001Right. Call to order this annual meeting of the Stoton Area School District. Um, I'd like to introduce my fellow board members. My name is Jill Patterson. Lisa Pew will be recognized. Um Allison Sorg, Sharon Milan Bartlett, Mia Croyle, Don Garcia, Tim Bubon, Zack Masa Myers, and Jim Mohler. Very good. Okay. Um I'd like to introduce Dan Kezer, the dire or the district administrator, and Eric Picket, our director of business services. It's amazing. Nobody wants to come to these meetings. Um, so now Dan's going to give a overview. Thank you, Jill. Um, before before we go and elect uh chairperson for our annual meeting, wanted to give a brief overview of our district. Starting with our goals and mission. As you as many of you in the room are well aware, our goals and mission are
002around creating the conditions today for every student to thrive academically, social, emotionally for unlimited opportunities. We want to ensure that we have educational opportunities that challenge all students to achieve excellence. We want to maximize their talents and abilities and prepare them for what faces them in the future and be a contributing member of society. Our equity vision is our compassionate school community will operate within proactive systems of support to promote a positive inclusive culture with equity, respect, dignity so that we can thrive emotionally, socially and academically. We are in our um second or third year of our district goals. Um, our literacy and mathematics goals are around increasing the proficiency of students in these areas across the board while at the same time reducing um by 50% the opportunity gap for our populations based on
003race, ethnicity, uh, students with disabilities and students who are English language learners. We also have a third goal that underpins these academic goals for belonging which is something that no other district that I have found um in the state of Wisconsin has codified to this degree where we are trying to define a sense of belonging and then also go to measure that because we know and believe strongly that if students feel as if they belong in the environment they will also thrive socially, emotionally and academically. Our budget objectives for this year are no different than the budget objectives that we've had in previous years. We want to make sure that we continuously improve student achievement while forecasting and balancing future budgets. We want to continue to improve our programs and educational initiatives and provide transparency
004around our district finances, which you'll hear a little bit later tonight. We want to look for ways to improve efficiencies while providing quality services and continue to meet all meet our new and ongoing um state um budget and federal state and federal requirements um around all of the various areas such as school safety, achievement, well-being, and child nutrition. We continue to manage our resources responsibly and create and maintain trust while also reducing we strive to reduce um budgeted expenses whenever possible helping to minimize future deficits. attract and retain high-quality employees in a competitive market and create a staffing plan um according to class-siz targets which balances both academic options and support services while also remain um financially sustainable. The strategies that we employ to achieve those objectives are to align our resources to achieve our
005district goals as outlined on the previous slide. Align our budgets to support our district strategic plan and and district goals and align our resources to support the district equity vision statement and corresponding work. Educating stakeholders around the impact of revenue limits and decline enrollment continues to be an ongoing strategy for us. So before um jumping into our um election of a chairperson, we wanted to share our points of pride um here are some slides showing our award-winning staff and students and outlining our goals around um respect, responsibility, resources, engagement, and teaching and learning. would not be um a good overview if we didn't highlight the um several months of construction that we are wrapping up. You can see here several of our buildings. Um here are our elementary schools and our maintenance building. Um and
006then our high school and then our addition onto our River Bluff Middle School. We want to thank um all of our um partners, EUA and Findorf and the subcontractors as well as our several um maintenance and custodial staff and all of our teachers, administrators, assistants, EAS, and other support staff that have helped make um all of this work while we were writing an entire school district. So, it's no small task. Um, and here was our ribbon cutting um, showing um, some of our partners and some of our um, district staff. So, all right. So, I now open the floor for um, chairperson for the annual meeting. Do I have any nominations? Is there a second? All right. Are there any other nominations for chairperson for the annual meeting? Last time. Are there any nominations for
007chairperson for the annual meeting? I will close nominations. All in favor of electing Jill Parson as chairperson for the annual meeting, please signify by saying I. Any opposed? All right, Jill, the floor is yours. Like to introduce Erica Picket. Good evening. We're going to talk about the 2526 budget tonight. Um before we start with that, we're going to do a quick overview of last year's um ending balances as of June 30th for all of our different funds here in the district. Um this is a an overview of our revenue, expenses, and cash balances as of that point in time. Budgeting is a multi-year process and we go into every budget year with some known data as well as making a lot of assumptions to create that budget. Um, a lot of those assumptions are based
008off of our history which we've got here in front of you. Um, our main operating funds are our general fund which is fund 10 and our special education fund which is fund 27. And we'll be talking mostly about those two funds tonight because it is the lion share. It represents the lion share of our work here in the district. Um, every month we do have detailed financial statements that we compile and post on our website. In addition, our audit will be wrapped up here shortly which has more information about 2425 fiscal year and that will also be posted online when we're finished. Our revenue limit is what really drives the vast majority of um our budget. It controls over 80% of the total resources we have here in the district. And these are some of
009the variables that are included in that in that particular formula. The revenue limit is a complex formula that determines the maximum revenue that we are allowed to see receive in the form of general aid or equalization aid and property tax dollars. The state revenue limit is calculated by taking a three-year student membership average and multiplying that amount by the maximum revenue per member, which we see here on the bottom of our slide. Historically, the revenue per student was increased by the consumer price index, which was an average of approximately 2 and a.5% for our district um between the years of 1993 when revenue limits were created through the 200809 school year. Under the 2009 2011 budget act by the state, that inflationary per pupil adjustment was eliminated. In six of the 11 years between 2012
010and 2023, Wisconsin school districts received no increase per student in that amount. The current state budget does provide an increase of $325 per pupil in our revenue limit. The operational referendum that we passed in April 2024 was a recurring referendum. So last year's $4.3 million increase is represented in that starting amount in that per pupil um that per pupil dollar value. We are very grateful for the support of our community in the passage of that referendum. Ongoing enrollment declines are a significant budget concern for any school district because our total resources are tied to our enrollment and we have been declining in enrollment here in our district for over 20 years now. The equalized valuation represents the total value of taxable property located here in our school district. Our total tax levy is divided by
011this number to calculate our mill rate. Our district is experiencing a property value increase of about 7.8% this year. As I mentioned before, we have been declining in enrollment and that has continued this year. Our September membership is down 49 students compared to last year. This gra graph represents our September membership that is used in a revenue limit worksheet in that three-year rolling average. Again, we've had a trend of declining enrollment since the 2203 school year. At that point in time, we peaked at 3,660 FTE. This year, our third Friday membership was 2719. Um in 2008, we added four-year-old kindergarten. So, our numbers this year have an additional grade level um compared to when we peaked in in the early 2000s. Um again, this number is included in our revenue limit along with some FTE
012from our summer school programming. The maximum allowable revenue limit of $40.8 8 million is calculated by taking that maximum revenue per student of $14,270 and multiplying it by that three-year rolling average I mentioned. The formula also adds in various non-recurring and recurring exemptions which does include a one-year declining enrollment exemption for us this year. that voter approved referendum in a from April of 2024 includes an additional $600,000 as a recurring amount that is also included in our revenue limit this year. To determine the maximum allowable property tax levy that falls within those revenue caps, we take that total and we subtract out the general state aid of $12.1 million. We then subtract state aid for computers and personal property, which is about $370,000. Then we add in additional referendum approved debt service levies, community service,
013and prior year chargebacks to determine what our final total tax levy will be. This year for our district, the total final levy that's allowed is 31,717,91. It's exciting stuff. Here you can see our revenue limit history over the last 10 years or so. Um, our total revenue limit increased this year about 1.46 million compared to last year. $600,000 of that amount is the additional step up from the referendum that was approved in April of 2024. In addition, we had that increase by the state of $325 per student. Um that additional $325 per student that we're receiving this year and next year will mark 18 consecutive years that the state caps on per pupil general revenues have trailed behind inflation. This reality is why over 80% of Wisconsin school districts are relying on operational referendum to
014provide additional resources since revenue limits were first enacted back in 1993. Our district's equalized value has increased about 287 million or 7.8% from last year. This increase is a combination of new construction as well as inflationary increases on existing properties. The equalized value is a state determined amount that includes all taxable properties within our district. So all of our municipalities. The total district levy is divided by this amount to determine our mill rate. Our state equalization aid or general aid, those terms are kind of used interchangeably, is decreasing by 1.9 million this year, which is approximately 13.6% compared to the 202425 school year. We are one of 301 or 71% of Wisconsin school districts that are seeing a decrease in their aid allocation this year. The state did not provide an increase in the total
015amount of equalization aid available to districts in the current bienium budget. The last time that the state didn't provide an increase in equalization aid was in the 2017 2018 school year. The only time there was a 2-year period with flat or decreasing aid was in the 2009 2011 state bianium when the state was trying to balance a deficit budget without any increase in equalization aid. The allowable 200 $325 per student revenue limit increase is generally supported through the local property tax levy. The distribution of state equalization aid is calculated and and allocated using a complex statewide formula. How much any one district receives is determined on the district's wealth. And a district's wealth is measured by its property value per student. So the goal is to provide equal opportunities for all children across the state
016regardless of a community's wealth. So for districts that are wealthier, a larger portion of their total resources come from state aid allocation. For districts that are considered um more wealthy, they have to pay for that portion through tax dollars. So again, districts that are determined to be poorer are receiving a lion share of our state aid allocation throughout the state. Our property value per student is above the state average and because of this we are considered a wealthier district in that aid formula which has resulted in a decreasing allocation over time. So about 10 years ago during the period of time that the state froze the amounts districts were receiving per student in the revenue limit um and they were also limiting increases to general state aid it created a new categorical aid called the
017per pupil aid. In some years, the state has chosen to put additional support to schools into this form of aid instead of the way that instead of the way that they have historically done it, which is an increase in how much you receive in the revenue limit and then an increase in that general aid pool. In doing the per pupil aid, everyone receives the same amount per student. In doing it with the revenue limit and an equalization aid, as I said earlier, some districts receive a larger portion of that through aid. some district had to pay more in property taxes. So, um by doing this, everyone just got the same amount. That said, we are experiencing an um an amount of $742 per student for the seventh year in a row because this aid has
018not gone up in quite some time. So, in the current budget year in 2526, this particular aid um amounts to about $2 million for our district. So this is a summary of our total operational revenues by source. Our local sources again include our tax levy as well as mobile home taxes, interest earnings, things like student fees and facility rentals. Interdist sources is the tuition that we receive for non-resident students attending our district through open enrollment. State sources include both the general and pupil aid that I talked about as well as other aids like uh transportation, library, special education, and computer aids. Our federal sources include grants like our title and flowthrough grants as well as some resources for things like Medicaid reimbursement. Um this is the same information just shown graphically. Again, this slide demonstrates
019that the revenue sources um controlled by that revenue limit formula are state equalization aid and tax levy. It's about 82.1% of our total our total sources of revenue here for the district for operational purposes. And then this just kind of shows you that shifting of sources over time. Um as you can see, we have a higher reliance on our tax levy compared to our general state aid. You can also see about three years in there where we had an influx of federal resources during the pandemic. And just for some perspective, I look back to the 20607 school year. Our state aid that year was 55.3% and our tax levy was 32.2. So you can definitely see that shift over time in looking. So once we kind of finalize our revenue limit because that really dictates
020how much we're going to have to work with. We focus on the expense side of the budget. There's a lot of ways that we can look at our expenses. This one is looking at our totals by object which is you know what what are we buying? What goods and services are we spending our money on? Our salaries and benefits equal the majority of our budget. Our purchase services includes things like um payments for consulting, legal fees, substitute staff, utilities, audit fees, and tuition payments to other districts for our residents that are leaving our district to attend other schools through open enrollment. Our non-C capital objects include supplies, um software, and other classroom materials. Capital objects represent a v a variety of equipment type items. Debt retirement includes lease payments. It's non-referendum debt type items. Um
021insuranceances are things like our property liability, workers comp, and unemployment insurance. Um object 800 is our fund transfer from fund 10 to 27 to cover our special education revenue shortfall. And other objects are things like dues and fees. And again, the same kind of information just shown on a chart. And again, like all most school districts, the vast majority of our budget supports our staffing costs. So just under 76% of our total operational budget is allocated to our people. And then this this view of our expenses is really at the top of the mountain, but just looking at the difference in function. So what are we purchasing things for? Um here you'll see that we have our instructional functions. So anything that falls with the first number being a one is instructional. That's everything from
022licensed teachers to educational assistants as well as our supplies and materials for our classrooms. Support services includes a whole slew of items. Um things like library, counseling, health, occupational and physical therapy, psychology, social work, speech and language, administration, transportation, and our custodial maintenance services. So anything that's kind of not directly in a classroom tends to fall into this category. The non-program function includes that open enrollment tuition that I mentioned earlier and the transfer from FN 10 to F27 to cover the cost of special education that is not supported through our special ed aid or our federal grants. And again, just showing that breakdown in a graphical way. Another big chunk of our tax levy is our debt service levy. Um, our district currently has $43,970,000 in outstanding debt, which will be paid off in the
023year 2043. These debt payments are a separate tax levy as they are referendum approved um levies and don't come out of our operational budget. All of our current debt is associated um with the November 2022 referendum for capital maintenance and facility upgrades that Dan mentioned earlier. And here you can see our total tax levy and mill rate by fund. Um our Stenary School District proposed tax levy is increasing by 10.7% or approximately $3 million compared to last year. And the mill rate is increasing by 21 cents or about 2.7%. And here you can see our tax levy history. Our reduction in state aid is a large reason for the significant increase in tax levy this year. Without a state increase to offset that $325 per student increase in the revenue limit, the vast majority of
024Wisconsin districts are experiencing a reduction in their aid allocation. This year, our mill rate is increasing by 2.7%. The mill rate is a product of two things. our total tax levy and the equalized property value. The mill rate is the result of dividing the total levy by our total property value. For the mill rate to increase, the total levy needs to increase at a higher percentage than the property value increases. If the property value increases at a higher percentage than the levy, then the mill rate will actually decrease. So what does that mean in December? Um, this example shows the estimated tax impact of the 202526 proposed tax levy. The example demonstrates an average home valued at $300,000 last year and assumes that that home increases by 7.8% for this year, which is consistent with
025the equalized valuation increase that we experienced as as a district as a whole. In this scenario, taxes are expected to increase about $249 over the prior year. And I just want to say that this is an estimate. The actual impact will vary between different properties and different municipalities. The total taxes seen on an individual's prop an individual property owner's bill may also be affected by levy credits. So at this point, we are able to entertain any questions on the budget. If you have a question, please step to the microphone, state your name and address prior to asking your question. Righty then I will hand it back over to Jill. Do you want me to do this part? Actually, can you Thank you. That way I can make a motion. Okay. So, do I read this
026part or does somebody have to make the motion? Okay. All right. So, who would like to make a motion to adopt the tax levy? 31,717,91 all property located in school district and in the township of the county for the 2025 Is there a second? Second. I don't have to keep track of who's seconding. All right. All in favor? Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. There is a second motion. the background. Okay. Is there a second? All right. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Abstensions. Very good. I note that all board members are abstaining. Okay. What are you looking at me for? Okay. Next is um are all in favor? Any opposed? and abstensions. Board members are abstaining. Okay. Um the next one. Is there a second? Okay. Um all in favor? Any opposed? Extensions. Okay.
027There we go. Meeting is adjourned. None of my All right, everybody got mics on. Mia good. All right. Call to order this meeting of the Stoton Area School District Board of Education and Jere. Mr. Tim Buban here. Miss Mia Croy here. Mr. Jim Moser here. Miss Don Garcia here. Mr. Zach Masa here. Miss Lisa Pew here. Miss Allison Sorg here. Dr. Sharon Milin Bartlett here. Student rep Michaela Becker here and President Joe Patterson here. Okay. Next item on the agenda is public comment. Public comment in person. Very good. Hello. I am Jeremy Dunahoo, 1100 Peterson Drive, Stoen Wisconsin. I am a parent, educator, and coach in this district. and I would like to bring up my concerns over the strength and conditioning program. Before I go any further, I would like to make it extremely
028clear my concerns have nothing to do with our high school strength staff. They have been tremendous for our students. However, I do have concerns over the offerings to our middle school students. 15 years ago, Stoton was a Wisconsin leader in terms of strength and conditioning. We were one of the first to hire a full-time strength and conditioning coach in a weight room very few high schools could even imagine. that progressed into our middle school offering students the choice between a strength and conditioning or the team activity-based PE class. We were seeing great results and physical development and the health in our students as they moved on to high school and our families were extremely happy with the opportunities provided. Fast forward to today and we no longer offer strength and conditioning at the middle school
029and we haven't for 5 years. Our high school strength coaches are forced to have a supervision hour instead of being in the weight room and offering even more strength classes for our students. This prevents many students from being able to take their classes, including all freshmen. We have gone from being one of the leaders to falling behind quickly. The average cost for families per student is about $200 a month to receive multiple training sessions a week outside of our school. This is simply not a realistic option many families in our district can afford. Oops, lost my spot. Instead, these should be a service we offer to every one of our students in grades 6 through 12 for free. It's been done here before and it should be done here again. Over the past few years,
030I've reached out to some administration voicing these concerns. Some engaging in conversations and some not responding. Either way, we are 5 years removed from these opportunities without a solution. So, I come to you to help find a solution to this problem. A short-term solution has been offered to our eighth graders. Our high school strength coaches have opened their weight room after school three times a week for them to train there. However, the district is refusing to let our athletes ride a mostly empty bus from the middle school to the high school to train with our hired professionals in another district building without changing its route. Instead, parents are forced to follow these mostly empty buses with student-f filled cars who want to train with our staff. Surely, we could find a way to get these
031students bus passes so they can receive the service they should be getting here during the day. I've been trained by this district to always ask the question, what is best for students when trying to solve a problem? This solution seems like an easy way for us to provide what's best for our students. The long-term solution currently sits unused and dysfunctional at Riverbluff. When the referendum was passed, a new wait room was promised at Riverbluff. However, that space right now sits unused and filled with dilapidated equipment that does not fit the function of the space, and only, as of recently, have discussions even started about how to use it. If we want to do what's best for children, we need to consult our high school strength coaches and current Riverbluff PE staff with how they would
032like to see it filled and used. Even more importantly, we need to ensure we have someone in that position who has the passion and knowledge to help our students grow healthier and stronger running those classes. Putting these things in place should be a priority and should be accomplished as soon as possible to stop the falling behind our students are experiencing. I'm looking forward to hearing your solution. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Uh, were there any written public comments prior? Okay. We are on to item 2B, the legislative update. The legislature, uh, each of the chambers, the assembly and the senate were in session last week for four periods. That that sort of action has been kind of slow since passage of the budget. However, there were some educational bills that were passed in those chambers
033and are now on the governor's desk. Uh, one of those is um AB2 which requires school boards to adopt policies to prohibit use of personal devices. There are some exceptions and you know personal devices including use of um uh cellular phones, iPhones. Um, some of those exceptions are could be for health reasons, IEP, other academic reasons that the educator decides are necessary for use of personal devices. Um, that bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate 28 to four. Most Democrats were for it and I believe all Republicans were. Um, there's a sense from the school boards association that this could pressure Governor Ivers to sign the bill. It is on his desk now. It requires schoolboards to adopt by July of next year a policy that generally prohibits pupils from using wireless communication
034devices during instructional time except for those um exceptions. And I know we already have a policy on the books related to this. So if this passes we could just assess if it's aligned. Um, in the assembly, there was a bill that uh we've talked about here before that passed in the assembly regarding uh requiring that books and other instructional materials could be inspected by members of the public at certain periods of designated times. This bill is expected to be vetoed by the governor. He has vetoed similar legislation in the past. So, that's what happened on the floor in terms of things that have moved their way to the governor's desk. There were some committees that met. The Assembly Education Committee uh approved the passage of two bills. We've talked about those bills here. The ones
035relating to allowing federally chartered youth organizations to enter the building. Uh also allowing military recruiters to have different types of access, increased access to school buildings. Those uh again passed out of committee and will be moving to the assembly floor. I believe I'm not sure where the partisan breakdown is on those um bills. Sorry about that. Uh there were public hearings on a couple of education bills. AB405 is a bill that requires a school board include uh particular details, additional details in their human growth and development curriculum. These details are related to the explanation of pregnancy, prenatal development, and childirth. Uh again, that was just a hearing that happened on October 2nd. Assembly Bill 457 also received a hearing. It talks about the conditions under which a school district may adopt a resolution to exceed
036its revenue limit. We've talked about that um proposal in this um discussion before. A couple of other um committees, non-education committees uh are working on hearing a voting on bills that uh uh relate to education. Um in the health Senate Health Committee, a bill prohibiting school boards from providing food containing certain ingredients and free and reduced price meals that passed on partisan vote out of the committee. So three to two. The Senate Committee on Mental Health, Substance Abuse Prevention, Children and Families uh passed a bill on party line vote that begin its SB171 beginning in the 2026 27 school year. The bill requires school boards to provide a sex a child sexual abuse prevention instructional program to pupils uh four-year-old through um grade 12. Um I don't know why this passed on prelim vote, but
037I'm guessing it's because it didn't have any of funding associated with it, which is a lot of times why um bills like that don't forward. Um SB97, there was a hearing. This is a bill that's already passed the full assembly. It requires each school board to notify a people's parent or guardian. the school board receives a credible report alleging sexual misconduct, hence certain requirements for notifying the parent or guardian um under certain deadlines. There is uh a new bill that's began being circulated for co-sponsorships. That basically means the bill authors looking for friends on the bill that would add to um state's current regulations on dual enrollment and as an effort by the authors to seek and promote increased access to rule uh dual enrollment for high school students. Um you might have seen that
038the Capitol Times uh had published an investigation they did regarding 200 teachers Wisconsin teachers aid substitutes administrators from 2018 to 2013 2023 who were accused of sexually sexual misconduct. Uh their report revealed that state education officials at DPI allowed licensed teachers under investigation to forfeit their credentials in exchange for um avoiding indepth. Uh that investigation has prompted some draft legislation that is being uh circulated in the legislature. So expect to hear more about that. Uh, also I saw today Governor Ivers along with the Department of Financial Institutions and DPI are recognizing um student uh FAFSA filing month. So they're encouraging students to um look into and apply for the free application um for student federal federal student aid for the 2026 27th school year. So just a reminder about that. And then finally, last but
039not least, the government shutdown continues. There it doesn't seem to be an end in sight. According to the update from the school boards association, there have been these dueling resolutions in the Senate which have failed multiple times. I'm not keeping track. As of last Wednesday, it was seven, but I think it's more by now. Um the House is currently in recess, so our congressional members are not in um DC currently. So, this is all happening in the Senate. Um, you might also have seen the concerning news that um, President Trump has threatened to fire employees uh, instead of just merely temporarily furling them. And that actually has happened across a variety of departments including at the US Department of Education. The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services saw severe reduction in staff uh, a
040more close to 500 people that were laid off and presumably fired. There is a court challenge to that, but this has never happened. Okay. Are there any questions for Lisa? Mia, I just have one thing to add because it doesn't directly impact the schools, but it will impact our children. Um the Dane County is currently going through their budget process and they are looking at a 4% reduction for all purchase of service to all the organizations in the community that provide mental health services including the ones that do mental health that we more good news. Yeah. Any other questions, Lisa? N. All right, moving on to uh workg groupoup update, which we have had no workg groups meet since our last meeting. So that's a zero. And we have um item 2D is my favorite
041part. Student representative report. I thought I gave you access. I don't I can try and but it might work. Okay. So, yeah. Oh, okay. So, for some activities, um there was the color run at River Bluff, which I'm very jealous of. We never got that, but it looks like a lot of fun. I'm proposing a color run at the high school now. Um and then there was also the Gillies Grand Prix at Kanza. So, that's um like a bit of a fundraiser for them. All the elementary schools do one throughout the the year. And then um at the high school, the FFA team um play the dairy judging team placed first at the World Dairy Expo out of 116 teams. So that's very incredible for them. Um I need you to do it. Thank you.
042Um and then for some other activities, of course, there was homecoming and so I've included some pictures. Um there's the football game. Um some of the dress up days. The one in the bottom left corner is from senior citizen kind of day at the high school. Um and then uh from the parade. And so it was very cool. We had some of um students at the high school do kind of a social media takeover of the we are Stoen page um for the day on Friday. Oh, okay. I had a video that um I can try and uh send it out to the board, but it was made by um two high school students at W I mean college students at W Whitewater. Um and they it's the first time we ever did it. They
043edited together clips throughout the week of the dressup days and then the pep assembly and prayed and tailgate. So I can try and get that to work. Um and then for athletics, um girls swim beat at Sock Prairie in a duel on October 7th. Um boys cross country placed ninth out of 17 at the Lutheran Viking Invitational on October 9th. And Elijah Jud placed fourth out of 133 runners. And then Meadow Siki placed 28th at the Division 1 girls golf sectionals on October 7th. and Elijah Jud is the cross country conference champion which is they said on the announcements this morning one of four in school history and then the whole boys team took second place. So um and then for arts marching band attended an invite um last weekend at Sock Prairie and they
044placed second there and then on Saturday they went to state at Whitewater along with 40 other bands. um choir had their fall concert on October 13th and then tickets for the music fall musical Chicago are on sale now and those performances will be I believe November 8th, 9th and 10th and that's all I have uh questions for Michaela seeing none. Love to get the video if you can. Yeah, I I downloaded it, so I'll try it. I wonder if it's just the access. Yeah, I wonder if that'll work. The FFA thing is pretty incredible. Yeah. If any for people who didn't grow up on a dairy farm, judging dairy cows is a very specific skill. Yeah, I was super cool. Yeah, it was really cool. And I know that the four girls who are on
045that team, I know that they've won some other things, I think, last year, too. So, that's very cool. lower. Oh, of course. I wonder if you're it's muted. That's awesome. Hard to follow that. We are now on to item three, the consent agenda. Move approval of the consent agenda as presented. Second. Seconded by Bon. Is there any discussion? Yeah, I just wanted to point out when you said it's hard to follow that based on one of the things Michaela told us about with the um um FFA getting first place at the World Dairy Expo that um they are asking on this agenda overnight trip proposal um to go to Scotland and be able to judge because they won and it's just it's pretty cool. It's a neat opportunity. Any other questions or comments? I guess
046that was comment. Um, all right. So then all in favor? I I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Consent agenda is approved. We are on to item four. All right. So, building off of the board development at five o'clock where the board members had an opportunity to hear from each of the schools around their goals and the strategies that um they are implementing the first 100 days and for some across the entire school year um to achieve their outcomes. We now have the opportunity to hear from Kate um who had will present an aggregate of the interim goals um for literacy and math um for the first time this year. But we'll also be looking historically um at our trends. So I'll turn it over to Kate now that she's here. Um Kate, just turn on your
047mic and I will turn it over to you. Awesome. Hi everyone again. Um, tonight we'll talk a little about our interim indicators for our students academic success in the areas of reading and math. So I know you have had an opportunity to review the data that we just gathered last month and also to take a look at how that is juxtaposed with last year's data and even the year before that in this view that you uh one of the major takeaways as we look at the data um or updates is that first of all you you'll see that score rise precipitously and and for the early literacy composite it and I did make a note there that it's uh not valid for comparability from last year because we have changed uh the tests that students
048have taken and by we I mean the state uh these are these early literacy indicators are those screeners that the state uh has instituted for all kindergarteners and first graders. So we are using those and also because Ames web which is the vendor that the state uses has changed their cut scores. So I did want to make that note to you. You see that really nice rise and our students did do well and they did improve. Uh however it's not useful for comparability but I just wanted to let you know that from here on out we'll be using we'll continue to use uh the new Ames webc scores as you can see here depicted in fall of 2025. So there'll be comparability from our fall scores moving forward. Uh and the second thing that I
049wanted to draw everyone's attention to and and probably you've you've noticed is that we have seen increases in in all our students in terms of their reading success as we look at the screening indicator which is for our district a reading. And we have also seen increases for most of the subgroups. We have seen increases in all of our students also for math and um mostly increases for for our students but also uh we've noticed a couple of scores staying staying neutral and one or two of them taking a back slide u just by a percentage point or two. Um wanting to also draw to everyone's attention that when particularly when we take a look at the subsklls or the subgroups pardon me for our students that those represent much smaller numbers than the all
050students number. Uh so we are we're really looking at different group sizes but we think it's really important to take a look at how our student how all of our students are doing and also students from um typically or historically marginalized groups are doing. I know that's been um a major priority for the board and for us as staff. So we wanted to make sure that that's included here as well. Uh most of the reasons behind what you see uh are probably evidenced by some of the discussions you had earlier this evening with our principles and school representatives. So, you saw uh or you heard or listened to or perhaps even saw described uh a trends that include uh closer looks at uh how all of our students are doing not only on these screening
051indicators which once again we give three times a year but also at the performance of our students in between the screening indicators um uh with regard to their work in in the classrooms every day. um and the analysis of student work that's happened and most importantly the response to student work. Um so I think you have also heard a great deal about all of the interventions that we are putting in place for students um and also all of the amplified instruction. So in many instances um the amplified education really has to do with how we are spending our time in core. So we're making sure that what all students get uh casts a wider net for more students. Uh, and I think you'll you also heard attention to the the kinds of routines that we're
052engaging in when we look at student work. So, we've gotten tighter about what that what those pro what those routines and what those protocols um look like and consist of. uh we really believe that our most valuable resource is our educators and bringing our educators together and setting the table really well for them. Uh to be able to have the conversations that they most need to have has been a priority. So trying to for us to remove the barriers that might stand in the way of educators having those good conversations about how students are doing um has been has been central and been an area of emphasis for us. Um but mostly what you heard about before really revolves around having um very clearly identified objectives or action items and then ways to measure them.
053Uh I know I mentioned before just briefly in the large group that there's attention to uh to us being a learning organization. So an organization that learns from and with our students. Um and when we learn we learn best from our students by taking an active abiding abiding and very um close uh proximity to them and understanding how they are uh how they are understanding the material that we put in front of them uh by being close to them not only in the classroom but also when we have those moments of reflection with colleagues. Um so I'm always incredibly inspired um and in admiration of our colleagues and in service of the work that they do. Um, and I do believe that that these scores uh do also are points of of pride for us
054as well this year. They show such growth for our students. Um, and lastly, before we take questions, I I really want to emphasize, and I know you know this has always been true, uh, how hard our students work every day. Um, and you know, you even you you see certainly their animation in the last video that we watched and that's there too. um and that that is their exuberance keeps us going. So, we're very appreciative to students and families uh who have achieved these these really great results. And lastly, you know, we're also attuned to always attuned to doing better. You know, each one of us comes to work every day believing that we make a difference. We believe that teaching causes learning. Um so, while we're really eager and again, we are we're inspired
055by the results we've been able to achieve. um we we don't rest there. Um and that's what I think is so admirable about all of our colleagues. Thank you, Kate. Uh questions. No, Lisa. I mean, amazing really. I mean, some of the progress in here, I think fall of 2023, all students proficiency in reading 47 and now we're at 60. I mean congratulations um yes to you and your team and of course the students but like I mean I agree that you know room for improvement and some of the subgroups I mean we would wish those numbers would be greater but just that jump alone is like just a testament to such hard work. I'm just I'm very proud. Um I would I I just had a couple questions like it looks like when you
056mentioned you know some areas that are a little disappointing would be it with our Hispanic students. sense for like why and what can happen differently. I I think some of the things you heard tonight I think um I think are indicative of the directions we want to go in. So you heard us talk you may have heard in a couple of the of the rotations um the prologue being talked about. So prologue is a series of lessons that are uh accompanied by our our updated curriculum which is arts and letters is its um arts and letters is very similar to wit and wisdom the previous curriculum however also represents a lot of changes um and and specifically I think I've said here before many of the changes that that arts and letters our new curriculum
057has um are reflect the changes that our educators have been influential in advocating for um so one of those has been preparation for our students who are learning English um in terms of vocabulary um in terms of of opportunities to explore the content that they'll be experiencing in language arts but also you know those those chances to work on foundational skills. Um and as we mentioned for older students um really understanding background knowledge and context that's necessary for those all of our students but particularly students as they're reading uh more complex texts um really do need to be able to access. So that happens before the classroom instruction and I I know that was mentioned in several of the of the circles once again, but when we have that we we sort of might refer
058to it as front loading or preloading. We have those opportunities. We make really good use of times that we're not necessarily all learning together. So we might be learning in small groups or even in some cases um in individual situations. uh but our our multilingual educators, our general educators, special educators, um the related services providers have really wrapped around our students in that way. Um so I I we are we are looking to see um some some increases in their proficiency. Um and once again, it's um the it's it's all under the web of really hard work, educators and students. Um but we noticed that too. We noticed that. Other questions for Kate? Mia, I mean, I just I want to echo what Lisa said in terms of, you know, the phenomenal gains that we've
059seen. Yeah. Um, and you know, what's concerning to me is I looked at the disparity gaps, you know, and I went ahead and calculated how far off from the general population each of these subgroups are. And while we've seen improvements, it looks as though we're not closing any of those gaps. And in fact, some of the gaps are getting bigger. And so I guess I'm just curious. I I heard all of the discussion about that, but I wonder, you know, do we have specific interventions that are designed for black students? Do we have specific um intervention? Like, do we have a black black girls read club? Do we have a you know there's there's things that we could maybe be doing that are a little more overtly targeting some of those subgroups and I'm curious
060if that's ever been part of the discussion. There are, you know, very definitely um efforts to make sure that we are always and it's really more more less an effort and more a mission to ensure that all of our work with students is culturally conscious. We know that students bring their full selves to everything that they do. Um and so that everyone all of our students are um we are always making efforts to ensure that their full identities are are um realized in in the school environment and celebrated. Um however in terms of very specific interventions I in especially in terms of social emotional um there are some of those efforts underway and even some that are um some of our intervention efforts looking to um match up students with organizations even outside of Stotton.
061Um so for example Black Girl Magic and some other organizations that there are efforts underway. I can't speak exactly to who's part the extent to which people are participating but I know that those conversations have happened very recently um with students and I guess I was thinking less on the social emotional side and more on the you know the hard work of reading and math. I mean, there are math curriculums that are designed specifically to speak to the cultural heritage of African-Americans, and I don't know if any if we've ever looked at incorporating any of those types of things. I feel as though with our instruction, although we try to, you know, meet everyone as an individual in the fullness of their self, but also we teach in sort of a colorblind way. Um, and
062it it seems like that's not working for a subset of our students or not working as well. Well, we certainly identify gaps that we need to close. Uh, and in terms of those specific curricula, I to my knowledge, we haven't looked at them. That does not mean that groups of teachers have not looked more in depth and I have not had conversations with teachers about those particular curricula. Um but I think always closing gaps is is a very while while also seeing uh aptitude and proficiencies levels for all rise is is very central uh to our teachers and our teams practice. But I appreciate you mentioning that there may be some specific curricula that uh bears consideration. Okay. Thank you. Uh Jim, just a question. I don't need to know the answer right now, but
063I'd be interested in the the numbers of students in the groups. Yes. and and but the N is related to this because you mentioned that some of them are relatively small which yes you know may mean something or not but I I appreciate the question um and yes as as I mentioned and as you did some of these end sizes are smaller and they're much smaller um than for example the all students um much smaller by by hundreds and hundreds so I think it's I think it is important to mention that however we also think it's important to continue to to keep our eyes um on those gaps and every single one of our students is important to us. Uh but you do bring up a good point that it's it's just important to pay
064attention to the fact that um students in in groups with smaller end sizes um are or those groups will see a fluctuation that accounts for more of the variance than when you take a look at larger groups. It it is it is true, but we really try to look at matching needs to students in in a very um culturally responsive way that really pays attention to um the fullness of of who and what each student brings um to interactions in school. Um we want to see students grow. We we want to see our students achieve and that really means paying attention to all of who they are. Dan, I think those numbers are something that you could send out to the board as a followup. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Kate and I will discuss. Yes. And
065and one note is that for any group with an N size of or N size of smaller than 20, we don't include them here. And that's the similar practice that you'll see for the report cards from the state which are coming out in just a couple of weeks. Did you have questions? Go ahead. Um, one of the things that I was curious about when you look at the subgroups in almost all cases there's a gain and then it goes down and then there's a gain and it goes down. So, it looks like there's quite a an up and down pattern. And tonight during the five o'clock meeting, we heard a lot about consistency and like really having good routines. And I'm hopeful that like pairing that um and really implementing it over the next year
066that if we look at this in a year like maybe there will be some payoffs and maybe we can keep on the upward trend for those subgroups instead of the up and down. It absolutely we'd like to see that and and we know that consistency is so important um for our students, for our educators, for all of us who are supporting this like most important effort that we have in front of us to see students um have the most choices in their lives that they possibly can. And we do think that means doing well in school um both social, emotionally and academically. So um consistency is very important. You did hear a lot about that routine um deliberate practice. So not just any type of practice but very specific practice um being early or leading
067indicators of student learning. Um we noticed that too. We continue to sometimes we have fluctuations. A couple of years ago we saw a um you know a downward trend at midyear and we've also seen sort of downward trends curiously um in spring and then rebound again in the fall. So um it isn't that you know we're looking at the system data when we when we look at this level. Um our teachers and teams are primarily looking at their their grade level data and most of all they're the students they support. So they are able to address those more specific fluctuations in you know much more meaningful and purposeful ways because they're they're looking at at students in their care whose experience whose everyday experience they can speak to. But it's really important for us to
068look at overall health in this setting. Um I'll also say that um about a week ago now I always try to meet with our um our data and assessment group. So that's comprised of um our interventionists, our school sites, our principles um and and we notice the same trend. You know sometimes we do see that uh downward so that it's sort of a trend of non-trend. you know, occasionally we see some slopes that we can't account for at the district level, but we in terms of um the district view, I should say, because when you go into perhaps individual grade levels or individual classrooms, we see the reason there. So, it's it's it's findable um but sometimes not when you look at at broad level data like this. Other questions? Mia, I did just have
069one other question. Do we have a sense of what proportion of the Hispanic students are English language learners? I mean, I know in we were sort of con I worry that we conflate the two. Oh, sure. Yeah. And so I don't know. That's interesting. Yes. Um I I think that there is that a way of conflating that that isn't helpful. Um I I we have that information certainly. Okay. Um, but it's not visible here. Okay. Because I mean I know we have English language learners with other language other ethnic backgrounds as well. And so Yes. But the Hispanic ones. Yeah. Um I I appreciate that. Um so would you like to know those number? Is that what you're curious about? Yeah. Maybe when we send out the the numbers in these categories, we could have
070a note about that a little bit of D. Yeah. Yeah, sure. I think that if it's easy if it's a hard day to ask to tease that out, then we we can look at that and then I'll we'll kind of we'll put it out there and if that is something that is that's a match for what we're seeking, then we can continue to include it. And once again, of course, if it reaches the number threshold that we want to make sure that's for reportability. Yeah. Thank you, Lisa. Um, your data and here it doesn't go back far, but I'm wondering, do you consider our students to have recovered from CO? Oh, like and are are we back to where we were before? We better kind of generally speaking. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I think in
071terms of recovery, I think that that is, you know, speaking individually, I think there's they're very different and varying individual experiences of what that really means and looks like because we know that COVID did not impact everyone the same way. Um however u I think when we take a look at the overall you know academic like health of of our students uh I I think it's it's fair to say that we have realized some real gains since co um and I think the most reliable way that we really have to look before and after is probably our school report cards so that can help tell the story and um as those come out in a couple of weeks we'll be able to have some more um conversations at this level about what those reveal, but
072I think it's very encouraging. It's very encouraging um for our students and and our families as well when we take a look at at what what they've been able to achieve and our staff. Any other questions? I was just looking at um an article that said that there's been a national decline in reading and mass. Yes. So the fact that we are not seeing that here I guess could be and well yes I we'll pass that along to our our students and staff. Thank you. All right let us move on then. Thank you Kate. Thank you. We are on to item five our discussion action items and I will need some motions. Move approval of the resolution to resolution to adopt the tax levy as follows. resolved that there be levied a tax in the
073amount of $31,717,91 upon all taxable property located in the Stoen area school district in the city of Stoton and townships of Albian Christiana Cottageg Grove Deerfield Dunkerk Dunn Pleasant Springs and Rutland in the county of Dne and then the townships of Porter and Union in the county of Rock state of Wisconsin for the 2025 2026 school year second by Masa Myers. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? I I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion carries. Item 5B. Move approval to adopt the 2025 2026 budget as presented. Second. Moved by Bubon, seconded by Croyle. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Motion carries. That takes us to meeting closing uh recap of action items. I have that Dan is going to follow up with group sizes, including uh
074percent of Hispanic students that are English language learners. And I would also be interested in whether English language learners are counted in any other groups. Um any other action items I'm forgetting? Um other meetings we have uh board governance meets on Wednesday at 5:00 pm. Our next regular board meeting is November 3rd at 6:30 and November 17th at 6:30. And there are no other items to discuss. I would entertain a motion for adjournment. So moved by Masa Myers and seconded by Crook. All in favor?