001Test test I'd like to call this meeting to order. Meeting has been noticed. The Evans Print Media Group, WC Radio, Magnum Radio, Lacrosse Tribune, Sparta City Hall, Spartree Library, and the Maplewood Administrative Building. Are there any changes to the agenda? >> No, we do not. >> And could I get an a motion to adopt the agenda as stated? >> So move. >> Second. >> I'll take that as a motion, a motion, and a second or third. Um, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. We have an agenda. Could we please stand for the pledge of allegiance? >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Sam, would you be
002so kind as to remind us of the Sparter School District mission statement, please? >> Yes. Our mission statement is to educate all students academically, emotionally, and socially to inspire curiosity and resilience. >> I believe we have one public input for Mr. Rasperson. Feel free. The floor is yours. >> Three minutes. >> You have three minutes. Sam will kind of give you a heads up as you're getting close, just so you know. Okay. Okay. Uh, I'm here in regards to the um possible u discussion coming up about a u operating referendum in the spring. And I just want to give you um an insight of what I'm looking at. Um last year my school um line item went up and this is on my real estate taxes uh for my home went up over 19%. Um
003my brother and I own a commercial property. Um the school line item for that property went up 29%. um middle of summer, uh the city of Sparta came out again with a notice of change and assessment. Both these properties are going up again. And if you keep the mill rate the way it's at, both these properties are going to see an increase in their tax liability. Um, with that being said, I'm not going to be in favor of any operating agreement coming up to add more liability on to what I'm going to be coming down with at the end of the year. So, thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Uh, moving on to reports. Fort McCoy report. Yes, we have Colonel Bayas in the in the I guess in the house tonight, but
004in the in the audience tonight. So, Colonel Bayas, if you could please come forth and say a few words about Fort McCoy. >> It turn red again. Is it good? All right. Good evening everybody. My name is Colonel Shayla Bias. I am the garrison commander at Fort McCoy. Thank you for inviting me, Mr. Ross. It is a pleasure to be here today in front of you and sharing some information and opportunities about you know for McCoy and partnering with the community. The first thing that I'd like to do today is I really like to thank our community for coming together and supporting our civilian workforce during the furlow during the lapse of appropriation. We have, you know, one of the largest civilian workforce in the area and those were, you know, long 45 days, right?
005So, a lot of the communities, a lot of the churches, a lot of the organization, uh, nonprofit organizations across the community came together to support our families. So, we we really want to thank you for that support. The next thing that I like to do is I really like to thank the teachers, the administrator, and all the support staff that works at our school and support our military families. As some of you might know, our military children face a lot of, you know, different challenges as they move every two or three years. So, coming to a new community and, you know, trying to make new friends and things like that a lot of time is an adjustment period. So having those teachers, having those support staff, having those administrator that really understand and care about
006our military children is really important and you know as you know one of the main representatives for the military workforce in the area, I'd like to thank everybody for that support. Uh the next thing that I like to talk about is our financial the impact a financial aid that comes every year to every school and I'm sure that you know most of the people who are part of the school staff are are understand what uh how important this uh financial aid is for uh the school district. The federal government provides funding for every children that is uh linked to either a military family or that is linked to a civilian workforce or contractor especially a for McCoy or Bokefield. So it is important that we highlight every time that we comes to one of these
007forums. Uh we uh talk to the parents in the installations to make sure that they turning those forms but also uh when we come to this type of forum where we uh deal with the school administrations and things like that to make sure that they understand how important is because this benefits all of the schools in the area especially those that support military children. So I know that during uh the month of November we had a lot of Veterans Day activities scheduled and we had to cancel those due to the lack of appropriation. So uh we received you know guidance from hire that we couldn't do any public speaking uh presentations uh during the during the furlow. So I know that we have a schedule a lot of activities ahead of times and we wind
008up uh cancelling a lot of those activities. I know that a lot a lot of military parents went and participate on those activities on their personal capacity as veterans. So we we try to support the community as much as we can but there's you know in some areas that we have some some things that is not there's no flexibility. So, you know, I apologize ahead of time, but I like to tell everybody that for McCoy is, you know, a prime partner in this community and every opportunity that we get to work with the community, the school district, and anything else, we will do it. Uh some of the things that are coming up for for McCoy that is uh pertinent to the school district. So between now and the next 24 months, we're going to
009have about 120 families moving to the area. You know, most of the people, you know, typically decide to stay in Sparta, but we could have al also some people that will move to either Toma or other areas uh within within the local community. What does this mean uh to the school district? you know, if we have 120 family coming, you know, we have a lot more students coming to the area and this will change or affect, you know, your class size or your your your class sizes and also, you know, the ratio that you have for students and teacher. So every time that there is a big uh initiative going on at for McCoy, I want to make sure that the community is tracking because you know this will help you to prepare better for
010the future as far as either hiring more teachers or maybe a lot of those families that are coming you know we have teachers that are looking for jobs and this is always a great opportunity. So as we do our our our [clears throat] initiation package when families are coming and we assign sponsors, we always try to look for for that information. And if we have uh my the prime example is my new sergeant major, you know, his wife is a teacher that she just started in uh in the high school. So every time that we have big numbers of uh personnel moving to the area, we like to make sure that you guys are tracking. So, if you have to make adjustments in your plans, uh, you can do so. Uh, the last thing that
011I'd like to mention tonight is that Miss Becky Wall-E is our school liaison. So, if there's anything that uh, the school district needs assistant with from for McCoy, please contact Miss Wally and she will make sure that we are tracking what are some of those needs in the community. Thank you for giving me the opportunity of talking tonight. Thank you very much. Uh, moving along to the SHS fical curricular report, Mr. Dell. All right. So, I'm just going to kind of quickly go through the fall uh sports as we went through uh the fall season. and it was successful uh overall uh cross country starting right off the bat. Uh we finished second in the conference or cross country and we actually had the runner of the year for the conference uh Ben Carney end
012up winning conference uh for cross country himself. Uh the team we had less numbers or lower numbers with girls at times they had a little bit difficulty fielding the full five people uh for the team score. Uh but when they were able to they were competitive with that. Uh but our boys team across the board uh won a couple invites with Lesby and like I said came in second and MVC uh up in Black River Falls. I think they had their head first or second along with Roqua and you see all the different allconerence award winners there and uh per scholar athlete we had 72%. So really last year when I look back at it uh our girls numbers were up and they were the most successful of the two programs here. This year our
013boys numbers were up uh and it was our uh Charles Miller. He was our first year coach. Uh so he had a successful first season there. Uh cheer. We had a new uh cheer adviser this year. What I really liked out of this was uh she ended up getting more and more kids out and involved with it. Uh really made a emphasis to start doing some stunts with the girls as well. Uh which led to more participation. And uh I think moving forward she's looking at uh with the numbers the way they are, if they continue to go up, they'll start cheering at the the JV and lower level games as well uh to be able to give them more events to be able to participate. Uh right here we had uh football. Coach Kinger's
014first year here uh overall uh four and five uh finished uh sixth in the conference but uh where I saw a lot of growth throughout the year uh especially when you talk about second to last game you're playing Reedsburg and you're going to overtime with them and five weeks later Reedsburg's in the state championship game down in uh Madison. So, uh, overall when you're talking about going out there and competing with, uh, you know, the toughest teams that are out there, uh, we saw that with them, uh, and I saw throughout the season a lot of growth from the program, uh, in general. You see on the right all the different allconerence award winners and our scholar athlete there. Uh, we have here for girls golf, we had eight, uh, girls out for it. Uh
015what really highlighted with me with this uh program in general was after the season I I um surveyed all the sports and gave that opportunity to everybody. Uh from this survey I got twothirds to threequarters response. Girls golf I got every single member to respond to it and the overall emphasis was they had a very very positive experience with the coaches. Now what we see from that is um also where you have a freshman that comes out. She made it to sectionals this year. Uh so that's something if you continue to develop you know the future is bright and you got to continue to increase the numbers there as well. Uh the fall musical uh obviously 9 to5 uh had 52 members there. uh your scholar athlete was or scholar not athlete but scholar um
016award winner was 61% and uh I think it was a highly successful uh musical performance. I went on the Saturday afternoon. Uh the kids did a fantastic job and I enjoyed it. Soccer uh it was a young team overall uh but you can see the numbers there uh with our overall JV I think was a little bit more competitive than the varsity at times. uh and with the youth program itself uh and the youth of the team. Uh but as long as you develop that youth all the way up uh you should see more successful seasons moving forward. Tennis uh is kind of the same thing. Numbers uh fluctuated between 22 and 25 in there. Uh it was 71% uh scholar athlete there. uh when it came to really the reflection after the season here
017is it's a difficult sport because tennis is one that we don't have a middle school uh teams like we don't have a middle school team. So these kids are coming unless they're in the club sports a lot of them are picking up a racket the first time as a freshman and when you're playing schools like down in lacrosse where there's club sports and all that with the way through you you're kind of playing at a deficit. So, it really is a challenge for uh the coach that I laid out there in our tennis program, boys and girls. How do we develop some of that that youth experience to develop some of that along the way? Volleyball, uh they were fifth in the conference, uh 17 to 14 record. They were the Sparta Invite champions this
018year. Uh and, uh we had a number of allconerence award winners with that as well. 41 girls out at the end of the year. Uh but numbers and interests before the season, freshman always kind of dwindle it out a little bit, but they started out in the mid50s at the start of the year there, too. And then overall, we've continued uh from Mr. Blaha and myself a relationship with Herman. Uh in uh September, we had our pep rally down there where we had all of our fall sports down there. uh we continued, you know, to form the tunnels, have all the kids come out in the field, take their pictures, really get that involvement with the kids. Uh so in September it was uh the pep rally. And then also there's a couple pictures there.
019Also uh is in September we had a um an assembly with Deca came on in and performed and uh kind of talked and really guided through them through what the club uh does and helped out with the assembly. And then the musical end up coming in uh in October and helped out with that one as well. And just last past week uh all of our basketball players, girls and boys went over to Herman and assisted there. And it really is something that I emphasize. I think we can oftentimes double dip with this. It's it's great for the elementary kids to see our older kids and all the successful things that they do, but it's also very very important for our older kids to get over there and be a role model and example. And then
020one thing that I've also emphasized to all of our coaches is you have to have youth involvement. So whether it's youth nights, whether it's you're running camps for the kids, these are points of emphasis for me. I think that you need to get out there and that's how you develop your programs is uh developing it from the bottom up all the way through and that's uh from our football camp uh with the youth that we run every single year. Now just kind of finishing up I just wanted to uh Mr. Blaha emphasized in in years past uh the inside out curriculum uh that we emphasized we started to develop we've continued to utilize that where it comes to the purpose statements and the mission statements for the the sports themselves. Uh but one thing I
021actually went down to Wada uh which is the athletic director's conference and the keynote speaker uh was the author of a book that I used for a book study with my football players three years ago and uh he has a specific curriculum uh that talks that basically lays out character development middle school through high school for your co-curriculars and I'm going to be looking into that applying that uh with Mr. Sanders and seeing if we can develop some of that all the way through our program 6 through 12. It also has leadership component so we can connect that with our captains which is something I really want to emphasize. How do we develop our leadership so that you're not just turning into a senior and all of a sudden we got a bunch of seniors
022that don't know how to lead. Okay, we're not going to have a successful season. Let's start developing leaders all the way through. And that will piggy back to the WIA has introduced a leadership conference in December uh [snorts] for our um every school can bring a group of kids. So after we start developing some of these things, I want to take a group over to Stevens Point uh so that they can get with all the other captains and leadership from different schools across the state uh so they can really collaborate and we can continue to uh develop our uh our leadership among our kids. And really the charge I I I think that's two-prong. You develop leadership with your kids, but at the same time the adults are in charge of that. So while you're
023developing leadership skills for your kids, you're also developing the leadership of your coaches as well because they're looking at things that they don't normally always think about. Yeah. Often times your new head coaches get into a sport and they think they're there for the X's and O's and it's nowhere near that. it's a different beast and they need to understand that and start looking at some of those different perspectives uh to have the overall reflection themselves to make sure their programs are going in the direction that they want. And lastly, uh just kind of filling you in, I [snorts] surveyed all the kids. I also sent out to the head coaches to survey parents on the overall experience at our events. And I also surveyed the coaches as well on their their um overall uh
024experience with me from the fall sports season. So I got a lot of good feedback from that. Some of that feedback I applied immediately uh whether it's the home and away signs down at Memorial Field to adapting a tennis schedule to make it a little more competitive at the start of the year. uh I I take that feedback and uh meet with the coaches and I'm a firm believer in transparency with our with our coaches and uh that feedback was provided to all of them and shared with them. Do you guys have any questions? >> Thank you very much, Mr. Dao. Any questions from board members? >> M Lopez? >> Um Oh, good. I just wanted to say thank you. I really appreciate your passion and your um foresight with the leadership program. So I
025believe basketball does have a leadership group or something like that already. I don't know if that's established new, but are you thinking this December um kids might be able to go to Stevens Point or are you thinking in the future like next year? >> So I'm thinking that we could throw our name in there but we haven't established that group. Okay. And I don't think that's fair to the kids when you haven't established a group and you haven't met and you haven't started some of that training to take them into that and throwing them in there. Uh so I thought you know this is an opportunity that we could develop you know all of our athletes and co-curriculars because frankly I don't it was sold as a product for athletics but I don't really understand
026why it stops at athletics. I don't know why we don't do character development with our musical, with our show choir with any of our clubs because we want to overall develop the leaders and it doesn't just mean athletics. >> Well, and I really as a parent I really do appreciate that because I know that's one of the reasons that parents want their kids to be in sports so that they can develop that character. So, thank you very much. >> Yeah, and I just I just realized that, you know, for my time being a head coach, we had one for football, but another sport didn't and it was [snorts] really choppy, you know, hit or miss. I think we we need to get to a point where there are some expect expectations from the top that
027if we are really focusing on developing leaders, we all have to do it and we all have some expectations there. >> Other questions or comments from board members? >> I just have a comment as this being the the first time you're presenting to the board. Thank you very much. It was it was nice to hear a fresh voice, press fresh perspective. Um, I've appreciated seeing you at at events. Um, love the passion that you're you're showing that extends beyond football. Um, I I think you're going to be the I think you're the right choice. You're going to be a great fit for this and and a wonderful piece for Sparta. So, thank you very much. >> Well, I appreciate it. And come on out tomorrow night for our first winner event. So, [snorts] >> um,
028moving on to SHS. Nope, sorry, district report cards. Miss Mansky. All right. So, as we go into the report card, just a reminder that this is showing last year's this is a result of last year's data, even though the results the report card just came out in November. Uh, I do want to highlight some of the things that have changed in the report card this year. Typically, the report card reflects three years of data and this year only reflects two. And the reason for that is that norms were actually changed the year before. So two years of new normed data with one year of old data didn't make sense to the DPI. So they eliminated that year. So we're looking just at those two years of data. Um because last year we had two years
029of old normed data and one year of new normed data, they did an adjustment, a scale adjustment. They didn't need to do that this year because there's two years of the same norms. Um, and there's norming changes, which I'll get to on the next slide, and some new score ranges, which is a really minor change. So one of the things that would make sense to very mathematical people and I'm going to use very lay person terms to explain because it's very complicated but ultimately what happened when they changed the norms is when they started um looking at the um at the growth scores no when they started looking at target target group outcome scores what was happening is because the scale scores changed they were lumping up at this high level at the there was
030just a glob of scores here when they were norming toward um achievement and so it wasn't reflecting fairly for districts or evenly. So they decided that they were going to norm against growth which is a more stable measure than norming against achievement. So lots of words little change. The third one is the new score ranges. So the it basically how many points equals the star ratings. And you can see that on the far right column it's just a one or twopoint point shift in what those ranges are. So then this slide shows our district scores at each school. Um you can see three years of data here. The 2320 22 23 is red and then yellow is the 232 24 and then 2425 is blue. The change is from the 2324 to the 2425 school
031year. So then this is the first part of that report card. This is the one that shows our demographics and our overall score. Um, so our overall score is 66.4. Again, that's three stars and it meets expectations. And then I wanted to get a little bit into that that waiting. Um, so that circle graph, that piraphph that's showing those priority weights. So if we remember when we take that piraphph and we split it into four, if we were at an average um rate for our free and reduced lunch, we would be 24 25 and 25. But with higher free and reduced lunch rates, they shift that bar. Um, so that what gets weighted more heavily is growth over achievement in in schools with a higher rates of free and reduced lunch. So that's why for
032us you can see that our achievement is 14.6% and our growth is weighted at 34 35.4%. And then I just have snips showing each building and what their pi, their priority waiting looks like. And that's all part of this very complicated mathematical equations that even Mr. Russ would need help figuring out. [laughter] Now, you'll notice that Monasuri only has three pieces of the pie. That is because they don't have a target group outcome in this year's report card. Um so the target group outcome comes from the bottom 25th percentile of students and it looks at um the change from last year to or from the year before to the current year with that subgroup. Um that group has to be at least 20 students that have data from the year before. So basically you're factoring
033out all third graders because they didn't take the test in fourth grade. And then you're also looking at students that were at Monasuri the year before. And so when we did all of that, according to my calculations, it was 22 students. And then I submitted a claim to or an in inquiry to this the DPI. And sure enough, when they looked at all of their things, all of their criteria, only 19 of the students had been here at Monasuri the previous year and for the full year. So that's why there is no target group for Monasuri. Looking at our achievement, um achievement is measured by our um reading and math scores [cough] and that's specifically on the forward exam and preACT secure and ACT at the high school and the DLM, sorry. um within all
034of those tests. I just wanted to make sure that I showed you the the the the multiplication factors that go behind that. So, um the higher students score, the more weight their score gets. And so, that's all part of that that that formula as well. So, you can see when students score advanced, they're scoring 1.5 points. If a student scores below a basic, they're scored zero. And those are the old terms. The terms changed, but I couldn't find a new chart. Growth again is looking at where our students were the previous year and where they are this year. So, as a district, we came to 58.4. Our t target group outcome again is that bottom 25th percentile. looking at all of the areas of the report card with just that bottom group bottom students that
035were at the bottom 25th percentile. And this shows those parts um in that target group outcome. So we're looking at their achievement, their growth, we're looking at their attendance um and their graduation rate. And then we also look at on track to graduation. And part of on track to graduation is is graduation rate, but it also includes third grade reading score, eighth grade math score, and chronic absenteeism. So all four of those make up the on track to graduation score. On the district report card, there's also some additional information on the back. This is not included in as part of the score. This is just giving um you some additional information. So this one is showing and this is is delayed data. So this is from the 23 24 school year showing participation in um
036post-secary preparation. So you'll see advanced courses those would be like AP um our dual enrollment um industry recognized credentials. So those would be certificates like the welding certificate um and workbased learning. So you can see our our um where we score versus the state of Wisconsin. And then the next section is our arts education. Um so again we have art and design, dance, music, and theater. Again, you'll notice that there's showing zero for theater. And that's because it's delayed. So yes, we offered classes last year, but this is the 2324 school year. So we'll see that on next year's report card. I know these are really tiny numbers, but [laughter] um this is showing the our our local comparables. Um the yellow columns are the district, the blue are the high schools, the green are
037the middle schools, and the red or pink are the elementary schools in our region. And then those of you who know me know that I'm like a cheerleader. I like to always celebrate some positives. So I have highlights from each school that I'd like to share with you as well. So, a highlight from our district is we have increases in almost every every demographic group on achievement in both ELA and math. You can see that if you look at the blue bars at the end of it, there's an up arrow or a down arrow. Up arrow means that there was an increase um from last year's scores. It only will show groups of 20 or more. Otherwise, they're figuring that students could be um recognizable or identifiable. Herman, looking at their achievement score, their ELA
038and math scores are very close to the state average scores. Monasuri, this is my favorite little graph. You'll see it a couple times. Um, this one that that line in the blue boxes that's showing that line is showing um growth. And when we look at growth, we want to see blue boxes. Um the line is is average growth. [clears throat] And when we see those blue boxes, we're at at or above average growth. You can see for Monasuri in ELA, all of their subgroups met their growth goal or exceeded. [snorts] ISA, same graph, but this for them it's math. Um, so almost all of their groups, minus that one little white box, um, have met or exceeded the state growth goal. Meadow View, you can see in both ELA and math. Again, there's a couple
039of those white boxes, but the majority of theirs are blue. Um, so really doing well on growth. SHS, and I wish I had written on the numbers. Um, SHS has great increases in the number of students in the meeting and advanced categories. So, I can tell you because I did the math earlier today. In ELA, it goes from um I think 35 to 45% of students being at the meeting in advanced categories. And in math, I believe it was 37.5 um going from 37.5 to 45 um% in the meeting and advanced categories. So, as always, we are looking for ways to continually grow. Um we are working very hard on our social and emotional um curriculum teaching kids how to manage their their emotions. Um helping teachers to make strong relationships with students. Um also
040working on aligning aligning our assessments and instruction with the rigor of the standard. So making sure that when a standard is is written at an eighth grade level that what we're teaching is that eighth grade level expectation so that when they take the test they're ready for that eighth grade level question on the test. Um we are also working on developing some standardsbased education practices. So, we've talked a lot about those um especially with the middle school with when kids aren't understanding reteing um and making sure that kids are exposed to things multiple times to help them to grow. Incorporating re relevant and engaging activities. So, that's been a focus of us for this year is how do we keep kids engaged when they're in our classrooms? Um if they're engaged and and are learning,
041they'll do better on the test. And all of that work is completed through collaboration teams and we use our PLC time and those groups to help us um work through those goals as well. All right. What questions do you have? >> Questions or comments from board members, please. >> I've got a question. >> Please. Uh I've got a myriad of questions going through my mind after this. [laughter] Um, I'll mean a remedial session, I think, with you. Anyway, I appreciate your highlighting uh the the good things that we're seeing. I'd also like to know what you see as our biggest challenges here. So, when I talk to principles and when I talk to teachers, um, behavior is a challenge. I would say behavior is probably what's what's hindering some of the growth that we want
042to see. >> Other questions or comments from board members? >> Thank you. um with behaviors being the one of the most challenge um largest challenges for the district and with being one of our district goals, where do we go? What do we do? Um >> so I actually had a conversation tonight about um what's been rattling around in my brain for the last few weeks is um we can't do it alone. school is not going to be able to make a difference on our own. And I really think we need to get parents more involved. It's a it's a group effort. And so, um, [clears throat] part of my role as title is parent outreach, family engagement. How do we engage families? So, that's really where my brain's been going is how do we engage
043families differently? Um, is it bringing families in for conversations? Is it bringing a speaker in? I'm not sure. Um, but I but I do think we need to make sure that we're getting families involved. And I guess that's one of my ideas is I don't want to say an expert, but I I feel like having an expert come in and work with us and families um so that we can grow parent skills as well. Well, I'll be brutally honest and I 100% agree. Parents absolutely do need to take an involvement in their kids' education and I feel like that's something that has kind of been delegated to the school district for a number of years. And at the same time, I feel as though the district and most districts have maybe not intentionally but absorbed
044some of the responsibilities that are parents responsibilities. And so I think there has to be an personally I think we need to have some type of adjustment where parents take back or are given that responsibility back from the school district and where they're absolutely willing to come in and meet with a teacher and that the teachers know that the parents have their backs. It's it's a different world now than it was even 15 years ago in education. and I have had kids in school for very long, many, many decades, more than most people do. And um it's a monumental shift. Um so I agree, getting families and parents involved is really going to be the only way that this works because they all love their teachers. you know, they all appreciate the teachers, but when
045the teachers don't have the support of the parents, um, it makes it incredibly difficult for our staff. >> Thank you. I'm sorry. I probably shouldn't have gone off, but that's I agree. >> Other questions or comments from board members? Is Baron Smith. Um, have teachers or staff given you any recommendations themselves like what they would like to see other than family involvement or any ideas that they think would help? >> Not specific ideas. No, I'm sorry I'm losing my voice. >> No. With that being said though, please know that we engage teachers, staff members, and parents on a daily basis. We had a safety committee meeting today. That's one that's the first topic, you know, how can we help our students be regulated? And that's where our social emotional learning comes in. That's where our
046NME training comes in. That's where our um our proactiveness comes in. Um we ask a lot of our staff and um as you can see, our academic achievement is we are moving the needle. You look at our reading scores through act 20, we're moving the needle and all of the challenges that are faced with that, we're continuing to look to overcome. So, it's working one-on-one, getting teens together, and we're talking students with with special needs. We're talking with students with 504, and we're talking about regular education students. But we also have legal obligations of what we can and can't do. Unfortunately, I have some parents say that kid, that kid, that kid should just be left out in the street. We can't do that. We have a moral, legal, and ethical obligation to treat every
047child who walks through our doors to the best of our abilities. And we'll continue to do so with a positive outlook and a solution focused. So, when we hear there's behaviors in the classroom, please know that we we hear and please know that we engage with the the staff as much as we can. we get the parents in as much as we can um regardless of their involvement or not. We try to wrap around the county and the city services around wrapped around them um and they're battling a lot of the same uh issues as well. So, um there's no panacea or anything like that. However, when I talk to other districts, other districts are facing these challenges as well. We've been facing these challenges for many years and they're looking to us to say,
048"What are you doing? and we're doing, hey, we have this team, we have that team, we wrap services, we wrap support around our kids and our staff. We can't forget about our staff. We wrap it around them as well. So, we listen and it's fact dependent. What works for Todd won't work for Ashley, won't work for Colin, might work for Pat, Amy. So, it's it's it's so different as every child is different in every fact pattern. And I was just talking to a teacher last week and >> [clears throat] >> um you know she is absolutely championing for this the student in her room and you know sometimes it's just um validating and saying you are going to be the person in this kid's life that saw him for who he is and he will
049never forget you. Um because all kids need a champion. So yes, it's behavior is challenging and we also need to support all of these kids because they all have the potential to be who knows what and we have to give them that and believe in them that they can get there. >> Other questions or comments from board members? Miss Barren, >> some of these other districts that you've talked to, Sam, do any of them have cameras in the classrooms? I didn't ask that specific question, but no, I don't know of any that has a camera in every classroom. >> Is that something that's been discussed with us before? >> I'd be very careful about that um through a teaching and learning aspect. [gasps] I can say that if we have we jump through a lot
050of hoops. I don't want to say hoops. We go through a lot of protocols and procedures. If we have a student teacher that video cameras, videotapes their lesson, even with the kids back of their heads are there. So, there's a lot of privacy that goes on there because if it does, if I know Pat said that nothing really works for him, but Pat calls me poopy pants and that's on video that has to be record that has to be archived because that's now a behavioral record. Um, the teachers or the staff are it's not well accepted on that now all of a sudden that um it's now an evaluation tool. Um, but there's a lot of hurdles that need to be coming there. So, I don't know of a lot of districts that have a
051classroom in a camera in the classroom. >> Mr. Burns Gilbert, did you have something? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Awesome. Thank you. Um, I just was going to say thank you. That's all I wanted to say. The the looking at the changes um, right, especially since 2022 when we started board goals, priorities, right? giving some going back to the basics of relationships and and just what you spoke to of building connections with all students and all staff. I I think these changes aren't you know again scores are a snapshot in time and aren't the full story of our students or our staff but but these are really positive positive outcomes that are are happening as a result of the choices people make every day. So thank you for that. Um, and I think it would also
052help us to uh meet all of the needs of all the students if we got more than 39% special education reimbursement, but that's just, you know, for other people in Madison and federal to figure out. But [snorts] that will help in the future. Um, and I think that's some of the roles that we can continue to play is being voices for our students and our staff and lots of ways that help highlight the good things that are happening while also keeping that target moving forward because um, we got to keep moving forward. >> Thank you. >> And just one correction, we heard uh earlier last week or recently that it's 35%. >> Not surprised. >> So, thanks for 35%. Well, it also comes into play with, you know, looking at our future budgets and that
053sort of thing. We were we were told 40% and now they're saying 35, >> which is basically the same as last year >> because of the sum the sum. Do they know >> some certain and they haven't been allocated the amounts that they need. So, >> okay. Okay. >> Sorry to change that. >> Thank you, Mr. >> Just a quick comment. Um, could we work up a way that would work to or not work? I'm trying to figure out where this encourage parents, especially the ones with the behavior issues, um, where they're disconnected or my kid can't do anything wrong. Um, encourage them to come in, especially when they have these behaviors, and see, sit with them for the day. This is what you get. This is what we're dealing with. This is what they're
054going to now have to do. somebody's going to have to sit with them. Um why don't you come in? You can start to understand the picture that's going around with this. >> That's a we've heard, you know, in in times we invite families in uh to do that. However, we need to make sure they're invited in for the right reason, you know, because we have, you know, every child has a right to a confidential learning environment. And when other someone comes in there, we need to make sure that they're they're obligated to do that confidentiality. making sure that we're working with and that sort of thing. So, it's definitely something that we use um at times. Uh at other times it's just not appropriate for for that or how can we get that through a
055different through a different lens. So, but yep, it's definitely uh one idea that uh we've used in the past. >> Other questions or comments? >> Uh I got one. Yeah, I'm gonna like change the scope because I think we're talking a lot about their our littles. What about our high school peers? I was just reminded that it's been 10 years since I've been a sophomore and and but but even if that's the case you I know, right? Uh but even even though that's that's the case, like I still remember, you know, a lot of my peers not being motivated to perform. And it seems like a very like like it's pretty consistent with with a lot of our local like peers where they're where their highest scores are middle schoolers and then they're and then
056they really dip in high school. So what are we doing to either motivate or help our high school students perform better? >> Well, I think the the one of the things and I don't want to talk about motivation. Um Mr. Ford might be able to talk about some motivation, but uh one things that they've implemented is a preAC day. So, all of our kids take the pre-ACCT in their um in their environment. If they're a student with special needs or a 504, they get that accommodation. So, it's really starting as a freshman and freshman, sophomores, and juniors take that so they understand what the need is. One of the biggest, you mentioned, Mr. Wells, the jump from middle school to high school. The ACT is a different animal than the forward and the ACT is
057very tight lipped about giving you information about [snorts] someone would say heaven forbid help a kid help a district help this kid. You know that's the power of standardsbased grading who can actually target something that they can do better better at doing better in algebra. Yes, I need help in algebra. Which one? Well, you need solving equations. Okay. Well, what kind of equations? I don't know. So, that's one way that they're doing is having them work through that, but also meet with their teachers and set goals and and and really use that to their advantage and showing early on that boy, I I didn't think that postsecary was in my was in my uh future when they see their score. Some kids unfortunately think that they're not smart enough to go to a post-secary. And
058I'm talking tech school, four-year, military, but it's really opening doors. And I think uh we'll start to see a little bit more doors opening when we start looking at our preac scores and saying, "Whoa, we got some kids that are performing very high." So, Mr. Ford, anything else you want to add to what the high school is doing specifically? These guys behind me want to make sure I give you the short version. So, um I think these are all very valid and important questions. I think it really comes down to uh to answer your question specifically comes down to relationships and controlling what we can control. So, we talk about that a lot with the adults in our building. Um, and what that means is we put a lot of time and effort into what
059our curriculum looks like, what we're presenting, the product that we're putting in front of our kids, and uh, is that really meeting their needs. Is it engaging? Is it is it important? Can we make those connections to postsecary? Um, you know, education is not I'm the expert in the room. I'm going to stand in the front and I'm going to tell you what you need to know and you need to just grab it and get it and you better hold on and you better regurgitate it at the right time. So, we're making sure that we can control what we can control, which is the best product for our students, connecting it to the real world, the skills, the behaviors, all those things that in a classroom translate to to to uh outside of of school.
060Um, but also built on the back of what we've been talking about earlier, which is our work, which is our relationships. Not going to remember everything about every class. Mr. Wells, you were in my class. I don't remember everything you said. You don't remember everything I said, right? But I believe we built a positive relationship in our time together. And when it came to me asking you to do something that you thought you you saw value in it because I hopefully I helped explain that to you and you wanted to put the effort and work into doing so. So, I really think it comes down to how we treat everybody and that's ourCCL work and it comes down to making sure we as adults know what we're doing and why we're doing it. And that's
061our GVC work. That's all the work that we're doing in our PLC and working together in teams instead of just one person, right? We're we're we're a group and and we're putting that focus and effort and I think we're seeing it in our in our results. The efforts are uh uh um worthwhile. So motivation, how does that kid comes in the door and they don't see a value in it? Yeah, we need to work on that. We need to address it and we need to own that as the adults and we need to try really hard and better than we are right now because there's always room for growth, but we need to try really hard to make connections with all kids. Not every kid comes to school because they like school. >> Thank you
062very much, Mr. Ford. >> Thank you. Other questions or comments? I have a couple that I'll throw in and I'm going to go back and then work forward. I I have whatever it's been five years, six years. I always kind of dread this report. Nothing against you, Miss Mansky. I hate the fact that it never uses the same criteria two years in a row and that you've got to use some crazy formula to figure out yes and nos and right answers. And um I I do see I see growth. I I I see that we're doing things. I know there's things under the rooftop that is that is better than it was 5 years ago. U but I think we'd all acknowledge we're not where we need to be. Uh we're not where we want
063to be. There there's there's more. um the conversations that that I remember the most aren't necessarily because of what someone says, it's how they it's how they say it. And your answer, Miss Mansky, to the question of what that that M Dr. Bernett asked is one of those things. I mean, your body language kind of said it all. You look tired. I'm tired of talking about behaviors. We were we're working on SEO, but is it working enough? Um had a conversation with the principal a few years ago and I asked him what's his most challenging thing and his answer was 10 kids. But it wasn't the answer. It was the way he said it. The same thing that exhausted, tired, I don't know what to do with these 10 kids. I I I think it's
064time that we really get serious about it. Let's I I don't know if it's workshop, it's invite community, it's whatever, but if this is the thing that's holding Sparta back from being Sparta great instead of Sparta good, let's hit it hard. You know, it's it's not just seal. not just kids getting along with each other and and and it's truly what do we do with kids with behavioral issues. How do we not not we need to engage parents? Great. How do we engage parents? Do we engage them in the school or do we have to go to the community? What is it that we can do that's going to impact it? So that if you're asked the same question next year, there is light at the end of the tunnel instead of feeling like you're
065stuck in a spot where you don't know what to do. If you want to talk about a staff that that doesn't have love to get up and go to work every day and and and do their job every day, it's because they don't feel like things are changing or they're not changing fast enough. We owe that to our staff. We owe that to the kids to give them away. So I think us as board, district administrators, building administrators, community, if this is a thing that's holding Sparta back, let's just figure it out. There's got to be a way. There's some district somewhere that has a better plan than us. Let's find it. With that, I'll get off my soap box. Um, any other questions, comments from board members? No. Moving on then to facility project
066report. Mr. Russ. >> Yes. Just real quick. Uh continue to move forward. Uh today we finalized two days of uh going through SHS with a fine tooth comb. Uh finding things and we still have uh some things to follow through. Uh next week there will be 75% construction documents which leads up to the 100% January 5th or 6th uh 100% construction documents that lead up to the bid the bids go out. So continue to move forward with that. Uh continue to have these uh really in-depth uh discussions. Flooring still is the number one hardest thing to figure out in an entire project like this. Um because there is no good flooring for everyone's needs. Everything's a little different. So, but continue to do that. Um we had a co-curricular report today. Uh and next week,
067we're really going to start diving in on Wednesday. We're going to invite the coaches and uh PE teachers and that sort of thing to take a look at our fitness center uh and what that could uh look like and uh enhance our curriculum and our co-curricular opportunities. So um starting to get some more rendering. So at our next board meeting uh I'll have some different renderings for uh everybody. Uh next week I'll be at Kuanas to uh explain a little bit more about the facility project and how's it going and uh timelines and stuff like that. So, um, a lot of excitement and pretty soon we're about three, four months away from shovels in the ground. So, uh, a lot of people are excited and starting to ask a lot more questions, which is great.
068So, >> thank you very much. We'll stick with you for SASD announcements and upcoming meetings. >> Yeah, we're coming into the holiday season. Um, it's it's an exciting time for a lot of our staff and students. However, it is a uh we talked a little bit about SEAL right now in in some of our families and students. It is a a very hard time for many of our students and families. So, we try to support them the best we can without being at school. Um but uh we support around them. Uh I know that Colonel Bayz talked about the furlows and the shutdown and a lot of our clubs and organizations and community members really gathered around to uh enhance the uh food pantries and and help those in need. So, uh, moving forward that
069way. Uh, concert season's coming up. Uh, so the kids have been working very hard with that. Uh, Mr. D mentioned our winter activities are starting, uh, tomorrow. And, uh, a lot of excitement as we go through the winter months. So, and speaking of winter, we're keeping an eye out for a week from today on Sunday. And, uh, we're keeping an eye on the sky in the weather forecast. So, always want to drive safe in those winter weather conditions. So, and the upcoming board meetings, just a reminder, we only have one week in between the December meetings uh due to the holiday. >> Thank you very much, sir. Moving along to the consent agenda. If the board could please read through, take a look at the consent agenda and then I would accept a motion when
070we are satisfied with what's listed. >> As you read through that, I do want to pay special uh for the grants and donations. I'd like to thank the Joan uh Jewel Estate uh for a generous uh scholarship to SHS and uh the Herman Elementary PTG about generous to the backpack program and also uh the other donors for this month uh Joan Fuozi uh Octoberfest uh Frederick El Green uh Sparta United Methodist Church Riverside Sparta Mobile Home Park Trinity Welcome uh Riverside uh Riverside Sparta Mobile Park. Again, Monroe County retired educators. Uh we had anonymous donation, Ann and John Prell, Janet Lens, and Randy M. Randy and Michelle Edy for their generosity. >> I'll move to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second motion for Mr. Burns Gilbert, second for Mr. Wells. Roll call, please.
071>> Mr. Wells. >> Yes. Mr. McKenna, >> yes. >> Mr. Gonkey, >> yes. >> Miss Barren, >> yes. >> Mr. Burns Gilbert, >> yes. >> Dr. Bernett, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lopez, >> yes. >> Motion carries 70. >> Moving along to business discussion and possible discussion on a possible 2026 operating referendum. Mr. Russ. >> Yes. Um, this is just a continuation of our discussion that we had a couple weeks ago. This is not an action item. Um, this is just discussion to get the uh discussion going at the board level to to ideas or additional information or anything like that. Um, but just to review uh about where we're at, this is the last year of a $750,000 operating referendum. This is year two of two. Uh, looking at the uh 2627 budget, our district
072is facing a $2.3 million deficit. uh which is about what we've talked about all along when we started the campaign or the uh communication for the two-year $750,000 operating referendum. We we figured that this was going to be there. So, we're uh Miss Hower and her uh and her team, you know, really took a look at that. but $2.3 million deficit. Um if we go penny for penny in Miss Houseser's 2526 budget that you guys approved for preliminary um we would have $1.1 million of revenue stabilization or fund balance to use. Um that's once again assuming that the 2526 budget stays stays true. [snorts] So if you take that 2.3 minus the 1.1, we're looking at a $1.2 2 million shortfall for 2627 only and in that 1.2 750,000 of that is falling off. So
073if we use all the fund balance 2526 goes penny for penny we're looking at a $1.2 million deficit for 2526. Looking forward to 2728, we no longer have that fund stabilization. So realistically, that $2.4 million deficit is going to increase to probably 2.4 depending maybe for we get some help from Fort McCoy. The way it sounded, we might be able to get some moveins, you know, but based on our projected enrollment, based on the state budget, which we know we're looking at another 2.3 to$2.5 million deficit. and that's only going to stay about that that same for the foreseeable future if not worse. So that on top that we've been facing a budget deficit for the last four years that paints our our future um fiscal history. We talked about uh a little bit in
074the last meeting. We talked about uh what where we at with our goals and our focus areas. So, I just put some things down uh high level which are monetary, not talking about the culture or the relationship building that we do one-on-one and that sort of thing, but putting some things there. ForCAL go specifically, we added coaches to every building. We have a universal curriculum at all levels and we've invested in responsive classroom training. Uh our focus area all day 4K. We accomplished that. However, that does have a financial impact of two FTE teachers and two FTE educational assistants success in co-curriculars. One of the things the last four years we've tried very hard is not to exper not to disrupt the student experience in co-curriculars. We haven't had um we we haven't stopped um
075travel. We haven't stopped expenses. Uh we haven't reduced opportunities for kids. For example, Mr. D mentioned we had 55 kids for volleyball. We ended with 41. Some schools say, "Hey, we have a varsity and junior varsity and if you don't make that team, good luck. Go have intermerals." We have not done that. So, we continue to strive for success in co-curriculars, not just in sports, but in all activities as well. Staff retention, um, we have reduced through natural attrition and through enrollment numbers. However, with staff retention, we've also were able to offer more than CPI to our staff. So, we had that opportunity as well. And our numbers of staff re have been in increased uh or decreased the amount of staff that uh is not coming back. Open enrollment, we continue to work hard
076on open enrollment. SVLA, we still offer SVLA. We have 35 full-time students this year with that along with some part- timerrs. And anybody that open enrolls through a virtual school, I give them a call and let them know about ours. Our facility upgrades I think will help greatly. Uh increased opportunities for co-curriculars. Once again, more kids involved uh to keep them in participation. Local business relationships. We've increased YA opportunities for kids, job opportunities, uh which would increase revenue for every YA student we have. We do get some money back from the state. Not that much, but we do get some money back. So um so we have put some emphasis on our focus areas and ourCCL that have had some financial impact. Um but I also wanted to bring those up and it's always good
077to keep those in mind when we move forward with our focus areas and with our uh our budget discussions and our our priorities. So with that being said um feel free to discussion questions next steps. Um it would be possible if we could uh it's not out of the um realm if we put an action item in the committee on the ETH with a recommendation or we continue to have discussion. The one thing we do need to know that by the middle of January we need to have the resolution language all finalized because they're statutory requirements if once again that's if the board decides to go in April for any sort of monetary um amount. So J minute middle of January is pretty much the the deadline that committee without having a special meeting. >>
078Questions or comments for board members? >> Well, I I think I've said it before, but I want to have uh for our committee meeting, I want to have a like what a 729 mil rate looks like as an operating referendum. uh me crunching very generic basic numbers that probably is wrong. Um but it still hits around the 1.1 to like 1 million to 1.1 million mark and that's really close to what we're looking for anyways and I think that's passable. So I think if we bring that forward to the community, we might be successful. As for years and timelines, I've been using Sam's judgment as probably the best because we know that referendum fatigue exists and I'd rather have something pass and have it last than be 421 out of 421 for the next how
079long? Forever. >> So we can look to do that. Um Todd mentioned my you know what I think I think between 3 and 5 years I think four is probably ideal. Um I don't have a necessarily a scientific reason behind it besides the fatigue. Last year we've laughed two. We know what our state budget is. So we know a lot more variables there. And the one thing uh Mr. Wells you mentioned about the one point we'll just call it 1 million just for the sake of argument. That 1 million gets us this year. However, the following year, we're looking at a $ 1.5 million deficit alone. So, that's that's that just that's that's part of the information as well that we need to discuss because that 1 million gets us one year assuming we use
080all of fund balance of that fund stabilization. >> Um, I have a question please. Um, thank you. What are the ramifications for the district of a failed referendum? >> Miss Barrens asked last time, is act 141 coming back? Uh, act 141 is still there. Only penalty with act 141 is if the state uh we would fail, let's say we fail an operating referendum next year, hypothetically speaking, and the state and we don't pass one until the next state budget. If the state budget says, "Hey, let's go to $13,000 low revenue ceiling." That's my understanding where the penalty will come in. We automatically get to 325. So that isn't regardless. It's that low revenue ceiling that we are impacted with. So the low revenue ceiling was at 10,000 when we were down there. We failed the
081operating referendum. The next bianium budget it went to 11,000. That's when everyone went up except for us. So, I don't see uh the low revenue ceiling changing. I thought, you know, with Governor Ivers um made it clear that in my opinion, again, this is my opinion, that he didn't do us any favors and he had an opportunity to try for that low revenue ceiling. He didn't get it. He didn't go for it. So, the 325 for 400 years, I think, is what we're going to have to plan for. So other so the low revenue ceiling would be the only one that we would be um in penalty of. Is that your understanding Miss Hower and Miss Beerns? I looked at both of you. Perfect. [laughter] >> Other questions or comments from board members? >> I
082was just going to say I would love um if we can get some examples at that December 8th meeting. uh seeing that budget play out there and knowing the revenue stabilization won't be there in the future. Um I agree every two years is is a lot um to ask for the community. So options that have some of those staggered um distributions. I know we can change or the referendums in other communities have looked different uh this price for this year one, year two, right? So, it'd be great to have um several examples that line up with those, right? Budget or the board goals, focus areas, our district priorities, too. That that should all be reflected in whatever budgets we get to consider. Um [snorts] so, that's one thought there of just building that in. I
083think it'd be great to um review. I I don't know. I just go back to what does the the community voice and the data say? And and I know we have the the feedback from the surveys. When did that go out? That was before probably 23 maybe of surveys from the community, surveys from the I forget the name of the company that did it, but school perceptions. That's what it was. Right. So I I want to connect back there because in my head some of the things that would tell this story of the budget deficit for the next projected future would be those how do people need their information? and how do people want to be communicating with whether it be parents, whether it be taxpayers, everybody right along the way. Um, but but I
084think that in my head really helps tell that story of the why and not necessarily um feeding into some of those stereotypes of we always want more. We're coming back because we have to and because it's designed this way. So this is what local control looks like. It it looks like approving operating referendums at record numbers. So I don't think it's going anywhere. I think those newsletter, right, like the I forget what it was called, the Spartan newsletter, quarterly, those whatever information we could pull to to um help people get the best information possible and make the best choices they can. Other questions or comments from board members? >> Mr. Gonkey. Um, looking at this and thinking about uh what I've heard from staff and just maintaining things in general, um, I would actually be
085for a referendum that sees us cover the deficit without going into the revenue stabilization. So, I feel like within the next couple years, even if we do this for two years, we're probably going to have to dip into it at some point to cover something. Um, and I would say we'd do it for two years with the new buildings and see where we're at for actually maintaining stuff and maintaining it properly between the upgraded fleets, the new technology, and the buildings. Um, and keeping it just the CPI raise for um, teachers, I think. Was that in this budget? Yep. Okay. Um because the staff really they what they want to feel is support from admin and the other thing with the facilities is we haven't maintained them all for a long time. We've been penn
086pinching pennies where we can. Um so I'd like to see after two years where are we actually at with what we need to do to maintain things properly and kind of readjust our budget and then look another three years out beyond that. Dr. Bernett, >> it's rather frustrating to me the way politics has undermined our public education system. Um, I went up to talk to the joint finance committee and took my two men two minutes in April with the concern brought to them about how they're not increasing the revenue limit. And there was a lot of other board members from other schools there as well. And that was a theme that that they should have heard, but goes in one ear and out the other. We're still stuck in this um push it back onto
087the property tax owners and and we're made to look like the bad guys and we really have no choice but to go to operating referendum. >> Miss Lopez. >> Oh, no. If you'd like to. Okay. Sorry. Um, you know, and I just have another thought, another perspective, a couple of them actually. Um, I'm I'm a little bit frustrated because I feel like we need to ask our constituents what their tolerance is for the amount of tax that they're willing to spend on school districts. I mean, there is no money in government except for taxpayer money. It's all taxpayer money. So whether it's sitting in a, you know, an account in Madison, however many billions they have sitting there, or it's coming from us in a referendum next year, it's still our taxpayers money. And we
088need to find out what they're willing, what their tolerance is. And I think honestly, I've heard it. They're at their max. I'm not trying to be negative, but after the last referendum, multiple people came to me and said, "You did it again. You snookered us and we're never saying yes again." And I just I honestly have a fear. I mean, I know you shouldn't act out of fear, but I know that the school district has done so much to cut their budget, to cut staff, to make men, you know, make ends meet. And yet there's something that we're missing. Some type of trust with the community, some type of goal that's not being met, whether it's ACT scores or growth scores or achievement scores, or if it's just the stories that come out of the
089schools about behavior or whatever, something is not resonating with the community or we are not meeting their expectations. because I hear this over and over again and I feel as though no matter how much we say we need it, we are going to have to struggle to get an operating referendum passed in this community. And so going back to what I said earlier, I remember saying I agree we need it, but we have to start early. We can't start in November and expect this to pass in in April. I'm sorry. We can't. This should have been something that we talked about every single week in the paper or every single week in the radio, you know, however it is that we can reach the the community and then get their voices. Are are teach are
090parents satisfied with the education that they're receiving? Are the kids coming out with um are they seeing the relevance in the high school for their education? What what is it? I mean, we do need the parent involvement. We need everybody's involvement, business owners, everyone. I don't mean to be like this, but I I really fear for an operating referendum in April. Um, from what I have heard from the people who talk to me, and not everybody talks to me, obviously clearly um it's [gasps] it's not looking promising, guys. So, we have to do something different. We can't do what we've done before and expect the same results or better results. So if I if I heard you, Miss Lopez, um you asked, you know, ask the community for their tolerance. That was one of the
091So if we use school perception in the past, realistically, uh for an April referend, we we probably cannot. However, if the board decides not to do an April referendum, we could do realistically we could have something for November, the the following April or just some more information. Um, so we could ask for the tax tolerance and then we could send I know you mentioned the parents, are the parents happy with the, you know, the offerings? We could ask the parents again those questions through school perceptions as well. So, if we can we can do that and it'll give us more information. You bet. You bet. >> Well, I mean, and the tax tolerance it that that feels like that's a moving target with the reassessment of property values every year and the school district doesn't
092have anything to do with that. So, it's a valid question, but is there an answer that works in a budget working um with that information and then it's all that the tax tolerance that the school community gives us is already outdated by the time we go for the referendum because property values have been reassessed and you know their >> their tolerance may be less at that point. >> Yep. And so it would be a point in time. >> Mhm. >> You know, so if we again if we decide not to go in April, we could that that is definitely an option. I don't think it'll be a realistic option to go in April and uh have that information through school perceptions, which is the right way to do it if you're going to do it.
093Sending out Google surveys and putting in the paper, all those things are important, but getting into the mailbox is the is the best way. we can look to do if the board wishes. So, >> Miss Barren, I believe you please. >> Um, I think we had talked about this too before. Um, is there a way we can get like a visual representation of all the cuts we've made um all the, you know, especially since we passed the last referendum, you know, we've been cutting positions, the um solar panels, the sale of the land. I guess it'd be nice to know how much money we have actually cut out of the budget since the last referendum. I'll add that list of all the things we have to pay for now that didn't exist 20 years ago.
094That that'll be nice to show them, too. >> Other questions or comments from board members? So I so I could continue and be devil's advocate against against most of the board, most of my friends and colleagues. Um the one thing that I want to do and how I see it is to try to our neighbors don't I I don't think our neighbors think like we do. And even though our communities are each individually unique, like de demographics are nearly identical. And so I know our mill rates in the middle of the pack, I know pretty much whatever we're thinking of passing is going to put us at the pretty much the exact same spot. I know um out of our six direct neighbors, there's there's three of them with $8 meal rates. There's three of
095them with like $6 mill rates and we're the only one with a $7 mill rate. So, I think that's important considering that the the equalization aid formula is entirely based off of uh of property values divided by the number of students you have. And so, districts with a lot of property wealth but low low amounts of students don't get that aid. So, their mill rate gets adjusted for that. and stu districts like ours which are 40% under the average get 40% more than the average school district in the state. Um on the stepped up on the stepped up basis I have told Sam multiple times I'm nervous about it just because it is just something that I've seen fail because it can be confusing. Um, I think that's something that's that's very I would rather
096honestly have something on the ballot that has a 90% chance of passing than get everything that we need and I mean need that has a 50% chance of passing. So that that's why my thought process is based off the 729 because that's an increase that's digestible. That's an increase for a house that I own would be a Big Mac meal at McDonald's. And I have had one of those already this week. So, I mean, if we think about the grand scope, that that's what I want to see. Um, the only way I I'd recommend a stepped up is if we knew if a school district in Monroe County or Bangor, that's one of our neighbors, too, if they have passed or if they currently have a past zapped up referendum on the books. I think
097that's the only way. I don't think we should try to be different in terms of our referendums. we should just try to make it so this is what we need to be successful or this is what we need to get by and then we could show you what we do with it cuz I know in I am willing to bet in one year when people see our new high school and all of our buildings revamped I think people are going to be impressed with what we do and we need to continue to show them what we can do when we when we put money towards our kids. >> Other questions or comments from board members? Mr. Gonkey, >> I agree we should find out more from the community about what they're willing to support. Um,
098and I would be okay with that. My only concern with that is if we go to a November referendum, uh we go past the um staffing which then puts us in a bind for as far as staffing contracts, I believe. Or am I incorrect on that one? >> We would have to assume we'd have to gather 1.1 if everything is true, we would have to have $1.1 million worth of planned reductions. I'm not just saying it's all staff. Don't don't get me wrong, but the staffing plan would have to be set uh by May 15th when we have to offer those. >> Right. So, that does play a little bit of a role at least in >> Yep. And if we don't go in April, realistically, we, you know, if we don't go in April,
099we have to plan for 1.1 million of reductions. If we go in April and aren't successful, we still have to plan on 1.1 million dollars of reductions. So right or wrong, we're still planning for reduction because we have one one shot at the dart board for a better term. So that's one way or another, we need to plan for for that. If it's successful referendum, whatever the amount is, this is what we can provide as services. You know, we'd have to go through the the camp the basically the referendum campaign or we're not going it's the same thing. These are the things that we have to do if we do not possible things that the board will have to decide if we don't go to an April referendum. One way or another, we're going to
100see it. It's just are you going to see more of a detailed plan after April 7th or whatever day that is. Yeah. Because we don't want to I'm not a big fan of it. Hey, if you don't do this, then we're cutting this this this program. Kids aren't going to do it's it's all generic because we >> Yep. I'm just keeping in mind what we have to look for in June and or it's actually earlier for those contracts to be >> Yeah, we're looking May 15th. We need to have that all planned and it has to be done ahead of time, you know, with non-renewals and that sort of thing. If we're doing for staffing, you're looking at April 1 or right after the operating referendum if we go. >> Other questions or comments? I
101I guess I'd like to to echo that I kind of agree with everything that everyone has said here. I mean, I I wish Madison would take care of this. I wish that our our constituents knew what we paid for now that we didn't pay for 20 years ago. I wish they knew every cut that we've made in the last 5 years and could see how that impact us under the rooftop. I wish they understood what it meant to be 421 out of 421. I wish they'd get to see the new buildings before they have to vote on this. But all those things kind of go out the window because unless we find a way to communicate them, it's just a wish. And the odds of us putting together that wish list between now and when
102we would vote on this and then communicate it all by April is very very slim. So, I mean, I I think we need to make a decision or a plan [snorts] on whether we really want to go in April, we want to go in November, we want to not go and just hope. Um I I'm not I'll echo Amy. I am not super confident either. I I I can't think of a very many conversations I've had with people that that have echoed you. Ra, let's put something else on the ballot. Um I I I I've said it a 100 times, want, not need. I'm I'm not sure people are seeing it as as need at the moment yet. And that's going to come out to how you guys communicate this and and who who you
103communicate it to. But as good as a road show as I think we've had in the past, I think this one this one was going to have to hit harder because we've had road show after road show after road show and people are tired of here we go again, here we go again, here we go again. Um, we're going to have the same communication issues that we had following Memorial Field. Why didn't they use that $3 million to pay the teachers? Said they waste it on a football field. As many times as we've talked about it, people still don't understand the buckets. They understand that their bill, their tax bill went up and it looks like West Salem and Homeman are doing better at educating kids than we are. And why are we paying for
104this? We should be getting more for our money. It's the same. We're going to have the same arguments again and again and again. So, if we're going to do it, all I'm saying is we need to be ready to do it and we need to have a firm plan in place and be confident that we can do it. If we can't, we better tap the brakes and wait until we are ready. So, I'll leave that up to the experts. But if you don't really believe that April is the right time for that, please tell us and and we'll try to look at November. We'll figure out what we have to do until next April. I I I don't know what the next steps are. Um, but I we Mr. Rasmusson said it when he had
10519% on one bill and 29% on another bill. That's not just him. That's been all of us. And I'm perfectly happy. I understand where my money's going and I know where it it is and I know what's going on with it. And I still open it and go, "Uh, not everybody in the city is engaged the way I am and expect it to be happening. So, we better find a way to engage that person." No different than I'm talking about engaging parents to talk about disciplinary issues. It's the same thing. It's and it's the same fight we've been having with communication. People will say we're not transparent. We try to be transparent. We try to tell them everything. They're not listening. We're not reaching them somehow. These people we better find a way to reach.
106So, if we do go in April, I can tell you that um we're going to have the road show and everything like that, but we're also going to need a lot more help to get into the people that aren't coming to our to our meetings, people that don't, you know, that when we go to the organizations, we have facility meetings, we have everything. So, we're going to need some help to say, "Okay, where are we missing?" You know, what what groups are we missing? Um, people don't talk to me all the time. I'm in Walmart. I get talked to. Yeah, I can hunker down in Walmart. Maybe that's if they let me do that. Um, but it's really about that communicate because you're exactly right. We need to communicate the why. One thing that we've
107did coming out of the failed operating referendum was we paused and we communicated the why. And we were successful on two referendums because we communicated the why part of the referendum planning in April. We tried to make it very clear that this was a two-year fix and we'll be bringing that back and saying, "Hey, we knew that this 2.3 million was coming. We knew and the reason why we have so much revenue stabilization in something in the communicate is because a negative 4% health insurance renewal unheard of million bucks. Guess what we still have in revenue stabilization? A million bucks. So we can communicate the why. The question is, and I'm not I don't have the answer, is is are we better off doing using all the revenue stabilization for 2627 and making $1.2 million
108roughly of reduction somewhere and digging in and trying not to, you know, we have the natural stuff. We have, you know, we're continue to do what we've been doing and then coming a little bit more aggressive. In [snorts] the past, the board has asked about split runs for transportation. There's a cost savings. Is it come at a cost of appearance? Yep. Because we did a little data and I believe 80% of the people who ride the bus have a sibling that is older. It would be in grades 5 through 12. So, we have to survey, you know, we we'd have to communicate that. We actually survey and see what the parents feel. Maybe they say, "Nope, we're good to go." So, Can we pass an April referendum? Yes, I firmly believe that. Is that the
109best opportunity to do it? Then I'm going to be looking to you guys because obviously if you tell me I can, you know, try to pass a referendum in middle of January, guess what? I'm going to try my hardest to do it. I'll be ringing the kettle bell in front of Walmart with a sign. But are we better off educating, communicating, pausing because we do have, as Todd said, referendum fatigue possibly and saying, "Okay, we're going to use that 1.1 million of revenue stabilization." Tell the community this is it, and we're looking for 2.5 for the next, I'm saying hypothetically, next three years. If we would do that in November, we would have an opportunity in November and [snorts] then another opportunity in April. So we would have two tries and communicate and take everything
110and through November and have that communication get time to learn more to understand and really dive in and see what does 1.2 2 million mean for our district next year and then really dive into what is 2.5 million because 2.5 million is a big number when this will be the fifth or sixth straight year of reductions. So that's kind of my two cents. Um do we want to look at $1.2 $.2 million shortfall roughly or just call it a million dollars. Or as Todd said, if we fail, we may not get another crack at it. But I guess one way or another, you know, we're going to talk more in December if that's okay and we'll get some information, but really start to get a the guidance from the board about is April realistically or
111not [snorts] because between now and we realistically have seven school days, actually six school days now with the holiday there and the short week and then we come back real quick in December and then we have that time off. January, middle of January is coming fast. And that's the reality of the April referendum. And and Miss Lopez said we should have been talking about this earlier. That that that could be that could be. I did do some uh articles in the paper and that sort of thing to start talking about it, but we didn't talk about I didn't put it on the board agenda to abruptly say, "Hey, how are we going to do this? What do we want to do?" Dr. Bernett. Um, I guess I question whether the mood of the electorate is
112going to change from April to November. No matter how much information we give them, they're still going to be upset about their property taxes. Yeah. But if we wait until November, I think we and if the board wishes, we get a survey out there and and and really try to invest in a survey and talk about the tax tolerance, for example, or the education experience, whatever we want to do. Um, that would give us a little bit more to to to to get that. We'd get a lot more data and maybe there is a little bit more tolerance. I don't know. and we have to establish the why. It gives us some more time to still do the PR PR PR and then by the we just can't drop something on their mailbox. We would
113still have to have a strategic way to do it. If we do partner with school perceptions, I'm sure they would be able to help us out and say, "Hey, this is what you need to do again." But you're exactly right. I don't know how much it would change because in November it would hit their December tax bill just like if we went in April it'd hit their December tax bill. >> Um Mr. S, what is the actual um monetary cost of running a referendum or asking for a referendum? Is there >> as long as we're on the cycle, I don't think we can go off cycle. Um, but it's really, Miss Markin would probably know, but we have notices, we have this, we have that and time. Not not huge. Not huge. Now, it used
114to be when you have a if we wanted to go in March, for example, now you're talking you have to pay everybody. You have to pay all the municipalities and stuff like that. So, if you stay on the general election cycle, it's minimal. >> Um, can I just say something? >> Yeah. >> What what I I'm probably um gleaning from something Mr. McKenna said years ago that I we need a marketing campaign that tells our story. whether it's our high school marketing team um you know the kids who tell the story or if it's the teched department who gets out there and you know shares with the community um but it needs to be a constant yearround every year annual discussion opportunity for parents grandparents employers everybody to engage with the district like every every
115month a new video out on the why we need this or what's going on in our school every year um a a student making a painting showing a need or um somebody in the English department writing a letter the student writing a letter to the editor for this and I don't know if it has to be a paid campaign or one that we create within ourselves but it should be something that the community can get excited about every year look for or every month look forward to. That really does tell this is what's going on in the school district and educate as well the boring stuff about the not to say your job is boring, excuse me, [laughter] about you know school budgets and how um and how they are because if we if we
116just engage when we need it, it just feels like a burden. But if it's something I mean maybe may I don't think it would ever get to the point where they would completely tune out because you have grandparents who are excited to see their you know their grandchild involved in that month's marketing you know um advertisement or whatever you you have um employers saying hey this is our employee who is on this and wrote this letter or whatever. I I feel like it just needs to be something that we're proud of and that we continue to say and continue to share all the time. It can't get stagnant and it has to just continue until Washington or Madison or whatever fixes this because this is a nobody would nobody would handle their own budget the
117way the school district budget is designed and and it's the most confusing thing and we just have to be better at telling our story and I know that but we need to do it consistently not just in the 11th hour when we're needing another, you know, shot in the arm. So, thanks, >> Mr. G. 100% agree. Getting out there every month and doing something where it's a little status update from teachers, from kids. Um maybe we could get cow to um give us a slot once a month to to just to you know, five 10 minutes or or maybe even a quick question and answer that would help. one of the admin staff could be there and just take questions for that school. I think that'd be great to help get out what we're doing,
118why we're doing it, and why we need what we need. Um, our my robotics kids do the same thing. They do a monthly um parent handout with a status update. What did we do? Why are we doing it? Here's what the fundraising is going for. Here are the things we've accomplished. Here's the outreach we've done. You know, it's not just fundraising, fundraising, fundraising, building an expensive robot, and then going out for a couple of weeks. >> Anyone else? >> I I guess I I I personally want to answer some of your questions, Sam, because you did ask some questions that felt like needed to be addressed. Um, so, uh, on the school perception side, I only if we were to ask more than like like 20 cents, I think that's where we would need school
119perceptions. Otherwise, anything that's flat or monomal, I think we can explain thoroughly. the the only the only concern that I have is that me being now I I'm I I don't really like using fund balance like I've heard and um I don't really but but I know like we're in this little we're we're like a cog in the wheel and um as we try to show the community the local control is good, we we need to make small steps. And that's why us taking out a fund balance and using our and being strategic about it is is how we get to a vision of us as a board making these decisions and the community holding us accountable as as an option. Us as us personally accountable every election cycle. not necessarily I don't like what
120you said so we're going to go after your referendum or whatever. That's not that's not what we should that that's not what it should be strove for and that's what is usually seen. So I I think I think what's important is is that if we were to wait till November, my only big concern is is that we would have to make all the cuts and we drain all of our fund balance before November. We'd have to run things like we failed in November. And I don't think that's the way we want to do it. I think I think we need to, you know, not be high rollers, but we need to put some I I think putting something down that has a 90 or 80% chance of passing that we have full faith and confidence
121or at least even a 90% faith and confidence in that we can say this is what we need and all the other years we'll try will make do. So [snorts] >> go ahead. >> I was just going to say that I think we've set the ground for success, right? The 24 kind of laid that road map. I I I just went to Cataract last month to talk about the budget, invite them to the meeting, right? I didn't get yelled out with a pitchfork. They appreciate me being there. And those are the relationships that I think I mean I'll host a Zoom meeting once a month until it something passes to tell the story of why this is needed, right? Um so I I appreciate those pieces of of more planning involvement. And I was just
122going to end with that piece of I think we can help with that, right? as as board members of of being in those spaces, whether it's those township meetings or going where people don't want to don't h right, going where people already are. Um, if that's Walmart, I don't I don't care. But that's as many times as it takes. I I think that's where the conversations need to happen cuz yeah, I don't I don't think the appetite will be better in November. Um, we just have a missed opportunity. Um, because we can go twice a year, right? So, if we fail in April, we can go back in November. November is going to have a higher voter turnout, which is typically more favorable for operating referendums, right? Um, but to do that, we're doing what
123Mr. Wells just said, cutting X amount of positions and wasting fund balance just to hope for November. Um, so, so I think we have enough of the groundwork to move forward. um knowing that it might what Mr. Gonki said I think makes sense too like we're in the middle of this facility construction that is going to be front and center as soon as well it already is but shovels going in the ground. I look at that as positive momentum, right? Others might not because that's, you know, why didn't you spend the 87 million on paying teachers and paying X, Y, and Z, right? It's the same but different. Um, so I guess in my mind that that's an opportunity to use some of those communications and the I heard community involvement from both the architects
124and the construction managers, right? I want to see what that looks like moving forward and use that to leverage the stories that we're going to be doing anyway. not adding x amount of more work on all the admin in this room that are already working their tails off, right? How can we as a board step up and do those things, I'll talk to anyone, right? I'll call them back if they want me to, right? But that's something that it's not going to change unless we change something. And I don't know if necessarily we've had that type of engagement in the past. So, I'm excited for that. I think it makes a lot of sense and really want to look forward to what that next step looks like. But I I do think if we don't
125try to go in April, I I'm hearing uh the passable what's digestible pieces. Um I don't know what that number is right now, but I think that would be a missed opportunity for that needed conversation. Um whether it happens April, November next year, it it will continue to happen every year, right? Um or not every year, but on a regular basis until the system changes. So, I I think I feel good about where we're at, what we've done the last two, three years to get us to this point. Um, and yeah, everything that has talked about tonight, I just feel like waiting until November for those data pieces that it's going to be worse in November, right, with midterms, the the politics is going to be worse. So, to me, that April makes the most
126sense right now. and the two-year instead of necessarily four to get us through that uh most of the building cycle, right? To then still be on the two-year budget cycle, still know how that impacts us. Um but then reassess kind of what maybe that long-term uh ask would be if we wanted to then uh alleviate some of the the what was the word? The referendum fatigue. Right. All right. That's all I got. I'll yield my time back to the speaker. >> Well, in an attempt to not put anyone to sleep, since this is not a action item, would it be all right if I move on? >> Thank you. All right. Discussion and possible action to approve a resolution establishing parameters for the sale of not to exceed 10 $10 million of general obligation promisory
127notes. Mr. Russ and Miss Hoser. >> Yes. in board docs uh is the actual resolution. Uh a couple weeks ago, we came this uh to you and um said that we would like to bring this to you tonight. Um there's two resolutions. The first one's in 2025. Uh just a quick review. Um we're this is the second of of four borrows that we would look to do for the $87 million facility project. The first one was 66 million. Uh we hit the uh interest low. Um, so we got very good interest rate at that time and we're making very good uh interest earnings on that as well. So this one we're looking at a bank guaranteed uh loan. It's under $10 million. We can do uh total loans under $10 million yearly. Um and uh
128because it's bank qualified, we got about a half% less in interest rate. So that's why we get really good interest rate here and we can still earn interest ourselves on it. Uh and it's not subject to the arbitrage. Uh so we can gain as much as we want. Not that when you compare 66 million versus 8 and a half or under not to exceed 10. It's a little bit different but um so this is the first one. We would look to get this out as soon as possible if approved tonight. The actual resolution is in board docs. The legal uh ease uh this is a legal process that we have to go through. We work with Corals and Brady and Bar on this and uh pending any questions um look to approve that uh resolution
129establishing parameters for the sale of not to exceed $10 million general obligation promisary note 2025 as presented in board docs [snorts] >> questions or comments from board members or I would accept a motion. Yeah, I I know I talked to you Sam about this, but I just want the board to know is and and this is just to answer further answer my question. Is this frontbearing interest like a mortgage or is this backbearing interest like our bonds typically are? >> And I believe I said I have to talk to Miss Hower, but um no. Anyway, I believe it's front because uh if memory serves me right, the last two years are yet to be established. It's 20 years. Uh and if I looked on the schedule, there was a uh kind of a space in
130the last the years 18 and 19 or 19 and 20. >> Um [clears throat] what I can say is we're looking to potentially have them be 10-year bonds instead of 20-year. Um, but basically that's allowing us flexibility for the repayment cycle based on future operating refer referendums and things like that. So we're building them to be very flexible and able to be refinanced if we need to push it out longer. And then I also just wanted to comment in addition to what Sam said that when we brought the referendum to the public, we had anticipated or forecasted interest cost of 57.4 million on the 87 million. And um when we locked in last December with the 66 million, if you recall, we were striving to get that in before the new year. And if you
131look at the interest rate trends, we locked in on the lowest day of the whole 2-year period. So that was incredible news. And that's what Baird is trying to do with us right now. So they're looking to issue this December 2nd because they think they've found a sweet spot again. And that's why they've had us break up this second borrowing into two different borrowings um to save that half percentage point. So original estimate was 57.4 million in interest and we're down to 48.6 million with what we did last December and what we're looking to do now which is $ 8.8 million of interest avoidance from what we projected two years ago. So, um, again, great news on managing how we time the debt and the different vehicles we use to issue it. >> Miss Lopez,
132>> um, thank you. I have a question just um, to clear this up with anyone who might be hearing um, that we would be earning interest on this borrowing or sale or however it's called. Um the uh could you please explain the limitations for the use of that interest? Like why can't we just put it toward operating? Yep. Great question. Uh so any interest so the interest the way that we earn it is we um we get all of the proceeds of the debt and then we invest it until the draw schedule comes up or until the contractor ask for payment. And so there's a timing lag there between when we get the money and when we have to pay it. So we reinvest it during that time to basically make the money work for
133us. But the interest earnings we get on that money has to go back into the project or the referendum approved purpose. And so what that does is that creates additional opportunities for us to basically have a $87 million project that gives us something more than that in value. So it goes right back into the project to um make the project bigger. Um, are there any districts who have ever done con creative wording where a district approved uh referendum use could be combined with operating? >> Um, I do not believe that's possible. So all of the referendum language does go through council and um it's a controlled process as far as what can get put in there and I am not aware of the opportunity to combine facility and operating in one question. Um, probably the
134closest you can get to that is if we have in our operating budget ongoing maintenance costs. Instead, we could do similar to what we're doing at the high school. Let's, you know, repair our HVAC and our plumbing and stuff, which in turn helps our operating budget or same thing, replace outdated equipment and things like that. So, they're loosely tied, but we can't use it to pay for salaries, for example. Other questions or comments from board members? >> I was just going to say thank you for this creative example of stewardship that should be highlighted in things we talked about earlier and I'll make a move to approve as presented. >> Second motion for Mr. Burns Gilbert, second from Mr. Wells. Roll call. >> Oh, before that I just want to make sure I just for
135the clearly for the record, Mr. Burns Gilbert. You were motioned and seconded by Mr. Wells to approve the resolution established parameters for the sale of not to exceed two $10 million of general obligation promisary notes for 2025. >> Yes. Thank you. Roll call, please. >> Mr. McKenna. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gonkey. >> Yes. >> Miss Barren. >> Yes. >> Dr. Bernett. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lopez. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mr. Burns Gilbert. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wells. >> Yes. >> Moving on to business C. Exactly the same thing for 2026. >> Yes. Uh in board docs, we're looking for a um this is the number, this is the third or fourth draw. Uh we can do one every year. So we're going to do one in December of 2025 and come back right away early
136in 2026 and do something very similar not to exceed 10 million. So, looking for a motion in a second uh to approve a resolution establishing parameters for the sale of not to exceed $10 million general obligation promisary notes 2026 and the resolutions in board dots. >> I move to approve a resolution establishing parameters for the sale not to exceed $10 million general obligation promisory notes for 2026. >> Second motion from Mr. Wells, second from Mr. Gon. Roll call, please. >> Mr. McKenna, >> yes. >> Mr. Gonkey, >> yes. >> Miss Barren, >> yes. >> Dr. Bernett, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lopez, >> yes. >> Mr. Burns Gilbert, >> yes. >> Mr. Wells, >> yes. >> Motion carries 70. Discussion of possible action to approve new van leases. Mr. Russ, Miss Hower? >> Yes. Um, coming
137off the committee of the whole, uh, it was recommended that we enter into a 5-year lease agreement with, uh, Enterprise. Uh, we do have Michael from Enterprise here with us today if to answer any questions or anything like that. But just real briefly going over the, you know, kind of the goals here like we talked about at the committee level. Uh, provide reliable transportation uh, for our staff flexibility. That's going to be, uh, very key. Uh, keep the fleet up to date. We talked about keeping maintenance down and this is really about anticipating costs. How do we just as Dave you uh Mr. Goni you mentioned how do we put things in the budget just to plan for it and this is one of those examples reduce vehicle uh maintenance costs that we know about
138and don't know about and we could look to consolidate some uh savings in special education transportation co-curriculars field trips uh in a long range plan and transportation budget. So um um and specifically we're looking to this would help specifically assist robotics and music department for their needs as well uh because they share and not that they don't share nicely it's just they don't always mesh uh they have competing uh dates at times. So but on the flip side when we add more v when we add more vans we may have to add a driver. Uh, for example, we have um we we transport some students with special needs to alternate placements or during the day. We would need a driver for them. We currently rely on Southwest Busing for some of that. Um, and we
139use their their employees, their vehicles, and that sort of thing. But this way, we'd save on costs because it's our vehicles and and we would just have to hire uh probably one uh FTE uh special education or educational assistant. Um, and this is just a visual of uh the plans. We have the current plan and then we have plan A, which is the recommended uh one and plan B. Basically, the recommended one was we're keeping four of our our our vans or our fleet working at 16 new add to the fleet and approximately $130,000 per year for five years. the benefit of doing five years at year six, it's not necessarily another 130,000 through appreciation and through the resale and through reselling it back. The goal is and is what um Michael and Enterprise have
140seen, your payments go down because you get that resale back. We don't put a lot of miles on our cars. We don't. So, the resale value uh is very high with that. And this is just a little bit more in depth of the uh plan A. Michael put this together for us which was fantastic. Um I'm saying 130,000 and we're just entering into a lease uh with Enterprise. Um because that's 125 right now, but when you start looking at those maintenance cargo vans, we're going to add stuff to it. Add shelving, add, you know, compartments and that sort of thing. So we just kind of round it up uh for that. Um and the um this year's budgetary expense is about 45,000 42 45,000 somewhere in there. Um so that would be the remaining when
141we get them maybe you know hopefully we'll get them in March and then so that'll cost that'll cover the rest of the from March to July 1 and then we have our our new payment coming up. So, as you can see, we're getting six new minivans for uh transportation. Uh six new cargo vans for maintenance and that sort of thing. Uh 3/4 ton truck and a one in a one- ton truck. Um we currently have Fords and if you see that, you know, we're looking for minivans for Kia and then the cargo vans and the trucks are Ram. It's really dependent on the market. Um, and uh, working with Michael and his team, the Rams are the best advantage right now. We get government pricing. Uh, we get to make these as we want. Uh,
142it's not, you know, hey, I have a rental car right now from Enterprise. It's not these are what you get. We get to design those. So, um, so we're excited about that opportunity as well. So, um, pending any questions or anything? We have Michael here to answer any questions. The recommendation was to go with uh enter into a uh lease agreement with Enterprise for the 16 vehicles. >> Questions or comments from board members? >> I should have said before you go, Miss Lopez. Michael, did I miss anything or anything like that or Miss Hower? >> No, I think it's great. Um I don't know if it was brought up. I know that Leah and you had mentioned uh you know does this go to bid and things like that and we talked a little about
143the source well procurement angle. Um obviously if you're familiar with source well the city of Sparta who's a client of ours and the school district are both source well members that's a government purchasing cooperative who has negotiated with [clears throat] I guess they went out to bid with a couple dozen fleet management companies and found that enterprise was you know the best the strongest pricing so hopefully that satisfies the due diligence for the board. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Um I would also comment Toma School District uses Enterprise under that same um agreement as well. And in talking with Ryan Fr. Um I did have one oversight on the 10 passengers. So we do currently have three. However, the maintenance concerns on one of them has recently brought us down to two. Um, so if
144the board would be agreeable, 17 would be a better number than 16. And if not, we can make 16 work. Um, but I just wanted to give that update that we are now down to two 10 passenger vans where when this presentation was prepared, we were at three. Um, and then I just wanted to bring out a couple of budgetary pieces to light. So this year um since June, we've already incurred almost $15,000 in vehicle maintenance cost. So our fleet is quite some of our vehicles are quite old. We've had to take two vehicles offline completely. Um if you look at our long range plan, we have one to two vehicles budgeted per year. And at 16 years, you can see how we'll always have a vehicle that's over a decade old. And with our
145four years of budget reductions, we've, no pun intended, tapped the brakes on um that plan. And so that just continues to set us even further behind. We are getting feedback from staff and students that um refreshing or refreshing the vehicles that we're providing them would be greatly appreciated. Um I did include $50,000 in the budget that we had approved at the annual meeting for vehicle leases. Um and so this year one plan would already be covered in this year's budget. In addition, we have just shy of $100,000 budgeted for Southwest in routes that we believe could be covered with these additional minivans. So, um potentially, as Sam mentioned, we'd have to hire a EA, but that would still be a budgetary savings as compared to 90 to $100,000. Um, and then finally, this will free
146up room in the co-curricular budgets because teams like the golf team would be able to use vans versus renting a bus, which can be a couple hundred a meet. So, there are many budget line items that would be positively impacted to help offset the cost of this lease and it would be a much better experience for all of our staff and students who use vehicles. Miss Lopez. >> Um, yes. So, Miss Hower, you no longer want to keep three of the 10 passenger vans because there are only two to keep. >> Correct. We'll only be keeping two either way. Um, we would gladly replace one of them with the Kia minivan, which would bring the total request up to 17. Or if you'd rather stay with the 16, we can make that work. Okay. So,
147total 20 vehicles regardless of how they're made up. Correct. >> Um or I guess it would only be 19 if we don't >> add that 17th. >> But, um >> Mr. S, I you know, you mentioned um robotics and music, I believe. Show. Okay. So, um can you please just explain the why again? Why we need to increase our fleet by four? >> I can take that one. So, currently robotics and showquire have it's a old 10 passenger van that had the seats removed and so it doesn't really meet their purpose um because the roof isn't tall enough. It doesn't have a ramp and so on. And so they borrow one of the maintenance vehicles when they travel, which then has maintenance uninstalling all of their tools and things from the back of the van
148to have it. So it upsets multiple areas of the district. And um you know that van that is we'll say so for robotics that van doesn't really work at all. They have to use a maintenance van. per band. That van just has many issues. So, in essence, what we're this plan includes is buying a new cargo van that has the correct roof height, that has a ramp system that is 100% for robotics and band. They don't have to share it with the maintenance team, which makes a better experience for them and for our maintenance workers. >> Okay. So, that's one. >> Yep. um the other minivans. So, we used to have it was either five or six student transportation vans and as we've been having issues, we've been taking them offline. To be honest, [clears
149throat] we tried downsizing a couple years ago as a budgetary savings. And what we found is it actually ended up being a budget increaser because we have to go through Southwest for so many more things and we're paying significantly more. Um, I was just speaking with a bunch of business managers and people services directors last week. Lisa and I were and districts across the state are seeing this and increasing their district owned vans because the cost to do these one-off transports to meet students with individual needs is just so costly through busing companies. And so, um, flexibility for co-curriculars, a lot more flexibility for having to run students to alternative placements or shortened school days. Um, field trips, you know, sometimes a group of kids will take a field trip and they could fit in
150a van or two and we're paying several hundred per bus per trip. >> Um, and I imagine like ergonomics for staff members and everything like that is huge when you have the proper vehicle. >> Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you. >> Other questions or comments? Mr. Gunkkey, >> just one quick comment. Um, as Sam kind of mentioned, Showquire and Robotics have a lot of overlap where we'd be coming back the same time Showquire is doing stuff. Um, so are they looking at having multiple vans outfit? So, if there's needs to be a shift one way or another, like they need to shift one van over for one weekend due to coverage that they'd be able to still do that. >> Um, Yep. So, we always have the option to uh help out with maintenance vehicles if we
151need to and so on. Um, it would be a shared van and then where there's overlap, we'll work together. Yep. >> I was just going to ask I'm hearing then a lot of our employees will be driving more. How are they currently trained on driving and what does that look like? because that'll be a big increase of >> liability and making sure those guidelines are >> specific. So, staff and students are there. >> So, to in order to drive students, you have to be an employee first of all and then you have to have a safe driver physical. Uh we contract with Neighborhood Family Clinic to do those. So, we make sure that they physically are able to. We do run a DMV back um check, so a license check and um yep, we request
152proof of insurance and then they complete um a form in FMX, which is our software system. Um the other good news is this fleet is mainly minivans. So, we have heard concerns from some staff that a 10 passenger van is just very difficult to maneuver if you're not used to it. Um, which I can appreciate that. [laughter] So, providing minivans with all the newest safety features and backup cameras and things like that, that just in and of itself makes it a much more um userfriendly experience, I would say. Um, and then lastly, we haven't implemented this yet. However, I do have the tools in place now. We have a safety video library um through it's called Vector Solutions that there are safe driving modules and winter driving modules and things like that. So, that is
153um and the plan for our district safety initiatives is that we can incorporate those moving forward. Also, that hasn't been done yet, but is in the works. Other questions or comments or we'll accept a motion? >> I have a question. Um I know we usually have like decals on the vans and our vehicles. Is that something that we would be doing and is there any idea of cost on that? >> Interesting enough that came up in our safety meeting today. Um so we will look to you know look into that idea. Uh that was the first that I heard about it. Uh part of the reason was is that we do have some vans that pull up at recess and that sort of thing. Um and it's like, oh, who is that? And it'd be
154much easier if we had um identification. So, we are looking at doing that costs. Um I don't know that. I'm looking at probably just a decal that puts it on the side, a Spartan head or something like that, but we're definitely looking into that now. So I guess uh you know the committee's recommendation was the 16 vehicles uh the 17th vehicle. Do we have an approximate I don't know but I don't have an approximate >> um I know Ryan connected with Michael today. Michael I don't know if you had a chance to look at that or not but >> No, I was driving from Milwaukee but I can I can try and run some rough numbers here. I'd imagine it would increase the monthly cost by roughly $6 or $700 for that additional minivan. >>
155So times 12. So you're looking at 8,000 roughly $8,000 7200. >> It really depends. Obviously there's a vehicle that we would be replacing. Depends on what the condition is, what the resale value is of that vehicle. Um but it could be even less than that theoretically. So, as Miss Herzer [snorts] said, we can make 16 work. 17 is ideal because this is something that happened probably yesterday afternoon or this morning. >> Okay. >> I was going to say I I move to approve uh new van leases not to exceed $140,000. I'll second that. Is that right? It's an extra 10 grand, right? >> I think that should be good. It depends on the the outfit on vans and if he needs a new salter and plow, but >> Sure. >> So, that would be an
156additional cost. So, um if you'd be okay with 150, that gives us a little bit more leeway or we can make 140 work in our budget. >> Doesn't that extra 10,000 cover the cost of the van? We just >> It would. Yes. However, with the up with the up, you know, that's just a basic van. We may want to put um shelves um not sure if we need a salter like, you know, hooked on the back and plow. I don't think we're using as a plow, but >> Okay. So, yeah, if we're replacing a different vehicle, it is up. That's fine. Um my amend my motion to $150,000. >> Thank you. I second it. >> Second from Dr. Bernett. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Gonkey. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lopez. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Ms.
157Barren. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wells? >> Yes. >> Mr. Burns Gilbert? >> Yes. >> Dr. Bernett? >> Yes. >> Mr. McKenna? >> Yes. Motion carries 70. Before you get to the next one, Mr. McKenna, I'd like to read some legal ease and if you're okay with it, I'll continue to read the rest of it. >> Hells yeah. >> Thank you very much, Michael. I appreciate it. So, um, prior to the next agenda item, discussion regarding a possible close session discussion under Wisconsin state statute 19.851E to review negotiating parameters over the purchase of specific real property will occur prior to any potential closed session. The requirement for close session to discuss negotiation parameters over the purchase of specific real property is due to the fact that the district has not reached an agreement with any potential
158seller or sellers and the possible close session will afford the board the ability to establish negotiation parameters with the purchase of any specific real property. afford the board the ability to appraise of to be appraised of the status of any negotiations and allow the board to establish any potential counterp proposals to any interested seller or sellers and it's in and in it's the public's interest to have such a conversation in close session. Therefore, looking for a motion and roll call vote to go into close session pursuant to Wisconsin statute 19.851E, 851E. The board of education may move to close session to discuss uh for discussion regarding negotiation parameters for the purchase of the specific real property. Afford the board the ability to appraised of the status of any negotiations and allow the board to establish
159any potential counterproposals to any interested seller and discussion of possible action to the board to move to close session pursuant 19.851c. The board of education may move into close session for the purpose of consideration of employment, promotion, compensation, [clears throat] or performance evaluation data of any public employee over the which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility discussion of salaries for individual employees. >> God bless you, Sam. So, >> I tried >> second. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Burns Gilbert, >> yes. >> Dr. Bernett, >> yes. >> Mr. Mr. McKenna, >> yes. >> Mr. Wells, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lopez, >> yes. >> Mr. Gonkey, >> yes. >> Miss Barren, >> yes. >> Motion carries 70. We are in close session. >> Thank you very much. And if there's anything, I'll come back
160out and announce it. Enjoy the night, everybody. Thank you for monitoring and watching. [snorts]