001to order. Agenda item 1A, public access to meetings. This meeting is open for public attendance. You may also watch the meeting remotely via liveream. Moving on to agenda item 2 A, we have our meeting opening and roll call. Nicole, can you please call roll and verification of quorum? Miss Bushman here. Mr. Robbie here. Mr. Kowalsski here. Mr. P here. Miss Eer here. Mr. Shader here. Mr. Summers here. Mr. Lee here. Thank you. If you please 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. Okay, moving on to agenda item 4A. We have our Mandana Bliss Award presentation. The Mandana Bliss Award is a symbol of our deep appreciation for
002the unwavering commitment and outstanding efforts demonstrated by our staff members for our educational excellence in the Stevens Point area public school district. It's named in honor of Mandana Hail Bliss, Steven Point's first school teacher and trailblazer whose exceptional service and dedication continue to inspire us all. I'd like to pass it to Corey to announce the uh recipient this month. Sure. So this month we are honoring Monica Anderson who is a third grade teacher at Washington and she is going to come to the podium with a student sixth grade student Alice Splinter. [Applause] Congratulations. Okay. I nominate Mrs. Anderson for the Mandala Bliss Award. I was lucky to have her as my third grade teacher at Washington Elementary. Mrs. Anderson is a thoughtful, caring, funny, bubbly, and kind teacher. She's always up for trying something new
003and bra bra bra bra bra bra bra bra bra bra bra bra bra bra bra bra bra bra bra bra brave like being in the teacher act in the talent show or all school sing she makes everyone feel welcomed and cared about in the halls and around the school. Mrs. Anderson's classroom was a safe place to learn and be herself. She was understanding, funny, patient, creative, and helpful to all of her students both in and out of her class. On a personal note, one of my favorite parts of each day was was listening to Mrs. Anderson's read aloud. She always made books come to life. I felt welcomed and supported by Mrs. Anderson. She believed in me and gave me with confidence that I could do anything. She gave the best hugs and told the
004best jokes. Mrs. Anderson deserves to be honored as a Mandala Bliss Award recipient. She makes our school community a brighter place. Mrs. Anderson, you shaped countless minds, including mine. Thank you for everything and congratulations, Mrs. Anderson. [Applause] You don't want to. Can we go up and get our picture? Yeah. Okay. [Music] Great job. Thanks so much. Amazing. Just like your mom. Congratulations. That was a wonderful testimony. Nicely done. Thank you for being you. [Applause] Okay, beautiful job, Ella, and congratulations, Monica. Moving on to agenda item 5A. We have public comments. There were no emailed comments, and there were no requests for written comments. So, with that, we will move to agenda item six, presentations. We have 6A, our student senate representative report with Kylie Hoff. Good evening, school board members. I hope you all are
005doing well and have enjoyed this nice sunny weekend. As we have just entered fourth quarter, that means there is so much more to come. In the end of third quarter, the first couple of And as we enter the first couple of weeks of fourth quarter, there has been so much that has happened and I am so excited to share it with all of you. First off, in the end of third quarter, we have our college and career fair. Over 100 representatives from universities, colleges, technical colleges, businesses, and government agencies arrived at SPASH. These universities and so many more helped local community members and SPASH students and given them the opportunity to explore more future pathways and gain insight on their next coming years of their life. Thank you so much for these representatives who gave
006their valuable time to help pour into the students of our of Stevens Point and the community. HOSA has hosted a free formalware boutique run by Kri Marshall and Malle Bellon as promised this last weekend. One individual Michaela Sergeant got gold in the medical assistant in the qualifiers for her the inter international conference in HOSA and the team of Abby Bowski Mira Durant Bob Bobby Malia Knight Victoria Vang and and Victoria Vang took fourth. Congratulations to those girls. FCCLA out of the has a state competition recently. Out of the eight competing groups and individuals, six of them took home gold and three of them took hold silver. Congratulations to those girls and good luck to those who are competing in the national competition this summer. Spash skills USA team recently competed and won in the state
007engineering competition. Congratulations to Keegan Ops, Evan Fornier, and Wyatt Whitty. Spash FBA team had a wonderful performance at the Wisconsin FBA state competition last weekend in Green Bay. Shout out to all the competitors, but a special congratulations to our winning teams. First place in website coding development and developmental team competition, Wyatt Fergus, Joey Kaziki, and Pton Feist. Another congratulations to the team of Leah Wetro, Maya Hint, and Maya Belulki. They finished third in hospitality and event management team. Both of these teams have qualified to compete in the summer FBA national convention. Congratulations. On our sports side of track, girls and boys track have had a phenomenal indoor season and are finishing up with girls and boys indoor conference tomorrow. WSP is starting at 4. We hope to see many of the community members there. And
008good luck to those girls and boys who are competing. And JV conference for boys and girls track is in Wasa on Thursday. Good luck to all. Boys tennis had one tournament and there were four teams there in Bayport. They beat four they beat one of the four schools. Way to go boys. Boys golf is having their first meet as we speak. Good luck boys. Boys baseball has a game last weekend and is on their second their first game they won in their second game and their lost in their currently playing at a game at Woyok right now. Girls soccer has had a well a very well season and they are three and one so far for this season and have so much more to come. Best of luck to you girls. Girls softball is also
009continuing a very good season and are playing currently. Good luck to those girls. As well as many of our students are athletically talented, multiple students are also musically st talented. Jazz had a concert last week and did wonderfully. Congratulations. And I know many of our singers and other musicians are getting ready for showtime which will be coming soon. Promised this last weekend and it was a blast. Thank you for the students, volunteers, and faculty who helped organize that. We couldn't have done it all without you. And what a fun way to enter our final stretch of school. On the academic side of Spash, we successfully made it through the ACT. Thank you for all your thoughts. We are now onto the AP season. Wish us luck. Third quarter, it was so good to us and
010we cannot see what Fourth has in store. Thank you for listening and I hope you have found this report entertaining, informative, and I hope you have a great rest of your week and night. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, moving on to agenda item 6B. We do not have Sarah O'Donnell with us tonight. Uh she is ill, so we hope she feels better. and we'll move on to agenda item 6 C, the superintendent report with Corey. Sure. So, first of all, congratulations to Jen Bushman, Marty Mercer, and Jeremy Librich on their recent election to the school board. And then I wanted to take just a few minutes to thank Barbson and Dennis Robbie um on their years of service, not only as board members, but both of these individuals served as staff members in the district.
011Dennis started as a staff member. He was a principal at Madison Elementary School in 1996. He retired as a McDill elementary principal in 2011 and he's just completing his first term as a school board member. So congratulations to Dennis for your years of service. You will be his and Barb portson is with us virtually tonight. Barb was a board secretary starting in 2013 and she's just wrapping up her third term as a school board member. So, thank you to Barb for your years of service and we have a gift for you as well um that I can give you later this week or if you're at Bliss, you can stop by and pick up. Thank you, Barb. I was going to mention congratulations to the Skills USA team, FBLA team, FCCLA, and HOSA, but Kylie
012did a tremendous job, so I'm not going to do that again. But national competitions in the future, and that's that's pretty impressive. Couple other student um things that are worth mentioning. We had a student participate in the National Wheelchair Basketball Association and that took place with the Mad City wheelchair sports team in Richmond, Virginia. So, congratulations to Carter Sandstöm. And then we have um special sports. So, congratulations to our state special Olympics competitors, Jason and Noah. Noah took first place in the level one skills competition with 215 dribbles in 60 seconds. And Jason took first in level two. Um so congratulations to those competitors and their coach Haley Bird. And then Hannah just competed in swimming competition. Congratulations to Hannah and to her coach Dorothy Okconor. Moving on, summer school enrollment. We have 2,183 students
013enrolled in 4,489 courses. So, a few classes are not in those numbers like credit recovery, panther fitness, football camps, camp invention, and some other specialized programs. So, thank you to parents for sharing your children with us over the summer. And thank you to the ED services staff who puts in a ton of time year round really prepping for summer school, holding summer school, and then wrapping up summer school. So, thank you to everyone there. 4K enrollment. We currently have 317 students enrolled for next year. We recently received um so some donations to our schools. The Knights of Columbus has donated money to both SPASH and Ben Franklin. and specifically it's for special ed department the ID program. So thank you to the Knights of Columbus. Reminder that the board org meeting is going to take
014place on May 12th right before our regular meeting at 5:00. May 5th through May 9th is staff appreciation week. So I just want to take a few minutes to thank our dedicated staff for everything that they do in our schools. They are really the heart of what happens in our buildings and we know that behind every confident student is a teacher or a staff member that believed in them. Um to our staff, the work that you do changes lives every single day, every single student. So, thank you not just the week of May 5th, but year round for everything that you do. And with that, I'm going to ask Jen to read a proclamation and then I have just a couple other things. Sure. Um whereas teachers are dedicated professionals who inspire and educate our
015children, helping them to achieve their full potential. And whereas teachers play a critical role in shaping the future of our community and our nation. And whereas teacher appreciation week provides an opportunity for us to recognize and honor the hard work and commitment of our teachers. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Stevens Point Area Public School Board does hereby proclaim May 5th through 9th, 2025 as Teacher Appreciation Week in our school district and urges all members of our community to join us in celebrating and recognizing the contributions of our teachers. Be it further resolved that the Stevens Point Area Public School Board does hereby express our deep appreciation to our teachers for their dedication, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to our students and for their invaluable contributions to the success of our schools. Thank you, Jen.
016Let's give our teachers and staff a round of applause. Reminder to the board, we have the tour of the Century Apprenticeship Building on May 14th at 3:30. Um, so we've got that on your calendars. Hopefully, you can attend. And then I'm going to turn it over to G. He's got a couple of updates um that are legislative in nature, the day at the capital and the joint finance committee hearings. Okay. As you said, uh Ted and I went to the day at the capital. What was like three weeks ago? Yes. and we met uh they had a big forum with four legislators and uh Joel Joel Kitchens, the chair of the Assembly Education Committee was one of them. And uh what I got out of that I thought was really good is there seems to
017be some real bipartisan support for increasing special ed a numbers we heard like 45 or 60%. I don't I think they're just throwing out numbers they don't know yet, but it was uh it was a good thing to hear I think for all of us. Um then we met with three legislators and uh I didn't know our district has three legislators in it somewhere. Ted, do you have their names? Um can you say that? I did have them here. Let's see if I do. Um yeah, we went to Tustin to Corey Tomche. Tomche. And then lastly, John Spiros. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Spiros was actually first. That must have been from the redistricting. I don't recall seeing. Yes. He's new to us. Yeah. And uh we had good meetings with them. I think we saw Spiros,
018but the other two we just saw their representatives. And it was interesting. We're there with other school districts meeting with them and to see what their position is and what shape they're in with referendums and stuff like that. Everybody's kind of in a different spot there. U so the big thing to me was the the uh special a ed funding I think is looks like it going to happen. It really does from from the comments we got at least a partial increase. Yeah. And then uh uh the joint finance committee is coming to Wasa for their by how do you say that? Bianial or by every two years they're coming to Wasa. Last time Ted and I went to uh Wisconsin Dells, but they're coming to Wasa and it's going to be like 10 till
0195 the NC NTC Health Science Building. Mhm. Uh and uh I I plan on going. I probably will. It's a real cattle call. Yes. I'm telling you, any of you been there? Uh we we got there signed up at 9 and we didn't speak till about 5. Yes. Just about done. And you got to stay there because you don't know when you're being called. You get two minutes. Uh I if you're going to be there, you speak before noon, you better be there by 8. But uh I said this at our state convention. Uh we were talking about this in one of the things that Chris Kulo put on like data and all that. Uh it's a cattle call. You don't know how much the legislators really get from it because they're sitting there for
020like seven straight hours. Well, not really. They're moving around and all that. But I'll tell you the there are groups that come and they will come like 50 at a shot and they'll sit in front all wear the same t-shirts. They're competing for the same funds we are. So you wonder how much legislators remember about what people say as they get up and say stuff. But, you know, it's like if you don't come, I think sometimes they think, "Well, everything's just fine." I think you're right. If you don't come, you don't have an interest. Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, it's in Wasa this time of the And then, uh, one last thing, uh, July 11th and 12th. Maybe all of you got this. Yeah. It's coming to coming to Stevens Point, the summer symposium. What? learning
021symposium. Uh it's always been in Green Bay since I've been going to it. The last time I was there, I said, "Can't you put it in point?" Because they're worried about people coming, right? I said, "You're way over here. Why don't you put it in the middle?" They're working closely with Sarah on, you know, things that they can do, things that they can visit some of our youth apprentice sites. So yeah, she's I mean we were there last time and I think it's very valuable even if it's not just to hear what the sessions are about to talk to other people. Yep. And because we're not we're kind of in silos, you know, get out, talk to other board members, see what's happening. Anything else? Um I the day at the capitol was really an
022eyeopener and it's it's like G said we met with three of them two representative or two of their assistants in and one of the representatives to me it was the biggest thing was that drove home was governor Ivers is really supportive of everything that we want in education and funding but the feeling from the Republicans that we spoke to is there's so much animosity that it's a non-starter. There was an article in the most uh recent school news that we get and it's just one paragraph and it goes from speaking about Iver's increase. This substantial of an increase in spending is surely a nonsparter for Republicans. In the press conference immediately following the address, legislative leaders stated that they would begin their budget deliberate deliberations based with the base budget. This means the joint committee
023on finance will begin their budget from zero from the current expenditures rather with than the plan unveiled by the governor. That is a simple statement of what the Republicans are looking at. But when you hear the emotional content when you meet with them about the how they feel about the governor's budget, it's very very much stronger. And so, uh, we had one person tell us that we may not even have a budget until August. Yeah, there's some things going on and so in court that they want to deal with before. On the bright side, special ed does appear that from the people we talked to that we would be seeing an increase from at least 30% to maybe 45. They're shooting for 60. If we hit 45, it'd be wonderful, right? Thank you both for
024going. Good night. I just know just for the community, anyone can attend that budget hearing. You don't have to be the member of a school board or the member of any sort of board. any community member can show up. I also encourage our board members who aren't able to be there. Um, and also our community members who aren't able to be there and spend that whole day waiting to speak. Um, we're very fortunate. I mean, Pat T is the chair. He's the head of the joint finance committee and it's just so important that he hear from all of us and from as many community me members as possible about the importance of our local schools and the value that we provide to our community, to our businesses, to families, to our students, to our staff.
025Um, so we really encourage people if you're not able to make it to the meeting, please give Senator Test a call and um let him know that that you would like to see um some support, additional support for our schools, both regular ed. Thank you. Meg is right. And honestly, not not saying anything is almost saying that you're not interested. So yes, thank you guys. Okay. All right. Moving on to agenda item eight. Oh no, sorry, seven. Uh we have our consent agenda. This includes the minutes of the prior school board meeting from March 10th, 2025. The approval of the scheduled monthly bills and the employment recommendations. I am looking for a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Second. Motion made by Dennis, second by Will. Um any discussion or comments? If not,
026Nicole, could you please call RO due to schedule monthly bills Mr. Robbie? Yes. Hi. Mr. Yes, Mr. Ms. Miss Eer. Yes. Mr. Summers. Yes. Mr. Leak. Yes. Miss Bushman. Yes. Motion has passed. Thank you. Moving on to agenda item 8A, we have our business services committee report with our Chad chair, Ted Kowalski. Thank you, Jen. Well, honestly, it looks like we're going to have reports on many of the things that we did at the business committee. The one thing that we didn't share on here was an update on the current federal funding with the Department of Education, which was a interesting presentation that Dr. Owens gave for us, and that was really well done. He shared with us how the department of education was created in 1979 1980 that we survived without it and we
027could survive without it again if something other happens that uh 6% of our budget comes from the department of education and that also a number of these different programs would probably be substituted different areas to be done for us in education. So we're in an okay spot for right now. But for the rest of it, it will be on the agenda. There is one additional item under business services that we did not discuss um at committee meeting, but it's something that we do on a regular basis annually, and that is the approval um of the resolution designating school district depositories. So, this is something that we have to do per statute. The list of depositories is in your memo and this is the exact same list that we asked the board to approve last year.
028So there is um an actual resolution there that we are asking the board to act on. I remember this from previous years and it's prefunct and so could I make the motion now? Make the motion to approve the resolution designating financial institutions listed below as the qualified public deposiitories for funds of the district. Motion made by Ted. Second. Second by Alex. Discussion. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. So I think that that covers what we have for business. We do have um under oh human resources human resources u moving on to 9A human resources and so um I'm going to pass this to Corey. There's an update we have here. So the first item is the salary and benefits proposal and I'm requesting a to table this item. We did find
029out today that the teachers union has certified. So we will be talking about bargaining strategy in closed session. So, if we could just have a motion to table this item and then we'll turn it over to Beth for the other items. So, moved. Second. Okay. Discussion. All in favor say I. I. Opposed? Motion carries. All right. Moving on to our next agenda item. We have our district insurance carrier renewals. And I'll hand it off to Beth. Okay. I get to share some bad news, but then maybe some good news. Uh the bad news is that our renewal with security health plan came in at a 28.8% 8% renewal and that is due to high claim cost, high risk claims. So the good news is we have a proposal from Aspirus Health at a 9.5% renewal
030and that would include both of their network plans, both Signature and Freedom Network. Uh, and the reason that we would propose to offer both of those networks is so that employees have a choice to continue using Marshfield Clinic. If we just go with the signature health care network, um, that does not include Marshfield Clinic. The Freedom Network does include Marshfield Clinic, but it is quite expensive. And so therefore, if employees would opt into that uh freedom network, they would have to pay a co-pay of 20%. So assuming that we have 30% participation rate uh in that in that freedom network, um we're looking at a 9.5% renewal, which would be about $1.8 million. So Beth, could you um tell us what for a single family coverage that 20% means in terms of actual So for
031a co-pay, so if they if they go with the Freedom Network, there's still no premium cost for the employee. If they go uh with the Freedom Network, it's 305 per month for single and 6.89 per month for um family. the the signature network does cover most Wisconsin carriers except for Marshfield Clinic and we only have about 18% of our employees utilizing the Marshfield Clinic healthcare system right now. And and so I if we're to approve this, then you'll go through a process of opening that up for enrollment open enrollment and that will happen uh usually April time frame mid to late April and then um if a member selects so say I'm someone I'm using Marshfield if I select the plan I'll be on the plan for the next year. Correct. I wouldn't have. So,
032unless you have a qualifying event, you are you're in that plan for the year. Okay. Um, thank you. With this, is it a 2year or is it a one-year or like is it a one-year contract or two-year contract with uh a max of no more than an extra x% increase? We do not have a cap. So, it's one year. Good question. Now, as you may recall, we continue working with M3. We meet with them on a monthly basis because the ultimate goal is to move towards self-funding so we can do more direct contracting with providers um as we have done with Anovia. Uh and we we believe it's a moderate estimate from Anovia a savings of 95,000 just in the first three months of using Anovia. The 1.8 um for the premium charge. How's that
033fit in with what our our budget forecast budget was? Our rough numbers. Yeah, I I mean we have to budget. Didn't want to spend that much, but we it's accounted for. We're prepared for it. Yeah, it's in the range of what you thought was acceptable. We would have been looking at a similar increase last year, but we did have that 8.5% cap with Security Health, so that saved us last year. Mhm. So, so Beth, you indicated 20%. So, if fewer, so say if 10% decided that they were going to go with with Marshfield, we would that would cost her renewal would be lower. Okay. And if a higher percentage chose it could creep up. It could creep up. Okay. Yes. Did you have deductibles for these? No, it's a high it's well there's a deductible
034for it's a high deductible plan. So it's 3,000 and 6,000 and then we have a health reimbursement um along with that. So refund it's not as high as some of them we put money into the H or is that all the district pays the full the full H HR Beth. Currently the number the percentage of staff who use Marshfield it's lower than 20%. 18%. So the plans because clearly we're switching and networks are the the benefits generally speaking generally speaking they're the same. There will be some pharmacy changes because we'll have a new pharmacy benefit manager. Um but other than that we have representatives here from M3. I'm not recalling any major differences. John. Okay. Any other questions for Beth? I know you've been doing a lot of work, I guess. Did you have another
035question? No, I'm just going to motion to recommend that the school board approve contracting with Aspirus Health Plan, Signature, and Freedom Network Plans to provide health insurance and Delta Dental to provide dental insurance for district eligible employees effective July 1st, 2025 as presented. Motion made by Will, second by G. Discussion. Um, was there an increase in Delta Dental? Oh, no increase. Okay. Yep. Any other comments or questions? Not all in favor say I. I opposed. Okay, motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, Beth. Okay, we're moving on to our next item. Uh C, we have our teacher and nurse contract renewals. But Beth, it's me again. So, we have 58 contracts uh to present to the board for approval and then four nurse contracts. And it is the same contract template that we used last year
036and probably the year before that and the year before that. So, um, we have to distribute them by May 15th and then they're also due back by June 15th. So, we are looking for a motion to approve teacher contracts as presented. So, move second. Motion by Alex, second by Dennis. Discussion. All right. All in favor say I. I oppose. Motion carries. Let's move on to our next agenda item. We have educational services 10A. We have our ED services committee report with our chair G Pope. Okay. I am uh we had a report from Jeff about the truency program and uh it was in the it was in the uh board meeting our service ed services meeting agenda. It was a about a page of the program. I can sum it up best saying it's a
037four tier process. Uh I asked you how many students have reached the fourth tier the maximum and we've had six this year, right? Yeah. At any one time. Um and there are truency fines, but they can be bought back by behavior modification plan. The big thing about it is I got out of it is that uh we're doing everything we can to keep kids in school. We're not looking to give truency fines. We're not looking to nail kids. We're doing I think administration, teachers, and as a district, we're doing everything we can to keep them here. And that was my major take from that. I don't know if any of the other committee members had any other thing they wanted to add. I I think just I was not aware I mean and and I
038think we we we've been looking at um what is the school district what manwalk manalk manwalk and seeing um they're seeing some very good results from this four tier system and and that ability for that those students to basically even if they reach that fourth tier and receive that it's a $500 fine. Is that correct? But even even if they receive that, they have the ability if they show up at school for 50 days, they have the ability to to buy that that off basically $5 a day. And it allows them also to extend if it happened in um May or April, they would be able to continue that track record of days into the next school year. um even though the kind of truency law goes from school year to school year. So I
039just really appreciate that um that positive incentive. Um I I know I just want to note we had a good I think a good conversation about possibly taking a look at some positive incentives of um doing some tours at you know the MSTC campus and the new MSTC building. um you know, possibly the Sentry Building. We're taking a look at this next to really be able to encourage our students to see the benefits of going to school, the benefits of getting a degree and the benefits of having those opportunities um to to figure out that um career that is going to support them, you know, as they move forward. So I think that the more we can the more we can have both the the carrot and the stick in terms of encouraging kids to
040be in school the more successful will be. And the the to reach reach the end of the scale you have to have what 15 unexcused days. 15. Yeah. total uh up to the from the beginning of the year to whenever they reach them happen. Okay. And they have to be unexcused. Yes. Yeah. Okay. And uh the other thing that we didn't get to uh was the third grade uh promotion policy which Chris is going to take on right now. Thank you, G. Um, we did not have the opportunity to speak about this item at our ed services committee meeting, but this is an action item. So, we do have a recommendation in terms of adopting a policy. This is in alignment with requirements of AT20 legislation. So, we are required um as a district to
041adopt a policy that addresses specifically retention promotion of third grade students who are identified as at risk. third grade students that are identified at at risk. As at risk are those who score below the 20th percentile, 25th percentile on our universal screeners. As you know, those universal screeners are administered three times per year, both in English language arts and math. Um, this policy is required to be approved or adopted by school districts on or before June 1st of this year, 2025. So, we're bringing this to you in advance, well, in advance of that deadline with a timeline or a cadence for implementation of September 1 of 2027. Um, we have had the opportunity as a full administrative team, so elementary principles, to review the language in this policy, which was drafted by Niola. Um, and
042I also had the opportunity to share this policy language with our instructional leader for all of our reading teachers. Um, we all feel comfortable with the contents of what's included here. This is not a significant shift in practice. Um, just for a little bit of context for the board, we currently at this moment in time have 107 third grade students who currently have a personalized reading plan or have scored below the 25th percentile. So, they have one more opportunity in the spring of this year to score above the 25th percentile, which means they will have exited their personalized reading plan. For those students who are still below the 25th percentile, we would then proceed with following the process outlined in this policy to determine whether or not we would retain or promote those students. Um
043though we would not formally implement the the contents of this policy until till September 1 of 2027. Um we certainly are mindful of what those processes will look like and we'll do our best to replicate those even preull implementation in 2027. Um, so at this point I'd be looking for a recommendation to approve policy 5411, but I'm happy to entertain any questions. What percentage of kids is what percentage of third graders? Yeah, you got 107. So So there's approximately 430. So a quarter. Yeah. Mhm. Right. It's relatively high. You look at our whole K3 population about 457 students who have a personalized reading plan at this moment. Those are all active. When is your spring benchmark? Um, it's early May. Needs to be completed 45 days prior to the last day of school. Okay. And
044Chris, how does that compare to neighboring districts of similar size? The 25%. You know what? I'm not sure. I haven't really This is still so new given it's year one of implementation. I don't really have a good solid pulse that would make me feel comfortable um saying that we're in alignment with what neighboring districts are experiencing. But um you know a quarter of our third grade students in my mind is high. Um so I think about you know 457 kids K3. That's a high number to me. Um so I'm hopeful that our implementation of our new K6LA resource will decrease those numbers significantly over time. Um how many have gotten off of it already? Um so in the beginning of the year we had approximately 530. So, we had about a hundred kids exit between
045the fall administration of the assessments to the winter administration. Now, not all of those were third grade students. We had kindergarten students come off. We had first grade students come off. Um, I think it's important to note that some of the highest stakes, if you will, in terms of universal screening occur at grade 1 because it's the first time that they're being assessed on oral reading fluency. So, there is a expectation for them to read x number of words at each assessment interval in one minute. Um, so that's where the stakes are highest and that's where quite frankly even in our district we see the highest number of students on PRPs. I just wanted to clarify because Nola, you know, in the second page it's a list of factors for the district to consider. Um,
046and so you're telling us that you are going to use all of those. I couldn't tell by the X's whether you were saying no or the X's you were saying yes, we are going to use the entire list of factors that Neola has recommended and that the state has approved to to use in making that assessment as to whether there'll be promotion or retention. It's funny because Nicole and I had this exact same conversation and she said, "I don't know if this means we are in or we're out. It means we're in." So we have elected to consider all of those factors in making the final determination to promote or retain. When the comparative data he was asking about becomes available, can we be provided with that? Of course. Absolutely. Yep. I'm not sure that
047everyone will report that out because you're not required. But at the end of every year, we are required to report the number of students that had a PRP at the beginning of the year and the end of the year. So there will be a state database um that we'll input those numbers into. So, the hope would be that that would be publicly made available. Um, I'm just not sure what the avenue for sharing that information will be. But even if it's not publicly available, I can ask some questions. I I think from reading through these uh our impression, my impression was just like with the truency thing is that we're doing everything we can to get them passed. We're not going to swoop in and say to a parent, "Your student didn't pass, so we're
048going to keep him in the third grade." We're saying, "Here are a number of things you can do." And really, you know, it's going to be a last resort to to not have somebody meet the standards. Absolutely. And I think it also really is a commitment in terms of what we will do to be able to support a student who's still performing below the 25th percentile. And none of this policy um I think diminishes what we already know to be true about retention. There's not a lot of educational research to uh to support benefits of retention. So we certainly go into those decisions with that same level of understanding. So to your point G, it will be very rare that we find ourselves in a situation where we would believe retention would be best unless
049that is something that a parent feels really strongly about proceeding with. Good question. So that I mean I think to follow up on that the you talk we talk about the district making one of four determinations and I guess just the third determination is district recommending retention with applicable supports and services students parents not agreeing with that recommendation. Could you just talk a little bit about kind of how the district then works with those parents and the student? Mhm. So in those instances, you know, we're recommending ultimately, you know, the language in the policy allows for a parent to be able to disagree with a recommendation to retain. Ultimately, we allow parents to still make that decision. So, we would include a letter in a child's file that would indicate that we were in disagreement
050with the decision to promote a child. Our recommendation was indeed to retain. Um, but if indeed a parent or a family were adamant about promoting a student in spite of not exiting their PRP and not meeting exclusionary factors that would allow them to not be considered in alignment with policy language, we would still honor that. We would just place a letter in the students file that would indicate we did not agree. Okay. Yeah. I move to approve policy 5411, third gift promotion retention at risk students as presented. Motion made by Alex. Second. Second by G. Discussion. Okay. All in favor say I. I. Oppos say nay. The motion carries. And Chris, I think you're going to stay with us to talk about the budget evaluation process. I will stay right here. Um, so an update
051this month on program and budget evaluation. Um, just continuing the work in this what has proved to be a large project. We continue to further analyze the 15 programs that I've referenced um to look for additional or potential efficiencies. Um we will continue the in-depth analysis of program and spending operations with key stakeholders um and that includes administrators, teachers when that's appropriate and we're doing that currently with our co-curriculars or extracurriculars in the area of athletics. So we'll continue that work and we'll continue to share those updates with the board on a monthly basis. Um, I think Corey did something. Your clicker. I'm getting for that. It was working till you did whatever you did. Now try again. There we go. Um, so here are the 15 programs that we've identified. And again, we continue
052to do that work on extracurriculars that are athletics at this point in time. and we continue to meet with that stakeholder group sometimes up to twice a month um when the when the information that we've been able to share has been able to be gathered. Oh, now it's going to work. Um we wanted to give you with an up wanted to provide the board with an update on the costsaving commitments that we identified in 2425. Those 10 positions that's not new information on the right hand side of the screen. Up to this point we've reviewed a total of 434 positions. Um 403 of those 434 are considered fill asis. Um we have five positions that are currently considered frozen. Um you'll notice that's a significant decrease from 22 that we looked at in March. Um
053and positions that were eliminated. That is a significant increase from what we looked at in March as well. Also, I'd like to talk in a little bit greater detail what those positions were um and share also an update on the cost savings that comes a result as a result of those positions that were moved out of Frozen and those positions that were added to eliminated. So, when we think about the staffing process that we concluded just about a month and a half ago, both at the elementary and secondary level, what we've identified is approximately 12.5 positions that were reduced um or eliminated. 6.14 of those positions were from the elementary level. And when we costed that out in terms of an annual cost savings that we will recognize or realize in the 2526 fiscal year,
054it's approximately $549,642. At the secondary or high school level, we have a reduction of 3.85 positions that we identified in efficiencies resulting in a cost savings of about $331,87. and district positions. So those would be itinerant positions that service perhaps multiple sites. Across the district, we had an overall reduction of 2.55, which resulted in a say cost savings of about $211. $211,337. Um all of those cost savings were based on including salary, health, and dental benefits um for the individuals that either retired or resigned. So all of those reductions and positions that were eliminated were realized through either retirement or resignation. So through attrition with the exception of one position at the secondary level which was a layoff um or a reduction that was that resulted in the layoff. We do have some reallocated positions.
055Um so this results in an increase of 3.5. We have one IT technician and this is a loss of grant funding that we typically had in the past through our Century grant. Um so that needed to be moved into our fund 10 or general fund that's an increase of about $84,68. The addition of a communication specialist because of increased workload that's a 1.0 resulting in an increase of about $78,681. Um, we had a teacher who was on a temporary contract for early childhood special ed. This board has heard me on several occasions talk about the increase in the number of early childhood special ed students that we've realized in the last several years as well as the increase in ESL or MLL students. Um, and that also was a 1.0 increase resulting in about an
056$80,000 increase. So, we think about overall FTE reductions. um approximately 12.54 as I referenced on a slide earlier. Those reallocated positions um result in or come up to about 3.5. The net FTE or overall reduction from last year to this year is a total of 9.04. Um and that results in an overall cost savings moving into the 2526 fiscal year of $810,323. Um and I just wanted to almost there. So, I'll ask you to just hold on to questions that you might have on what I just shared, but new expenditures, we've looked at this information before in terms of how those year 2 referendum dollars will be expended, and those are the commitments. The one thing I want to highlight here is an update from what I shared in March. Um, we had forecasted about
057a $360,000 cost for the purchase of math curricular resources at the secondary level. Those would be IM resources. Our final quote based on final numbers because we were able to use actual enrollment numbers because the enrollment process was completed came in quite a bit lower. So they came in at 303,795. So that was a reduction of about 56,000. Um so I wanted to be able to share that update with the board because it certainly identifies an efficiency um that we've been seeking as part of this process. Um, in terms of next steps, we'll continue again to engage those key stakeholders, administrators, program leads, and finance staff to develop datadriven recommendations about where we identify additional efficiencies, primarily focusing on those 15 programs. First and foremost, we'll continue to enhance the evaluation process. We continue to
058make refinements. I feel like sometimes on a monthly basis in terms of how we improve this process and how we report the information out and also maintain financial transparency by reporting out to the board and the community on a monthly basis. And that concludes the program and budget evaluation for April. But I'm happy to entertain any questions you may have. I have a question. Of course. Uh what can you characterize what what is the reason we can make these reductions because they're doing something now and now you're saying they're that position is going to be gone. Why can we do that? Mhm. So in most cases, and I'm going to generalize to a degree here, but I feel quite confident in terms of saying the reductions that were made in terms of staffing were made
059primarily based on either decreased enrollment in a course or a series of courses or decreases enrollment at a particular grade level. So we had five classroom teacher reductions at the elementary level. And that really came by way of just decreases in enrollment that allow us to be able to combine some classes. I am happy to report that based on projections for 2526. We only have one classroom in the district. It is a first grade classroom at Kennedy that would be over um what we have outlined in terms of class size recommendations and policy. Um so even with the reductions that we've identified, we only have one student. So a class size recommendation in grade one is 24. We have 25 students currently enrolled in that classroom um with a rumor that two of them are
060moving over the summer, but I never put a lot of stock in the in those discussions until we have the records request from the the district taking those students in. So at this point it's just one student overclass size recommendations. And the good news is like Chris had mentioned that most of these other than just one position happened through attrition. So there weren't any non-renewals or layoffs that that we had to have happen. Also, some of these positions were positions that just were unfilled for a long period of time and we couldn't find anybody to fill. So, we found other ways to make sure that we're meeting students needs without the position. And that's K those class sizes are K through six, correct? Because we don't they're not tracking 7 through 12. We do we
061do have we do track classes 7 through 12, right? And at this point in time, um I'm not aware of any classes that we have exceeding classroom expectation or classroom um class size guidelines. Thank you. Limit set there. We do. Yes. I I have two questions. So Sure. one. So, following along G's line of thinking, I'm hearing members of the community um upset that they voted for the referendum and class sizes are still staying big. They voted for the referendum so you wouldn't have large class sizes and class sizes aren't going down in size. In fact, we're keeping that same size of the the recommended 24 with the exception of the one class. So, can you address those concerns for the families who said we are willing to spend the money and now we're not
062getting anything for our dollar? Right. And I think, you know, this is one of those areas that's a little bit challenging, right? Because it's when we sort of were sharing the narrative around class size and the referendum dollars allowing us to be able to prevent class sizes from getting larger. Um, we did not ever deliver a message that indicated we were going to make class sizes smaller. But had we not passed the referendum, we would have very likely found ourselves in a situation where we would have been realizing further reductions based on what we shared or what we're able to gather back as part of attrition and we would have been making additional cuts that would have probably made class sizes exceed what's outlined in policy. So, I realize that that may feel maybe not
063quite as transparent, but when we talk when during the referendum campaign, as we talked about class sizes, we were really intending that we wouldn't need to increase beyond what we currently had, right? And that would be what's outlined in our current active policy. And we've stayed true to that, right? With the exception of the one grade level that I that I discussed. I think a real life example of not passing a referendum will probably take place to our friends in the north who did not pass a referendum I believe for the second time and they will be going to exactly what every district fears is that not only talking layoffs but people perhaps non-renewals etc but their class sizes are going to be you know very very large well beyond what we're talking here because
064we really have always in our district had some pretty ideal numbers and we've been very protective of those. You can't protect those if you don't have the funds. We have the funds through the referendum to do that. But um you know if we wouldn't have passed it I think then you then they would have been reacting differently because those are there going to be some pretty big numbers. 41 kids in a second grade classroom that's pretty hard to take. Yeah. It's reality in districts across our country. I just wanted to share what the community I've heard sentiment too. So thanks for asking. So, um, and then the second one, can you go back maybe one slide or two slides? Maybe. Yes, this one. This one? Nope. Okay. Yes. Here. Um, so we just talked about
065health benefits at 1 correct. Correct. So 1.8 out of that wages and benefits. So we're talking that 1.8 is not part of the 2.5. That's an additional budget item that we plan for every year. This 2.5 is for the salary and benefits proposal that we'll present for all employee groups. Got it. Okay. So the separate separate separate separate funds. Okay. And we have both of them accounted for. Yes. Okay. So well yeah probably. So, so can you just go back to the slide with the elementary, junior high, senior high? That one. No, the that one. So, it sounds like at the elementary level, it's pretty much teachers, correct? There was there's there's one EA position which resulted in based on the number of hours was 34. Yeah. Was there FTE allocation? And then what about
066at the sec at the secondary? Is that was that teacher EA com combination? Yes. So most of those positions were those were teacher positions. Yes, actually all of them. One of which was a teacher position of a student that left us. Is that accurate or was that an EA position? No, that would have been that would have been one of the district positions. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Not a building position. And and then um so you talked about last year the savings if we go to where the 1.1 million right the one point and just for clear clearly for clarification for me but also for the community the 800,000 is that in addition to the 1 million so I think the important thing to point out here Megan good clarification so we were I wasn't exactly
067sure how to how to capture this in terms of the year. So these cost savings, this million dollars in cost savings was identified primarily as part of the staffing process in 2324. So this $1 million in savings was realized in the 2425 fiscal year. So it's Yes. So the 810 323,000 that I identified tonight were identified in this fiscal year, but they will impact us in 2526. Okay. Um and some math I'm not mathing right. So 10 positions is equal to 1 million. Well 10 FTE is equal to 1 million. And how many is the are we cutting for the next year? It's 12.5 12.54 only equals 800. Well remember we had we reallocated within that FTE the addition of the 3.5.05. Right. Correct. The 9.05. And I think it's also important to recognize that
068these figures here that are the 2425 cost savings were estimates based on about $100,000 per teacher. We added a layer in the spirit of enhancing this program and budget evaluation process. We added a layer of specificity this year. Um and Belle was Beth was kind enough to calculate out the exact cost savings based on the individuals that either retired or resigned. So this is an exact figure. Um, this is a bit more of an estimate that we provided for you the year before. So, so I know this year we had the conversation we really thought that there was the potential we would maybe need to dip into fund balance to cover. So, I just want to go back to the health insurance which with us is at 1.8. And so, are we saying that that
069none of that 1.8 8 is projected to come out of those referendum dollars. I mean, are we saying that we have somehow found savings because we already were I mean, we're tight. So, I'm just wondering because it is a big num number than we thought. It's a big number and remember that renewal is for that will be next year as well, but the 1.8 is not part of the 2.5. Um, and Mike and Tom have done projections for us and Mike presents that at every business services meeting. Um, and he's got anywhere from, you know, a very small number all the way up to a 1.9 potentially um, as a surplus. So, my guess is we're still shooting for it would be great if we could have a surplus of a million dollars this year
070to put back in our fund balance. That's our goal. A lot could happen between now and the end of the year. So don't, you know, I can't make any promises, but that's our goal and that's what we've been working from. Yeah. And currently the model is approximately 900,000 to a million dollars to go back to fund balance recovery. Then the goal would not be shortterm. Correct. And we did not have to earlier. Nope. And we're hoping that we don't have to. Okay. Yeah. And and I know we'll be talking about this later, but I also just want to I I know the conversation was about fact we're going into the next bianium right now. Lots of clearly unknowns about that. Are we currently projecting an increase from the state as we're putting together those budget
071models? Are we are we projecting um that increase of 350 353? We are 325 325 apologize. And are we projecting any increase in special ed at this point or are we keeping that flat? We are right now we are not I I do not believe I wish Tom was here but he's ill also. I do not the 325 is there. The special ed increase I do not believe are in any of our projections. But I'm hearing exactly what both G and Ted heard from both sides is that people are realizing that we do need to increase that approximately 30% of special ed funding. So if we received 5% 10% increase that would be significant. I would love it if it was 60 or 90. I heard those numbers as well, but let's just say a
07210% increase would be huge. What what where the the numbers are thrown around is 45 to 60%. Can you estimate like a if we were funded at 45% what in dollars? What does that would be? Gee, if we were to get special ed funding at 45, that'd probably put us up to an extra $7 million. 7 million? Yeah. I'm just just doing the math quick in the head. Mike, are you comfortable to come up and answer some of those questions? Just so that we see how close I am. Only if you're going to agree with Okay, there's a caveat. Go ahead. That said, well, we spend about our state and local costs are about 17 million in special ed. In special ed. A little bit more actually. Is that that's the cost or what we
073take out of the fund balance put into that's the difference. That's all that's the cost of special ed minus all the federal programs. So all the federal grants. So that would be our state and local cost. And then our local cost is the val is what we spend um just from the district. The state cost is the state reimbursement that you guys are talking about. So um our transfers have been about 12 million. Okay. I was thinking 13. So I'm just doing a little math in my head. I'm with you. 17 - 12 is 5 million. That's at 30%. So if we go to 45. Oh, you couldn't do it easier. Well, that's 15. That's half of 30. Oh, there we go. That's a 50% increase. Yeah. So, I think Ted's pretty close. Yeah. About
0747 million. Give Ted a promotion. And that would decrease much then the amount that we would be transferring out of Fantam into 27. Correct. So it's not it doesn't affect our revenue limit authority, but it comes in kind of on the back end. So when Tom and I did those projections, we kept that at the 30%. You did not factor that in. That's kind of like our little secret weapon that we we've heard a lot about that. And I I do think Yeah, I do think and hope that we will get something there. There's just been a lot of talk And uh at the conferences I've been to that's kind of what and it's like Corey said, it's a positive vibe, but it's not done until it's done. Right. Well, Ted Ted mentioned that there
075was a lot of each person we went to said they didn't think anything was going to happen till late. And you've got the 325 thing is in court. It's probably going to go to the Supreme Court. So they they didn't anticipate having a budget in July the fiscal year. They're kind of thinking August. Yeah. And quite honestly, the special ed transfer helps every district. Yes. Where some of the other things they do helps some districts more than which is another reason that we're optimistic about it because it would lift every boat. Yep. Everyone. So, I'm going to say I'm a little one bitt and twice shy with respect to what happened with COVID um with our state legislature and the federal dollars, which is that that that the state legislature determined because we were receiving
076federal dollars, one-time federal dollars, that they were not going to provide an increase. I'm a little concerned with what's happening at the federal level with the um dismantling of the Department of Education and there's clearly rumors out there about potentially maintaining stability of that funding but providing it as block grants to states. um nothing determine I you know there's nothing like final and there's nothing sure that that's going to happen but I'm a little concerned about the potential for this increase in state funding to somehow be related to some anticipated additional those federal dollars coming down in terms of block grants. So, I mean, I understand it's going to be at the end of the year and that happens increasingly more and increasingly later and and makes the budget decisions that we've got to make
077now for our staff for wages and benefits e even more difficult. So, I just want to put that out there that we we do have a lot of balls in the air right now with special ed funding at the federal level, title one funding at the federal level, and how that's going to play out um either from the feds to us or from the state to us. I think those are legitimate concerns. I'm rather optimistic regarding title special ed funding. Um, as you indicated, I think maybe one of you indicated, all districts, well, the whole country deals that issue. Those are issues that hit home to every every family. Everybody knows a child um or an adult who has a disability um or is at risk um in terms of academically and when if you
078start cutting that out, that doesn't go very well. And our our politicians on both sides of the aisle are certainly sensitive to that. So, I'm optimistic that they're going to um find a way to make this happen without without um having a blow up, which would occur if they they actually reduce this fund. See, there was one point to go with that special ed and and one of the leverage points for increasing it for the public schools is because the charter schools are getting special ed at 90 to 100%. So, that's another reason that it looks good for us to get some sort of increase. Any other questions for Chris and or Mike? No. Thanks, Mike. We appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you for the guest appearance, Mike. Surprise. All right. Okay. Thank you, Chris.
079All right. We are moving on to agenda item 14B. We have our future meetings, dates, and times. We have our organizational board meeting on May 12th at 5:00 PM. Our next board meeting on May 12th following that org meeting. And then on June 10th, we have another regular board meeting. Moving on to agenda item 15A, close session. Um, I am looking for a motion to convene into close session. Um, pursuant to Wisconsin statute 19.85 PN1 PNC and 19.85 PN1 PNE considering promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility and 19.85 85 PN1 PNE E Deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public properties, the investing of public funds, or conducting other specified public business whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require a close session. So
080moved. Okay. Motion made by Alex, second by G. This session. Okay. Roll call vote, please. Nicole. Mr. Summers. Yes. Mr. I Yes, Missson. I will abstain. Miss Eler. Yes. Mr. Kowalsski. Yes. Mr. Robbie. Yes. Mr. Leack. Yes. Miss. Yes. Okay. Thank you.