any of that money be used to to defer any of these expenses? >> That's part of that, and we're talking about that. If you want to do that, you have to be a licensed daycare. Um so, that's an issue right off the start. Can we get licensed here? But, there's a lot of hoops to jump through there. Um what
017you're s- I'm very curious. Yeah, it's a really good question. That started out at like $6,000 a student. We did the math on that. It's down if if all the s- if all the places who say they're going to use that, use it, you're going to be down to like $2,100 a student from that 6,000 because it was um some certain rather than some sufficient. And if it's 2,100 in the first year, and people are catching on to that and doing more of it, you can bet next year it's going to be even less. So, I'm not We're not sure if that's going to make sense to do or not. Um for this year, we did not. And it's a it bleeds into a different subject that we've been pretty um proactive in talking with
018our community partners in making sure that um those partners stay with us rather than going in that direction uh because if those students come off of our enrollment, it can it can create tax concerns as well. So, that was a pretty I thought that was a pretty bad bill by the state. The way we had that pitched to us is that daycares, once 4K came along, daycares lost their revenue stream because they made money on 4K because class sizes have to be so small at the younger ages. Um so I wish they would have given it as uh payment relief at the younger ages rather than 4K because now you have schools competing with community partners. It just was not a well-written or thought-out bill. So there has just been a ton of talk at
019that at the state superintendent. Probably we just had Jill Underly in Green Bay on Monday. No, Friday last week and she's getting an earful everywhere she goes. She admitted that. Um doesn't go through DPI. So it that one's been problematic. It's something the board should kind of keep an eye on. Okay. Thank you. As a parent who's navigated this exact thing recently, um super exciting. You're a few years late. But I can tell you this is uh the cost of this is so incredible for what you get. I mean, I I was like that mom that went to 4K and picked up at 11:30 and drove to Child's Play and drove to you know, to do all those things. So um and saw the bus coming from ELC from those kids and like all that
020stuff. So it's very exciting. Um and I utilize Kids' Stuff as well. So now for my own entry schooler. So this is I mean, it's great. I'm I'm excited to see what comes of it. So I'm also really excited and curious about you know, the benefit of having less transition. We know that that can benefit so many kids. Um are there barriers to entry as far as those pilot year, but you know, is the ability to be quiet during rest time like a requirement to be a part of this or do you anticipate there are students who you know, receive IEP supports at ELC who might also um be a part of the program. Yeah, absolutely. So, we, although we're not a licensed child care provider under what you were speaking about, we're trying to,
021cuz it's a pilot program, we're really trying to make it like if we were licensed, because if we did want to go through and try to become a licensed child care provider, we could take advantage of that of the programming. But, we're we're not licensed, so we're not eligible for that right now. So, we're following all of the daycare rules that they would expect for us. So, the rest period is required because if the student does the 4K before school, the wrap-around care, and then after school, they would have the amount of hours that they would need to take a rest. That does not mean it didn't happen. And most people know like rest time in daycare is is some of the most we have some of the most challenging behaviors cuz they want to
022play with their friends. They don't want to rest. So, it's really just a time to have them be calm, lights out. We are anticipating that we're going to use our two rooms that are in the downstairs. So, we do have the ability to turn off lights. The rest of our building, if you haven't been there, it's a very open concept, and the light switches turn off the whole entire side, so that would be impossible. So, we did spend quite a bit of time working together, and they're the experts over here with the kids' stuff, so I really leaned into them on what would work best in the building, and we have the entrance with the stairs right there, which safety is really important to me because our building is full of four-year-olds who are very
023vulnerable little people. And so, we they're going to put a system in place where it's a locked door at all times, and parents will have that access right there to the to the stairs, so they won't be going through the building that at multiple hours of the day when kids are going to be there. Um and yet it's it's available to all children in our building. So, um anybody that's in 4K, um we we do anticipate that there's going to be that this is going to be a well-received program. So, because it's a pilot, we do have to cap it and that's only so that we can be successful and staff it well because that's the other thing with young children. If you don't have it staffed well, it's not going to go well. So,
024they do a great job with Kids Stuff and um I'm very confident that this is going to be wonderful for all of our students. And um to speak for the price, we also talked a lot about how we want to um charge for it and by providing the before care, the wraparound, and the after-school care, we feel like we've really targeted um the unique needs of families because some families can get their child there. They can be at home. They can hop on the bus cuz some of our bus rides are an hour long. So, if they can get on the bus and then um they might be able to pick them up after school. So, this gives those parents the opportunity to meet the needs of all the unique families that we have and
025we have very unique families that are I mean every everybody's story is different when it comes to daycare. So, some only have one child, some have three children, some have grandmas, some have high school. I'm really excited because we that I think this is going to help the family whose high school children watch their younger siblings before school because they were not able to they were some we we had some students from South that wanted to drop the children off before and we didn't have care. So, they they either had to go late to school cuz there was no child care providers for their younger siblings. So, I really just think that this is going to help all of our families. Rachel >> about the IEP and and that kind of thing, we're going to
026do our best. We If we have access to the proper staff, we will definitely utilize them. Rachel, you want to speak to it briefly, please? >> Yeah, I can absolutely speak to it. So, um thinking about this program and because it falls under overall the district umbrella, we take a 504 lens. So, really that's about designing the program with accommodations built into it and supports built into it. Um and we we have some communication going out to families. So, if families feel like their child needs additional support, they're reaching out. We're going to work with those families to try to craft reasonable accommodations so that they can access and participate in the program. So, that's really the lens we take is a 504 lens. I have a question about capacity. When you were talking about
027numbers right now, this is these are the pilot numbers. Do you have capacity to grow beyond that in successive years? Like space-wise? >> yes, we do. What what do you see as the limit on that? Like enough to serve all of the kids that were coming? I haven't >> It depends on if we're going to become a licensed daycare because then you have to have 35 square feet for every child. And so, I haven't done the math for that. If we're not licensed, um we do have empty classrooms and then we would have to get creative about um the the nap time or I should say quiet time cuz we're not going to force them to sleep, but they will need to rest. Uh but yes, there is definitely space to expand. So, I'm hopeful
028that after the pilot program is successful, that we will be able to offer this to all of the families that need it. That's my hope. And it's a one-year pilot plan. Yeah. Yeah, it's mostly the pilot just to get the staffing, to make sure we're comfortable with the number we can serve. You know, cuz a lot of these positions are similar to EAs, which the district's always looking for EAs. So, we didn't want to go too big and then not be able to serve the people that are registered. Thank you. Are there any other questions? Um so, Jake, the question, it says possible action. The action would be to improve the implementation of the pilot program? Right. Is there a motion? Is there a second? Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. I'm Cheryl Ty. Motion
029carries. Thank you so much. Just a quick thank you to Hannah and Quick thank you to Hannah and Austin as well. They do so much for kids stuff to make sure that Thank you. >> students are cared for, so it's appreciated. They put up with the width socks, so So, there you go. You can't thank Hannah for that cuz there's two of them now. So, why Um Jake, number six, administrative resignations. You got We're asking for recommendation to approve administrative resignations of Lindsey Olson and Sue Vang effective June 30th, 2026. Is there a motion to approve? >> So All in favor? Aye. I'm Cheryl Ty. Motion carries. Is there a motion to adjourn? Second? Are you okay? Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Motion carries. We are adjourned. Thank you. Do you have something
030to say to you here?