001Call the meeting uh committee as a whole meeting to order at 6:02 p.m. May 5th. Uh roll call. Scott here. Britney here. John here. Brad's here. Ben is presently absent. Can I get an approve uh motion to approve the tonight's agenda? Make the motion. Second. All in favor? Any opposed? All right. Student staff community recognition. Yes. Uh the Simsons aren't here. Uh but um if you want to read that or you want to read that uh we'd like to acknowledge and thank the Simons and family for their ongoing commitment, time and personal resources to provide Sen Springs softball program. They focused on softball cleanup, removal of winter debris, repair of pitcher mound, dragging the infield, trimming fence line, cleaning out the dugouts, and overall grounds cleanup. This is a personal dedication to softball to the
002softball program and was greatly appreciated and did not go unnoticed and that was submitted by Lindsay Johnson. Awesome. So, so thank them for that. Okay, moving on. Uh 30 60 90 day plan. Anybody have any questions or anything on that? 16 38 [Music] 90. Okay. Summer coaching contract. So this is that uh voting they had. You have a little more information on it. Yeah. Um and there's coaches and members of the school's team now volunteer may now voluntarily assemble without restriction from June 1st to June 30th and from July 7th through July 31st for except for football uh which requires coaching contact to conclude one week prior to fall practice. So no school sport specific coach contact will be permitted during that week of the fourth. Um, that was wrongly approved. Okay. I believe I
003don't know. My opinion was I just didn't want this to be a penaltization if the somebody didn't or couldn't participate. Um, that was my only concern. Can't hear what you guys are saying. Part of my issue with this if I don't have an issue with the summer coaching and doing any of that. My issue would be if for some reason they were somehow penalized for not doing the summer program. I don't want any of that. That was my only concern with this whole thing. Right. It it's as of now it's not mandatory. Yep. No. And I want to make sure it's kept that way. And that might as of now also there is no practices. Okay. Yeah. Like I said and I Scott, I know I agreed and I believe John did. I'm Britney. I'm
004not I did not. You did not. No idea. Okay. So, my concern is we've got uh six, seven sports or how many we have? We have a limited amount of students that play those sports. Some of them play all of them. Um so, if baseball, uh basketball, track, all of sports wanted to have summer practices or summer events, you know, we're going to have a big clash. because we have mo many kids playing multiple sports. If it was one kid, one sport, it probably would not be a problem. But we don't have that. Larger schools probably have the luxury of having basketball teams that play nothing but basketball or base nothing but baseball. So, if we have every head coach saying, "I want to do something over the summer to prepare my team for the
005following school year." We're going to have a problem. And I I and I know we we we can say, "Well, practices or games or teams are not mandatory." I'm not sure kids see it that way. If a coach says, "I really want you to be on my baseball, basketball, softball, whatever team this summer, um, I think there's just un undue pressure that if I don't do it, I'm probably not going to play during the school year as much as I maybe normally would have." That is my concern. Yeah, this is this is an open forum. So I I would like to to speak a little bit on the flip side of that coin. Um one being that there already are rules in the coaching handbook about recruiting. Um supposed to be an agreement by both
006coaches on that. Um I have watched that even though that there are rules it's still not being enforced. Um I think um so I was curious as to why the vote went the way it was. So I actually contacted WIAA myself and and asked a few of the staff there why what what was the talk amongst them? Um and the quote that I got was u by increasing summer coaching contact opportunities. This change promotes additional educationalbased athletic experiences for student athletes by allowing more access to school-based coaching. And I think my interpretation of what that is getting at is things like so you have a coach. I can only speak mostly for the girls side of things because of Mazy. My varsity world is only about 9 months long. Um I would prefer to have
007a school staff coaching my daughter who went through um background checks, is bound to the handbook and has control by you guys. than some of these strangers that now have to pop up. These kids now want more. It's not that coaches are telling them you need to do more. They actually want it. There's a few There's a few. Yep. I don't know if we should stick to the old rule just to help a couple when dozens actually do want more. But but I do I do see both sides. Um you got to realize this probably only affects three sports because of the co-op because baseball Jackson or softball Jackson could if we put a rule on Solen Springs right now we have a tournament. We're looking at a tournament for eighth and ninth grade softball.
008This would limit Lindsay from going to that tournament but not Jackson assuming Minhong is or assuming Minhong goes with it. Yeah. So we don't know that. The only thing this changed was allowing high school coaches that were their actual high school coaches to coach in summertime. Correct. Right. So under the previous rule you each sport had five contact days where they could meet with their team over the summer. So that five contact days has now gone to essentially seven weeks of contact. Um I voted yes for this simply because I feel like we were always trying to manage the five days and then what were we trying to do outside of the five days to make it legal. This is very now clear. We have these weeks in June up until July 1st through 7th
009and then we've got that time. Um, I've got the one major concern that I have is the June 1st start date, considering that we still have spring sports in session during that time. And I don't feel like we should be starting summertime coaching contact for other sports until our spring sports are done simply because a kid gets hurt doing a sport out of season and then they can't finish their the by that time everyone's in the tournament series and um to miss a kid in playoffs because they were doing outside coaching activities before their spring season ends is problematic. I don't know. I I've been thinking a lot about this simply because um under the old plan there was a sense of balance. You had 5 days and that was that was it. Um it
010allowed our kids to spend some time in the weight room if they wanted. Um, this doesn't do away with that, but it requires a whole lot more coordination because, um, John, you're right. For those kids that are multiport athletes, where do they end up getting a break? And I think there, even though our coaches should not be putting any pressure on our athletes to come to these contact days, it doesn't matter what you say, kids are going to feel the pressure. And I've already heard some kids saying, "Well, I don't know if I'm going to play sport X because I have to do these other opportunities in the summer." And kind of the same thing that you were talking about, we only have we have a finite number of athletes. We and at times we
011struggle fielding full teams, whether that's full varsity teams or fing JV and varsity teams. And I don't want to take away opportunities for kids that want to do that, but we're going from nothing to everything. Really wide. And the flip side to that too is like like right now we've got another option out there that is stepping on the schedule of a varsity sport. Now, if the coach of that other thing was actually one of our staff, there's a good chance they would coordinate better the schedule. No matter what we do, our staff is going to have to coordinate. Yeah. I mean, there there's no doubt because with our summertime contact, we we simply can't have kids try to do be in the same place at the same time with two different sports going on.
012We don't have the facilities to be able to do that. Um I have a suggestion for that actually. Well, and then there is the factor of the kids that don't drive too and you got to figure out their parents got to figure out how to get them because I don't know if our rules will apply as far as students riding the students then. Yeah, I mean you can use um school transportation with the understanding that the school will allow things to be provided, but I I don't foresee a situation where we're sending a bus to go pick kids up to come to summertime contact. Yeah, that that's it. in in previous summer contact transportation has not been provided. My only thing was because we're allowing now it's going to be the coaches of the school
013that I didn't know if that would change. We were we were already doing that for 5 days. Well, that's five days. The only now it's like it's seven. Yeah, but I mean the all of that stuff has already been going on. None of that is changing. It just might be more frequent, right? be because there has because there hasn't been anything. The kids that have wanted to get here have had to figure it out on their own. My suggestion would be instead of a rule, there is more communication. I think I think we need to create a varsity coach committee. All seven sports need to have a coach on that committee with Nate that meets three times a year. One in the fall coach is going to say no, I don't want to have kids
014do anything over the summer. They're all I imagine they will all do that. So I mean that that's a given. Um to me the main question is Nate you say I'm going to field this a baseball team whether you say very clearly this is you don't have to I won't penalize you next spring for baseball there there's just going to be undue uh pressure on that kid like if I want a shot at playing during the school year I probably better play over the summer. Um again that that's you know no intent on any of the coach's part or anything but I mean these are kids but that's actually already happening. Well then it shouldn't be. I know that and unfortunately Nate was one of them that did it and it hurt a family big
015time. They actually went to the administration about it. It hit a wall. So here here's what I'm going to say. This meeting is not going to talk about individual specific people, but we'll I've used that as an example of there was a rule. It's not even being enforced. All right. So, I understand I totally totally do when I see a meeting that only picks one side of the coin. I I'd like to what's the other side too? I'm curious. I mean, no decisions been made, so it's still Well, right. And we haven't like denied it either. I mean the rule there by WIAA. Yeah. The basically the rule before was with WIAA and it was never with us. It was always with WIA. We haven't gone against WIAA on this. We were just concerned about
016okay. Is there going to be penalizations or favoritism? That type of thing. I I'd like the best players to play period. Um give those that need a chance get a chance. Obviously in varsity sports it's going to be a little bit different because you put your best team forward in varsity JV and other things that's where you get your playing time for those that need more help. For me there's a reason there's a reason why we're not going the girls basketball team won't lose a conference game in the next four to six years and it is because of a lot of contact. But they only had five days over the last No, Ashley wasn't on staff at that time. So she had them for the whole summer. Yeah. So they are doing she is. So
017I mean and if other coaches had that opportunity we might be able to see great programs like that enrollment. There's a reason why the Fawsomes are here. There's already rumors of other people looking at this basketball program and wanting to come here. You guys are talking referendums. How do you get the votes of non-parent residents? Entertain them. Get them excited about what's going on here. Wins do that. Basically, this is already happening as far as teams go for the summertime, I believe, just not ran by our varsity coaches. And I think that would be awesome if it was. That's that was my whole thing. I needed to know exactly what this rule was saying, right? I didn't really know. I just, hey, this passed. Okay, what does this rule really mean? I think that's kind
018of what we had to go and and part of the reason why they did this was that they they did want more contact with the coaches that are in the building than the ones in other programs and and I support that. I mean, we we've hired these people. I I want them to be able to coach them at all in the summertime. That's better than them driving to Duth or doing and going other places. That is That is way better. All right. Still my concern doesn't change in the fact that I want to make sure that our participation numbers stay healthy across all sports. And one of the concerns from a we had our district caucus meeting about a month ago and it's made up of mostly small rural division four or five schools and
019they wrestle with the same thing is we don't want um a situation where there's specialization where kids are now choosing to only do one sport whatever that sport may be because of the pressure to do that sport all throughout the summertime. All right. Whether it's football or whether it's volleyball or what have you. So, and how do we do that? Then that's unless we have other guidance from the board, then we will meet as coaches to hash out how we can do that in the the most feasible way. We know that there are going to be some kids that are not going to be involved. I mean, I've got children that work during the summer. like if if the if they're going to be expected to be at coaching contact between 9 and 11, sorry,
020they're simply not going to be there. And and that's going to figure in to many people. Um we also have family vacations. And and I know it's really easy to say, well, you got the 1st through the 7th. That's your family vacation. But we have a spring break and people don't take their vacations during our spring break time. they take them the week before, the week after so that they can sometimes have two weeks off. So, we know it doesn't always work out as as intended. Kids are not going to be at every one of the contact days, and that's okay. And kids might choose to be at all of them. They might choose to be at none of them. They might choose to be at certain ones. But as long as the expectation is
021that there we're not putting extra pressure on certain kids to be there, then then we that's what we have to work on. me read it. Yeah. Okay. So, this is from uh Coach Sierra Simson. Um, first I want to thank you for listen taking the time to listen to my voice as coach in regards to the new WA ruling on the limited summer contact days. Unfortunately, I'm unable to make the meeting tonight as I'm supporting my daughters at their softball game. I do, however, find it important that my voice is heard during the discussion at tonight's uh committee as a whole meeting regarding unlimited summer contact days. I find it important that the dis at that as a district and as a coach we are taking we are always working towards providing every opportunity possible
022for our athletes to better their skills in in the athletic world. As a volleyball coach, I find it important that athletes stay active in the summer as much as they can no matter what sport they choose to participate in in the summer. With that being a thought, I do believe that coaching as a coaching staff, I will be able to come together as a whole and create framework that works for all athletes with opportunities provided. I am strongly against the board putting more restrictions, rules, policies in place in regards to when coaches provide extra opportunities for athletes. When we have our coaches meeting this spring, I hope that we can address the one concern I have, which is all coaches should be on the same page with how we are relaying addressing information to our
023athletes, specifically about their attendance in summer leagues and their attendance being used against slash for them an upcoming sports season. Summer ball league are not required nor can they lack nor can the lack of athletes attending summer leagues be used against them in regular season. I feel it's extremely important that all coaches are explaining portraying the same so athletes don't feel they are restricted in participating in one summer league sport. Thank you for listening to my voice on this matter. science. I mean, it's it's there. So, yeah. Okay. So, um this one's from Ashley Nelson. Uh good morning. I'm writing uh this this morning to provide input on regarding the school board meeting I watched last night. More specifically, I'm responding to provide feedback regarding the board's response to WA WIAA ruling about coaching contact.
024It's important to remember the ruling passed an overwhelming response. 294 districts in favor, 106 opposing. There appeared to be a very strong sense from a couple of board members. I also heard that heard in the that meeting in administration as well as against administration is against it as well. I think it is important to talk with coaches, athletes and this actually pertains to prior to prior to trying to implement additional restrictions for high school girls basketball. This doesn't currently change anything other than the fact that an actual coach you hired is now able to coach summer league that we are and have already been participating each summer for four four years. Summer league isn't required. Those who choose to participate do so. Those who choose not. It sounds like getting your hired coach involved in
025the summer, especially since you've already participated before. This simply allows me to actually coach the games versus not being able to give feedback or find someone else to fill this role for a league we have already been participating in. I feel it is the job of the district to provide opportunities not to limit them due to personal preferences as this doesn't represent the district as a whole. As a mother of four students in the district, I feel strongly that the district should not restrict opportunities but allow families to decide what they choose to participate in. and given opportunities that other districts h now have due to this ruling. Again, for the high school girls basketball, this simply allows me to coach the girls during the summer league games that some already participate in despite of
026this ruling versus not being able to coach them. We are previously given five contact days a season off. This new ruling will allow me to coach the games and some that some not all have already been chosen to participate despite of the change. For other sports, I feel the same. We should be allowed to provide opportunities and student athlete families should have the ability to choose what and when they participate. It is a similar to it is similar to students seeking camps in specific sports that have to pay for their refined skills. The school hired un and paid for basketball trainer to come la in last summer. Now coaches can provide the opportunities to learn and grow for free. That's from Ashley. And that is a good point. Some of these programs are $1,000. Yeah.
027I I really support the idea of creating some sort of committee or something where the coaches are required to meet. Do you have you all you all know what you all know all the students here your discussion about this person's feeling this way do they need to be are you pushing too hard um there's other concerns like that they can talk about why you know media stuff banner stuff I know Mertz rookie would prefer you guys have a athletic department committee determine allocations that kind of a thing can do that. She mentioned a sports meeting or coaches meeting here. Do you have those already or Well, in light of the the new policy that WIA has implemented, we are going to meet to have to sort out how we're going to do this for summertime
028coaching content. All right. Okay. We don't have necessarily regular meetings. we try to meet um when especially when big changes happen. This certainly qualifies as a big change to what kind of summertime programming that we're going to have. I have not scheduled it yet because at this point there's no new information if the board was going to act on something. I didn't want to push out any information that says we're going to do this and then the board decides that there's going to be other parameters that are going to be put on it. So we will meet before the time that summertime coaching contact will begin to discuss this and this takes effect this year, right? It does immediately. So do we want to table this to our next so meeting to there? Right now
029there's nothing that would stop them from doing it. We don't have any policy. We don't have anything like that other than is there anything in our sports book? In the handbook, it states that summer programs cannot be mandatory in the coaching handbook. Yeah, that's it. But that doesn't say anything about coaches, not coaching, that type of thing, right? So nothing would actually change on our end. It's just WA made this ruling. So coaches, so varsity high school coaches could actually coach those versus somebody coming off the street if the district goes along with it, which we don't have to. The the district What about What about me doing it as a volunteer? That would be unanctioned school then. I mean, it's the same thing but without a Because you aren't hired on as a coach,
030are you? No. So you would So I mean it would still happen just under like I said I mean so I could go coach summer ball this year. Yeah. You could have done that last year or any other year the way the way it was before contact days like a coach could coach the five for five days summer contact. The head coach the head coach I can do it all. You could do it all. I mean you could have done it all before my position here. Okay. Well, especially now it doesn't W. It was a WIAA rule that said you couldn't do that, right? Like you couldn't coach summer league and coach. That's a WIA that was restricting that. We never had anything in our books restricting that, right? So there's nothing to be able
031to take action. Okay. Um because you your next regular board meeting will be prior to that date. Any other input or anybody out there want to add anything? Move on at some point. Okay. Middle school music requirement. Yes, please. So, so thank you Charlotte for for here to talk about this. I know they've been going back and forth on um uh taking a look at middle school schedules and you know this potential idea of having middle school music as a requirement. Um which I I know previous discussion last month wanted to get some input from the music department as well directly from that. So, welcome. Thanks, Kevin. You have any questions for me or So, I was very confused with how this would work. So, right now, you are the band required. Band? You're the
032band teacher. So, it was kind of explained if a student wants to choose one or the other, they would still be in the other class the whole time because Can you answer that? Yeah. If if they chose choir, they would be in choir the entire time. If they chose band, they'd be in band the entire time. Or if they wanted to mix, they could alternate in between. That's where I was confused with that because I like from what I remember past it was if you took band but didn't want choir. The other days you had the study hall instead of being in choir the whole specific time. But I don't know. So I don't actually know the answer to this. I don't know if there would be a third class across from band and choir
033or a fourth class. I don't know. And that and that's part of that planning process here because wanted to find out a is this is this something we want to look at or pursue or we plan something different here. So So one one way you could frame it is right now the middle school students um can choose between band choir and maker space and they are allowed to choose maker space two days. What's maker space? Oh is that a study hall? No. uh they're actually going into the art room and they are making different uh things there and working on okay projects and what so so they only can do that for two days. So they are they there are there are students I think there's actually just one actually that that does maker space
034both days. Okay. Um, and the rest choose band and choir or band or choir or m or choir and maker space or band and so they they choose two classes out of three choices but right now the option is to take maker space two days. So um or for eighth grade they could take b um the choices are band choir or study hall. So there are students who can take study hall two days okay without band or choir. So I would frame it more as you can choose these classes but you you choose one maker space and one band or choir like one there's three options choose two of them you know instead of saying uh I I guess for me if we say hey we're requiring you to do ban if we use the
035language of forcing kids to do it that will kind of poison the waters as far as so what is the case for making it mandatory versus making it or keeping it as an elective. Um, like one like just having a music class be music, right? Talking about whatever. So, I mean, the way I would see it is that wouldn't be like in elementary school, we have specials for students, right? And in sixth grade, right now, we have 100% uh of sixth graders are in band and a huge percentage inquire. Um, and so those students with as they go through middle school can make, you know, kind of short-term decisions that affect their long-term development. And one of those is, oh, you know, I don't know. I don't I guess I don't really feel like band
036right now or I don't really feel like choir or music or my friends are in this class. And so if we believe that they all like deserve music education, then we We say, "Hey, these are these are your choices. You have the choice to take a music class." And actually, right now, and I don't know, Pete, what the plan is for next year. Actually, right now, they are all required to take a general music class in middle school in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. So, what are we changing then if they're So, are we replacing that's question that? Yeah, because it was it was laid out as an exploratory, which doesn't line up with band choir. So, it's a scheduling. Yeah. So, would this exploratory class still Well, that's that's what that's what we're looking
037at is okay. Maybe not having that exploratory class because we with with the other additions, you're going to have a rotation of every six weeks an exploratory, not including the music piece. And if you if you water it down more, then it's just not effective in that sense. But but we're also dealing with Yeah. kids that are making rash decisions about being in music or not, you know, and as as you're explaining it, right? And and it's just taking a look at what what are the options with this. Is it all music or what do we have opposite of music for those that do not attend that doesn't draw? So, this is just basically removing it from that exploratory arts thing is what you're talking about. So instead of requiring them to take a general
038music class and offering two music classes, they they have two music offerings and you would choose one. Is that correct? Or Yeah. Or one and then a study hall or Yeah, you have to do two. Like you said, there's three options, but you have to choose only two of those. This is what I'm I'm That's what I'm That's what I'm I remember. You know, you either chose band and choir or you chose band in a study hall or choir in a study hall when I was in school. That's what I remember. But I'm okay with that. When I was in school, I had to be in band and choir until through middle school. And I didn't even notice. I didn't even think about it. From a middle school teacher perspective, and this is just what
039we've been talking about as a team is our middle school students do not need a study hall. Okay? They already have blocked classes. So the eighth graders who are choosing study hall every day instead of a music class are really missing out on rigorous academic options. So you know as a voice from the the middle school teaching team study hall is is not the best option for students but they'll take it if they could sit in study hall and not go to band in choir. And so that's just another perspective. So, as someone who sits in that study hall and watches those kids, there's not one not one eighth grader that comes in there with work that's studying. Yeah. Not study how many. It's not it's it's a they're throwing a ball around, they want
040to go outside, they want to go to the gym. So, for us, when we're teaching a class, if students have the choice between hanging out with their friends and or learning something challenging, it is challenging, then they might So, we're looking at choosing band for the whole week, choir for the whole week, or mix it up for band and choir for the week. That is a way. And if we're doing a rotation, as you were describing, that is a way of looking at this, but you're still requiring some music in there. Correct. So, as a non-band music person, Yeah. uh what's the benefit to a student to take a band, choir, whatever, as opposed to So glad you asked. I mean, there's tons of benefits. Um I I'm not going to be able to name
041them all, but the first ones that come to mind is we're obviously we're learning in a cooperative setting, which is a little bit different from traditional classroom settings. We all have to learn the song together. We all achieve the thing together. Um, so students are also developing self-discipline because they actually, even the ones that say they don't want to be there, they want to sound good. They want to do they want to do well. And so they learn what it takes to commit to something and follow through with it. They learning through mastery. So, you know, we do we we do it until we have it and then um uh we scaffold off of that. Um, let's see what else. I mean there's executive functioning, there's fine motor skills, at least in the band part
042um and all of it. I mean in choir there's there's a whole another set of benefits with singing and um both choir or band there's social emotional benefits. Um, a lot of what we're doing in my class at least is is that cooperative social emotional learning piece. And and it's if we can accomplish that, then the rest of it is actually pretty easy to do. It's it's working together as a team, learning how to be respectful to your classmates. Um, a whole host of things. But I also have studies in my bag if you want to read. Yeah. No, not that you Thank you. But there is a flip side to this coin. So we already have you had me at before the flip side. Go ahead. What are we going to say? Well, so
043we already have a music requirement now. Correct. We have a requirement for general music. For general, that's what the exploratory is. It's general music. So it's not playing instruments. And well, we do play instruments, but there's no performance requirement. Okay. Or performance. So is that a full year or is that they do that? They did it a five week five rotation. So it's a quarter almost a quarter. So it's in with like the arts the other one is shop one of them and then something else. Is that what it is? Yeah. Outdoor soon to be fan or face. Is that going to be part of this now or is that full time? It's uh phase is one that's going to be opposite of PE. Okay. So rotation between PE and phase. Okay. So just one
044last kind of concern is how how how do you grade just generally in in band? I mean one kid's a great trombone player, other kid squeaks every time he picks up an instrument. Um well I can't say I grade the same way as other teachers. I do have like my a philosophy of teaching that I am very strongly rooted in. I I grade my students on uh respect for others, respect for school property, and respect for the instructor. That's one category. And the other category is attitude and readiness to learn, which is basically their participation in class. So, um I don't grade them on like how how well did you play your C major scale. Um but they develop intrinsic motivation to be able to do what it takes to play whatever it is that
045we're trying to do. So this coming out if this comes out of the exploratory herds what's going on in this place that's what I'm saying is uh with with our other rotations it wouldn't be there so then can do we have the the bandwidth to offer all three at once and I would say no because we've got the other two classes going and that that's what adds to this conundrum right so when will be able to offer a home class next year. That that's what I'm saying. That's that's I'm sorry. Face or home is Yeah. Face is the same thing. So that's going to be opposite. Yeah. So that's what makes this challenging. So anyway, so can I ask a question or a statement? Is that allowed? Yes. I would be interested in how many
046kids drop in middle school and come back in high school because I feel like that would probably be back in. And I think that's something that maybe the board would want to consider is if they're dropping like my daughter dropped one of her music classes this year, sixth grade. I don't know over seventh and into high school, I'll be able to convince her to go back to that, you know? So, kind of prolonging that time for them to get a better I mean, as you are in middle school, when you're in fifth grade, it's awfully squeaky. a lot of squeaking, but then you get to like our eighth grade band right now sounds great, you know, and that's thanks to Charlotte. But I think if they don't get that taste of it, they they're not
047they don't get the earning like the yearn to go back to it in high school. And and and that's exactly why this was brought here because it doesn't matter if it's music or if it's sports, that middle school is a transitional time. If you lose them at that time, chances are they're not coming back. So, so this is going to be is this a year round or is this a quarter still? That's an interesting point. One of my other So, speaking of dropping is is people dropping at the semester, whether that is music or changing schools entirely to me seems very bon with with the middle school or maturity level saying, "Well, I don't know like the I don't know what I thought I'm going to switch." Um, and that does that does happen in
048band, but to address Sarah's question, um, we do like what I've just noticed, I've only this is only my third year. Um, I they're really good at staying in music in sixth grade. They're all they're still still really excited about it. In seventh grade, there starts to be some more like classroom management issues and social reasons for quitting. And I have had someone come back to band. I've had multiple people come back to band and basically all that happened was they they missed out on a semester or a year of learning and then came back. Um and then in eighth grade I I can't I can't say as well like from seventh to eighth grade um how well in terms of retention um I mean I had I did have I did have a a
049student sign up for band and then when they saw that study hall was crossman and their friends were in study hall they they dropped band. So, um I do think that social piece and it it uh there's there's peer and there's also like there the family support. So, this goes back to like why why would we make it mandatory? I don't like that word but um is our school is really lucky actually in terms of the fact that we can supply instruments and all these things to every single student. We have performance clothing. A lot of schools will will will opt not to make um a music requirement because the students have barriers to doing it. We don't have any of those barriers. Like any student right now can go come play an instrument or
050play a choir and we will get them through every step of the way, but there's still other other barriers in place which um it just depends on how you see it. So for me, I see it as this like opportunity that everybody should have. But if you see it as a burden then that may maybe you don't want to make it a requirement if it if it is going to you know if the community itself is going to say hey like you have to do this and then if kids get that in their mind then that will create disciplinary issues down the line that kind of the flip side that's what I say with the flip side is we would want to be careful like how you implemented it that you had buy in from
051the community and also maybe the incoming choir teacher. That's it. I I know uh Linda Linda came and spoke to me today about that. She said that uh she operated in a district that had that mandatory and yeah, there were some disciplinary issues or concerns with with some of the kids that were attending and didn't necessarily want to be there. So, so that that is so that to me like it's a it's a double-edged sword because I have disciplinary issues that I can't really I feel like I can't exercise um certain tools that other teachers can't exercise because I because then if I am too disciplinary then they'll just drop the class. So it you know it just it goes both ways and I think both sides of it can be appreciated. Anybody you guys
052have questions? Anything you want to say? Well, thank you. Thanks. Was much needed information. All right. Moving on. Security camera solutions. All right. So, uh this topic I I had that in my update last month. uh just talking about our current system and just it's not the most upto-date. Is that a good way to describe it? Yeah, come come on over and join the discussion, please. Sorry. So any Yeah, because I mean we had some questions about you know the the system and servers you know and software. Can we just add to it and I and I think it gets kind of complex and I you just want to give kind of a lowdown of you know the status of our system right now or Yeah. I mean the little bit I know of I'm
053not the person that's in charge of it. Yeah. But we have we have kind of a standalone system. So it's it runs over IP, which means it runs over the same kind of wires as the internet runs in the school. But Mark has separate servers that where all the data is stored. So there's one in that room there, there's one in the elementary art room where the other closet is. And so those all the cameras either go to that one or that one. And then they we I think we keep 30 days worth of video. Can you can go back and look over it. It's it's a very rudimentary system. Um there's no it doesn't know it does know movement but it doesn't know anything else. Movement is about as fancy as it gets. So
054you can when you bring a camera up you can see where there was movement and then you can search that time. And there's nothing boring on Earth than than searching video or trying to find something happening. Um, what what's happened since then in the camera space is cameras that can recognize people, pick the people out, you can mark a person, and then you can find that person again anytime you want in any of the cameras um that are around. So, so that searching for somebody doing And if you know that a general area, if you knew the person, you know the color of their shirt, you can just look at you can just look by color. A blue shirt, show me all blue shirt people today, you know, show all the cameras that had all
055blue shirt people on. So that that's like what what the kind of topofthe line system has now. I mean, there's probably some that have even more features than that, but that's like one of the ones we we're looking at. We're also looking at something that Motorola has a product where they can where you can add cameras to it and then you can roll in some of your own cameras. Now, they have to be compliant with the standard. I don't know if ours meet that or not. Um I just found out that that there's a tool that I can that might be able to see those. I don't I I couldn't think that ours would were that complant with because it seems that they would have those features. Um, and then the other thing about those
056newer systems is they um are usually cloud-based instead of based on the machine that's sitting in in one of your rooms. So, ease of use is is way more than what we have. The ones we have have are based they use like an open-source piece of software that's really quite quite poor. Um, there's a Android app that we can run on our Chromebooks. There's a Windows one that requires Windows um or Internet Explorer, which Internet Explorer has been out of like the last five years. And so every time there's an update, it it uh says no, turns off Windows Explorers, you have turn back on do stuff to get it to work. So there there's a lot of those kind of features that are in those things that that are we don't have access to
057those at this time. So we're looking at probably not just the system we're talking cameras everything needs to be kind of replaced or maybe it it depends on who you talk to because um I know we're going to be talking to Motorola again next week. Um the initial what's that superior them DS uh I don't know if they're those guys I don't I don't think so from the cities but yeah it is a morola thing that offers this if they meet this it's like ovm standard then you can use those existing cameras but we're but we have a project I'm sure you guys aware of that of getting some cameras down there at the softball field we'll talk about that okay I I don't want Yeah. Yeah. No, no, that makes sense. But that but
058that's why we're looking at Motorola and they have something that could roll new cameras into existing if our new our existing have that right standard, right? The the the one thing that that's nice is is the operating system is is the thing that provides that analytics. It's not necessarily the camera itself. cameras can do it, but they can they can do the analytics with our our dumb cameras, if that makes sense. So, rolling them in. But I I think the the biggest the biggest concern that that that I have is is just that operating system, you know, and where it is and how long it's going to be, how long it's going to last. Is that an accurate statement or no? Our current one is that Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, currently it's It
059looks like it's still around. Yeah. Does it does the current system still work? Yeah. Well, adding work. Yes. Well, okay. I mean, not Yeah. We're not going to have, you know, facial facial recognition and all that, but would adding a ser adding server capacity um assist at all in in the length of time you can go back to look at a video rather than 30 days. Well, yeah, that would take that would take more storage space than what we have in order to have longer a longer one. We're at 30 days. Yeah. And I think the standard for the for at least the one I'm looking at for the a whole system is 30 days and I mean I but you can get longer. Sure. You just have to pay. So is there other operating
060instead of doing a cloud-based doing some kind of a server thing is there other operating systems that can be brought in to update the instead of using the system you have because you like you said you have it means Windows Explorer which is no longer right um is there another or is everything basically going to this cloud base now well most things are just because everything's going to subscriptions everybody wants money continuously from you not You pay once and you're done. Everybody wants to go to a subscription type thing and and this this system is not on that yet the current one we have. That's what I mean. Yeah. And I that's I I don't like subscriptions either. I know it's there's some good things about it, but just having to constantly pay for it
061kind of annoys me. But um I know then you're always getting the latest updates. You're always getting Yeah. You know, you don't have to worry about hardware other than the cameras. But I I know Motorola talking with the representative, he said that you can extend the the the server and build upon it. But then, you know, it's it's a pretty pretty significant expense up front when you do that. So, what is the concern between what we have now that is working? what what are we looking to why are we looking to do something different, right? And to me, it's it's that longevity. Is it is it functional or not? And the the other piece of this, too, and that's dependent on the board if they if they want it. We we saw that with recent
062things that getting decent footage and then being able to obscure faces because we have to. It's not I mean, well, I mean, you were able to do some, but not at all. Right. This this has it has it built in. And I actually have a camera on the other side of this. You can't quite see over here, but I mean it's someplace where there's some traffic and then it's it's supposed to have the ability that when when I take a if I had like a section of the video that you saw when you were doing your other thing, I would just be able to say this person not blurred everyone else blurred or vice versa. And it would just do it. I tried was what I did with it with another piece of software, but
063then it was okay. Yeah. I mean, I just the video we that screen captures or whatever. I I don't think it's made a difference one way or another. No. Well, I mean that that's the only thing I really scenario where it does, but Right. I mean, that that's just one piece of it. I what I'm looking at is how well it's working and how long is this going to last. Yeah. So, did you guys is there discussion of letting the police have live access? Um, it has not been that because they they can still get access from us live. They will not. So, and very even very very I don't know if there's a true system that provides that. There's notifications but not not necessarily the footage piece. But maybe ask there is okay. But
064that's you're you're meaning if there was shooting going on in the building when you call 911 they can immediately get in here and see where it's going on and be able to talk to the police which which room to avoid that kind of stuff. We we tried to set something up with others county years ago and I got it all set up and then nobody took here's the thing. I set it all up. I had I think years ago was a different story. Well, true, but it wasn't that long ago. I mean, it was just like Douglas County wasn't interested in in doing that. Maybe with a change in it, it makes a difference. But there is there is options on this, especially if it's cloud-based. It's like it's just a website. You can go
065to it from anywhere. They we can get them credentials. as they can get into it. So I I guess that that was that was it because I I think there were questions that you had or someone at their last meeting that update. So okay, thank you Dave. Thanks. Softball field repairs. So this kind of ties in where we're at. Um the currently the softball field uh there's light poles down there with no functional lights. There is no video or security security camera coverage of that area. And I know that Eagles Academy were adding on an outdoor classroom down in that vicinity. This is I'm just bringing it to to the board's attention that it is a concern of mine and I I want to take action to remedy this uh to get LED lights on
066those poles and get the electrical there and then also have a security camera covering that area. I know we've had some slight shenanigans over the past few years and and there's no video coverage down there so no way we can prod anything if something does happen. So can be are you do you have any figures at all on that or uh I wanted to get permission first before I start pursuing that because I think talking with Mark we can do most of this. The other piece of it is um previously it was overhead uh electrical and we we still have those cords. Uh a a suggestion would be doing underground because then it's less likely to be damaged if there's tree fall or other is there power down there now? Uh there's power the power
067goes down to the main but the the lights are not functional and actually the one pole there's no electrical wire going to it. So it is pretty much. So were there any other things on that? I mean, we get people stuck in that parking lot and then there's no signs on the road. So, when visiting teams come, right? Well, I mean, we'll work on that piece, but this is that sounds like a good shot. Mr. I don't know why today. What's that? Mr. Wita said he'd be happy to head up a sign, but we need things like how far off the road does it have to be, right? You know, does it have to be certain colors? You know, can it be Yeah. Oh, all right. We're we're going down a different path, but yeah,
068let's let's let's chat more about that one. But I I I think um you know, taking a look at at that security piece. It's just a concern of mine uh especially with our our facilities down there. Do you have a motion to look anymore or um at at some point in time if if I can go to bid and get that stuff put together here. If somebody wants to make a move from otherwise this is something that we can bring back. Yep. Back to the next meeting too. Okay. Next meeting tennis court repairs. Just a question. I know there's a few repairs that need to happen with the tennis courts. Um just a question if that's going to be covered by the district or Mertz Rookie. I know this is a out of out of
069our facilities, that's one of them that is available for both the district and public use. So just a question and paying for things. We need new cranks and new nets. Um is that the repair? Yes. And and general maintenance that's been taken care of. Yeah, that I mean that's that's what we can we can take care of that but it's the the other costs which are higher. So all right next one health insurance premium or coverage. Um at the last meeting the um we had several high claims this year. So, our rate is going up 10% again for health insurance. Um, we're also looking at doing uh a combination between we have health partners now and then a company called Crumbdale that would help with the um the uh prescription end and they do a
070lot more monitoring on helping people to possibly look at other options and and things. They're ones um in the previous company they had where if a claim got up to like 10,000 5,000 then they would look at at contacting people. This other company looks at contacting people if they see something that might work better at a lesser dollar amount just to reach out to them too and say you know these are some options you have. Um, and then they're going to be our new are they physicians or insurers that are so they're going to call no like somebody and say instead of heart surgery you should just take something else or it's more on the prescription end and like they um they've talked about one of the things is like infusions where when people have
071infusions and they're going to the hospitals now there's the option for people to get the medication sent to their home and um medical provider to go in to their home and provide that in their their homes and they work with with helping to set things like that up. Just giving people other options. And this addition to the insurance that we have, you know, it's actually it's it's just a different company that would handle that part than what we had before. And this company just goes a little bit farther above and beyond. And actually, we don't have a choice. NSDT already the insurance um group we had last week and has already voted to take those companies but that's just some of the changes that the 10% increase is just another one of those things to
072make everybody aware that there will be an increase in the health insurance again. How much of an increase is that? Well, it depends on which if you have family or if you have So, if you look at look in your on your on your check stuff and you look at your total for the year, multiply that times 10%. That's what it goes up. So, is that 10% to the district, 10% to the employee, 10%? It's 10% on our total monthly cost and then that amount is split. We as employees pay 12.6% of the premiums and the school covers the other percentage. So it's it's broke down between the two. So So the employees not paying the 10%. They're not paying the full 10%. They're we're just going to see 10% more of what we pay
073already because we're already only paying a portion between the two between the district and the employee will share that increase in some way, right? So, it's not a full 10% that No, sounds like it'll be more of like 1.2%. I'm thinking No, I got In my head, it's 10% still 10% of what we're paying and 10% of what 10% of what the employees paying and 10% of what the school is paying because it's 10% across the total. So if you take the total and we pay 5% and we pay 5%. No. No. We pay 10%. Yes. And unfortunately is it going up because of that extra little piece of the person whatever is digging in? No. Okay. No, it's just it's going up because we had several high claims last year. So our I haven't
074used my insurance in two years. Yeah, I feel like that is the constant thing is being told which I mean we all know cost of everything is going up. So obviously the cost of healthcare is going up, but I've asked for a few years is there something we can do as a district to try and make our employees more healthy so that we don't have every year an increase because every year that I've worked here and had health insurance here, I've been told our claims are high, so our insurance is raising. Well, and actually, and for many years when we went to the high deductible, there were very several years where we did not have any increases. We had low claims, right? So, I'm just saying like take it a step further like what can
075we do as a district to help get our our employees more healthy so that we don't have high claims every single year. And and that's one of the things one of the pieces with if this company contacts people, it's like we have to try to help people to think about the fact, okay, I know I'm going to hit my 4,000 deductible every year. So whatever beyond that, I don't really care. But we need to Yeah. try to get people to understand that. Yeah. But everything that you go beyond that still comes out of those dollars and affects the whole total dollar amount. So that affects the increase, you know, the next year. But there's so many things too that you know a lot of the high claims are things you can't you don't you can't
076control. Is there any other benefits other than health with this health program? like do they do kind of a like some insurance companies give out uh free memberships at gyms and you know what it's not it's not the insurance companies that's doing that it's it's the groups well I mean I'm I'm talking from the insurance company side because that's what I'm insurance company not a group right but but it's but it's kind of sometimes your your people that are choosing your insurance that's options that they're choosing to do. So, but does our group have anything like that? Our group at this point does not. Our group now. Is it ours and including the other schools in it or is it just us as a school? Some schools will have the um promoter wellness program and
077we did a few years ago and it did not go anywhere. and we had um and like you said, Sarah educating our staff, but there's like things that I send out that we get on how to make yourself more aware of your health, how to improve your health, and I'm betting 99.9% of people don't even look at it. Um I will add that safety precautions around the building. Over the winter, one of our employees slipped and fell on the ice in the parking lot and then had to go into urgent care and because of like medical issues that it caused. That's one of those things with winter. That's Yeah, but I'm just saying our parking lot was horrible. Yeah. All right. So, that's just an avoidance. Anyways, and that doesn't hit our health insurance. That
078hits our workman's comp. I guess I'm curious that how much the extra thing with the person who will be looking into more will actually help. As an individual who has to buy prescriptions, if mine's going to be $400, I'm like, "Okay, what else can I get?" And I'm already doing that myself and it it can be it can be a variety, you know, it all depends. It like they were explaining at the beginning, it it can become, you know, $500 prescription. and it can be a $1,000 prescription. So, it there's so many different variances. You still put into a HSA? I have a question. As far as our $2,000 deductible or families are even more, is there anything we can do that? Okay. Once you hit $2,000, then you have to pay. If you go
079beyond that, you have to pay because that's going to get people into the doctor when it's little and not wait till it's overexaggerated. I honestly have not seen over the like 20 years anybody that has done that. I've heard the government does it. Could you Could you tell us offhand if that if the increase in health insurance is covered by the 3% increase that the board voted on last night? because every year it seems I'm going actually backwards in pay because my health insurance is going up. I I did not calculate that out yet this year. Last year I did that. Yes. Yes. Our 3% increase it more than covers the the 10%. So as far as the HSA is concerned, if an employ actually if an employee goes in just for a regular checkup,
080is there any charges at all? So if you're just going for there's like mamograms, your regular checkup, okay, those things are so like with my company that I work for, in order to get any funds put by the company into the HSA, you have to go in and get a yearly checkup. Yeah, we don't require that. I mean, so those people that aren't aren't using their their insurance and they're just and they're not going into their HSA, they're building their HSAs up, which is a plus. Yeah. But I'm the way I'm thinking is, you know, if you want you want people to be healthier, go get a regular checkup once a year. Yeah. And that's I mean that's I mean that could catch that could catch something that's going to be more disastrous, right? And
081that's been that's been fully covered for for years and we don't know who we can't they can't tell us who's doing that and who's not. Yeah, I understand that. But you can say whether or not you have a health check or not because that could build up Right. But I can't ask staff. So I can't I can't regulate their HSA based on that. There's a way to do it because I mean you're not asking for the results. You're just seeing if they actually had it done because you're not asking for actual health. That's a HIPPO violation. We had Well, I know my corporate company goes and does it. They're called wellness checks and if you get one, you get extra money. Well, that and that's maybe that. So if you if you voluntarily yeah give
082that's what I mean but you don't get it otherwise so champ 12 contracts 2025 2026 service contracts so what I have is the selection form for services. Um very similar to last year's there is a small increase as we focus on uh focus on math and our multilevel system of supports. Uh those are the two items uh that help with that increase. um knowing that trying to do this one time deal to incre and increase uh staff capacity. So if there is a cost say the very first item Yeah. assessment and accountability. Yes. $1,100 and there's no days. So that $1,100 covers the year. So the the column that you you would want to focus on is the far right. Those are options. These are the ones that chooses say yes. Yeah. Okay. There was
083another one, right? So behavior. Yeah. The behavior one says yes, but there's no dollar. So that's days. The recommendation was yes. I selected zero. I' I've got a different plan for that. So I was right. All right. Okay. There there are some on here that um is wise for us to maintain is is the administration that um they provide um consultation and support for uh for the district administration stuff and then um also uh updates as far as what's impacting the district. So that's general administration. Yes, that is correct. Some of these had links and some didn't. Mhm. I mean to a a document, right? What was our cost last year? Uh it was 39,200 and some right in the ballpark, right? some of this other stuff we can't necessarily avoid. Um, one being like
084the reading specialist. However, what they were saying is that it was a 10-day meet minimum. Uh, but I was able to get uh curriculum and instruction support for five days and then reading specialist for five days. Uh with act 20, one of the requirements is that we have to have someone with a a reading 317 license. We do not have someone in the district with a 317 license. So forunately that's one service that we have to have. So any question for there? All right. alternate open enrollment application. All right. Um it's an odd time of the year to get open enrollment requests for the current year. We have two of them. Um I would like to speak to the one on the left though. Um yes, that one. This is a student that has been
085with us previously and uh was placed in a placement that this student didn't really have a say in. So it's didn't go to a different district per se. Um so it was uh extenduating circumstances. uh that student uh is going back to a previous placement and would be um looking at coming back to the district. So has been with the district previously for a number of years um at at an outside placement and now is returning. Oh, so this one's coming in. That's that's correct. So both both of them are are request to come in for the remainder of the year. And that's where I would say that the the one that I was describing the the that was listed to the left uh that we would approve that. The second one I would say
086no because I it's not beneficial in that sense. So the first one it would be just for the balance of the year or for the it would be the balance of the year and beyond that. Yes. and was the second one had been in the district at one point. Okay, you read the reads explanation. Yes. Um, okay. And again, that would be for immediate filling this year. That's correct. that no the one the student that I'd recommend that approval would first date would be next week. So we need to that would be the yes motion. Okay. I'll make the motion to accept uh student one and Substitute two second meeting. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Policy updates 2.4.1 or 34.1 technical corrections group two first reading check. So, it's always good to put the
087last item on our regular uh agenda with policy um especially when it's just changing words primarily. So, it's for for your perusal in there if there's any questions regarding some of the changes. Um I guess we can bring that up here. Otherwise, we can push that on to regular board meeting for move it on to the next meeting or do you guys want? Well, I I make a motion if someone would thinks they can second it, they read through them. Um, but if not, we just do it next regular board meeting. Next board. Okay. Yep, that's fine. Okay, close session. Communion is close session pursuit of Wisconsin statutes 19.851C to consider employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee which over this governmental body pass jurisdiction or exercises responsibility. Can I get
088a motion? Motion. Okay. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. What time? At uh 24 isn't comfortable anymore. put on the I told you that the only time you'd be able to speak would be on the next board, right?