SASD BOE Committee of the Whole

001Test. Test. Yes, >> whenever you're ready. It's six o'clock, so I'd like to call this meeting to order. This meeting has been noticed by Evans Print Media Group, WCO Radio, Magnum Radio, the Cross Tribune, Sparta City Hall, Sparta Free Library in the Maple Hood Administrative Building. Are there any changes to the agenda? >> I do not have any changes. >> Hearing none, I'd like to request a motion to adopt the agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Got a motion by Mr. Gonkey and second by Mr. Burns Gilbert. All those in favor to adopt the agenda, please say I. >> I. >> All those opposed. >> We have an agenda. Uh next on to the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for

002which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> Sam, can you please remind us of Sparta Area School District's mission statement? >> Yes. Our mission statement is to educate all students academically, emotionally, and socially to inspire curiosity and >> Allrighty. And I see that we got little bit of public input here. Do we have any more, Sam? >> I do not believe so. >> All righty. So, I'd like to start with I'm going to botch every name here. I want to start with Cheyenne Hallberg in regards to uh teacher retention. I'm sorry. Before you start before you start, I'll put up my my hand at about 2:45 for the three minutes. >> Good evening. My name is Cheyenne Hullberg and I am finishing my third year as an English teacher

003at Sparta High School. I want to begin by thanking the board for everything you have already done for our students, our staff, and the community. Tonight, we, the English department, are asking you to not cut the English department's position. To give some context, at the end of last year, our department saw one member retire and one member quit education. Only one of those positions was filled. This resulted in the English department transitioning from seven teachers down to six teachers last year. The we adapted. In order to adapt, we had to reshuffle the classes we teach. Fast forward to the end of this year. Everyone in the department received an email two weeks ago on Monday, April 27th, stating that due to the resignation of one of our members, the position will not be rehired. This

004means the district will cut an English teacher for the second year in a row. The English department is pleading with you to not cut this position for a plethora of reasons. First, our department has the most required credits, eight to be specific. Which means every single semester from 9th grade to graduation, students need to pass our class, otherwise they must complete credit recovery over the summer or retake that same class before they graduate. The fact students need to pass our class every semester of their high school career means it is crucial for them to have as much one-on-one time with a teacher as possible to ensure they not only pass the class but pass it with proficiency. This brings us to our second point. We want to address the rationale given to us directly from

005our building principal and the superintendent. We were told the position is being cut because future enrollment, otherwise known as the incoming number of students for next year, is going down. However, this year 956 students are enrolled in English courses. Granted, that number reflects some students taking multiple English courses in order to graduate. Compare the number of 956 from this year's enrollment with next year's enrollment of 942. That is only a decrease of 14 students, a decrease of 1.46%. So, you are telling us that the administration is cutting the sixth English position down to five teachers simply because of 14 students. 14 students isn't even enough to qualify for one full class. If we cut the six teacher position, we are basically shoving an entire teacher's workload minus a mere 14 students onto the remaining teachers.

006This additional workload would be an average increase of over 20% per remaining teacher. This equals 30 students, which is equal to a large class. This equates to 20% more feedback to give on writing assignments, 20% more grading, 20% more data to analyze, and 20% less time available in class to help students oneon-one. I do ask you to take a second, just one second to imagine if someone close to you, whether that be your own child, your parents, or a friend, came to you and said, "Hey, my job is requiring me to take on an additional 20% more work with no extra time in the day, no additional resources, and in all honesty, what seems like no empathy from the administrators. What would you tell them?" I do thank you for listening to me this evening,

007and I do ask if you have any questions. you reach out to me and I'll be happy to answer. >> Thank you. Next on to Kylie Bone. >> Good evening. My name is Kylie Bame and I thank you for the opportunity to speak in front of you tonight. This is my sixth year teaching at Sparta High School and I'm the most senior member of the department. In addition to my colleagues rationale for not cutting the sixth English position, I would like to share my thoughts on why the English position should be rehired and why the department should be kept at the current six teachers. First, I want to add to a point that my colleague had made when she discussed the number of students enrolled in our classes for next year. As of right now,

008as she has said as she has stated, the predicted number for next year is 942 students, a decrease of simply 14 students. However, this number does not include students taking online SVLA English courses, which we are also responsible for grading, and an unknown number of incoming military high school students since every student at SHS is required to take our classes every year of their high school career. This means the 20% workload Miss Hullberg just mentioned could well be increased even more. This is not only unfeasible for the remaining five teachers, it is also unfair to the students who want and need the one-on-one support to improve crucial skills necessary for success in the real world, including their ability to write, read, speak, listen, critically analyze, and so much more. This brings me to my second

009point. When the English department brought our concerns to the administrators, we were told students do not just come to school for English. And while that may be true for some students, that does not mean it's okay to place an over 20% increased workload on the remaining teachers. Whether students want to take English class or not, they still need to. We live in a world where literacy is profoundly linked to school success, acting as the foundational skill for all academic learning. Strong literacy predicts higher graduation rates and better long-term academic, social, and economic outcomes. Conversely, poor literacy is strongly linked to school failure, high school dropouts, and lower lifelong income. We must decide on our educational priorities when choosing where to make cuts. Not replacing this position at this time is detrimental to student achievement. Let

010us move on to my third point. For 5 years in a row, the English department at the high school has increased our state testing scores. But if we continue to cut the resources, such as an entire teacher, the likelihood of this trend to continue increasing is not high. More students in a class means less one-on-one time in class and less available time for the remaining teachers to give feedback on essays, projects, and speeches. Thank you for listening to me tonight. Please reach out with any questions. Thank you. Next is Briana Moore for in regards to teacher retention. >> Hello, my name is Brianna Moore and this is my fifth year teaching at Sparta and I'm going to continue discussing the English department's rationale for hiring the sixth English position. My first point I would like

011to discuss is in response to the department's meeting with the administrators. On Thursday last week, Mr. Russ repeatedly stated, quote, "Change needs to happen." Now, let me be clear. Change does need to happen. However, when the referendum failed, we were told changes would be made to student experience, not their access to rigorous academic opportunities and teacher workload. Baylor University defines academic rigor as quote creating an environment in which each student is expected to learn at high levels. Each student is supported so he or she can learn at high levels and each student demonstrates learning at high levels. How can our department uphold these high expectations for each individual student in our teaching, feedback, and support when we will be forced to reduce our curriculum? We will be cornered into limiting the state standards we teach

012due to time constraints and overfilled classrooms. Flexibility is not the issue. The English department is used to adapting to change as a result of being overworked. Our department has changed every year for almost a full decade as a result of teachers in our department leaving the district or even profession because they are so burnt out. I myself was one of three teachers who are hired at the same time in 2021. Both of the other two teachers have now moved on to nearby districts for over a couple of years now. I have personally had a different teaching class schedule every single year, including next year. We have always adapted to our environment to ensure the best learning outcomes for our students, but we have come to an impass. Our department was also told that the money

013had already been set aside for a six member. If our colleague had decided to stay, we wouldn't be understaffed. This decision was made based on convenience of attrition. The only reason we need to fight for this position right now is because yet another English teacher is burned out. More than 20% increase in workload next year will only further the number of teachers quitting the profession as a result of exhaustion. Once again, you're about to cut an entire position for a prediction of 14 fewer students, a decrease of 1.46%, which is also an underestimate due to the uncounted potential influx of online and military students. We reiterate that we do agree change needs to happen. However, that change needs to be the recognizing the work of your English teachers for that matter every teacher does for

014this district and not cut the position. Please, we need this position to be rehired. We cannot afford mentally, physically, or ethically to lose yet another position in this district. Thank you for your time and attention for this matter. >> Thank you. Like to welcome Lisa Olsen. Hi, good evening. Thank you for hearing me tonight. I'm Lisa Olsen. In a family household, when budgets tighten, parents have to make decisions to cut spending. Wise parents decide to forego an annual vacation or a family gym membership. Wise parents do not decide to cut protein from daily meals. English is a core course. Reading, writing, listening, speaking belong to each and every job our students will pursue. English class is not just about reading books or learning poetry. We use such materials as a tool to teach clear thinking.

015Whereas I would argue that all core classes are essential to the development of the whole child. We need to know history to be wise contributing members of society. We should understand science to be wellinformed but also to appreciate and conserve the natural world. We use math in our daily lives to be financially responsible. But I would argue that English, reading, writing, listening, speaking, and clear thought are the foundation of each and every class, the protein of the daily meal. To the statement made by the administration that we are cutting teachers because our student body is shrinking, we are doing so preemptively. Looking at current numbers, we predict exactly 14 fewer students next year. That's a reduction of 1.46%. That's not enough to justify cutting a position. Our teaching load will increase by 20%. Let's do

016the math. 1.46 20%. The administration has repeatedly said that students are a priority. So, how do we fund a teacher for one year? Can we trim the sports budget? How about the top seven paid administrators volunteer to take a 5% pay cut to fund a teacher? I did the math. that will cover salary. You don't want to sacrifice, but it's somehow acceptable to inform us that we must sacrifice. Are we sacrificing ourselves or a student? It comes at one or the other. I understand that we are running a $1.2 million deficit over the next three years, an estimate of $70,000. That salary and benefit, that comes to 5.83% of that total annually. Aren't our students worth that? When the English department met with Mr. Russ and Mr. Ford last week to discuss this issue, we

017were told repeatedly that this was doable. We we were never asked if it was possible. We are told over and again that we are the experts, but our council was never sought. Last week, I applied for two teaching positions. One of my colleagues back there who wishes to remain anonymous has also applied for another position. There's no part of me that wants to leave this job. I've spent two years investing in relationships with students and colleagues. I've learned all the platforms and ingested the materials for my classes. I can honestly say that I truly enjoy my job and that's something I do not take for granted. But I am not willing to sacrifice myself at the altar of education. I need to put my oxygen mask on before helping others. I am asking you, the

018school board, to be the wise parents when tightening belts. Cutting this position will leave many students hungry. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. And I'd like to welcome I'd like to welcome Benny Richer. Uh his topic is student experience over teacher retention. Hello, my name is Benny Richard and I'm a math teacher at Sparta High School. This is my third year teaching and my concern comes also from that similar realm of teacher retention. We have one teacher who is retiring at the end of the year and therefore we as a math department are going from six teachers down to five as well. Now math department we can handle that because we have less credits that we need to um offer for our students because we only have six credits for math whereas English

019social studies they are at eight credits. So while we can stem that difference other departments cannot. One thing that also was frustrating in some of this process where information was leaked to us was when our head of department for math was asked to create alternate schedules. He was provided three options. One where a six person wasn't retiring, one where a six person was retiring but we would hire a new person and a fiveteer option. The five teacher option however was told to us if we cannot find another teacher not if we don't post for another teacher. So that's where I'm having a lot of issues or discrepancies with this situation especially because I remember when this referendum was being brought to the public a lot of it was always on the highlight of student experiences

020not teacher outcomes. And so my understanding was because of the way things were shown was that it would be more your sports, athletics, clubs that would end up taking the hit rather than the teacher. And my understanding also of that was that it would not would that this affect in the end affected multiple apartments in that same way. There were promises that probably at the time were made with good intentions, but then for whatever reason, it seemed like we had to backtrack those and not explore them. And so those are really my main concerns here today. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Like to welcome Hannah Glaciius. I watch that name probably. What? >> Yes. Sorry, >> I'm used to it. >> Uh, her topic is sorry on stool cuts, school cuts and staff morale.

021>> Good evening board. My name is Hannah Ecus. I come to you as a Sparta native, high school teacher, and parent to an elementary student here in our district. I wanted to start by emphasizing my appreciation for your decisions to not only fairly compensate our certified staff this year, but also for the motion specifically to revisit the teacher compensation model in order to evaluate its weaknesses. This gives me hope that permanent changes will be made to our district's broken underfunded model in the near future. So, thank you for that. This is also a step in the right direction to teacher retention, a board focus. Speaking of teacher retention, that is a board focus, isn't it? I ask because post-referenderum failure, our staff is being steamrolled. It's not the student experience being targeted. It's once again

022the staff. I must clarify that I am speaking from the perspective not of the SEA, but as a dedicated high school teacher in our district. We were told that no more cuts were going to be made in our building post failed referendum. This was a play on words. Essentially, a false hope, if you will. The administration has still made cuts under the guise of attrition. Cuts that won't be seen by the community. Cuts that won't necessarily show the effects of a failed referendum. Cuts that do not hold teacher retention as a top priority. Cuts that do not take into consideration the grave impact on teachers and the increase in workload that will drive valuable teachers to leave the district. Two teachers retire and two resign at the high school. Three of those positions will not

023be filled. Resignation and retirement are great masks to hide behind. They are a great way to only look at the financial burden being lifted. However, finances cannot be the only lens that we look through when making changes in our district. Here are a few examples from of consequences that have been ignored. We're graduating approximately 11 students, more than the class size set to come in as freshmen. We are not hiring back at the very least three teaching positions. That's hundreds of students being pushed into other classes and sections. Having said that, these cut positions are happening in our core classes. The classes we are tested on, the classes that get reported to the state, the classes that affect our report card and our funding and attraction of potential families. Increased class sizes will spread our

024teachers too thin and we fear it will impact the progress we are trying to make in Sparta. Not only that, but these teachers are also forced to take on the courses previously taught by positions we are choosing not to rehire. Again, another increased workload for our teachers. Lastly, there has been a severe lack of foresight by administrators as they make these cuts. As an example, in shuffling classes from one department to another to accommodate losing positions, feasibility of these moves has seemed to have been an afterthought. These are not the only repercussions that are making that making decisions purely through a financial lens have caused. I urge you as the board, ask the hard questions to administration. Ask what's happening in our district. Talk to the teachers. visit the schools and gain insight into the

025current state of staff morale and the distrust that many teachers have come to have with administration. I confidently confidently say that our teachers want to do the best for our students. But with that being said, we can only bend so far before we break. Thank you. >> Thank you. I'd like to welcome Jacob Sweeney. his topics on position cuts at the high school. Jacob Sweeney. >> Good evening. Uh my name is Jacob Sweeney. I'm speaking to you tonight as a representative of the high school social studies department. Uh, I previously spoke to you with the SEA team about teacher compensation, and I speak for many when I say we truly appreciate the board putting a priority on the teachers and having us feel heard. However, what I'm here to speak to you tonight about is

026the recent decisions at the high school to cut several positions. Over the last month, three core departments, math, English, and social studies, have had teachers either retire or resign. We've been told repeatedly that no other cuts were planned for teachers. And when asked about retirement specifically that the plan was always to rehire that position. However, we had a second member of our team make the decision to resign. One week after that teacher resigned, our department was told through an email that due to the numbers, the failed referendum, and conversations with district administration only one of those positions would be replaced. They acknowledged that class sizes would rise and and to anticipate over 30 for the next few years. We were essentially told that this is a necessary problem. Let's take a look at why these

027cuts are in fact not necessary. First, the decision came as a shock to me because the reassurances we've been given all year and the fact that besides English, social studies has the most required credits to graduate. Uh what also confused me is that to justify the cut in the social department, the decision was made to take one of our required classes uh personal finance and to move it to another department. We were told personal finance would be looking to move to math who also just lost another teacher. So how could our numbers support a cut if we have to move an entire junior level class which would be around six or seven periods to another department? That does not make sense. The argument of numbers also doesn't hold up when the reported difference between outgoing

028seniors and incoming freshmen is somewhere between 10 to 20. That's not even a full section, let alone a teacher. Although we've been told we have the ability to quote make this work, there are other issues that are out of our control. What about students that move into the area? Where will we put them if our classes are already at the max? Not only that, the numbers that we currently have do not represent the students that will have to retake classes next year if they fail a class this semester. And then the unequal distribution of classes across hours in the day in the semester. You have to think about this. You might have a class that's 25 and you have a class that's 35. You can't equally divide the number across eight sections. Another frustrating aspect

029of these cuts is that this is purely decision by the administration to cut costs due to convenience. We as a department were not brought into to give our input on how this impact our classes, student rigor, standards or things like lensure to actually teach the classes. I understand that decisions like this ultimately rest with you the board. But not even giving us the opportunity to explain why this position should be retrained and instead informing us simply through an email creates a perception that the district does not value or support its teachers. this board and the district administration want to take the time and bring in surveys and committees to talk about different cuts, but when it comes to teacher positions, those decisions are ultimately made by one or two administrators. Finally, I recognize that due

030to the community not passing the referendum, we are in a tough financial position. But as teachers, we were under the impression that these cuts would come from the student experiences and not cutting teacher positions. I haven't seen any concrete budget reductions from district office or student experiences. Administration is just cutting teacher positions and cramming students into our classes. I understand that you are under pressure to do the due to the failed referendum to reduce costs. But I feel like something like this I feel like this is something we're doing not because it truly needs to happen now, but for some potential enrollment drop in the next two years. I hope you consider keeping these positions at the high school at least for the next year and reevaluate when the numbers truly show a need to

031reduce. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, I'd like to welcome Sarah Anderson. She wants to discuss the sales Maplewood move. Hello, my name is Sarah Anderson. I'm here speaking today on behalf of the sales staff. I have been a teacher at Sales High School for 19 years. And in my 19 years, the sales staff has helped over 10,000 students earn their high school diploma. That is 1,000 students that would have been labeled as dropouts in the Sparta School District if sales was sales wasn't an option. Sales serves at risk students that are not successful in the traditional high school. Students come to us for many for many reasons. Credit deficiency, adjudication, pregnancy, mental health, discipline issues, and basically being overwhelmed in such a large school. Research shows that at risk alternative education programs are much

032more successful in a separate location than in the same building as the traditional high school. We have seen this proven time and time again watching our students grow and become successful in a safe and separate environment. Something that sales has offered over the last 30 years. Last Friday, we sent an email to our sales governing board as well as the members of this district school board. In that email, we noted concerns that our staff and students have about the possible move to Meadow View or to Sparta High School if the Maplewood building is closed. Please know that we understand the budget constraints are causing different ideas to come up to save the district money and there will be some hard decisions to make. What we are asking you is that you look at other options

033available and consider keeping sales separate from the Sparta High School and Meview buildings such as moving the Monasuri school to Meto View where they would be near similar age students and resources and moving the district office and sales to the Lawrence Lawson building. We asked our students what a move like this might do to them and to the future of sales students that are coming into our program. We received comments such as quote I think a big part of why sales is so beneficial for everyone who comes here is because the smaller setting and it is away from the people at the high school and quote if sales were a part of the high school I wouldn't want to go there. As for the Meadow View, the move to Meto View, our students say this

034is not a good idea as students who are almost adults shouldn't be at the that school with little kids. Our staff's concerns include discipline issues with other high school students and negativity from high school students and staff toward our students. As for a move to Meadow View, we do not think the community would appreciate the sales kids being around young students. Finally, we as a staff know that many people think of sales as the bad kids school or the last chance for loser kids. Personally, I have been fighting that battle with the school district and the community for a very long time. Sales is the last chance for our students to earn a high school diploma. And many people often forget that these are kids, young adults, and Sparta area school district students first. They

035need support to become positive and productive citizens in our community as well as a safer environment to learn in. I hope that you take the time to read the emails that were sent to you and that you also consider visiting our program to see the good work that our staff and students do every day. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, next I'd like to welcome Nick Ker Kinger for to speak about the facilities budget. Hello board. Good evening. Uh I just want to reiterate what my colleagues have been saying. Um communication uh at the high school has been pretty rugged uh recently and it feels like we're kind of being led astray with a lot of those positions. And so um I stand with them. I think that communication could be much more clear and

036um um could be done in a better way. Um but um I want to talk about the facilities uh money that we have left over after this referendum. Um I'm speaking to you as a community member, as a parent of two children in the district, a teacher, a youth coach, and the head football coach, as well as the president of the Sparta Coaches Association. Uh I'm speaking to address the board regarding the remaining facilities referendum funds and to respond to recent statements regarding uh Memorial Field. Uh you sit in a very difficult position right now. Uh, I don't think a lot of school districts pass a $87 million referendum and then don't pass a $1.4 million operational referendum. And so I understand you're in a very difficult position here. Um, I would like to express

037my strong support for utilizing the refere the remaining referendum funds uh for some listed athletic facilities. We have a unique opportunity to invest an opportunity that likely will not present itself at this price point ever again. By acting now, we maximize taxpayer dollars and ensure long-term utility for our students and our community. Where a new gym facility would go is already in a planned empty space. Uh the blueprint for the high school has an athletic locker room directly next to this empty space. Um building the gym space is now far more fiscally responsible than returning to referendum later uh when construction costs will inevitably be higher. Furthermore, I believe this measure would have significant support from the Sparta businesses. For example, economic growth. An additional threecourt gym space would accommodate 12 or more teams for

038volleyball or basketball tournaments. Clubs and district could work together to maximize revenue generated. Local impact. Hosting larger events could bring hundreds of additional people in the Sparta over a course of a weekend. Providing a substantial boost to our local small businesses. And then revenue generation. Track and baseball lighting uh would both allow us to host regional and sectional and uh more meets and games generating additional revenue for the school district and the city. Uh lastly, I'd like to address the comments at the last board meeting about Memorial Field. It is important for you and the public to understand that the district was required to invest $2.5 million in ADA compliance as a grandstand, lights, and press box were well on their functional lifespan. Additionally, the grey iron club has donated over $350,000 to Memorial Field

039for the grid iron building and an additional $100,000 to get the recent res uh renovations across the finish line. This does not include the yearly upgrades to the facility. For example, I'm asking tomorrow at the board at our grid iron meeting for $7,000 in football costs that the district will not see. I urge the board to weigh these significant fundraising efforts that happen in our community and necessary infrastructure requirements against a few negative Facebook posts. Ultimately, the decision rests with you. Do Sparta students deserve the best facilities we can provide for them? Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, next I'd like to welcome Michelle Glant to speak about uh to speak on the English position funding. >> Good evening. My name is Michelle Glenn and I was not planning on speaking tonight, but now I

040am because I came across some very interesting information this evening, which is that there is a um proposal at our state level to increase school funding and it is a bipartisan bill that is coming forward and expected to be in schools hands by June. this money that's going to be coming, which is an increase to special aid funding to special education funding of 50% should help us to ease the burden that we have in paying for some of the things that have been spoken about tonight. I also feel like the idea that we as a board had heard from you last week about creating committees to move forward to talk about having a um a survey and to find out what people are feeling and what should be cut and about um deciding what student

041experiences the community would tolerate is something that we're going to like survey. But all of the teacher cuts we're just going to cut. We're not going to talk to the stakeholders first and we're not going to talk through those and make those decisions. It it seems counterintuitive. Our number one reason that we're here is to educate and we're willing to cut the educational services without a discussion with the stakeholders, but we are not willing to cut the student things without a survey. It just seems counterintuitive to why we're even here. So in light of the fact that there's going to be all sorts of new money that is coming through hopefully on this bipartisan bill that's being voted on this coming week and that was made by Ivers and Speaker Voss which is very likely

042to pass that means that there will be money and making preemptive cuts seems money to pay for it and so why sacrifice so I think it is a very um important thing for the board when we don't have to to think thoroughly and wisely about whether or not right now when um we haven't even as far as the things that they just figured out whether or not we're willing to cut some student facing acquired to have a great night. These are the reason that we're here. So I hope you'll take that into consider your input is valued and and can't read that any so I'd like to introduce Danielle Keenan. Uh, Miss Keenan is our instructional coach that focuses on technology integration as well as supports uh, instruction at the high school. So, today we

043wanted to give you an update about our technology and some of the work that we've done this year are part of our so so well. Um so last year we established a committee knowing that we spend uh the funds that we spend in onetoone devices for grades 1 through 12. Um we really felt like we needed to invest some time in growing staff capacity and knowledge and ability to use those devices as well. So through several of our meetings um we started with establishing um a mission um statement and we worked on determining essential standards. So you if you've ever heard me talk in viable curriculum part of the process is we look at all the standards and say okay we we need to touch on all these standards but which ones do we need

044to say are priority that we really want to focus on mastery of. So our committee did some pre-work with that um I believe that goes into yes on the second slide these are the three essential standards that we've identified. One is focusing on the digital footprint um helping the students to manage their digital identity and understanding the lasting impact of their online behaviors on themselves and others and to legal and ethical decisions in the digital world. So that was one of the essential standards. Um we actually put a survey together to get staff feedback as well. So we made sure that this that the standards that we chose were not just ones that we felt were important but that all teachers did. The second essential standard is on research strategies. Students use effective research strategies

045to find resources that support their and creative pursuits. And then our final standard is platforms and tools. Students choose the appropriate platforms and digital tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication. So those are the areas that we've chosen to focus on across the district. So from there, now we've got standards chosen, but what grades teach what? Um, so we wanted to make sure that we had a clear plan um so that we're making sure that students are growing their technology skills and the next teacher can say, "Yep, I know that students know how to do this because it was taught at this grade level." So that's the process that we've started um working on. Next, this is a snip of the document that shows file management. We really tried to be

046um not platform specific. So it's not Google Slides, it's not Google, it's not um Apple, it's just file management. Um so that if we switch and we use something different, we don't have to revise all of these documents. So this is an example of the skills specifically in each of the rows. And then when you look onto the side, you see I, B, and A. Sorry. The I is that that skill is being introduced at that grade level. The B means that we're building grade level. And by a students are applying the skills at those grade levels. So we came up with kind of the sequence and the the skills and what that looked like and then we brought together grade levels and we worked on creating and A's. So, where does it make sense

047for this to be taught? Where does it make sense to for it to be built on? And where does it make sense for students to be able to do that and and move on on their own? And then our uh we plan on actually taking that scope and sequence with the entire staff this fall and kind of looking and getting more feedback so that we're just making good decisions on how we can be cons consistent with our technology. Um, as we've had these conversations with teachers from all different grade levels and subject areas, uh, one big idea that we want to kind of help our staff understand is moving from that passive engagement to active engagement. Uh, there's a lot of talk about technology and how it's being used in the classroom. So, when we

048are using technology, we just want to make sure that we're giving our students opportunities to be active creators and collaborate and think critically. The other eye-opening part of this was the professional development that's needed. So 14 years ago, I started here as a fourth grade teacher and I was lucky to be one of the first to have the one-on-one technology and there has been little pockets here and there and of course someone like me happy to dig in and try and figure things out. So it's what can we do to help all staff so that they can feel confident in reaching those different kind of skills that we're seeing in our scope and sequence. So, one thing that we did this past year or this year actually um was our technology day. So, I remember

049we had one of these many years ago and just how much I appreciated just having the opportunity to take some time and build our technology skills, but also give teachers choice on what they want to work on and what they want to get better on. So this is something that we hope to continue as we move on, especially with putting out this scope and sequence is just to give our teachers opportunity to figure out where they're lacking, where they want to grow stronger so we can build those digital skills and make sure that our students who have time with digital um platforms and software are just kind of getting them prepared for their future endeavors. So we supported staff choice. We um were building our technology skills. there was some time for planning. Although one

050of the big pieces of feedback is people wanted more time to play around. So we are taking that feedback with our next tech day is to have some time for teachers to figure out how does this play a role in their curriculum in their courses. Um and then it was really great how many people stood up to help lead some of these sessions. So we had some brand new teachers, we had teachers from all different experience levels who were willing to lead some of these. So we thought that was a great opportunity for us to learn from each other as well as then we have someone we can go to if we want to learn more and continue. And two of the fan favorite sessions what were a Canva which is a huge digital creative

051platform that you can do so much with and a lot of staff were excited about that. But then also I think a piece that is really powerful when it comes to technology is the accessibility features. how can we help students in different ways and our iPads are filled with accessibility features so that all students can access information and a lot of teachers wanted to learn more about that. So it's really great to see that and want to continue just kind of helping them see the capabilities of an iPad in students hands and getting them that access to learning and help them kind of you know reach those potentials. >> So if I can just piggyback on that. So, some of those accessibility features would be things like text to speech where it it will read

052the text to a student who might have a visual impairment or a learning disability. Um, it it's quite helpful as well with students who speak Spanish as their first language. Um, there are a ton of ways that we can use um the features within the iPad to translate into their language and then for them to put to translate it back into English. So, those are just a couple of examples of those accessibility features. So, as we continue to look at our next steps and our future focus, we want to just continue using that scope and sequence with staff to really get an idea of where we want to build these skills. And then um based on that, we're going to um provide professional development and what can we do to help them reach those goals.

053And then as well as just continue the conversations around active use of technology and making sure that when we do have screen time in our classrooms that it is valuable for our students and it is giving them opportunities to think critically to be creative and and really just kind of prepare them for their futures whether it's off to college or off to their job. Let's give them a lot of different opportunities to help them because technology is in our world and it's not going anywhere. So let's help them and help our staff accomplish those goals as well. >> Are you do you want me to take this part? >> Yeah, sure. Why not? So we've also created an AI task force. Uh this is a group of teachers who some of them are people who

054love AI and some are like I'm not so sure I I agree with the direction of AI. Our committee had a a broad range of backgrounds and beliefs about AI. Uh the reason that we thought this was important is um when you look at the careers that are out there, so many jobs are expecting kids to come in fluent in the ability to prompt AI. And if we don't teach kids how to use AI appropriately, how can we send them out to the workforce with no knowledge? Um and so part of this AI task force is to help us figure out what's the best way to do this. How do we teach um responsible and um an ethical use of AI? Um so yeah, that's that. Sorry. So that gives you kind of an overview

055of where our technology committee has been, where we're going, and know that putting limits on screen time is definitely something that's part of our conversations. It's not about putting a kid in front of an iPad and just having them do whatever. There's very much um we know that there's a lot of research in that and there's also um work that we're doing in the district to make sure that we're putting limits on iPad use um as well. Any questions for Miss Keenan and me? >> Are there any questions, comments? Dr. Bernett, >> I'm pleased to hear that you're teaching responsible use and uh ethical use of um AI. Uh nothing is being done in the areas where it should be done in terms of of this. >> It is kind of a wild west. Um

056so part of that AI task force is you know what are the the procedures and policies. Um, so we know that we have district policies in place. Um, how do we take those policies and put those into practice and then what what procedures do we put into um into place so that we are doing it the right way. So we're very early in that process. Just want to be clear about that. >> Mr. Thanks for sharing. That's really helpful. I was going to ask um I know the library and the school did this a few months ago. Has this committee read the anxious generation book yet? Yeah, I got about I got three hours left, but I think it's it's worth it. I mean, if they're on there doing this just another helpful lens and

057um probably worth all of us to read it, too, but that's for later. So, thank you. >> Any other questions or comments from the board? Well, I think I could close out. Um, yeah, I 110% understand the value. Um, I think the main reason why I just became the designated techie at work was because I was the only one that learned how to type in high school. So, I think that was I think I think whatever it is is that preparing our kids for the future involves technology these days and and I really appreciate it. So, thank you guys. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, moving on to the facility project report, Mr. Russ. >> Yes. Um, >> no, no, that's fine. Oops, wrong way. Not that one. Uh, yeah, we continue to to

058move along at SHS specifically. Um, you're going to see a lot of piles of sand in the front yard. Uh, a little bit more than normal. Uh, we had to do some soil corrections. uh which means basically we had good soil for growing grass and but not the best for putting a foundation on according to the soil boardings but um we corrected that and uh to make sure that we're going from there. Uh and pretty soon you'll be seeing the masons uh come out there the footings the foundations the micro piles and everything like that uh will start to come. uh the teched area uh was demoed and uh happy to say that um interesting enough using AI and robots and stuff a lot of the we had a uh demolition robot do a lot

059of the demo work in the teched area and we're fortunate enough to have uh some student they gave a brief demonstration and uh the controller came out and said you know and talked to the kids a little bit and that sort of thing. It's said it's basically you play a video game all day and the machine very rarely doesn't get tired but the the the person working it says he still gets a lunch break though. So and um but anyway so it's nice to see that uh we continue to move forward uh with our partners with Bray uh and Mark and Johnson and building solutions. Uh we have a facility project um funding uh for the second uh for second uh agenda item or for the second meeting. um moving along and continue to try

060to do our best to educate the uh community, show pictures. Um but you can really start to see the work uh starting to take shape. >> Uh I was going to ask a question. Uh safety, how's that been going up there? >> Yep, it's been going. I have Well, we had uh for instance, we did have a uh fire alarm go off. uh with that and uh due to construction there was no fire but with with wet and dry cutting and that sort of thing but um we didn't evacu we did evacuate the the fire department came and uh I thought I was very proud of our students and staff and the contractors the way they reacted uh along with our emergency personnel. So um we train for these things especially up at SHS. We've

061been talking about that safety aspect for a long time. Um to make sure that we're ready the best we can. But uh continue to educate our kids or educate our staff where to go, where not to go. Um there's a lot of stuff going on in that northwest lot where our buses are. So Markin and Johnson's doing a very nice job making sure that the buses have full access to that. Um making sure that our kids are getting out to the buses safely. SHS has staff there in the morning and then the afternoon. Um, but safety wise, I think we're doing doing very well. >> I just uh meant to ask about the parking specifically. I I drove by today on my way here um and noticed that that uh upper level parking future parking

062area was open. I don't know if they're doing a track meet or what, but there was open right into a big pit that So, I want to make sure that's on on their radar. Yeah. especially those moving parts. But it looked like Martin and Johnson were still out into the my my son calls them all the diggers, right? >> No work until dark, right? Work until dark. >> There was at least 100 people on that track that someone I'm assuming it was an event that that should have probably been blocked off. So, thanks for all that. >> We'll take a look. >> Any other questions or comments from the board? All righty. Hearing none, we'll move on to item 2 C, financial report. Miss Hower, >> thank you. This is a financial report from the

063month of April and uh you'll notice that the revenue was or I apologize the expenses were much greater than we trend um in the previous months and that is due to two large expenses that always happen in the month of April um due to the timing from DPI those come through directly through DPI so that's recording the open enrollment expense and the voucher expense but both are budgeted for so looking at the revenue dashboard. Uh I will spend more time going over this in a future agenda item when we review the budget in detail, but we are trending well and our expenditure dashboard. As a reminder, uh last month we changed that percent of fund balance to be where we're at currently, not based on budget. uh so that you can see how our fund

064balance changes month over month uh based on the timing of receipts and dispersements. And then here's that update. Um if you just kind of take a mental note here, this will help as we talk about the preliminary budget uh again in a future agenda item. Specifically, if you look at the months of October and November, although we might say that we end each year at a 23% fund balance, we get down to under 3% fund balance. So, November and then April are usually our two months that we are tightest on cash flow. And you can see that from this picture. Um, and again, just something to keep in mind as we talk about future planning for reductions and use of fun balance. And excuse me, Miss Houser, you want to explain why it's important that

065we, you know, if we would uh we do a lot of we don't borrow cash ahead of time to save interest and that sort of thing. Can you explain that? >> Um, sure. So, our fund balance, although it's not directly correlated with the money we have in the bank, there is a close correlation. Um, and so there are months that we don't have revenue coming in, but payroll, which is our our largest expense, still goes out every two weeks. And so our fund balance basically helps us to cover payroll in those months that we don't have revenue coming in. And so if we didn't have fund balance, then we would need to short-term cash flow borrow to make our payroll expense. Um first of all, when you cash flow borrow, there's interest costs incurred with

066it. But secondly, when we get our bond rating or our statement of financial health, if we need to re routinely cash flow borrow to make normal operating costs, um that can be held against us in our bond rating, which then costs us more in future interest cost as well. >> Thank you. >> Any comments or questions from the board? All righty. Guess then we'll move on to item 2D SASD announcements and upcoming meetings. Mr. Rest. >> Yes. As it was Mr. Burns Gilbert mentioned our uh athletic season spring coming uh full swing. We're still continuing to move forward there. Uh our end of the year concerts, end of the year celebrations, end of the year field trips, uh semester exams, final exams, everything like that are coming to a end with the end of school

067on May 22nd. uh sales graduation. I invite everyone to come to Maplewood. It looks like it's going to be a beautiful night, a little bit warmer, which is good. Uh six o'clock at uh Maplewood for the sales graduation on the 14th, this Thursday. And then I invite everyone to SHS's graduation on Friday of Memorial Day on the 22nd, 7 o'clock, weather permitting, hopefully be outside on the Memorial Field. Um but uh that's a little bit too far away to start talking about the weather uh with that one. So, uh, just a reminder on Tuesday of Memorial Day, we, uh, after Memorial Day is our final board meeting of the month. So, that got moved because of the holiday and then the rest of the, um, the June and July meetings are there on the slide

068as well. Sounds good. Um, all right. So, moving on to business. Uh item 3A, discussion of possible recommendation to approve a draft school perception community survey. Sam, >> so uh at 5:00 we had um about 15 people uh mix of community, board, staff. Uh it was a very good turnout. I thought one of our better ones for our workshop. So that's good. Hopefully we can be able to keep that going. Um and uh we just talked started to brainstorm about what uh a survey could ask of the community. And um on just a reminder on April 27th, this last board meeting, uh the board approved a school perception survey uh and that the results to be shared on September 28th. Um which would give us in time for the annual meeting if we wanted to

069do that there. Um some intended outcomes. There's a lot of information. When we saw four different uh surveys, three nond district ones, we had Black River Falls, Ellsworth, and Dodgeland. Um there to look at that. They're all asking different things. uh and the uh and the workshop had an opportunity to dive into those whether it's tax tolerance, what are we doing well, where should we focus our area, priority areas, what can we change, communication, next referendum date, um um what do we want to see out of a graduate? So, a lot of different options that was discussed. Um, and the plan is is that I have not gone through individual uh what the what the the workshop thought of Black River Falls, Ellsworth, Dodge, and Sparta. But it's really to start saying, you know, where

070where do we want to start maybe focusing our areas in um and what what what do we want to know? And that's ultimately what that survey is for. Uh we can do it from uh pages four, six, or eight pages. It can be as detailed as we want. It can be the the workshop said well this I don't remember which one off the top of my head this one was very succinct it was four pages the other one or you can even go to ours ours asked tax tolerance and facility you know so but obviously we wouldn't be looking facility but what do we look at where do we want to prioritize where do we what are we doing well uh what questions do we want to ask when is a good referendum time what's

071the tax tolerance if we do this we would reduce this if we did this we would be able to get Yes. You know, so do you talk reductions versus adding uh with a successful referendum, for example. So, it's really about what the board wants to start seeing uh in the um in in the scope of a survey. That's really what it is. And just to give you a timeline, we do have time. So, ultimately, once again, this is I I did put it as an action item, and we don't need to have an action item here. We're going to continue to re revisit this until we can get it uh 100%. But ultimately, we're looking to on July 27th approve the survey. This will get us for the September 28th window if we want to

072do that. So, we have time. So, right now we have the month of May, June and July for this. And I also wanted to share when we talked to school perceptions, Darren is the the lead that we're working with at school perceptions, he can do this. He gave his uh expert expert opinion doing these surveys for a while and he really asked when do we want to are we if we ask tax tolerance? If we ask something about a referendum, the closer you can get to your referendum date, the better. So what they usually see because we would not if the board decides to go in November, this these survey results would not be available. So if the board says we want to have a November referendum, the school perception survey would not be appropriate

073there because we wouldn't be able to get it done in time. if his recommendation if the board is considering an April referendum and with our current positions of looking at uh reduction in staff, higher class sizes, if we're looking at changing transportation, if we're looking at changing the student experience, which we are, doing it in end of September, early October would give our parents specifically in the community time to evaluate one month of living in our 2026 27 school year living through exactly what I just shared as an opportunity to say, "Oh boy, this isn't this isn't very good that the riders and the average riding times up to 90 minutes. Oh, that's that's not good. What do we we how do we fix that? We don't like high class sizes. How do we fix

074that?" So having the community and our families and our teachers and our staff for who are also community members be able to give that voice there and give time to remark on that survey because if the survey goes out, it'll go out before school starts and it'll be a couple weeks into school for that deadline. So, if you're like me, I'm going to get that survey off my desk and we're not even going to live in the school year. And then after I live in the school year, it might be, well, I wish I could change my results. Maybe not. Maybe I would. So his recommendation and based on his experiences based on doing these is if we are not looking at a November referendum which we wouldn't have the survey anyway is he would

075recommend pushing it out to either a October or November uh survey date to do that. It wouldn't be there for the annual meeting and I know that was a topic and depending on the survey topic that might not be an annual meeting discussion anyway. for example. So if we ask hey what's the portrait of a graduate for example or what are we doing well that may not be a annual meeting question whether or not we evalu we uh want win open gym and that sort of thing those fund 80 things that would be valuable then so but it's really about what are we looking at and we don't have to make this decision now either but I just wanted to share that with the board about you know what's the it goes back to the

076previous one. When do we want to go to referendum? If we want to go to referendum and the board may say, we're not going to go to referendum. We're going to come and take a look at the 2627 preliminary budget and end of and this year's that may shape some of that discussion as well. So, but initially I just wanted to show the timeline. So, we're looking at about 3 months of planning, which is a good planning time. We can have another workshop. We'll have a lot if we wanted to we can talk about it, share this results and get more feedback. But it's really about today really maybe have some discussions between the group in regards to what are we asking for? What are some initial thoughts especially coming off of that uh workshop

077and I'll get all the survey results. I'll type it up. Miss Markin and I will type it up. I should throw that out there. Or maybe we can scan it and have school AI read it for us, which it will do. I don't know about my handwriting, though. It may not read my handwriting, but AI will help with that. And then we can do themes and and all that wonderful jazz. We do have school AI, which is available to all of our staff to assist with being efficiency of educating and that sort of thing. And that's one example that we could use it to be efficient. So with that, Miss Hower, did I anything you want to add? Say no. No. So Mr. Wells, any questions or anything like that or start the discussion on

078uh the survey? >> Yeah. Any comments or questions from the board? Dr. Bernett? >> Um I think it's much too early to consider a referendum in November already. The electorate has given us a clear um I think direction on looking for ways to um reduce our expenses and we need to carry those out before we're turning around and asking for more money. Any further comments or questions from the board? All righty. I I I got some something that I just like to I I guess I could add a few details. Um I think we can move knowing the information that we know now. I'd feel comfortable moving the survey date to closer to when we would go to a possible referendum if the if we determined that a community the community would support it. I

079was initially thinking that a September 28th date was grand because then we could take that information and take action on it, but based off of but that was based off what we did last time, which might have not been the right thing to do for a successful operating referendum. So, I think I think having information when we get it and knowing uh I'm having trouble coming up with the words. Having information having a poll come closer to when a potential election is would be more valuable for us. So, I think I think I would like to recommend to the board to do that. Um, as for I know we want intended outcomes or whatever tax tolerance, spoken with Sam before of having uh 1.5 million as one of the as one of the tax tolerance

080questions for operating referendum. I think that's something that if you could just extrapolate the data a little bit on how our operating referendum went last time, if people would support a lower number, I think that would be a number that people would support, but don't know if that's unless if that's on the survey. So, >> so speaking of that, there's been two com uh Dr. Bernett and Todd, you've mentioned and Mr. Wells, you mentioned the referendum. So, if we did go to referendum in in April, because November, this wouldn't be applicable in November, what would the board, you know, coming off of the workshop, what would the board, what would some questions or what would that look like in a possible survey? I know Mr. Wells, you mentioned $1.5 million option. In the past, we've

081had a seven uh $750,000 operating referendum that's been successful. that was kind of the the tried andrue. Uh when we come to operating um we saw some things that we would add versus some things that we would deduct or reduce. So what are some initial thoughts on if we would go in April, what would we want to ask the community? Any thoughts there? Mr. Gonkey. >> Yeah. Um, if we were thinking about going in April and pushing back the date, I'd be fine with that. I agree. It's too soon for November referendum. Anyway, um, I believe it was Ellsworth that had the more concise one. I thought we'd get us some more feedback and gave them multiple choice options. One of the things I liked is they they they didn't just put all the things

082we want to do. they put the things that we're talking about now, which is even if we went to a referendum, we'd still have to cut. So, it's explaining the things that we're going to have to lose and and it that's helps people really associate that with everything, the whole picture of what we're going to lose. So, I think doing um the option like they did, having them pretty bullet pointed um and saying, "These are the things that we we aren't going to be able to do or can do. these are the things that we're going to have to cut. Um, it's tough, but it it underlines why we need to ask for what we need to ask for. So, I think if we're going to do for an April one or considering an April

083one, that that would be a question we definitely want to have on there along with just general feeling of how do they feel admin's doing? How do they feel the staff are doing? Are they okay with with um what we've already made or having to make increases? Um it it gives us a little more sense of where they'd want to be on that and how to shape their operating referendum if we were going into April if that makes sense. uh your mic. When a school year starts, how long is it take for the school to know how the kids are increasing their achievement levels? How many months is it inside the year or you got to wait a whole year? Which results are you referring to? Are you referring to our state assessment? Which student

084achievement assessment? >> Is it the >> reading and math? >> Are you talking the state assessment for reading and math or the um the the district assessments for reading and math? >> So the >> whatever it is, it's what you would present to the public. Well, we we well negotiate something, you want to negotiate from a position of strength, >> and that would be strength. If you could come if you could achieve progress, >> Right. I mean, it's it's uh probably going to have to be some cuts, but if you do it next spring, would we know some details on how the year went or this year went? I don't know the cycles of when that's available because when I look it up on the internet, >> it'll only go to like 2025, >> 24

08525 year. So it's it's a late a year delayed there. So I don't know how it is here. You get it quicker than that. >> Yeah. So the state actually um the ACT Miss Mansky, correct me if I'm wrong or you can just take this. >> Which one would you like to correct me or you want to take it? >> I'll just take this one. >> Um so typically when we look at student achievement, we look at the state assessments. So that would be ACT preac at the high school. Looking at the elementary and middle school, we would look at the forward results. So those results for the current year are being released to the district on June 2nd. They're not being released to the public. They typically aren't released to the public until like

086next October. So there's kind of a delay as far as when we get the results and when we can actually share them with the public. >> Right. If this was going to be a referendum in the spring, then April or October's >> So then we would have October's data. >> Yeah. So we would have the year before >> you want to be able to show some progress in what direction you're trying to go with academics with the kids, right? >> Yeah. And and we will we will get that data this October is what we're saying. So >> yeah. >> Sorry. With that, Mr. Lasco, would you like to ask a question about how what what our community feels we're doing well? >> Would that be something as a survey? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Right.

087I think that they would be very interested in seeing if it's uh a priority. Okay. >> Yeah. Uh oh, M. Yeah, I think that the Dodgeland um survey had some interesting district feedback and then just a checklist of planning priorities also graduate success with the checklist so they could rather than person trying to think of what would be successful, you give them many options and I I think these were I think these three surveys held lots of valuable information. And remember this is not a canned survey from school perceptions. Dodgelinin you mentioned. Dodge went through the same process I'm guessing. And if it wasn't like here here's all the questions you have to ask. There's no there's no variable. We can take these as templates and say we like that one, we like that one.

088I like that one but I don't like the wording. So it's really flexible in what we want to do. and off the the workshop and what we're doing with surveys to give options rather than open-ended. But school perceptions does do open-ended questions and they put it through their system to give themes and um challenges and deltas and and positives. So, both are very valuable, but once again, all of these surveys that we showed can all be changed and and worked through. I can't remember how long we worked on that fac on our survey that we did in November of 23. Do you know how many months? Couple two, three, four. So, it was a it was a long process. So, we're right on time for our process, but please know that we can tweak and

089we can have another workshop where we can dive things in um or we can do it in open session here too. The benefit of the workshop obviously you get more community feedback uh you can engage and uh go and talk back and forth. >> Mr. Brins Gilbert. >> Yeah, I think uh after hearing the feedback from the workshop and the the good participation, I think that was something that was helpful too of just not having it too full. Um, right. Like eight pages is a lot, especially knowing uh when Well, I guess if we change that timeline, if it was on that timeline, the smaller the better, for sure. Um, but but what I liked about the uh Dodge and the Ellsworth versions were in their um quantitative questions, right? They had options one, two,

090and three. So, similar to our phases of facilities projects that we had three years ago, right? it was here's the minimum, here's, you know, here's, you know, the best possible scenario. And so I I like that that included it, but also gave uh people to to indicate, no, I'm not voting for any referendum, right? Or I would, but it's got to be a smaller number. Whatever our, you know, two or three or four options, we would we would placeholder for them, right? So, so I to me I think that's probably going to be one of the most helpful pieces. Um, and I do like uh Ellsworth a little bit better of just how they kind of relay option one is the least amount of operating funds. So, here's the most amount impact and what those

091looks like, right? Like some of that we've already talked about transportation, some of those pieces that are right um a lot of value. So getting that input on on those will be helpful. Um I I think the other piece though to me that's that's where it ends right now in my head because I because I think that's the purpose of the survey and if we are going to a referendum in April right would want this to be tied directly to what we're asking for um and not necessarily do too much of some of the other pieces that we can maybe do without um school perceptions or without a eightpage survey. I'd rather do another four-pager in a year or two to keep that conversation going knowing committees are happening, knowing engagement's happening right along the

092way. That's those are my thoughts right now, those reactions. Um yeah, I think it might be helpful too to get some of those dates if if we get it to them this fall. Um if that ends up happening, um is April 27, April 28, right? like giving them some of those options too to wrap their heads around might be helpful. >> And going to your point, four pages versus eight pages, you know, be narrow. The workshop talked about that as well as a they're all different, which is is why we we pick these is is where what what is our focus? Do we want to learn variety of things to make it eight pages or do you want to make it hey, we're going to focus on the referendum and and gain that input? Any

093other questions, comments from the board? >> So, is there any, you know, so a couple things we we we talked about, you know, what school perceptions recommending if to push it back uh we currently have the motion uh the the approved a survey results um back by October by September 20th. Um the we can stay with that right now without any action. Uh we would stay with that and continue with the progress on there. Or if the board wishes to change and then make a new motion um um with a later timeline, we can do that. We we have time to do all as well. We just can't move the timeline up. So, but no actions needed tonight, but it's just it may be just some thinking about some things and we can come back

094and you can I'll put all the results get all the results to you guys and then obviously this will be an action item at the end of the month as well uh for your consideration. >> You mean get all the workshop results? Okay. Yeah, that would be helpful to have that all in one spot. >> Yep. I can do that. And once again, no actions needed because we're on track for for three months of progress. And if we do push it back a month, for example, to the October meeting or I wouldn't go past really, you know, November, beginning of November when we need the results, I believe that's when we we we got them back because that gives you November and December and the beginning of January to consider a possible April referendum. Righty,

095any other questions for the board? I guess I guess I just have a couple quick comments too based off the workshop that we did take as well. Um some high some highlights uh that was brought up. Um our key per I know we're planning on going through our key performance indicators again or like that the district's going to hit. I think tacking it was very similar to what Dodge did more like what should the sup focus on. I think that would be a valuable way where we can take information from the community and then start pulling triggers on that. Um at the same time I really liked Ellsworth's blunt bluntness too. I mean they were pretty blunt. If this happens we make this cuts. these cuts. If this happens, we make these cuts. If this

096happens, we make these cuts. I think we've that that that's my profession. Uh that's my personal thing is that, you know, rip the band-aid off or not sugarcoat things. And so maybe maybe we need to take that approach gap because it's because it's not threats, it's just facts. And so, um, if if referendums don't pass and if the budget situations don't change, we need to we need to make cuts. So, >> yeah. And you mentioned our focus areas and our board goal, they're coming to an end. They're four years of coming to an end. So, we could to focus um where the board should be making their priority. So, as an as an option as well. So, Mr. >> I think that the workshop was extremely valuable. I think we got a lot of good

097input from um everybody who attended. And so, I think it's hard to because we talked about it, they were so good. I think it's hard until we see the synopsis of it then to really make a have a a serious discussion of it. So, I look forward to to getting that and then I think we can have the discussion that we probably need that we will need to have. >> Yep. And I'll get you the synopsis. And once again, this just the beginning. We have time. >> Yeah. >> And it's really about what are our next steps? How do we gather more feedback? Um, summer months are coming, but doesn't mean that we can't try, you know, get more workshops and maybe will it be better attended. Maybe we can have morning and afternoon, you

098know, you know, workshops. So, but anyway, we can move definitely. We'll get all those uh typed up, shared out, and uh we'll move forward. >> Donkey. >> Yep. Just um could we also get a timeline like this one, but what it would look like for um going later on in the year like we talked about as prep for a possible April one? um just to consider that along with the feedback. Not for anything in particular at this point. >> I'll definitely get that. It's not a problem. >> Thank you. >> Any other comments or questions from the board? Seeing that we don't have motion, I see that we move on to item 2 B, discussion, possible recommendation to approve revisions to the 2526 budget. Miss Hower, >> thank you. Uh going back to our budget

099calendar, um I have highlighted in yellow what we're do covering in this agenda item, which is the third budget revision for the school year. It is not the last budget revision. The last one will actually happen in July. Um although we only have less than two weeks left of school, we still have a lot of expenses that settle out um through the beginning of July, including all of our payroll payables. Um employees taking new employee benefit elections, which is happening right now. Um so the final budget revision will be in July. So going to revenue um the main change were in the state sources um particularly with our special education aid. So as was mentioned earlier special education aid has been a big topic uh this school year. Um it started back in the bianial

100state budget um in which a percent was given and then it ended up being some certain not some sufficient which basically means a fixed pot of money versus fully funding to the percentage. Um so as the year has progressed and conversations have happened uh there is a news headline today um that seems very optimistic. Uh however, we haven't received any details yet. So, um some of the headlines will say 50%. Uh update I saw this afternoon said year 1 42%, year 2 50%. It's unknown if year 1 is this year or next year, it's still unknown if it's some certain or some sufficient. So although there's a lot of excitement and optimism, um me included, we still just don't know enough to really impact the budget yet. Um and so this is adjusting the special

101education aid down, but you may very well see in July that it comes right back up. We will just have to wait and see. Now, um this would be the accurate estimate with the variables that we know. And then our AGR aid also went down and that's directly tied to enrollment, but we don't find out um that amount right away when the budget's created at the beginning of the year. >> I'm sorry, Miss Hower. AR >> is achievement gap reduction >> achievement gap reduction. So that's the report Miss Mansky gives you quarterly on student achievement. Um, we use that funding to support our instructional coaches and interventionists at our elementary level. >> And you'll see the report on AGR is next month. >> All right, moving on to salaries. Um, the reductions here or the

102savings again are over budget and that's mainly due to um positions that became vacant that we left unfilled. um including in the substitutes, whether that be a building substitute position that was left unfilled, but also substitutes. We have to budget for any long-term sub needs throughout the year, meaning a maternity leave, a medical leave, and that's really a wild card each year because it's dependent on the needs of our staff. Um we haven't needed as many long-term sub positions this year as we have had previously. Um so we were able to adjust that budget down benefits. Um as your salaries decrease your uh benefits for WRS and FICA also decrease and then um health insurance and H down to about one plan that somebody. So overall salaries and benefits you put them together uh largely

103due to unfilled positions. our school budgets. Um, these were had unused allocations of $40,000. And so this is just adjusting to action budget increases. There is a corresponding uh change to either the non-contracted pay, meaning we used the grants by stuff instead of pay for things like professional development, or there's an increase in the grant itself. This is just a mixture of a bunch of little things. uh netting out to $50,000. Um and then Sparta Virtual Learning Academy, SVLA. Um there were some programming um looking for efficiencies with how we purchase textbooks and things like that. Um but then also it's just based on the enrollment and the needs of the kids and the classes that they take. um student services, the special education budget. Um this is not special education staff or transportation. This

104is all of the purchase services for special education. And when you see this budget um change, it's likely due to needs that we have to purchase outside of the district, whether it be through CISA or alternative placements. And so this budget uh typically does fluctuate throughout the year based on new needs of kids. Was that a quick question? Yes. Alternative placements, that would be like some of our students that have to go to Chelita. >> Yep. >> Right. Okay. >> And those come and go throughout the year. So that's where some of those might come from that weren't there before. >> It would be things like that or additional CISA services. Yep. >> Okay. Thanks. um for business services budget uh including central office and district operations um buildings and grounds that $30,000 increase uh

105is due to electrical work that was done at Herman as a result of a lightning strike. Our insurance deductible is 50,000. So it was a big budget item that wasn't enough to get insurance coverage. Um, for capital projects, the $80,000, uh, we upgraded our Verrada door access control system at the buildings that aren't being touched by the facility referendum. Um, we upgraded the projector screen here um, right in front of you. Uh, that's used quite a bit for staff professional development. And then um just as a reminder, the other big costs out of that capital project this year were the remaining costs to finish the solar panel project, including the fencing around it at Herman. Uh business services, the 15,000 is for the Red Rover subscription. So if you recall, we're bringing our substitutes inhouse

106through payroll. And so to do that, we need a substitute um management software which will uh allow substitutes to be requested. It'll manage the vacancy um basically auto call the substitute and um help manage that process. Uh for insurance, this is an exciting one. Uh the $75,000 savings is all in work comp. So, we have a really active safety committee. This year, we've done quite a bit with pushing putting safety in the building levels. So, we've had a district-wide committee for over a decade. And this year, we created building level committees also. Um, and the focus has been on educating and doing programming within the buildings to get buy in for a safety culture. Well, our work comp um premium is based on actual costs incurred over a three-year average for our um work comp

107premium went by this much this year based on our high performance and a little preview um I just got the renewal for next year and we were able to maintain that decrease for next year as well. So that's very exciting and shows that um but we and safety does come back and real budget savings. Uh open enrollments adjusting to actual we have our um we call it self insurance but basically our employees can use neighborhood family clinic for free. This was the first year of that. All the bills come directly to the district. Um and so we actually started the budget this year with 200,000. Um I think we can decrease it at this point to 75,000 uh just based on the utilization trends. Um and then the last big one is transportation. Uh this

108one again, we start the year with a budgeted number of routes and then add in some for unknown fluctuations in gas prices or um you know if we get um maybe some homeless students or students who need transportation to lacrosse and things. There's just a lot of unknowns in the transportation. Again, this year we were able to manage that budget pretty well. So um I believe we can decrease it at this point. And when you put all that together, um, we were able to have cost avoidance of almost $950,000 this year. Um, so this slide shows the change in revenue, the change in expense to get to the net change in fund balance. Um, so we previously were thinking we'd about break even with a $80,000 change on a $48 million budget. Um, right now

109we're looking to end um over 600,000 to the good, keeping in mind we still have one more round of budget revisions coming. Are there any? >> Yeah, go ahead. I've got I have a question. Um could you expand on the item available for revenue stabilization? >> Yeah, absolutely. Um so what that is is that's part of our fund balance. So our fund balance of the 10 well 11.2 million. Um last year the board said of that fund balance we want you to hold 1 and a.5 million of it that you can use if you need to to balance your budget. So they basically said your expenses can come in one and a half million over budget and it's okay. We'll use fund balance to cover that. So um with all of these projections, we won't

110need to use that this year, which means it'll roll over again into next year. Um so basically that's part of that 23% fund balance. >> Thank you. >> Yep. Any other questions, comments, or questions from the board? All right. Thanks. Thank Leah. >> Um, and I will need approval on this, please. >> Oh, yeah. That's pro. You probably do. All right. So, I'd like to request a motion to approve the budget reitions revisions as presented. >> So, move. >> I'll second. >> All right. So, we have a motion by Mr. Burns Gilbert, a second by Miss Barren. Uh, roll call. Wendy. >> Mr. Wells. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lasco. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gonkey. >> Yes. >> Miss Barren. >> Yes. Mr. Burns Gilbert. >> Yes. >> Dr. Bernett. Yes, >> Miss RDE. >> Yes.

111>> And Mr. Burns Gilbert, was that okay to go on consent or would you like to have the full board? >> Yes. Consent, please. >> Consent. Okay. Ashley, is that okay on consent? >> Awesome. All right. Moving on to item 3C, discussion and possible recommendation to approve the 2627 preliminary budget. Miss Hower. >> All right. You're gonna feel like you have deja vu because these slides look really similar. Um but this is now the preliminary budget for next year, the 2627 year. So going back to the budget calendar, um the highlighting just shifted down to preliminary budget for next year. And so I just wanted to take a moment to go over what a preliminary budget is. Um, so what it is is, and I am looking for approval ready tonight if um or at

112the next meeting is fine too. Um, but it's basically an initial spending plan or a road map or a guide, however you'd like to phrase it, to the district to start the school year. And the purpose of this is we don't have an original budget till the end of October, but we begin incurring costs right away on July 1st. And so it's the board giving direction to the district on basically how to allocate money for those first couple of months um knowing that it's not an official budget until the end of October. So it's your chance to say the programming that you prioritize um again with the understanding that there are still a lot of estimates and projections in what I'm about to present to you. Um, and I can 100% guarantee you that it

113will not match the original budget in October. Um, but it's the best indication of where we're at as of today. So, um, starting out with revenue, there's some things that we know right now and there's some things that are still estimates and projections. So, the things that we know, we know the operating referendum of 750,000 is not continuing next year. We know there's a $325 per student increase in the revenue limit. We know that the amount um receive and that we pay for open enrollment is increasing under state law. We know there's no change in the per pupil funding under state law. We know that federally there's a decrease in title funds and we know our Department of Defense grant is done. Things that we're still estimating and we might not know until October are

114um our enrollment. So we know we're projected to go down about another 100 kids districtwide, but we won't actually know that until September. Um we won't know the exact number of our open enrollment students in and out. We know who has applied, but we don't know who actually will. Um, as I mentioned just a little bit ago, we have some news on a special ed reimbursement rate, but we don't know what that means or how it will be applied or when it will be applied. Um, and then finally, for our federal grants, we will likely have carryover, but we don't know those amounts yet. So, as you can see, there's a lot of unknowns, but based on what we're projecting, you can see that we're looking at total revenue going down about a half million

115dollars. Going to expenses, I broke out salaries and benefits. So, there's some things we know. We know we're doing 2.63% CPI steps and lanes. We know that we're decreasing the number of positions. I put an asterk there because um there's still discussion here as to um do we continue to decrease or um so we have some known and some unknown potentially. Uh we know we're bringing subs in house and last month you approved the rate of 155 a day and we know what our health insurance renewal was for next year. But there's some things we still don't know. We don't know attrition um which can sometimes result in the budget swinging either direction. Um bringing substitutes in house. We don't know how the staffing levels will change. So I know what the filler rates were

116right now through Kelly education. When we go through payroll, will our staffing levels be better, worse? We don't know. We need to make some estimates. And then health insurance selections. This is an unknown every year. So, a family health insurance plan costs the district about $20,000. So, if only five people um pick up family health insurance out of our 450 people, that's right away $100,000 swing in the budget. So, we're going through open enrollment right now. Um but that can be a big variable sometimes. So this slide um if you look at that reductions line that's the reductions and this is a net amount um because we did have a couple um position additions also but this is the net change based on all of the changes to positions. The change for CPI steps and

117lanes are all in that contracted pay line item. And then this is benefits. Again that pink line is the change in benefits due to attrition position reduction and so on. for all other costs. The things that we know um we know what we could do with our building and department budgets this year and we could look to continue that for next year. We know we need new textbooks in some of our courses which Miss Mansky has already presented to you. Um we know that we're not planning any capital projects per our long range plan. Anything that we had planned we're putting under the facility referendum. We know that the cost for open enrollment is changing. We know our long-range plan for technology. We know that we're stopping Kelly education with the substitutes. And we know

118that you gave us direction to reduce bus routes. Unknown things again, the specialed student needs. So like we talked about placements or CISA services. Um those can add up very quickly. And so, um, that's always something that we estimate and change throughout the year. Property tax chargebacks, um, typically that's 20 to30,000 a year. This year it was just a couple hundred. I had to add that back for next year because we don't know until all the taxes get settled at the county. Utility costs, um, we budget 8% for inflation. Usually it's not that much, but sometimes it can be. And so again, this is all based on conservative budgeting. Um, and then private school vouchers, we don't find that amount until the middle of October. And then here's the individual slides for each of those

119amounts and categories. And what you'll see is um that we believe we can decrease total expenses by $200,000. Um so this is the reduction in busing. So then the total budgeted expenses from as of right now for this year up to 479 which is a total swing from this year of a million dollar. So a 500,000 reduction in revenue, $500,000 increase in expenses gets a net million change. Um, and so then that's where that's based on all of the reductions that we're aware of to date. And so what you'll see in the next two slides is is this where the board would like us to stop, which means that we would start to use fund balance for approximately 450,000. Um, so here's projecting out uh three years. So 2526, that first column is where we're

120at today in this year's budget. would be the preliminary budget I just presented to you, which includes $910,000 of reductions. 2728. Um we don't have the list of what those reductions would look like, but if we did another 700,000, which is an arbitrary number at this point, um you can see that we would end next year almost a million dollar deficit. And then that's where that gets to three years out. If we didn't continue to do reductions, we'd be at about a $3 million deficit a year. And so those are really the two areas um that we need to look at is where do we want to do reductions versus using fund balance knowing that in 2829 there's no fund balance left to use. And so we would either need $3 million of reductions or

121we would need a $3 million referendum. So, um, that kind of brings us to this slide then, which is showing our fund balance today. And keep in mind, all of the surplus and deficit is still based on all those estimates and projections that I just went over. So these numbers will change but with the information that we know right now you can see that by 2829 we would drop down to a 12% fund balance and board policy is 18%. So for this next year we have a plan. We have our projected reductions. We know that we'll need to use some fund balance. Um, but we need to keep in mind the multi-year outlook as well. These balances are all assuming no operating referendum. So, anything you were, and I know that's not the topic of

122this agenda item, but just know that if you were to add in an operating referendum, these balances would change. Are there any questions or Sam, anything you wanted to add? >> No, thank you, Miss Hower. Um, for the reductions, I'll go back to, you know, on slide 54, we're looking at $910,000 right now of reductions. Um, you heard some public input tonight. Uh, part of those reductions that they talked about are included in that in that 900 specifically on slide 44 and 45 when you talk about salaries and benefits. So that all comes together with our budget plan or you know preliminary budget for 2627. If the board wishes to change you know the the number of reductions either increase the reductions or decrease the reductions the fund balance change in expenses would the uh

123fund balance would change uh the use of fund balance um and you know if we don't re if we reduce the reductions this year that in theory means that we have more for next year that we need to do while keeping the 18% uh board policy. And so it's it's it's really about, you know, 26 27 27 28 gives you an outlook. Um, jumping back to the school perceptions, we talked about tax tolerance. We talked about possible April. All these things come into play when you start talking 2627 budget as well. A lot of variables, a lot of unknowns. And you know, we mentioned the um um you know, the possible 50%. I heard the same thing that nothing changes for 26 27 or 25 26, but 50%. It it it's got some hurdles to

124go through. I know it's going to be some quick hurdling, but um we just don't know the expenses and we may get, you know, we have high cost aid uh that we don't know about. We have a lot of variables we don't know about yet, but we have to assume that we're not going to get any additional revenue and move forward. >> And I just wanted to add, so again, there's been nothing official yet, but the the update I read from, I believe it was Wazda today said year one for special ed aid would be 42%. This year we're closer to like um 35, I believe. Yeah. So, next year I had budgeted 38%. Um, so if it goes from 38 to 42% that's an increase of $200,000. So, um, based on what we know

125now, potentially our revenue would increase $200,000. If it goes up to 50% next year, it'd be an increase of somewhere in the 7 to $800,000 range. Um, so that's possible. If I read correctly though, it looks like that might be two years out, but again, unknown at this point. >> Any questions, comments from the board? >> So, this got me thinking about it. Um, we're looking at the total in fund balance and what we were looking at and I know we every year we approve or pre-approve I think it is for uh the potential of doing cash flow borrowing if we need to but that does hurt us if we continually do that >> at this which would any of these years put us low enough in that November time frame u looking at from

126this last year where we would actually have to do cash flow borrowing. >> Yeah. Um certainly 27 28 we would be in that range. Uh 26 27 we were pretty close this year. I mean we had just a little bit of a buffer. So um there's a chance to we watch it really really closely in November. Um bills that we can hold on a couple extra weeks. We I mean we watch monitor it pretty closely. Um so we might be able to get through 26 27. It'd be close. 27 28 it'd be highly likely we'd have to cash flow borrow. >> Gotcha. So without reducing or changing anything, we'd probably be cash flow borrowing two or three years in a row, which would start to impact our interest rate over time. Is that kind of

127what I understand? >> We would be at higher risk of it impacting our interest rate. Yep. >> Okay. Thanks, >> M. >> Yes. Thank you. So it looks as though the change the the reductions are essentially these and you forgive me because I'm new at this but are essentially the the attrition from the teachers. Am I wrong? >> Um so that's all positions that would include some hourly positions some certified. Um, I do not have it broken out on this side. I can share that information. I just don't have it handy. But that's all positions. Um, so I know there's some educational assistant positions, for example, or secretary. I can't recall exactly, but there's hourly in there as well. I think the operations referendum the talk was that it was to cut co-curriculars not and

128and I think people voting in that referendum would not have equated that with cutting teacher staff. Um, so I guess I'm wondering what else we can look at co-curricular-wise. I apparently we are cutting 25,000 from the co-curriculars but um I'm wondering if what opportunity do we have and how can we look at other possible ways to cut the budget other than not filling these teacher positions because I think these positions for these core courses are critical. Yeah. Um, speaking just to the co-curricular pay, so the payroll for the coaches is the biggest part of the budget over um I would say the the payroll as well as the transportation are the biggest parts of the co-curricular budget. So if you look on this slide here with the non-contracted pay of call it 1.3 million that's

129all pay >> which slide number >> um yep uh 44. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, no problem. So, this 1.3 million, all of our high school co-curricular um work agreements would be in here, but this is also the work agreements for our team leaders, our mentors, um any extra duty contract that staff have. Um typically the extra duty contracts are in the certified staff. Um, but they're not all co-curricular based. So, um, and not all co-curriculars are held by, um, some of our coaches, that's their only employment for the district as so, uh, this non-contracted pay kind of includes all employee groups, I guess, is where I'm headed with that comment. Um, but just know that this isn't only co-curriculars. This is all extra duty work, whether it be um ticket takers, crowd control, um

130any extra hours, uh all of those summer school pay is in there. So, um I don't know that we could get to the same dollar amount of reductions only looking at co-curriculars. Well, so if we do get this additional monies of perhaps 200,000 for the year and we do look at cutting the um extra pay, which to me makes sense, I would like to be able to look at that and see if there's an opportunity to make reductions there rather than English and social studies, the core courses. Um, is that possible to look at that? >> Yeah, absolutely. So, um, what we could do is on a future agenda item or even in some weekly notes, I can share with the board a breakdown of the different types of things that are encompassed in that

131non-contracted pay. >> Thank you. I would appreciate that. >> Yep. For sure. Um, sorry. And then the other part that I mentioned was transportation. So, if you look at that high school co-curricular budget of 325,000, oops, slide 47. So, that would be all co-curriculars, not just athletics. Um, and that would be all of the cost for supplies, uniforms, equipment, and transportation. As far as the breakout of what's transportation, I can't tell you that off the top of my head, but I could get that information for you as well, >> please. And thank you. >> Yep. >> Any other questions, comments from the board? >> Oh, I guess similar to to Miss Rude, I'd like to to see an updated list of the positions that we have proposed. Um, right. We want to make sure that

132those are still uh something that would make sense. Um if there's new information, which a lot has come up, especially with whatever we learned from the state surplus, I think will be helpful. But in my head, those pieces in addition to what Miss Rou just said too of of identifying some more of those specific co-curricular pieces that we talked through two weeks ago would be helpful to recalibrate knowing that we were 640,000 in the good in those latest budget revisions and might see some more coming and have revenue stabilation and fund balance. To me, those are uh more reasons to avoid the people cuts and do the operations cuts and then again spend a year collaborating together to make the best plans possible moving forward. Any other comments, questions from the board? All righty. So,

133I I guess I got a few just to piggyback some I'm going to be the raincloud guy. Uh I know that we work towards making our e we're going to call it extra duty. That was some work that we did. Yeah, we did markments for extra duty pay particularly extra extras or whatever. Is that correct, Sam? >> Yeah, we did that I believe in the 22nd or 22 23 school year. We we went through that process, I believe. >> And our uh our community mailer did mention an increase of CLA class sizes as a potential budget reduction. I presume >> we said uh co-curriculars maintain class size and staffing. Yes, that was a part of our message. Yep. >> All righty. Just wanted to make sure I I guess I guess as much as we,

134you know, click our heels and see how great this potential what what whoever is butting heads in Madison or if if that leads to a good outcome or uh with with our conservative budget and led to led to a great outcome, it's great. But I still see, you know, I still see 28 29 and we we still need my personal opinion is that we still need to be we need to be making moves. We need to start moving the chess pieces now so that we're prepared for 28 29 instead of scrambling. And so that's that's why I believe the moves that we've made are wiser, especially because those moves are used to make our pay for all of our staff competitive. And so like I remember last meeting people were like just $70,000. Well, that's

135that's one staff member. So it it's it's it's big bucks and we have to balance our budget and I'd prefer us to continue to make moves the best we we can so that we are prepared for 2829 in case if things continue to not go our way. So >> may I just say that I don't think we can make the responsible judgments without additional data and I'm delighted that um we will receive those. >> Mr. Bernette, >> uh, I think we need to keep in mind as well that this, uh, agreement on the state budget still has to get through the assembly and the Senate and it's a one-time band-aid is all it applies. Um, it doesn't fix the system. along with the system. We are looking at in 27, summer of 27. Yep. Summer

136of 27, we are looking at a new state budget. >> We have a new we'll have a new governor for sure. We'll have a new assembly leader. We'll have a new senate leader as well. Um, who's going to take control, the the Democrats or Republicans? That's up in the air. So, that's a wild card as well. And we won't know that till possibly June of 27. So the end of this one if we're lucky June. >> So uh I don't know. Did you want did you were you looking for some guidance out of this Sam or >> No, it's we're looking for a Well, we don't we're looking for guidance. Yes. However, um we can think about the information and not make a recommendation to the full board. uh which is perfectly fine and because

137this is coming back on the agenda next time for approval anyway. So uh if we wait to get some additional data and you know some additional questions answered this is coming back um probably some condensed slides um but I would encourage you to be ready for you know what are some options for um adopting that preliminary budget. Once again, it's preliminary, but when you start talking staffing levels, it's the end of May. So, and once again, no one uh you know, the positions that were talked tonight were all due to attrition. All doing to attrition. No one was losing a job. So, >> so um so for approval what we would look for is that by July 1st we have an approved preliminary budget. So we do have some time um which was the goal

138for bringing this to you tonight is even if at the end of May you're not ready if we could do committee in June. So, we have a little bit of time, but our goal is that by July 1, you have an approved budget. Um, with the understanding that if anything staffing related, always the sooner the better when it comes to knowing staffing pictures. Um so some things to think about are um slide 54 this preliminary budget kind of the key takeaways are we're looking at 910,000 of reductions and 440,000 of fund balance. So I would suggest that maybe that's where you start first of are you comfortable with those two numbers? would you like us to do more or less reductions knowing that the the side effect of that is then using more or less

139fund balance. So um is this where the board wants to land? I would say is kind of question number one with the reductions and the um use of fun balance. And then kind of step two would be of those reductions where does the board want those to land? So right now you saw that they're in staffing and in transportation and do you want us to shift those and some other areas. So like you mentioned co-curriculars we decrease 25,000 but the big levers are in staffing and transportation and is that where you want us to keep them or do you want us to look around? So, um, we'll bring that additional data to you, but those would kind of be the two questions that we'd be looking for guidance when you approve the preliminary budget. So,

140I guess so my my personal opinion said I'd be comfortable with more reductions, but I'd like to request a motion from the board. Do we need a motion at this point or you're asking for that direction? We don't. >> We do not, but we could provide We We could We do not need a motion, but we can um if we wanted to put our feelers out there, maybe make some motions on because nothing's set in stone until the next meeting at the last week of May. So I mean we can make any recommendations, ask administration to do make some moves, what whatever is up is up to you guys. Um I would like to make a motion to approve the 2627 preliminary budget. >> We have a motion. Do we have a second? Well, I'll

141make that second then. >> Roll call. Wendy. >> Mr. Lasco. >> No. >> Dr. Bernett. >> Yes. >> Miss Barren. No, >> Mr. Gonkey. >> No, >> Miss RDE. >> No, not yet. >> Mr. Burns Gilbert. >> No, >> Mr. Wells. >> Yes. >> Motion fails. Uh 52. Yeah. Yeah. 52. Um we just guess we're we're not ready to make a recommendation to the full board. Do we wish to move on? We can either move on or we've been going for a couple hours. It's up to you if you want to take a break. >> I don't want to assume that the rest of them are quickly quick, but maybe they will be. I'd like to I I guess we could request a five or a six minute recess. We could come back at 8:15.

142>> Okay. Thank you. 8:15 minutes. >> And anybody in the audience who wants to speak for at the next public input session, if you could please fill a form out and I'll be out there to gather them. Um if it's if you wish to speak, you'll have more opportunities to think about it, but um we'll gather them in between during the recess. bathroom. See, I warned you. >> I was on the beach all last week. I was like, that's a hard job to come back. >> Yeah. Way to jump in the deep What position is your son? >> Okay. Sounds like he did good. >> Yeah, >> I was hopeful for >> Yeah. Thundercloud every day. What the heck? What? >> You want to look at your kids? >> Think like you're going to cry.

143Forever. You ready, guys? >> Got to wait for hell. It's like when you get on the stage, I'm gonna >> just get on your mic and your seat. report to the stage. >> All righty. So, it's 8:16 and I'd like to resume the committee of the whole meeting. Um, moving on to discussion three, business 3D discussion and possible recommendation to approve the 2627 SASD student handbook. Mr. Russ, >> yes. in board docs. Uh there's the updated handbook along with the um you know changes that administration wanted to just I wouldn't say anything that is is major but uh just a list of um changes to the handbook that the building's noted. So uh if there's no question we could take a motion and this can go on consent as well. >> All righty. So yeah,

144I guess if there's no other questions or comments, I'd like to request a motion to approve the 2627 student parent handbook and to be placed under consent. >> Also move. >> We we got a motion by Miss RDE, a second. >> I'll second that. >> All righty. So we have a motion and a second by Miss RDE and a second by Dr. Bernett. All those in favor, please say I. I. >> I. I. >> All oppose say nay. Motion carries. All right. Item 3E. Discussion of possible recommendation to approve the SHs and Meadow View co-curricular handbooks. >> Yes, the handbooks are in board docs. Um, no changes to Meadow View and uh the only really change into SHS is to take the uh language of UNC uh unbecoming a student athlete out. That's not best

145practice to have that in and um and take out out of school suspensions to uh infer either in or out of school suspensions would result in uh a code violation. And pending any questions we could take a motion and this can be placed on consent as well. I move to approve the 2627 high school and middle view co-curricular handbooks as presented on consent. >> I'll second. >> All righty. So, we have a motion by Mr. Burns Gilbert, a second by Miss Darcy RDE. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. All oppose say nay. Motion carries. 70. All righty. Discussion 3F, possible recommendation to revise policy 5855.01, national competition expenses. Sam, >> yes, Mr. Dao is making his way down as well. Uh, the current policy is on uh the uh screen and shared

146with the board and board docs and everything like that. This is one of these uh policies that by policy uh is reviewed annually um by the board in um and this is the time that we look at that. So uh the projected budget impact is about 25 to 30,000 with this uh current um and I'll let Mr. Dao talk through the possible options as well. So, uh, as you just saw the current board policy, um, first option is to just keep it as it is. Um, and that's, uh, $600 for an individual and then for an entire group, it's $5,000 for that group. Um, and then, uh, what we had there was $600 per participant up to $5,000. So, that blocks it off at 600 a piece. 600 per participant, reduce it from 5,000 down

147to 2500. Um, you could end up having a one-year plan, which would be the 2500. Uh, then overall do away with the policy, and then obviously with the current situation, you could you could do away with the policy. Uh what I'd like to highlight with this is this policy makes it possible for a lot of our families and a lot of our kids to go and participate in a lot of the things you see on Facebook. Okay. Um it provides opportunities for them. So that's really where you're weighing. And I'm not I'm not here to make a recommendation of what like plan to really go with here. I'm just here to inform you uh what you know this money goes towards with that um some of the questions that we have advisor stipen right now

148one advisor all the costs okay um do we put a cap on that for expenses um also along those lines every single nationals trip could turn into a teacher being out of school for a week so sub pay um do you go away from covering advisors which with a lot of these trips, some of them are required to go with. So, we're then doing away with the cost of something that we're requiring somebody to go on. Uh, so I don't know if that's that's the greatest there. Um, another question, does the policy only apply to organizations who qualify? So, like let's say you have a competition, you qualify for nationals. At that competition, you go, there are some of the nationals that are invitationals. So, you received an invite to go. You didn't necessarily It

149wasn't based on a performance to get to go to nationals as well. And I I tried to frontload this so that you guys don't ask me here, but I went to my AD meetings, every other every other uh conference school. Nobody has a board policy and nobody pays. It's all fundraiser dollars. So, I wanted to preemptively have that answer for you. Um that's the best of my knowledge from what all the ads said, but I wanted to at least let you know that uh so those questions didn't come up. So this is a student experience that would change by funding it through it. Would it be automatically changed? No, because we could say, "Hey, we're going to you fundraising and then you you're you're able to go." um does it take away a an opportunity

150for a a student? These are additional opportunities. This isn't the only time that these the students would be able to compete if I understand correctly. They have to earn a lot of times they have to go to they have their regionals then they go to state and if they they win at or they earn their way from state to nationals. So this isn't a necessarily a opportunity that they're the a club is going to go under because of this policy. But this is a policy that like I said before is brought to you guys annually. And you know we I referenced the speakers earlier. I'll reference this one. This is a student experience that they were referencing. One of them possibly that the board could look at with that. Any questions? And it's really up

151to the board to decide uh where we where they want to go. Oops. Just just go. Thank you. >> Um, so if if they in other jurisdictions, if they qualify, are they does the jurisdiction pay for the their the event then? >> Well, like for other conference schools? >> Yes. >> No, it's it's fundraiser dollars and then the cost falls on the families. >> And so even if they have won a competition >> Yeah. Yep. even if they qualify. Uh we we actually had one that the dollar amount would have gone up. Uh we we ended up having uh one of our gymnastics uh individuals, she qualified for a national competition, but her costs was were covered by the state of Wisconsin. And that's that's I think part of the problem with this a lot

152of times is with these national competitions. It's not like you made nationals now we're going to as organization are going to pay for you to come out here and and compete for us. It's we're bringing you out there but you're covering transportation, hotel, the registration, all those things, the licensing, everything to be able to participate in this. Well, this sounds like one of the co-curricular things that the referendum um it may be a casualty of the referendum. So, I would move that we um immediately terminate this policy if we can save$25 to $30,000. Just going to ask a couple questions. Um can you share I I think on a previous slide there was the total budget I think was 25 to 30 right so how many students actually use that do you know >> so

153all this is where it's a little bit murky with the with the verbiage because the way I read this is if one person goes to nationals it's $600 if you go past that it's up to $5,000 that's the way I interpreted it okay so you could have an organization with show choir that went and that's 60 kids splitting up that $50,000 and there could be another trip with three kids that are splitting up the $5,000. So, um when you're talking about entire groups, you go anywhere from show choir with 60 that went uh down to um you had powerlifting, we end up having nine. Becca four, correct? You had four. Yeah, she had four. Uh FCCLA I think qualified five. Archery sent nine. Um all for those. So >> I'd love to see that on

154a paper somewhere like that breakdown. You just rattle off five different right? That that was part of where my head was going too of if one student qualifies for nationals in multiple right experiences. Is that restrictive in any way to to that piece of but yeah anyway um so those numbers of the usage was on my mind. >> Um and then also just that piece of of you kind of answered it though of of 5,000 over 70 versus 5,000 with four or five possibly a smaller group. So that that's helpful. Thank you. >> I'd like to second that motion. >> Did we want that placed under consent? Yes. >> Yes. >> So, we got a motion by Miss RDE, seconded by Dr. Bernett. Um, any other comments or questions from the board? Hearing none, can

155we do an all in favor for this one? >> All righty. All in favor say I. >> I. >> All oppose say nay. >> Motion carries. 70. All right, moving on. >> Can I Can I just make one point off of a comment that was made earlier? I want to be able to answer it, Colin. Uh, you asked about the safety with the track area. Uh, we actually moved our high school track meet to West Salem because I saw that and recognized that it's probably not the best place to host a track meet. So, for the high school, we took care of that problem. So, >> yep. >> Awesome. Thank you. Uh, yeah. Moving on to item 3G, a discussion of possible recommendation to approve possible irate projects. Miss Hower? >> Yep. Um I'm just

156going to get us started and then Matt can take it over. So this was noticed as possible approval. Um after talking with Matt this afternoon, uh we don't need approval, but we still would like to educate you on and the e-ate projects. Um, the reason we don't need approval, I was thinking we did to receive the -ate funding. Uh, it was actually just per board policy. Um, however, this is being paid for under referendum dollars, so you've technically already approved it. Um, but it's a great opportunity to learn more about our -ate funding and how we use it. >> So, yeah, our current uh rate percentage is 80%. So that means we get reimbursed 80% or paid 80% if you use spy billing. There's two different ways to bill it. So we typically file for

157spy. So we paid 20% upfront and then USA uh re reimbures the vendors back the other 80%. Um this year we decided to go to or we had to go for wireless and switches because our current wireless system is end of life in December of this year. So we were forced to go away from our seven eighty old wireless system and 10year-old switches. We and we decided to do switches along with that. So that's the first project. Um, we also did UPS's, the battery backups for all of them in all the CL the switches and all the closets. Um, we went with N1C lithium batteries and they also carry a 10-year warranty on them. So, that's a pretty pretty hefty warranty on a UPS because we've had a lot of not so much lithium ion,

158but uh, lead acid ones fail in two or three years in the past and 10 years is a big deal for those. And then just our normal two internet connection through WISNET uh which is a yearly cost and fiber maintenance for our own fiber and that includes repair if any needed and that's just a arbitrary number and to not to exceed 25,000. We won't probably spend that much unless we have our own fiber cut at the high school or something. Hopefully not. So, um the these are projects that or purchases we would need either way. Um they are all eligible for our facility referendum and were planned at for sure the high school to get replaced there. Um and so we are doing them districtwide. But the nice part is um USAC it's a formula

159but the long and short of it is based on our free reduced numbers it determines our funding reimbursement and so with our free reduced population of about 50% that qualifies us for 80% funding. So with all of these purchases only 20% of the cost is covered by the district and that would be out of the facility referendum. The rest is through federal funding. Any any questions, comments for the board? >> Does that warranty for the UPS's cover the lithium batteries themselves? >> I believe so. I think it's all-encompassing. >> That's awesome. >> What does USAC stand for? Out of curiosity. >> Now you're putting me on the spot. Universal Service. >> It's a federal agency. >> Good enough. >> Does that help? >> I'll Google it tonight. All righty. Um, since we don't need a

160unless we had any other further comments or whatever. I don't think we need a motion. So, we can just move on if everyone's okay with that. So, yeah. Thank you. All right. Moving on to item 3, discussion and possible recommendation to approve the 2627 business insurance. Miss Hower? >> Yeah. So on the screen you'll see um under expiring that would be for this year. Renewal would be for the 2627 school year. Um this is our property insurance, our liability insurance, our auto insurance, and our work comp insurance. So if you go about twothirds of the way down that graph, you'll see estimated package premium. So for all of our property liability, auto insurance, this year we paid 203,000. Next year the renewal is 213,000. So it went up slightly. Um which is understandable with rates

161and things these days. Um but the winner, which is what I mentioned earlier, is work comp. So, although the change to next year from this year is only a $6,000 decrease, the more exciting part is if you look back a year prior, um it was about $80,000 higher than that 158,000. And as I mentioned earlier, it's a three-year average. So, when we had the low premium this year, um I was hesitant on if that would pop back up next year. And it's super exciting to see that it didn't. And a large part of that is if you look at that experience med. So what that's showing is um basically what's our rate of injuries that are incurring cost. And so 1.0 would be baseline. You can see we went from a 1.07 07 down to

162a 0.92 which if you look back I believe it's eight years or 10 years but over the past many years that's the lowest mod that we've had as a district. So that's a huge win for our safety committee and our safety programming and our strong return to work program. Um so I am recommending approval of these insuranceances um for our business insurance for 2627. >> Perfect. Any comments, questions from the board? >> We can go on consent. >> I'll move to approve the 2627 business insurance as presented on consent. Second. >> We have a motion by Mr. Burns Gilbert, a second by Mr. Gonkey. Uh, roll call. Wendy. >> Mr. Lazco. >> Dr. Bernett. >> Yes. >> Miss Barren. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gonkey. >> Yes. >> Miss RDE. >> Yes. Mr. Burns Gilbert. >>

163Yes. >> Mr. Wells. >> Yes. Motion. Yep. Motion passes. 70. >> Before we adjourn, you >> SAC is universal service administrative company. >> Great to know. >> Heard that right off the top of my head. >> Didn't have to Google that one. >> No. You school AI. >> All right. Next. Next. I'd like to request a motion to adjurnn the committee of the whole. >> Second. >> Got a motion and a second. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. All those opposed. We're ajourned. >> Going to call the meeting to order now. Meeting has been noticed to Evans Print Media Group, WCO Radio, Magnum Radio, Lacrosse Tribune, Sparta City Hall, and Sparta Free Library. Are there any changes to the agenda? >> No, I do not. Move to adopt the agenda. >> So

164moved. >> Second. You're good to go. >> Moved by Mr. Todd Wells and seconded by Mr. Colin Burns Gilbert. Um, all in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Uh public input like to call Zachary Leiden on solar and sports facilities. I don't see Mr. Lighten here anymore. >> Okay. >> Like to call Kyle Olm in support of further improvements to the high school baseball field. All right, we'll let you know. You have three minutes and I'll raise my hand at about 2:45. >> Okay. Um, so I am Kyle Astramm. I have three children in the school district. I am currently the president of Sparta Youth Baseball Association and I am here to ask that the board um uses any extra budget funding at at the high school baseball field. Um the dugouts, the storage,

165and the press boxes are all deteriorating. Um, I look back to when I was in high school, which was from 2001 to 2005, and the dugouts currently reflect how I remember them back then. Um, it's a safety issue. There's constantly mud and water inside the dugouts, that children could slip when they're coming in and out. Um, and I remember this from back then, that being an issue. So, for it to go on this long, I'm pretty discouraged to see that. Um, not only are the dugouts uh in terrible shape, I think that they're also structurally unsound. Um, I know there was repairs done to them a couple years ago on the home dugout. And just being at the field over the last couple weeks, I I I don't even know if I want my kids

166to go into it. Um, there was a new back wall put up, but I mean, God forbid anything happened. Um, flipped, fell. I we could make up all sorts of ideas. So, I really think that there's some safety concerns there as well. Um and then on top of it, the press box looks like it's deteriorating. If anybody goes in there to store any kind of equipment, it seems like it's always wet. Um but so, another thing I would say is not only is it a safety issue, just the sheer aesthetics of the dugouts would create like a confidence issue with the player. I know if I were to go back and think about my home dugouts and I'm supporting this team and now here's my dugouts in return. Any visiting team is going to hassle

167the Sparta High School team in my opinion. It just another confidence issue on the field that the kids have to deal with. So with that being said, you know, I would ask you to uh prioritize high school field. But that said, also gym space. The Sparta Youth Baseball Association does use a lot of gym space, contrary to what people may think with baseball. Um, we ret uh routinely had 30 to 40 kids in the gym between November and March this year twice a week. So, as a baseball club, we are also utilizing gym space and it's really hard to get time aside for baseball. So if you of adding any gym space wherever possible by money, we would greatly appreciate it. So that's what I have to say for how to use excess funding. Thank

168you. >> Uh thank you. >> That was Kyle. Uh, next Nate Mitchell, baseball field dugouts. Am I allowed to give you guys the paper copies? Come. Okay. So, my name is Nate Mitchell and I currently serve as the head baseball coach at Sparta High School. Uh, I have held this position for the past three years and spent four years prior as an assistant coach in the program. I grew up playing baseball in the Mississippi Valley Conference and have had opportunities to coach and play throughout the Midwest. Over the past seven years, I've gained a deep understanding of the history, strengths, and challenges part of baseball from players, coaches, parents, and community members. One issue has become increasingly clear. Our baseball facilities have not kept up not kept pace with the needs of our students, nor

169have they received the level of maintenance necessary to ensure safety and functionality. Based on the information I've gathered, it has been more than 35 years since our dugouts and concession stand/press box were originally constructed. During that time, very little very little significant maintenance or renovation has occurred. Approximately 5 years ago, our home dugout deteriorated to the point where there were concerns it would collapse. It was closed for several weeks while temporary repairs were made. At the moment, it became clear that player safety and facility improvements needed to become a priority. In the materials provided tonight, you will see examples of facilities from neighboring schools throughout the MVC and surrounding areas. Schools such as Toma, Hullman, an Alaska, Lacrosse Central, and Lacrosse Logan have all invested in an updated well-maintained baseball facilities over the years. When

170compared to these programs, the condition of our facilities is difficult to ignore. Our home dugout regularly fills with mud whenever it rains due to runoff entering the structure. The walls are deteriorating and chipping. We are unable to install permanent benches because of the concerns that additional weight could compromise the structural integrity of the building. We also lack adequate storage space, forcing essential equipment such as LC screens, batting screens, and other training materials to remain outdoors and exposed to the elements year round. The condition of the concession stand and press box is even more concerning. In addition to serving food during games, the building is used to store field equipment, pitching machines, baseballs, paint supplies, and numerous other materials because there's nowhere else to keep them. Before every game, it takes significant time to simply move

171the equipment out in order to operate the concessions. The structure leaks from both the roof and the foundation during rainstorms, making it possible to keep equipment and supplies protected. Just this past week, representatives from the company that completed our infield um attempted to use clay materials only to discover the clay had become unusable because moisture had seeped into the building. These are simply these are not simply cosmetic concerns. They are issues that affect safety, functionality, and the overall experience of our students, families, and community members. Last year, this board made a tremendous investment in our baseball program by approving a new infield, and we are extremely grateful for that support. Our players take immense pride in maintaining and facilitating every single day. They stay after practice to rake, drag, broom, edges, and care for the

172field. They understand the importance preserving the for the future of Sparta athletes. The same commitment and pride deserve to be matched with facilities that are safe, functional, and representative of our school district. I understand that in previous discussions there were there have been questions about utilizing Memorial Field as the varsity baseball field. While Memorial Field serves as an important purpose for practices and lower level games, it does not meet the standard for a division one varsity baseball. Sparta would be the only division one program in Wisconsin competing on a dirtonly infield service. Additionally, based on prior conversations with district leadership, referendum or school funding could not be used to significantly improve Memorial Field. While the dugouts there may be in better condition, the overall playing surface and infrastructure do not provide a long-term varsity solution.

173However, tonight is not simply about baseball, dugouts, or one athletic program. This discussion is about the future of athletics and student opportunities throughout Sparta. Projects such as a three- tier gymnasium, a turf, track infield, and soccer facility, improved lighting, updated baseball facilities, and ADA compliance spaces would positively impact countless students and families across our district. These improvements would create opportunities to host larger events, attract visitors to our community, and provide students with facilities that match the time, effort, and dedication they invest every day. Our athletes spend countless hours practicing, training, competing, and representing Sparta with pride. Modern facilities help maximize opportunities for participation while improving efficiency, safety, and accessibility for everyone involved. The Sparta school board has an important opportunity in front of it. An opportunity to change the perception and the future of Sparta

174athletics. For many years, Sparta programs have faced challenges competing consistently within the MVC, and the facility limitations have often played a key role in those struggles. Every school offers academics such as math, science, English, and history. But not every school creates an environment that students are excited to be part of and proud to represent. You have an opportunity to help create that environment here in Sparta. one where students, athletes, families, and community members feel pride in the facilities they use and the programs they support. Thank you for your time and consideration and your continued support of Sparta students and athletics. >> Thank you, Amy Lopez. Excess referendum funds. >> Hello ladies and gentlemen. I'm Amy Lopez. It's been about four years since I've been on this side of the podium and it feels a lot

175different. Let me tell you. I can understand why people may be hesitant to come up. Very imposing. So, I um did write an email to all of you today and I just wanted to ensure before I spoke that all of you had had a chance to read it. Okay. That I'm not I'm going to respect your time um because I believe that um Coach Mitchell, Mr. Ostramm and the students and players who also express their concerns, their ideas are much more impactful than mine. But I do want to say thank you because I know the difficult decisions that you have to make. cutting here, spending there. It is difficult. Um, the one thing I do really want to stress though is the difference between Memorial Field and the way that was funded and the excess

176referendum funds for Sparta High School baseball potentially. They're completely different. And I think we do need to really really really look at the facilities that have been neglected for the longest periods of time. Um, as I said in my email, for whatever reason, I'm very grateful that the track was included in the facility study, but baseball was not. If you had if it had been included, there would be red items that would be safety concerns. you've seen the emails from the students expressing the dangers on the field itself. So I won't go any further but um there is a difference. I think the community can understand that. I think they've given you a mandate to spend this money and I believe that it would be best for you to provide the largest impact the that

177will last the longest for our students with the referendum funds that are available. Thank you so much for your time. >> Thank you. Next, like to call on Aaron Cast. Public public feedback and accountability. Good evening. Tonight, I'm speaking to you as a citizen in the district to address some of the recent themes that I've heard expressed by board members, including accountability, feedback, and transparency. Over the past six weeks, I've had a variety of conversations with each one of you, some of them more productive than others. And that productivity is not measured by agreement, but instead, in my opinion, due to engagement. I'm asking the board to hold each other accountable and increase transparency. I have heard multiple board members at these meetings speak to the value of public feedback in decisions. But in the

178conversations that I have had with board members, I was told multiple times directly that all options for my topic had been explored and no further information would influence their decision. Discussions like that make me feel that public input is only valued at certain times or on certain topics. Another topic that I would appreciate the board addressing in a public forum if possible would be the topic of student experience. I've heard it talked about multiple times tonight, but in my opinion, as a lay person, student experience is a very general, vague term. I request that each one of you state what that ex what student experience means to you because this is the basis of many decisions that are being made tonight, including the potential cuts to multiple teacher positions. I've been told by at least

179one board member that in regards to the topic of student experience, and I quote, I have not given it much thought. I feel as though consistent application of this vague term will make your decisions easier and increase transparency with the public. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you. Now we'll move on with the agenda. Um first item on the business is discuss an possible action to approve employment recommendations. Mr. Russ. >> Yes. In board docs we have um uh employment recommendations. Um this is going to be happening as a special board meeting uh in the committees uh probably through September. uh as well as the end of the month. So, uh it's um appreciate a motion and um passing and um approving the employment for these people in Borox. >> Quick question.

180Uh, are the resignations in there included in our earlier agenda item projections or are those new >> in the earlier agenda item? Some are, some aren't. Some we need to replace, some we are not planning to replace. >> Okay. So, those will be included in the updated list for the next meeting and everything from there. Okay. Yep. Thank you. >> Yep. Then I would move to approve the employment recommendations as presented. >> Second. >> Uh motion to approve by Mr. Colin Burns Gilbert and a second by Mr. Todd Wells. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I I carried 70. Thank you. Next item, discussion and possible action to approve facility projects with capital referendum funds. Mr. Russ. All right. Um I do want to point out again um we had our partners wait

181patiently for the the evening. I have Craig from Markin and Johnson, Clint and Michael from U Bray and uh Nick Anderson from Building Solutions was not able to make it tonight. Um unfortunately he wanted to but uh something pulled him away. So, um, they're here to answer any questions that we might have. Um, but just pulling forward the the slides from last time. Um, roughly we have about $10.1 million that we could possibly uh use uh with additional funding. Uh, out of that 10.1, 5 million is in interest earnings and then 6.1 approximately is in conservative uh budgeting, revising the scope of work and good bid days, which we we did. We're very fortunate on uh all scales. We're still waiting on guaranteed maximum pricing um to finalize Meadow View if we we're still have

182we finalized Meadow View yet? So, we're waiting to finalize Monasuri and Southside uh final uh guaranteed maximum pricing, but uh those are reflected as approximates in that 10.1 million. So moving forward, uh this is the same slide and it's the same recommendation that we would like to these are currently in the budget. Um um and it's our recommendation and we plan on moving forward pending the outcome of this meeting uh minus the Maplewood renovations which may play in a part with possible future movement and that sort of thing. Uh there's some things in here specifically with the 2000 edition at SHS, the classroom furniture. We want to start getting that moving forward so we can start uh talking to our staff about it. Uh really with that uh to get that classroom taken care of.

183Um again, Meadow View as well. Again, we we talked about um how can we make the most, you know, Miss Miss Lopez came and how do we make this really last long? The furniture at Meadow View is going on 25 years. Eventually, it's going to be have to be replaced. uh SHS in the additions that aren't being touched is you know 25 years if probably more um looking to have continuity across the buildings and continuity across the system. So um when you walk into SHS for example you won't be able to say well that's the 1990s edition that's the 2000 edition and that's the 25 uh 2026 edition looking to go away from that. Same thing at Meadow View looking to make sure that that is current and flowing. Um, as well, um, number seven,

184or I'm sorry, the abandoned piping in place, we are currently having piping that is no longer being used in tunnels and that sort of thing. You could do a couple, you can do one of two things. One, you just let it be there. Hopefully that we never have to remove it if we have issues. It's the recommendation to get rid of that. Um, so we're guaranteed not to have issues because if we do have issues, got to go in the tunnels, that could be in the way. And now all of a sudden that pricing is um a lot more than 280,000 because we have people on site and that sort of thing. Um it's important that we get that out. We had a little issue at SHS in the northeast uh northwest no northeast area

185where we found a 14-inch pipe that was just laying there that was not removed um in the uh part of the renovations and that sort of thing. So looking to clean that area up for the future use to get rid of that. So um without any change these are in the budget they're already taken care of. Uh this is already include this does if we would say yes to these things we would still have 10.1 million left in additional funds. That's how that reads. So uh so it's our recommendation to move forward that minus the Maplewood renovations at this time pending a discussion about what do we do with Maplewood moving forward. And then the final slide, um, same one as before. You've heard discussions tonight about the three-station gym. Um, I want to talk

186a little bit about the baseball complex that's at about 3.2 million. That is a concept that is just working with our, um, engineers, our civil uh, and, um, the the people who, you know, basically build from scratch and round up and and from the foundation up. um if we would move forward with any baseball renovations, obviously we need to bring in more stakeholders and that sort of thing uh to to figure out where we're at with that. Um they talked about um earlier talked about dugouts. That's on the list of renovations. They talked about the press box. That one's a little bit different because we currently don't have any um water to that press box because if you want to add water um you want to do ADA compliance and that sort of thing, that

187that that site needs to be redone. uh as well. So we have options for it. That's just a placeholder that are rough. Uh we can move forward there. Um so the rest of them are are are placeholders. If you're talking about, you know, longlasting uh what are some things that the students will go through? Uh you look at the fitness area at Meadow View for about 65,000. We can update that uh with new flooring and uh equipment. um you painting in the Meadow View gym and hasn't been painted in 25 years. That's an option that's on there twice. I apologize for that. Um you know, new flooring in the classrooms, vestibules, you know, that might be something we can wait on and and but the Meadow View corridors, you know, that's an option as well.

188All of these can be explored further minus that three-station gym. We're on a a schedule with that three-station gym. um because we have people on site and as I stated at the end of April at the meeting, ideally we need to make a decision on that if we want to go at the end of May to get the most bang for our buck and to start locking in costs because when we change the format, if we wait, we have to build asis and then all of a sudden we say let's add it, some things would have to change and we'd have some sunken costs there. But we have people on site. Um, our contractors are there. This is the best opportunity for us, we believe, is to get our best pricing. So, everything else can

189continue to be explored. Not to say that the gym can't be explored either, but really looking forward for guidance by the end of May at the latest in regards to that three-station gym so we can move that forward uh and have Prey and Market and Building Solutions really start analyzing that. So with that, Mr. Dr. Bernett >> questions or comments? So Mr. Russ, can you you I think I caught mo some of this. Um what are the differences between the phase one and phase two of the baseball? And do they need to happen in an certain order or are those placeholders, right? One is 400,000 more than the other. So, c can you share more specifics about phase one and phase two? There's >> my computer reset. Um, let me pull that up. No, I

190got I just actually Let me pull it up and if we can move on. If we can come back to that, that'd be great. >> So, I I guess I got some Or did I interrupt? >> No, I didn't interrupt. Good. Uh, I just got some general ideas. Um, I think that uh moving Maplewood might be mute at this time. Um, if we really wanted to do that, I would envision like if our enrollment went down to 2,000 or whatever, we invest in some partitions and try to make something work. I don't think now at the time though building new is I think building new for district offices is just beyond the scope of what we were intended to do and what what our vision was. Um as for three station gym 110% agree that

191we should pull the trigger on something like that now especially because it would help with our budget. Um what Sam might be a little busy. >> No, go ahead. Was there any was there anything else that that's on this exhaustive list that's that was part of our master plan? I was not mistaken. >> So part of our master plan um the three station gym was um really that's pretty much it. >> Yeah. So, and we have other, you know, when we started to to do that, you know, we had ideas about outdoor facilities here at uh at Meadow View. Right now, um they currently run over to the high school to do track. Their football field is not very very well per competition, but with the new field at Memorial at the high school, that

192would be an option for them to move their their their uh games over to there, for example. So, um, but for the most part, the master plan is complete with the three-station gym. >> Now, baseball, I think that was probably an error on our end, not to have that on there. Um, but that would go along with what the um the thought process or the the intent would be is to improve our outside facilities and baseball would have been one of those. I I I guess to speak out loud, um I I would like, you know, I'm I'm a nuts and bolts guy, so you know, the plumbing fixtures and whatnot, I I see incredible value. And I also see that there's that there there is enough room in this budget to almost do everything

193if we get rid of the artificial turf at the high school and if we uh do not move maple woods. So, I mean, I can imagine us just speaking out loud, putting in the three-station gym and putting guaranteeing for the sake of the people that are out there, at least guaranteeing a million dollars for for the baseball field while we sort everything out. And I think that that would be valuable. And then we could target some of the like the dugout spaces or whatever, like the high need items. And maybe if there's even more room in the budget because a lot of these numbers are conservative based budgeting that is the three-station gym going to cost nearly 6 million? Probably not. And so we we'll probably have some more money left over that we could

194even put into that or painting or or whatever. And so just just putting my thoughts out there. Um if anyone wanted me to make that motion. >> Yeah, I can I can uh similarly um grateful for all the info but also I think knowing what we know now too. Um I I agree that I don't think right now is the time to use these referendum funds on that Maplewood transition. Um similar to some of the good feedback that we heard tonight, right? Like making cuts for enrollment drops in three years, right? It's it's pulling carts before horses sometimes. Um, so that that's kind of allows me to to look at this a little differently than a month ago, right? A few weeks ago. So definitely on board I think with if my numbers are correct

195here um that three station gym makes sense for a lot of reasons. Um especially expanding uh the engagement piece longterm but also the students right and and making sure that they have safe space. um to do all the extracurricular things that right now it's either the old gym or AA or the awkward hallway in between, right? Um so I think that space will would make a lot of sense. I I don't know if you have more on the baseball. >> Yep, I got it. >> Okay. So, so I'll pause there. The other projects that stand out um to me are the lighting uh athletic field lighting on track and football and that would face cover baseball. Can we face it right and point it? >> We would probably maybe be able to gather some light,

196but I'm not a So, I wouldn't >> I would assume that I would go in assuming that we wouldn't be able to use the same lighting. And if we would be able to use the same lighting, that would be a bonus. >> Okay. >> So, I'm not sure as we start to lay out the the final design. Uh some things might be moving east as well. The track may be moving east. Uh the baseball field's not moving. So, but the track may be moving east. we might have some ble the bleachers are there. So, um, so I'd have to take a look at the plan. And >> I I guess then I was reading that as athletic field lighting for picturing that as as a what's the word? Inter murals, right? Like the field lighting

197up there on the different tiers, especially if varsity and other sports are reduced at some point in the next three years, that would allow inter mural options to uh happen at night, right? Um, I know that might make a lot of sense for some of our students that don't want the full future pro experience, but they want to stay engaged with the good things being engaged with Athletic Springs. Um, so that lighting piece, I guess, helps. I'm less excited about it if it's just on the track and not necessarily able to cover more of that space up there. Uh then the other ones that stand out too to all get underneath that 10.1 were the the metal view flooring corridors again trying to touch as many students as possible. Um the LED lighting can you

198share more about that project as well? That one stood out to me but we're talking Meadow View Southside Monastery right almost every other student staff in our district. >> Yep. We're talking about upgrading the basically I don't want to misspeak here but almost the entire rest of the district to LED lighting >> where >> the the spots that are not LED lighting like this spot I don't know if it's LED lighted part of that you know about a million dollars to make it all LED >> in the classrooms. So we've upgraded pretty much all of the hallway lighting to LED at this point districtwide. Um, the gyms and the classrooms are the two big areas that we haven't done yet that we would look to upgrade. And that has been on our capital project long

199range plan for as long as I can remember. Um, we just haven't got there yet. So, this would be an opportunity. And then that theoretically would have utility cost savings as well, higher efficiency. Mhm. >> Thank you. Uh should we Excuse >> Well, I'm I'd like to answer some of the baseball. >> Yeah, that >> information. And it's my understanding for the lighting, it's only for the the track and infield area, not baseball with that 500,000. So, we could definitely look into see what would it cost to light baseball as well. I I that I don't know that I don't know. So, >> yep. We'll just push a button and it'll be good. So, um so baseball once again these are concepts phase one uh would include and and once again these numbers are very

200preliminary and I threw in there that we need to keep the dugout we need to keep the um the current press box because phase one does not include a press box. So phase one is dugouts, putting a uh concrete pad at field level for ADA accessibility, which we would have. We would have a switchback. Um we would have a retaining wall in the bottom there to make sure we have the uh it'd be field level seating for ADA or anyone else that wanted to do that and still have some of the the hill seating. Um it includes a expansion of the parking lot as well. And basically, and then uh it has a pathway to two new turf batting cages that are approximately right to the east of the soccer shooting wall right now or

201to the north of the snack shack, which would be a could be a parking lot or or a hill down there. So, it's dugouts, ADA accessibility, uh, which includes seating for ADA, um, ADA ramps, increased parking, and batting cages. Once again, rough estimates, and we might be able to move things, but as you start to put things in phases, it starts to work in the engineers minds. I could say, "No, let's keep that." like well you got field grading you got you got a lot of things that's just not in my mind to make it happen. So that's why we have point of the beginning. And then the second one would include uh very simil would be a new press box and storage and restroom facilities concession stand. It would be behind our uh where

202we have it as an idea. It would be behind our home dugout as an idea. Again, once again, these are ideas because we have a plaza type environment very similar to Memorial Field keeping maybe that concept where you have that plaza area where people can sit. It's still ADA accessibility. You still have that ramp to the bottom. We can put, you know, new fencing up, new, they don't use fencing now much anymore. They use nets behind home plate now evidently. um new turf bullpens, an alternate plaza extension. So, it really finishes it off by bullpens, fencing, uh possible additional seating, and um but the the biggest one is the concession stand, storage area, which would include water. >> So, this sounds like it addresses the issues that were raised. >> It's a brand new facility,

203basically. I just want >> Thank you. I I want to thank the students for writing the emails. They were impressive and um I think you made your case extremely well. So, thank you very much for that. >> Do do we need to develop a uh priority list um of some sort to make these decisions? >> And we can do that. And we we can do that tonight. We can do that uh take some more take some more time as a board and take a look at them or we can start making that tonight. That's up to that's up to the board whatever dis decision they want. But that would be, you know, prioritizing this, this, and this. Um, if we want to prioritize, if we make a motion in a second to get that three-station

204gym, we can continue that discussion because ultimately we're looking at, we'll just say $6 million, that still has a large chunk of change to prioritize everything else if the board wanted to do that. But if the baseball field comes in at 2 and a half 3 million, now we're we're running up to a $9 million total. So, it's really about, you know, where the priorities are of the board. Well, I think we should make a decision on Maplewood um tonight. Uh that impacts, you know, a lot of things here and u I think we should do that. I think also the information we received from the sales staff and presented here tonight is um has persuaded me that sales should not move out of Maplewood and that we should also not move Maplewood at this

205time. So I would support that statement several of you made. >> I I guess I also wanted to clarify a point. I believe it was one that I made just because, you know, Memorial Field was brought up a few times. I guess uh going back I I don't think Nick's in here anymore, but um going back to what what he said about people online, I I just knocked doors for my re-election campaign and whatnot, and people are were still bringing it up. So, this isn't just some monster in the closet. This is actually like something that people clearly remember. And so that that that just that just why, you know, I'm still on edge. I don't want to really create another situation. I want I do want to focus on the nuts and bolts, but

206by the by the looks of it and based on the meetings that I've had with Sam, we've covered every single red item and have covered almost every single nuts and bolts thing. So, I mean, I'm more than happy to do a three-station gym and put a considerable amount of money into some of our other athletic facilities as well. So I'll move to approve the three station gym with excess referendum funds. Second u moved by Mr. Colum Burns Gilbert to remove the or approve the three-station gym. Seconded by Mr. Todd Wells. >> I would just ask for any more discussion. >> Yeah. Any any further discussion? I'm sorry. What's that, Mr. Con? >> On just the three-stage gym for right now. We'll come back to the other items. >> We'll come back. That's the motion specifically

207on the three-station gym. >> Okay. Hearing no further discussion. Um, all in favor? >> Let's do a roll call on this. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Burns Gilbert. Yes, >> Dr. Bernett. >> Yes, >> Miss RDE. >> Yes, >> Mr. Wells. >> Yes, >> Mr. Lasco. >> Yes, >> Mr. Gonkey. >> No, >> Miss Barren. >> Now try. Now try. >> There you go. >> Yes. >> Uh, motion carries. to 6 to one. >> Thank you. >> All righty. >> And now we can Any other item, Mr. Gunky, you'd like to or anyone else? >> Yeah, the baseball ones all make sense to me. Um, one of the ones that stood out in the costs already incurred in the project there that I had some questions about was the last item in there, uh,

208abandoned piping. Most of that is is all of that or most of that in that tunnel that goes between uh monastery and the high school then or >> it's all in the high school. >> It's all in the high school. >> Okay. >> Yep. I haven't seen them the the monastery. I haven't got to that part yet. >> Well, there's that tunnel in between us. That's what I wondered if the t because that tunnel is >> I don't think I could fit through it even without the piping. >> Okay, Mr. Hower >> the where is the abandoned piping on the drawings that we're looking to remove? >> So in the 1960s portion of the building of that just the high school building. So not the tunnel if there is a tunnel I'm not aware of.

209Good information that connects the high school to Monasuri. It's just within the 1960s portion of the high school building basically beneath the current like art areas um and kind of I guess metal shop, wood shop like like kind of that chunk of the building. Y >> um and it goes from that lower level where like the boiler room is now it kind of wraps in that direction and then it also wraps to the east like underneath somewhat of where the current cafeteria area is. >> And so basically it's just abandoned steam piping that whenever they shut off the previous steam system they left it in place because it was cheaper than cutting it all out. And we're planning to run a little bit of new piping in some of those tunnels and just to you

210know try to get ahead of any potential conflicts. That's why we built in the price to hey you guys can get rid of it all right now. um and then just remove it. Um but if you choose not to, then you know, we could we plan to work around it and then remove as needed, but then you're kind of putting the cards in the contractor's hands to charge as needed versus your identified price now. So, >> no, that totally makes sense to me. Um the reason I asked about that tunnel is because that tunnel does go from uh right over by the LMC down into a crawl space all the way over into the basement of Monasari across the street that has its own piping that had some issues. So, I didn't even know if

211that was even talked about terminating that since that's going away. >> Yeah. Yeah, we could do some more investigation into that because that's something I don't I don't necessarily know if we were even aware of. So, for sure we can look into that as well. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Michael. any further discussion here? I >> I guess for the sake of the even though we we don't need to make any more decisions tonight, I think for the sake of the people in the room, I I would like to make a motion to approve. Can we can we just say at least a million dollars towards the baseball facilities? You can do that if you want. >> Yeah. I move that we put a million dollars towards the uh baseball complex upgrades. I'm just saying

212that that way we could guarantee it. I mean, while they're here and then then after we sort everything out, we could certainly put another 2 million or 800,000 or whatever our magic number is towards that. But I figured for because they're here and they probably would want to answer at least we give them something. >> So So you're saying we're going to revisit this future meetings, not finish it tonight. That's what you're saying. put some towards it. And then >> I guess that I guess that was my intention of tonight was just to make sure cuz >> I want someone in the room to correct me if I'm wrong. But the idea was because we had we we because the uh because the three-station gym is connected to the building. That was something that we

213had to pull the trigger on, whereas everything else we didn't have to pull the trigger on. So, unless if we're comfortable making all our decisions tonight, but >> so if we would get I believe Todd didn't make a motion to invest a million dollars into the baseball facility at Sparta High School, um we would work with the stakeholders. We would work with Point of Beginning, uh which is the the the the civil engineer and the company that does this for a living and really talk about, okay, what is a million dollars? is the best in you know the dugouts are the first priority but it's how you make those dugouts uh in the big picture things because if you make a dugout based on this you may have to reinforce because we have earth fill

214that would go right to the they'd be a nice gentle slope to the back of the dugout. So, it's really about what is the overall vision of the program because we don't want to invest in uh a $150,000 dugout only to change the site and then all of a sudden we need to reinforce that back. So, it's really about developing a plan that might have some milestones a million dollars 15 two million you know sequentially that it makes sense for the long term. I have bids. I I have generic pricing for dugouts. I have generic pricing for ADA accessibility. Um parking, we don't care about parking right now, but we may need to care about parking in the future. Do we want to prioritize those batting cages? So, I I think we just need to

215figure out if it is a million dollars, working with our stakeholders, working with our team, and saying, "Okay, what is the best use of this funds?" Keeping the big picture in mind. So it sounds like it would almost be limiting to say we want a million because that's what then the architects would be working with. Um so would it make more sense that we assure those who are here that we are committed to funding a baseball complex but we just need to work towards um >> Oh perfect. >> We have some information. >> Yep. Yep. So Clint is This is Clint from uh Bray. >> Yeah. I might suggest um talking about what scope you'd like to include. So again, if it's kind of identifying or addressing the red items and again to Sam's point,

216we can work towards making sure those get us to the ultimate goal that we want. Um but maybe it's more about scope. So we want to replace the dugouts and the back stop and some of those types of things. Um as Sam said, probably one of the things that jumps that price up of phase one is the parking lot work and some of the ADA work. So again, if we can table some of that within reason and and come back with maybe a little bit reduced phase one, you know, that could be a goal that we could work towards. >> So I I guess I I would maybe be more focused on the scope of work than than a dollar amount. But keeping in mind, we'll try to work towards if a million dollars is

217the number, we'll obviously work toward towards what whatever that is. But again, to Sam's point, we also don't want to spend a million dollars. Now, I'll say, you know, unwisely that we're redoing work or or having to redo it in the future to get to our ultimate goal. >> So, would it make sense to then um to make certain that we get moving on the the baseball complex to to support proceeding with um information or on phase one to say it like that? Would that make sense? I I think it's I I think if I'm hearing in in based on what Clint's saying and what I'm thinking, it is a motion to ask administration to work with our stakeholders to come up with a plan that has the various scopes of work because once again

218that the the scope of work that I just mentioned was in my head and Clint's head and and just very you know I'm not pretending to be a master baseball guru by any means and I understand fully the needs of the of the complex. So directing administration to work with our stakeholders to define the scope, define the plan. That makes sense because I mentioned a uh a bathrooms facility that's along the third base side with a press box and that there might be other options there, but that other option might be instead of a a $400,000 complex, it's $500,000 because you got you're on a hill. Again, we can explore all those things. So, I I guess I would recommend guiding administration to um to further in and hone in on the scope of work

219needed to be done at the baseball field and come back with some recommendations. >> That's where I was landing. Um especially if we can somehow include uh to me the restroom piece, right? Whatever we call it, storage, press box, put it all in one. But to me, that's also that's more important than parking. In my mind, that's more important than batting cages, right? Like the cream of the crop on some of those things because that's basic needs, living, accessibility, the whole lifespan of the community using those facilities. So, if that's the type of flexibility that we're at right now and can build some of that into that process, I would I would be all for that. Would it be possible to gather information from the coaches, the players, um, anyone, I guess, that uses that

220field? You know, we heard about the outfield being having holes and divots and stuff. Um, maybe what their priorities are, not necessarily just our priorities. And that's where it comes in, you know, talking to the various stakeholders >> because I think I think we need to look at the ADA accessibility especially. Um I think that one's huge and the running water and the field playing conditions. you know, they they were talking about not being able to see because the sun's in their eyes and the outfield and I think, you know, their input is going to be just as valuable in this >> and they're part of, like I said, they're part of the stakeholders. How do you gather information is is the is the part. >> So, in reaching out to the stakeholders and getting

221a more solidified plan for phase one possibly be a better motion for us to do right now. It's just to get it's really just to send us get stakeholder input. You're the board seems to be interested in funding uh uh the baseball complex at some level. Let's talk with the stakeholders to see what those levels are. >> So Todd, you have a motion to say a $1 million >> I I I guess. Yeah. Yeah. I'd be I'd be comfortable with changing my motion to some degree. I just wanted to give them an answer tonight since they put in the work and I'm comfortable doing something. I just don't know what my commitment is at this time. So, >> yep. And that's where I'll get more information to I said I this 3.2 million that's if

222they say this is the best thing in the world. I'd be surprised because that's just one person's opinion. But maybe it is. Maybe this is our master plan and they love it and and have some ideas. So, you need a motion to explore with the uh stakeholders the next steps or the to develop a plan. >> Yep. To improve for baseball improvements at SHS. >> I so move. >> Well, we have a we have a motion already on the floor. I'm sorry. I don't mean to beat you to the gun. >> I'm sorry. I forgot. >> Did I revise my I would like to revise my motion to that. I I don't think I could word it better than you, Sam. >> Okay. Revise the motion to direct admin to work with stakeholders on creating

223a plan for SHS baseball improvements. >> Yes. >> Baseball site improvements. >> Yes. >> Second. >> Okay. We have a motion by Todd Wells, Mr. Todd Wells, and a second by Mr. Colum Burns Gilbert. Um, >> all in favor is fine with that. >> All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. any any f anything further? >> Yep. Is there anything else that the board would like to to move forward with on that uh that are not included in the budget at this time or anything you'd like to learn more of? Uh part of the baseball I will put on the lights. See what that that that's part of the >> I was just gonna ask that. Yeah. If the the lights for up there would be included in that. Okay. >> Yep. >>

224Oh, yeah. >> I agree with Mr. Wells that the artificial turf football field inside the track is is something I thought you said that was something you were willing to forego. I certainly am willing to forego pursuing that. >> Uh yeah. Um, did we want to No, I just got Mr. Leiden's email on what he discussed on public comment. Did we Did we want to discuss um solar panels at the high school right now? I mean, that's something that I'd value. That's something that uh would save us on our operating costs. I think that there would be some ROI on that, but up to the Is that something that we wanted to pull triggers on now or did we want to just wait till some other time and gather information once when we know what

225this three station gym and the maybe our new baseball complex is going to cost us? I think if you you know one thing that comes to mind if we're talking about you know athletics and and and students even in in curricular is that that Meadow View weight room exploring that once again that's a curricular piece uh especially for our students that are using adaptive physical education or adaptive needs. Um they have some really neat we're putting them in SHS as well. some really nice equipment and uses for um for weight room equipment, cardio and that sort of thing. I think that would be a excellent addition. And um I don't know timelines or anything like that, but that might be something that we could maybe even get installed for um the start of next year

226possibly. If not, it can everything can wait. But if you're looking at some things that might have a direct impact and be able to install sooner rather than later, that would be one. >> Well, I'll throw up motions then. >> As I say, I I I guess I'd rather pause to see what comes back. That wasn't on my high on my list. The the Meadow View gym or the Meview, what did you say? Weight room. >> The weight room. Yeah. >> Yeah. Um like I in my mind, the flooring, right? To me, that's a big ticket item that that me wait room could be done with contingencies down the road, right? >> Oh, absolutely. A lot of these can be done. >> So, in my head, like the 500,000 for the field lighting, I could

227right go for right now. The 600,000 for the flooring. >> Um, that's what made me pause on the the LED, the 900,000. those aren't as uh likely to be able to be fit into contingencies or you know if the rates come back or right something favorable lands in our in our corner the next couple years. Um so that's kind of where my head goes with the rest of these and wanting to maybe see what comes out of the proposal for baseball if that um shifts anything a little bit. A couple million dollars any further discussion. So, we can have more discussion, but this will be coming back. This will be a standing item. Um, and that sort of thing. Um, so, but please keep thinking about it. Um, as we learn more, we'll get you

228more. Uh, some of these things, the quicker you pull the trigger, been using that probably not the best term in the world. Um, but the quicker you make the decision on it, some of these may in, you know, like the solar panels, that may be the best price we get and the sooner we we go and that sort of thing. So, just be thinking of those things um because, you know, we we would be able to start locking in some prices for some of these. >> Well, I think the solar panels are something that would save us money. Um, so it makes sense that we proceed with those because the pricing pro likely will go up. >> The only question I had about the solar panels, is it more prudent to do it now because

229of where we're going to mount them? Is that going to factor in and make any changes in the existing architecture? would go to Michael uh for that to confirm what I'm going to say here, but we are planning for uh it to be installed and no additional changes would need to be made to the roof structure on the northeast edition. >> That is correct. And any future expansions like if you were to for some reason expand the solar array into other additions that are part of the current construction project. We've kind of prepped for it basically everywhere in the building just because the nature of solar expanding all the time. Um, but we have basically have it set up to get received on the northeast classroom edition as that's where Liidon had proposed the first

230array to go. So, so I guess to kind of answer the question, we're ready to receive it now. Um, there's probably going to be, you know, some minor rework or sunken cost if you were to make the decision, you know, three years down the road and he was going to come back and, um, you know, I guess make some slight alterations to it, more or less. But um I don't think it's a you're going to have extreme sunken costs if you were to wait on the decision. But obviously any decisions made and get incorporated into the current project. It just makes everything run a little bit smoother in general. >> And did you say on the northeast edition? So the new that's where it would be planned. How come there and not the older parts

231of the building? So, uh, in coordination with Lidon, um, they had said basically we kind of showed them all of the areas that we were planning for for a new build. Um, and so just a little bit easier to plan for that additional load, um, and a little bit cheaper actually to incorporate into the addition spaces than if we were going to go back and try to one um, coordinate that extra load on existing structure just because either we'd have to go back and reinforce it or, you know, we're making guesses versus more solid information that we're making on the new construction spaces. So, um, based on all the additions we were making, um, and I guess location on the site and stuff like that, that was their recommendation for the solar rate to be

232located. >> Thanks. >> That would make sense to me, too. Having seen one lab run off of one breaker in the old part of the building, putting new solar on a new structure seems way better than trying to retrofit it onto what we already have. So, I'll move to include the solar panels. Can I Can I make that motion before we wrap up tonight? >> I'll second. >> Okay. A motion by Colin Burns Gilbert and a second by Mrs. Darcy RDE on um including the solar panels >> at SHS >> and new you know as as presented here. Yep. And that we would like for a roll call. >> Any further discussion? >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Barren. >> Yes. >> Miss RDE. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wells. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gonkey. >>

233Yes. >> Mr. Burns Gilbert. >> Yes. >> Dr. Bernett. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lasco. >> The question's been called, I guess. So, I don't know if you want me to look to answer that or >> I'm looking to you, Dr. Bernett, if you want to pause the >> We We just need an answer. >> No. >> Okay. Mo motion uh carried uh 61. Um >> I that information and I'll get you information about the the setup. Okay. Um motion and roll call vote to go into close session pursuant to Wisconsin statutes 19.85 parentheses 1 parentheses B parentheses C parentheses F. The board of education may move into close session for the purpose of discussion and potential action to issue a final notice to non-renewal the individual teacher contract pursuant to Wisconsin statutes 118.22. Roll call,

234please. >> We need a motion. >> Move to go into close session. >> Second. >> Moved by Mr. Wells, second by Mr. Con. All Roll call, please. >> Miss RDE, >> yes. >> Mr. Lazco, >> Mr. Gonkey, >> yes. >> Mr. Wells, >> yes. >> Dr. Bernett, >> yes. >> Miss Barren, >> yes. >> Mr. Burns Gilbert, >> yes. >> Motion carried 70. >> Okay, >> I'll just leave it on my table because it's not Thank you very much. We're going to adjourn to the library. >> The live stream will end at this time. Thank you very much and enjoy the evening.