December 8th 2025 Regular School Board Meeting

001uh meeting for Monday, December 8th to order. Um I will note public access to meetings which is both people who want to attend uh in person as well as we stream online and we also videotape if people can't be here tonight and want to watch the meeting afterwards. I will ask for meeting opening and roll from the vote. >> Miss Bushman >> here. >> Miss Mercer >> here. >> Mr. Kowolski >> here. >> Mr. Pope >> here. >> Mr. Libre >> here. >> Miss Potter Nelson >> here. >> Mr. Summers >> here. >> Mr. Lee >> here. >> Miss Eert >> here. >> We have a quum. >> I aliance 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

002justice for all. >> So our first item on the agenda is our Mandana Bliss Award. The Mandana Bliss Award is a symbol of our deep appreciation for the unwavering commitment and outstanding efforts demonstrated by our staff members for educational excellence in the Stevens Point area public school district. It is named in honor of Mandana Hill Bliss, Stevens Point's first school teacher and trailblazer whose exceptional service and dedication continue to inspire us all. This award lends us the opportunity to shine a light on remarkable contributions made to this district by our staff and to recognize their exemplary service. And I will turn it over. >> Thank you, Meg. So this year we have the honor, not this year, this month we have the honor um to represent Lindsay Kadrski. She's the head secretary at the Charles

003Fernandez School. She was nominated by four 12th grade students, Aaya Jones, Lauren Paige, Amelia Hegnus, and Haley Caldwell. And a couple of those students along with their principal Danny Fowler Kanik are here to say a few words about Lindsay. So Lindsay and Danny and students, please come forward. THANK YOU. SO, I'm the principal. I am Danny Kig and we are very proud to nominate Lindseay Kadowski, our school secretary for the Manhattan Bliss Award. Um, she is a phenomenal secretary. We started the same year really at CFC that I started as principal and so we found our way together in in this great role. Um, and in our first year, we prepared for the next year moving our entire building to a phenomenal new location, but that was quite a feat for a new school secretary.

004And then this year, we we started the school year in a storage office while we had our office area with beautiful renovations being done. But again, a school secretary working from a storage room is pretty phenomenal. But she is very adaptive and resourceful and still does a phenomenal job. um not just as my my partner in all school things, but you know that's enough really for this nomination. What really put it over the top for this award, the exceptional piece is when we asked for feedback from all of our students for all staff. It's really what we do for this award is we want to hear from the students. And as I was reading through everything, I was just struck over and over again this theme of students saying, um, she's the first smile I

005see in the morning. Uh, she she knows things about me and teases me about the Lions that I root for and how they lost, you know, rightfully so. >> She knows that they've had a game return to play. They they all commented over and over about her personally supporting them, knowing them. One student wrote, um, I just feel seen by her. And another student, you know, I just I know that she takes care of me. She knows what I need and she's always there if I need someone. So Lindsay is that trusted person. She knows every student's name. She knows all of their interests. She probably knows their family for generations if they're from Point, right? [laughter] um she'll do whatever it takes to make sure that not only students needs are met. Um staff

006needs, family needs over and above. There are so many times that have been um you know her her husband Casey will come in at the last minute and grill for our cookout or her or her kids are there to collate forms at the last minute for something. Her parents who bring in I mean just awards or treats just to make sure there's memorable experience that kids had their needs met. That is Lindsay Kadrasi. Um, could not ask for someone to be more about the culture of belonging and the student being at the center of everything we do. She truly is an exceptional secretary, exceptional collaborative partner in our school community. And we have two students here who made great effort to be here tonight who also want to tell you about her impact with them.

007So, we have Amelia and we have Haley. Go ahead and step forward. Lindsay makes CFC a better place because she welcomes students each morning by their names as they're walking in, making them feel welcomed. She's always willing to help anyone in need, no matter what it is. She even she's even gone as far as spending her own money on someone. >> Lindsay impacts every student's lives in many ways, and from my experience, it is always a positive impact. It really seems like she can read our minds sometimes because we'll go to her for something and she already has it ready or she'll come to us asking what we need. She truly is an amazing person and I wouldn't want anyone else as their secretary. >> Congratulations, Lindsay. And then the board take a half step.

008>> Yeah. >> There we go. >> All right. Thank you. And then you want to shake the board's hand. So quiet. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you so much. Say hi to >> Thanks for coming in. >> Thanks so much. >> Well done. So we are moving up to our public comments section of the agenda and um first we did receive some email. We did we received I want you to talk about it. Sure. We received [clears throat] 11 emails regarding the public comment. none of which met the guidelines to be read in due to either being late um not listing the agenda item or being over the hundred word limit. However, all 11 emails were sent to the board prior to tonight's meeting. So, I had an opportunity to read through those. um a summary

009of what those emails included were. There was one that pertained to 4K and that individual was just letting us know that they would be here tonight to speak on 4K. And then the others that we received really related to two things. And the first one was the importance of the the parental school choice program and how their family really benefits from that and it provides them an opportunity and they didn't want to see that go away. And the other was really they wanted more disclosure from the school district as it pertained to the documents that were shared with the board in the boards. We did receive one additional and that came in at 4:00 today and again that was similar to the other ones that meet the guidelines. So what we are asking the board

010for tonight later on in the agenda is to allow us to go to the municipalities and ask them to put additional information on the tax. So we are proposing a a resolution and asking the board to take action on that. We also did receive some inerson. >> Were there any emails that did meet? >> There were no emails that met. >> Thought some of them were resubmitted that met or didn't they? >> They were resubmitted that didn't meet still. >> So before public comments, I want to note because I I believe that and I I have not ever done this as the presider of this meeting. I believe there is mi misinformation or confusion in the community about what we as a school board are talking about on our agenda tonight. >> So what our

011agenda item is Yeah. This is >> No, >> this is public comment for them to talk. >> Yes. >> For them to talk. >> This is not on the agenda, Meg. This is public comment agenda. >> I know. >> No, I am >> point of order. It's not a point of order. is because this is for them to talk. >> Yes, >> Alex. I am not going to >> Meg. When we get to 13D, then you can go ahead and share and explain, but right now this is the stage for them to speak. >> I am not accepting comments from members of the public unless they reference what is the substance of the item on our agenda. >> Okay. >> And I believe there's been misinformation presented to the community. And so I am going

012to explain >> about what this item is on our agenda. >> You can do that. You can do that in 13. As a presider, I can and I will and I'm going to what what this item on our agenda is about is about asking municipalities within our county to provide information with their tax bills that clarify to taxpayers. in this community. What tax what taxes are being levied for our public schools and taxes being levied for our private vouchers. >> Correct. It it is only about providing transparency to taxpayers in our district about the amount of money that currently shows up on tax bills under the Stevens Point area public school district that go to the public schools and that go to our private voucher schools because under current state law, [clears throat] the public

013school district is required to levy both amounts. We are required to levy for our public schools and we are also required to levy for the private voucher schools. This is not about whether or not there should be private vouchers within our state. That is law. That that will continue to happen for as long as the state legislature provides and supports for that in our state. It it it's not about trying to get rid of private vouchers. >> Okay. It's so what I'm what I'm saying as the president running this meeting is if you if your comments pertain to whether those that that information should be provided to taxpayers. We will take comment but we are not going to take comment about whether or not we should have vouchers. But we can take comment about the

014language used in the FAQ. >> That's correct. Yes, we can take comment about the language and we can take comment about the language in the resolution and we will accept that >> and I I totally agree, Jen, but but I just want to clarify to members of the community that that may think we're like what's on our agenda is about like like getting rid of voucher schools. That is not it at all. It is about providing transparency to our taxpayers about how much of our dollars are going to public schools and how much are going to private schools when they see that tax line item on their tax bill. So with that, I will open up public comment. And the first individual who would [snorts] like to speak is Jennifer Piner. and she is speaking

015on 8B. >> Hello. Good evening. Well, like Meg said, my name is Jennifer Kleiner. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you. Um, I'm the program director at Kaland Early Learning and we are a community partner for a 4K program with the Stevens Point School District. And tonight I represent over two decades of history with the point for the future program which kinar early learning was a part of since the inception. We do acknowledge that things change over time but one constant remains the extreme importance of developmentally appropriate practices for our young children. When Point for the Future was established, its primary objective was to foster collaboration among partners. This collaboration was enhanced by the nurturing environment that remains essential for young children, coupled with curriculum and academic partnerships between the district and early

016learning programs in our community. As a community partner, we have consistently adhered to every directive presented over the years to ensure our success as a partner site. We strongly urge the district to continue offering 4K to parents through community partners. Our concern is that if sections of 4K students are added to public schools where there is available space, this decision would be driven by a desire to fill school capacity rather than what is most important for children in their development. Some of these children um may ride the bus, be in school full days in an environment that differs significantly from what is designed and tailored for young children in the early learning centers. 4K kindergarten has essentially become the equivalent of 5K kindergarten of years ago. In Milwaukee County, 3K is now offered. Is this

017the direction that the Stevens Point School District is headed? If this is the reputation that we want to aspire to achieve, once again, we strongly urge the school district to continue offering 4K collaborating partners to operate with the excellence that we have consistently demonstrated. >> Uh Tim Fleer would like to speak to 13. Hello. Um, I just wanted to state because I concerning 13B, um, I listened to what you said. However, my concern is is this the first step that the district wants to remove, um, the Wisconsin Parental School Choice Program. And so, because of that, I do want to read this statement. So, good evening. My name is Tim Kleiner. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm here to speak about the importance of the Wisconsin parental choice program and its role in

018our family's educational decisions. This program allows our child to attend private school that reflects our values, provides strong academics, and meets their specific needs. we without it according um affording a school aligned with our beliefs and our expectations would be financially very difficult. It has given our family stability and clarity in our child's educational path. Choosing a school that fits our child has a posit has positively impacted both academic growth and personal development. The Wisconsin Parental Choice Program enables parents to make educational decisions based on their child's individual needs rather than being limited by income or financial constraints. Every child is unique and no single school model fits all students. Educational choice um allows families the freedom to place their ch children in environments where they are most likely to thrive. Whether that means smaller

019class sizes, a specific teaching approach, additional academic support, or a school culture that aligns with their values. When families of all economic backgrounds can choose a school that fits their child, it reduces disparities in opportunity. Students who might struggle in one-sizefits-all settings can access programs that better support their strengths and challenges, benefiting the entire community by preparing by preparing confident, capable students. Educational choice is not just about preference. It's about equity and making sure every child can thrive in an environment that fits them best. As a parent whose property taxes increased this year, shouldn't tax dollars follow the children to the school they attend, whose payments or whose parents are paying [clears throat] into the system? Doesn't that reflect equity? For this reason, I respectfully ask that you continue supporting policies and decisions that protect

020and expand these options and not limit them. Programs like this help families make informed decisions and strengthen outcomes across our community. Thank you for your time and for your commitment to serving our students and families in our district. >> Thank you. Thank you. And I want to clarify again, this is not about supporting I mean that is the state legislature. Our school district has nothing to do with that. What the agenda item is about tonight is about providing taxpayers in our community with information about how much of the money under that line item on your tax bill is going to support public schools and how much is going to support private elementary schools. And there will be many people in the community that are happy to see that transparency about where those dollars are going

021exactly as you are saying. So with that I will move to our next commenter Matthew Malik and he is speaking on 13D and 8B. Hello and my name is Matthew Malik and thank you for allowing us to be here tonight and and speak. Um and I'm going to be maybe sharing some data reflecting uh 13B u that may be information that needs to be understood the board making the decision on this. Um so um and really to clarify it is our understanding that the Stevens Point school districts uh districts receive no funding for students who participate in the Wisconsin parental school program. However, my understanding that students who in who open enroll out to other districts, the district receives roughly about $2,000 per student. Currently the the district has over 400 students um open enrolling

022out of the district. Additionally 350 students are using choice dollars at this time. Now in total the district is effectively down about 750 students yet. We are not fully investigating the root cause behind this decline. And that's that's a concern. Uh taking from programs that are already in place like the 4K collaborating partners and the Wisconsin parental school choice program that are successful and working for taxpaying families is not the answer to declining enrollment. And just like our own household [clears throat] of families, when income is down, we make adjustments. uh choice enrolled students actually save taxpayers money. For instance, the 2025 26 numbers received per student from Wisconsin parental school choice programs are as follows. Grades K through 8 is $10,877 per student. Grades 9 through 12 is $13,371 per student. Now, $16,879 is

023the average from the 2324 school year per student that the Stevens Point School District receives, which I'm sure that amount has increased this year. Uh that's a minimum savings in taxes of about approximately $3 to $6,000 per student enrolled in the Wisconsin Parental School Choice Program. So we [clears throat] have to take into account that there are variety of reasons that parents choose alternative education resources for their students. And if parents are taxpayers, they should have that option. And so my my recommendation to the board were not to be not to take action on the item tonight uh 13D until there can be further investigation and possibly even in a public hearing because this was kind of sprung uh on the agenda at a late notice and u so those are my comments but thank

024you so much. >> Thank you. >> Uh we have Jesse Is it Brown or Brown? >> Yeah, Jesse Brown, thanks for letting me speak. Um, in light of what you said, Madam President, I'm going to be really brief. Um, I like you said, I was here really to express my uh, gratefulness for the program. So, I'm not going to go into much detail. I agree with a lot with what Mr. Malik said. So, I'm just voicing my opinion as a parent with four kids in a proial school here in Stevens Point. So, thanks for your time. >> Uh, Becky Health. >> Hello, my name is Becky Health. I'm with the W students white children's learning center and one of the four providers. Um, I recognize that what I have to say this evening most likely

025will not alter the outcome on the full day 4K proposal given that it is being recommended by the district. However, I would not be doing my due diligent as a current community partner, [snorts] a specialist in early childhood education, a Portage County childcare advocate leader, and a parent if I didn't speak about this. I can fully understand where the district is coming from for the financial purposes in making this proposal. Although implementing this model will lose revenue on the 4K side of it and cost the district money to do if they are able to retain these kids. The long-term financial would be a benefit. Should this be the decision that is being made though solely based on financial? Is there space in the community to offer an option like this? this is really what's best

026for children? Yes. Were programs asked to do this? No, they were not. Are there potential for other options to be considered that might potentially have the same financial benefit that the district is seeking? There are. Nobody was asked for these ideas. We were not even made aware of the survey until two weeks prior to it going out. For years, consistency and for 4K program implementation has been emphasized. With this, there would now be a variety of different program models. How will assessment for these children be equally evaluated? It has been shared that data supports this model benefiting students with disabilities and those with socioeconomically disadvantaged status, but there is no plan to target this population in the enrollment. Some of the school locations that would hold these kids have equipment that is not rated for

027children of this age to even play with. Will that information be shared openly with families? The answer was no. Yes. A decent number of families indicated from the survey they prefer this option. I would too. It saves money. Let's be real. But if I'm really answering that on what's best for my child and not just money, it would be no. I can confidently say I speak for a majority of all of our 4K partners when I say that this proposal is not something that we support in its current state. Um, and that if the people of the school board are really voting on what's best for the young children in this community, the vote would be no. >> Thank you. [clears throat] And is it Jean? >> Yeah. >> Um, speaking of >> Hi, my

028name is Jean. Um, so I came here. Um, this is my little 5-year-old daughter. Her name is Lily. She goes to SBCA. And Jennifer [gasps] is one of the Are you the director? Okay. Yes. With 4K. So, we Lily's been going there since 3K, I think. Um, and she's going to SPCA right now in kindergarten. Um, but I just wanted to say that as a single parent, this program has really helped. Um, I just started going back to work recently and then Lily, I had to find a daycare for Lily. And so, when we found Kane Land, it was amazing. Um the staff there was really amazing and everyone knew her. Like we would go through the halls and they would be hi Lily. Hi Lily. And so I just thought that was amazing and

029I just felt that when I had to return back to work again um after being at home with her for 3 years. Um it was kind of a scary thing but when I dropped her off and then day after day I got to see how the teachers interacted with her and I loved that there was quality there. And so I I think my girl, we went to the bathroom, so I missed a little bit of what you guys were talking about, but just listening about um 4K and talking about the program, I really love the quality at the school that my daughter goes to. And so I wouldn't want anything any decision to just rashly be made without considering those things because my little girl, she's five, but she can read. She can write. She

030can do all the cool things and she's only five. [laughter] And so when I talk about that to other parents, they're like, "Whoa, your daughter can read and she's a good reader and she can write." Like, yeah, she can do all of those things. And so she loves to learn. And um when we went to SBCA and the science, one of the science rooms, the teacher there right away showed her um and the microscope with biology and she was just so fascinated. And so I just really thank you guys for taking the time to just listen because um I think this has been mentioned before, but every child is different. And so the school that Lily goes to, her teacher takes the time to really do a good job and really take care of her

031her needs and everything and also teach her good things. And so um I just thank you guys for taking the time to listen. But um it's it's been a blessing this program and so even just although I didn't get to hear the first part that you guys were talking about, I feel thankful to just be able to share this testimony with you guys. >> Thank you. >> Is there anyone here this evening that didn't sign up for public comment that would like to provide public comment? All right, thank you. We will move into our presentations and the first is your student. >> Hello everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving [snorts] break. Um to get right into it, Spash's winter sports have all started and are off to a great start. Here are

032some of the upcoming home games to watch out for in December. So all of them will be at Spash Just for a heads up, gymnastics has a meet on December 9th at 5:45, so tomorrow. Um, girls basketball has a game on December 12th at 7:15. Boys swim has a meet on December 9th at 5:30. And boys hockey has a game or meets, I'm not quite sure, on December 9th at 7 um in the KV Willlet Arena. And then boys basketball has a game on December 20th at 3:30. Um the ASVAB, so the armed services vocational aptitude battery will be given to students who sign up on December 9th in the auditorium. This assessment is designed for students who plan to enter the military after high school or are interested in exploring their career options and

033discovering how their strengths and skills align with those careers. As always, Sasha's musical department is going to be very busy this next couple of weeks. There's a choir concert tomorrow night on December 7th, the holiday band concert this Thursday, December 11th, and the holiday orchestra concert next Tuesday on December 16th. And then all of those are being held at 7:30 in the Spash Auditorium. Speaking of music, the WSAW Channel 7 was at Spash last Thursday morning to record the Spash's choir for their annual Channel 7 Sounds of the Seasons music broadcast. This was a cool opportunity for our students to not only perform, but to perform for a different audience and in a different manner. Watch for this holiday program on channel 7 in the next couple of weeks. Thank you to choir director Mr.

034Adset for doing the extra work required to provide this opportunity to our students. Last week Wednesday, the SBASH student senate took a field trip to Milwaukee to participate in the student leadership workshop. The students met with team representatives, engaged in learning activities, and then concluded the day watching the Bucks beat the Detroit Pistons. Thank you to student senate adviserss Miss Henman and Miss Schmool who are both social studies teachers for not only serving as our senate adviserss but especially for leading this field trip and getting everyone back safe the next morning. That will end our Spanish update for tonight. Thank you all for listening and have a wonderful winter break. >> Thanks. >> All right, we will move into the communication report with Sarah. >> Winter break. That sounds so last month maybe we had

035thought that we did not need to use this microphone. I don't usually sit in the back. I we can't hear. So for those who are speaking after me and moving forward, we do need to use this microphone >> because it's amplifying to the back. So okay, that's out of the way. Let's talk communication. November storytelling events and engagements. We've got some highlights up there uh that we were able to cover. Um some of my personal favorites, appreciating our substitute teachers. We were able to feature three substitute teachers in the district. Um sharing the just the good work that they do, how they're filling in in the classrooms and really kind of their stories of how they got there. SPASH students shared what they're thankful for in a really cute video um that Brooke ran up

036to Spash to do. We heard about students that were thankful for friends and family, their trucks, spash, all kinds of things. So, it was great just to get a little bit of, I think, view into that world. We also covered lots of events for Veterans Day across our district. One of our favorite new ones at PJs, students could place a flag on the front lawn in honor of someone they know who either is currently serving or had served. So, it was really very cool to as a see that just very visibly represented for our community um truly the sacrifices that have been made by so many. And then Jefferson students uh made gratitude robots which is really great. We saw um teaching staff there really combining STEM curriculum um around that the um sorry theme

037of gratitude uh that happened pretty close to Thanksgiving. Looking at website and digital engagement for the month, our website continues to grow in that engagement time per user. That's up again year-over-year. So, we saw pretty steady growth for total views. We saw a huge jump for engagement time per user. So, folks that are on there and then we saw our key count event go up quite a bit as well. So, really what we're looking at are the engagement time and key event count. Top three most visited pages. No surprises there. Uh district homepage, resources for staff, spash homepage, calendar, staff login. Uh we will launch our second part of the preparation for title 2 digital accessibility compliance in January. Um so we've got a lot of those resources out and there to be consumed. Um

038but we won't touch base with staff again until January. Media and public relations. Um, these are the press releases we issued during the month of November. Um, district report cards, the excuse me, Stevens Point Area Public School District honors bus driver Lisa Flugrat and Spatch Athletics early signing day. Looking at our social media engagement, total audience for both Facebook and Instagram grew and we saw impressions um jump a little bit about 8% over the month. And then we saw I'm sorry, impressions jump. We saw engagements go down a little bit month over month. [clears throat] Looking ahead, nothing has changed on this slide except it's a new cute picture. Um, and I'm just starting to check stuff off that we've completed. This is our list for the semester of things that we're working on um,

039completing by the end of January. So, I don't anticipate this to change a whole lot. That I'll take questions. Do any board members have questions? >> No, but I really love the video that you did at Spash. It was really, really cool to hear those high schoolers and what they're thankful for. It was good. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you, Sarah. >> Adding it out of the park on videos this year, I think. >> Okay. Thank you, May. So, donations to our schools this month. Thank you to Hughes Service in Millidor. They donated a 2007 Chevy Impala to our stash auto program. We had three community partners that gave money to the money for meals program. Noble Community Clinics gave $278.37. Wisaki Family Farms gave a $1,000 and Power of Five gave $5,000. So, thank you

040to those community partners. Knights of Columbus has donated $3,128.71 to the special ed program, specifically at Ben, PJ Jacobs, and Stash. And thank you to Dr. and Mrs. Vicki who donated a power wheelchair that's worth $8,000. Polar Pond Plunge is this coming Saturday from 10 to noon. The weather does not look great. It's supposed to be really, really cold. So, we're continuing to monitor and if the forecast holds true, we will be plunging at PJH. >> Wait a second. [laughter] >> That cannot be called. >> It will not be. >> That's not fair. >> Not a polar. >> So, more to come on that. Uh, winter break is December 24th through January 2nd. School resumes on January [clears throat] 5th. Between now and the start of um, January, January 5th, there are a ton of

041holiday concerts taking place in our schools. And the board update, we listed all of those, so feel free to partake in any of those if you so choose. Board candidacy update. Just a reminder, between now and January 6th, if people are interested in having their name on the ballot, they need to submit that paperwork before January 6th. Any current incumbents that are not interested in running again, you need to submit your paperwork by December 26th. So, see Lynette in the business office. And if we need a primary, that would take place on February 17th and then the spring election is on April 7th. reminder that we have our spash holiday open miniature golf community night that takes place on December 19th. It's an awesome event. It's free. You get to see what our um Mac

042uh construction uh students have put together and it's it's a real festive event. If you want uh to attend, please do so. And then they are collecting canned goods to provide to the local food pantry. Thank you to WSP and WSP women's basketball coach Matt Huckett. They have invited our elementary schools to attend an education day that will be taking place um next week and they are going to be playing Concordia. There's a new tip off. It's free of charge. We have over 1,600 1600 elementary students that will be attending that. So, thank you to WSP. It's going to be a great event. Last year it was canceled due to weather. So, fingers crossed that we won't have horrible weather on that day. Congratulations to Sarah for her work on acquiring two awards from Whisper,

043which is the Wisconsin School of Public Relations Association. She won a video uh a short video beyond expectations for an award of merit and she won an award for our website, one district, one design, a point proud redesign, and she won the award of excellence best in category for that. And then lastly, we had some board members that did attend the WASB fall legislative conference on November 8th. So, I was going to open it up for individuals to share any information from that. And I know that we do have a short present that was put together by a couple board members that Chris will put up here and then anyone else can share what they learned as well. >> Thank you. So uh G Meg [clears throat] Liz and I attended the WASBY fall conference

044which was again in Stevens Point. So it was uh very uh convenient uh for that reason. I will say in advance that Sarah did not make my PowerPoint so I have no cute pictures and I apologize for that. I have taken notes and next time I will remedy that situation. Uh the conference was held on November 8th uh here in Stevens Point and there were three uh sort of buckets of information that was included in the conference. One was a federal legislative update and kind of what the different proposals uh are at the federal government in terms of the budget next year. One was a state legislative update that focused more on guidance um on how we communicate budgets to the public than it did on um any kind of political substance. It was more

045of a um this is how you talk and advocate to citizens to explain how the budgets work. Um, and then the last thing was a really cool presentation on recent trends and research in K12 education which focused in on a website um that allows uh community members, board members, administration, whoever wants to to go in and see trends that are happening across the state as well as do custom reports to compare um our school district to any other school district in the state um with regards to specific information. So there were five total sessions and I'll I'll kind of go into a little bit of detail on each. So next slide, Chris. So federal legislative updates. Um the uh there's sort of three different proposals that are metriculating through the federal government. So the president

046has a proposal um that would cut 12.4 billion from the education budget. The House Appropriations Committee um also has a budget proposal that has the same size cut, a little bit different in what their focus was. Um cuts to Title One program um as well as most K through2 programs. And then the Senate Appropriations Committee had um I will say maybe the most bipartisan approach um in terms of they kept funding fairly flat um and it froze at a specific level but did add protections for uh IDEA and Title One within the Department of Education. Um and that one already has advanced out of the Senate commun uh committee with a a vote of 26 to3. So you can kind of see there. Um next slide. This is just sort of an illustrative example of

047what funding has looked like since 2011 uh from the federal government. And the very end in there, the three blue proposals are the president's proposal, the Senate proposal, and the House proposal um all uh illustrated in terms of what the amount of funding would be for federal education um if any of those proposals were adopted. Um, so I I don't have the specifics of course on all of those budgets, but there were uh very detailed slides that went along with this presentation that are available on WASBY's website if you want to dig further into what those budget proposals look like. State legislative challenges that they discussed um are things that we've already discussed uh in front of this board in previous meetings, so I won't go into a great deal of detail here, but we

048talked about what the funding for the next two years gives. uh no increase in federal aid. Um so the $325 increase is kind of unfunded at the state level. Um it talked about some of the uncertainty that is happening within special education funding because they are some certain amount. Um and uh noted that any increased revenue authority, any increase uh in funding for the next two years will have to come through increased property taxes and local referendum due to the way that the state budget is organized. Last thing, and this is from the Wisconsin policy forum, um, and there is a website link in the notes of this if you want to look at it later. This is a fantastic website, uh, that address trends in K12 education across the state of Wisconsin. These are

049all of the buckets of things that were discussed and have like specific charts and graphs for at the WASBY forum. So, if you want to doubleclick on any of these, you can go and kind of look at that and that's available to the public as well. So, um, but they talked about enrollment, they talked about recovery from COVID years, they talked about, uh, leadership, teacher turnover, um, all of the things that we kind of recognize as ongoing issues on the board. And then I'm just going to give a quick demonstration of what that website looks like so you can kind of see what information. This is the landing page of the website and you can see the the different things and the actual link to the website itself if you drill down into that. Um,

050keep going Chris, please. Um, so this is an example of enrollment across the state of Wisconsin. So this is enrollment trend from 2010 2011 on across the whole state of Wisconsin for all students. You can cut that data differently if you want. So if you wanted to see just by the race and ethnicity of the students, you could do that by the economic status, by English proficiency, and by disability status. Next page, Chris. Then you can do that same thing. And this is very small, I realize, but this is just an example of how you could pull out information from different school districts and see if that same trend applies within those districts uh as it does at the state level, for example. So, that's one thing it can do. The other thing it can

051do, like I said, is create custom reports. So any board member can go in and say, "Hey, um I want to see uh what the uh what it looks like in terms of uh enrollment across uh different economic statuses or what percentage of the uh um the population of these schools is represented." And I left that little box up. If you hover over the blue things on the website, it will pop up what that actual number is, so you don't have to kind of guess. Um, and so I just threw a number of uh area schools on there just as a demonstration of how you can create it in custom. You can put up to 10 schools on there um to do a comparison across. So if you want to look at data that way,

052you can as well. [clears throat] And last page. So this other trends that they allow you uh via this website to explore include state test scores. So that's AP, ACT, forward, um student demographics across those variables that we talked about. You can also look at how uh different districts are financed. Um so uh federal aid, state aid, tax revenue for all of the districts across the state, student participation and teacher demographics are also ways that you can cut that data. So did I miss anything, G? >> No. Uh for but you said it was made by a couple of us. This was all made by Martin. Okay. It's great. Uh I would just say that I didn't know about this Wisconsin policy forum. Of course you guys did because you're way ahead of us. Uh

053I don't know about other board members, but uh the site is on that unless you could make it easier for us to just send us >> that. It's a great site. Uh organizes things for you. You can see things in a second that it would take you, you know, long time to find out on the state forward exams and in other places. board members have any questions. [clears throat] >> All right, we will move into the consent agenda and that will be approving the minutes of the prior school board meeting of monthly bills and recommendations and motion for motion. >> So, sorry. Okay, we have a motion by Jen and second by >> No, it doesn't matter. >> All right, so I will ask you to call RO due to the scheduled monthly bills. >>

054Miss Bushman, >> yes. >> Mr. Pope, >> yes. >> Miss Mercer, >> yes. >> Mr. Kowalsski, >> yes. >> Mr. Leech, >> yes. >> Miss Potter Nelson, >> yes. >> Mr. Summers, >> yes. >> Mr. Lee, >> yes. >> Miss Earler, >> yes. >> Motion carries. All right, we will move into item eight, which is business services. And I will turn that over to Marne as the chair of the committee. >> You're getting a lot of my voice tonight. I'll be brief. Uh so from the December 1st business services HR committee. Um a fairly standard meeting. We did the schedule of monthly bills. Um then Mike gave us an explanation of district cash flow. Um so as we uh approach the end of the year uh we come to the kind of low point in

055our reserves of cash uh in the school district um and so sometimes have to kind of float in that last week of November before we receive aid from the state the first week of December. Not a problem this year um because the first day of December w of was December 1st. Um so that aid got distributed uh fairly early. uh next year. However, it will not be until the 7th. Um so the first uh the dispersement date comes rather late. Um so we may have to utilize uh that short-term borrowing. However, if we do, Mike uh did point out that um it is only a matter of weeks that we have to to pay on that. So it's not that it drags on for months or that we pay it out throughout the year. Then

056Mike also gave us a very memorable visual uh demonstration of how uh voucher charter and public school funding is uh allotted and distributed uh throughout the state. So uh we uh uh got to see a little bit of how that works. Uh and then lastly, of course, we had the full day 4K proposal, which is the next item on the agenda. >> All right. >> Can can I ask a question about the first item >> that you talked about? Uh we mentioned that we need to keep increasing our fund our fund 10. No. Yeah. Uh and we are going to right we have money slotted to do that again. And what was that 1.4 million that we're going to >> what is it? >> Okay. That we're going to put into it. Uh so uh

057if right now we we floated that we if we put 1.5 billion more into it, we should be all right, right? I mean that's why we're doing it. We don't want to borrow. >> We don't want to borrow, but we we may have to borrow. Even with that extra 1.5 million, >> we may. >> We might. You just never know where you're going to end this year's budget. And when we get certain grant dollars in, when we get money in from the state, it's really >> timing. >> Yeah. I I >> pay timing too, right? Because like this, if you look at the schedule of monthly bills this time, we had 1.9 million in the last month, in the last week of the month. >> But we haven't had to borrow since what, 2009 or

058something like that. >> Yeah. and our fund balance has been smaller and it's increasing. So I'm thinking why do we feel that we might borrow? Our fund balance was always higher and then our fund balance went down. When you know with CO funding the state provided zero increase and then when CO funding dropped out our district like most was kind of at a little bit of a financial cliff to the tune of about $7 million and we had to dip into fund balance at that point in time. And for members of the public, um the way our schools are funded, our our fiscal [snorts] year starts July 1 and we have to fund our district with our fund balance until we receive our first funding from the state in December. So it's kind of like

059a savings account, checking account at home. So we have a savings account which is our [clears throat] fund balance and because of how funds are distributed to us we have to basically cash float from the beginning of July to the beginning of December >> um literally all of our bills and then and then we receive you know that that funding but um it that fund balance isn't up to the point where we can cash flow it just like everyone in your home. Um then you're at a place where you have to um short potentially short-term borrow and many districts in the state do and our district has in the past, but we have been able to avoid that and the borrowing costs and the interest costs. I I think my the what's the what what

060are some of the bills that come due in early December that really pressure us? The big one is um health insurance. So we pay our health insurance bill right at the end of the previous month and so check goes out the beginning of the next month and that's about 1.7 $1.8 million. So that's that's one that's kind of nice that if we get when we got that eight payment this year on the 1 of December, you know, [clears throat] that check hadn't cleared the bank yet. um waiting a week, it's probably going to clear. So that's, you know, 1.7 million that that we got to have. >> And we won't short-term borrow unless we absolutely have to. But I will tell you, Mike and Jackie lost sleep. [laughter] We're very very very close. >> Okay.

061So we have the full day proposal. >> Great. Thank you, Mike. I can start in on and I appreciate the conversation we were able to have at the committee level regarding this proposal. The purpose of the 4K programming proposal really is to expand access and improve consistency and strengthen early learning, the early learning options that we provide to families as a district. Um, responding to family and community feedback regarding an interest in full day 4K programming option. and I'll cover a little bit of the survey data that we collected to inform this decision and inform the proposal. Um, we really do have an interest in minimizing the number of transitions that we require for our youngest learners. Um, the research on full day 4K indicates that that should be a primary goal that we eliminate

062the number of times that we ask students to move to a new school, build new relationships with adults, build new relationships with peers. Um there was also a clear interest in the survey data we collected to expedite the ability for um students to begin developing those meaningful relationships with staff and with peers. The family survey results that we collected um over a several week period we had a total of 364 responses. Um it's important to note that the survey was sent to all of our Stevens Point area public school district families. Um, so even if you have a high school student or you have a junior high student with no intention of having a 4K student, you received the survey. So we designed the survey in a way that created an offramp on the third

063question to say um, I don't have a 4K student and I don't intend to have a 4K student in the future. We just don't have a mechanism in place within Skyward or within Blackboard to be able to peel off only families that have a current or upcoming 4K student. So that was why we errored on the side of oversharing the survey rather than underssharing the survey. Um a total of 66.5% of families had indicated in the survey that they prefer a full day 4K option at least provide that and 31.9% or 116 families did say that they prefer half day. So again this is about this proposal isn't about saying that we're only endorsing full day 4K. It's about saying we want to offer this in response to the interest that was shared in the

064survey to enhance our current programming model and our current programming framework. We did have six families that indicated they do not plan to enroll which is entirely their choice. Um families are not required to attend 4K. Families preferring full day 4K would enroll in half day if needed. So in other words, it was important to collect the data to indicate that if those full day 4K classrooms are filled to capacity, would you still enroll in 4K? And the primary overwhelming response was that yes, they would. Um there was a strong preference for supporting program enhancements as soon as possible. So rather than waiting multiple years to provide this program enhancement in 2627 was where the interest lied in terms of staffing and operational needs to establish these four full day classrooms which would be um

065established and implemented at Banic Elementary, McKinley, Clover Whiting, and Kennedy. We would need to add a total of 2.5 full-time 4K teachers. That comes at an approximate cost of about $250,000 annually to the budget. We would also add three additional educational assistance in those 4K classrooms. That comes to it at um at a cost of approximately $90,000 annually. The total recurring staff, if you're doing the quick math here, um for staffing would be $340,000. Um all one-time furniture and material costs would be covered by our current early learning budget. Um in terms of our current 4K contract model and what is the cost the operating cost on an annual basis is approximately $1 million for about 312 students and this is based on last year's data. Um those are enrolled those are students who are

066enrolled at our community sites. The average >> 6 reimbursement or.56.6. Yep. The average cost per student is approximately $3,217. Um, and I did touch on this a little bit at our community presentation to indicate that it's [snorts] not the same at every site because we do have some sites that in addition to playing the per student contract price or cost, we also pay rent um for some of the facilities where we have community sites that are currently running. So the impact of full day 4K classrooms, we could absorb approximately 72 students that would be housed in district in those four district classrooms. We would cap each of those at 18. Um the potential reduction in contract costs, if you do the quick math, is about $231,000. Um and that means a net additional annual cost

067would be approximately $18,376. in terms of next steps and or in terms of informing this decision and developing the proposal, we did meet I did meet with um 4K directors along with our early learning principal Sher Stanche on October 14th and November 12th um to talk through the logistics. Um we did hear one of our public comments earlier to indicate that they did have the survey shared with them about two weeks [laughter] in advance of when the survey was deployed. Um truth be told, that was about when the survey was finished. Um, so we did a lot of research in terms of developing that survey and looking at different surveys that were um that were shared in other communities that are doing similar work in in the 4K arena. We met with 4K teachers on

068November 14th as well. Myself and Sherry were able to connect with them for approximately an hour. Um, and we were also able to share the answers to questions that they had generated and shared in advance of that meeting. Um, we focused primarily on program expectations, planning, logistics, and developmental appropriateness of programming. Um, we talked about communication, long-term alignment, and also the necessary and needed collaboration with 4K staff that we certainly value and certainly intend to continue. In terms of next steps and enrollment, we would begin the process of enrollment prioritization. We already have a mechanism in place that when we open our enrollment window in early February, we would have the ability to be able to take enrollments for families who identify that they have an interest in a full day classroom who attend who

069live within that attendance zone. So, if I'm a family who lives in the corporate wedding attendance zone, I would be given preferential registration if my first choice is to have my child in a full day 4K classroom. Um once those classrooms are filled um then that enrollment would just there would not be any additional enrollments in the 4K in the full day classroom. If indeed we've placed all of the students in the full day classrooms and we have available seats open, we would allow other families that maybe are not in the Banick, Clover, Whiting, McKinley or Kennedy attendance zones to fill one of those seats in the four day or full day classroom with the idea that they would transport their children um or they would self transport. So out of zone students are accepted

070and they would be accepted on a first come first- serve basis. So, our next steps really are focused on planning for staffing and recruitment of those new 4K teachers and EAS that we would need to staff those classrooms and then also enrollment planning and communication with families um to be prepared for that enrollment window in 4K that begins in late January, early February. And that concludes my presentation, but I'm happy to answer any questions. [clears throat] >> Chris, um can you talk about wraparound care? So, what does that look like for students that attend these four full day sites? >> Sure. And we're currently in um discussions with both the YMCA and BGC. I actually spoke to BGC today about potentially offering some wraparound care for either before or after school. Um I have not

071had the opportunity to connect with the YMCA specifically on this item. Uh but we will talk to them. I do know that the Boys and Girls Club currently does not offer before or after school programming for children who are under the age of six. So, could that potentially be revisited? Um, that was a topic that Danielle intended to have and a conversation she intended to have with staff. So, we do know that there is a need. Um, I do believe that of the two organizations, BGC and the Y, the Y is best positioned to be able to accommodate that request. Um, so we know that there will be a need for it. Um, we just don't have confirmation at this point on whether or not we'll be able to offer it at all four of

072the sites. We have only 4K. We heard in public comment that somebody stated that they didn't feel that we brought them along. So a community provider as we were working on this I know you shared the survey two weeks in advance. How how else have we collaborated with the community providers to bring them along? So in addition to and I think you know sharing the survey initially was kind of the starting point and in terms of you know we we greatly value the partnerships we have with all of our 4K providers and they had a lot of really great questions around developmental appropriateness. Um, and certainly I think one important thing to remember about this proposal is though I understand that it may create some concern about enrollment coming to our schools and not being

073at community sites, the majority of students in the Stevens Point area public school district will experience 4K at a community site. We just don't have the capacity to be able to absorb that large number of students. So, we did um include both our directors and our teachers in discussions and we intend to continue those as we think about ironing out the logistical planning and kind of what will the day look like for students? We fully intend to continue to leverage the expertise of our 4K directors and our teachers in particular. >> And one last question. And so the 108,000 is that sustainable ongoing recurring expense to our operating budget given all of the concern that we've been hearing of increase in property taxes having to levy etc. >> Yeah, it's a good [clears throat] question.

074Um and as you know I think it we'll we'll talk a little bit about more a little bit more about that at the end of today's meeting when we do the budget and program eval. Um you know that work I think becomes even more critical now. Last year as you know we were able to identify approximately $811,000 in cost savings. the year prior about $1.1 million in cost savings. So, I do believe um and I feel fairly confident standing at this podium tonight that we will be able to identify a minimum of $108,000 in annual cost savings moving forward. >> So, Chris, if my quick math is right, um 312 total students, 72 would be in um our schools. So that would leave 240 still enrolling in community programs because the capacity issues that you

075mentioned. [clears throat] >> So this program doesn't stop people from being able to enroll their kids in community programs if that's what they want to do. >> Correct. >> Okay. Um tell me a little bit about what um who we have on staff in terms of early childhood education specialists. >> So we had an early learning principal um Sherry Stanche. Um, we also have a program support teacher, um, Sarah Beasland, who oversees and does a lot of collaborative work. We also have Kyla, and I won't attempt to try to say her last name because I'll butcher it. Um, who also works specifically with 4K. Um, and then we have several itinerant staff who provide early childhood services. So, PT, OT, SLP. Um, so those folks specifically have FTE that is solely focused on supporting our

076earliest learners, our 4K students. >> And the teachers that we hire, what would the requirements be for them? >> They would have the same requirements that all of our classroom teachers would have. >> So they would have to be certified and they would have to have that early childhood certification. >> Thanks. public speaker from WSP talked about the equipment issue that availability age appropriateness. I presume if you talk to them that got addressed. Can you tell us how that conversation went and what going on with that issue? >> Sure. So there is playground equipment that is specifically coded for early childhood students or 4K students if you will or even 3K for districts that have elected to to implement programming for 3K. Um we do not have playground equipment that is coded for early childhood

077at all four of the sites. Now our intent is to build that in to the early learning budget for the upcoming years. I think it's important to note as part of this conversation that you know in early childhood research most of the focus for early childhood is on gross motor development which is very easily accomplished in gym spaces um in green space. So under no circumstances would 4K students be playing on playground equipment that isn't coded for them in terms of safe use. Um, so those sites that do not have properly coded 4K playground equipment would be leveraging green space or gymnasium space for their recess time. Um, and we do believe that we'll have the ability to address that need in the upcoming years. We just may not have that money available in the

078budget. Playground equipment is expensive um to do that all in the first year, but we do recognize the need. Um I have a question based on last month's meeting where students are like areas that we have growing populations. >> Are any of these four schools in those growing populations? >> Yes. >> How are we so at the beginning of your talk you said we want to minimize students moving >> putting them at a school that's growing. Mhm. >> Pray tell how we're going to solve that after you you said >> we want to minimize the movement >> but yet we're going to put them in a school that's growing. >> So we have and you know as part of the study that came out from MD Roers you know there are a number of things

079that may have to happen to mitigate that projected growth that will create a building that is over capacity. Um, so when we establish the 4K program at Clover Whiting, we do not intend to say once the building becomes over capacity to be able to move those 4K kids out or move the program out. We may not be able to expand it or offer any additional sections. Um, but we would be looking potentially at there are lots of options and those will be decisions that potentially the task force would have to discuss. Could we look at moving an attendance zone so that the Clover Whiting attendance zone doesn't become as overcrowded as is projected in the in the study? So, could some of those students go to Roosevelt as part of their attendance zone because Roosevelt

080is projected to decline by about 80 students? Um, and that would then eliminate the need to move students or move programming out of the building. But that is not our plan at this point. >> Okay. How many current EA positions do we have open? regular ed. >> We have got mostly special ed. Do we have any regular ed EA position? Can you think of any? >> Um we have two in process. So we'll wait for background checks. But >> my my concern is you said that we're going to have a number of EAS. I don't remember what it was. Three nine something. >> Um so two and a half >> teachers and then three EAs. if we struggle filling positions already, >> how are we anticipating filling these positions when we struggle already? >> So,

081and I think one thing that's a bit different about these positions than maybe some of the positions that we struggle to fill, not all of those positions that we struggle to fill are full-time positions. Um, some of those are 4-hour positions. They're four and a half hour positions. So, they're not benefit eligible. Um, I also know that, you know, when we have full-time positions that are eligible for benefits, we typically have a larger candidate pool. Um, there are also, I think, a lot of folks who will be very interested in working with early childhood. Um, so oftent times the the positions [clears throat] that are more difficult to fill are those that service more at risk populations or special ed populations, which is I think why we find ourselves kind of year after year um

082with those positions being the most difficult to fill. So, I do believe this will be different. Yeah, in that they are full-time and they are specifically and only early childhood. >> Sorry, I have another one. I thought I mentioned this at the committee meeting and I mentioned it again because it was brought up by one of our speakers. But I would just ask that as we consider in this program how we are taking enrollment that if we don't fill based on the attendance zone that we look at some manner to uh address those students who have the biggest need. We know that our our gaps uh in terms of achievement come from economically disadvantaged students. It would be good if we could focus on that population once those attendance zones are met or not met.

083Um or if we could find a different way to make sure that we are addressing the needs of our atrisisk populations. >> Thanks Laurav from elsewhere. Last meeting we had discussion about u trying to promote our district to particularly some of the border districts where we're getting open enrollment out of our district and the idea of that they start 4K in another different school district not one of our contract groups that they tend to not >> come in the point. Do we have any sort of sense um from an account counting methods of understanding um how much we get per student from the state and etc. Do we have any idea of what number of kids would take to offset this cost on the other side? I mean as it's going forward if they come

084here and they stay here do we have any sort of analysis done on what it looks what success looks like for that >> right >> um as it would relate to bringing kids in back to Stevens Point district from our surrounding districts >> in 4K going forward. So we think about, you know, and you're right, so the the per pupil allocation increases when they move beyond 4K because then we get 100% funding versus just the 60% that we get. So it's approximately $7,739 that we get back, that's the 6 um reimbursement that we get from the state for 4K students. So if you multiply that by whatever we would need to be able to get to 108,000. Um so that is if we had 10, that would be 77,000. >> I get it. It can't

085be that simple, but it can be a lot more complicated, >> right? Yeah. Yeah. If they stay and the hope would be that if we are able to offer a program that prompts them to choose and enroll in the Stevens School District that they would stay all the way through 12th grade. And that's the hope. And I know that Becky had talked a little bit about understanding the financial impact long term. um and that if we can attract students when they begin as early childhood students and then staying through 12th grade, that's obviously a significant financial benefit to the district. >> I think that it's important to bring up and you mentioned in the committee meeting too that this is an effort to address the root cause of people enrolling out of our district and

086we have asked questions around that previously. Um but that is a part of why we are doing this right is to address the fact that we discovered that some of that enrollment comes from people who never even start in Stevens Point. >> Right. And I think in terms of concrete evidence, I can say of the 364 responses, there was one question on the survey that allowed more qualitative feedback. And I do know that there were two families specifically that said, if you offer full day 4K programming, I will not enroll I will not enroll my child one in Aubberdale and I will not enroll my child in Ammerst. So I do have that concrete commitment from at least two families. >> So we surveyed in 23 well 66% to 32% 66% of our families in

087the community that responded said they were interested in full day 4K. Can you um let us know what exists for 4K full day in our community right now? I mean clearly it's already happening but on a relatively small scale and so it seems that there's a demand for support from our 4K program whether it be us or whether it be our community partners to to offer that full day a day. So can you just let us inform us in the community about what exists and >> what what we know of our community partners about maybe moving that in that direction. So most of our community our community site contracts offer half day 4 day a week program. Um [clears throat] we do have some community partners who are providing a full day option um in

088two classrooms that I know of at Pachelli St. Bronze and St. Steve's. So there is a 4K option that's available. Um again the spaces in those classrooms are limited. So they're capped similarly to what we've proposed here. Um but I think when you think about this more broadly and we take maybe the state of Wisconsin as an example, we do see an increasing number of districts implementing 4K. I was just with superintendents over in Pwwaukee on Wednesday and I talked to two different superintendents, one in Shabboan and one from Nina who are exploring the option of full day 4K. I also believe that Wisconsin Rapids in the upcoming year is planning to pilot full day 4K programming similar to what we're doing. >> Chris, can you talk about and just clarify the 2.5 uh EAS

089that we need because we have four sections, >> three EAS, 2.5 teachers. Okay. So, help me understand that we have four sections. >> So, how come it's not four? >> Correct. >> Yeah. So, there is some we're able to do some redistribution of staffing within 4K. Um, so there also will be a move from Gazelle programming which is now currently housed on campus at WSP. Um, WSP no longer has space available for us to continue to maintain programming there. So, that programming will be moved >> from Gazelle to Jefferson Elementary. Okay. which frees up an entire staff person to be able to absorb one of those vacant seats. We also have a current 4K teacher out at Kennedy who has a halftime 4K teaching assignment and a halftime academic interventionist position. So based on what

090decisions that particular individual makes about what he'd like to maintain. Um but I believe that we'll land at a spot where we'll need to fill the 2.5 teachers and the three EAS will fill the three classrooms and the EA that already is assigned at Gazelle will fill the position. So that's why that's three and not four. And if he decides to take the academic interventionist the hap then we would have to backfill that position for Jefferson right >> the the at Kennedy >> at Kennedy. Yeah. [clears throat] >> So >> it sounds like we had um from the community partners kind of some uneven um feeling around collaboration when we look at kind of planning for or enrollment and curriculum and communication. Kind of what do you envision if this moves forward? Do you envision

091that partnership like leveraging our 4K partners? What does that look like? >> So Sherryi certainly will play an active role in working. She's she meets with our 4K directors on a monthly basis and teachers as well. Um so as we start to look at best practice and where 4K programming really has had a positive impact both on academic outcomes and social emotional learning competencies. Um, we'll look to work with our 4K directors and our teachers to be able to provide us with guidance and input on what that day should look like. Um, you know, I was very forthcoming with both the directors and the teachers to say, I know where my strengths are. I know where they're not. Um, I do not have a strength in early childhood and what is best practice. So, I've

092done my best to get as smart as I could in a short amount of time. But certainly, we will need their expertise and they know far better than we do about developing programming that is developmentally appropriate. Good question. proposal as presented. >> So move second. >> I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion or questions? >> Hearing none. All in favor of I. >> I. Any opposed with nay. The motion carries. Thanks, Chris. >> All right. We will move into item 10, educational services. And I will turn that over to G, the chair. Okay, a couple of the items that we talked about are going to be on the agenda, so I'll go to the other ones first. Uh Carla Lochman made a presentation about all the wonderful things she's doing out at

093uh out at the Boston School Forest, and of course, it's a gazillion things. Uh it's just incredible all the stuff she she does out there. uh and she showed us some slides of uh and and the incredible amount of grant money that she's been able to pull in a new building that they're proposing. Uh it's just fantastic. Uh and and she mentioned the polar plunge, which I still think should be outside. [laughter] >> It's a polar plunge. >> Did you sign up, Chief? >> No. I don't I don't jump into cold water. I don't >> We'll buy some ice cubes and keep them in the pool. >> No, but she she did a fantastic job as she always does and we're always impressed by what Carla does and all her uh uh helpers and volunteers

094out there. It's just incredible. Uh the other thing we had was a report on uh we're starting to vet our social studies curriculum. It's their six-year uh uh cycle. Thank you. And I'm happy to say about that is that uh with the help of our administrators and our teachers, we're now in cycle. We're moving through those cycles where we weren't for a while. And uh and I think our score showed it. And I think our scores show now that we're on top of things. So uh it's just starting. So, we'll hear more about that as they go through it this year. The other things uh are on the agenda. So, we're going to uh go ahead. I'm going to turn it over to Chris for those items. Thanks, G. Um, and this item that I'll

095discuss first is the 2627 calendar proposal. Um, and I just want to highlight here, I was able to talk at committee about this calendar being different in just a couple of ways that I'd like to highlight. First and foremost, um we have typically developed an academic calendar that begins after Labor Day in September. This year, because Labor Day is so late, we realized that it was going to have us ending school very late in June. And it created a lot of inefficiencies just in terms of the time we would have available to transition from the regular academic year to the summer school um session. So, we took advantage of the opportunity to survey our staff and our families to say, would there be an interest in potentially starting prior to Labor Day? So, we created

096two calendar options, one of them beginning on September 1st, one of them beginning on September 8th. We had approximately 1,464 um community members or families or staff members return that survey with about 77% of them indicating that they had a preference to begin the academic year prior to Labor Day. So what you see here in front of you is a calendar that begins on September 1. It maintains the 193 contract days for staff, 173 total days for elementary, 174 for secondary. I think one of the things that I'd like to highlight also is the elimination of the six additional professional learning days at elementary this year. Those were in the academic calendar for the last two years to provide time to complete the required foundational literacy skills training that were part of act 20 legislation.

097Those have been removed. The one other update was we really had some in-depth conversation with our calendar committee about whether or not the e-learning days at the elementary level were really accomplishing what the intended purpose was. Um and at K2 we weren't sending Chromebooks or technology home with students on those days. Um, we maintain e-learning days after COVID to say, let's maintain that skill set for students in the event we'd ever have to transition back to performing or accessing learning in a digital platform, our students would maintain the ability to do that. Um, and we realized we weren't necessarily maintaining um an expectation for our elementary students to do that. So, in the interest of not losing 3P days completely, we're maintaining e-learning days at the secondary level. um they need those instructional minutes. They

098have the ability to work more independently. Um but at the elementary level, those e-learning days in the second semester will just be professional learning days. There will not be an expectation for elementary students to e-learn. Um but that is essentially a summary of the large scale changes to the 2627 calendar, but I'm happy to entertain questions if there are any. Jim, >> there was a point earlier start and part of the reason of course that Labor Day is about >> and also that if we started after Labor Day that would start to cause problems on the back end days correct and the start of summer school. >> Yep. Like in the very worst case scenario, if we had to add potentially up to two days for snow day, there literally would have been one day

099to transition from the regular academic year to summer school. So that makes our summer school coordinators and teachers and principles incredibly nervous. >> This is not an in perpetuity we'll start before Labor Day. This is just for this year because of >> correct because of where it lands. Yep. And I would believe, you know, I I I really value the the community feedback that we were able to gather from from the survey. So if indeed we found ourselves in a similar situation in the future, we would certainly look to to feedback from our constituents. >> Just a question on the efficacy of the 712 e-learning days. What type of skill set are we seeing? What is being accomplished by them? Are we seeing them actually doing what they need to do or are they just

100like it's a free day, I log in for 20 minutes and I'm done. >> What I understand the rationale, but I'm >> wondering about follow through being a high school teacher. What kind of what is the expectation? >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And how are we creating consistency in terms of experience for all of the students across the district? >> Yeah. And Jeeoff, I don't know, maybe you'd like to speak to what the expectation is for 712 specifically. >> So, we did and we've talked about this, Alex, um over and over. So, we have common expectations. I've gone through it with principles. Now, we're on year four. Um and the expectation is on an e-learning day that the the teachers are identifying an activity for students to do that is related to learning that was connected

101to uh previous activities. >> Is it graded? >> Is is that assignment graded? Yeah, >> that's the decision that we've we've left up to the teachers, not on that day. That's one of the things, Alex, we've really stressed is we will not grade it. We did actually have some feedback that came back from parents and I addressed it at my last principal meetings. Hey, you cannot make it due at the end of any learning day. That's not fair to our families. So, we we reestablished that one. So, there's really the two options, right? So, that's what we that is our expectation on the PD days. If it is a e-learning inclement weather day, they have their set times where they're meeting and students have the ability to come in and check in with the teachers

102and be able to provide support with those teachers. So, we've re reinforced that. Uh we've actually met the last principal meeting. We went through both of those. Uh Sarah O'Donnell's put a great web page together where we've outlined those pieces for all staffs and we continue to reinforce it with all of our building leaders. Um I will say to this group, we are not at 100% efficacy. I'm I'm not gonna sit up here and say that. So, we continue to I see it as a parent. I'm sure Jen does as well. Yes. Um so, we continue to have these conversations with our teachers that if this is an instructional day, we expect that we are providing [snorts] students with an opportunity to be able to engage in learning that isn't new, >> but it's a

103learning that extends them and that teachers will respond to questions that students have. >> Right. So, I think to Jen's point, do we have do we have room for growth in terms of consistency? Yes. It just seems superfluous and not necessary in my opinion. It's just a day off. That's what I've heard from families that my kids just get a day off. They like that, but they don't actually do anything from their >> from their lens. >> Uh, and I would I agree with you, Alex. Uh, it's I think we've all learned online learning just doesn't uh isn't as good as learning face to face. And I've had uh [snorts] parents I know from kids will say, "Well, it's a snow day." Well, what does that mean? You know, we have several options and it's

104kind of confusing. Parents are off to work. They're digging out from the snow. The kids are at home. Uh I got to find somebody to watch them. There's a lot to do. And uh uh I think it's I don't I'm not sure that [snorts] what's that phrase I heard? Is the effort >> the squeeze? >> Worth the squeeze. Is the juice worth the squeeze? >> Yeah. Why why why is that everywhere now? But but I'm not sure we get what we want out of it except to say we learned from COVID that we can use it, but [clears throat] is we're not getting what what we think we are getting out of it. And I would I would I've said it before, but I think we should just do away with it, but I know

105it's on the calendar. You already planned it out and you talked about it. So, I'm saying we're going to talk about it again next year. The other question I have before I get on because I just remembered it. We are we having teachers on doing PD and e-learning on the same day? >> Yes. >> Double duty. that that I I really I really would ask that we don't do that because you know or pay them double that day because they're working to they're really they are and uh well that's what I would say that's what I would suggest >> and I think we can continue to evaluate the purpose and are we still getting the return on investment in terms of those e-learning days as we develop this calendar for the upcoming year. It was

106a very um passionate discussion with the calendar committee. So yeah, these comments are very in alignment with what we heard from the team. Well, and I think and the reality though also is there are students who are focused on continuing that education on those e-learning because I mean we we are providing within each of our courses this is what needs to be covered and especially for kids going through AP classes, honors classes I they are working on those days. And so from the perspective of the district, it's important I believe for us to continue to provide that education, that information. Um >> but it's no new information. There's no new information being done. >> But but we we all know that >> repetition is important. I'm not arguing that. I'm not arguing that. I'm just

107saying I could get a repetition. >> I think that yeah, are a majority of the students taking advantage of that? >> Could you send us the link that Jeff referenced with regard to the requirements? >> Absolutely. >> Thanks. Sure. >> And some of that could be remedied a little bit, wouldn't you say, well, they got to work that day, too, by and I saw some of the most effective teachers we had with during COVID who were videotaping their lessons and putting them on YouTube and my kid had never done any better in math than that >> all those years of COVID because she could put replay instead of send me class one time. she's struggling and I'd go, "Hey, go back and watch it again." >> She'd make a mistake. I said, "Well, go back

108and watch the video." >> And so we had a bank of videos like that where we actually, you know, only one teacher has to teach that lesson. You might have six sessions of the exact same class and only one, you get one videotape of one lecture and you can put it on there and the learning is there over and over and over. A lot of times most classes the material doesn't change that much. I agree, Jim. I think when it's done well, >> at least you can do it for six years, right? Then then [laughter] the other side of that parent [snorts] done extremely well beyond like, it is amazingly more efficient for them to figure out when what what time works for them to do it. And instead of sitting in class and having

109a bunch of other people ask a whole bunch of questions that they don't have, now they're spending an hour sitting in a class when they can get the material done in 15 minutes because they can work at that speed. So it's far more efficient use of their time. >> We are committed to getting better. >> Yeah. Well, I would just hope that like next year when we have this calendar session, you would uh consider the working two places at once. That uh it's it's a that's that's a lot to expect to if you want them to pay attention to professional development, then do professional development. Don't have Well, I got to get on I'm going to be on this while you're talking. >> Yeah. And I think Gene for on the e-learning days, staff are

110not expected to be doing it simultaneously. So, they create independent learning opportunities for kids a day in advance. So they are fully engaged in whatever PD is being provided on that day. >> They don't know when those days are >> they're on the calendar. >> So when there's no snow day, that's going to be an e-learning day. >> There could be, but we try to use the traditional first >> or we add >> days at the end of the calendar which are also built in >> and they wouldn't have PD on those days. >> They wouldn't have PD on those days. >> Well, I made my point. I just don't think we should have people doing two tasks at the same time. >> Yeah. >> Right. Any other comments or questions on the calendar? >>

111So, I'm looking for a motion to approve the 2026 27 school calendar is presented with the start date before Labor Day on Tuesday, September 1st, 2026. >> So, moved. Second. >> Right. Motion and a second. Any further discussion? [clears throat] All those in favor with I >> I. Any oppose with nay? >> Motion carries. All right, we'll move into the district school report cards overview. Thank you, Mag. Marne joked about hearing a lot of her voice tonight and here be incredibly tired listening to mine. I apologize. Um so we have provided this report to both committee and the full board annually once the public release of school report cards occurs in midn November each year. Um I wanted to provide you with a highle overview of what levels of performance look like from the 2425

112academic year. And of course, as we review this, we want to be mindful of the district pillars that all of our academic work are really grounded in um and what we continue to use as the foundation for how we both enhance current levels of academic achievement and growth that our students are experiences are experiencing. The state accountability system each year um provides every district and every school in every district with a school report card um that has a overall score for the district and then individual scores for each of the buildings. There are several metrics that factor into that overall score for the district and for the building. Um that is achievement, growth, target group outcomes, and on track to graduation. For those of you who have been closely following um school report cards since

113they were implemented back in 2011 and 2012. Um the target group growth was used to be referred to as closing gaps. Um and that was also looking at the amount of growth that the lowest performing group of students at any building and in any district were experiencing on an annual basis. Um the overall accountability score that's awarded for every district and every building are laid out here. There were slight modifications to this in um for this particular year. This is the first year of the scale looked this way. It was slightly lower to attain each of those achievement levels um in the years prior. So you could have scored at 48 to be meeting few expectations and you only needed an overall score of 83 to be significantly exceeding expectations. So though the adjustments were

114very minimal and very minor, I do want to point out that this does look different um than it's looked in years prior. In terms of alternate accountability, um there is an alternate accountability score that's provided for schools that have fewer than 20 academic year students. Um students that include grades that are not tested. um students do not begin taking standardized assessment at the state level until third grade. So students that are buildings that are K2, we do not have any of those or schools that are exclusively serving at risk students, so alternative high schools. Um and ours falls into that category. I want to point out a couple of highlights from the school report card this year. Our district achievement score exceeded the state by 3.2 points. Important to note that that's not percentage points,

115it's overall points. Um and ELA by 4.2 two points or in ELA and 4.2 points in math. 10 schools in our district increased their overall score. Most notably, Pover Whiting had the largest increase from year to year. They increased by 9.3 overall points. SPASH increased by 8.6 and pods increased by 7.3. So, some really impressive data there. I [snorts] think I shared this at the committee when we went through this data. Those kinds of increases are not typical. um it's actually very unusual to see that amount of growth from year to year. So, we're very proud of the work that's been done at each of those buildings and incredibly proud of the work that the teams in those buildings are doing. Um we have no schools right now that are categorized as significantly exceeding expectations.

116Notice I said right now there will be soon. We'll get there. We have five schools that are categorized as exceeding expectations. Eight of our schools are considered meeting expectations. Um, I think I mentioned this a committee as well. As recently as four years ago, we did [clears throat] have two schools that were categorized as meeting few expectations. So, I'm really proud to see the zero in that line. Um, the district continues to meet expectations with a fourpoint overall increase in our score from last year. Stash and Clover Whiting increased by more than eight points. Five schools are exceeding expectations. Our ontrack graduation indicators, third grade ELA and eighth grade math, are at or above state averages. That's been consistent for all of the four years that I've been here in the Stevens Point School District.

117Our advanced placement and dual enrollment participation exceeds the state average. Those two numbers also continue to increase. Our accountability score and the trends from year to year. If we go back to 201718, um you can see that we were once categor in the 70 scoring in the overall score of 70s. we were meeting expectations. That was the year that marked the beginning of about a 5-year decline where we saw the overall district score continuing to go down. In 2223 um and in 2324 was the first year that we saw that that pattern was interrupted. So we were sitting at 64.5 um as an overall score and this year we're at 68.8. So some very notable and impressive growth for our overall district. Banic Elementary. Um, this is slightly down from where they were the year

118prior. They're still categorized as exceeding expectations, but this is a 6.1 point drop um for Banic from where they were the year prior. Um, our principal and the team over at Banic have done an incredible job in terms of developing a really comprehensive school improvement plan this year to address exactly why that occurred. um they've specifically targeted student groups that underperformed when they were assessed last year and I believe were already making significant progress toward interrupting the pattern we saw this year. Jefferson had a slight drop as well in 4.6 points. Also still categorized as exceeding expectations. I'd like to point out that Jefferson Elementary is one of the schools in our district that has the highest percentage of students that are considered free and reduced lunch or considered socioeconomically disadvantaged. So, this score is

119incredibly impressive. Um, slight drop for Kennedy as well. We saw a 3.9 um point drop for this particular building. They did drop a designation. They were categorized as exceeding expectations the year prior. So, a slight drop there. And again, some really significant work has been done to understand why this occurred and to prevent it from happening in the upcoming year. Um, Roosevelt had an increase of about 3.3 points still. Oh, sorry. Madison. Um Madison had about a8 point drop. Um and that was just a slight decrease but still staying in the meets expectations. McDill experienced a slight increase of 2.8 um points from the year prior. Um McKinley had an increase as well of about 6.2 points from the year prior. Clover Whiting we've already talked about that was a 9.3 point increase from the

120year prior. Roosevelt um was up slightly, 3.3 points from the year prior and also increased their category designation from meeting expectations to exceeding expectations. Washington Elementary also experienced a slight increase of.3 points from the year prior. And now I'll allow Jeff to talk a little bit about secondary. >> It's going to work for me. should >> um so you know Chris highlighted a little bit uh for us at at where we've seen as our scores go up but one of the things I'm really proud of is the administrative team at the secondary level has really been taking Chris's lead so we've really been leaning in hard to our data and this is the first time in a very long time when all of our secondary schools um saw increases on their scores which was a

121huge success um Ben Franklin u they had an increase of uh 4.9 points If we go to PJ Jacobs, uh the the score that you see up here, this is an increase of 4.3 points. I know both of the junior high schools have been working extremely hard really in two areas. One of the big ones, and this includes SPASH, was and we've talked about this numerous times. We need minimum three years to see curriculum implementation. Our math data was awesome at all of our secondary sites. So all of the hard work that our teachers and students have been doing around IM, I do believe we're starting to see the fruits of that labor now coming out with our scores coming through. Um because this does mark the third year of implementation with that. Um next

122one is our pods which Chris already identified. They had a 7.3 increase. One of the things we've done here was look at the other um charters that are are outside that are affiliated like um Pods is with us around the area and Pods had the best growth rate of any secondary level charter school uh within the valley which is awesome for them. I know they've been working extremely hard. Um charter schools don't love when you use the word data with them and they've gotten really good at having some really really good conversations around data. um Charles Fernandez. Uh this is one where they get an alternative score. One of the things I do think is important is right when I look at why does CFC exist, right? And it's to make sure we're supporting all

123of our students and their graduation rate is 90%. Which I think is absolutely amazing ensuring that our students who are who struggle when they're in SPASH's environment, who are credit deficient, that we do have options out there to be able to support them. And then finally, as Chris mentioned, we had SPASH, which is an 8 point or 8.6% increase. This is the highest increase in the entire valley for any high school. Um, I also want to note that over two years, that's over a 14 point increase. So, SPATH has been working incredibly hard um around their ACT uh especially and supporting their students in that area. So, I think it is a huge celebration for them. >> Thanks, Chef. Um, this was added following the committee meeting. It was talking a little bit about, okay,

124what are the next steps and what is it that we continue to work on? I referenced on a couple occasions the need for us to continue to focus on the two largest and most rapidly growing populations in our student um in our in our district. So, students who are identified with a disability, students who are categorized as socioeconomically disadvantaged, and we do know that those two student groups continue to underperform. So I want to and just try to simplify something that can be very complex when we think about the value added metric that's now included on the state report card. So if I simplify this at least to the degree that I can essentially what happens when this metric is calculated is every district in the state is put into what's called a peer group.

125So we are grouped with other districts that are considered similar to us. They're similar in size. They're similar in demographic makeup. Um so that peer group then they calculate an average for each of the eight federally identified student groups and say what kind of growth did they experience from year to year achievement alone in ELA and in math and where in the Stevens Point school district do we fall? So on the left hand side of the graphic on the screen you'll see English language arts and that line down the middle of each of those t-shirts indicates 3.0. So they evaluate each of these on evaluated added model of a scale of 0 to six. So six would be way over what would be considered average growth for that particular group of students within our peer

126group and zero would be considered no growth for that particular group of students in our peer group. So what you can see is that in English language arts, we did not have any of our eight federally identified student groups that would have made what the state would consider average growth. So if you go down the list there on the left and you think about students who are Asian, students who are black or African-American, students who are white, students who are two or more races, none of those student groups made what would have been considered average growth in English language arts. However, I will say that if you look really closely at those numbers, and I know they're very small on this screen, all of them are incredibly close to three. So, there's 2.7, there's 2.6,

127there's 2.8, there's 2.9. So, I would say that performance in ELA, though concerning, is stable and we're trending in the right direction. Um, but there is still work to be done there. Now, we've taken some significant steps to address that. So we now have a fully standards aligned curriculum at K6 that is universal and standardized across every building. Do I believe that this will have an impact in the long term? The data we're seeing on the left hand side without question because we have not had that up to this point. >> Um on the right hand side you see the same graphic representation of what achievement data looks like in the area of mathematics. So we see a couple of student groups there who exceeded what would be considered average growth. But we see a

128couple of student groups that still did not get to that average level of growth from year to year. So those are areas also to Jeff's point, we're talking about what is the impact of standards aligned curriculum. If this visual alone is not evidence of how important it is to have standards aligned curricular resources available across all prek12 levels, I'm not sure what else could be. Um, so we've had and have that now in math and we see those levels of performance and growth considerably higher and better than what we see in ELA. So we're hoping to see our ELA results and our ELA data mirror what we're seeing on the math side. Um, that is >> I have questions. Can I ask? >> Go ahead. Of course. >> Can you go back to that other

129slide? >> Sure. uh when I saw this I have one question first on the left hand side if we were not at the state average for growth I mean we have incredibly good >> uh overall scores I mean incredibly [snorts] good if we're not at the state average how could we have scores that good I know we do I'm not questioning that but how do those two go together >> you know because they're all on the left hand side >> right so and you have to remember that this is measuring growth. So there is a metric that measures achievement. So our achievement and I know Jim referenced this at our ed services committee meeting and he had done some independent analysis of performance for other districts and I think we all can be really proud

130of the fact that our achievement scores are significantly better. So even though we're not seeing the level of growth we'd like to see, we have seen significant progress in the area of just overall achievement. So percentages of students who are scoring at meeting or advanced levels on the forward exam in particular continue to go up on an annual basis. Now where we lose some of our momentum is the amount of growth. So we would like to see kids making larger leaps on that achievement side and that would then make this graph look a little bit different because they'd be experiencing greater growth from year to year. So to me that graph means on the left that they're making growth but they didn't keep up with the state average and ELA but of course we have

131a new ELA program which is that's why that's that's good. >> But the other side it kind of concerns me. Can I get a course [clears throat] >> you want to come over here? [laughter] >> He's a teacher. He wants to be ready. >> Don't hold that against me. [laughter] Uh, like I'm like average Joe. Everybody's here reading this. It's like I was in a room full of people at the convention last year that were angry about the state for testing because the data analysis people that were in there said the numbers [snorts] do not tell you what you think they tell you. >> Then they spend a whole hour talking about what they do mean and nobody understood it. So they just got angrier. So I I go back to the old higher number

132is better, right? >> I mean, we're still there. Higher numbers better. I like that. >> On this chart, dark squares are better than average. >> Yep. >> Okay. [snorts] Correct. So that's where I am on this. So I look down this and I see uh who did not improve at the state average. Now you look here. Students with disabilities, >> English learners, economically disadvantaged students, Hispanic or Latino, black or Africanamean. Well, they're all the kids. Uh we talked about this too with Jeff. The top group of achievers moved ahead. They did a great job. We moved the middle group, which is the hardest to move. They moved ahead. We didn't these groups right here. So, my question is, how are we going to get them to the other side of the line? What? And I

133know we're doing stuff. I know teachers are out there working hard, >> but didn't show up here. >> Not yet. >> And they're pretty darn close at 2.9 and 2. Yeah. Right. [clears throat] >> Close. But I would ask, are other are there any schools over here? Are any schools over here? Are they all right along this line? And I don't know that either, G. I have not done so and I know we shared the overall district comparative analysis in the most recent board update, but I did not drill down and look at every district, each one of those districts value added data. >> That would be incredibly hard. >> Yeah, >> because [clears throat] I'm looking at 2.8. Is that a large variance compared to other schools or is that I don't know >>

134because all the rest of these are not much more than 3.2. So I don't know if any schools are out here or not. So, I'm looking right along this line. So, my question then is uh uh these guys moved ahead. These guys didn't go with them. What are we going to do about those guys? And we know who they are. You know, a lot of the kids in this group, bottom 25% have IEPs. Not all of them, but a lot do. And we know that a lot have disabilities. A lot are English learners. A lot are economically disadvantaged. we can't move ahead unless they move with us. So I would I would as just a school board member saying we got to do something. >> So and I would say um there are there are

135existing in most cases continuous improvement plans for every building that are in some cases as long as 30 to 35 pages of specific action steps that principles have developed with teachers to implement to target exactly what you're saying. And you're you're absolutely right G. So we can talk about growth and we can celebrate progress, but until it's growth and progress for all, we'll continue to battle um very minimal and incremental growth. So we do have to think about different ways particularly to engage and motivate those most at risk populations of students because they continue to get larger. And what we're finding when we think about how does this translate then into teacher evaluation, let's look at specific work samples from students that are coming from these targeted populations and say, is this demonstrating the level

136of rigor and the expectation that we have for all students? And what we're finding is the [clears throat] answer to that is no. So we're doing one of two things. We're either not exposing them to the level of rigor or expectation. We've talked about that IEPs and >> pulling them out of class >> or we are and we're not providing the appropriate scaffolding to be able to support them to be able to achieve it. And I believe it's lighter on the ladder and it's heavier on what I referenced first. So I believe that with all of the best intentions, we have large populations of students who just simply are not being exposed to the level of rigor and expectation that maybe we hold for students who don't fall into those categories for lots of different

137reasons. So there is definitely some adaptive work that needs to be done around making that shift. And I say in addition to the learning we're asking staff to do, we're all asking them to do some unlearning. And sometimes that's the hardest work. Uh, but they're doing it and um I'm incredibly proud of the commitment that they've all demonstrated, the the level of perseverance because it's hard to look at data every year and point out all of the rare all of the places that it didn't look quite as favorably as we hoped it would. Um, and they continue to come back and they continue to engage in the difficult work. >> I hear you. It's wonderful that all everything I'm not saying it doesn't. I'm just saying there are places that we're some we're not doing

138we we need to do something with those groups and they're the typical groups that usually are not [cough and laughter] we've got to get >> are they would we even categorize I mean obviously they're separated out here but I have to imagine there's also significant overlap in these populations so you could be an English learner and a minority and economically disadvantaged so we have to figure out some sort of strategy that >> addresses all of those aspects. >> Yeah. And 3.0 is average. So I know hopefully year-over-year we are trending more toward the right because we still got a ways to go. That's right. Yeah. >> I think you're right. There's no reason not to expect that we do. If you look at the onus for why we went to Cal and why we're moving

139towards basis because of what happened mostly in Mississippi >> where they went from bottom five in the country to I believe they're in the top five now >> reading >> and so they're doing that and we're now just implementing that now we did have some of those elements going on already but we're implementing >> not to expect [clears throat] >> improvements not and I I think you mentioned before it's not going to be in a month. >> It probably won't be in we may hopefully we'll see some in a year but it probably will be three to four years. So >> and we'll know too that uh yeah that some of the data I've looked at it wasn't that long ago that spash in particular um and even our middle schools when compared to the

140valley five are I look at the achievement score not the overall score. By the way, that's the achievement score is English and math. >> Yeah. >> And then the combined score of the two of them. And we were bottom not that long ago. And we are now beating Marshfield Rapids, Wasaw East. We're right there with Everest. Almost there. >> I think Wasau West is a fraction of a point. >> I think they're like three higher than us achievement. >> Yeah, >> we'll get them next year. Just kidding. >> [laughter] >> and we did see the improvement at Perch that school >> just two years ago I believe it was like >> and it's up to 67 that's >> remarkable >> did they adjust those numbers as well >> they did change the test I think

141so >> oh okay >> yeah no the performance bands for achievement in terms of meeting they changed the names >> like two years ago they did like a major realignment where It boosted everybody up 10 points. >> Yep. >> Mhm. >> Ba basically is what it amounted to. But that did not go for the performance bands. >> Correct. No, not for not in this particular year. They changed the names for the category. So it went from it went from proficient in advance to meeting in advanced. Right. But that was the only change for 2425. >> And then 2324 >> 2324 was when there was the increase when everything kind of got moved up. >> Yeah. [clears throat] It's hard to compare two. >> That's right. Yep. It's hard to say. It's exactly apples to apples

142as best we have. >> Any other questions, comments from members? I'm sure we'll be hearing more. >> Okay, we'll move into item 13, uh, general, which the first is the 2020 six WB resolutions. We are not expecting substantive conversation on that tonight at all as we've done the last couple of years. We've just provided you with all of that information and we want you to take a look at it over the course of the next month and we will have it on our agenda for January. If board members have any really serious questions or concerns about any of these resolutions moving forward, either yes or no, um we'd like you to reach out to Corey before next month's meeting. And then next month's meeting, what we'll be doing is going through each one of them

143and determining as a board whether we support it or we don't support it and providing that guidance to our delegate who I believe is it. It's Jen this year. So we'll be providing that guidance to her um uh when she's going to be at the delegate assembly and voting on these on our behalf. Um, so if you can go ahead and take a look at those. I did reach out to WD. I I want to wanted to just remind you um I was on a committee uh probably about 10 years ago and each of these resolutions go through their policy and legislative committee. They meet three times to take a look through each of these resolutions has been submitted by a school district in the state that is asking them to address it. They usually

144get more resolutions than they bring forward to the delegates. The criteria that they use as to whether or not it should come forward to the full delegate group is is the matter timely? Is it a live issue? Has it been directly or indirectly addressed before? So, they're taking a look at is this something we should be looking at right now. Is it worthy of debate? We've got differing viewpoints on it and we want them articulated and debated for the group to decide. And is it does it need consideration by the full WB membership? And so if the resolution meets those three criteria based on what the committee is seeing, those are the ones that come forward to us. So again, just reach out to um Corey if you have any questions or serious um thoughts

145about any of the resolutions um prior to next month's meeting. We'll move into item B, safety and security reports. Hey, I'm gonna ask and Jeff come forward and give us a brief synopsis of our safety and security report. >> In regards to the polar points, I know someone who can turn down that temperature in the pool. >> Let me know. >> We want it all the way down. >> We We can do that. All right. Thank you board, cabinet, and others who are here tonight. [laughter] >> I see that. Uh real briefly, the background of our reports tonight. Uh in March 2018, the Wisconsin legislature passed act 143. The legislature created the office of school safety and inside the Wisconsin Department of Justice and added new requirements for school districts regarding school safety and security.

146This report generally is to comply with act 143 uh providing the school board with required information for review and certification. It's funny, back in 2020 when we were getting all this information, I looked at all this and said, "How will we ever do this?" this morning going through this 2025 I look and say this is only a fraction of what we do. So it's amazing what where we've come in five years. Uh I'm proud to be part of that team. It's these two and actually the community when you really think about that really stepped up and been part of this. Uh first item uh we're required to to have an annual safety well we have safety drills on fire. We have a fire drill every month. You have two tornado drills one in the fall

147one in the spring. Then you have two active violence trainings. one in the fall which is one we have you have in your packet which goes over the principal does a synopsis of it we uh are on site uh and do that and then we also have one in the spring there's a variety of them uh the written evaluations that you go through this year Lance and I were I believe at all of along with resource officers usually from Clover PD or depending on what their visits they had I think at one building we had nine or 10 officers then there was some that we did ourselves uh the big win for the year is after the fifth year of doing this uh had one school where had a drill happen. Uh drill's done all

148could have been a second or third grader walks out of a bathroom and you're like we check bathrooms. We holler in there, see if he was in there. You look no one's in there. When he came out, you know, of course the principal big hugs like wow, holy, how did you do that? He's like, I knew I was missed my drill. So I stood on the stool, waited till it was over and came out at the end, which was just important. So it shows teachers are teaching the kids what to do in these, you know, horrible circumstances that could potentially be faced, but we're doing it. Uh, so that was a huge win for me to see and go, "Wow, that was amazing." Uh, so all those are I go through those get submitted to

149Office of School Safety. Uh, the second item we have in there is a list of all the trainings we do, which does include students being trained for the all the different safety bills. Uh, that form's in there. It's amazing. I think the first year we had six or seven and I think this year had 35 and there's probably some that we've missed. Uh the most recent date of which the school board to include uh cabinet members or those of us that do uh building audits uh we do them annually. We did them all this year between October 15th and the last one I think was early part of December. Uh Lance did a did a bload of the work this year sat down with the principles head custodians. if law enforcement's available, they go through

150and do a school audit of all the different concerns that they have in the each building. One of the nice things we do is when it's done, we come back to it. The three of us sit down, go through them, see which things, you know, make the next budget cycle or things that need to be done or addressed now. And it's amazing after a few years, you see less and less coming up, but there's still uh stuff we need to do. Uh let's see, what are we up to now? These audits again, they get submitted through the Office of School Safety coming up. One of the things we do outside of that, which is above and beyond, and I'm was super proud of that. I think something Jeff lined up a couple years ago, every

151quarter, we meet with local uh important figures in law enforcement, kind of talk through all this stuff. So, we're always kind of sitting going through what they see uh what concerns they have. When they talk to parents, a lot of them have kids in our schools. They see it, they bring it up to us. It makes a great avenue of communication. If you don't believe that, when you start seeing in the next two years what the rescue tax force is doing in conjunction with the community hospitals and the school districts, believe me, it's it's powerful stuff. Let's see. One of the last items we have, which I think is probably the most uh thorough one that we don't have to do a lot on, I don't have to do a lot of it. It's the

152school principles, secretaries when they're each updating their uh emergency operating procedures, which is all their phone numbers, all their uh who does what and what roles, what actions to take in emergencies. Those get updated by with each school each year. We'll look through them at the end of it. Uh then upload to the office of school safety. Uh was there anything I missed? I was trying to go as efficient and quickly as possible. Any questions? We the only one you missed is that you and Lance did you did check on all of our rally point? >> Yes, rally points. Rally points are the probably the trickiest because there's some buildings we're like where can you get a whole group of students if we had to evacuate a building into another one. Uh we did check

153through those each year and we reupdate them every year uh and keep working through them. One of the nice things that every year I talk to plants he's like I don't know if we could in an emergency event we can mobilize probably 5 to 10 buses which carry 72 kids at any time be to a building that could become a rally point if we had to in an emergency. So it's we've got options all the stuff we talked through and we do it over and over and it's you know it's amazing what we where we've come in the five years uh since we've really started doing this. >> Yes. >> What was the training you showed me that day in the binder like the giant binder? [laughter] prepare too. >> I I I just wanted

154to maybe make a comment and just say that I was incredibly impressed by the rigor and the care that goes into not only the planning and everything that is here, but the after portion of that. Um, and that that training uh I I had a chance to thumb through it in a meeting with Jeff. It is absolutely amazing. So, I am really impressed by the volume of work uh that that goes into keeping our kids safe. I will tell you these three have done incredible job. This is something that I I added to uh Jeff and Lance's plate uh because I knew it was a big job and Chris has other duties uh that he has to do within the district. So, it really has been a three person job, but they've done phenomenal work.

155We've got people coming here from other districts that say we don't do safety like you guys do safety. And that makes me feel good. We're never going to be 100% prepared, but I feel much better now than I did before 5 years ago. [snorts] >> I do come from a public safety background and and I am very impressed. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Right. Moving to item C, which is budget evaluation process. This is my last time. I promise. [laughter] >> Sure. >> Um the um >> this >> I mean >> lime likes. >> Um so quick update on the budget evaluation process that's happened up to this point. I wanted to lead in with just the position review. So we've elim or we've reviewed a total of 537

156positions. Um 504 of those we've categorized as Phil asis positions that are currently frozen are five. You'll notice that's an increase of one from last month. Um and we did categorize the resignation that occurred out at pods for the principal as a frozen position currently. Um clearly we'll end up filling it at some point, but that was what you'll see there is the increase from four to five positions that are eliminated. That number is consistent and that stayed at 28. Um the ongoing athletic flight budget program review. Um this is we met on December 2nd with the team one more time to discuss the following items. We reviewed the cost of van and vehicle rentals to determine the impact on the annual operating budget. And I think we went into that identifying that number and

157Jackie did some research on exactly what is the price tag on vehicle rentals to travel for sport our sporting teams to athletic events and we thought that that was going to be a large cost and we realized it's a very minimal cost. Um, so we didn't see that as necessarily an efficiency. Um, we reviewed the cost for adding an additional JV team. We talked about we have a couple of sports that are really considered high interest, boys basketball being one, girls volleyball. And every time we make a decision to add another JV team because philosophically in our district, we've said if kids want to participate, we want to provide the opportunity. So what is the cost of that? We've determined that it's about a $5,000 ad each time we add another JV team. So at

158this point in time in boys basketball we have three team three JB teams running same for girls volleyball. So um we did also then want to take a look at our external peers or neighboring peers to say are we in alignment with the number of JB teams that they're running and we identified that we indeed are. So it's very similar. So those two sports are not just high interest in Stevens Point, they're high interest everywhere. Um so they're having large numbers of participants too. So, we're able to schedule those games um and have a full schedule for those [snorts] teams. In terms of world language programming updates, I did talk a little bit about this. So, we've got some changes that we've agreed on for the upcoming school years. We're going to adjust our course

159sequence in Spanish and French and shift from a six core sequence to a five core sequence. That'll happen in the 2728 school year. You might say, why isn't it happening in 2627? because we'll need to bring those proposals back to the board to approve in December of 2026 so that we can implement them in 2728. Um, German, you'll notice, is not included here. German right now only has a four-year course sequence. Um, so that's why it's not included. But the fifth year of both Spanish and French will be considered an AP year. Um, that'll be the advanced placement experience for students in those two courses. And the course proposals, as I indicated, would be made in the upcoming year. And there would be time provided for curriculum work for those teachers who would be asked

160to do some modifications to reduce from that six-year course sequence to five. Um, in terms of world language, a couple other updates. Um, we would integrate a concurrent enrollment option for French and Spanish. So, this would be the level six class. Um, and we would closely monitor in the event that enrollment is not high enough. In other words, over 10 for those level six classes, we would not run the class. So, we have that happening now even in some instances. And what happens in those cases is students default then to our ECCP option and they're able to still take the course. We're just not offering it and we're not allocating FTE to offer it in our own building. So, they're still able to take the course through UWSP. We would look for teachers willing to

161get certified to teach these courses, the concurrent courses, because it does require a certification because it's a high school teacher teaching a college class. Um, we currently do have two teachers in Spanish who already meet this requirement, so they have the ability to do it. And we have at least one of our French teachers who's willing to repeat complete the required coursework. So those are not necessarily efficiencies that we've identified, but we certainly see them as program enhancements. our co-curricular pro programming. We're also analyzing um the co-curricular programs we have running. We currently have approximately 35 active clubs across the district in all 7 through 12th grade levels. And we have over 700 students participating in those clubs. There is there are some of those clubs that are duplicative. In other words, they're running at

162PJs. They're running at Ben. They're also running at Spash. So, I mentioned last month that we're going to look for opportunities to maybe reduce the number of adviserss that we're paying stipens to and allowing some of those clubs to be able to come together to meet and that would create some efficiencies. So, we're continuing to examine that. The total stipens for each of those active 35 clubs is approximately $50,000. Um so not a large ticket um but certainly would be a savings even if we can find some level of efficiency when we look for eliminating maybe some of the advisor stipens at one building or two buildings to be able to just create one position. I do want to share just a little bit of a highlight here. We'll begin now to sort of start

163where are the efficiencies and where are the cost savings that we're finding. Um we'll begin the staffing process in the next month. So early in January, Jeff begins the staffing process at secondary. I begin at elementary, [snorts] we had a number of positions, approximately 12 that were reduced last year through attrition. So we'll continue to populate this graph and what those cost savings are. But I did want to share one-time revenue that we didn't necessarily anticipate come in recently. Um I did apply for the elementary professional development reimbursement through the Department of Public Instruction. These were dollars that were allocated to districts to cover the cost of the required um training for foundational literacy skills as part of act 20. We applied not knowing if we'd get anything and I planned to get nothing. So

164I was thrilled to get almost $52,000. And again, this is not a recurring revenue, but at least it's a onetime revenue that we didn't bank on. So we'll continue to report out on what those cost savings that we're finding annually. And again, um, I can't count this towards the $18,000 that I just asked you to spend on the 4K staffing increases because it's only one time, but I'm hopeful that we'll be able to wrap that up pretty quickly through this review process. So, our next steps and deliverables, we're going to continue to look at identifying low enrollment clubs receiving multiple stipens across sites. We'll continue to explore district-wide opportunities for shared advisors, combined events, and cross cross school teams. Um, we're going to examine the stipen structures for consistency across schools and programs. Um, updating

165the registration materials to continue so that the world language sequence and concurrent enrollment pathways and planning are included. And we'll review the monthly reports within the athletic budget so that we're seeing when potentially we're seeing those slight increases and ensuring that we're accounting for them appropriately. Um, and then we'll also begin the annual staffing process across all PK12 levels and that'll start in January. That's the update on budget and program for this month, but I'm happy to answer any questions. Marty, go ahead. >> So Chris, we've heard commentary tonight even and we I have gotten a lot of commentary from the public in terms of hey, the district needs to do the hard work of identifying where we can make cuts of where we can find these efficiencies. And obviously this activity alone is not

166enough for that. We need the the task force or the larger examination of what we've gotten. But I just wanted to highlight like you do this monthly. You meet with, you know, folks across the district and you look at what our staffing expectations are, what our declining enrollment means in terms for next year's teachers population, etc. And [clears throat] this is where last year we were able to cut that $800,000. >> 811,000. Yeah. >> And it was approximately 1.1 million the year prior. So, you know, we can we can look at both of those figures in the grand scheme of $120 or $130 million budget and say not significant, but it is significant. Um, and you know, this work is um it's it's incredibly detailed and timeconuming. So, right now we're primarily focused on athletic

167programming, co-curriculars, and world language. But the move next would be to ELA math and then we would be looking at at risk programming as well as reading. So those are the two that are sort of on the long-term list and we believe that there are efficiencies in all of those. Um you know I will say when we talk about our largest cost savings often come in staffing reductions that were able to experience through attrition and you know we have in the four years that I've been here we have been able to reduce approximately 18 staff positions. 15 of those were at the elementary level. Um, so we'll continue to look for where we can have those at least large ticket efficiencies or cost savings. >> And is it at the elementary level because that's where

168we've seen class reductions. >> Uh, and that was where we've seen, you know, that's where it's where our most significant declining enrollment is showing up first, >> right? Because that's where they come in. >> Thanks. >> Well, I would echo that, you know, it's an important job monetary monetarily, but also uh publicly. I mean, when you ask for budgets and we had a referendum and everything, first thing people would say, "Well, are you sure you're saving money everywhere you can?" That's what's important to do as you guys do it all the time >> and to make sure people know that we're saving money where we can. >> I remember when we asked for this a couple years ago and I think I remember what your face looked like when we asked for it monthly. >>

169So, yes, you I'll echo the sentiment. you've done I think more you definitely have gone more thorough and and dug a little deeper than I even expected and and the savings year over year is amazing things for this >> it all it all adds up so it's worth the end >> question move into item D resolution for voucher >> so as you know we are requesting that the board um adopt resolution allowing us to make a formal request to our 18 municipalities to add additional information on the tax bill or with with the tax bill as an insert that would provide the tax impact on the school voucher program. We know it's way too late for this year's bills um but we'd like to begin those conversations as early as possible because it's going to

170take some time with 18 municipalities. We also have felt pressure from the community because we've seen an uptick in people calling about their tax bills. And Mike has spent quite a bit of time with residents trying to explain the reduction in state aid, the referendum impact, as well as the voucher impact because those are really the three things that have impacted those tax bills the most. Um, we also know that there's other Wisconsin school districts that have passed resolutions, are in the process of um or are already having information on their tax bills. So, the proposed resolution again, it would not make any statement that would be for or against vouchers, but it would just be asking us to or giving us permission to go to our municipalities to ask them to put more information

171on their tax bills. Um, the resolution was in your packet. I know there was an FAQ in your packet as well. I I also know that some of the people that submitted public comment as well as some board members that I've heard of felt that potentially additional information could be included in that FAQ. The reason why that FAQ just focused on the vouchers was because that's what the resolution pertains to. We've got that web page that Sarah had created that's got a lot of information about our budget and just taxes in general. So, we would embed this information right in there and and again try to be as clear as possible just to give residents as much information as they can get so that they know where their tax dollars are going. Um, again, it

172was for transparency purposes. I know some of you don't feel that way, but that was the intent and I know the timeliness came up and it's because we've gotten more questions than we normally have gotten regarding tax bills and Mike is still digging in and working with um the county uh regarding tax bills and understanding some of those things on there. So, this is not something that's, you know, just done in one point in time during the year. We're always trying to provide our residents as much information as we can. >> Corey, I think what gives me pause is that uh the municipalities, you reached out to them before you informed the board that this was coming to us for action tonight. So, I learned about that after we had reached out, you had reached

173out to the municipalities. So, that does give me pause. We did not have an opportunity as a collective board nor committee to have discussion to talk about the language. The third thing that really gives me pause is the the timing. We have time like even if we table this to next month to ensure that we are all aligned on messaging. I don't disagree. I think more information that we share with our taxpayers is needed. I think there's [clears throat] still a lot of confusion as it even relates to vouchers. But I feel like and and the community has shared that they feel like and the the term that I heard them use is this is kind of feels sneaky because this was posted on Thursday. They asked me about it. I didn't learn about it

174until Wednesday afternoon when you had sent that email. And so I feel like >> Friday when you sent the email, Nicole sent stuff on Wednesday. >> No, Corey had Corey had sent that. Yeah. Yes. And I and I guess like I'd just like to also have discussion about we share this we request of the municipalities they don't have to comply. So what are the implications if we have a subset of municipalities sending out communication and others not like does that create more confusion? Is this truly the best route? I just like to have that discussion and I feel like having it on the agenda tonight for action when we you just shared this with us, it doesn't give us the time to do that. >> Sure. The intent to reach out to the m municipalities

175prior to was just to give them a heads up. I did not want anyone to feel like this was a surprise to them. But then we felt like it was a surprise after you I mean right I think the sequencing of events should have been swapped >> and I felt like since we talked about vouchers at the committee meeting >> we didn't talk about a communication >> but I brought up the point we did not talk about communication but I brought up the point that there are Wisconsin school districts that have done this and likely we will be coming before the board with a resolution. If the board is not ready to make this decision tonight, they surely don't have to do that. But I want you to know that taxers have a lot of

176questions. >> Oh, I know we're get I think we're all getting flooded in our inbox. >> And I do think that, you know, getting information out there to them about, you know, why their taxes are going up. Basically, it it is pertaining to reduction in state aid, the referendum that the community approved, and they don't understand that we levy for the vouchers, and then the the state takes that money and provides that to the private schools, which again is state law. We're not saying we're for or against. It's just this is how >> this should have been an agenda item. We we met on Monday so there was an opportunity for us to have that discussion that didn't happen right so so sat Monday we we talked about it vouchers was brought up there was

177no communication that anything come was coming our way two and a half days later we receive an email from you so I just feel a little bit uneasy about all of this >> fair and it's probably just because we are getting more questions I mean I feel like and not everybody's texts are even out yet I think >> I just got mine today >> I have not received mine >> we are going to field a lot more questions Mike is here also to answer any specific specific detailed questions if you have any but if others have questions or thoughts or concerns I'm happy >> and I I just I just want to know I I attended agenda setting and that that was Thursday Wednesday last Wednesday and that was the first time I saw this

178>> and I had two asks of Corey one was to send out a separate email to board members >> to let board members know ahead of time this was happening. The other was to send out information to municipalities and it was on Friday which happened on Friday but but it was again just to because we aren't on we aren't on their radar. All right. And we are this this will be an ask of them if ultimately we as a board choose to do that. And so for me, I personally, again, as one board member, I felt it was important that we that we get the information to the leadership in those municipalities to let them know that this was something we were considering. Clearly, everything that is in front of us tonight as anything that

179comes in front of us doesn't move forward unless we agree. Unless we agree on the wording of the resolution, unless we agree on the wording of the FAQ, unless we agree ultimately that this is something that we as a board want to move forward on, um Corey has requested us as a board to take a look at this and it it is specifically related to providing information in next year's tax bills that would let residents in our district know that the amount of money on that tax line item that says it's going to the public schools. It would let them know that X amount is going to our public schools and X amount is going to our private vouchers. >> And I don't oppose that. But historically, this has been something like this would come

180to the board information only and we would have time to process and then have and then vote and act. There was no time. So, this feels very forced. This feels very it it I don't understand what's driving the timeline between this month and next month. >> So, a motion to table and to return to administration would would be appropriate. If a majority of the board would like to do that, that's that is definitely something we can do. It was an item that administration asked to put on the agenda and we can ask to table it. Um, we can ask board members to reach out to administration with any questions or concerns either about the concept or about the resolution information or about the FAQs. Um, so if if a board member wants to make that,

181>> I'd like to make a motion to table this for the January 2026 meeting to allow us time to work through the language with administration before acting. >> Second. >> Do I have a second? Okay, I have a motion, a second. Any discussion on that? >> G if it were to be uh voted on and okay to go ahead with this, what would happen? >> We would begin communication. What would happen tonight? >> No, I mean what would if we voted on it tonight and said yes, what would happen? >> We would begin communicating with municipalities >> in what way? And we have a press release that would go out about the action that the board took. >> So my question is then what does it mean like you communicate with the municipalities? What are

182we saying to them? >> We are asking them to put additional information on the tax bill that shares the tax >> okay >> of the school voucher program and it would go on next year's tax bill. >> When do they need to know to put it on the tax bill? by October. >> Yeah. By next >> October 2026, >> next fall. >> And it and I think I think it's a it's it's would they be interested in putting it on the actual tax bill or if not, would they be willing to put an insert in the end goal that the tax bill is in to provide that information? Well, they could say yes or no. >> Correct. >> And different municipalities could do it different ways. Correct. >> Could be a concern, too. >> Now,

183uh the other districts that have done this, uh it'd be nice to see how they're doing it. I mean, I'm sure you know, but uh we could communicate like what's what do they what's it look like on the on so that we follow precedent. I mean, >> I think it varies from district district to district, but I We can find that out. >> So, when would this come back up? >> If it's tabled tonight, >> she has a motion on the floor that it would come back. January of 2026. >> Okay. >> We we would not be able to influence what it looks like on a bill. Like we can't we can't we can't even tell them to municipality to put it on there. We certainly can't tell them the format in which they put

184it on. Correct. We could suggest I suppose >> or we could share what others have done. >> Any other questions? and and this is on the motion. So the motion is on tableabling this and bringing it back in January allowing board members to have communication with superintendent. >> My concern is that overwhelming majority of the time we meet whether at the committee level at this level we have almost never have email comments or public comment. We had a fairly large interest in this even though this was fairly short notice. I think takes tableling would make sense just have a little more time to process any other concerns. Make sure some of those questions get answered and whether they were related specifically to what this is or not at least to address and inform people appropriately

185on that. Um, and I don't know if this means it goes back to, you know, the business committee or the board on on the Monday before the board and then discuss there and then if I assume that's what >> we can sure do that that's what I just because there's been I feel like we just we push it forward right or wrong there's an awful lot of interest in discussing this that really wasn't allowed to truly happen. Those folks that missed the deadline have a chance to then make their comments what they what bank said to clarify maybe they want to adjust what they said. >> That's my piece of it. >> Most of the the communication that we received really was about parents that that choose to send their children to private really still

186want to be able to have that opportunity because it's what works for them. whereas this was just more about being providing more clarification on the tax bill about tax dollars. I'm all for opportunities for kids and I am not to say that one is better or or than another. I mean I families have different situations and circumstances and they need to make that decision in the best interest of their own children. >> Great. I was all set to vote for it from from what we received and everything else, but thinking about what the public has responded is [clears throat] a good indication about miscommunication and misunderstanding about it. So, I think it's reasonable to go ahead and table it for now. I think in after you made the initial comments uh uh before public comments

187there's kind of a misconception because a lot of the comments went into I want to send my kids to whatever school I want to. >> We have no power over that >> to stand up and say >> I think uh I should be allowed to uh uh send my kids to the schools I want to come to. That has nothing to do with us. So uh all I think [clears throat] that we're we just want to be transparent and transparent is always a good thing uh [clears throat] to me no matter what. So there's a misconception as to what this is >> correct >> as along with 8B the uh 4K thing. I had the feeling that people were saying well if you do this then I have to send my kid there and I

188can't send them where I want it. Of course you don't have to. And same way with uh uh this resolution, you sent your kid wherever you want. We that's that has nothing to do with what we do here. And this resolution to me is just an attempt to make things transparent. Uh I understand the idea that it was fast. I personally would vote for this in a second. uh if other people need more time to digest in the community and on the board, I'm willing to wait as long as it does come up. And that's part of the res the uh the mo motion that you made that we will discuss this again. But I think it's important to say it did not have any much if anything to do with the comments that were

189made tonight. >> I agree, G. And I mean, I'm going to vote no on Jen's motion just for that reason. I see no reason not to advance it tonight. But I have no issue waiting if that's what the full board wants to do. >> And and I really want time because when we're if we voted yes tonight on the initial mo action, we would use the language as written. There's [clears throat] no time for us to align on the language, you know, and so I I just want time. Wording is very important to me. I've heard from the community, too. And it just gives us time to your point to clarify, to show that, hey, we've heard you. We're we're still moving forward and we'll have more time to discuss this next month >> when

190we have the next [clears throat] uh public comments because we'll have it again in January, I'm [snorts] sure. Uh I would the comments we had tonight didn't have anything to do with this resolution. And I I I want to make sure we narrow that down to that because everybody stands up here can send their kid wherever they want to send. >> I I So I think part of it the confusion is because this came up. >> Yes, I agree. And so that's usually when [snorts] people get confused [clears throat] and get concerned. And so I think being able to table it for a month and being able to have the communication, the last thing I want us to be doing, we'd be here till midnight trying to these documents and and they never turn out

191>> as well or as good as if board members are able to reach out to Corey and and raise their questions and their concerns. So, I guess I' I'd like if people are comfortable with it, I'd like us to go ahead and and [snorts] vote on the motion, which would be to >> table until January >> to table it until January. >> This will then be brought up in committee >> with the Yes. with the the the conversation that it should come to committee before the board in January. >> Which committee? >> Is this an HR? >> All right. Any So, I've got the motion in the second. Any discussion or questions? All those in favor with tableabling till January with I. >> Can we do roll call, please? >> Certainly. >> Miss Bushman, >>

192yes. >> Mr. Summers, >> yes. >> Miss Mercer, >> no. >> Mr. Kowolski, >> yes. >> Mr. Pope, >> no. >> Mr. Mr. Libre. >> No. >> Miss Potter Nelson. >> No. >> Mr. Lee. >> Yes. >> Ms. Earler. >> Yes. >> Five yeses. The motion carries. [clears throat] >> Okay. So, we're at future meeting dates and times and uh our next board meeting is January 12th. >> [snorts] >> Um >> January 5th >> 5:30 >> for the committee meetings. Okay. >> Be there. >> All right. The next thing I'm looking for a motion to close session um to convene under 1985 one C considering employment promotion compensation or performance evaluation data of any college employee specifically review administrator contracts including the superintendent and 1985 PN1 friend E deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public

193properties. the investing of public funds or conducting other specified public business. Specifically, consider listing price and negotiable baseline for district owned properties, specifically the sale of the professional building. >> What Jen Bushman moved it and >> could you repeat that >> please? No session. >> Certainly. Jen Bushman, Miss Mercer. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kowolski. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pope. >> Yes. >> Mr. Liebreck. >> Yes. >> Mr. I'm sorry. Yep. Mr. Summers. Yes. [snorts] >> Mr. Lee Lee. >> Yes. >> Miss Potter Nelson. got.