Three Lakes Board of Education July 2025 Meeting

001here. Good evening everyone. Hello and welcome to the July meeting of the Three Lights Board of Education. 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, we'll move into the administrator report on the agenda posting and notification of the meeting to the media. >> The agenda was posted at the Three Lakes School and Sugar Camp School via email, the town of Three Lakes, Town of Monaco, Town of Sugar Camp, and the Denver Library. Media notified via email included the Vias County News, Northwoods River News, WRJ News, WXPR Radio, and media notified by mail, WACD, WATK radio. Thank you. Do we have any

002amendments for the agenda? >> No. Hearing none, uh, can I take a motion on approval of the agenda as presented? >> I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Second >> motion by Stacy, second by Mitch. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> Motion carries. Next we move into minutes for the June 18th, 2025 regular meeting. Is there any additions or subtractions to those minutes? If there are none, when ready, I would take a motion for approval. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Stacy, second by Brian. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I. >> I. Opposed. Motion carries. Next, we move into the treasurer's report. >> Motion to

003approve the checks dated June 12th, 2025 through July 9th, 2025 for accounts payable checks number 24250308. Number 242500338. Regular checks number 131255 through number 131325. and manual checks number 5886 through number 5909 in the amount of $685,84.78 and a payroll checks number 90046063 through number 90046252 and regular payroll checks number 59430 through 59432 in the amount of $260,0008 260,811.885 for the total amount of $945,9963. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Mitch, second by Josh. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I. >> I. Opposed. Motion carries. Next. Are there any public comments um from visitors regarding any of the agenda items? >> Go ahead, Mr. Coach. >> Um first I want to say thank you for allowing us to do our cross country camp which we take off for tomorrow.

004Um I was just in Rlander picking up uh our shirts and food and all that. So I'm not going to stay very long because I got to go prep for all of that. Um, but if you would allow me, and I know a lot of school boards only allow a couple minutes for public comment. Um, with your permission, I'd like to take a little longer with that if that's okay. Um, so, uh, thank you for this opportunity. I'm obviously no stranger to board meetings, but I'm coming in a little different capacity today. As both a teacher who wears several hats and a parent of three students, yeah, students in the district, there have been several things on my mind of late. I've raised some of these concerns at various times and in different venues during

005my time here in Three Lakes, but I believe it's time to take my concerns a step further. While I have no doubts that I will ruffle some feathers, it's not my intention to do that, but I believe that's probably a probable outcome. I do this primarily to help you be aware of several things as you make various policy decisions over the coming weeks and years. What ties most of my concerns together is the use of technology, but it certainly relates to education as a whole. This is particularly poant. This is a particularly poant issue today since technology completely surrounds us and it seems nowhere more than in schools. For my purposes tonight, I'll define educational technology or edtech as a studentf facing devices which would include computers, laptops, tablets, cell phones, smartwatches as well as

006the software deployed on them. Unfortunately, I unfortunately, and I paraphrase someone much more intelligent than myself, edtech is the largest human experiment ever conducted, and it's been a disaster. We were promised that this technology was the future of education, that it would revolutionize the classroom, that students would be more engaged and therefore learn more. We are now more than a decade in, and the edtech optimism is fate is fading as the academic benefits haven't been delivered. Global test scores have been in decline across the board. Often this downward turn is linked to COVID, but the decline actually started back in 2010 at about the same time that one one devices were being put in the hands of students. It just accelerated during the COVID lockdowns. In fact, the results are so bad that Sweden, usually

007an early adopter of progressive ideas in education and generally touted as one of the best education systems in the world, said in May of 2023 that we were all so wrong in regards to edtech and that it would significantly reduce student devices and start using hard copy books and handwritten note takingaking. >> Study after study shows the negative impact of student technology used in the classroom, but it's usually lost amongst the sale pitches for the next best thing. When Sweden saw their scores drop and determined that it was being caused by technology used in the classroom, they made the bold move to remove it. They knew that more learning happened with paper and pencil than with screen and keyboard. So, they made the necessary changes. Usually, at this point in the discussion, we hear three

008excuses of why we can't remove technology from the classroom. I'm taking these excuses from a researcher named Jared Cooney Corvette. The first is digital devices have so much potential. This is what I call the tech is the future excuse. Unfortunately, potential is only what something could be, should be, or what we hope it will be. It is not what something actually is. Perhaps someday some technology will revolutionize education, provide a truly positive impact. But today is not that day. In fact, by using the word potential, these arguments are acknowledging that it's not currently the reality. Two, digital devices are ubiquitous. Or the they ain't going nowhere excuse. I'm going to give you a list to illustrate a point. Health insurance, taxes, video games, dating, marriage, divorce, mortgages, litigation, potholes in Wisconsin. These are all things

009that are ubiquitous. But just because something is ubiquitous doesn't mean that it needs to be taught in school. Some of these things should perhaps be taught in school. However, saying that atomic should be taught at school does not mean that all of these things should be taught through that topic. I see merit in teaching the use of technology. We use it all the time in the fab lab. However, determining what should be taught is different from how something should be taught. Curriculum is the what and is not the same thing as pedigogy. The how. Unfortunately, in regards to technology, we've confused the two and by adopting the technology, it created a de facto change in pedigogy. This change has been pushed nearly across the board of the educational establishment, including the federal government, DPI, the

010curriculum publishers, and even here in our school. I believe that we should be teaching computer skills. I would be thrilled if our students learn basic file management. They should be learning keyboarding. Our students typing skills, unfortunately, are not great. Microsoft Office etc. But it doesn't follow that we need to change everything else that we teach to achieve this goal. And yet that is exactly what's happened in education. The third is that schools are using digital devices incorrectly. This is the it's all the teachers fault excuse. The OECD or the organization for economic cooperation development did an international review of the impact of computers in education. So they looked everywhere and they looked at hundreds and hundreds of studies um internationally for this. After looking at the findings they concluded that the building deep conceptual understanding

011and higher order thinking requires intensive teacher student interaction. Teacher student interaction is vital and unfortunately screens get in the way of that. Studies continue to show that student use of technology for learning isn't the panacea that we were promised. In the US, governments spend more than $30 billion each year on edtech, but we're not getting the promised returns. In fact, studies show that investing in air conditioning provides a greater positive impact on student learning that edtech does. >> Mr. Coach, I really appreciate what you're saying. We're at five minutes now. I would be more than happy for you to leave your information so that we can review the rest of it. >> And I understand I knew it was going to go long. And do you have any suggestions based on the agenda item tonight?

012>> I don't have specific things and I know you asked for comments on agenda items. Um this does relate to AI which I have some information in here on. Um but also just in general the overwhelming amount of time our kids spend on the computers and on screens. I don't think it's good for them. Um, and I don't think as a teacher, certainly it can be useful. Um, but I think as a teacher, we've become over reliant on it. And I think a lot of times we end up doing a lot of teaching via YouTube than actually teaching ourselves. I will leave this with you. Um, >> and really appreciate you coming in and having the conversation. >> And again, I understand time lives, sir. You guys are probably going to be here late already

013on this one. >> Thank you. >> So, um, as I said again, thank you for allowing us to do our cross country. Um, I'm going to leave because I got a lot of work to prepare for. So, thank you for the opportunity. >> Thank you, Mr. Coach. Safe travel. >> Have fun. [Music] >> Okay. Any other public comments? Okay, next we'll move into administrator's report, capital building project update. Okay, I'm going to be very brief and I'm going to rely on Caleb other than to tell you 17 blank million dollars has been put into our funds. The money has processed. So, that first step is done. Um, Caleb, did you want to share any additional >> I'll send out um where that money is going tomorrow morning. Everything should clear tomorrow morning. Um, and then

014I'll send you out exactly where that's going and a little email about um how that's how that's going. >> Yeah. >> Which I think is I never knew there could be so many people involved in your world, but I mean it's it's gone I would say well. There's been some a little bit of back and forth, but as smoothly as it could be, I feel very confident with the guidance we've gotten with the folks that have been working with us, and it just feels good to know that that part of the process has gone out for bid. The bonds are out there and and things are moving forward for us. I'll just say um on Tuesday morning I met with PMA and we developed a strategy um where we've got uh where we're meeting those

015spend down uh requirements so we don't have arbitrage um and then we're basically splitting it between like uh keeping it liquid in that whisk so we can pay the bills now and then what we think we can put into CDs for the longest amount of time possible to earn the maximum return there and then if we need kind of an in between option We're looking at uh treasuries kind of at the back end uh where we can break that treasury a little bit easier than breaking a CD if we would need to have that liquidity. So, it's kind of balancing off all those three things. And like I say, tomorrow morning after it's all official, I'll get you the numbers on where that's all going. >> Okay. >> Thank you, >> Terry. I have a

016little addition, too. So, the referendum website is back up and rolling. >> Okay. Um, we re re-uped the same URL that was being used during the voting process in the referendum and now it's a project update. So, it shows percentages where we're at with um the design phase and then as construction begins, those percentages will track also. So, it's tied to a spreadsheet from Nexus that's showing the tracking there. We have just basic information on there right now. We can add more as we go along, but that is available now and starting to roll. So, >> perfect. Thanks, Jen. >> Anything else on the capital building? >> Nope, that's it for today. >> Okay, we will move into new business starting with August meeting date. >> Our um board administration staff retreat is scheduled for

017August 15th at 8:00 a.m. in the elementary LMC and we've got that slated from 8 to 12. And then our regular monthly meeting is August 20th at 6 PM in three lakes here at the boardroom. >> So we already took action at the June uh board meeting regarding the staff retreat. Be that's a regular monthly meeting. Um we will not need action. Next we go into um consider approval of the personnel report. >> We have a hiring. We've hired Adam Udzinger for the business education teacher and we have two resignations. Megan Rebrand from Three Lakes Elementary Library aid and paraprofessional and Daryl Dorpat Three Lakes custodian. >> Any ideas on why? Just moving along. >> Daryl is retiring. He's of age and that was his plan. And Megan has accepted a job um with Little

018Sprouts Daycare and her passion is the the Littles. So, she's very excited. >> Well, congratulations and thank you for their service. Uh when ready, I'll consider a motion. >> I'll make a motion to approve the personnel report as presented. Second. >> We have a motion by Stacy, second by Josh. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I >> I opposed and heard. Motion carries. Next we move into final enrollment for the 2024 2025 school year. Every summer we bring this to the board to take a look at to see what our final summary looks like. Um we had 517 students enrolled, 75 incoming open enrolled and 65 outgoing open enrolled students. We are still at special education students of 91 and students who are attending RVA this year were nine. Any questions

019or consideration? >> Nice to have had the increase during the year. >> We've had busy inquiries. Our open enrollment is ticking up. So, >> great. >> Always positive to see that. any estimates of what the 25 26 >> I think we're going to have more open enrollments in than out and they're at the 4K um level again and also we have some returning students high school level that have gone other places and are choosing to come back >> come back >> I know we were heavy on the 4K in kindergarten last year does it do those kids look like they're still sticking around. >> Yes, they're staying. >> Good. Good. Okay. Next, we'll move to consider approval of health insurance provider security health plan renewal. >> Okay, Caleb and Corey, I'm going to let you

020take over. Caleb, do you have any preliminary? >> No, I'll just let uh Corey take over. Um, well, as as you know, it's it's always one of our largest costs and it's one of those things that keeps you up at night when you're staring down double digit increases. And so, I think uh we've got a plan that can keep kind of what we've got going going while also um limiting how much of an increase we're going to see next year. So, that I'll I'll give Cory some documents. I'll start this one on this side. So, so my name is Corey Palmer with M3 Insurance. We work with the school district, do a lot of work with Terry and Caleb kind of behind the scenes throughout the year. And just to walk you through where with

021the renewal, um we did look at alternate market options this year. Um WCA, which you've been with in the past, WPS and Anthem all declined to quote because they couldn't come in competitive pricing. Aspires Health Plan did come in with a proposal, but they were looking at about a 13% increase over your current rates for a similar plan. So, we really stuck with Security Health Plan. And one thing I wanted to point out is we have two forms here. This first one that says medical loss ratio. Um, this is really important because when your renewal is calculated, they're looking at how much claims were paid out versus premium you build in. So if you look at the numbers, um it's always a couple months behind. So this isn't as accurate as data as we'd love,

022but they're always a couple months behind the numbers, but had some larger months, but recently there was some pretty significant claims that were paid out in February and March. So it made it it put us in a tougher position to really try to leverage renewals, other carriers, and things because we unfortunately had some some pretty big claims that came through the district during those months. So that was one key point in in the renewal process that um because those hit so close to the renewal period, it it takes some of that leverage away that we play in the market. So we had to work with where we were at and um if you flip over first of all any questions on this how you read it's pretty basic. It shows you enrollment per month. How

023many subscribers are your employees? Members are all their covered family members plus the employees. And then build premium is how much you paid in premium that month and expense is claims they paid out. Um and when it talks below there on IBNR is not included. What that means is when they actually underwrite you and look at your future renewals, they take claims that they know are coming in or highcost conditions that they know are going to have significant claims in the next 6 months to 12 months. Those aren't incorporated into here. But we do know that some of the individuals on your plan have some significant claims that will bring some bigger claims in through the remainder of the year as well too. Any questions on this form at all? Okay, then I'll switch over

024to this one. Um, just a real quick refresher. I know some of you are very familiar with Security Health Plan, others may not be. Um, but you guys are with security health plan and what we call their broad premier network. So, you'll notice, you know, I have that circled with some of the major hospital systems. Um the big thing here is you guys have a lot of aspirus utilization. You still have some a good degree of Marshfield and then you have a scattering of other provider systems throughout the state. So we see UW, we see Mayo, we see a lot of those other systems throughout the state being used. So you can restrict networks, you can save premium that way. Um but we would have disruption in your population if you guys went to a

025narrowed type of network option. So there's always a cost reward for that. If we went to a restrictive network that say just allows Aspirus or just allows Marshfield Clinic, yes, we can shave on premium in those cases, but you're going to have some of your members that are going to have to find alternate providers because they're using those other systems. So, that is the system there today. That doesn't include all the other specialty providers that are there when you talk about chiropractic care. Um, bone and joints, GIS and all those aren't on this list. It's just showing the major systems. Page two, um not going to go in detail, but this is just some things that are included in your program with Security Health Plan. Um Security Health Plan does a really good job of

026preventive care coverage. They run it a little differently than a lot of carriers where they don't charge extra on a lot of preventive visits for having conversations about weight loss, smoking, sation, things like that. So they are a more inclusive model on preventive care which we find a lot of your members really enjoy versus some other carriers that do charge extra for those things that come up from preventive visits. Um so again not going to go over those but there are some other features with security health plan program that we found pretty popular with with employees. So the next page um this is your current plan. So, what we're looking at here is is if you kept everything the same, kept the deductible the same, um, and kept the out of pockets the same, security

027health plan was coming in at about a 7.2% total increase. Now, one thing that changes is because you guys are an embedded plan, which means if you have a family on your if you have if I'm covering a family, each member of my family has an individual cap. So, for instance, if I'm a family of five and I have a $50,000 claim, I don't have to pay that whole 6,400 for my claims because I'm one member of the family. I cap out at that 3,200. It would take other members in my family to have claims to ever get us to that family cap. So, that's what the embedded status means is that there's individual caps within members of your family on what they can spend. So, one reason I'm talking through that is because this

028plan is actually getting retired by Security Health Plan because the IRS really governs that embedded status and they increase that minimum deductible each year. So, if you flip to the next page, you'll see the actual true renewal option for your plan and that actually increases the single deductible from 3200 to 3,300 and the family total from 6,400 to 6600. So again, there's a slight decrease in premium increase because you're lowering the risk that security health plan has to pay, but you are increasing the liability there. Now remember, your employees aren't seeing that full deductible responsibility because the district reimbures the lion share of that deductible. So as an employee on the plan, if an employee is on single coverage, they pay the first $500 towards that deductible, then the district reimbures everything else up to

029that $3,200 or $3,300 deductible. So really the reimbursement program is is working well and it's saving those employees from an increased out-of- pocket expense. Same thing on the family, the max the family can pay out is $1,000 in deductible responsibility. Then the reimbursement arrangement picks up everything over that. So when you look at this really that increased deductible here, if you wanted to keep your employee responsibility the same where they pay the first 500 for single, first a thousand for family, it's really the school district that would be picking up the difference in that deductible through your reimbursement program. So we know your utilization. Not everybody is blowing through their deductibles in any given year. So yes, that's an added expense for you through your reimbursement program, but we don't think the cost is significant

030um for that difference there and it allows you to keep that embedded status with those deductibles. So you have those individual caps in your family. So that is one option if you wanted to keep the structure the same. On the bottom there, you'll see pharmacy benefit. And basically what happens is today whether you have a medical expense or a prescription, everything counts towards that deductible. So there's no co-pays until that deductible is satisfied. If it's satisfied. So let's say today I don't have any claims and I go in and pick up a prescription. If that prescription is $74, I pay $74. That counts towards my 500 deductible for the year. When that changes is if a member hits their in this case $3,300 deductible or as a family 6600 then today they have no more

031medical claims. They're done with medical claims. They're covered at 100% by security health plan. But what they can have is you see that maximum out of pocket is $1,000 more than the deductible for single and 2,000 more for the family. today if that deductible is met and only if that deductible is met then further prescriptions for the remainder of the year go on to a co-ay status. So if you had a significant claim you pay your $500 the district pays the remainder of that deductible and you go to fill a prescription after that point then that prescription you're going to have to pay that $10 $60 co-pay at the pharmacy when you pick up that prescription. those co-pays will continue as long as you have prescription for the remainder of the year up until you've

032paid out an additional $1,000 as a single or $2,000 as a family. So that's how it sits today. That would be pretty much the same because it's a,000 and 2,000 extra today. That wouldn't be changed at all um if you looked at this first plan option. The plan that we are um you know recommending to the district to look at is a very similar structure meaning the deductible is the exact same as what I just went through. Co-pays work the same way, but in addition to paying co-pays after meeting that deductible, you would also be responsible for 20% of any medical claims after that deductible. So, in the end, you still can have a maximum additional $1,000 out of your pocket per single or 2,000 per family. But instead of only getting there with co-pays,

033if and when that happens, you could also get there by paying 20% of any medical bills up combined with those pharmacy co-pays to that same additional maximum of $1,000 for single and 2,000 per family. So essentially what this is doing is it's keeping the max liability for your employees the same. There's no change from today and the max liability out of their end. Where you will see a difference is if someone has a significant deductible claim today they were done with that unless they had co-pays for pharmacy prescriptions they pick up today they would be responsible for um 20% of those medical claims to accumulate to that $1,000 and $2,000. So, when we're looking at it, yes, um there's a little bit more potential that employees have a little bit more out of pocket than

034they would today, but when we look at the premium savings, it's a pretty significant number and difference in that premium where we think it's pretty justified because you're still capping that topend risk that your employees have and keeping that the same as today. I'll stop and let you guys ask questions on any of that. [Music] So, just going over that again, their actual while their deductibles and their maxes are here, their actual out of pockets aren't actually these prices, right? You said you said 2,000 and or a,000 and 2,000 is their actual >> Yeah, because the the thousand is the difference between the deductible and that out of pocket max. That's that's what you were referring to there. Got it. >> So the out of- pocket maximum is the same as is today. It's just

035how you can acrue to that number is that it's changing. >> Got it. Just refer to that part. Okay. >> Has there been any conversations or understanding from the staff that >> No, we've just gotten these within the last two weeks. your recommendation missing the renewal option too. Well, um I think I'll let Caleb speak to that a little bit too. We want to stay as close to what we have now. it would be the first option and that comes in at the 6.7 which is fairly good I think when you're looking at 13 15% as the norm. Um, we would have hoped for more bargaining power, but as you could see that the last two months of claims that the data is based on had some very high uh claims as Corey has explained

036to us though those are like one-time incident events. So, we don't foresee that continuing. Of course, we can never protect the predict the future, but that did have an impact in our bargaining power because up until that last two reports, we felt we were in a really strong place. The second option is favorable for the district, but again, we always want to look at taking care of our employees. If I understand correctly from what Corey has explained to us when we've been talking really it's going to be for that employee who might have a more significant event that's going to increase that extra through the co insurance. Am I correct? And with our prescriptions it really probably won't have a big impact. Do I understand that >> the prescriptions would would run the same way

037as they are today. So that won't have any impact if someone doesn't have large claims and they only have those prescriptions after being deductible. That will feel and act the same way. It truly will only impact a small segment of of employees that would have a larger claims year where today if they didn't have prescriptions, they're capped out. They pay their 500 or thousand for family and then they don't see anything else in addition to that where today they could pay up to that additional $1,000 or 2,000 as family for medical claims if they had some significant claims in any given year. And and the reason we look at this option sometimes too is there there's nothing fair in healthcare or health insurance and how it works. But this way it keeps the premiums low

038for the large majority of employees. Those that have large claims, they're going to pay a little bit more in that year, but it keeps the premium base down for the entire population. So just one way to look at it, but again, it's it's really where you guys feel it's best spent. But that's why we wanted to present that option to you guys review. Is it did you any do any sort of comparison um from you know a high payer this year what that would look like on the new plan? >> Does that make sense? >> So So yeah, I mean there there are going to be employees on your plan that today didn't have much for prescription utilization and really just had their their $500 or $1,000 liability. you're going to have a subset I

039think I think we were estimating probably around 20 employees that would eat into this extra cost that maybe wouldn't have this year. So it's not going to be zero. There will be impact there. >> It's really if you'd rather impact those individuals a little bit more out of pocket or raise premium floor for the entire group is is really the piece. But yeah, there there would be an impact >> the the um 6.7% where you have the 159 962 listed. What is that entailing? Is that the entire year? >> The 159 is the annual premium increase from the annual >> based on based on your your enrollment staying stagnant. Obviously, there's going to be changes in enrollment throughout the year, but if your enrollment stayed the same, that first option would be 160,000 more to

040the district in premium. Now, that's total premium. So, again, the district's only going to take 88% of that. Um, but that's the total premium increase versus the um second option there, which is that 36,000 annual increase. So, I think the biggest question is when we look at the overall impact that it has on our employees and their their full benefit package, if you will, I use that loosely. Um, we did go with a 2% increase for staffing, which is lower, but our staff is well paid. Um, we're wanting to try to keep, as we always do, is similar to what we have in health insurance. At some point, we know insurance is probably going to get away from us and we're not going to have these options. Um we are not at the point yet

041that we could be considered as part of a consortium uh especially with the high cost that we had and we as I've said every year we are an expensive employee group. Um it just goes with our territory. Um and we have retirees that reply on this as well. So that that is the biggest you know it's the win loss the risk versus the reward in my mind which is probably not the correct but is the money that is saved upfront worth the impact it's going to have on a subset of employees and is it going to impact their their overall you know financial situation as well as keeping our budget within line because Caleb and I talk about that just about daily you know where we want to be and and what's coming our way.

042Caleb, did you want to share any final thoughts? >> I think Corey hit the positives here. It's it's the people who are using the plan the most who are going to feel this, which again, nothing's fair in health insurance, but that seems to be one of the more fair ways that we can divvy this increase up. Otherwise, we're talking about um an increase in premiums with which then all of our employees will see in their paychecks when when that's coming out. So, we thought this was a fair balance between How do we move forward with an increase while trying to limit um its effects on the total budget but then try to make it the least impactful for our employees and again it's just a small subset you said 20 I think it was less

043than 20 that >> I'm giving you a bigger number there probably is but >> yeah because because that would it would only impact those employees that have totally maxed out that deductible which is is not a large amount. We we seem to have a few amount of employees with very large claims. And then obviously from just a district perspective, um being able to take, you know, what did you say it was $150,000 and turn it into 36,000? I mean, that that's I can't understate how massive that is for the district. >> It's a big big savings. I think where Caleb and I landed on it after a lot of discussion, thanks to Corey helping us guide our way through, I think that we both are comfortable with recommending the second option, but then with the

044support and helping our um our staff really under our employees understand where this comes from, how it's distributed, how it's still a very exceptionally strong and positive and favorable to the employee insurance plan. But yes, there will be an impact. We can't we have to be real about that too. And certain folks are going to see more. Um I guess one of the biggest things of comfort to me was knowing that we have some very high cost um prescriptions that that are you know it's you need what you need and this does not impact that where some of the other options would you know have a very profound effect on our employees. So that was also a benefit to this option. Thank you for the information and explanation. >> Any other questions, concerns? >> Is

045anyone ready to make a motion? >> Make a motion. Make a motion to contract security held for 2025 2026 to through the plan as presented. >> I second which option >> would be option two. >> Option two. [Music] We have a motion by Mitch, second by Brian. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I. I >> I opposed and heard motion carries. >> Thank you. Thank you, Cory. We appreciate you're making a the trip up for us. >> Okay. Next, we move into preliminary review and consider approval for the 2025 2026 budget. All right, Caleb, this is your baby. >> So, one of one of the my favorite parts about Three Lakes with the budget is from year to year, we're pretty solid, meaning that there's not huge fluctuations in what we're

046doing. You know, we have our our mission, we do our things, and for the most part, it's pretty steady going forward. Um that said, I feel comfortable if you bring up that um that packet that was on the board uh docs. I feel comfortable presenting to you the fund 10 and the fund 27 budgets tonight. Those are where a vast vast majority of our money is. Um just for um reminder, we've got a fund 10 which is our general account. We've got a fund 21 which is all of our scholarships and our activities. So the state budget doesn't impact that at all. Um we've got a fund 27 which is our specialed state budget. Massive impact you'll see um this this banual budget and then we've got a fund 50 which is the food service

047which the food service is what the food service is going to be and then fund 80 is our community service. So those three that I'm not talking about um really the budget is what the budget's going to be and there's not a lot of wiggle room there. you know, our scholarships do our scholarship things, our our sports fund raise for themselves, uh food services, food service, and then that community service we can levy outside of the the revenue limit. So, uh what I'm going to do is I'm going to walk you through basically just the revenues, the expenditures, and then we'll look at the whole thing. I'm going to point out some of the big pieces here rather than going line by line. So, if we're looking at that first uh fund 10 revenue budget,

048that very first page, the two big things here is that very top one, that property taxes, the state bianial budget increased uh $325 per pupil, and that was part of um Governor Iver's veto that he did where that extended out however many years that went out. Um but that that will um increase our property taxes about $130,000. So you see that's 9997387. Last year it was about um 9.8 million. The other one I want to bring your attention to is that open enrollment down there that 800,000 you saw we had a 10 uh net 10. Looking next year it's looking a little bit more favorable and the amount of money um in that bianual budget per student also went up a significant amount. So we're looking at 800,000 coming in, whereas last year we were

049just over 690,000. So that's 110 positive there. Now the opposite to that is when we're talking open out, the open enroll out expenditure is about the same. So when you take the net in versus out, it's about the same amount of money, a little bit more than it would have been. So that's uh fund 10 revenues. Everything else is pretty standard compared to what it was um last year. I don't have anything to note there. When we turn the page to fund 27 revenues, the big one here is that handicapped aid of $725,000. Just to give you um an idea of where we were this year, it came in just under $58,000. So the state banial budget took uh the reimbursement rate for special education and it went from 30.6% this year to 42% next

050year. So that means we'll get back 40% of what we spend in fund 27 um this past year. We'll get that back next year. Um that's a very very easy explanation of it. There's a little bit more that goes into it, but basically 40% of what we spend on special ed will get back now. And in um next year, 2026 27, it goes up to 46. And I can't tell you how much of a lifeline this was. This is what saves our budget this year because when we look at what our transfer is there at the top, that's just over a million dollars that we need to transfer from fund 10 to fund 27. Whereas in previous years, we've been over 1.2 million. So that's an extra $200,000 at least that we get to keep

051in fun 10 for fun 10 purposes. Flipping to the expenditures then if we look at fund 10 expenditures, uh salaries and benefits, they're always going up and you can kind of see how they compare to um last year. The things that I want to draw your attention to is that personal services. You'll notice that's going down. In what world are things going down in price, uh that's us holding off on summer projects this year. We are not doing any summer projects knowing that we have that referendum in the works. So, it didn't make sense for us to be doing things when it's just going to be hit by the referendum. Uh in capital objects, you'll notice that that's jumping up quite a bit um from the 57,000. uh this past year to 105 next year.

052Uh we're going to be purchasing a new school van. So that's part of it. Uh we've got some renovations that we need to do in the uh home area face room. And then um just some technology equipment upgrades that are baked into there. And then finally uh you can see that 800s there that interfund transfers. Um this let me take a step back here. We're only 14 days after the fiscal year ended. So there's still a lot of stuff that's coming in and I'm still cleaning up our books. So a lot of this is estimates. So when you see that um 1.35 million transfer there, that's an estimate right now. But you can see how that goes from 1.35 down to 1.56. And that's that um special ed reimbursement coming into play there. So that's

053a big expenditure that that we're losing there. And then I guess the last thing I want to uh point your attention to in fund 10 is that 900's dues and fees. You'll see a large $92,000 from this past year. That money uh was transferred from our fund 10 to our fund 21. We had student activity money in our general fund and I transferred that out to get that with our other activities monies. So it looks like an expenditure, but it's just the way that the state wants us to record that. So it's really not an expenditure there. And then uh finally in fun 27 the uh two that I want to point out is that personal services. You can go um the 300's personal services. You can see it's going from 204,000 down to 95.

054The main driver of that loss is um we were relying on some contracted staff to do some services. Well, we brought that inhouse now. So that's 300s um personal services being transferred to our salaries. So you'll see uh what went down in that personal services. You'll see that back added into our salaries. And you can see um that the salaries went up a little bit as much there. And then finally uh with the capital objects, you'll see we got a $60,000 um expenditure there and nothing in um 23 24 or nothing planned for next year. That was the replacement of a special education ban that we had to do last year. That was unexpected. Any questions on revenues or expenditures? Then the next two pages, uh, I just break out those expenditures into a graph

055form. And you can you can see we're a people business, you know, salaries and benefits. That's that's our our main uh costs. And even um in fun 10 there you see that that gray a lot of that gray is even salaries because that's a lot of our bus drivers and some of those contracted services that that we're paying for. So you've got a fun 10 expenditures graph, a fun 27 expenditures graph, and then uh the last two pages are bringing it all together. And right now very preliminary um budget, but we're looking essentially even. It's it's in fun 10. We're down uh $3,500, which for all intents and purposes might as well be zero, especially at this point in the year. And then uh for fun 27, we always have to have a balanced budget

056there and that's done using that transfer. So that's going to even out as well. [Music] Any questions? And of course, this is going to change. It's possible it could change quite a bit just depending on what happens over the next two months before I bring this to you at our annual meeting. Just what happens. But for right now, I'm I'm feeling like we're in a pretty good place for for us to be able to come in at basically a balanced budget right now is great. Especially since uh with our referendum being we're going to be in year three of that referendum, the dead middle. The way that we had planned that was we would be up 500,000 up 250,000. Year three we'd be about even and then the next two years we'd be down 250

057and down 500. That's just the way that we structure that. So, it looks like we're we're kind of on track to do that. >> Kale, this might be a naive question. And first, I think you've done an excellent job of of kind of laying this all out. I I I feel pretty confident in in what's here. But just given a recent past, we talked a lot I mean in the last 6 months before I was even on the board about the capital referendum that we just went through and how that there is budgetary kind of aotment maybe a slush fund if you will for future capital improvements that aren't going to be part of the capital project. Where where is that shown in here? How where where do we find that? I see that there's

058capital objects and is that just as it comes? >> It has it has been on it as it comes. Uh my goal is once we get through this referendum, Nexus has done that whole outline for us, we can start a um fund 40 where we can start putting money into that >> to do those capital projects. But part of having part of um the requirements to open that fund is that you had to have a 10-year plan for your facilities. And now with that Nexus um study that they did, we've got that. >> Awesome. So in future years when we run a surplus, if we've got a little extra money, you know, we can stick 50,000 into there for for future capital projects. >> In the past, we basically just have run on a well,

059what can we do this summer type of >> Sure. That's a lot of work. Thank you for making it under it down to the most important. >> Very nice. >> Um, if there are no other questions for Caleb, is anyone uh willing to make a motion on the preliminary? I'll make a motion to approve the preliminary 2025 to 2026 budget. >> I'll second. >> We have a motion by Brian, second by Mitch. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I. >> I. Opposed. None heard. Motion carries. Thank you, Caleb. I know that's a mouthful. And you're back on the hook. back >> consider approval of meal prices for 2025 2026. >> Um so every year uh we we go through this process um and with us running a deficit. This past year,

060we're required to do the paid launch equity tool um through DPI. And when we ran that tool, uh we were required to raise it 10 10 cents. Um in my time that I've been here, we've raised prices once and that was in 2324 and that was for 10 cents. Otherwise, since the beginning of COVID, there have been no increases in lunch prices. So, what I'm recommending is that uh we re we um increase 20 cents this year instead of that 10 to try to try and make up a little ground here. Um because we're running a deficit and and basically we we just need to try to stem some of the bleeding there. If you look down at the bottom, um, for a family with one student, if they were eating both meals, that would

061both meals every day, that would, uh, equate to a $68.80 increase for that family. And then you can see down below there how much that would increase uh, per family. Again, reminder that that is um, if they're eating every both meals, breakfast, lunch. So, if you're only looking at lunch, you could have those numbers. My only question here is in banker's world, we'd say decimal dust here. But, uh, if we're going to go 20 cents, why not go 25? I guess just cuz people kind of equate that to something easier. I That's That's my only thought. >> It's a quarter. >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's I guess the way that I was thinking is just double the 10. But yeah, I'd agree. I mean, if we could do 25, that would that would help

062us out a little bit as well. Um the the amount that this would uh provide the district is if we went that 20 cents uh would be about another 8 to $9,000 depending on, you know, who's buying us. I guess personally I'd rather see the 20 now and then save it for maybe another 10 in the future rather than jumping 25. Now, I guess unless we plan on sitting tight again like we have, >> you know, if this is going to be a one one time thing for a few years, >> we can't predict that. That's just not possible. And we do run a big tell you we're going to run a deficit in food service for the foreseeable future. So, we're going to have to do that paid launch equity tool every year. It's

063going to be spitting out 10 cents every year >> minimum. So, I guess by doing 20 it was maybe like a a bid to maybe instead of next year having to do 10, maybe we can get away with eight or seven, you know? >> Yeah. Which we could maybe round up on a little bit. It just seems so small with inflationary prices where they've been >> to have any sort of an increase at >> that small of a dollar or that small of a pennies. >> Do you do we see push back when you bump it up 10 cents from families complaining about the price of the overall price of the the lunch? Do you get a lot of correspondence from anyone? >> No, I I haven't heard anything. Um when when we did 20

064when we did that increase in 2324, I didn't hear anything. >> I'm just being apparent. I wouldn't even know if you're going to bump up 325 launch. It's still a great deal. That's coming obviously people's fault, but I don't know if you got any push back from >> Not that I others certainly could have. I don't recall any calls at the office that were above the lunch prices. No. >> Has there been any changes to the population eating? >> There has. It's It seems >> we're in a situation where the number of lunches we're selling is going down. The prices of food is going up. Labor is going up. Benefits going up. You know, it's just everything costs more and we're selling less. So that's how we're getting into this deficit right now. >> Speaking

065for the high school lunch, there are a lot of kids that bring their own or have it delivered or are bringing food from the outside world. >> And I've talked with Jill about this extensively and she's seeing those same things. It's a lot of bringing food in because I mean kids are tracking macros and you know they're on health kicks and Mine just longer gym time. That's the other piece. Yeah. Seeing kids dipping into the gym before they can for sure. Um >> the utilization is obviously much higher elementary versus high school. >> This is completely random because I haven't been here for lunch. Is there is there other opportunities to for children to spend money on like all cart type things? >> There is not unless they want to purchase like a second entree

066or an extra side or an extra milk. We don't have another >> Has that ever been discussed? >> We used to have it. >> You could get cookies and all kinds of stuff extra. So is that obviously not for like this action but is that an opportunity for us to >> federal law changed back with the healthy and wellness and eating program and that's what eliminated the majority of the alle cart choices. That's why those things went away because that was and that was before my time here but I remember when the law changed um that took away a nice source of income because they were getting something. >> Yeah. because there still other are schools doing an an allocart option that >> it's generally within different time well I don't the nutritional value would

067have to be accounted for I don't know what the paperwork end would be for us um before and after school possibly it's more open you know that you would have more options >> we're certainly going to have to discuss >> scenarios like that or or the board's going to have to decide that they're just going to eat that deficit and continue to put put the money towards it because it it's just not sustainable as as it is right now, >> right? >> And and it's not going to be sustainable. >> Well, we're not even st% uh 25 cent increase. I mean, that's not going to make it sustainable either. >> Yeah, >> we're just so far we're so far gone at this point. >> It does round up the numbers nice, you know, as far

068as that's three and a quarter 350, you know. >> Mhm. So >> that is easy. >> Nice and easier math. Yeah, >> and like Brian said, for pennies. So, >> and I'll still say as a past parent and even looking at the grandparent option, you can't pack a lunch like you can buy for a school meal for 350 a day. I mean, the nutrition, the value, the choices. You get a hamburger at McDonald's, it's $3 for a little, you know, maybe a kid would prefer that maybe once in a while, but they're not comparable. And I think the quality of what you get. So, >> even comparing between school systems, what Jill's doing in there is quite remarkable. We're buying full fresh vegetables and we're chopping those. And, >> you know, we're not just buying

069canned stuff and don't get out on food. It's it's good home-cooked meals in that kitchen. >> Yep. >> There's not many districts that can say they're still providing that to their kids. >> So, are we moving forward with the 20? Are we making a proposal to increase to 25? >> Well, I I I'm comfortable making a motion at 25. Caleb, is that >> Yes, that's more than >> anyone else on the board feedback as far as that. >> Do you want me to tighten up the language on that? >> Yeah. So, just when you make the motion, identify the increase. >> Yeah. So, I'll make a motion to approve meal prices for 2025 2026 school year at a 25 cent increase. Do we have a second? >> I'll second. >> Okay, we have a motion

070on the floor by Brian, second by Mitch. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I. >> I. >> Opposed? None heard. Motion carries. Okay. Okay. Next, we move to identify and consider approval of academic standards for 2025 2026. >> Okay. Well, you probably got a little concerned when you saw the amount of reading that you had in your packet. First of all, I want to just kind of uh set the stage here that we do this every year and I've just in the past brought to you this is the um standard approval. Nothing has changed here, but because Nikki and I are so immersed in the policy work that we're doing, and it's so much fun, we wanted to share it with you. And I thought it was a good opportunity for

071you to actually see what those look like. These are the annual notices that we're required to do. They go into our website, they go into the publication of the newspaper, and it is based on, you know, what we are required to do. So unless there are specific questions regarding any of these policies that you found in your reading and preparation, we can go forward if you're comfortable as we have every other year and make a motion that we would go ahead and approve the um annual postings of the annual notices like we normally do. Um but if you had any specific questions, I'm more than happy to provide explanation or clarification for you. the aspesus management. It's really interesting. >> Yes, >> we could go through word by word. >> I almost stepped into that

072and I was going to say, do you really want to know where Dave goes and what he does? Cuz when he tells me I'm going to that asbestous conference, I will say, you poor soul. >> No, those are your boilerplate. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> You suck me in there. Sorry, I had to. >> I'm getting a little warp from all the policy reading we've been doing this summer. >> I have a box of unopened asbestous tiles at home. >> No, I would have to like >> if we can go over this. >> Um, does anyone have any questions, consideration, concerns over hearing? None. Is anyone willing to make a motion? >> I'll make a motion to approve the Wisconsin model academic standards for the 2025 2026 school year as presented. >> I'll second. >>

073We 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. I think I actually combined almost two in there. This the same thing goes for the standards as goes for the um the annual notices exhibit. >> Yes, we had the academic first and then now we move to consider approval of the 2025 2026 state and federal parent and student annual notice requirements. Any questions, concerns regarding this agenda item? If there are none, I would take a motion. >> I'll make a motion to approve the 2025 20226 state and federal annual parent and student notice requirements as presented. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Mitch, second by Stacy. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating

074I. >> I. opposed. None heard. Motion carries. Again, thank you for your continued work in the policy updates. Next, we move into consider approval of staff conduct policy. This is a policy that we did not have as a standalone and I wanted to get this in place. Um again because the next phase now we're moving into is the update of our employee handbooks and I felt that um just this past year there's been some situations that brought to the top that we needed more of a formalized statement that encompasses staff conduct from everything from you know disciplinary to potential termination. And this is a very simple policy, but it captures that and it will set kind of the base of that umbrella when we work on the um policy handbook for the the staff underneath

075it. >> So, is this the intent of this is something that the staff would sign similar to like a student handbook or it's just a policy? It's taking the language that's in the current handbook that's very informal and tying it to a specific policy. Language isn't changing much, but it didn't circulate back to a or correlate back to a policy. >> Okay. Okay. Any questions, concerns on this item? And this policy hasn't been updated since 2011. >> That is that is by um WB. Our district policy probably hasn't been updated since 80s or 90s. >> Yeah. No, this this one that's presented to us. I just want >> that's the last that that is correct. >> Mhm. If there are no questions, is anyone willing to make a motion on this? >> I'll make a

076motion to approve policy 522, staff conduct as presented. >> Second. >> Motion by Stacy, second by Josh. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I. >> I. I. >> Opposed? None heard. Motion carries. Next, we move to consider approval of the 2025 2026 7 through 12 student handbook. >> You're up. >> I got an awful lot of enjoyment of this here. >> I'm waiting for this. Absolutely. Um, you all have a digital copy of this, correct? >> Yes, sir. Um, I think by my maths there's eight spots in the student handbook where we're recommending either a deletion, an addition, or a modification. Would you like me to go through each of those individually or are you comfortable enough with the rationale that's over in the notes? What's your pleasure? >> They can't

077get theirs to open. >> Yeah, I mean, I looked at it before, but I can't follow. >> You want me to send it to you as like a PDF or It might be there's a word. >> So then so then for sure I'll speak to the specific changes individually, right? >> That'd be great if you >> I'll fire this off to everyone right now. I've got it up. >> So the very first one would be found on page seven if you're able to see the doc. Um and it's under the heading of absences and excuses for set absences. uh we're and when I say we we are uh obviously I am here making these recommendations many of them have come from staff many of them have come from blue J table uh some of them

078are individual requests for consideration but all of them have my stamp of approval or you wouldn't see them here um there we're just asking to take the phrase that's highlighted uh shopping trips hair appointments non-medical appointments etc are not excused absences. In order to highlight that a little bit or accentuate it, we are going to or would like to move that to the bottom after number 11 and put it there with an asterisk just to kind of call attention to it. It's kind of buried there in uh point number 10 and hoping to maybe call a little more attention to it. Um if if there's ever any questions, please raise your hand or I'll stop. Otherwise, I'll just move on to the next suggestion. >> How do we different like how do we differentiate from

079a parent excused absence between going on a vacation to Florida or a shopping trip to the Dells? We would have to differentiate that based on the parents word, note, email, whatever. >> Okay. >> That you make a good point. >> My my question is if I as a parent, if I choose I can't afford to go to Florida on vacation for a week, but I can take my child to Minneapolis to the Mall of America for 2 days. Who is the school to tell me that's not an authorized or an excused vacation? >> Correct. I I I I agree with that statement. What this is trying to what this is trying to fair it out is that I'm checking my kid out because I'm booking a hair appointment and they're missing their physics test or

080what whatever. You know what I'm saying? There there's always going to be some discretion there. And and if and if we and if we're going to the Mall America on a pre-planned trip, we have we have a avenue for that with the pre-approved absence form. And if that's not a student who's already over spent their absences, I would sign off on it for sure in in in the little vignette that you described. I'm just curious if parents have excused absences available and they choose to use it, what what why are we if I want to send my child to a hair appointment and she's got an excused absence like I have parent excused absences left. I guess that's my my concern is like how are how are we dictating what parents choose to take their

081children out for? That's excused or not? I I as a parent have 10 excused absences >> and I agree that most a lot of them could be bogus because of something the parent might want to do. At least we've seen it. >> Yep. >> But I agree with the least like once those 10 are up then the enforcement has to be done once they're abusing their It'd be hard to regulate that until they reach their 10. And then once we reach their 10, there needs to be enforcement action taken against they're going to keep having >> this is not this is not new language. This is language that's always been there. >> Yeah. >> Um I think the I don't think I know between Ryan and and myself we would say that very recently some

082of the things mentioned in that phrase that have always been there have been abused. right? >> Overused, if you will, for sure. >> Um, but no, there's no there's no and and the 10 absences that you guys are quoting, keep in mind that doesn't that doesn't account for the 15 that are allowed in our vacation clause, >> right? >> Remember 10 10 is the state recognized. You get five per semester parents. >> Yeah. So we're we're actually a little bit looser than that here or more parent or family friendly for sure. >> So >> and again you're we're not changing anything. We're moving the verbiage. >> Yeah. >> To just be accounted for differently within the document >> to to in essence communicate to families we'd prefer you didn't. >> Yeah. >> We're not going

083to send you truency court if you do >> because you get your 10 or your 15. But keep in mind, especially in the attendance section, we are, and Steve would probably attest to this, and Mark's going to find this out in a hurry, we're we're usually getting spanked by the state for our attendance. Like, we're not doing super well on that. That that that's why UCA meets expectations or exceeds expectations rather than significantly exceeds expectations on a state report card. Not that that means a huge hill of beans and anything. Uh but it is it is a a certifiable fact that we're we're dinged every year on our at least at the high school level we are dinged on our uh butts aren't in the seats enough. So there's a little bit of a not

084call to action, not an emergency, but we we want to tighten the rains just a shade um on that regard. Maybe not in this conversation, but maybe in the the next conversation when we go to do this in draft that that's a consideration to go from 15 to the 10 as the state standard. >> Yeah. >> Right. Cuz that would help us. >> Yes. >> Attendance wise. The other thing would be is to okay let's take this step here trying to make it more visible where people might think more about it because yeah like say the next step is either that or cracking down a little harder on you know once you get to your 15 that you're allowed >> um which I know there's only so much you can do anyways but is that

085a lack of like when they reach their maximum 15 days where it goes to 10 days and we're getting dinged and it keeps happening like are you guys notifying Free Lake so they someone can make that call to the parent and tell them hey I know the letters go out but does you make a phone call to the parents also advising them like the school sent your letters we can see you have your letters you reach your maximum allowed days you could be looking at citation whatever it's going to be >> yes yes we we also would like for which we don't have in place right now and it would help. We don't have a local ordinance for truency simple site. There's none. So >> stat our option >> there's a state statute that they

086can write >> we've been told no every time we ask so so right now our only option is the eventual tru and see take them in front of the Monday morning intake. >> Who's still like three days? >> Y >> okay >> yeah. Okay. >> Because simple sites are really great for situations when parents aren't approving of an absence and an absence still occurs. >> Why not? >> Those those are super handy. I found in the past they're they're quick, they're simple, and they're effective. Not that it always has to be the stick, but that's usually a pretty effective tool. >> Yeah, there's a the Wisconsin statute says all or part of a school day. So if a student misses one hour on excuse, they can be written a simple truency. >> That would be

087a wonderful tool. >> It's it exists >> and it's hyper effective. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For for for the student who let's just say I want to go to mugs for lunch and parent doesn't necessarily want them to go to mugs and neither the school but they leave anyway. That's doesn't happen real often but those are the ones where a simple site is super effective. Um the next just just to shade down uh the document uh on the bottom of page eight and the top of page nine, we're suggesting to completely eliminate the language that is highlighted in red. Uh the reason we're suggesting to eliminate it is it contradicts another part of our and I'm I'm uh I'm surprised I didn't catch this sooner but in this what we're suggesting to delete

088it contradicts what we have written in our uh family vacation part of the uh code because in there it says that family trips will not be excused and I don't like it in there because that's simply not true unless we're going to at some point uh not make the family vacation an excused option then this particular phrase is somewhat contra is very contradictory also um I don't like the clause in there illness to the immediate family will not be excused because there's times when stuff is hitting the fan where we would excuse an absence for a kid if there's a major illness in the immediate family a mom a dad a sister brother that's something that we would excuse so it doesn't this phrase doesn't match with current practice. So suggesting that we completely delete

089the part that's highlighted in red. Questions on that. Then the next part is page 11 going by the page numbers. Um this one again is still under the umbrella of a slight maybe tightening of the reigns. Um whereas in past practice there's been some uh text messages are um honored to give permission for the kid to leave. Uh we are upping that just a shade to say emails will also work or emails must be emails or note. Uh the notes are pretty traditional. We get a lot of notes. Um but if there's another um email to school staff will also suffice if you don't have a written note. Uh we'd like to add that into the uh closed campus section. And also um the open campus phrase that was there made it if if you

090if I was a student reading it uh I could certainly give the perception or have the perception that well I'm a senior so I have open campus every day. This is denoting that open campuses here open campus lunches on Wednesdays and that's provided that you have the correct documentation turned in parenting permission uh and submitted to school staff. So, it's it's just clarifying that we've done open campus on Wednesdays every year since I've been here. I think it's been that way for quite some time, but the statement that was there was kind of vague just saying you have approved senior open campus. And if I'm reading that as a kid, I'm going I'm a senior. I'm out. So, um, moving along. If there's no questions on that one, the next one is page 15, I

091believe. get there. Yeah. Um, on page 15, we're suggesting or or recommending some of the language to be deleted, uh, because it is redundant. Um, and this has to do with when a student gets kicked out of class. Sometimes students are kicked out of class for things that aren't terribly what I would call earthshattering or certainly not major in terms of discipline issues. uh perhaps the kid and or the teacher needs a timeout from each other and so they're asked politely to come down to the office and work in the conference room uh etc etc. In situations like that we don't feel that it's necessary that the teacher and the principal or the principal's designate uh get a hold of parents immediately. We certainly will the the the teacher certainly will uh initiate that contact

092and let a parent know but we don't feel that it uh because every time a student is sent out of a classroom doesn't necessarily mean that every time that happens the kid is in big trouble so to speak. So, uh, feel like it's it's overkill a bit to, uh, dictate through this language that parents will get contacted by both the teacher and the principal in situations that aren't uh, worthy of disciplinary consequences. However, uh as has always been the case, if there's a discipline consequence attached with that removal from the class, yes, the parent will hear from be connected with uh the principal or designate uh within the 24hour uh period as stated. Um questions on that? So, not a change in practice at all. just uh don't feel that if there's a timeout needed

093uh every time, it doesn't happen real often, but there are times where um parents will get notified by the teacher, but they if they get notified by the principal again, uh it's kind of made into a bigger deal than what it really is, if that makes sense. Um down to 23. >> Just quick question, quick question on that. I mean staff is aware of their need to reach out to parents. I mean they're not depending on you or a designate. No, it is a it's a written in in our guidelines uh first day in service. If you are ejecting a student from your class, you are also connecting with parent because invariably if someone from the office calls, there's going to be questions like why what happened? What was he who better to share the

094specific situations of why the student got ejected from the classroom than the person who's in the class the adult in the room, right? So, uh, yes, that is not anything new and that is a part of the expectation for sure. >> Thank you. >> Yep. Uh, next one is a fairly simple one with regards to food service, page 23. Moving right along. Um, currently the student handbook states that money can be turned into the kitchen or the office in the morning. Uh, parents can call the office to authorize credit card transaction. We want to delete that because we don't handle money in the kitchen and we don't handle money in the front office any longer. It's all done and parents know that it's with a credit card. Infinite campus language is in there. Um and

095that's how we we take most of the payments. Um but if we're not doing it, we shouldn't have it in our um in our language. Next one, lockers on page 28. If you don't have any opposition to it, uh, well, I hope you don't because we haven't been charging kids for a change in locker combination. And since we haven't been charging kids for a change in locker combination, we suggesting that we take that phrase out of the there is there is a still $9 charge for a lock. If you lose it, that remains. Um, but no charge for painting locker combination. In fact, I don't think that happens very often. Next one is page 34. Caleb, I hope this doesn't cork you off too much, but we're we're looking to delete the chart that was

096up there for rating the dirty books or loose backs to the books at a quarter cost or half cost of new. Um, we're just going to rely on the phrase that a fine will be levied for lost or damaged books. um just because it's there there there's nobody with the time to go through books and say well this is a quarter damaged or half damaged or third damaged and assess appropriate chart spot for where the fine levies. Um so just kind of to match the functionality where we're at right now. We're suggesting to eliminate that part of the textbooks and it still does say obviously if you lose or damage a book you're going to see a fine on your student fine list. that's still remains. Last but certainly not least, um we are suggesting

097for the first time that we infuse AI language into our student handbook. It has not been there. I would say that we're about two and a half years behind the curve in putting it in. um not for lack of not caring uh but because there's a lot that goes into this and this little paragraph that you see here um is a result of a couple of years of Slate conference sessions which Slate is the technology integration into education statewide conference um lot of resources there about AI in the last couple of years a lot of sessions about AI in the last couple of years this is the work of the seven people on our Blue Jay table teacher leader crew. Uh this has been on the agenda with our faculty, entire faculty, um since October

098of this past school year that hey, we're we're we're aiming to put something into our student handbook with regards to AI. Please get your Blue Jay table reps your thoughts, your discussions, your input on what that should look like. This was up on the board uh in Hermanson's room for better part of three hours uh in in the most recent uh AI work time that we had or AI policy work time that we had um at the day after school was out. Um, and then it was in a Google doc where everyone on the blue J table had editing rights to be able to go in and make suggestions and tweaks aiming for having it in front of you tonight. Um, so there's been a lot of input put into this. Um, I I will

099I don't want to say caution you all, but uh I I want to I I I think a really neat phrase uh was was given by one of the keynote speakers at the Slate convention um that I was in in the audience for uh and it was the I I I forget her name, but she was the head of Google. Google has three main branches and she was the head of the Google branch that has to do with education. And her take to all the school folks in the room was, "Hey, do you feel like AI is getting out in front of you? Do you feel like you're you're you're able to to get to get a a corral around it?" Of course not, because we can't either. Big tech can't get ahead of AI.

100So her advice to schools was don't spend a whole ton of time trying to predict what it's going to look like tomorrow cuz my gosh, we don't know what it looked like yesterday. Uh so anyway, long story short, this is a relatively simple AI policy. There's a phrase in here that that I would uh go to bat for that we have to have in here based on what I've seen, what I've heard as far as districts getting run through the legal ringer. Um and and and this one is is very protective of us. the the phrase that says violation of the aforementioned AI guidelines is a form of academic misconduct and will result in consequence because districts in this state have lost lawsuits already where if students are penalized for using AI and it doesn't

101have that phrase in your student handbook, the districts have lost every time. So, we want to make sure that we're very upfront with people that inappropriate use of AI and and that in of itself is a very loaded phrase. What's inappropriate use of AI? Right? But it is equated to or is equal to academic misconduct. It's just like cheating off your buddy's test it looking over their shoulder in the definition of whether or not consequences are set. Oh um students are responsible for generating their own content following the guidance and expectations of the faculty. There's reasons for some ambiguity there because AI use in an English classroom looks a lot different or uh maybe it's non-existent in a different classroom. I don't see Jason Stephven stressing a whole lot about AI >> in his FIAD

102classes, right? Like so there there's got to be some leeway there for faculty members. Students may use AI tools to complement their learning and enhance creativity as permitted by their teacher while maintaining academic integrity by not representing AI generated content as their own work and describing how they used AI in completing their own work. They should follow the established guidelines of their teacher for citing AI sources such as using APA format and respect privacy and intellectual property when utilizing AI tools. By doing so, they can effectively leverage AI to support their learning in an ethical and responsible manner. Um, and then it goes through that statement that I mentioned, violation of the forementioned AI guidelines is a form of academic misconduct and will result in. And then it lists out a consequence uh progression that

103is real similar to what would happen if there were other academic misconduct situations um that occurred. Um, thoughts on this at a board level? Are we gonna just deal with AI at a board level like this policy? Because this gonna take forever. I mean, I don't want to jump on Nate coach's stuff there. Yep. >> My 13-year-old just told me. He's like, "They'll never catch me." >> Correct. >> He's like, "I can dumb it up to a seventh grade level. The teacher's never going to know." And he was going through all these sources and how he can use AI and he's already using AI to dumb it up. And these kids are so smart. He's like, "They'll never know." And I can tell AI not to look like AI because he said Nate can read

104it. He can pick out AI stuff, but I can make AI get rid of words that some people already use to sing that AI programs put in. And he's like, I I was like, I'm out. I I just like my kid is super smart, but >> he'll use AI to do everything for him and I'll never be able to catch him. >> It's also AI to track AI. So that's just >> So that's my only concern. >> All you can do is what what they have here is about all you can do. I >> agree. arrested. just >> and every time this conversation comes up in in in whether it's the Blue Jay table of the smaller group or the faculty meeting the faculty crew as a whole, it always boils down to if if

105you're really struggling with this and if you you you feel there's any chance kids are pulling the wool over your eyes as to what's their work and what's not, you can always use a blue book or a paper and a pencil or >> I I I will give Aaron Marvin credit for this quote every time I say it. Aaron Marvin a couple years ago in AI was just starting to to to touch our world. If you really want to know what a kid knows, ask them. And and and so yes, there's well I I I am not in the world of saying we we completely do away with screens in schools. uh there are ways to balance the the the old way with the new way in in in in in ways that kids can't

106completely circumvent being able to pro prove what they know or what they've learned. Um so it's it's a relatively general and short AI policy for students. Um but I feel like it it it checks the boxes that we need checked and and doesn't go any further than that. I mean, there are schools who go out and purchase school-based AI subscriptions for all their kids and staff, and I'm certainly not advocating for that. Um, yeah. And and >> are staff using tools, right, to check >> Yes. >> on electronic submissions already? Just like the >> especially in our in our like English departments, places where there's a lot of writing going on. Yes. >> Are staff using AI? like are staff able to use AI to write whatever they want to write like letters because I

107know it happens in the round district just because I know that some of the principles like I just use a they write my entire thing for me >> and this is not included in here but the the the Blue Jay table also working on some language for staff which maybe we can infuse at some point into our employee handbook right like that's a different set that's a different set of rules different conversation for a different night but >> we'll beat this to death and it's not going to go anywhere because I agree the policy is great because you're not going to be able to >> all encompass it because it's >> several months ago when Justin brought this forward the conversation I actually asked him are you talking about artificial intelligence AI or are you

108talking about academic integrity AI and I think what we're trying to get to the heart here is in the old days it was cheating okay now cheating has new different forms it's more important to me that we hired Paula Hayes who's going to be a phenomenal addition to our district and actually teach our kids to prepare how to write an APA or an ML style paper and how to site sources. And yeah, colleges are antiquated and they're still going to have to be able to do that in their professional career if that's the path they choose. And they're going to have to be able to read a document and say, "Does this make sense? Is is it purposeful? Is it mine? Is it not?" Um, this is kind of given the school principal teacher some

109clout for being honest and using it appropriately. We're going to see probably suggested many, many, many more AI policies. This is all we need for right now, but be prepared. More is going to be coming. >> Oh, that was my only comment. It's a good It's a good start. I think that this it needs tweaking, but it's it's a good start to get it in there and then tweak it as we need it. >> Yeah. My only suggested edit, and it's kind of nitpicky, but in the second paragraph, I would just ask that the as permitted by the teacher get moved to the front of the sentence because otherwise the students can read. Students may use AI tools. Oh, done. I'm done reading. So, I I don't know. I guess that's just one I would

110just like to say. as permitted by the teacher. Student may use AI tools tools to complement their learning blah blah blah. I will make note of that. Anything else? That's all I got for you tonight, folks. >> Is anyone ready to make a motion? >> I wish all luck on AI in the next 5 years. >> I'm still hung up on the trinity stuff, but we'll >> I'll make a motion to approve the 2025 2026 7 through 12 student handbook as presented. I'll second. >> We have a motion by Stacy, second by Mitch. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I. >> I. >> Opposed. None heard. Motion carries. Next, we move to approval of the 2025 2026 co-curricular handbook. Uh, Mr. updike is not here. So, he did share this with

111me and he told me that there were no significant updates other than that it's being updated for the upcoming school year. I asked um Justin to take team share if there's any questions or concerns that you had within it. I don't have anything noted or flagged to call to your attention because from what I understand and what I reviewed, it does look like the same document just to be prepared for this year. spoken as a very non-sports person. >> Yeah. No, I did I wasn't aware of any conversations or any requests, coaches, staff, Phil, anybody that was um talking about or considering any changes or updates activities code or handbook for this year. I was not aware of any. Any issues or concerns with as presented? If there are none, someone willing to make a

112motion. >> I'll make a motion to approve the 2025 226 co-curricular handbook. >> Second. >> Motion by Mitch, second by Stacy. All those in favor of the motion signify by stating I. >> I. I >> opposed. Unheard. Motion carries. It's a lot of paperwork tonight. All right. Next, we move to the school forest cam 3 update report. I hope you've been driving by and see how beautiful it looks with the parking lot in the grass and it looks like a usable space. We have teachers already inquiring um making plans for this upcoming school year. Um Justin's been very active out there as well. Did you want to share anything? >> We're not not active out there as much as reconnecting with John Gman and some of the resources that he's able to connect us with.

113And I think we've got all four core areas uh covered in terms of outside agencies and experts that are willing to connect with our teachers to help get them engaged in features of that property specific to that spot. Um, so yeah, good had a good conversation couple hours with John last week. And uh the the the physical chore now hopefully between now and September is going to be getting the walking trails that were kind of ready to go about two years ago, which are going to be a little bit a little bit rushy now. Uh we'll feed some mosquitoes and get that taken care of and then connecting the new parking lot with what we had perceived to be the old parking lot with the trail system that we had pre-existing. So, um I don't

114think we're at the spot yet where we want to make trails permanent. Uh but very quickly within I would say a year or two of having staff out there with kids and they tell us what we really want to have as spots to to to go to or features to to to access at that point. and we maybe spend some time and resources on trails that are more permanent accessible and and more permanent features of the landscape. I I would hate to do too much of that and then find out well that's not really a spot that teachers utilize in their engaging of of kids in the curriculum out there. So anyway, that's Yeah, it's exciting to be able to get back at it a little bit. >> And yes, the parking lot looks amazing.

115>> Yeah. Thanks to Pillican Wick and all the support that happened there. We sure appreciate our community partners and helping us get things up and running. Um, as far as our litigation situation, we're still in the 90-day waiting period for response. There is no new updates other than what I shared with you last month. So, >> okay. Thank you. Uh, next we move to district related positive happenings. We had a parade. >> Yes. >> Parade went well. We made it all the way almost to the end without running out of candy. So, pictures were >> good. We had new banners that um had showed referendum support and thanking the community. >> Yeah. If you didn't get to see the pictures or weren't at the parade, I thought the banners were phenomenal. Thanks to Jen and

116Nate Coach for getting those up. And I just thought it was very fitting to to thank our community and public. And we've got that captive audience and help everybody feel part of it. It just was really a good >> the tractor again. >> Y Charlie here in the morning helping. My husband Al, Gabe, and Ada were on the float. So it's kind of nice to have some older kids helping with the I have a thought for next year too about um we you know it gets really tight and there's kids throwing candy and kids running out. If we have some people walking on the sides to help with that, that would be super helpful because I walked it and was able to do one side this time. But >> yeah, anyway, thoughts I need to

117write down probably. >> Thank you, Jen, for all the coordination and really came together nicely. >> I'll piggy back off the parade. uh the class of 2027, so the going into the juniors, reached out to the parade organizers and asked if they could sell popsicles, something that I guess was done years ago for the fundraising for the DC trip and they gracefully approved it. Uh over the course of about 2 hours, the students raised $1,44. >> Nice. >> I was telling everybody I mean they were the people were like throwing them $10. I'm like, >> yeah, >> I just did for you. Yeah, we received uh many many uh donations. >> Yeah, cuz they're like, I don't want popsicle. They're like, we'll take a donation. >> Okay. >> So, it was great. They did great.

118>> All that money will stay in their student account for them to use for prom and graduation and, you know, things of that nature. So, >> it was the craziest, busiest for I think I've seen here. Honestly, that was packed. >> It was great. I helped out and attended the athletic um hall of fame banquet and that was very well attended and the inductees were very excited to have that honor. So, it's pretty cool thing that they're still able to do in the community. >> Pretty cool. Good news for the soccer and football crew that compete up there. That turf on that by our stadium is looks like a different spot than it did two springs ago, two summers ago. >> Very cool. >> So, maintenance uh program that we've been working with and the

119folks that have been helping out with the heavy equipment. It's it's making a very positive impact. Of course, mother nature didn't hurt this. You know, race, but it's it's it's much improved. I I I feel better about it for our soccer and football teams for sure. >> Know they went heavier with the they you know, last year was kind of a trial period and get some seed down. But this year they did triple the amount of material they put down. >> Yeah. >> In order to work on the leveling and things of that nature. It's heading in the right direction is what I'm trying to say. >> What um I'll talk offline about >> any other one more board meeting until students come back. >> No, >> actually our next board meeting staff will already

120be back. So >> true. >> August 20th. Well, Justin, >> we're we're a week earlier this year, so >> we'll have like three games in before school starts. >> But we're not wishing away summer, right? >> Right. >> No, don't have to. It's almost done. >> All right. Next, we'll move to WP >> correspondence and updates. >> Oh, positive things. That's >> I have nothing to share at this meeting. >> Okay. So next up uh is executive session. Um we will adjourn to executive session pursuant to Wisconsin statute 19.85 85 sub1 subc to consider employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility specifically to consider individual administrator staff contracts and to consider employment compensation and performance evaluation of the district administrator. Additionally,

121the session will include approval of minutes from the June 26th, 2025 special meeting. Can I have a motion to adjourn into executive session? >> I'll make a motion to adjourn to executive session pursuant to Wisconsin statute 19.851c to consider employment promotion compensation performance evaluation data for any repeat. That's what it says. >> Mhm. uh employee over which governmental body has jurisdiction or exercise responsibility. Specifically consider individual administer staff contracts track or tracks and to consider employment compensation and performance valuation of the district administrator and to include approval of the minutes from the June 26, 2025 special meeting. Do we >> have a second? >> Second. All those in favor of the motion to adjourn into executive session say I. I. >> I. Opposed. Unheard. Motion carries 5-0. Thank you everyone for coming