September 8th 2025 Regular School Board Meeting Live Stream

001Yeah, I can hear. >> Perfect. Perfect. Okay. We will uh open our Monday, September 8th, 2025 schoolboard meeting. Uh public access to meetings here in person as well as online. Um we will have the meeting opening and roll call. Miss Bushman >> here. >> Miss Mercer >> here. Mr. Kowalsski >> here. >> Mr. Pope >> here. >> Mr. Leech >> here. Miss Earler >> here. >> Mr. Summers here. >> Mr. Lee >> here. >> We have a quorum. >> Thank you so much. Thank you. >> Can we stand for the pledge? >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Our first item on the agenda is our Mandana

002Bliss Award and I'm going to turn it over to Corey. >> Thank you. So, congratulations to Amber Hofferman who has been chosen as our Mandana Bliss Award winner for this month. Amber is the assistant to uh Chris Nyman, our assistant superintendent and director of elementary education. And um we are going to ask both Chris and Sherry Stancheek who nominated Amber to come forward and present Amber with her award. >> So I'll just read um the nomination form for Amber. Thank you all for for being here. It's really hard to um come up with one person at Bliss, but um I work closely with Amber, so I thought it was very fitting. I'm honored to nominate Amber for Mandana Bliss um in recognition of her exceptional dedication and invaluable contributions as a support staff member in

003our district. One of the qualities I most appreciate about Amber is her consistently welcoming and patient attitude. No matter how simple or complex the questions, I never feel hesitant or silly asking for help. She approaches every inquiry with a genuine cand spirit. Amber's positive demeanor extends beyond just her work with families and students. She treats all staff members with equal respect and kindness regardless of title or position. Colleagues frequently rely on her because she re also responds in a positive manner making them feel they are the priority despite how busy she may be. I often leave our interactions reflecting on the model she has become for me in many of these areas. In addition to her interpersonal skills, Amber's work is marked by accuracy and professionalism. She consistently delivers positive results and shows eagerness to

004expand her knowledge by learning new skills and taking on new challenges. Amber's commitment not only benefits those she directly supports, but also strengthens the overall culture of collaboration and excellence in our district. Her respectful and kind approach creates a welcoming environment for families and students, fosters trust and positive relationships. Staff members feel supported and valued by her willingness to help and her dependable presence. Amber has become a go-to um a go-to resource for many, contributing significantly to the smooth operation and success of our school community. Amber truly embodies the spirit of Mandana Bliss through her unwavering commitment, kindness, and professionalism. It is with great enthusiasm that I recommend her for this well-deserved award. [Applause] I'm going to just add a couple words about Amber. Um, it's my honor to recognize her tonight. Oh, I know

005she's waiting for this moment of recognition to pass quickly. Um, and some of what Sherry shared is certainly going to be heard a second time, but that's okay. Um, because it deserves to be said a second time, probably a third time, even a fourth time. But Amber truly demonstrates the highest level of professionalism in everything that she does. Whether it's organizing calendars, juggling schedules, guiding families through the enrollment process, managing countless purchase orders, budgets, and inventories, she does all of this with an energy and positivity that not only makes her exceptionally talented and effective, but also makes her an incredible colleague to work alongside. In my office, for those of you that have visited, you'll know that I have a sign on a bookshelf behind my desk that says, "Be the person that you want

006to work with." Amber truly embodies this every day and everything that she does. No matter the challenge or last minute hurdle, she brings a can do spirit that really lifts those around her. For me, this award isn't just about recognizing someone who excels at her job. It's about honoring a genuinely good person who makes our district better in ways that unfortunately often go unnoticed. Amber, thank you for all you do. Congratulations. You are exactly the kind of person that we're all grateful to work with. Before [Applause] I turn this over to Amber, I had the privilege to work with Amber for 5 years in the ED services department. And Amber is really she's a quiet leader. She does whatever needs to be done when it needs to be done. And she never ever ever complains.

007even when I know it's hard uh and she's holding things in, she she just does what needs to be done for families, for kids, and for the district. So, congratulations, Amber. >> Thank you. >> Very [Applause] interesting. >> We're always matching to that invite. Thank you very much. >> Is this a good arrangement? Yeah, it's the background. >> Oh, do you want me to >> for a different background? >> Yeah, change it. I can change it. Okay, >> good. [Music] >> Well, it's a good thing that my camera wasn't on. >> It's not you, Char at you. It's >> Is that better? >> All right, let's do that one. >> I can't because I look too short. >> As his mom said, >> and we might be dressed alike. >> Not as bad as some

008days. >> Thank you. >> Just take off the blazer. Congratulations. [Music] >> Thank you, Amber. Congrats. >> Thank you. [Applause] >> She's out. She didn't cry. That's good. >> That is good. She's gonna do that now, though. >> All right, we'll move into public comments. Uh either email back on >> She is >> either email or in person. >> We had no comment. Thank you. >> Okay. And no one has signed up to speak tonight. Is there anyone here who would like to speak to the board? >> Right. We will move into presentations. Uh first is communication report with Sarah O'Donnell. >> Hello. >> All right. >> I'm wondering if you have to click back on the presentations. >> Oh, is it not going? >> No. >> Try now. >> Hey, thank you. All right,

009our communication report will begin this evening with our back to school coverage which we think went quite well. Um we did transition into our new theme for the year that believe belong to come. So you'll see that um theme is recurring throughout the year um really centering our communications around those three ideas and storytelling um where that is happening in the district. Uh you can see just some events that we covered uh throughout the month of August. Um either with photos or video um in addition to some of the media coverage we'll talk about later. As you know, back to school is probably one of the busiest times for us for communication. We have people paying attention to school and we take advantage of that as much as we can. Um we did our own

010video as well, our from oh no to let's go. Um, thank you to my colleagues for being willing to play along with that idea. Um, went really well. We've had the highest engagement on a back to school video that we've had in a long time. Um, so we're start brainstorming for for next year. So, um, that was just it was really a lot of fun to do and uh trying to pull some humor into a topic we haven't in the past. So, and then again that will long become theme as we look website and digital engagement. This was actually a surprise to me this month. You can see we actually saw our total views drop quite a bit. Um, however, we saw engagement time per user go up substantially over 700%. And then also saw

011our key event count. So that would be like downloading a PDF or clicking through to um a place that I have tagged as a key event like calendar menu, something that I think is important and want folks to be at is up by 88%. So, my interpretation of that is that we had fewer views because as they were viewing, they were able to get what they needed faster. Um, because we're not tracking unique views there. We're tracking all views there. So, it's not like tracked by user. Um, so I think it's a positive, although it did surprise me a little bit. Love being surprised when we look at data. Um, our three most visited pages were the back to school page, the staff portal, login, transportation, and then I did just add calendar and about

012us were right up there too this month. Um, so places that we wanted people to be, uh, which is always a good thing. Our key focus was that back to school hub. Absolutely. Ensuring that those seeking that information, we want people to be able to come in, get what they need quickly, and be able to move on with what they need to do to plan for back to school. Um we shifted all uh 18 websites to that believe belong come theme and then we've started our website audits. We're starting with spash um looking really at template control um starting to implement some of those um uh digital access components that we'll need to have ready to go by the end of this April. Um, so we started with SPASH and just met today um with

013those who are in charge of that website up there just to say like was this audit helpful? What did we miss? What do we need to do better? And then how can we help you implement the changes that need to be there? So once we get that tweaked, we'll continue on through the remaining um websites in the district. Looking at media coverage and public relations for the month, um you can see we only released one press release throughout the month, but had really great coverage. Again, August is just a time when folks are really thinking about schools and back to school. Um, so we had just some really nice coverage on, you know, is your child prepared for kindergarten? Uh, Dr. Bolindorf daughter Payton did a a mural up at Spash. We revealed that. Um,

014and we just have had really great relationships uh with both 97 and the journal. Looking at social media engagement, we saw a significant jump, which is not surprising, right? It's August. Um, however, those numbers, the impression engagement numbers are up from what we did previous in the previous year. So, not just month over month. That's actually year-over-year numbers about we're up about 63% in impression impressions. I forgot my note. 39% up in engagement. So, a good jump there year-over-year for a month that's usually pretty heavy. Our highest um engaged and uh impressions and engagements for the month was our um you know, Taylor Swift got engaged and people seemed really excited about it and she referenced teachers. So, we thought, yeah, we're going to reference teachers, too. So, um we had we just made a

015request to staff that if they were a married couple, both employed at the district, they send us their picture. Um I think we had 14 or 15 folks get it to us by the deadline. That was a pretty quick turnaround um and share that with our community and just got a lot of uh reactions and engagement. So really excited to be able just to celebrate our people in that way in a way we typically wouldn't. Looking ahead over the semester, uh we'll really be focused on that strategic planning and alignment. Uh we are planning again for a midyear update that will go out to all of our community. Um, we it's great that we're able to communicate with folks that are already connected to the district, but we want to make sure that folks that

016aren't connected to us on a daily or monthly basis are able to get that same information. Um, we'll continue to wrap in those referendum and budget updates. Uh, engagement and recognition is something we're really focused on uh this semester. Um, building internal capacity and support. So, we have started to work on that digital accessibility plan. Uh we'll roll out training the end of this month starting to our web masters. Um again really making sure we're ready to go for that compliance by April um April I guess next year this school year next year. And then our major campaigns will be looking at enrollment push uh for point of discovery fork um and I believe open enrollment as well. That does it for me. So I have a question about the major campaigns. We have talked

017about reaching out to those people who are open in the morning. >> You had mentioned that. >> Have we done anything with reaching out to them? >> We have our first meetings this week to talk about what our game plan is going to be for the year. >> And do we have any ideas for how many are open and rolling out yet? I know it's not third Friday yet. >> We won't until third Friday. Yeah. I mean, I shared with the board what last year's numbers were. Once that third Friday hits and we get that information back, we'll have more detailed information, but we are going to start planning already this week. >> So Sarah, in terms of like engagement, the numbers you're tracking, >> you know, so I, as a board member, every once

018in a while, well, especially the video starting the year, repost it. >> Yeah. >> Do your stats catch that? >> Absolutely. I repost, share. >> Okay. So, anything that we're doing as board members to forward on anything you're providing to us, >> if you think of it as like most helpful to the algorithm, it would be that sharing is the most helpful, commenting is the next helpful, and then liking, parting, right? However you choose to engage, hopefully not an angry face. >> And that might be helpful to reach out to members of the community that aren't part of the school community, don't have kids in school right now. >> Yeah. Yeah, the further we can help share that information, we're certainly hoping that people are are seeing it. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank

019you. >> I just have to say I thought the video was wonderful. >> It really was. Well, >> I had really good actors. So, >> and a really good videographer. >> I really like Sam telling everyone that you belong here and it was it was a small comment, but it was powerful. >> Well done. I kind of like Jeff with the locker >> and Chris with the report card. >> Yeah, >> my heart is still racing. >> Gave Chris a lot of anxiety. >> Yes, it did give me a never had enough in my life. >> I will say Mr. DeMargo at PJs too with the locker. I didn't even have a like I had all of my shot list set up and had sent them out to everyone that was going to be in

020the video and I didn't even have a chance to connect with him and he called me and he's like I have the locker ready to go. It's this locker. I'll meet you at this time. And so I just we're so lucky to have people that are are willing to help and be part of that kind of fun. >> Well done. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Sarah. >> All right. Superintendent report. >> Okay. Um it's been a great start to the new school year. I just want to thank all the staff who helped prepare our buildings and our facilities for students to report in September. I want to thank families for sharing their children with us. I mean, they're really the the individuals that bring life to our building. So, thank you um to staff, thank

021you to families, thank you for students for being here. It's just not the same um during the summer months. So, it's it's exciting to have everybody back um in session and and in our buildings. Want to thank Sarah for the back to school video. It was a different twist. I know it was a risk on her part. Um it wasn't as serious, but we continue to get really positive feedback um from staff, from students, and from families. So, thank you to Sarah for that. We just recently learned that our uh boys and girls spash soccer programs received the high school team academic award from the United Soccers coach soccer coaches. We are one in 35 school districts in the nation to have received both the boys and girls receiving this award. So congratulations to our

022soccer program. That's awesome. Um we're still recruiting for some staff. Currently, we have one temporary reading teacher position open. We have 15 special ed EA positions open, five regular ed EA positions open, an office EA, an interpreter, a bilingual translator, a naturalist, a server, a cook custodian, and a maintenance mechanic. So, if anyone is out there and looking for jobs, uh we still have some positions available in all aspects of everything we do in the school district. So, consider applying. It's a great place to work. Um, WASB fall regional meeting is November 4th in Rothschild at 6 o'clock. So, board members, uh, just a reminder that that's coming up in November. Wasb board member recognition. Congratulations to TED. Um, Ted has received his level two recognition through WASB for his efforts in board development and

023attending many WASB activities and events. So, congratulations to Ted. very deserving. We have the Spash Tennis Courts ribbon cutting ceremony that's going to take place this Wednesday at 4:30 at Spash. They are beautiful. If you are interested in attending, please consider attending that event. Homecoming week is September 29th through October 3rd. So, if interested, please partake in all of the activities happening during homecoming week. The Spash Athletic Hall of Fame is happening on September 20th at Century World. The social is from 4:30 to 6 and the induction ceremony begins at 6:00. And lastly, any service member, I talked a little bit about the military wall of fame at Spash, but on September 19th, any service member attending the home football game will be able to enter that game free of charge. And then we will

024be honored honoring those service members at the the Spash football game that evening. We play Hudson. So we did reach out to Hudson to let them know. So if they're bringing any parents or community members or family that um our service members, they will also get into that game free and will be honored. So thank you to Spash and the athletic department for um honoring again people in our community that give service back to all of us. That's all I have. >> Any questions for Cy? >> Corey, could you just talk about I know for the um military wall there's a nomination process and could you just let the community know kind of what that nomination process is because it's easy everyone. >> It is anyway just to let people have an understanding >> absolutely

025>> how we're doing this. There's an online form. So, just feel free to fill that form out and then uh provide the information uh asked in that form and then they will be recognized. There will be a wall at spash for just the military um individuals similar to what we do with athletics. Um so any spash graduate or actually any graduate from any one of our district schools will be on that wall. Um and then again we will honor them at that home football game as well. So, it's it's a really easy process. So, if you know anyone, um, please consider filling out that form and getting them recognized on our our wall of fame at at Spash. >> All right. Thank you. We will now move into the consent agenda. We have the minutes

026of the prior schoolboard meeting um from August 11th, the approval of the schedule of monthly bills um and employment recommendations. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. I have a motion and second. Any questions? Hearing none. We will have you call the role due to the scheduled monthly bills. >> Mr. Lee? >> Yes. >> Mr. Summers? >> Yes. >> Miss Bert? >> Yes. >> Mr. Leech? >> Yes. >> Mr. Pope? >> Yes. >> Mr. Kowalsski? >> Yes. >> Miss Mercer? >> Yes. >> Miss Bushman? Yes. >> Thank you. We'll move into business services and I will turn that over to Marne as the chair. >> All right. We held our business services on a Tuesday this time on September 2nd. Um Beth came and

027talked about our yearly subfill rate which was 90% overall, 96% for teachers. Um and the uh the low point there it was not a surprise. uh 76% for uh spent EAS um due to the 16 open positions. So, but overall um she said it's a good experience with the company and uh they're continuing to provide good service. So, uh we talked about a change in capitalization rules and that is still in the agenda for later. So, I'll let that uh come up. Um uh we talked a little bit about budget performance and the most exciting portion of the night was that we briefly had $3 billion and then we realized that no in fact that was an error. We did not win the lottery and we still had only the uh standard. But uh good

028news uh these are unudedited numbers. Um so the audited version will be back in January. But we were able to put 500k in fund 46, which is building maintenance uh in our 10-year plan, and $1.3 million into the general fund from last year. So, I think overall, um that is about uh in the middle of where Mike thought it would be and a pretty good boost to the general fund. So, good news overall. Uh and then the last thing that we talked about was uh Mike mentioned our food services program again and we talked about how the governor came and uh on the first day of school and spoke to uh one of our food services personnel but also um we served over 31,000 meals uh to students and family members this summer. Um and

029then he briefly mentioned the kind of history of the turn up the beat award which was uh something that we won for uh last year and in fact we won it in 2018 and we're the only school we won in 2021 and were one of two who got the silver and then we've gotten gold for the last three years. So well done to our food services program and well done to really everyone on staff when it comes to stewardship of the uh budget for last year. >> I would like to second that. you know, from our cabinet to our leadership team to principles in buildings to our staff. As promised, we were going to build back that fund balance as part of our referendum um discussion with the community and our staff are very, very,

030very diligent about how they're spending dollars and they were very cognizant about making sure that we had enough dollars to put back in that fund balance. So, congratulations to the entire staff. Um, I I am proud of that. It It's not easy. Um, they're making very difficult decisions, but continue to be really good stewards of our taxpayer dollars and making sure that we build back that fund balance. So, thank you to everyone and congratulations to Mike as well. Mike's in his first year and you know, it was stressful for him. Um, and I know that he feels good about this as we all should. Um, and we are hopeful that next year we'll be able to do the same. And you'll hear a little bit more about that when Chris gives the budget and evaluation

031process update. >> All right, that's all for me. >> So, Mike, you were was it.1% off in terms of revenue? >> Yes. >> Could you just just note those in terms of the percentage off in terms of revenue and percentage off in terms of expense because it's like incredible. Is this in our budget? >> I do have that in the budget. And >> yeah, Chris is gonna bring it up. >> Okay. But we were.1% off on the revenue side. So >> for a $50,000 household, if that's your your income coming in, that would be like $50 um that you're off when you're budgeting a year in advance. So that's pretty good. expense we were um 1 >> 2% off. >> So a little bit more off on the expense side, but expense is a little

032more difficult to predict. Just like your own budgets, you're trying to predict out a year ahead how much you're going to spend in the next year. It's a little harder to to be accurate, but still 1.2 is is pretty close. So on a $50,000 expense budget, that's $600, I believe. Um, so pretty overall pretty good. So overall we're um >> what were we >> 1.3 >> accuracy 98 >> 98.9% accurate overall >> 98.9. >> So >> all right well it's your first year so >> thank you Mike you set the bar. >> Okay. All right, we will move into uh ED services and I'll turn that over to G. >> Uh we had four things on uh the docket for ED services. Uh one was the EDS serve annual calendar which uh Chris and Jeff

033uh made up similar to the one we have for the school board to let us know what's coming up uh at each meeting throughout the year. Uh, but it's also flexible as is our schoolboard one. Uh, so it can change, things can be deleted or added during the year, but it's nice to have to see what the what's coming up throughout the year. And that's available on >> on the website under the schoolboard tab. >> Under the schoolboard tab. Okay. And then another thing was the adop curriculum adoption cycle uh that Jeff and Chris made for uh where we are now in the cycle of adopting our uh school district curriculums and we're in social studies this year. Right. >> Correct. >> Y >> and I think that's significant because I'm not show so sure

034we were following it for a long time but we're on track now and I expect that we our our student achievement numbers will show that. Uh and then we had two other things which will be discussed here in the schoolboard meeting. the uh summer school report and the annual seclusion and restraint reports and they're going to be discussed later. So, >> all right. Thanks, G. Um and with that, I would invite our summer school coordinators, um Jen Melville and Darla Panowski. Um they provided a comprehensive overview of our summer school programming today. We will conclude this report with recommendations for 2526 based on the feedback that were received both from staff and families. Um, and we'll ask the board to take a action on approving those recommendations. So, if I could ask you to hold

035questions until the end of the presentation um, and we'll get that motion approved and see if there's discussion following the motion. >> All right. Thanks, Jenn. You bet. Hi, everybody. We are back uh with this year's summer school review to kind of give you a lowdown as to what all took place during this year. Is this just a trick? What is this? Set me up for going up. There we go. Um, so we have similar strategic objectives every year and really it is to improve student engagement and achievement in an inclusive environment and we're focusing again on literacy and the development of the whole child. So what can we do to again make them better readers and what can we do to develop them completely? In addition, we want to develop and strengthen partnerships with

036families in the community to collectively support students. And you're going to see some of those things that we did to continue our partnerships with this awesome community. Um, one of the things right there in the center that we're going to get to is uh we offered the DNR hunting course this year. So, you're going to hear a little bit more about that. And we uh certified 30 uh young hunters to me in just a little bit. Chris still here. All right. This year we enrolled students. If you look back, that is a little bit down from last year. We would tell you that that has a lot to do with the fact that we shortened our registration window. And we're going to talk a little bit about that in the future of this presentation, but

037one of the reasons we did that is for our transportation department to let them create those routes and to make sure that they were really, really solid and set to go and along with um helping with our HR department to making sure we could hire everybody and get those positions filled. So, this was new for parents in our community to have that shortened registration window. So, as that becomes the norm, that will become they'll get more used to that. Our student demographics during summer school this year, we enrolled 304 students with disabilities, 631 socioeconomically disadvantaged, and 110 English as a second language learners. We employed 187 teachers, 100 educational assistants, and 40 youth tutors. This summer during our credit recovery courses, those are the courses mostly offered at SPASH in grades 9 through 12, we

038enrolled 152 students, six staff members. That meant that those students who needed some help making sure that they were on their way to graduation were able to enroll in those courses. And again, transportation continues to be a vital need for the our summer school program. We had 939 requests this summer. that is pretty consistent with where we've been the last couple of years and it's so vital in particular that we had expanded at the secondary level and it continues to show otherwise those other numbers are not as high. So transportation did an awesome job this year in our OLC summer school we accepted applications through the end of May and the session ran uh the beginning of June to the middle of July. We had 136 courses taken. We had 134 individual students. We employed

03916 OLC teachers, three OLC coaches, and we offered 35 different classes out of the 80 plus that are available. This year, the buildings we utilized for summer school were similar to last year. McKinley, Madison, Roosevelt, McDill, Ben Franklin, PJ, Jacobs, Spash, and CFC. The new things this year that we really want to highlight is that we offered hunter safety at Boston School Forest and we certified those 30 students. Some of our own staff members became certified to teach hunter safety and that means that they will be able to offer this every year. Um we had a huge um huge appreciation from the community that students were able to do this. Uh my own son participated in this. I've never seen him so prepared for a test in my entire life based upon the teachers that

040were teaching it. They did an amazing job. And Carla Lochman is just always looking for ways to get kids more involved in the Boston school forest more and she's just always looking for innovative things. We also piloted advanced soore which stands for summer outdoor adventure recreation. So those are the two pictures in the center in the middle. If you know Ryan Marco or Brian Swinson who helped lead our outdoor adventure classes and is one of our environmental our AP environmental science teacher, these are actually um they were responding to requests from students to be honest with you. students said, "We want to do this more. We'd like to do this. We want to we want to try this in a different area." And so they said, "Well, we'll try it." And so we piloted and

041we're looking at how can we expand that next year for more students. Each July, we we take the time to send out a parent survey. We also have a staff survey that all staff that are employed through for summer school have a chance to provide their feedback. Um, as you can see in this parent survey, we had 159 responses and overall all those different categories, registration, transportation, breakfast and lunch, communication during summer school, the course options and the child's overall experience. um remarkably overwhelming, very satisfied. So that was good to see. Even though um we had a shortened window for registration, we still had the majority were satisfied or very satisfied um with that as well. Some of the noteworthy things about summer school, this is from the feedback from parents. Um once again that

042free breakfast and lunch and transportation that was um the number one thing that parents really gave feedback about really appreciated um the unique engaging class options dedicated and commun communicative staff flexible scheduling. Parents really appreciated the um half-day schedule and they also really appreciated that week off during July 4th. um they felt it provided a good balance, give their kids a break, but also they're able to um take their kids out for vacation or just some time with the family and still um kids didn't feel like they were missing out on summer school. Online options and credit opportunities for high school um allowing them to free up their schedules during the regular school year. Some suggestions from parents were to expand transportation. Um there were multiple requests for more busing and um talked about how

043long the routes were. We would love to provide more busing and shorter routes. Um but it we struggle every year to um hire and have our bus drivers work this summer as well. And um I think Lee said that we had 21 routes this year and last year I think there was 20 there were 22. So, we're remaining remaining consistent, but unfortunately, um we can't shorten those routes. U more class options and spots. Again, we would love to be able to do that. We'd love to be able to offer more spots and more options. Um but we h but it's staffing. So we um continually that's why one of the with staff feedback we're able to um you know try to work with them and and get um make things even better. But when when

044we don't have the staff or the space um we we're unable to do that longer program duration. Um some feedback suggested extending the program to six a six week format. And actually if you take a look at our four weeks and then the following week is the youth enrichment program and then the week after that is camp invention. We actually do offer um six weeks um improved food options and access. Um there was some feedback about a books and cooks class. They really wanted more healthy foods instead of just candy. So just something that we'll have to address with our our teachers. um and oversized crow address oversized crowding and environmental conditions. Staff survey results um again overall very satisfied with the communication regarding summer school employment opportunities. How satisfied are they um with the

045communication that they received during summer school? And how satisfied were they with the level of support provided by us coordinators and their building principles. Recommendations for 2026 tenative building sites. We plan on using the same building sites as we did this past year. Um, Madison, McKinley, and Roosevelt for PK4, Stash for 512 and swim, Boston School Forest, Ben Franklin for the mini sports camps, PJ, Jacobs and McDill for Bridge to Success, Swim and Camp Invention. We want to keep our schedule at four weeks again um Monday through Friday with that one week break in the um week of July 4th. And so then the dates you'll see up there. Youth enrichment program again will be that one week in July right after the four weeks are over and then camp invention will follow. Bridge to

046success will determine that um as we move forward. Transportation we want to continue to have spash being the hub with the start and end times of classes the same as as we did this year. It's worked out really well to have SPASH as the hub. Um so we want to continue that. [Laughter] So so for this next year we're going to do um similarly we're going to have that shortened registration window which we will continue to promote. So March 24th through April 6th we will continue to do no no late registrations. That was new for our parents and for our community this year, but it really allowed it again for transportation and HR to plan differently. And the feedback we've gotten on that has allowed things, knock on wood, um this was their smoothest start

047of summer school that we've had um in the last couple of years. We will though continue to have alternate enrollment options for credit recovery courses, Panther Performance and Sports Camps along um with for example those math and English courses at the junior high. Um, in addition, there will be the reading support program for students in grade three who did not meet that exit criteria for their personalized reading plan. That's an ACT 20 requirement. So, for that exit criteria, they must score above the 25th percentile on the spring AES web plus oral reading fluency screener and score meeting or higher on the Wisconsin forward exam. So, we are planning right now proactively for that. Questions on any of that? That's summer school in a nutshell. >> That's it. >> Are there any questions from board members?

048>> Um, two questions if I'm allowed. Um, you mentioned the Mr. Maraka and Swenson course. Is that purely recreation or do we I know we offer PE as a summer course. Is that a PE four credit class or not? >> No, it's how long is it? Is it the full four or >> No, it's only um a few days. So, it's about four days. And so, it ends up running very similarly to how we run our world language trips. And it's one of those enrichment opportunities that kids can participate in. >> And other followup question would be um so the OLC participation numbers and I asked this question last year. Is there still any any thought to opening because we've limited it to one course per kid and those c it's not doesn't take that

049long to finish. Is there any thought to adding a second session to that so that a kid could take two credits in the summer or two classes? >> Right now we continue to review that data and and look at that. Part of it again is those OLC coaches and the number of staff and then also to um what that cost is and everything like that. So right now um where our students are at they're most of them are pretty good with one course um seeing if there's some exceptions possibly we could always look at that but right now um we're lucky with some of them if they can get through that one just based upon their summer schedule so we haven't had a huge demand for that but definitely something we continue to look at

050>> when is the due date for kids it's took that big long form you have to submit to DPI for >> for act 20 No, for summer school. >> For summer school. >> Amber's working on it right now. >> Amber's working on it. >> Working on it right now. >> Do we know the costs and dollars like >> once Amber completes that? Absolutely. If the board's interested in that, we can bring that back. But it's >> it's very comprehensive. >> It's a very I've done this. It's very comprehensive. But I was just wondering if we could have that >> cost comparison and like costs versus >> dollars that we get back. Generally, we don't you're not supposed to make a lot of money with summer school. So, it's generally break even, give or take a

051little bit. Um, but we have to expend every dollar that we accept through fees. Um, you know, we get some reimbursement back from the state, we expend. So, >> it's like 15 days. As long as they come for 15 days, it's like 500 bucks that we get per kit. >> Yep. >> That that's that's if I read >> roughly. >> It's 15 days. They have you have to have them for 15 days and then it's up to $500 you can get. >> And I think the submission deadline, Alex, is sometime around mid October. I >> was going to say October or something. >> So, we're coming up on it soon. >> We can bring that back >> or put up a board update. That would be fine. I would just be interested in that information,

052please. >> Absolutely. >> Because we did just wrap up music camps right before summer school, right before regular school started. And then Bridge to Success is also the program that gets students transition to the junior high. So, we're still counting numbers and still doing that. >> Yep. >> Sure. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> So, for those parents who were saying they wanted six weeks versus four weeks, if I'm that parent, I can check off the four weeks and I can check off then the next week and the next week. And once I'm in the system, everything just flows. >> You're not like redoing busing or anything at all. It's or I guess that's the question I'm asking. >> Busing is not provided for you or camp invention. >> Okay. >> So that is an

053exception. Okay. >> So it's just the four weeks >> and those are grade those are restricted to certain grades and ages too. Correct. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> So which which are the grades and ages for those? >> Yep. Is um kindergarten through sixth grade. >> Okay. And then Camp Invention. Is that the same or is it third through six? I >> feel like it's third through six. >> It's third or fourth through six. Y26. >> Yeah, >> that would be that would be maybe just if you're able I don't know if you're able to determine from the um surveys of parents kind of what ages of those parents who were >> who were wanting six weeks. It just might be interesting information to know, you know, what percentage of those families actually have

054that option. Again, >> there's not transportation and that clearly provides some limitation for >> well the numbers that you provided with the dissatisfaction. It was like 15% were dissatisfied with transportation. And I was wondering also if it was because they weren't there was not transportation available >> available in those second two sessions. >> Yes, probably. Yes. I would say it's that and then the length of and then the length of some bus routes. Those would be the two big things. >> And we weren't able to have Kennedy as a site this year >> would be another reason. >> So bus routes were longer, right? Like that's not wrong >> For Kennedy kids. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So I am looking for a motion uh to approve the recommendations for the 2026 summer school session

055as presented. So moved. >> All right. I have a motion and a second by Jen. Any discussion or questions on that? All those in favor with I >> I >> opposed. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, John. >> Thanks, Darla. >> All right. We will move into student services, the annual seclusion and restraint report. Yes. And this is an annual report that um student services provides. And I'll turn it over to Jenny to share the numbers. >> Thank you, Chris. Happy September, everyone. Good to see all of you. Uh for those of you who are at committee, you did get to hear this information, but it is information that's required for the DPI to go to the full board. So, thank you for being here tonight and looking through this information with us. Every school

056year we report to the board and now to the DPI which is new in the last few years that they collect that information uh to help us understand how we're doing with the use of seclusion and restraint. Seclusion and restraint is allowed in very rare circumstances but generally it's prohibited within schools. Uh if it is used it's tracked carefully and then reported every year to all of you. Uh this school year uh we've reported data within your memo uh that shows the overall count. We we do take account and separate or sort that with children who have an IEP or access special ed services and students who are in general ed do not have IEP services. We also break that down by the type of intervention whether it was seclusion or restraint or both. Each

057of those are counted specifically. And then we do also indicate how many students that's among. For example, there may be a student who goes through an especially difficult time until some good fit interventions are found and so they may have a higher count compared to many students who this is never an intervention that we used. Uh so within the last school year for seclusion totals among regular ed students or students enrolled only in regular education programming, we had 12 occurrences of seclusion among four students. And within students enrolled in special education programming, we had 168 occurrences among 28 students. uh in the domain of restraint and students enrolled in regular ed programs only. We had 10 occurrences among two students and among students enrolled in special education programming 51 occurrences among 17 students within the

058school year. That was a nice reduction among our students with special education services. I'm happy to take any questions uh that the board members may have. >> In years past, you provided year-over-year data. >> Did you provide that at ED services any >> I did go over it services? Yes. Yes. >> Do you want it reviewed? >> Um no, if it's in the it's in the packet for that service, I can review it. >> I had a question. Uh the uh I was interested in how we're doing compared to other schools and I asked a question last week. You said it was like hard to get but if we're reporting to the DPI, the DPI has it and we should be available to all the schools then there right? >> I'm not sure if they

059do report it out. I can certainly take a look at that. They require that we report it to them. Um, but many districts uh are small and may have redacted data because it may only be across like maybe one student in a very small district. So, uh I believe this is only the second year they've required us to put that data through to the DPI. Um so I can take a look, but I'm I'm not sure I've seen any like annual reports like we do with some of the other data. If we do, it may be they do put one out that's for the whole state, but again, I'm not sure they break it down by district, but I'll check on that, Mr. P. >> Thank you. >> Y and to follow up on that

060idea, G. We don't get that, but we do get that graph that we've seen a couple of times that showed the inclusivity in the classroom and where we rank as a state. And that was strictly IEP people. Correct. >> This does include regular ed as well as special ed, but we can see from our numbers at least the overwhelming majority of occurrences are in special ed students. My question to you then is even though it's not act, you know, exclusive data, it can that partially explain where our numbers are on that other graph? >> I wouldn't make a connection with that. Uh so within our joint federal notification which I like to call like our special ed report card uh we report on indicators annually to the DPI uh and the indicator you're talking about

061is environmental education uh for students with IEPs which is a calculation of the total minutes we have within the school day and then subtracting out the time that they are removed for specialized instruction or therapies in a specialed setting. Um so that was just a calculation. it doesn't necessarily go along with the contents of their IEP or whether or not they have FBAs or BIPS or use of seclusion or restraint. So those I wouldn't um I don't think I'd be able to make any kind of connection with that. >> So when they're taken out as a seclusion I presume that they're removed from the classroom most of the time. >> Correct. Uh but that would >> that is a totally different they don't consider that removal. that's part of their what's going on in their

062special ed life, but that's totally separate. >> Correct. It's not a planned service for the student. It would be a crisis response as it would be for any student. And of course, a least restrictive uh method would still be used even with a student in crisis and um you know, potentially could occur in any setting. Um it doesn't have to occur in one setting except for some exceptions like seclusion. Um so yeah it's not something we'd say like oh every day this will happen um compared if they have instruction every day in math or speech >> right so either could happen during regular classroom instruction right a secure >> graph I think the one you're referring to is comes from the IEP >> examining IEPs >> correct >> so really is independent of the kid

063but I did want to know the uh if the DP PI is now collecting this data. They must report this many seclusions, this many restraints and as a percentage. Yes. >> Of the total number of students in the state. >> Yes. >> Well, that is something we could be useful for us to compare to rather than say compares to Rapids or to Everest. We compared to the total state. Yes, they do report out for sure the the average or overall use within the state and whether that's gone down yeartoear. Yes. >> And where we stand percentage wise in comparison to those. >> I'd have to look if this current years was reported out. I would make sure I'm giving you the same uh >> I'm just interested. Are we in the ballpark or are we

064an outlier? We don't know. >> I would not say we're an outlier. Yeah. >> Yeah. But it's nice to have numbers to show it. >> Absolutely. We can look further into that. We can check. >> So I know the the part of the conversation at the committee meeting um related to where we have a student clearly um for example I'll just pull Washington school. And so we're looking at a Washington school with 37 occurrences for special ed students involving four students. So again, it's it's a small number of students who potentially have a large number of incidents. And I think a question came up at committee to what extent are we able to isolate the student who is struggling and allow the full classroom to remain operating and to what extent are we and so

065I don't know if you've been able to look into that but again I think that's data that board members are interested in seeing. Um and then the second question that I had around that is is just where we have situations like that. Um if if we've got a teacher dealing with two students really struggling, do we have the ability to make some changes within who's in what classroom? And then a follow-up question to that is what I guess how are are interventionists able to help in some of these situations where where maybe there is an idea that a student is going to be more likely to become assertive and um how how if at all are we supporting those teachers because because it truly becomes I mean it's a just clearly it's a total disruption

066for the students struggling. It's a total disruption for all of the other students, but it's also a serious disruption for our for staff, especially if it's, you know, a weekly occurrence. >> Sorry, I asked about three questions in a row. >> We just kept going. >> I have them. Yes, absolutely. So to answer your question regarding um classroom disruptions and like maybe occurrence of interventions and things like that um starting this school year based on feedback from the annual data retreat we've added into next path which is our data analytics tool where any staff member might report a major behavior which of course these would all fall with under um we have a carrot now in there that if there is a removal of the class like there has to be a classroom clear like

067something that significantly would disrupt the day right that that will be tracked. So this will be our first year to go through that specifically like tracked with a fine tooth comb. You know of course for each child special ed teachers are diligently documenting any of these situations. We have a district form. We take notes down to the twominut at max. Many times it's every couple seconds. So we do have a running record of what's going on very specific to that child. Um so that we'll be able to share with all of you and get feedback on is that answering the questions that you might have. Um, I would also say that in these situations, as much as there's a crisis, if it really is going to this level of concern, typically that is in a

068more isolated setting, um, such as in a specialized classroom or maybe in a specialized sensory space or things like that. honestly for both confidentiality and safety and preservation of that child as well. Clearly, something's going on with them that they're not able to comply. No child wants to show up every day and and do things that are damaging to their relationship or to people or materials. Um, so that's a work in progress. Thank you for asking that. Um, as far as a changing a classroom or maybe case load or who can support, absolutely. Where we say we're like professional problem solvers. We're always thinking of what next, how can we change it, how can we do different, what's working, what's not working. Um, that would be that ongoing progress monitoring for many of these children.

069We're taking data on them uh every couple minutes also uh so that we can provide praise and feedback for the things that they are doing appropriately. Um but we are always wanting to make sure they have a good fit and sometimes that may mean class changes, case load manager changes, schedule changes, um busing changes. We try and look at everything and uh break it down to the root cause which goes into that FBA or functional behavior assessment for that child. Um and it may also just be lots of frequent IEP meetings. Some students we may meet on every month just because it's that careful of a plan that we must sit down and talk about it. Um as far as intervention is helping in these situations, uh yes, every school has a team of staff

070who are trained within our CPI or crisis prevention intervention model. Uh some of them are trained at a very high level in that they're trainers even in our district. So they train other people. Others are imple are trained as like an impletor. there's somebody who could respond at any time. Um, and every school has a clear process for how they might do that. Um, and sometimes it depends on the student, too. Um, some students, you know, you don't want a big crowd showing up, uh, just because you're upset. Many times you don't. Um, so as difficult as it may be, it's usually having kind of a plan A, B, and C for staff and following that plan for the child. But yeah, certainly no one's ever alone. Uh, and that's definitely one of our biggest

071directives in CPI instruction is we would never want anybody alone responding to uh, acting out behaviors. As far as teacher support, one of the areas that my department has really emphasized in the last couple years is debriefing. We know that's one of the most effective interventions for um, both understanding what happened, who, what, why, when, where, what can we do different, but also so that everyone can process and talk about that. And if there are supports that people need, sometimes there are things that have to happen. Sometimes somebody is injured and so we do have to do injury reports um or information might need to come to my office and things like that. So that has been a large emphasis especially to our principles um because we have a lot of smart people who I

072think put together a lot of problem solving ideas but sometimes the day moves so quickly that we forget about ourselves. Um, so that's been a large emphasis and we've actually included a standardized form that must come to my office to show that you did do that debrief at a at a good level. >> Thank you. Yes, >> a couple of comments. Well, I was thinking about this. You went through and mentioned some of the things that I wanted to mention, but uh uh you know the the incidents we're talking about where a student is going to disrupt the class, clear the class or clear the student or something like that. Uh in most of the classroom situations I've seen or been involved in, well-trained teachers know it's coming. And I've been in in a sit

073situations where I've seen I knew something was going to happen. I could see it and the teacher picks up the phone, couple words, puts it down, a minute later, somebody shows up at the door. The protocol is already there. Uh we know about this student, the the office knows what to do, and uh now we have another body in the room. and uh and it's quick, it's inobtrusive, and many times just the presence of another person is enough to avert the uh meltdown. Uh so I'm sure we do it too. I'm sure what I've seen at our elementary schools especially is that they know all the students and uh a couple words to the office, the office knows what to do. It's like it's it's incredible to watch happen. Uh so so I would say

074the event where uh somebody blows up out of the blue probably I don't think that happens. I think the the teachers know the kids well enough that that they know when that's coming. And if we have those things in place we can avoid those situations. Not all of them. I mean sometimes it just happens but well-trained faculty and EAS which we don't have enough of uh can avert those situations. Absolutely. Yes. Thank you. I agree. We have very well trained staff and we've increased the frequency of our CPI trainings as well and also introduce some protective equipment for staff that work with student who are most frequently at risk for for physical behaviors which have been positive. We >> need more. >> We do. Yes. >> Mr. Lee Pack. >> Yeah. I thank Meg for

075bringing up what you did bring up with your questions and I think it's important for retention on multiple levels um to strive to do better with this issue for multiple things. one I think we get and Beth could probably answer this better than I could or I'm just guessing at this that I think we probably lose some staff who are burned out expected to deal with these issues. Um thinking, hey, I'm going to get into teaching and I'm it's all going to be focused on reading and writing and then they realize that a huge portion of their day is spent dealing with behaviors and discipline. Uh, and I think people leave the field over that. Um, that I think that gets lost in the shuffle sometimes. And two, I think we lose students. I think

076we don't follow this that closely, but I do get feedback from parents who say, "Yeah, I left the district because the behaviors in the classroom were not being addressed appropriately or well enough, and they're losing them either to surrounding districts or to the private schools or just to homeschooling, saying, "We're done. I'm not dealing with this anymore. And so the better we do at that, the better we'll retain staff and students, I believe. And we'll better I think we'll have better academic performance overall because I'm glad that you're tracking those things because that's a I think it uh plays a huge role when some of that happens entire day sometimes is completely disrupted in a classroom or or multiple classrooms. So >> yeah, absolutely. You know, one of my main areas of goal has been

077attracting and retaining uh special education teachers as well as everyone in student services through um my performance with our superintendent. It's been a big goal of ours and has increased. But I agree that it is an area of stress even for educators who go into school for working with children with emotional behavioral disabilities or autism. Some people that's their thing though. um you know and so we serve all students. Certainly know that I would love to report zero in every one of these boxes to that would make me beyond happy and know that we're meeting every student's needs without having to use hands-on strategies and somewhere someday I hope we can get to that with other interventions. Um it's definitely not something we permit or promote or want staff to use. Um in general it's

078not permitted unless these very rare circumstances. So um yes, we work very hard to have those review revises and capture creative ideas among team members who can help reduce these incidences or refer students to specialized programs as well. I think it is important to note though our staff are doing the very best that they can. I mean many of them are dealing with severe mental health issues, behavior issues that are beyond what they were 2 years ago, 3 years ago, 5, 10 years ago. The majority of their day is sometimes not educating students in reading, writing, and math. It's dealing with some significant concerns that likely are better dealt with outside of the school setting. So kudos to our staff. They're continuing to learn. They're continuing to grow. They're doing the very best that they

079can. Um, and like Jenny said, I wish we could report zero. We're not unusual. I mean, districts across the state are dealing with some significant behaviors in our classrooms, and I think that we're doing a good job. Will we always strive to be better? Absolutely. Will it be perfect? Absolutely not. I mean, let's just be real. Well, and as you noted, we've seen a downward trend and we're continuing to see that and hopefully that trend >> continues both in terms of supporting staff, teaching intervention prior to an incident maybe occurring and creating those teams like G was saying to >> but I was I had a question about the downward trend joged my memory. very uh there the trend was down for a while then it went up. >> What was and forgive me for

080not asking the question last week. >> What happened? >> We noticed the same and so that's that was at the point that we decided that all trainings needed to be annual >> and so then it would back down. Um and that would have been about the time that I stepped into the office. So, um, yeah, I also wasn't happy to see that. Um, so that's why we responded with additional trainings or more frequent trainings. >> But, I mean, it was really low like like middle school compared It was high for a while and it went way down for like five years, >> then it bounced back up. >> Y >> what happened in those five years? Did we treat it differently? Did we take data differently or >> Well, we have to remember during the

081pandemic, we were not in buildings for a majority of the time. So, that's why it was lower. encompass before and after >> the pandemic. >> Yeah. >> I I looked at I said it must be a recording difference or something because nothing that we did it could account for and I wish I had it. >> That's okay. We we have it too. Yes. I don't know all the ins and outs of that. It certainly could be recording. It certainly could be co um it could be different choices or programming was just a better fit for students at that point. um could probably lots of different pieces but I do feel like our reporting is very accurate now uh because we worked very hard for that questions of Jenny >> right that's an item thank you

082Jenny >> right we're going to move into policy and legislation and we have a number of items so I'm going to turn that over to Corey >> Sure so the first one is our third grade retention policy Um last April the board took action on this policy. We've been recently notified by the state um as well as Niola that um they've made some revisions to the recommendations. So we are once again going to ask the board to take action on this. Chris is here to answer more detailed questions, but the gist is they've changed the date um to September 1st of 2025 rather than 2027. and then they've made some updates to the parent notification. So, if you go into your board docs and actually click on the policy, you will see um the red

083line things that are being deleted and then the green section is anything that's going to be added. But again, it's the date and then updates to the parent notification. >> Thanks, Corey. And I would just point out regarding the parent notification piece that none of that is out of alignment with what we already did um with year one of um complying with act 20 legislation. We were already doing um the parent notification piece as part of compliance. So that wasn't new for us. The one thing that we were not fully prepared to do was to provide the intensive summer school programming for any third grade students who were moving to fourth grade and hadn't completed successfully their personalized reading plan by scoring above the 25th percentile. But as you heard Darla and Jen um share

084earlier that we are prepared to implement this year um this summer. So we feel very comfortable with the changes that Miola has recommended. Bless you. >> You had shared with us in a previous board meeting the numbers of people who were not at the 25th percentile. I don't remember what those numbers were off the top of my head. I thought it was, you know, there was 700 and some that had personalized reading plans, but out of those 700 and some, it went down 200, but it was still like 500 or something. And maybe I'm off >> some. You're you're the numbers guy. Um, but >> it was it was around that 500ish, you know, give or take 30 or something. Mhm. >> Yep. >> And so if we did promote them to fourth grade, which

085was my understanding that we were going to promote them to fourth grade, but we didn't provide any we're continue to provide the interventions in fourth grade. >> And if we continue to see those students unable to meet benchmark 25%. Mhm. >> How are we enabling our staff and interventionists to give more to them? So, you know, specialize during summer, that's one thing because we lose a lot during summer. >> But what are what else can we do for that? >> Yeah. And I think just to clarify, so that it was just shy of 500 um this year. If we think about K3 as a full K cohort, in other words, when we ended in spring, the number of students that were scoring below the 25th percentile across all K3 grade levels, which are the grade

086levels that are impacted by the act 20 legislation, if we look at just third grade students that were moving on to fourth grade, that number is more like 37, right? So, the number is relatively small. Now, when we think about those students being provided intervention supports as they move to fourth grade, they're being progress monitored. If we continue to see that that number either maintains or stays stable or grows, then I think it's one thing for us to start thinking about what additional intervention supports can we put in place in those intermediate grades that are less of a focus in F20. But I do think we have to give our CKLA implementation a little bit of time to work. Now that students are being exposed to grade level content and they're being exposed to a

087standards aligned curriculum, we expect to see those numbers go down because we expect to see students better prepared to perform assessments >> English program. So, >> yep, they're finally all getting the same thing, >> right? >> Yeah. So, we would expect to see growth there, >> which is more intensive as well. >> Yeah. >> But definitely have to keep a pulse on it. You're right. >> Well, when will we not the effect of that and when they take >> we won't know till the spring. We'll know in the spring when we look again and we'll see how many what number of third graders we have not scoring above the 25th percentile moving to fourth grade and we can compare that to the number we have this year moving from third grade up to fourth grade.

088>> But let's be real, I think you feel the full effects of a new curriculum implementation three to five years. >> Yep. So in other words, we certainly can monitor that data and we certainly can make decisions about what may or may not be going well, but if we see that number increase slightly or decrease slightly, we certainly can't say it's all because of CKLA. Right. Right. >> So can you just explain I'm the parent of a third grade student. >> Yep. And um can you just explain what the state is saying that your third grade student has to demonstrate and if they don't demonstrate that then what we as a district will be providing in summer school. And then my followup to that is I'm assuming parents still have choice a choice >> as

089to whether they're going to enroll that student in summer school. >> Correct. >> And if they choose not to, >> right, >> what then is our responsibility under the law? >> Yeah. And of course they have the option. you know, we our obligation under policy and under the legislation is to provide. Um so we provide and we recommend. Um once that's done, if parents choose not to participate, we will obviously continue to treat that child just as we would treat any other child when they get to fourth grade. If they're struggling or they have a skill deficiency in reading, we're still going to intervene. We're still going to differentiate with instruction. So the state as part of act 20 legislation says that a third grader needs to score above the 25th percentile in oral reading

090fluency. Very simply put for a parent a child needs to be re able to read x number of words accurately in one minute when they're being timed. If they don't possess the ability to demonstrate that competence um then they would be referred for additional intervention supports and weekly or bi-weekly progress monitoring um with an assessment tool that we use and that we leverage called AS web plus. So once if if a parent has a child who does not score above the 25th percentile and is not scoring at meeting or advanced on the forward exam in the spring, we would provide them with those supports in fourth grade. If I'm a parent of a third grader, I would be notified in the spring that my child had not met those two criteria. And it's not or,

091it's and. So, it's both. We would say this programming is available to you as part of summer school. And in addition, as a district, we're obligated to provide you with these additional supports when your child gets to fourth grade. >> Okay. >> Are those supports addressed in their IEPs? And do all >> do all the kids that are 25% achieving at 25% or below are they are they likely to have an IEP? Do we know? >> Not all. >> Nope. >> So So the this would be the only point where we would see it and say we want to address it. >> It wouldn't have already been done. >> No. Because they would have seen it because those children are evaluated and they're assessed three times a year in reading from the time they're in

092preschool. So if a child is struggling or has skill deficiencies in the area of reading, likely by the time they move from third grade to fourth grade is not the first time that parents have heard that there's a skill deficiency in reading. They've heard it for lots of years. >> Well, we have the academic interventionists at each school. Would this be something where they would be involved? >> Absolutely. Most definitely. >> And they would know these children. >> For sure. Yep. Yeah. We have Oh, we have the ability in Next Path. You heard Jenny reference that. um our data management system, we have the ability to pull the reports out for students that score below the 25th percentile in any subtest they're administered at every grade level. So we definitely know who the students are

093and that number of students decreases as kids move on. So Chris talked about a very large number with K3 students as students go through kindergarten, first, second, third grade. It decreases because we know who those students are and we're providing very intensive intervention with our academic interventionists as well as classroom teachers, reading teachers. >> Data shows that by the time they take the test in 10th grade, >> that number of students is >> third grade. >> By the time they take it in third grade, yep. And I will say >> they take the tests again. >> But ACT 20 only pertains to kindergarten through third grade. And I will say, you know, from a data perspective, in terms of strength of our system, in spite of maybe not having a standards aligned curricular resource, our

094staff has done an incredible job um meeting proficiency requirements because if you look at say percentage of kindergarters who score below the 25th percentile in the fall of every year and then you look at the percentage of sixth graders by spring of every year, those percentages are vastly different. So it's much higher in kindergarten, it's much lower in sixth grade. So in spite of not having a standards aligned curricular resource, staff have done an incredible job um teaching the students what they need in terms of competencies to be successful. >> Um just another follow-up question for our English language learners. >> Y >> act 20 is kind of a show for that. Um there's another adjective I'd like to use before that. Um but how so we're you know we have ELLL supports there. However,

095the test doesn't act 20 is very specific when it comes to ELLL >> English language learners >> and they have to be there's very specific criteria and some of the some of our students who maybe have been in the country for more than a year no longer like the definition now may now no longer apply to them even though they are still English language learners. what type of additional interventions because we have first language learners who are struggling with proficiencies and now we're adding additional other language learners to this proficiency medium. >> How are we dealing with that? >> Yeah. And I think the answer to that is sometimes it is two different interventions provided by two different providers and the work that a classroom teacher really does to sort of bridge the learning that

096happens from those two different individuals potentially in two different environments. So there is work with say an ESL teacher working on language and vocabulary development and acquisition and then in a reading intervention setting they're really working on those skill deficiencies in reading. So teachers are masterful, classroom teachers are masterful in terms of their ability to be able to bridge the gap between the learning that's happening over here around language acquisition and development and literacy skill acquisition. Um there's, you know, the work to still expose them to grade level content but also provide them that extra shot in the arm kind of where they are. Um and allows them to really close that gap as quickly as we can. Uh, as a followup to that, Alex, uh, students who are not proficient in the English language,

097do they get interpreter help? Yes. >> While they're taking the test, they do >> always. Good. >> Yes, that is an allowable accommodation. >> Any other questions? If not, we're being asked to Jim, did you have a question? >> Puzzling him. I just I seem to rec I want to say I seem to recall there's some something about IEPs where there is no like set absolute requirement for actual academic gains with those. Is that right >> in many cases? And so is that is that independent of this testing or does that affect our numbers at all? Do we look at that at all? If someone has got that we still hold them to the same standard or is there >> it's all students. It's all students. Yep. And they all take the same assessment at

098the same grade level. >> So, what we're being asked to do tonight is to approve the revised policy 5411 third grade promotion and retention at risk students as presented. The main changes are the date which is happening now >> and also the parent notification information that we've already got. in place. So I'm looking for a motion to approve revise policy 5411 third grade promotion retention at risk students as presented. >> So >> second. >> All right. I have a motion and a second. Any further questions? All those in favor with I. >> I. >> Any opposed with nay? >> Motion carries. Item B is the capitalization policy update. >> Sure. So, I'll give a brief update. This went through committee. U Mike is here to answer any specific questions, but basically we um moved the

099capitalization threshold from 5,000 to 10,000 and that is to align with the federal standards uh guidelines as well as NEOA recommendations. Um this change also impacts several other policies. For example, it affects policy 6114, cost principles, um, spending federal funds, policy 6340, equipment disposal proceeded, policy 7310, disposition of personal property, policy 7300, disposition of real property, and policy 7450, property inventory. And again, this also aligns with the uniform grants guidance and education department general administrative guidelines. So, it's basically just following what those recommendations are um as well as Niola's recommendations. But again, Mike is here to answer any questions that you may have. Can >> I ask a stupid question? Mike, >> there is no stupid question, Jean. Every >> stupid people ask. >> Go ahead. Can you tell me what a capitalization threshold is?

100>> Sure. >> Yeah, that's a that's not a super question. I think a lot of people don't know what that is. Um, so first of all, what's a capital asset? That' be equipment, land, uh, machinery, anything over $5,000 currently. That's the $5,000 threshold. Um, and so by setting a threshold, what it does, it allows you, you have to capitalize assets for accounting purposes. >> You set a threshold so that you're not capitalizing just a ton of really inexpensive things. >> Yeah. And it's taking up tons and tons of time. >> And so we set a threshold so that we are getting on our books those valuable assets that we that we want to have in our financial statements. >> Does that answer your question? Well, if we're increasing it from 5,000 to 10,000, that just

101means we're capitalizing less >> less stuff. >> But you have to remember that things cost more now than what they did previously. >> What's the point of capitalizing something >> depreciation >> spread it out over? >> Yeah, it's probably >> So these are items that undergo some sort of depreciation value >> according to the fence. how we have to depreciate it. But I mean in the private sector it has a lot more meaning than it does to us in the public sector to be honest. [Music] It's really just a timeconsuming >> a timeconsuming pain that we have to do. >> Well, and and from a from a business office perspective, it it really is the amount of time you're needing to spend to track because you have to track each of these items that are

102at that 5,000 threshold. So, it will provide cost efficiency, allow our business office to be a bit more efficient in terms of the use of their time, focused on stuff that's more important for them to be focusing on, and it's consistent with what the federal government's doing. So, it's just it's an it's an update. >> Yeah. And and we've been consistent with the federal um guidelines in the past. The $5,000 threshold was what the federal guidelines had in it. Mhm. >> That's just gone up to 10,000. So, we're just following suit. >> Well, that's illuminating. [Laughter] >> If you like accounting, it's pretty straightforward. No, >> because the things right now we're >> capitalizing would be buildings would be machinery would be >> equipment trucks vehicles those types of things >> technology >> but like

103not big like big technology not individual computers >> right >> all right so as Corey noted um it's one change we're making, but it just impacts a number of policies. So, the motion to approve the capitalization threshold policies as presented includes 6114, 7300, 7310, 7450, and 6340. So, I am looking for a motion to approve the capitalization threshold policies as presented. >> Second. >> All right. I have a motion and a second. >> All those in favor with I >> I any opposed with nay. The motion carries. All right, we are moving into the budget evaluation process. >> Tap the mouse there if this is truly not working, but I'll give it one more try. And before I hop in here to budget and program email for um September, I want to point out that

104that is not August listed there. This is actually the September report, but a nod to our communications department who makes this look beautiful every month. Um I give them the content and they spit out something that looks much better than I could ever create. So I just want to acknowledge that before we hop in. Um I want to lead here with just the cumulative position review that we've been doing for approximately two years now or leading up on two years. We've reviewed a total of 512 positions. Uh 483 of those 512 we filled as is. We currently have just two frozen positions. Um and you'll note that that number of frozen positions has decreased significantly. We like to start the beginning of the year with that number being very low. And if history repeats itself,

105we'll see that number gradually increase throughout the course of the year. Um, if you attended the business and HR services meeting on Tuesday last week, you would have heard uh Mike mentioned the fact that our administrative team and staff out in buildings are being incredibly diligent about really making informed decisions about whether or not we need to keep a position exactly as is. So, when sometimes we're saying we're going to see how we can do without it, um that might fall into that camp of a frozen position or we're unable to fill it and we might fill it with a sub and say we might not need this next year. Um so, we're going to put it into that frozen category, but I wanted to point that out. Total number of positions eliminated up to

106this point since we've started the process is at 27. Um I want to talk here a little bit about some of what we started discussing at the beginning of the board meeting. just the accuracy that we've experienced in terms of revenue and expenses in our fund 10 or our general fund. Um we had a bit of an optimistic view when we did our budgeting for revenue. So we overshot just a bit in terms of what came in. There were a couple of factors that contributed that to that. One of them primarily being um we interest rates were just a little bit lower. We also had a smaller fund balance. Um, so there wasn't as much money there to collect interest. Um, and we also decreased some amount of money in federal aid that we received.

107Um, one thing that I want to point out that did almost offset those decreases, the interest that we didn't earn, as well as some of the decrease in federal aid, we did get some additional mental health funding that came in in the bianial for this past year. that for the state was approximately $40 million and moving into next year will be reduced to about $10 million. But our district benefit benefited by just over $100,000 from that mental health funding which would be considered a revenue. In terms of expenditures um here we so Mike said we were within um 1.2% 2% and he was beating himself up about that because he'd like to be within 1% of accuracy. But I said, Mike, remember we're on the good side of being because we actually underspent in terms

108of expenses. So that underspending equated to about $1.3 million. You know that up to this point as part of program budget eval throughout the course of the year, I was reporting a cost savings through position elimination equating to about 810,000. So certainly that contributed significantly to that 1.3 million that we've realized in savings that we're able to put back into fund balance for fund balance recovery. Um we're really pleased to report this out to the community. This is certainly part of what we planned all along. It was a very consistent message as part of our referendum campaign. Um and I'm really proud to say that we've been able to follow through. And in terms of the 810,000, we did add a few things. So, we did add a few positions. Um, and there was a

109decision to fill a halftime site position which took that $810,000. Remember, the board recently acted on the athletic budget increases of approximately 64,000. So, that 810,000 is down to about 700,000. um that we we'll realize in the 2526 fiscal year, but we are feeling incredibly optimistic to have a fund balance contribution in 2526 that looks hopefully similar. Um and I get nervous about saying that out loud because sometimes I'm afraid I'm going to jinx it, but I'm going to hope that if I put it out into the universe, it'll come true. Um, and again, Mike made reference there to just how accurate that is, and it certainly is a nod to folks in our finance department because they do an incredible job uh both forecasting our revenues and our expenditures. Um, I want to turn

110now and talk just a little bit about our program that programs are are in need of additional analysis that we've identified. You heard me report in prior months that we identified 14 out of the 46 total programs we reviewed. Our initial focus in 2526 is going to be on ELA. Um we just finished a review, a comprehensive review of athletics that resulted in an increase in cost rather than a decrease, but we intend to do the same type of review for co-curriculars and hopefully we'll be able to begin at least and maybe potentially complete the work u on mathematics programming in the district. Um, we had some survey data that I was able to share out last month and I'm going to repeat this here because they didn't do the best job last month when

111I put it in red thinking it would be easier to read and it's terrible to read, but I want to identify some staff and some student and parent priorities that they would like to be included as part of our review. Staff priorities really believe that we can do a better job teaching writing skills and reading comprehension skills. 67% of our staff reported that being a need. When we look at our program review for ELA um doing a better job of supporting our ELELLL students in the regular classroom, 53% of our staff feel that's a need. Our struggling and exceeding students um only 47% of them overall feel that they're being adequately supported and special education um 40%. Staff would say that there's an need for additional support there. In terms of student and parent priorities,

112they would say they would prefer better feedback on performance tasks. 56% so over half of them feel that way. Um more elective variety. So they'd like to see more elective courses available. Um student support for struggling students. Um families feel only 47% so over half of our families don't feel like we provide adequate support for students in the area of ELA. and exceeding students. Only 41% of our families feel like those students are adequately challenged in the regular classroom setting. When we talk about ELA terms of rigor and support, 61% of students exceeding expectations feel appropriately challenged, but only 48% of students not meeting expectations feel adequately supported. So, those are certainly areas that we want to focus on as we do our program review with staff. And those key improvement or takeaways for all

113groups, that would be staff as well as parents and students, support for special populations, and also an increased level of rigor or expectation for improving reading and writing skills. Um, our ELA program review goals that we've established at this point are to explore opportunities to increase student engagement through incorporating student voice and course analysis. That was a message we heard loud and clear. How can we get more input from students about what they'd like to see in their courses? Certainly, we've identified that they want more specific feedback on performance tasks that they submit. They also want more support for students who are struggling in their classrooms or they also want more support for students who might be already attaining grade level competence. In other words, what challenge or enrichment activities can we include in regular

114coursework? Um, we want to expand equitable access to advanced coursework. I want to pause to celebrate here just momentarily. Um we saw some significant increase just from last year to this year in AP course enrollment. In 2425 we had 489 students enrolled in AP courses and this year we have 620 students enrolled in AP courses. That is a huge increase. Um and we offer a total of 19 advanced placement courses. So that is a significant milestone um and celebration for folks at our secondary level and folks up at stash. Our dual enrollment has increased as well from 275 in 2425 to 831 in 2526. So just creating this level of awareness alone and this level of transparency around exposing kids to more rigor has already started to increase what we're exposing kids to and what

115they're getting opportunities to participate in. Um, we want to strengthen reading and writing comprehension across all student groups. Improve targeted populations or supports for targeted populations. Begin updating and aligning Stash academic guide with career pathways, making those more specifically um defined. And we're clearly looking at what other districts have available in the spirit of not recreating or reinventing the wheel because there are some other districts that do this really well. Um, and also establishing a more consistent portrait of a graduate. We have a neighboring district in DC Everest to really do an incredible job with this work. Um, and they have been doing that for an extended period of time. So certainly we're leaning on lessons learned from them as we develop that and enhance that here in our own district. Um, I did not

116include this on the final slide here, but I do just want to echo um, Mike's sentiment, Corey's sentiment that she led the meeting with in terms of saying I do believe that we have realized the cost savings we've realized and we have realized the improvement in performance because of this process. It's created a lot of awareness and it's created a lot of transparency not just for our leadership team but for teachers and they're very aware of when we need additional support in an area whether that's a curricular resource or whether that's another staff member. They're very conscientious and mindful of the impact that that has on budget. Um and we want to do both things right. We want to be fiscally responsible but we also want to enhance experiences for kids. And I'm just really

117grateful for the response that our staff has already demonstrated to the work that we've put into program. But that's the report for this month. I'm happy to entertain questions. >> Any questions by board members? >> Go ahead. >> And you're of course haven't been predicted I'd ask this question, but on on dual enrollment, I see the the dual enrollment numbers. Um, nice. Um, I don't recall. I saw in the academic guide the changes you guys had made that the that went from one little paragraph to fairly expanded. Thank you for doing that. What exactly are we doing to inform parents that their kid is adequately enrolled? I know that there's a way for them to to look at that, but are what are you doing with that? And two, um, I just became aware of

118a student that was taking our one of our speech courses >> and implied that dual credit wasn't being offered and I kind of question that. >> Like I thought all of our speech courses were dual enrollment. >> Are you going to answer that? >> And actually, maybe I would have Jeff step up and maybe just talk a little bit about the work that's been done around parent communication for identified career pathways. Um Jim, I'm going to take the second one. My guess is and and I would encourage the parents to talk to the school. The only speech one that I'm aware of right now is if they do debate. So if they're doing the only debate at the junior high, that would not be dual enrollment. And that's part of our course review process we

119will be looking at um as we go forward. So that'd be my guess. >> But all the speech at the high school level should definitely be and it's probably an oversight of them missing paper. Can they still do it? Uh if if it's at a high school, yes, I would tell them to get in contact with their speech teacher immediately. Um so to your your initial question, um Jim, we had a meeting already with Midstate. We plan on having another one. Um so one of the things that we're going to be doing is uh they are sharing there's a form that parents have to fill out. So if parents want more information from from Midstate from the college that's that's issuing the credit, we can't do that. But what we have done with them is

120said hey can you get us that form and then the idea is that we make sure we convey that to staff and students uh in this process so that that can be shared with parents and if a parent wants to say I want my information and I want to get it now it's not going to be in-depth grade reports um but it it will give them more contact information on how to connect with midstate in that process >> part of that fura paragraph that was in the academic guide >> correct >> thank Thank you, Chris and Jeff. >> Thank you, Jeff. >> So, so just a followup um kind of budget evaluation and efficiencies. I I know um we've had a little bit of a change with respect to the demographic consultant timing of report.

121Do you want to just report that out? >> Sure. So, we were asked to provide MD Roers um information related to the capacity in each one of our classrooms. So they were originally going to have information to us here in September or October. We want that information that we pass along to them to be very very accurate. So we reached out to Nexus who has some information related to the 2018 referendum and capacity information they did. I also reached out today to Andrew Halverson at Ellis Construction who may have some additional information. And then Jeff, Chris, Mike, and I started the process. We got through six buildings last week. We have more to come this week. We are walking every single building with every principal, and we are looking at every single classroom space to

122notate what it's being used for. Um, approximately, you know, how many students throughout the day are in that classroom space. um and potentially what the most number of students that could fill that space could be. So, we just feel that providing MD RERS with really, really, really good information is only going to help them with their report back to us. So, it's going to push that date out that they'll have information to us probably by a month or so. So, I'm hoping November, December that we'll have good information back from MD Robers. >> Must be interesting. >> Yeah, it will be. I mean, we just did not feel comfortable giving them information from 2012 or even prior to the referendum in 2018 because we've added some some space since that referendum. And we just needed

123to really walk those buildings because we've got some spaces that are currently being utilized for a multitude of different things. but could potentially be >> a classroom classroom >> a classroom rather than maybe, you know, split between a reading teacher, an ESL teacher, and a special ed teacher or vice versa. So, we just want to make sure that we've got the best information for them. >> Corey, thank you all for doing that because of course the report is only going to be as good as the information that you provided and the extra work going into doing this will make the report much better. >> Agreed. Thank you, Ted. Any questions about that at all? >> I I just have to ask. I'm sorry. >> That's okay. >> It It piqued my interest when you said

124how many students could be in a room. What's an allowable space per student? I know how many you can jam into a room, but we all know >> what an acceptable room looks like. >> Sure. >> Just how do you determine that? There are some recommendations that are out there for primary students compared to intermediate students, you know, junior high students and high school students because they change in size. And then we take into consideration our teacher student ratios as well as a square footage space in each classroom. So there's a total number of square feet in classrooms, but there's only a certain number of square feet that are considered instructional spaces because some might be cabinets or sinks or in a science room there may be lab spaces. So all of that is going

125to be taken >> because I was thinking the kindergarten rooms too are huge. They should they are recommended to be larger >> based on what it takes to >> I'm just wondering how realistic the recommendations are. I know it's what you have to go on but there's recommendations by somebody who makes those recommendations. Then there's the person standing in the room >> reality. You get recommendations on what's happening. There's nothing to say that you have to jam. You know if things are redeveloped or whatever in the future we're not going to jam as many students into a classroom as possible. >> Right. Right. Yeah. And you know there is no hard and fast. This is definitively the number of square feet that should be allowed per child. But roughly based on the review that um

126I completed, it's about 50 to 55 square feet per kindergarten student. Um it's about um 35 square feet per student in grades 1 through five and about 30 square feet per student for students in grades 6 through 12. Um, and that again it was a range. Um, and that was sort of an average that I and Jeff calculated based on a review that we did of a couple different sources, not just specific to Wisconsin, but across the country >> and MD Roers will be able to share with us kind of what their recommendation has been for other districts too that they've worked with. So again, it's it's a little subjective, but we're trying to get them the best information that we >> a lot subjective. Well, it's so it's room, right? We are walking. >>

127You're not going to be unreasonable in your assessment of how many students that room can hold. >> Correct. >> Way to get to around about the right number. >> We've all rooms too, >> but remember the the the overlying purpose of this study, it it's a demographic study. So the overlying purpose of this study is the recognition that we have that the classes that are at SPASH are larger the classes we're graduating than the classes that are coming in correct >> to our kindergarten 4K y >> in our elementarymentaries and we also so that's one issue that projection about how many students are we going to have as we move forward over the next year based on state data, based on local data. And then the other part is the reality that we have some

128of our elementarymentaries that are really struggling in terms of number of students and some of our elementarymentaries that aren't >> overcrowded. Right? We we we addressed it whatever three or four year three years ago with with um PJ and Ben by by having Kennedy students >> go to PJs and so and we've seen that that's created more at least currently of equal but ultimately it's a the information that's going to be most important to us and to the community is what are we projecting in terms of student population as we move forward and how can we best um utilize our schools to provide the best education as well as a budget that that is appropriate in terms of that what what at least at this point is going to be a declining student population. So

129>> So having that information about the schools in terms of square footage and everything is also important to us understanding us being able to um make the best decisions related to the various recommendations that I think correct we're going to be looking at. >> I understand we'd have to deal with numbers. You got to have data to make decisions. >> But I hope and I don't think we would uh get into the spot where we say, "Well, this room can hold 30 kids." You walk into a room with 30 kids. I don't care how big it is. It's crowded. And uh and we've been in them. You've been in them. I've been in them. I've been them in in our school district. uh that we give some some consideration for the fact that uh uh

130it just feels crowded when I'm in here and that we have to do something about that. >> A classroom full of 30 kids is a very different feel than a class for classroom full of like 20 kids or 22 students. >> It stretches out to yonder. That's a lot of kids. >> It is. Well, and we we have we have recommendations classroom. We do and for the most part we follow them. >> Correct. Correct. You know, I've been in them where in our own district where it's just it's >> you feel cautious. I can I can feel the the concern that maybe we're going to put more students in the room, but I think Meg said, "Well, what what we're really looking at is the declining population coming in and so it's going to be

131more likely to less >> and what's the potential growth in what areas of our community?" Because that's going to give us good information on potentially what's to come for each one of our elementary schools, our junior high, and and SPASH. Yeah, and I understand what you're saying, Ted. I I just hope there's room for the eye test. >> Sure. >> That we we're not totally relying on numbers. >> You know what I mean? That I do know what you mean. This is this just >> doesn't And they're not going to tell us what to do. Ultimately, this group right here is going to make that decision. >> And that's one of the reasons I said thank you because with them doing it personally, >> I think they're getting the eye test. >> It's just more

132information for you to make an informed decision. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Yep. >> All right. Uh future meetings, we've got our special board meeting uh next September 15th. Do how many minutes do we have? >> Yep. We have eight applicants as of 4:00 today, so it's closed. Uh we'll begin that meeting at 5:30. Nicole will be sending out information within the next day or two letting you know um all of the applicants. She'll share the application materials as well as all of the updates pertaining to Monday's meeting. So, just be checking your email in the next day or two. And then the intention is that we will make a decision on that appointment on the 15th and then we that will allow us the time to orient. Um, and we may even want to

133consider making committee decisions about committee placement. >> Um, or we can just we can have them have them take Will's position and take that expense committees, but we'll need to have that as a motion so they can have committee meetings. >> We can include that in the motion. >> Okay, that'd be great. >> All right. And then we have the regular board meeting on the 13th and then we have our budget hearing on the 27th. So two meetings in September, two meetings in October. >> That's right. That's right. That's right. Yes. >> All right. Um, I am looking for a motion to go into close session under uh 1985 PN1 PN C considering employment, promotion, compensation, or performance evaluation data of any public employee, specifically a school psychologist. >> I have a second. >> All

134right, I have a motion, a second. Uh, could you call the role, please? >> Miss Bushman? >> Yes. >> Miss Mercer? >> Yes. >> Mr. Kowalsski? >> Yes. Mr. Pope, >> yes. >> Mr. Leebrick, >> yes. >> Mr. Summers, >> yes. >> Mr. Lee, >> yes. >> Miss Erler, >> yes. >> Motion carries.