001Okay, good evening everyone. I'll call this meeting to order. If everyone can please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, next we move to administrator report on the agenda posting and notification of the meeting to the media. >> The agenda was posted at Three Lakes School and Sugar Camp School via email to the town of Three Lakes, Town of Monaco, Town of Sugar Camp, and the Denver Library. Media notified via email included the Bus County News, Northwoods River News, WRJ News, WXPR Radio, and media notified by mail was WACD WATK radio. >> Thank you. Next, we move to amendments and approval of the agenda.
002We did make an amendment and repost it before this meeting because we added the language um item I for the establishing the parameters of the sea sale not to exceed 4,600,000 general obligation promisary notes and I would ask the board to consider us making a couple of moves within the agenda so that our high school staff and students do not need to stay through the entire meeting. If we could move after F, if we could hold L um which would be consider approval of the 2627 course statistics and that way we would then follow it up with resolution number or letter I the resolution so we can bring our um Kevin Mullen in from Cyber World and get that information to you. Do we have a motion to approve the agenda as discussed? >> I'll
003make a motion to approve the amended agenda as presented. >> I second. >> Is that Mitch? >> Yes. >> Okay. We have a motion by Stacy, second by Mitch. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I. >> I. I. >> Opposed? None heard. Next, we move to routine approvals, starting with approved minutes of the 1217 2025 regular meeting. Are there any amendments or concerns regarding the minutes? Hearing none, is anyone willing to make a motion? >> I'll make a motion to approve the minutes as presented. >> Second. We have a motion by Mitch, second by Stacy. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I. >> I. Opposed. None heard. Motion carries. Okay. Next, we move to the treasurer's report. Make a motion to approve the check stated December 11,
0042025 through January 21st, 2026 for accounts payable AC checks number 25260105 through 25260151. Regular checks number 131939 through132055. Manual checks number 627 through 6063. and wire transfers number 202500178 through 202500204 in the amount of $964,6942 and AC payroll checks number 90047298 through 90047673 and regular payroll checks number 59-457 through95459 in the amount of $525,416 for a total amount of 1,540,1048. >> Do we have a second? >> Second. >> We have a motion for the treasures report by Mitch, second by Brian. >> Just a small little edit if that's okay. On the regular payroll checks, um 59457 through 59459. You said 95459. >> Sorry. >> No, it's good. >> All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I >> I opposed. None heard. Motion carries. Next we move to public comments. Are there any
005public comments from visitors regarding any agenda items? Okay, hearing none, we'll move to administrator's report. Starting with the Three Lakes School District local report card. >> This is an update. Last year we presented to you um wanting to tell the rest of our story and this is based on future ready. This is um includes a lot of things that may be highlighted in the state report card, but it actually gives a little bit deeper understanding about who we are as a high school district. We look at the high school first because that is really tied mostly to our career and college ready indicators. Um, basically what you see there is an update in the data. We continue to follow our attendance. We stay very close to where we've been. We had a nice little increase
006with in the positive. Uh looking at our career in tech ed, we continue to look at the students who participate in a CTE course and for the last few years we've had the 90%. Dual credit courses continue to rise. You'll see that three years ago, 3 to four years ago, it was 23 and now we're up to 60. our co-curricular activities. We have 62% of our students in at least one organized activity and 43% who are at least or in at least two organized activities. So that's all a great testament to the well-rounded students that we produce here and that's getting really life ready as well as for the the next step outside of school here. Um we look at then the standardized testing which is highly uh reported in our state report card but
007then we take a look also at the grade point average. One of the main key indicators is students who are at a 2.8 or higher show increased success. And we have small cell size. So don't be real concerned if you see a 69% going to 63% because that could be a matter of one to two students decide based on the size of that class. Um the average class for the 2425 was a 3.06. Highle math we have 69% that are earning at least a C in algebra 2. Again that's another one of those strong indicators for success beyond school and going into college. And then our standardized tests. I believe Mr. Zeus mentioned this to last year that year. The ACT um composite score took a nice little climb which I think pizza was earned
008in that one. So that was a nice thing to see. Always looking for those little rewards along the way. Then the back side of our report card that is very much reflecting the community connection and um just same things that we've highlighted before but just want people to know who might be looking from the outside in that we are the community hub. These are some of the activities that are offered very heavily, I might add, like our pickle ball groups, the Lions Club events, the youth by camps and churches, our three lakes um sugar camp youth programs, and um our fitness center for 2425 had 438 active members. Community service hours remain at 40 for our requirement for our students before upon graduation that must be completed. And then our local scholarships are something to
009be very proud about. Um, average local scholarships awarded each year, 83,000. Since 2000, $2.2 million in scholarships have been awarded. Looking at staff, we know that the teachers in the classroom are the highest indicator of success within students lives. Um, 70% of our staff hold master's degrees. The average years of experience is 18. We have four staff members teaching certified dual credit dual enrollment courses. And our studenttoteer ratio is 10 to1. Uh student success, just that last little blurb down there showing a a nice photo of one of our organized activities. Wanting to again call out that students have a great opportunity even though we're a small district to be as active as they choose to be and that we do have top scholars as well as academic athletes which was reflected in the WIAA
010um data that was reported in since 2018. We've had seven total SC scholar athletes and um that's pretty exciting if you think about it when you do the percentage in the math. Any questions on the high school report card? Like I said, this is not a requirement, but it's something that we've really tried to to do locally in our CESAs to tell the rest of the story. And we'll be taking this back now next year when our new data comes out. And I'll be talking with Mr. Zeus and he'll talk with his staff and see if there's anything that we want to bring now up to update the highlights of this. Which means the next step is we'd like to start looking at our junior high or middle school as some places call it. Junior
011high is a really unique area and we think that we have a lot to celebrate. We started here um with Nikki and Jen have been working on this for me and getting the data in because we want to share those ontrack indicators and you just get good feel from where we're started. We are going to be working on what will be the back page. We don't have a back page now but telling the uniqueness of a junior high situation that we have here and how we're building and preparing for going into high school at the nth grade level. So, I thought you would like to get a quick look at that and see some of the work going on behind the scenes. Any questions that I can answer regarding this? >> Just like maybe a
012formatting question under the gradepoint average. >> Mhm. >> We we state that the the GPA is a 3.06. Why not structure that to where that's what we're reporting like 3.0 or higher? Seems like 2.8. Is this like a >> weird threat? Is that that like got some come somewhere else? Exactly. >> It comes from somewhere else. That is an excellent point and beat that drum a couple of years ago. I think Jen maybe you remember that. But this is based on the future ready indicators and they their data says it's the 2.8 because we said why wouldn't we want to go for three? That's the B average. But to stay consistent with the state plan in the way that they developed it. That is the reason why. >> Got it. >> Yeah. You bet. >>
013Will both of these be posted after? >> Yes. Yeah, the the high school one will just have a do we have to do any more tweaking on it? >> I have one number on there that's not um accurate yet. The clubs and activities is the number from last year. So I have to go and rec. >> It's actually more >> what >> probably more. >> Yeah, >> it is. >> I think it's probably more than that right now. So that number >> and then this will be posted on our website and we'll use it, you know, within other when people inquire about us. It's a nice piece of PR to share as well. >> Yeah, absolutely. Do we do we know how we compare locally to in with using these same metrics? >> I haven't
014seen Have you seen anyone else do the report cards? >> Yeah, I've seen the other local ones. We We do well. >> We do well. We exceed >> I Yeah, I feel a lot of questions like that. Mhm. >> Appreciate >> any other questions or feedback. >> Just like everything it looks great, >> right? When we're talking about recruiting and things like that to have as have some sort of flyer aesthetics are outstanding. >> Okay. Okay. Next, we'll move into new business. Um, starting with district related positive happenings. >> Start from the top. >> Go ahead. >> You start from the top. >> All right. I'll go start from the top and speak. >> Uh, I got a couple things. Um, first off, Mrs. Anderson's ecology class. Three students uh in that class submitted uh
015posters to the soil and water conservation which is tied into the very same uh contest that our sugar camp fifth grade uh takes part in for the speech contest. Um at any rate uh Mrs. Anderson's class submitted entries for the poster contest and CC Mudrock Mirror West and Sawyer Zeus had a clean sweep 123 at the county level. This morning we learned that Sawyers got first place at the regional or central uh judging that took place this morning. Um so that's kind of cool. Uh also wanted to give a shout out and and some of this is starting with Terry. Uh she approved the requested change and then uh also Mr. Kazinsky who's not here even to get the kudos I want to give him. Um the high school junior high office recently uh not
016experienced we did a phone change and now when members of the community or staff or parents call they get a call menu. Uh and you hit a button if you want to leave an attendance message. You hit a button if you want to talk to the high school principal. You hit a button if you want to talk to the junior high principal. Hit a button if you want to talk to the guidance counselor. Uh hit a button if you need to talk to a human. Wow. Um, anyway, that's been in place for maybe a monthish, >> maybe a little longer. >> Uh, it's been super well received, super efficient. It it it adds some efficiency. Uh, and really love it. Um, because when someone hits that button, my phone rings and if I'm happen to
017be sitting at the desk, I can answer it or get them a call back if they need a call. You know, I mean, it's it goes quicker to the spots where those phone calls are intended to go. So, love it. Thank you for doing that. And I know Mr. G had to work with the phone provider for a little bit on that. It took a little bit, but it got done and it's I think a positive thing. >> I have a question about that. >> Yeah, >> cuz I don't know if I hit the right button. And so maybe if I'm having trouble, maybe somebody else is like me, but I don't know. I'm unique. But anyways, my question is so like I wanted to call to say that Kayn had to get out early
018for a dental appointment. I didn't know if that was an attendance or a receptionist question. So, I didn't know. I went to the office because I was hoping to talk to a human, but >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's perfectly fine for one of those where I got to check my kid out in 20 minutes, especially if it's got to be fast. If it's something that and and the messages get checked about an hour, every hour. So, if it's my kids's not going to be in today because they're homesick, even on the message. >> Okay. >> Perfect. >> We could do a note in the newsletter. >> That's a good point. Clarify that. Sure. >> That would be a good one to stick in there. Well, and also just letting people know because like I
019called and I'm like, "What is happening? Am I calling the right school district? What's happening?" Give me a human. Okay, wait a minute. I'm in here. I wasn't paying attention. I was >> Thank you. >> I just have a couple uh starting the junior high side. We had our junior high spelling be in early January. 20 students in seventh and eighth grade. Uh we're sending four students to Northland Pines here next Friday. Three seventh graders, one eighth grader. Um so the seventh grade class came in really strong. Um so that was a very very fun event on the spelling be side. Some very challenging words. If you guys want to look at a couple, it's pretty pretty challenging. Um couple staff uh kind of positives. Hannah uh Reits, formerly Miss Dre, just completed her master's
020degree in December. So that's some cause to celebrate. Um really I know she's excited to finish that up and get that program completed. And then Amy Hibbert uh welcomed a baby girl on Monday. Um Anna Helina. So if you see Amy her family, tell them congrats. And then from uh Mr. G and I, we are running this uh year for the first time the healthy kids week or the heart challenge. Maybe you guys have seen some of the messaging and the communications around that. Um it's happening in both uh elementaryaries 4K through sixth grade. The big component of the promotion and what the American Heart Association is looking for from us is to teach kiddos and show kiddos heart healthy activities and then also engage them in some additional activities like hands only CPR um
021and just other healthy techniques they can learn as they go through elementary school and beyond. There is a component to fundraising to it as well. And Mr. G wanted me to point out that Sugar Camp is winning the fundraising. what's new right now. What's new? But that's that's secondary to the main goal, which is teaching our our youngsters the heart healthy skills. So, every day kids are doing jumpy jacks. I've seen classrooms do burpees. I walked in a classroom yesterday doing uh jump rope with a fake jump rope. So, it's been a really great week. Uh first time we've ever run it. And then kind of the culminating event was was today. Uh we had Mrs. Petriqueus and Mrs. St. Louis, two of our parents in the community with kiddos in the district. They did
022a handsonly CPR course for 35 students from fourth grade through 12th grade. So we uh we ran out of spots. The demand was so good in terms of the number of mannequins she was able to provide for us. So completely no charge to all of our kiddos and they received that certificate of completion um upon completing the program today. So we are likely going to run an additional course later this year because of the demand and because of the interest from kiddos and also families. So it's been a it's been an awesome week in both elementary schools. I can thank them for the fact that I have baby sharks stuck in my head after wearing the beats that you do CPR >> and it was a really great week to pick it cuz it's been
023so cold. So, they've been having to do inside recess. So, the extra activity is appreciated at the home as well. >> Yeah. >> Kind of strategically picked the date the week because it's kind of a solar week. So, >> perfect. >> I do have one update. We have um 4K open house registration going on. Um so if you know any youngsters who will be four before September 1st, send them our way. They can call Katie in the elementary office. Um February 9th is the 4K open house. >> Has there been interest already also? >> Yes. Okay. >> Yes. >> Perfect. >> Sugar camp is ahead. Hello. Anything else? All right. Thank you for the positive happenings. Next, we move to Miss Jen for a communications update. The gender and hope this works. Okay. So, first
024of all, thank you for letting me present. It's been a a long time since I've had a chance to talk to the board about what I do and what communications looks like here and who I am. So, before I kind of get into it, just want to give you a little background to how I came into the district and what I my background. Um, my degree is in communications. I have an emphasis in print journalism. So I started my career working for a magazine company in Iola. I was in the outdoor division. I worked for deer and deer hunting was my first job out of school. So I did a lot of outdoor industry stuff. Um and I moved into uh circulation and a little bit of marketing there. And then my husband I met
025at Krowy. He was a graphic designer for Deer and Deer Hunting magazine and the rest is history. We moved up here to work at Cole Publishing. I was on the editorial side there and then the job at school opened up and it was a brand new position for the Three Lake school district. So I came into this position kind of with the ability to create it early and seeing a lot of the holes and communications that existed at that time. There uh we were two websites behind where we are now. We did not have social media. There were a lot of holes in the communications um system here at school, especially over at the high school level. That was kind of where I first attacked some of the communications problems because, you know, our our
026our little kids will bring things home, put it in backpacks, we'll read it, but then at high school, you really lose a lot of that communication. So, that was like priority one when I started the job. So, I'm just going to kind of walk you through a little bit of the decision- making that goes into communications, what some of those tools look like now, and um just a little bit of what's going on with it. So, so overall, everything that I'm thinking about in communications is pointing toward this one goal. This is this is it. And we're building community trust and support and that will feed all of these other pieces that are happening. So, we're trying to enroll students. We're trying to get our community involved. We're trying to get staffing and let our
027staffing succeed here. We're trying to pass referendums. All those things happen when this is in place. So the communication and the openness that we're sharing out to our community is what's building a lot of this in my head at least. So these things happen seamlessly. Looking at communications, we're looking at like all the different pieces. There's not just one pot that we're looking at. I think about it as all these different categories. We have parents, we have students, we have staff, community, prospective families, we have media that's coming in to look at us. Then we have our general global public. Not all of these people get the same messaging. Not all of these people have the same needs. So whatever we're talking about, I'm looking is it internal, is it external, who's it going to,
028who's that audience that we're addressing? And the next part comes the tools that we use to communicate out. So for us, the biggest ones, my inventory looks like this. Infinite Campus is our messaging system that we're pushing out text, email, um, and text, email, and phone calls to. Newsletters are what goes out weekly. The Blue Jay Buzz, the Robin Report. We have our website, social media, email. We're using the televisions out here, bulletin boards. Those are all communication pieces that we can put things out to. Um, and niche.com is a newer one that is more of a marketing arm that we're looking at prospective families and speaking to them. That is a partnership we've established in the last couple years. Those are my biggest categories. And then beyond that, there's other little ones like press
029releases, SmugMug, you could kind of count. That's where I host uh photos, posters, newspaper ads. There's a little pieces in there all over the place. But these are the big inventory ones that when the message is going out, we're looking at how which ones are going to. So this is kind of what it would look like when school is canled. This is what my brain's doing. Who's my audience? Our parents and community needed to know about that on what day was it? It was Monday, right? On Monday, how urgent was it? It was super urgent. So I had to pick one of those tools that would get it out there immediately. So it went out to all of those because we're pushing that message quickly. Now, this diagram is going to look different for every
030type of message that goes out. So, like for instance, Charlie today. Um, he asked me about um getting some communication out about parents having to do a background check for the ski trip. That would just be a parent message. It wouldn't be urgent. So, these wouldn't be used. It would be more like it could wait till a newsletter or, you know, so we're kind of looking at that urgency mixed with who it's for to decide which tool it's going out to. Now the fun part talking about some of the statistics behind these. A lot of the stuff that we can do communications now we couldn't do before is look at the data behind it. So communications used to be you would send oh you'd have an article in the newspaper. Someone would read it. You'd
031have no idea who was reading it, how they felt about it, if they were responding to it. It was real passive. Since communications has become so much more digital, there's so much data you could drown in it. It's it's everywhere, right? So, our Blue Jay Buzz and our Robin report, this was one of the first pieces that I um we kind of put into place when I started this job in 2017. It started the content for it is real school specific. It's a touch point for parents. It can be announcements. It can be community stuff. It's more of a a a good read, not super urgent, right? The data behind it looks like this. So in I use constant contact as my host for newsletters and it tracks all the data for it. So these
032are open rates and open rate is the number of people who are clicking or opening up their email out of the whole number sent. So used to be sugar camp was ahead of TLE. You kind of flip. Yeah. Interestingly, right here, um, with the junior high high school, when I first started doing these newsletters, I had the students because they can't get emails externally until they hit seventh grade. So, this is the first time they were getting emails outside of any anybody actually. They have email addresses as elementary kids, but they can't get email. So, here they start getting email. I saw my student numbers pulling my data down so hard because they weren't opening up their newsletters at all. They didn't know how to read email, right? So, I took them and put them
033in their own send. And now I send these are my parents, staff members, community members. These are just my students. I've been able to creep that number up to 52% which is I think it was at like 15%. When I first sent it, some of that had to do with going into the seventh grade classrooms and just telling kids about opening up email. and we talked about how to turn your email off if you don't want alerts and doing some tweaking like that and just educating them about what emails were. So, I think now we've got a group of kids that have been getting this for so long that my open rates a lot higher. By the way, I can see who reads my emails. So, if you're not opening them, I can look at
034individual data and see who's opening and who's not opening. But the these are each um there's lists within these sends. So this is the three lakes elementary blue jay buzz. Within that buzz I'm sending to a list that's just parents, a list that's faculty and a list that's the community. So I could pull those out separately and look at them. Also industry standard would be roughly 25 to 45% and that would be more of a cold email send that you're pushing out to people you don't know as well. It might be a purchased list or something like that. Oops. Um, oh, did I mention technology is not my favorite thing? Um, so when we're looking at 69 hitting 70% sometimes on sends, I feel like this is very successful and that we have a a
035very avid audience. And when you're looking at 70% too, that doesn't necessarily mean that's on any given send. That's the average. So you might have someone that opens one but not two more down the road and then they might open a fourth one. So overall, I'm probably hitting more overall people than this number shows, but this is the average per send that's going out. And then after that comes click-through rate. So clickthrough rate is of the sends that you have, how many are actually clicking on something. Again, industrywide is 2 to 3%. We're hitting your sugar camp winning 11%. This in here, I looked at it a little bit deeper today. It really has a lot to do with how many photo galleries are in there. So, I saw like up to a 20% click-through
036rate when we were at homecoming. Everybody want and Christmas is the other one. Those two are always going to get my like highest number of clickthroughs. I can also see that there's data on SmugMug that shows me those galleries and I can see that those are the ones people are viewing overall the most. Then we get to social media. So, purpose here, we've got brand building, connecting with our community, district information. And it's also a place for crisis communication, which is a whole another part of communicating. Our audience is current potential families, our greater Blue Jay community, but also the general public. So being aware that social media is anybody can see it. Most likely it's our local people, but being careful what we're putting out there just because anybody's looking at that. Platforms I
037have Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Um Facebook started in July 2018. We now have 2.8,000 8,000 followers. So quite a it's healthy. It's really healthy. In Instagram we started in 2020 and YouTube in 2021. Uh Facebook and Instagram are connected. They're owned by same company. So it's managed in the same suite and there's a ton of data available. This is just a tiny tiny bit of it. So I pulled the data from September through now just to show you give you an idea of what that looks like. This is number of views, which is kind of a real to me it's a loose number. I never you're kind of chasing data a lot of the time with some of these platforms because they're changing their analytics and their definitions a lot. But even looking at 712,000
038eyes on things is what they're saying. That could have been like people sharing it, people seeing it in a feed, a friend shared it, you saw this. That's just everything, right? Um couple What did I want to point out? Oh, data up here. Women like social media. So, we have 72.2% of our followers are women. Uh 27.8 men. And we are definitely skewing over the age of 35 on Facebook. Typically, I looked at general global data of this just to see how we compare to global Facebook trends. We're slightly more skewed toward women and a little bit older also. So typically actually the globally I men were ahead it was like 55% or something and in the US is something like 60%. So we are definitely just skewed a little bit there. This is our
039top content from September 2025 to January 2025. Our school day cancellation made number one. That happened mainly because of all these shares. So people sharing it out that much was giving it this many views. So every post in Facebook or on Instagram, I I can click through and see even more data on it. NHS number two spot. So that was pretty cool. We had 162 likes on that. Look all the comments. Whenever you get more comments like this too, it's going to drive all that data up. So the more interaction, social media is really skewed toward that interaction. It's rewarding all of this stuff down here by a a better post. Volleyball came in third and then we've got two homecoming spots at fourth. Schoolboard was in the top 10. That post from last week,
040>> you guys do this week. >> I just the trend there is always you kind of know like when you're put something up with community in it, I know I'm going to get higher response on it. It truly does happen. So, I do I do see that and I kind of knew it would happen. Honestly, they like you guys. Um, Instagram is much lower and I I will fully admit here that I am not I I'm the age bracket of Facebook. So, I'm a little more comfortable over there and Instagram isn't my sweet spot yet. I know I need to improve this because here's why. Look at what happened to our age bracket over here. And then when you look at that number globally, we're at 64.3% over age 35 here, but globally this skews
041much more toward the younger generation, which I bet Libby can attest to if she's listening. Instagram. >> Yeah. Facebook. >> I don't have Facebook. >> There you go. A little microcosm. What um this rate? So, our numbers are going to be lower here. I'm just not posting as much content on Instagram right now. I'm using um just a note for you. So athletics I've taken in the last year, year and a half and put them all into stories on both of our social media platforms. So the game updates, everything's running on stories in the morning. Those expire after 24 hours. So you see it, they're running across the top. Instagram is really, really geared towards stories. So the kids are seeing that a lot more and interacting with it a lot more over there. I
042see fewer interactions on Facebook with it. It's just how it's running right now. I'm still kind of like figuring out what to do with some of that, but I like the way it's running. anyway because it kind of keeps that manageable and in a spot and it has its place. Um, so this is what Instagram's top content looked like for this year. These two were posts. These three are stories. Stories are really fun to do. Um, and again I want to get better at this, but like this weekend I think was that from you Stacy? Stacy gave me a photo. I was like, "Give me some stuff." you know, as the soccer team was going and doing their thing, she was sending me stuff and I was throwing it up on stories and just giving
043updates as it was happening. So, that story element is really geared towards some active posting while events are happening, you know, like during homecoming and scores and kind of keeping people updated because it doesn't stay in that feed and it disappears. So, that made the top five on here. Then we have our district website. purpose of this is a whole lot different than social media. Um really thinking of it as an information hold where you're putting all of your resources, people are coming there for information. Um kind of more like a library honestly and it can be a marketing tool for prospective families also. That's why on this bar right here enroll is here because we're thinking about prospective families. It's at the top and easy to find. audience on this one. Current potential families,
044our greater Blue Jay community. We're hosted by CMS for schools is where our website comes from. The current design was 2020 and I am looking at a redesign right now. So, it's kind of like one of those it's not bad, but you got to keep updating it and looking at keeping things fresh always. This is website data for you. So, this is Google Analytics. Lots of data is available here too. The thing I wanted to point out is this. So these are this is data from September to January. These are the top pages that people on our website are using. This has held true every time I've looked at this data like jeez I want to say since I started. This is our homepage. They're coming in. That's going to be at the top because
045it's entry page. These are when you click on an event in the calendar. That's that URL. Then you see the calendar, the lunch menu, the staff directory. I'm going to flip back here for a second. The calendar, lunch menu, staff directory. Keeping all that stuff top is the reason it's up there because this is what people are looking for. So, they're coming here and they're, you can even see it down here. They're coming to the lunch menu. They're going to the main pages. This is student loginins. I bet the students are coming in right there. Knowing this is what helps us keep that design relevant, too. Like, we know what people need. We can keep it at the top of the page and easy to access. So, this data right here, pretty typical. Here's winter
046break goes down. I pulled it this afternoon and looked at it from May to now. And in the summer, as you can guess, like the it drops, right? I I mentioned this to Terry because I thought it was really interesting that my data started climbing faster than I thought it did. I hadn't looked at this in a while and I saw the climb of traffic happening in July and peaking in September, which is telling us if we're looking at that, we got people that are looking for information in the summer, more than we probably thought. So, just something to keep an eye on there. a note here. Um, our first of all, I'm so thankful that this district has me in this position. I thank you all for keeping me in this position and the
047value that you see in it because not every school does. We're considered a one-stop communication shop. So, um, I am in Whisper. Whisper is the Wisconsin School Public Relations Association. And I've gone to a few conferences. We have a couple Spectrum Awards up on the wall from Whisper. Whisper is a great resource. When you go to Whisper and meet with all these other people that do this job, a one-stop shop is where you have one person doing all of these things. I did not have experience in all of these things. So, this job has been a real learning um curve for me. My number one skill was writing when I came in. When COVID happened, I had to figure out video. Marketing I kind of had some in branding is a whole another thing. graphic
048design, you know, my husband does it, so I've been I'll call him and ask for help. Photography I kind of always did, but you know, you're kind of just like doing all the pieces because we're a small district with one person doing it. Just wanted to call attention to that. That sometimes like technology. That's my weak spot. I don't always know about technology. It's hard for me and I have to figure it out and work harder at it. Writing is really easy for me. So, there's some pieces that are hard, some that are easy. It's all lumped into this communications job, which honestly has profoundly been the most growth I've had in my career is coming into this job because I had to learn so many things and it's pushed me into out of my
049comfort zone so much and I' I love that. So, every day is something different. It's challenging. It's rewarding and I really appreciate it. So, just wondering if you have any questions about communications, something you want to bring up. There's a lot more. I mean, there's a lot because it could be this is a little bit of communications, but there's also branding and marketing, and those are all different pieces of talking about how we're getting information out there and communicating with people. >> Thank you. That's a ton of work. >> Thanks. >> Nothing. No, it's interesting when we go to the conference because we have conversations and they're they're talking about education on on communicate communicating with your public and Whisper handles those and it it's really nice to know, right? Our jobs are made easier.
050The questions to us as board members are easier because the information is readily accessible, right? you're constantly pushing that information out when we were doing the referendum and all of those things where those that information was at our fingertips. >> I think it was like co that made me just stop and wonder how does a school not have this I'm a proponent like if there are any districts that you hear of that don't have this and they want someone to talk to about it. I'd love to because I think it's so necessary in schools now the more and co going through co like how could you do that without having somebody doing like actively communicating it was just so crucial in that moment um that pushed me far if we talk about like career-wise I
051mean co definitely pushed me farthest of anything else it was a crazy time but I am um just recently got asked to do they're whisper is starting they want to do like meetings by region and run some like webinar kind of stuff and they were looking for people per region to help host them. So I might be doing our region hosting some of those. So >> perfect. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> You want to Yeah. >> Just want me to unplug. Okay. Next, we move to February and March meeting dates. The February meeting date will be on the 18th at 6 p.m. in the boardroom. The March meeting is scheduled during spring break, which that's fine for me, but I suspect several people have other plans. So, we need to decide this
052evening if we would like to do it a week earlier, March 11th, or the week after March 25th. Um, I don't know if you want to check calendars or if you have something that kind of pops to your to your mind. Looking out in April, the April meeting will be April 15th. If you're looking for space, anyone for preference. >> I'm checking calendar. >> I should be good either way, but it'd probably be nice to get it done before spring break and not have to >> think about it. try and think about it and try and get back in the swing of things quite that fast. >> Um, what does that look like on our calendar for like regionals? >> I believe that they don't have I did look they don't have the um how
053do they have the dates? Regionals I think are earlier. >> It would be Wednesday night. Yeah, >> that might be the state. That might be state week. >> I'm saying there wouldn't be anything directly in there. >> Girls date is the 14th >> 13 14 15. >> So the weekend before they or boys after who started first this year? >> Girls go first. So that would be boys. That would be going into boys week. That one I believe you're talking about. Um or no, I'm sorry. I had that backwards. So that would be going into girls week before back it out. Go to >> state preference. M I would prefer to go March 11th, but like I said, I will be here anytime you all want to be here. I think the spacing works better
054than knowing that April is the 15th. >> I'll make a motion to have the schoolboard or move the schoolboard meeting to March 11th. >> Second. Um, we need it for both though since we're doing it. Can you do the um uh No. February standard. >> February is go ahead. Sorry, Brian. Okay. Uh, so yeah, so I I make a motion to uh move the board meeting, the March board meeting to March 11th. >> Second. >> Okay. We have a motion by Brian, second by Stacy. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I. >> I. Opposed. None. Motion carries. March 11th. Okay. Next, we move to declaration of candidacy for 2026 spring election. We have the declaration of candidacy for the 2026 spring election, having been received by Stacy L. Klene. Next, we
055move to consider approval of personnel report. We have an update this month with our hirings. Craig Mandley has been hired as head track coach and Andrew Brener, volunteer assistant track coach. And we have two retirements at the end of this school year. Terry Price, special education teacher, and Wendy Walker, special education teacher. Just a question, right? Two out of our staff is seems pretty significant. Is there a plan in place? >> We're working on it. >> Okay. >> Yes, we are right in the midst of it. >> Okay. Any questions or further on this? >> I just want to thank both Terry and Wendy for their service to the district. They've both been crucial components people in our special ed programming and they will be missed, but we are very pleased that they can go
056on to the next chapter of their retirement life. Wonderful. >> If there's nothing further, is anyone ready for a motion? >> I'll make a motion to approve the personal report as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Mitch, second by Josh. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I >> I opposed. None heard. Motion carries. Next, we move to consider approval to hold the winter dance off campus at the writer center. So, um, for the 2026 regional homecoming, I am requesting that we able to move the dance to the writer center. We did that for the fall and we had a bunch of positive feedback. So, normally I spend in the small gym here, which I think the rider center is just a more welcoming environment. Um, everyone just said
057that it was just easier to navigate. Um, it's just like a good middle ground and just the inside of it obviously is like perfect for busting something like that. So, the dance is on February 14th and then the times that we have is it starts at 7:30 and it would end at 10 p.m. Is there any questions regarding that? Did three legs support that event? >> Do they go to the event? Three legs PD. >> They typically do. >> Okay. >> Unless it's a sugar camp. >> Okay. Any other questions from the board on this? >> Assuming it's all that the dates available and all that. >> Yes. Okay. We promise Miss Libby hard questions. We're not uh we're not doing it. >> I will add too that recently Kelly Kading from the writer center
058notified the school that the writer center board has recently made a decision to wave any deposit fees for the school. uh they're very happy with the usage that our groups have gotten out of it and are telling us we don't have to chase a check over there to book the place. So that's really kind of cool. >> Board of trust from the writer center board. So if you know anybody on that board tell them thank you. >> Yes. Really appreciate that. As long as we're not abusing it for making sure that the facility is clean and taken care of. >> That's a big that's a big part on you guys. >> Yeah. set up teams for sure to make sure that everything's cleaned up that night, too, so no one has to go back the
059next day and everything's all good that night. >> Anyone ready for motion? >> I'll make a motion to approve the request to hold winter dance off campus at the writer center. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Stacy, second by Josh. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I. >> I. I. >> Opposed? None heard. Thank you, Miss Epler. >> Thank you. >> Just think you only have one more dance possibly to come up here. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Next, we move to L, which is consider approval of the new 2026 2027 course statistics. >> Okay, I will go with that one. Um, if you remember last month in the positive happenings, I notified the board or announced that uh Mrs. Dobbins had recently been uh accredited or credentialed through WGB
060to teach some math courses um that would get kids the the dual credit of having some collegiate credits for the math courses. Two of them are already existing in our course description book. One is not currently uh and that is statistics. Uh so here we are. Uh Mrs. Dobbins is here tonight to speak to any questions that may arise. Um, from my perspective, I completely support putting statistics in as a in-house option for our students to select. I know in past years we've got a handful of kids who uh to put in a football reference outkick our coverage in terms of math and they end up taking like a statistics class through Nicico, which is awesome. Uh, nothing wrong with that course. The only problem is uh they end up like for example this this
061first semester it was Mondays and Wednesdays 11 to 1. So now you have a kid who can't be in the regular courses during that time. It creates a little bit of a scheduling crunch to have it in house uh in person. Great option. Uh Mrs. Dobbins doesn't currently have a whole lot of open or any room in her scheduled day. However, we do have uh if we have student interest in taking uh in a semester uh the statistics course, we do have three individuals available to us who are math licensed individuals who we could lean on for some of the other courses. Uh they couldn't teach stats obviously that's got to be Gretchen, but um so we do have some flexibility for uh scheduling this should we have a significant enough student interest to run
062it uh in person. So staffing wise, we can do it. And Gretchian's here to answer. Go ahead. I'll I'll stop you. >> Um I think it opens up another pathway as well. So right now after algebra 2, really the only option for students to take inerson classes here at Three Lakes is pre-cal and then calculus, which is great for students going into the STEM field. um but to open up a statistics pathway um a lot of other careers outside of that um would be using a statistics course in their requirements for other degrees. So I think that is beneficial for our students just to have that option as well. And students could do both too if they you know want to double up in math. Um as seniors they can do calc and statistics. So
063just having that option is is nice. >> And for the collegebound student that does a lot when you walk into a four-year school and you've got some of those already knocked out in those college credits on your transcript. It's a big deal. It knocks It knocks the door down in a hurry when you're at the four-year school. >> It's a fun class, too. Actually, >> no one ever >> said no one. >> I enjoyed it. >> Maybe I had a good teacher, your professor, but I actually enjoyed that class. >> I love doing linear regression. It's my favorite. >> Beat it, nerd. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Any questions on this one? >> Thank you, Mrs. Dobins, for coming in um and speaking to it and being willing to >> um I think it's a good
064course to have an in person. >> Yeah. >> As well just for quality of instruction purposes. Anyone willing to make a motion on statistics? >> I'll make a motion to approve the proposed course statistics as presented. Second. >> We have a motion by Brian, second by Mitch. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I. >> I. Opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. Next, we move to I. Resolution establishing parameters for the sale of not to exceed 4,600,000 general obligation promisary notes. and Nikki is getting us up and running. Um Kevin Mullen will be joining us. Uh Kevin and Caleb and I have had several times together the last few weeks, whole new learning world with this, but uh this is going to look very similar to what you saw last year >> or
065last time we did the the original resolution and he's going to go through that with us. Hi, Kevin. >> Hello everyone. How are you? >> Hi Kevin. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for waiting in the the wings as we got a few things out of the way. Of >> course. No problem. Um I I feel like everyone is uh kind of situated and um ready for the agenda item. So I appreciate you letting me uh present um remotely. And can you hear me? Okay. Is this communication working? >> Yes. >> So, I'd like to share my screen. Uh, if that's okay. So, hopefully you can see that. >> Yeah. >> Um, and what I'd like to do is just update you. Uh so the resolution that you have in front of you tonight
066is the parameters resolution um for the second borrowing related to the referendum. And so you may recall we went through a presentation similar to this last year when you considered the first borrowing that the board was uh using to finance the first uh portion of the project. So tonight I just wanted to update you with regard to interest rates um to discuss the uh financing plan now that we have a better look as what that what that final piece is going to be and then uh give you a sense as to what the board action and the timeline looks like moving from here. So uh the first chart um you may recall uh I showed a chart similar to this the last time we were together. This is a chart that is the um 30-year
067history of a 20-year borrowing just to show you like the rough average in the direction of interest rates over that 30-year period of time. Uh again, the reason that it's important is twofold. One, to show you that you're borrowing at a point in time over that 30-year period of time. That's a relatively average interest rate environment. But if you look at the box in the upper right hand corner, um that's actually, you know, kind of a reflection of what's happened over the past year. And so in that year window, you can see this opportunity right now um is a relatively stable uh environment and also lower uh than where we've been for most of the year. And so we think that this is a good opportunity to enter the bond market. But mostly I wanted
068to just give you an update uh on the overall uh plan of finance for the referendum. So originally the goals were kind of four-fold. Uh the most important goal was to make sure that we maintained our promise to the taxpayers and that that impact was 58 cents or less. Uh and I feel really confident that we've done that. Um but then we wanted to minimize both your interest cost and along that way uh your interest rate risk. And so one of the ways that we mitigate risk uh in terms of entering the bond market is to give you control over when you go. And so this parameters resolution gives you the flexibility to enter the bond market when you think it's appropriate. Um, we also wanted to make sure that we borrowed uh in an
069orderly fashion so that you had enough proceeds to get construction going, but also were able to take advantage of reinvesting that to increase interest income while you were waiting for the project to be finished um while balancing that need against wanting to stagger this borrowing in a way that made sense for your taxpayers. Um, so the parameters resolution has a couple key components to it. Um, it sets forth the maximum borrowing amount as being $4.6 million. It sets forth a maximum interest rate, meaning that, you know, uh, we can't move forward if the interest rate is above 5 and a4%. Um, we've designated both the board president and the business manager as being the two people that can execute the authorizing certificate or approving certificate once all the parameters are met. And the goal of
070this parameters resolution is to give you flexibility with the sale date. Um, the other half of the page is just a summary of generally what we're expecting. Um, you may recall that we borrowed uh the first 17 million of the project at 4.66%. Um, and that compared to a planning rate of 5%. So, we were happy to beat that. Um, this borrowing, it's likely going to be at an interest rate of about 4.6% or lower. Um and so you know based on the planning rate of 5 and a4% for this piece uh we feel very confident again that this is going to meet your expectations. Um this borrowing when it's you know layered in with the uh second phase of the financing is going to result in a 21-year term. Um and we did that
071intentionally because these improvements are going to benefit taxpayers not only today but also you know down the road. So, the maximum amount of time that you're able to borrow is over a 20-year period of time, these two borrowings together, staggered over a year, result in a 21-year financing plan. Um, and the last thing that I want to mention here, uh, is that your, um, the value, uh, that we assumed year-over-year was growth of 1 a.5%. Obviously, the growth in uh, the school district over the last couple of years has been significantly above that. Uh but we still feel like one and a half percent is a good planning rate. Um the one thing I should mention is that um Caleb, Terry, and I were on um uh the rating call to update the uh school
072district's Moody's rating. We will have to get another rating again for this borrowing and we fully expect that we'll maintain that double A3 rating, which is a very good rating for a district especially of your size. So, I'm sure absolutely certain that this is impossible to read from where you're sitting, but I'll just briefly describe it. It shows both phases being layered in together with the actual interest rate on the 17 million and the annual payments at 4.66%. And then the 4 12 or 4.6 million at the assumed interest rate of 4.61% cobbled together so that you can see what that total looks like. And based on this plan, uh, and you know where we're at in terms of interest rates now that we know where we're going, um, that results in payments that will
073have a lower interest cost of about $1.6 million compared to the planning estimate. So, we know that that's going to be better than what was expected. And based on your current equalized value, that impact is really in the range of about 0.52 uh 52 cents per thousand compared to 58 cents per thousand. Um so a lot of information. I'll stop there for a minute. If anyone has questions, I'm happy to answer them. And if not, I'll just move on to the uh the last page, which is the um plan of finance and gives you a sense of what the timing is. Um so, as I mentioned, we uh had our bond rating call. We've uh had our uh disclosure call with bond council at um uh disclosure council. Um, tonight is the uh referendum or
074the resolution considering the authorizing uh resolution and the board uh has the ability to take action on that. Assuming that you take action to approve the authorizing resolution, we're planning on receiving the bond rating on Monday and then we anticipate being in a position to market the notes in the next week or so. Um and we really want the ability to be able to do that because you know again we feel good about where um interest rates are. Uh assuming those things fall into place, you'll actually have these proceeds in hand at the very beginning of March to begin paying additional uh project costs. And so really from the board's perspective, the only action necessary is this authorizing resolution. So I'll stop talking and again uh entertain any questions you might ask. Thanks. No questions.
075>> Brian, any thoughts from what you've seen in your world? >> No, I mean we're we're getting fortunate as far as the interest rates are are concerned and I think the rates that Gale has been getting on the back side have been favorable as well. So >> guessing game, I know, but >> appreciate you being here, Kevin. >> Absolutely. Well, I'll stick around in case there's this as the board considers the authorizing resolution and you know, uh if not, I can drop off after the um motion is moved be moved beyond it. Any questions, concerns, further discussion? Okay. Is anyone ready for a motion? >> A motion to approve resolution establishing parameters for the sale of not to exceed 4.6 million general obligation promisary notes. I'll >> second. We have a motion by Brian, second
076by Mitch. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I. >> I. Opposed. None heard. Motion carries. >> Thank you again, Kevin. >> Well, thank you guys very much. I appreciate it. And we'll report back once the sale results are final. So, thanks so much. Take care. Sounds great. >> Thank you. Thank you. Okay, now we'll hop back up to G. Right. >> Yes. Go to the staff calendar. >> Next, consider approval of the 2026 2027 school staff calendar. >> Okay. This is um very similar to what you saw last year. Um, it's important that we get it hammered out and in place so families can make their plans. And we just have a a uh limited amount of time. Believe it or not, Carrie and I u Mark and Steve and Justin
077were all really heavily involved in kind of securing who our um people will be when we need to do our professional development and our inservice training. everything from if we're wanting to do non-violent crisis or working with CISA, those dates fill up fast. Uh we have a few changes that I want to point out. This year, we're going to move our new staff orientation to the 11th and 12th of August. We decided in reviewing and reflecting on it, it's an awful lot to take in when you're a brand new staff member, when you're having to learn Infinite Campus and grading and your new digs and just the whole bit. So, we decided to put that a week in advance. Um, Mr. Busco's been very helpful with this and leading the charge in this program and
078we feel like we're going to even improve that a little bit better and having that separation in time gives more effort and specialized attention to them. So, then we'll bring all staff back on the 18th and 18th and 19th will be um inservice training days. The 20th is highlighted because that is going to be a paraprofessional specific training summit at season 9. We did it this year. Um the timing wasn't good but the the benefit was wonderful. Um the support staff really reported they've learned very very much about it. A lot of social emotional learning, how to handle different situations and we want to continue that. So, they will be in session on that day. And then we will be back the following week, the 25th, 26th, and 27th. That leaves the 21st and the
07920 um 8th open, those Fridays that are not scheduled staff days. Questions so far that you may have should look pretty similar. Uh we will do um then getting back September 1st is the start of school. that that is going to be the date. Um October we will be holding our professional development and our parent teacher conferences just as this year uh we got very favorable feedback with doing the Thursday night and Friday uh sessions. Uh so we want to continue with that some the end of the first quarter isn't reflected here but that would be November 5th when the we update the calendar that will be in there. um Thanksgiving break, we will be doing the three-day break. Again, there was interest by a few staff members. Uh I did share a survey with
080you as to some have expressed looking at wanting the full week off. We really um just feel it's more beneficial to get those first two days of the weekend. Um checking with the principles, attendance doesn't dip significantly because of hunting. There are some families that have the, you know, they have that option to take out, but we we have a lot more students present than gone. So, we want to continue with that format. Then looking at Christmas next year where it's on the 25th, we are going to go ahead and propose that we do the 21st and 22nd. That still gives us the um nice long break. Uh it was a very long break this year. uh staff supported that this calendar was favorable especially where the 23rd was an off day for them and
081families for traveling should they need to do that. Okay, that's the first five months. Any questions before we go on with that? >> Okay, January then we're back in session. The end of the semester will be the 21st with our professional development grading on the 22nd. February. This is uh unique the last couple of years due to the requirements of act 20 having to write the individual um or personal reading plans and wanting to have uh that conference section as we've done it before. There spring conferences early spring but we feel it's extremely important that we catch students who may need extra help and parent contact early on. So that looks the same. This is probably the biggest change. March, we're going to propose moving it that the the spring break is attached to the
082Easter holiday. Uh it works nicely for a couple of reasons. We can offer the 29th then as that Monday as a travel day for some who are, you know, maybe going further or making an extra an actual spring break. It almost buys us an extra day because the 26th, which is the Good Friday day, is then included in these days off. That was a lot of discussion, staff survey, discussion with other school districts. It's all over the board. Different districts are doing different things according to what works for them. So, um, we felt it worked best within our calendar. So, we would ask that would be the the way we could go with that one. >> Any specific questions on that? >> That fits fits the new testing schedule and all that kind of thing.
083>> Yes. Yes. Everything is right on par with that. April, we can add then an additional professional development day, which has been very difficult. Otherwise, by the end of February, we don't have any of those times available. This way, we can go ahead and have a nice wrap up of what we're doing, you know, looking beyond what we have to do before the year is done and starting to think about the following year. So, that will be in the schedule. And if we have a horrendous winter season, we can always take it back as a student in school in session day. That's my manipulative plan. Hopefully next year is going to be a great year and we won't have any days. So, we've done very well considering what's been around us. Uh then looking at
084May, uh just showing you the the graduation date of the 28th and June, we will still be out June 3rd. Again, if we don't have to do any makeup of time, which we should not have to, we have plenty of hours of instruction built into the calendar. However, I like to keep the caveat, yes, you may have hours of of instruction, but when you start to miss a certain number of days and you know, when you're getting to like 5 days miss, you're losing significant instruction time. And if that was the case, then we would have a discussion at the board level if we felt we needed to do something about that. What you don't see in this calendar is the afterchool one-hour professional development sessions. And we have committed as an admin team with
085the feedback of our staff that we are committed to doing a schedule that we can build that into the day. And it's going to take a little bit of finagling and I believe it'll be done with the right intentions. It'll take off some of the stress of child care or whatever else. our our staff has done a fabulous job with it. We have been very successful with it. So, it's not like eliminating something that's not working well. We just want to do it better, a step above and go to the true professional learning um community format and we're ready. We have gotten ourselves to that point that we're ready. So, do you have questions about that? >> So, is that on the feedback survey there's there's wording that is cut off. So was the >>
086it just exported that way >> which is fine. So I'd assume that like when we're looking at the green like 45% preferred adopting it within the schedule duty day versus after. Is that what I'm Okay. >> Yeah. And there was some that didn't care much more than I. >> Yeah. Just I have 20% preference. So >> right. >> Well I mean 33 people responded. >> Yeah. It only went to professional teaching staff. Okay? It doesn't go to Paris. It doesn't go to other employees. These are the people who are doing the professional development >> which would our total number >> that's not teaching staff >> un actual unprofessional staff >> 29 school district. Okay, here we are. >> Uh like teaching staff, we would be at >> when I had the and I had communication
087meetings where people where they came in and they shared and the overr writing decision where people didn't answer. It was I don't care. It's a professional contract. I'm going to be here. They were extremely supportive. Um, so I I I felt good about that. It's not like we missed we missed the group of people. I didn't feel >> I I I have no problems with the schedule as proposed that just the survey. Some of these questions are really I think would be better if we had a broader survey, not just the staff members or professional staff. I think that that would help. Like some of them are really I would like school start date and end date that I mean that's almost a community question instead of just a interior question you know. >> Well
088it was a very specific to staff in this survey because at the time that the survey came out the state was saying that sometime in January we would entertain they will entertain having a start of school date. What I was trying to seek is how would that hurt you with your contract as it's been the past few years. If that would have come to pass, we would have brought it as a community input type of of situation. It stalled out again and the couple of districts including North and Pines that didn't make the request because they were telling state was telling us everybody would be approved were immediately turned down. >> So once again >> Yeah. But if we would do a change like that, that would be something that we would go to more
089of a community approach. I think right now people are still used to it. It's working as long if they don't have to go into the second week of June. That's kind of the uh the caveat. Mhm. >> Any questions, feedback, concerns? Okay. Is anyone willing to make a motion on the staff calendar? >> I'll make a motion to approve the school staff calendar for the 2026 2027 school year. Second. >> We have a motion by Mitch, second by Stacy. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I. >> I. Opposed. None heard. Thank you for putting that together. >> Thank you. And uh we will work with Jen and get those get it polished up before we publish. >> Right. So they'll go into the public format then with all the um dates
090staffy stuff out of it. >> Okay. >> I throw out the other again I'll call it a caveat based on what we know about construction right now. We could always have a an emergency >> movement because of where we are status wise with building but feeling very confident with the timelines and the projections at this point. So, okay. Next, we move to consider designating number of regular education and special education spaces available for open enrollment applications for the 2026 2027 school year. We bring this to you every year in January. It's a state requirement that um we have to identify what seats we have available for both regular education and special education. Um the principles and myself and Carrie, we sit down and we look at it closely. We look at what we have for
091offering a program and services, what we have for staffing and truly what the needs are of our current special education population because as you know all things are not equal. um we have to really con keep that in mind and make sure that we're able to handle what we can in looking at our current programming. Um Carrie, would you like to speak to the special education first? >> Sure. Um Terry and I talked um and the principles I think we had that same con conversation as we were talking about gened space is available and special ed spaces available and um based on our our numbers and programming and what we're able to provide for our current student population we decided to keep that as a zero. So meaning not allow additional spaces for special ed
092at this time. >> Yeah, we felt that that was the best thing to do. Trying to be um very fiscally responsible. We're looking at our current structure of delivering services and with two retirements as you noted in elementary that might take some shifting and we want to keep that foremost in mind as well. And then with regular education, we have a crate of course. The numbers are never nice and smooth all the way across. Um I just thought that you would be interested in knowing our biggest classes right now. Um and I'm talking about combining when you look at both Sugar Camp and Three Lakes. Our second grade is a very uh large class. In fact, we have a double class here in Three Lakes. We then also our fifth grade is a larger class
093and our fourth grade is a larger class. Um it varies. Sugar camp goes up and down you know um and then three legs has some variation as well. Um we do feel we could accept open or not open I'm sorry um that we can go ahead and take the open enrollment students provided they meet the criteria and we have that specific policy in place with the criteria. Um, we have to be very careful about looking at our open enrollment applications, which we do, but we want to know the full story because we we have to make sure that we're not accepting a regular open enrolled student who's actually in the process of becoming a special education student somewhere else and then we you've said yes and then we are not prepared for it. So we
094are getting very very detailed about when we do our screening especially at the 4K level and K level and so what I would ask the board to do is as in past years to make the motion it's a mouthful but to go ahead and make the motion as it's listed there for you so we can go ahead and >> Do you want two separate or one together? >> I think it two separate motions would be the best. Okay, Carrie, I just have one more question. Um, I don't remember the percentage off the top of um my head, but what is our percentage? >> Uh, it's hovering around around 17 17 to 18%. >> Which is still higher than the >> Yeah, average is or ideally it's supposed to be around 10%. >> Okay. >> Yeah,
095state average is a little bit higher than that right now. >> Okay. So I guess that that answers my question. I was kind of thinking like so even if we would have a loss a net loss for next year it would still be like welcome to like we wouldn't replace one for one at this point if we if we >> right >> in specific to non-resident open enrollment not >> education >> correct but resident is different right >> this is just for yes >> non-resident open enrollment >> okay >> we still have to go through the process of reviewing those IEPs and >> yes, I guess we should probably mention that too. Even if we have this policy and request is made, Carrie still refuses it thoroughly. She and I talk about it and we
096look at it because we would never want it to appear and that's not legal to just say you're not welcome because this is your disability. We have to have justification for why we're doing what we're doing. >> Okay. Any further questions? >> So, the first motion um would be for the regular education. When ready, I'll make a motion to accept non-resident open enrolled regular education student applications for the 2026 2027 school year, provided they meet the established district criteria as there is adequate space in the current program. >> Second. We have a motion by Stacy, second by Josh. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I. >> I. >> Opposed. None heard. Motion carries. Next, we move into non-resident openen enrolled special education. I'll make a motion to not accept non-resident openen
097enrolled special education student applications for the 2026 2027 school year as there is not adequate space available in the current program. Second, >> Brian. >> Correct. >> We have a motion by Stacy, second by Brian. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I. >> I. Opposed. None heard. Motion carries. I Okay. Next, we move to consider approval of revisions to policies regarding the use of district property. Uh we already have a policy in place but uh working with um an Ellis and uh Justin Zeus and trying to be more efficient, we decided it was time to look at the policy and we are moving to online registering of facilities which made us look at forms and procedures and such. Um this is a very standard policy. It doesn't vary much at all.
098Uh what I would call to you to your attention is that we really strongly encourage the use of the facilities especially with district residents um and nonprofits. We want to continue that relationship. There's not an intention to charge fees or anything of that nature. We truly believe as a district they are paying for those services and we want them utilized. Um school activities are always going to take precedent. student first. Of course, that is our priority and just wanted to call that out. Um, got a little bit more information looking at the nonprofit organizations. We may charge a fee. That is very very rare. It um really comes into place if we have to look at additional custodial that we wouldn't be incorporating. Just so you know, like the Three Lakes Pumpkin Fest, we pay
099for that. The district provides that. they donate back significantly to the district. So, it is not like, oh, well, we're just footing the bill. No, it is truly a great collaboration. So, I want you to be aware of course. in reviewing this with um Josh today actually he called something to my attention which I would like to call to your attention on the last page where it says non-school activities under A1 there is a parenthesis there at the bottom of that first paragraph and it says elementary junior high and high school students will not be allowed to participate in facility use sessions involving members of the community who are no longer students in the above mentioned schools unless a student district or school district employee coach advisor is present for the session. I did double
100check this is from the original um which I would call old language. I would think it was probably written before that it was well established. I don't know that we need that. Um case in point I think of like the Wednesday night >> sugar. Yes, you will have high school students working with potentially staff members or no staff members, but it could be community. It could be our board president. It could be Mr. Crown. I don't think that this language serves purpose any longer. I didn't catch it when I read it through the first four or five times as to that implication, but I do think perhaps we would want to consider striking that parentheses language. thoughts or questions on that? >> I saw in here and I can't find it right now as I'm
101looking at it, but when I reviewed the documents, there was something about storage of equipment. >> Yep. >> And specific, I mean, I know that there's several youth organizations that store their basketballs and stuff within our school district. So, I mean, do we need to amend the language for that or are we going to make a sub item where that needs to be approved prior? >> We that has not been a problem. Where I think this refers to is truly like using our cooler spaces, things like the perishables um where we have more of a health code issue. We've always tried to make Christmas tree room for PTO to if balls need to be stored. That I don't think is a matter of anything here. if we needed to write administrative guidelines should it become
102an issue. Um you still give me the discretion to say yay or nay and it's always going to be a yes you know that their supplies can be there. So who's picking and choosing what organizations who's making that call who would get charged whether it's >> it would come to me if it was it would be the unusual you know it would be um like uh one example that came up this year which was an easy one to answer because the facility isn't available we're going to be in construction was like a outofstate bicycle group. They have like a a fulllength follow the Mississippi and stuff. It's not our local bike club, but um they had requested facility use. Now, if they're going to be using showers and we need to have custodial and stuff,
103there should be a fee that should be attached to that. And that's not showing here, but that is established already within our guidelines that we would let them know. >> I'm just seeing like people saying, "Well, you charge X," even though I don't know what the price you're charging would be. It's really fish wildlife using this for the basketball tournament. Riley, we've used Jill and Barb in the past, right? They must get paid. They must be volunteering their time. >> For anything local within our district, we don't we don't charge. There's I mean, if it was fish and wildlife or if it was some other organization, yes. If it's for profit, well, then that's different. We actually do fees very very rarely which is a match because now we have right like a facility that
104allows us to use um their facility for every dance that doesn't charge us. So it goes back and forth. >> What we can do is make amendment to this any way that you would want to or I can bring it back to you next month if you would prefer it to be rewritten. Can I strike what you want to give him that last paragraph that that doesn't pertain right >> I think we can easily do that without it having any implications >> the only other thought thing that I thought that I just want was curious if we want to put in there just to give us the ability I guess is you know a lot of contracts like this you know do we want to put in there something like school district has the right
105to alter change or cancel request at any time for any reason, but we'll do its best to honor, you know, request as presented. You know, there's there's always times where, you know, we might we might approve a nonprofit coming in, but all of a sudden due to scheduling conflict or weather or something like that where, you know, maybe one of the school teams, just say it's winter, we had a basketball game get cancelled or or we had a basketball practice get cancelled and they need that practice. So, do we want to write something in there that we can change if need be at any time? I think you have that though in the order of priority it says right like a so school sponsored activities would take precedence. >> So, if it's a reschedule, if
106it's if it's our students >> Sure. I just >> I I I get what you're saying. I agree. I got both sides. But I'm So I mean, here's my hypothetical. >> The pickle ball people are in here for 4 hours every Sunday. What if George or or Michelle needs that needs that gym? And I've I've dealt with them and I've had conflicts and they've been willing to work. But what if they're just like, "No, this is our gym." And they at least we could say, I mean, you can always say, "Yes, hey, it's school's priority." But sometimes the legal language is like better, >> right? >> Just like takes the argument away. >> Yeah. Cuz this, you know, it says that, you know, we could approve it, but it doesn't say anything about being able
107to >> change after the fact or or alter or like you said, they they've been great in the past, but you just and not saying them that they'd be the problem. It might be Yeah, it might be somebody out of the air. No, no, no, no. I've got my signed document here. >> Well, we can certainly add that language to it. We could we could do reision revisions and bring it back to the next meeting. >> I would be okay to approve it with the suggested revisions without having to bring it back. I mean, that would just be my >> I just think we have it's some redundancy, right? Because we we have the determination by district policy and procedures only at times as the facilities are free, right? Do you want a cancellation clause?
108Maybe it just covers >> language, >> right? The right to refuse service >> because it to me it reads like, hey, if if there's a conflict, we're going to always go for it. But again, at that after the fact, you could >> Mhm. Got it. >> And maybe we invite them, right? Like maybe we invite them to the table too to have a conversation. Like it it might be good to have the conversation. >> Which group? There's 26 groups. >> All of them. And it's not saying we're going to like it's the same thing as the fees, you know? It's not saying we're going to. It's not saying it's going to happen. It's just the >> it's just the what if and something can be simple. >> Make a motion. >> Are you comfortable with
109>> the suggestions? >> Absolutely. >> Okay. on one or both. Do you want two separate or you comfortable? >> You can make it as one. Okay. >> So, I'll make a motion to approve the re revisions to the policy 834 public and community use of district property and policy 834 rule procedures for the use of school facilities and equipment as uh with the amendments as stand. >> Second. We have a motion by Brian, second by Stacy. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I. >> I opposed. None heard. Motion carries. Okay. Next, we move to consider approval of four and 5year-old kindergarten and first grade admissions policies. This is again very similar to what we've had. uh wanted to specify some dates. First of all, looking at four-year-old kindergarten, we are going
110to stand with that we do know we do not do early admittance to four-year-old kindergarten. They must be four on September 1st. Um I can tell you that by the testing we've done and some of the situations we've encountered not recently but you know in the last five six years um four-year-olds come in at such a wide range that we really feel we have to stick with that because we they are the unknown. We do not know what's coming in with their these little persons and we have to learn them. So then that is kind of set. Then moving into then kindergarten. Um we go with the state as September 1st. However, the district has always had a 30-day uh policy that if they were within 30 days that they could be considered. So we
111wanted to really polish this up. We spent a lot of time um Mark, Steve, and Carrie um and myself really going through this because there have been some unusual situations and again we're really looking at are they ready completely ready and what is best for this student. Um the way that the examples were written, a district could say up through December 1st if they wanted to. We feel that's getting four months. That's getting too wide of a range. we're actually looking at that birthday that might be that September 12th or that September 15th and you know that child has had really rich experiences and they're ready to go to school. We wouldn't want to close that door. Um and then in first grade also state law is that students by age six will be in
112first grade. However, you will have situations where a student might be coming from out of state. They maybe have not had an experience and we want to be able to make sure that we are placing the student in the most appropriate place. What is really outlined through this policy is getting more deeply into the procedures we would follow so that appropriate placement would be made and we wouldn't just put somebody in a in a grade level and it's done. You know, we're going to continue to work with those parents and see where things are at. Um really good rich conversation. It's amazing as you can probably imagine in a kindergarten classroom what you'll even see then in a group of 5-year-olds. And we want to stick close to the actual dates described at a state
113because if you're starting to get 23 months between a group of students in a kindergarten or first grade class, that's a significant change in social emotional learning as well as academic learning. And uh individually, we can always work with a student and their family. Should they need to be advanced or should they need to be considered for additional services, we would do that as needed. So I I mean it's it looks like it's a really long and hefty group of policies, but as I just wanted you to know, it's not different than what we've been doing other than we are much more specific about how we would handle it. Also timelines. If we would have somebody coming moving in and say they move in during the summer and they're like, "Well, we really believe our
114child should be in early enrollment." Well, it has to be within 60 days because we would have to be doing testing. We'd have to have professional staff involved. We would want that placement made. So, we want that all delineated before it hasn't happened, but you never say never. Do >> you have any specific questions about um our enrollment policies? Okay. Is anyone willing to make a motion on this? >> I'll make a motion to approve policy 421, admission to kindergarten and first grade entrance age and 421 rule conditions, standards, and procedures for exceptions to age other admission requirements for kindergarten or first grade as presented. I'll >> second. >> We have a motion by Josh, second by Mitch. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I >> I opposed and heard. Thank
115you. >> Thank you. >> Next we move to building project update. >> I can keep this very brief but tell you that things are going very well. Um the bidding process came in right where that should or slightly under. So, we were really pleased with that little bit of flexibility there. It's really reassuring to know we're not looking at more than we were thinking in costs. Um, the board and has had given myself and Caleb permission to work directly with Nexus. I can tell you in case there's any questions now as it comes out in the public, we were able to go with a low bidder in every situation. Um when we spoke with Jared, you know, he would go through what the bids were and stuff and we didn't even necessarily know who the
116bids were. And then when we were talking more about it, it was like, oh yes, cuz I had right from the start, if you recall, I had said there would be some preferred biders if possible in our local area that we would like to give consideration. And he was just as pleased as punch to say, well, they were the low bidder. So, it worked out very nicely. Um, in doing our our um due diligence call, it came up two different times in the last couple of days that the process that we did was appreciated because it took the board of education out of a potential conflict of interest, especially with the Pitlick and Wick. That's a large contract and their bid was significantly better than the other one. But where we would have Josh here,
117of course, he would have removed himself from making that decision, but it took it out with any kind of um scrutiny that way. Um it looks like things are moving. We've already got a trailer here. We are planning on starting our uh first phase as soon as spring break. You guys might be coming back to seeing some things going on. Um, we're looking at getting the lunch situation squared away in sugar camp, how we're going to handle that. Caleb and I will be meeting with everybody and um, more to come on that. It might be a little bit of a variety as far as doing some cooking here, doing some cooking at the sugar camp facilities back and forth. It depends on the day and what other needs there are. Um, we really want to
118bring Sarah in and custodial and Jill and Caleb of course is helping direct this with myself and what is the most efficient, what is the most cost effective and still giving our kids good nutrition. It's not going to be great. It's going to be clunky. There's going to be days when it's more like it's a Tuesday, we can't get that facility. is going to be more of your low-key, you know, I want I don't want to call it the big lunch, but it's not going to be the wonderful turkey dinner that they sometimes have for us. But we have our eye on the prize. It'll be shortterm. The goal is to have that kitchen facility up and running full speed for the start of the next school year. I think it's been very good. The
119contractors have been here um really great experience. so far with um Eric Eric Radkkey from Nexus. He's the supervisor, the site supervisor, and um the other folks that have been here have been very accommodating. We've been able to have ongoing conversations and I think that we made the right move and I'm feeling very confident for for you as the board and for us as a community that it's really going to be moving now. >> It's wonderful. >> Great. any more feedback reference this from the community? I know some of us have fielded some things along the way and concerns, but has there been any more since our last meeting? >> Concerns regarding >> just just overall complaints or concerns from the community. I know Caleb was fielding a lot of those for us. >> Just
120just the two that you guys know about the one at the meeting and then the email. >> Okay, >> that was it. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions or feedback regarding this item? >> Was glad to see it come in under projected >> under. Yes. Yes. >> I a good a good sum. It was nice. >> I was able to talk to a blast from the past for some Richard Parks. >> Richard Parks. He was at the basketball tournament on Saturday and he now works as a consultant for washer conception out of river >> and they they won part of the >> Sure. >> So >> that's weird conversation. >> Sorry if you're watching. >> Old principal used to be the principal here for several years. So he was my principal. >> Okay. Um, thank you
121for your continued work, Caleb and Terry, and all those assisting. >> Um, it's going to be exciting for the community to start to see some movements, right? They've we've gone through the whole process, but now to see things in action is really going to be great. >> And I would say, in case you're asked the timeline, um, you know, the projected is that we're done August 31st, 2027. That's 16 months. I mean, when you look at it that way, that's fast moving. And I think that is remarkable. We'll see if it happens, but we are we're banking on it. >> Perfect. Thank you. Uh, next we have school forest camp 3 update. >> I did speak again today with um Dawn from Stadler and um they are still awaiting a decision. there has been no
122no further movement and so the litigation is still with that court and she said it would be a considerable amount of time yet. Um the court of appeals has not yet ruled uh we expect it to still take some more time before we receive the opinion. So that is the update on that >> thoughts because of time frame of having this removed in the future unless there is some type of actual movement >> off of the agenda. >> Correct. >> That is up to you. That is at your discretion. >> I think it's good for the community to know, but we continue to have it on our agenda as an item with uh kind of no news. It could be in litigation for years. It could be at this point. >> All right. We will
123make a note of that and should there be something to report, we will bring it back. >> It's just giving you extra work each month for Y. >> And I would say that applies to any positives, you know, any changes out there or >> Yeah. Okay. >> You know, that would work for that, too. >> Absolutely. I'm just happy we're using >> Well, it's freezing right now, but we're going to be using it. >> Okay. Next, um, >> going to need a heck of a piece of equipment to get in there right now. >> Next, we move to WASB correspondents and updates. >> You'll see a survey link. It's the that survey tool. Um, we didn't do it recently. I would like you all to go ahead and take the survey. Again, you can be
124a very novice basic, answer it truthfully. It gives us good feedback to figure out where we might want to do some professional development training if we want to bring in um WASBY to do some training with us in the future. If you could do that, I would say within the next month or two, then by, you know, towards the end of the school year, we could make some decisions as to what we want to do with that. Uh if you need help with it, just give myself or Nikki a call. It's very self-explanatory. Um, one thing for all of you, um, I did bring back my packet from the delegate assembly. Um if you have any interest, I I made a mark on each of the resolutions to say if they passed or failed. Um
125similar to the last couple years, um the the delegation has been unwilling to bring any um disapproved resolutions to the floor. Um there's some contention and arguing. Overall, it's it was pretty smooth. Um again um we'll have that awkward conversation again next year but if anyone's interested right in the in the process or going to that delegation it is an interesting experience to just kind of get a >> understanding of overall in the state what people are thinking. um one of the most contentious topics um that really has nothing to do um with our schools, but it was limiting the membership for WASB, which would have been a cost savings to schools. um that would essentially have school boards be able or school districts be able to be WSB members and um get the benefits
126um of WASB but not be voting members in the delegation or resolution at a lower fee for the school district um overall as a delegation that was argued for a significant period of time but it was ultimately turned down um so there is no change in membership to WSB for school boards Um if you're a member um you're a full member no rate of pay difference. So everyone will be have a voting member um at the state education conference in the delegation. So outside of that if any of you want to look at the packet I just put past if it would pass or not. So all right if there's nothing else next we move to adjournment. Do we have a motion? >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Josh,
127second by Stacy. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I. >> I. I. Opposed. Motion carried. Thank you everyone for coming. Stay warm. Temperatures are getting better.