001in his passing and it's very painful and emotional experience for all of us here and for our community as a whole. Couple of thank yous and sometimes out of tragedy you have with a few bright things to look at too and I want to thank um both Justin and Ryan and Jen Boneir for just stepping up. they've taken on so much work um you know going in and doing the extra duties as they enter into scheduling and and the end of the school year and all the things that were on Dan's plate and trying to figure out kind of those things that are missing. So big thanks for them for stepping up and and taking that on as we go through the journey of trying to not only fill that position but another one as
002well. So, I want to thank Cassie Cerny, Denise Pyig, and Don Hughesby, as well as Carrie Hikin for uh stepping in and providing the counseling service, the added counseling services that were much needed both for students and for staff uh in that time immediately following Dan's passing. Um it's always nice to know that we have some folks in our community that can step up and step in and be that supportive shoulder that people need. And they did a really nice job with that. Um, you know, I want to also thank um all of the area schools and school leaders and teachers and counselors and um that reached out. I know Ryan and I spoke. He had quite a few folks from area schools. We had folks from Merill that did a fundraiser to provide a
003meal for uh our high school and middle school staff. I had a lot of folks reaching out to me, not just with condolences, but also how can we help? What do you need? And so it's nice to know throughout the Northwoods that, you know, while we might be competitors in many ways, we're we're certainly supportive of each other uh when we when we need help. So, and that that will definitely be extended out as as schools enter into tragedies as well. So, um so I wanted to recognize those things tonight as we started off on a few more bright spots. Um we had a lot of of very positive things that have happened over the past month. we can start um just with obviously the referendum and the success of the referendum. It's nice to
004know that um you know we can look forward into growing our school, growing our programs and and building uh you know successful avenues for for our students and for our staff to grow rather than tearing those things down. So that's exciting. Um I think everybody who showed up to the polls to vote, whether you were in support or whether you were not, um I I thank you for at least letting your voice be heard in that in that area. We did very well. um the school did very well or the referendum did very well at a double digit uh success rate there which is not overly common statewide. So it shows that we do have an overwhelming support in our community for our school and that's a big responsibility for uh not just myself but
005all of us here you know the board included in in carrying that torch forward and making sure that we live up to those expectations. So we will definitely do that. um solo and ensemble qualifiers. We had a lot of success a couple weekends ago. Uh it was solo ensemble efforts. So number of students who achieved both um gold or all three gold, silver, and bronze honors. We had eight qualifiers for state and I saw that the WJJQ was covering that story as well. Uh and so kudos to them. The play this past weekend, the musical was a huge success. I hear great things about it. Uh, fortunately I was out of town. I did not get to attend. It's the first time in many years that I haven't attended the musical, but um, but I
006hear, you know, I had a chance just to connect with Corey for a few minutes and, you know, kudos to him and and um, you know, the efforts that he put in along with Michelle Balda and making that come together. So, I know they had some adversity that mother nature threw at him. I know he probably blamed me, but it was mother nature for the record that threw that adversity at him. And school being canceled and we couldn't get them in here to practice that evening uh, just didn't out, but they they managed to get through that and they were prepared and um so like I said, kudos to them and good job. Um and also, you know, can't not mention our success in state hockey. So, congrats to our to our team, to our
007coaches, to everybody who has has been a part of that. Ryan Flynn, and you know, everything that he does for all of our athletic teams, but for that one as well. So, what just a just an incredible accomplishment. um such a great source of community pride as all of our sports teams are, but when you can compete on that stage at that level, we're so proud. So, uh Ryan Flynn is working on putting together a community celebration. He's working with the team. Uh we're hoping to get that done sooner rather than later, but unfortunately the skating the Sarah Park rink has is set up for the skating show. So, they're not going to let a bunch of hockey players come in there and and tear that down. So, we will um figure out a time
008for that. We will definitely be hosting that soon and we will get some communication out on that as soon as we can as well. Um talk a little bit about the showcase. Again, these are all things that happened since we met a month ago. So, uh fabulous showing for our school showcase on the 13th of February. Uh it was a great first time. We learned a lot. We learned a lot about how we can grow it. I know Mark has been debriefing with uh different folks to, you know, look at avenues of what went well, what can we improve, how can we get more people through the doors and that sort of thing, but for the first u inaugural event of that, I would say it it went off without a hitch and it was
009a a great thing and something we hope to continue long into the future. Uh I've started uh the rounding interviews or the stay interviews, however you want to refer to them. So I try to I meet with all of our new staff are due to the district staff every year about this time as they're hitting that you know that getting near the end of that third quarter and then about a third of our regular staff and I've got a form that I send to them just with some questions and then I'll off of that form I'll schedule meetings with them when it's convenient for them and it just helps kind of feed that conversation and uh so we've started that process. I've got a number of them underway and been pretty pleased with the turnout
010on those. Uh we're starting to get the survey results back. They all look very positive. I'm waiting for the actual reports, but I did meet with um with Darren Severs with school perceptions and it looks like our survey is much improved from previous years. So I'm excited to dig into that a little bit and and uh we'll be presenting either in April or May. I'm not sure which, but he'll show up and present everything to the board like he's done in the past. Um, and the last thing that I have for you to end is I just put together a form highlighting some of the um, key talking points in Governor Ivers's budget that he has sent on is now at JFC at joint finance. It's working its way through. Uh, so these are some
011some of the points that uh, directly are related to schools and school funding. And I I won't go through these in detail, but you can see the you know there's a um a number of things that would greatly impact our budget obviously here. Uh but also how much we would need a referendum in the future if we start to go down this path. So I don't know how much of this will actually make it through to the budget. They're not anticipating a budget being signed until probably September. It'll be a late one. Uh it'll go back and forth a few times, but I see there's a Um, you know, there's some categorical aid increases in here, but it's also offset by some general equalization aid that would help cover some of that tax bill. So,
012it's not all falling on the backs of our local tax taxpayers. So, read through that. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me with those and but we'll we'll I'll keep you up to date as as this unfolds and as we see how much of it is altered, as it makes its way through joint finance. any questions for Wendle. Okay, moving on to the consent agenda items. Um, we have the several minutes on here from the regular meeting, close sessions, board of canvas, personal committee. We have the invoices from February and employee contracts and adjustments and donations and start college. No. Is there any Is there a motion to accept the consent agenda? So moved. Pers. Any questions on anything? Okay. All those in favor? I opposed hearing. None. Motion carried
013for the consens items as presented. Staff reports. Um, everybody had a chance to look at the staff reports on there. Any questions for the staff that are present here tonight? I had a question for Stacy about the therapy dogs. Was that just like a schedule thing or were you thinking of having a permanent one like Alyssa Zimmerman had? It would have been. It's just something we're going to schedule. It was supposed to happen last year, but the kennel that we were using out of Medford, um, she had some illness that kind of never ended up like working out for her to come in. Um, so we were looking for a different avenue to have it happen. Um, and we've got connected with possibly two that can come in. So, we're going to do like a
014kickoff assembly to kind of ground the kids and understand like what they are, what their purpose is, what they do, how they're trained. Um, just like a very short thing on Friday for every grade level. And then we're going to start after spring break um trying to get students in ELA to use them um like reading to them. So, that was the purpose of why we had that last year. It helps with fluency, confidence, like you know, they can they don't have to worry about the dog judging them like just it's like a comfort thing. Um, and the teachers are very interested. Last year we were just looking at our seventh grade students, but we're going to try to um get it out to all grade levels this year. Um, it's just it's just taken
015us some time to find someone that would fit into what we're looking for. So, okay. And I also just wanted to comment to all the principles and especially to Mark for organizing the spring showcase. I thought it was awesome. My grandchildren loved it. tried to get to a lot of things, but it was difficult because once you got in somewhere, you were doing something and all of a sudden you realized, oh, I got to get moving on. So, but it was a wonderful night and thank you to all of you for all the work behind that. [Music] Yeah, I say to that, it was in the middle there in the commons area and it was just traffic flowing through. We got a little stuck there. Yeah, that's quite the congestion, which was good to have
016that many people in here. Yeah, you just got to figure how to disperse that amongst the whole building. Okay, any other questions for the staff? Okay, moving on to item number eight, police liaison report. Hello again. Hello. Um, so since the last time we that I spoke with you, which would have been about two months ago, um, I would say that everything is, you know, stayed pretty consistent. Um, January was kind of a little bit slower and then the month of February and the beginning of March here kind of picked up back up again as far as um, stuff that I have entered into our database um, at at the police department. Um I let's see I think there was two citations that I issued and then there's one possible juvenile referral that I'll be
017completing. Um you know otherwise I'm still wandering all three schools making contacts trying to build relationships with students. Um I don't remember exactly. I think it was end of January beginning of March no end of January beginning of February Mr. Hines advised me that um the sheriff's office was going to be no longer able to um provide their um education for the elementary school. Um so on a short turnaround I talked with my chief and I also talked with Detective Burell who I knew was trained in in deer and in a quick turnaround we were able to jump in and help um fill that gap. So I believe detective been here three or four times already. Um so we're able to continue that. Um other than that uh I provided uh help with crowd control
018at two hockey games. I was at winter ball. Um still having donuts with kids in the middle school. Um I know I got a list of probably about half a dozen kids that I need to have lunch with in the elementary there waiting for me. Um, and then I attended um a training with administration up in Eagle River a couple weeks ago on the standard response protocol and the standard reunification method um to help if we ever needed to, you know, re reunify um because of an incident at the school. That was really good training. And then Arlland and I just got back um end of last week from attending the Wisconsin Safety Wisconsin School Safety Coordinator Association and was combined with the um Wisconsin Juvenile Officers Association. It was a conference um down in
019the Dells. Um, so we were able to talk with uh or we were able to get some good training there and also talk with, you know, vendors regarding uh school security, you know, regarding cameras, doors, I mean, you name it, it was it was there. So, that was good. Um, other than that, I think I mean, like I said, it it was kind of went it went in line just with the last two months when I talked to you guys about um compared to the first two months, it's um isn't isn't as busy as it was those first two months of school. So, that's always a good thing on my aspect as far as negative things. Great. Any questions? No. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Item number nine, eliminate school fees for athletics and
020Yeah. So, we've um for a number of years now, we've had fees attached to participation in athletics to participation in certain courses, whether it be art courses or food courses or potentially career technical ed courses if there's some supply issues and or needed extra supplies and that sort of thing. It's never been an overall large um you know portion of our budget. It often times is more of a deterrent for certain kids and families that don't have a lot of extra money from taking courses like that or participating in sports and as we've uh grown out our strategic plan and a lot of that is encouragement of kids to not only you know navigate through some of those ACP pathways but also which involves some of those courses but also increase participation in athletics that
021is one of those areas that looking at it um you know it's it's I think an area where it would go a long ways to say that if we're offering a course we're also offering the supplies and the things needed uh for kids to participate in it. So, the proposal would be to eliminate we've eliminated a number of our other fees over the years, parking fees. Um there was a student fee, a $40 student fee that covered a lot of extra supplies and different pieces that went along with this that we've eliminated. So, this is just basically the next kind of step in that sequence. So, I'd ask the board to consider that. I guess as a member, I'd like more detailed list than just the total revenue generated from students fee is minor. You
022know, I sure would like to see before we vote on that, you know, what are the fees that are out there and what is this total just to be, you know, just to be um prudent, you know? So, any other comments, questions on that one? When uh when would this go into effect if it's voted through? Next year. start of next school year. Okay. So, we could have hold it off until next next meeting. Certainly. Okay. Any other information that you'd want on this topic? Okay. Motion we table this item. Okay. Motion's been made to table item number nine. I second that. Okay. Motion's been made. Second. All those in favor. I opposed. Motion carried. Item 10, increase school psychologist position from a.5 FTE to a one point FTE. Yes. So, I presented this to
023the personnel committee a week or so ago. Um, we scaled back. We traditionally had a school psych, a full-time school psych for um a number of years. that individual left our district maybe four years ago and for a year we left it posted. Well, at that time and and probably still it's difficult to get a large number of applicants for the school psych situation. So, we had been filling that gap with just an interim or or a part-time school psych. And in doing so, many of the duties that the school psych would have have been put on the backs of our teachers, of our special ed staff. So many of the tests that the school would administer can be legally administered by the teacher. Oftent times the results need to be interpreted by a licensed
024school psych. But um but what it's caused over the past few years and and as I've met with staff um this has been probably the main thing that they say is really bogging them down is really taking time away from them being able to think about ways or work with students in a capacity they want to. It's stuff that they're having to do. They don't have time to do it during uh they might administer the tests at school, but going through and gathering all that information is happening after school and happening in the evening. So, it's been a pretty significant burden placed on them uh to get it done. One of the things I asked Dr. Sample to really look deeply into as he came in as an interim director this year was this very
025topic. Do we need a school psych, a full-time school psych? is this something we absolutely need or are there ways that we can work with a part-time school site and fill the gap and have a recommendation? Uh his answer to me was was an unequivocal yes, you need a full-time school site. This is a huge burden on your staff. Um the the communication breakdown too, even to parents by having one person administer a test, another person interpret it and communicate it, it's just a much cleaner process. So, uh with where we're at with the 0.5 to go to a 1.0 is not a huge uh change. It's it's we're paying I think we're somewhere in the vicinity of $60,000 right now. This would go, you know, maybe another 20 or $30,000 um beyond that to
026get to a full-time position. Uh but I think the the stress that it would relieve in an already stressful, incredibly stressful job and what our special ed teachers have to deal with, I think is well worth the investment. proposing to go to a one to a full-time school psych would be starting at the beginning of next school year. Do you have any idea what the pool is out there? It's it's slim. It's not easy to recruit um you know to get those positions and there's um it's a difficult process to go through a grow your own especially if you don't already have a school psych in your district because they need to spend some time working underneath a licensed school psych. So um you know it's it's not a it's not a large pool by
027any means and last I knew CISA 9 hadn't been able to hire one and that's been several months. Yeah. Yeah. So, the chances of us hiring one are, you know, probably less than good. But would we still have the part-time? We'll have to continue in some capacity. If we don't get somebody hired by the start of next school year, we'd have to look for some sort of a of a fill in. What type of degree or education does this position require? So, it's a it's a master's degree. Um obviously to just to enter I believe the program. So um so it's it's well beyond it's a is an EDS is an EDS required do you guys know? Yeah. So it's who was the last one? Christine Peterson. Questions, comments for Wendle? I guess I'm looking
028for a motion to um approve increasing the school psychologist position from 0.5201. Long to move. Second. Motion's been made by long, second by Calhoun. All those in favor? I opposed. Hearing none. Motion carried. Item 11, approve changes to the 2024 25 district calendar. Um, very simple change. We ran out of time this year. So, as far as snow days go, uh, our last day was a virtual day, but prior to that, we had a um another day that we had called off due to weather, and that put us a few hours below what we had. Luckily, the last day of school on June 6th is a one o'clock dismissal. So, we're proposing that we would go to three o'clock that day and we would be um really close on ours, just on the top side
029by about an hour. So, little better position than we were last year when we had no snow days and called out school a few days early. We won't be doing it this year, but we won't have to go we won't have to go into that second week, which is a bonus. Knock knock on wood that things stay pleasant for us here. So, I sure hope so. I have a trip planned some girls. Okay. Looking for a motion to approve the um change to the 2425 district calendar for June 6th. So moved. Kersh second. Motion made by Kers. Second by Valu. All those in favor? I I opposed. Hearing none. Motion carried. Item number 12, approve the first reading of of the there's two policies here. Um, district issued student email account and the summer intern
030school attendance account. This is the first reading of these two new policies that came from the policy committee that's wrapping up our December. So, any questions on these? Okay. Looking for a motion for approval of new policies. I move for low. Second. Second. Kevin. Motion's been made and seconded. All those in favor? I opposed. Hearing none. Motion carried. Item number 13. There's three policies for the second reading. These were policies that we had the last meeting. We just really need to go through the second reading. Looking for a motion to approve the second reading of the three policies listed on the agenda. So move first. Second. Long second. Motion's been made by Kur, seconded by Long. All those in favor? I I opposed. Hearing none. Motion carried. Item 14. We have several policies here that
031for some revisions that came through from Niola and went through the policy committee. Um any questions or concerns or Deborah? Um Ann, do you have any comments on any of these? I do not. Any questions? Okay. Looking for a motion to approve this um the revisions to the policies as listed under item 14. So and a second. Second. There's a tie here. You can pick who you want on motion. Point toss. All those in favor? I opposed. Hearing none. Motion carried. Item number 15, public comment. Is there anyone here for public comment? No. Item 16, board referrals. Anything from CISA? No, we ended up having another virtual meeting um because of the weather. That was on that Wednesday. So, I'm trying to think at this point what it was. Nothing. Oh, we postponed Al's evaluation
032to have it in person, but he was had pretty glowing from the superintendence and that sort of thing. It's pretty hard to find something to improve upon with Alree. Good. And everyone saw that we had the audit that was attached on there um to the board referral. So, we had that on there, too. Any questions on the audit that was there? something that's done every year. Any other board referrals or comments? Okay. Then I'm looking for a motion to go into close session. So move Kershaw. Second. Okay. Motion's been made and seconded. All those or we got a roll call. Thank you. Hersh. Yes. Long. Yes. Swinty. Yes. Beloo. Yes. Zimmerman. Yes. Calhoun. Yes. Kissinger Wolf. Yes. Yep. Okay. Thank you everyone for coming. Go home in the daylight. She the M.