001Vice Yes. Greetings everyone. I'm going to call this meeting to order. Good evening. Let's uh establish we have a quorum, please. Beginning with a roll call vote. Joe >> here. >> Corby >> here. >> John >> here. >> Meredith >> here. >> Christopher >> here. >> Carlos >> here. >> And I am here as well. We do have a quorum. Uh Corby, has this meeting been properly noticed? >> It has. [clears throat] >> Thank you. To help ensure that we're centering our board work around our shared values and serving our students, we begin each of our board meetings by reading our district's equity framework and the Ho Chunk land acknowledgement, which can be found at the top of your agenda. Uh Corby, would you please be willing to read those for us tonight? >> Absolutely.
002In the Verona Area School District, our mission is that each student will acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve their personal goals, thrive in a diverse global society, and lead a healthy, self-fulfilling life. To meet this mission, the Verona Area School District will ensure that every individual has access to the educational, social, and emotional support they need to feel valued and affirmed in their unique identities and experiences. We acknowledge that inequities and power dynamics exist in our system such that some individuals on the basis of their identities face barriers to accessing the opportunities they need to experience success. In acknowledgement of such, the Burona area school district is committed to disrupting these systems of inequity. The Ho Chunk land acknowledgement reads, "There are currently 12 tribal nations who call Wisconsin home, with the Ho
003Chunk Nation being the primary group living around Madison. No matter where you are in the state, you are on the ancestral land of a tribal nation. As we begin our meeting, we honor the land upon which we stand." >> Thanks, Corby. Um, board members, draw your attention to the rest of tonight's agenda. I'd accept a motion to approve if there are no amendments or additions. >> Motion to approve. >> Thank you, Christopher. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Carlos. All those in favor of approving of tonight's agenda signify with I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. The agenda has been approved. So, our first uh piece of the evening, which we often do, is staff recognition or student recognition. And tonight, we get to honor Dr. Clarity. and we have some
004esteemed guests with us, Mike Bear and Diane Hasselbine, representatives in our state legislature. Welcome. We appreciate you being here and I'll turn things over to you two. >> Great. Well, thanks for joining us. >> Thanks for the invite and time, John. Appreciate that. Um, we [clears throat] just having a couple conversations with you all walking in, you know, recognizes a difficult time in the community, in the country, in our state and and trying our best to focus on positives here tonight, which we have one big positive, one great positive for our community, Dr. Clarity, who recently was awarded the state superintendent of the year for the state of Wisconsin. So, congratulations to you, and we're very happy to be able to join with everyone to to say thank you on behalf of the community. and
005me as a parent in this district for the work that you've done and with the whole team uh on the board and all the staff and folks to uh provide a welcoming, warm, safe, educational place for our kids to go every day. That makes me feel good as a parent and I know our community is proud of of all the things that you've accomplished and the team has accomplished under your direction. So, I'm grateful. I'm thankful that >> um Ditto, you're all doing a great job. I've told some people I s started serving on the Middletown [clears throat] Cross School District 2005 2008. I know this is such a team effort and you do a great job and I really just appreciate all your hard work. It really makes a difference and you never know
006the places you'll go and the places these kids are going to go and it's exciting to think about those opportunities in the future. >> So we have a citation by the state legislature to offer to Dr. Clarity. So can can we read this then >> please read it? Sorry, we'll switch off. Okay, go ahead. >> Whereas Dr. Termaine Clarity is superintendent of the Verona Area School District where his leadership has improved student outcomes and strengthened community engagement. >> And whereas over his 27 years would not [laughter] >> of experience in K12 education and role as Edward professor at Edgewood College, Dr. Clarity leads with a vision of education equity and prioritized investments towards student success. And >> whereas under Dr. Clarity's leadership, the Verona Area School District has shown outstanding achievements with graduation rates, advanced
007placement participation, and attendance surpassing Wisconsin state averages. And >> whereas Dr. Clarity has shown his dedication to the advancement of highquality education by establishing superintendent advisory councils and advocating for early childhood education, student safety and student mental health resources. And >> whereas Dr. Clarity has been named the 2026 Wisconsin superintendent of the year, the most prestigious honor that can be given to a school system leader in the state. No, [laughter] you might be able to do it tonight. Therefore, Senator Dian Helvine and Representative Mike Bear on behalf of the Wisconsin State Legislature recognize Dr. Tumine Clarity as the 2026 Wisconsin Superintendent of the Year and commend him on his commitment to the future of Wisconsin learners and communities. >> On behalf of the state of Wisconsin, congratulations. [applause] >> [laughter] >> Well, there we go.
008Do the picture right there. >> Yeah, it's great. [laughter] >> [laughter] >> Thank you so much for joining us this evening. We appreciate you two taking the time. Another [clears throat] accolade. Welldeserved, Dr. Clarity. It's been fun celebrating you these past few weeks. >> Another piece of paper for the wall. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> If I could and I I know I know it has my name on there and I appreciate it. But when you talked about the collective of the work that we do together, the work of the team, the work of our community, our staff. We have, you know, outstanding staff in the Broner School District. So, I really want to uh uphold them and the the work that they do in our classrooms and uh make sure that they observe this recognition
009as theirs, too. But thank you both for being here today. It's really really been an honor. It's hard to sometimes it's hard to accept awards and I'm not not great at it, but I I'm really appreciative of being able to represent the Bronary School District with pride and and kind of put us on the map for great things across the state of Wisconsin. So, I appreciate appreciate the opportunity. >> Thank you. let us know how we can be helpful. >> Absolutely. Privilege for us to represent this district and the students too. We we've had in the last two weeks we've had um the FLCC students. I think I have that right with the red coats. Um they came in talking group of four. They were fantastic. >> Um and the the new century kids were
010in whole big group back in December. One of Joe's kids along for that ride. They want three recesses by the way. [laughter] Anchoring the future voters if I didn't share that. >> They really do. they really want us to write something up. >> So, we we've got some good young advocates and appreciate that. Getting them civically engaged is important. So, >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Always good to start the meeting with celebrations and recognitions. Um and now we'll move into our superintendent report. So, first up is uh ACT 42 wireless communication devices. Nate, thanks for joining us. >> The first, [laughter] >> so today we get to talk about the cell phone ban across the state. Um, but in all seriousness, Act 42 in 2025 is a pretty straightforward
011law. Um, for today's presentation, I really just wanted to quickly walk the board through what the law actually requires. Um, what some of our some of the things that our building leaders are saying about the the cell phone culture and what might be critical in our buildings and then leave some space for for discussion. [clears throat and cough] So, uh, 2025 Act 42 requires that school districts have a policy prohibiting the use of wireless communication devices um by July of this year. Um the policy defines wireless communication devices um as those specific four things, but also allows for an opportunity for a school district to add more things to this list. So it ask us to ban cell phones, tablet computers, um laptop computers, and gaming devices. Um it also demands that school districts create
012exceptions for health, safety, and students disability related needs. >> [clears throat] >> Uh the the key part about this statute is that it's pretty much acting as a floor for a cell phone or wireless communication ban in schools, but um allows for school districts to go further than what the law actually demands. For example, a school district could define what instructional time actually is and it can be more restrictive than another school district. Or they can add to this list of wireless communication devices and make it longer um increasing the list of things that would be banned during instructional time in the school district. At a recent principal meeting, I had a chance to talk with some of our building leaders about this this law and kind of just the overall cell phone culture in
013their buildings. And these are some of the things that they identified as critical. One, they generally support limiting wireless communication devices during the school day. They think that limiting those devices during the school day supports instruction and helps improve the school culture. Uh, two, they think that off and away is good, but not not necessarily sufficient without some more like clear district definitions. Like when we say devices need to be off and away, where is away? Is away in your pocket? Is away your backpack or in those like I think little used lockers in a school district. Is that also a way? And then also what should be considered instructional time? Is it bell to bell from like 7 am to 4 pm [clears throat] the building or is it the actual time that schools
014or that teachers are delivering direct instruction in their classrooms or is it something in between? Um, those district leaders also stressed consistency as a top priority, saying that students should be able to go through Sugar Creek, Badger Ridge, and the high school kind of experience seeming like similar cell phone expectations um, and not necessarily being surprised as they move on to the next grade level. And then finally, clear guidance on those exceptions would be needed. Um, if we're wanting to say that we're going to add um the use of a wireless communication device into a student's IEP or 504 plan, our staff are wanting language and kind of guidance in terms of the best way to structure it to support students, but then also maintain an orderly class environment. So, I told you today that
015was going to be a short presentation. Um in terms of next steps, the district administration will have to update administrative rule 533 um to be compliant with act 42, but then also to remain aligned with OE10. Um this update of the administrative rule will be informed by some of what our building leaders have said, some of what I think Dr. clarity he's been collecting in his uh staff and student advisory meetings and then also what the board believes would be appropriate for um uh cell phone ban or wireless communication ban. So tonight's discussion I'm hoping the board is willing to have will help shape kind of what that administrator role becomes. And I have these optional guiding questions that we can use or you all can just ignore them and just tell me what you
016think. >> Um these guiding questions include like I mentioned before, what does a way mean? What should instructional time mean in our policy? Uh how important is uniformity um versus building flexibility? And what are you hearing from your constituents in terms of this cell phone band or wireless communications in schools? And then finally, what should the role of schools be in teaching responsible device use? We already kind of have set up in our school district teaching responsible device us through like student Chromebooks and district devices. Students kind of know like, okay, this is a school device. I should use it for school work. what role should uh should we play in teaching students responsible use of their own personal devices? So, with that, we'll turn it over to the school board. If you have any
017questions, comments, concerns, >> who wants to go? I know, right? >> Right in [clears throat] >> I like the question about what should away mean because that's a perfect example of how simple it is to say, well, like away means like that it's simply like it's in your pocket or it's out of sight. it's not distracting me. But that's not really a governable thing. If I, you know, recall being in a classroom, like that would be a really hard thing to monitor. It take a lot of teacher energy to be constantly like observing and then having interactions about whether or not you're viewing your phone or if it's actually away. So, I think that's a really good question like from the standpoint of like it makes common sense to just say, "Yeah, put it in
018your pocket." But we also have to be mindful of like how much are we taking away from teachers being able to teach by setting a rule that is actually hard to observe and then enforce. And so like away might mean more away somewhere else so there's a clear line and a teacher doesn't have to be checking all the time. Um I'm not suggesting an answer to that. I'm just a good question. >> Perfect. >> I was curious. Um, I had a conversation about this with somebody whose opinion I value greatly, who was here not too terribly long ago and he was sharing with me that virtually every teacher has a policy about cell phone use and was wondering what are we trying to accomplish and I said compliance with the law. Um and he's like
019okay in that case it should be off and away and off your off your person. And however a teacher wants to implement that is that in your backpack that's off your body that's off your person. If it's a he said most you know a lot of teachers have like the cell phone hotels um previously they did it hasn't been so long. He's like they do a great job of managing it. If this is now to ensure that they aren't having to police that that makes great sense. So off your body in a way is, you know, as long as it's not on you, not in a pocket, it's in a backpack, it's in a cell phone hotel. Um, but he was also saying, you know, are we trying to model cell phone use or social
020dynamics? I thought that was an interesting question because I would say they go hand in hand and I think sometimes um they don't. I Anyway, my question I guess as I'm coming around to this is what are our teachers saying? I mean, I would imagine they would like consistency so one person isn't being like out on a limb having a strict policy, but um I assume there's cell phone policies in each classroom and wouldn't the teacher be the best judge of what instructional time is? Yeah, I can [clears throat] jump in on that because I because of especially the component of the uh voices of our staff through the staff advisory and I also simultaneously got it from the family advisory as well as the student advisory as well. But to your point with the
021staff advisor, yes, there's a desire to have consistency and uh I think just more consistency across the building, not just space to space because you know, you don't you could be seeing like well I have very strict cell phone and I can go to the next one. Well, Mrs. or Mr. So and so doesn't enforce it that way. So it makes it hard to have uh credibility from from spot to spot. Similarly, we've heard from our students that having different expectations in different spaces causes issues as as well. So while I think to a point students don't aren't necessarily overly fond of of [clears throat] it, they understand why we're doing it and they would admit that there's a it causes a distraction. But to their point, if you're going to do this, it needs
022to be consistent no matter which classroom environment that you're going to be in. So, it's a building expectation, not an individual space expectation. >> So, if we're talking to um staff >> and we're trying to set I I don't want staff to have to utilize their time to enforce a policy. >> Correct. Um, and because I think that puts everybody in a, you know, and my my understanding is that using devices, there's like an appropriate use for devices in classrooms and that's going to depend on which subject really you're in. You know, there's different uses for each different different staff members are going to have different, you know, abilities to utilize technology in a way that should be fostered. How do we how do we manage that? And is that even up to the board
023to >> Yeah, that piece of it it's we're able to put the language in that that classroom based activities are can can be acceptable under the policy that's created or the administrative code that that that's created. Um I think it's specifically differentiating between like the devices that we give out uh in terms of that use or possibly calculators that we use in our some of our higher advanced ma math classes and things that so those are going to be expected expected usages when you're talking about me just simply having a cell phone next to me that's mine that's not attached to a classroom that should not be part of the classroom environment I think is the heart or spirit of what the what the >> desire policy is going to get at and the spirit
024of of the vast majority of staff and students are looking to have consistency around not not the work device. >> Yeah, that makes sense. >> The law does require that we actually spell out what those exceptions would be in terms of like authorized educational use. So that's something that our building leaders ask for too, that if we're going to have these exceptions for a teacher that wants to use a cahoot to do a social studies review or something of that sort [clears throat] that we lay out procedures to make sure that that teacher isn't accidentally stepping over on some policy. And just on that topic, I'd say like I from my own experience of hearing from my teenager, there is sometimes I I think a default because it's easier to have the kids do something
025on their cell phone that could be done on their Chromebooks that honestly as a district we pay a lot of money to make sure every kid has one of these so that it's equitable and everybody has the same thing. um that I I think that it would go a long way if we set a a standardized policy across the district that discourages use of students personal devices for education unless absolutely necessary. And I can't even off the top of my head think of something the Chromebooks and can't do. But but I'm not a teacher. So I >> I totally agree with the distraction. My one and only concern is having that direct line to parents, you know, in emergency situations. Um, what's the thought on that? Have we I'm sure we thought about that, right?
026So we still provide in the circumstances now when the phone's not available even to our to our young ones that that need access to uh parents you know office or classroom phone or going to a counselor space to allow that that conversation to take place and you want the privacy piece of it anyway. So, uh, yeah, e situations, the staff members aren't going to stop that from from happening in those areas. But the I don't think it overrides the need to have a policy in place that is overall to prevent the distractions that happen. And you know even with the implementation of policies that that have been or practices and that really policies yet and procedures that are in place we can see decreases in classroom disruption now I just think we want it to
027be more consistent across all of our spaces. >> What considerations are there as we have grappled with this for so long with the away idea in terms of what away means for liability for the district. If we have phones away, at what point is their gray area of now something happened to my kid's phone and it's your fault because you made them put it away. >> Yeah. And if we were to go that route and like kind of uh I guess push cell phone hotels or push to students to put their phones in their lockers and we'd also have to kind of cover ourselves on the liability too in a sense that we might push out communication to families saying like, "Hey, bring your cell phone at your own risk." I know these seem to
028be things that students feel really attached to and it might be unthinkable for them, but um that we can make reasonable [clears throat] assurances to protect their devices and their property, but similar to if you were to bring like a notebook to school and it gets stolen at school, vision would help you try and find the notebook and remedy it, but >> you wouldn't necessarily replace the notebook. >> I like that idea. I mean, a lot of teachers for me have shared that the distractions um pretty disruptive to the classroom. And I think the data shows that having your phone on you just impacts cognitive capacity, right? And so the goal is to make sure that kids are showing up 100%. For allowing distractions, they're not showing up 100%. So for me, I'm pulling away,
029not even feeling in your backpack because that's also a distraction when you're worried about my phone just went off. if I get any that ding that text. That's my feeling. That's I think what the data shows like correct me if I'm wrong. What the data shows behind cognitive capacity and how the phones impact learning during the day. Um and then the second I think we should definitely shift the burden of enforcement, make it standardized because the teacher shouldn't be a bad guy. There shouldn't be, oh my god, my fourth grade teacher is way cooler. Lets me have my cell phone anytime. My sixth grade teacher sucked. Why? Oh, because she didn't let me have my cell phone. If we create that problem, that's that's something easily. So, my perspective is avoiding [clears throat] making it
030a districtwide policy so it's consistent and follow the data of what's going to optimize just attention and cognitive capacity in the classroom. I firmly uh feel that we need consistency as well. I just know um how distracting I am with my cell phone. Like I have a hard time managing it. So I think if if we could also think about kind of the longer term I mean they're not going away. These aren't going away. How do we think about um you know how we access what what curriculum can we build to support students for making sure that they can responsibly interact with our technology. I think uh you know lots of studies around um its impact on on self how you feel about yourself and suicide rates and other things and mental health that I
031think there's another piece here that's kind of missing how we would look at holistically um integrating responsible cell phone use my kids are not 16 or young and they're not getting cell phones you're going to be at home till you're 16. So we're we're definitely um pretty uh strict about our thoughts around self kids because they're already at you know their ages inundated with social media and other things and other capacities and I don't want that for them at a very early stage. But I think um the consistency is my main thing. The only thing that I've heard from parents is and I also share the same concern is if there's an emergency situation having direct immediate access to my kid knowing where they're located what is that process how I mean we've got those
032processes so alongside whatever we develop or consistency across we're sharing these are our policies for this situation etc to make sure that our our families know and that's not an additional question that comes to us. That's actually something that came up during our reunification training a couple weeks ago. We were running through that drill and we sat back and thought like, okay, what we haven't thought about now is like we have these, depending on the school evacuation, we have these hundreds or whatever amount of students um they're all probably going to be texting their parents and family like, "Okay, I'm here. This is what I'm doing." And how do we deal with that while trying to reunify families in case there was like a water main break or gas leak or something that led to
033a school evacuation? So yeah, those [clears throat] are those are things that we're going to have to think about from like a safety and security standpoint, too. Setting aside the issue of like a communication during an emergency, I I I think and I'll include myself in this, parents need to like do a better job of not defaulting to what's easier. I communicate with my kid when she's at high school via her cell phone because it's so easy and convenient. And enforcing a policy that's best for the district, best for all the students, best for the teachers will mean that we may not be able to have that easy, convenient, direct access communication with our kids and that's okay. Uh if you need to reach your kids, like Dr. Clarity said, there is a way to
034reach your kids to reach the school to talk to someone at the school. Um, and it's the same way that all of our parents reached all of us when we were in school. That method still exists. >> Yeah, that was going to be my piece as we look for things to define. Emergency also gets real right. What a family may constitute as an emergency. Thinking about what we really need for access becomes an interesting layer. And that isn't to diminish something that is legitimate concern and needing to contact your child, but that gray area where we've gotten very convenient. And I also think that the data shows that Sorry to interrupt. >> No, no, go ahead. >> I was saying the data has shown that having devices have actually slowed the ability for children emergency
035to listen to instructions on where to go and what to do because they're so worried of contact getting on the phone and contacting somebody. So I don't I don't know if it's the data is going to show that this actually leads to safer outcomes when it comes to an emergency happening. So I think that's sharing that data so parents realize like is this really making your child safe the way you think or is more of a this is easy and I feel like I have the illusion of control given an emergency if if my child has constant access and a way to communicate because I I myself kids have an Apple Watch [clears throat] and I communicate throughout the day sometimes but I'm ready to stop that if it means better you know attention in
036the classroom and a district policy that takes the burden off the teachers and makes everything easier. I'm willing to to deal with that as Joe mentioned. >> I think that's an interesting when you were doing that I realized you know what is our devices are on our wrists too. What is >> what does away mean in that situation? >> It is capturing the watches right because they're not phones. There's no social media. So it doesn't break our social media is >> messaging texting >> calling device alerting just notifications. Yeah, >> that was something that came up in the meeting with principles too is like that list of devices needs to be longer um because principles and building leaders are seeing students or running into students talking to their watches or they might have like angel
037sense detectors allow like families to kind of drop in and listen. So that they really want us to like think deeply and hard about um the wireless communication device that end up on the band list. >> Just to put it into like real perspective now like just seeing what's happening in Minnesota and like wanting extra layers of security even for my family and you know those are those are layers of security that you know it's hard for us to have a broad sense. We've got our our our policies and procedures, but what else have we not thought of? What were we want our students that may be at higher risk for being picked up in extreme cases that they're coming to school because they have another layer of safety that they can communicate. So, I
038just I I don't want to lose sight of that reality of now because that I know that you know that's I'll just put it out there that we add that to the list of our considerations and what we consider you know we want to bring kids to school want them to be safe here. We want their families to feel that their kids are safe here and we have to just expand our ideas of what we consider ourselves safe with that lens as well. What do you mean by by adding that as a currency? >> I just I just think um if there are families who are uh are being targeted by ICE because they're uh doing it refugee or whatever and they're not coming to school because of that reason that fear of being separated
039from their family today. If we can add extra layers of uh security for them, whatever that could be that they're safe at school. I just want to think about that too because I I think [clears throat] that that's a reality and we can't look past that. I think that's happening right now and so we just have to make sure that we are that is within our our realm of of thought. >> There's like the discussion about [clears throat] progressive discipline violations. What um what does that kind of look like? >> Yeah. So that came up amongst our principles in a sense that just having your cell phone out is kind of seen as just a like a level one violation. It's something that's handled at the classroom and really those level two, three, and four
040violations come in when you start talking about what is the student actually doing with the cell phone. So reviewing those and seeing whether those are actually aligned with what they want them to be and whether there should be a situation in which repeated level one violation actually becomes a higher of a higher up code violation in that sense. Um but yeah but currently the progressive response model talks about like okay is a student using this to cheat it goes here as a three or they're using it to send a meme to their friend and they're just being off task. It might be a one or a two. So just kind of flushing those out with this new band to make sure we're not putting um I was mentioned earlier like all of the enforcement on
041the teacher specifically and that some of it is also dealt with through building administration and reinforcement. >> Like in general this feels like a great example of our inverted pyramid and I think I heard this from the start of like the input of families, students and staff matters so much to me. Um this is certainly one example where as a board member, yep, we will craft these policies and and do the things that our board needs to do, but I absolutely want the insights >> [clears throat] >> um from the folks that are at the ground level doing this. And the buyin um having your student adviser, I think, is so powerful for this of having student input. So the buyin is really reciprocal that it doesn't feel like something happening to our students, but
042in partnership with our students and to our teachers. >> Yeah, exactly. But I do think the consistency, all the things that people have elevated are really important. Um, I think I'll just share one little other philosophical piece that I think you kind of touched on too of like the relationship with devices. I know that's something in parenting world. It's really easy to just take the device, but then kids aren't learning how to have relationships with their devices. And I would argue most of us adults have had to learn how to have a relationship with our device, too. How do you feel when you look at it for 15 minutes? Do you feel bad about yourself when you're done? What are you doing? and just understanding to self-monitor as well because that's really the reality. We
043can do these sort of more punitive things and put guard rails and rules and take things, but if we think about creating global citizens beyond our walls, how can we help support students to just really know and understand how they engage with their device um as kind of part of our just global approach to technology. So, >> yeah. >> So, I agree with that. I was going to say we haven't really talked about what role a school should play, but you kind of hit on it there. Like there's a definite role you played there about what responsible device use looks like. I'm not sure what that is, but there's a definite role there. >> I feel like the adults need partners [clears throat] with that too, right? I as a teacher, I wouldn't be able
044to teach how to have a good relationship with my phone. Let's do the journey together. I mean, right, if we create that partnership with adults, too. I wonder what do you know we're currently doing as far as like I know that's Jason Rubo's world with responsible [laughter] use and sharing information literacy on responsible use with parents. I've gotten little pages of like hey these are best practices to with iPads at home. What are we doing for other devices? >> Yeah, it's u yeah >> it's moving a lot faster with AI because now we're dealing we're working through two lenses. And I just want to put this in a space that Jen mentioned. I'll just go a little bit deeper in terms of the with the rapid implementation of AI into our world. The usage of
045a device with almost uh trying to replicate humanistic qualities is a factor that we we have to we need to do a lot more teaching about in terms of almost replacing adult interaction with device interaction and forsaking actually kind of the peer peer-to-peer world. almost training that device to be your your go-to your go-to person instead of a person itself. So, >> right, >> uh I've learned that more from the student voices in the spaces of >> right u of >> you know creating emoji training someone actually you know having someone that's speaking to you talk to you giving you you think it's giving you advice but it's an algorithm those type of things that's that's happening now. Yeah. And so it's not just a fact of okay putting the device away. It's also how
046we are engaging with technology that's a different shift in in not just education system just around society. So both need to be true um to to your point. So I think I just think we we can't get caught just in a world of just putting a phone away is going to be enough to to deal with the rapid change of technology facing facing our students right now. >> Correct. >> Have two comments real quick. Just first of all, how many of us have our phone sitting next to us? >> All of us. I think >> literally [snorts] everyone watch. So, I guess my point is if we're going to craft a cell phone policy, it has to be one that the adults actually [laughter] by too. I mean, because there's really just no point and
047say this is what you should do and we're going to do something different because >> because I feel like that feels a little hypocritical. I granted maybe as the superintendent you actually do have emergencies that do have to be addressed immediately. You might get the pass, >> but I'm pretty sure I don't. So that would just be something I would like to point out. The other thing um you know just reading about um willpower um versus uh environmental modification and that willpower is just a constant drain um and really is not something that you can you're not setting yourself up for success if it's relying on willpower. You're actually just causing yourself stress. Environmental modification is the way to enact that. So I would put it out there. were just saying just don't check. >>
048Just don't do anything is not a great recipe for success and I myself so as I just don't check like I would like to modify environment as opposed to just just don't check me. >> Yeah. >> So like the piece of chocolate there willpower is really hard when the chocolate is sitting there. Modify the environment and have Lori keep it in her bag. Yeah, that's really that's really poignant though. I mean, not to make a trit, you know, example out of something bigger, but I mean that's really interesting. >> We use magnetic pouches in the high school. >> It's there there's p there are pouches available. They're not consistent classroom to classroom. So I think that's that's >> yeah where and it's not it's not any fault of any staff member at all. It's just
049that has been an expectation. >> So I just think we're trying to get to the space of consistency of once we decide what that is. So thinking about the the conversation and I just want to make sure that our steps are correct that we like to bring an administrative rule back to the board and then codify that rule as a policy under OE10 just so we have the connection to match the legislative requirements >> um as as a step for us. >> Yeah. >> Only [clears throat] other thing I'd add to the discussion that we haven't brought up yet is this is not a unique problem to us. It's not a unique problem to Wisconsin. And I know because I've read about them that there are districts that have kind of done novel things and
050have had big-time successes surrounding uh device usage in their schools that maybe it it would be useful and I'm sure you've done this or are planning on doing it, but to do some kind of uh kind of case studies of what some other sites have done and see what you we can learn so we don't have to feel like we're inventing the wheel. >> Yeah. districts have implemented. >> I think this also came up when we were talking about our results policy. So there's a pedagogical component as well that has nothing to do with the board really but you know there's the act 42 compliance component but then there's like an ongoing like how are we talking and teaching about this in the age of ubiquitous devices and AI >> that you know our curriculum
051hasn't necessarily got to it yet. I don't know if it ever can. AI moves pretty quick. So >> hope that was helpful. Thank you for the prompts and the information really to hear feedback from you know staff and students and building how everyone else wants to come at this >> for sure. Um decent part about this we have a little bit of time July 1 isn't right around the corner but it keep up on us. So I would just also encourage you if we are going to do any stakeholder engagement or feedback around it that we think outside our normal channels like I was explaining families that might be impact correct me if I'm wrong but did you already ask the staff and student advisor and family advisory? >> Yes. Oh, you did. Okay. >>
052And the group is more and we can go again just to make sure. But the st the student one was only maybe six [clears throat] weeks ago, six to eight weeks ago. >> Yeah, we flipped the uh flipped the presentation. They they actually presented it to the the rest of the advisory. So it was studentto student discussion. Very good. Cool. Thanks for inviting. >> Yeah, I like that. >> Thanks for >> Thank you. >> Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks for [clears throat] the discussion. >> Yep. Still Oh, yeah. I know. Yeah. No, actually this is our it's our standalone our new recent agenda item of just having some budget conversations. So, Chad, it looks like we'll get to invite you up. Um just doing our part as a board to continue to dialogue around budget
053impacts locally, statewide of us learning and learning alongside the community to just stay informed about various aspects of school funding and budget and finance. We are Pete. Thought you'd be here too. >> Yeah. Property taxes. Yeah. Which is our going to be part of our focus this evening. So thanks for being on this ride with us to just take some time as things, you know, continue around. uh budget all the time with our budget team. >> He just had to check himself and put us forward. >> Yeah. Right. Thanks for doing [laughter] that. Yeah, I know. >> Good to see everybody. We have a a very brief budget update actually on the 2627 budget. Uh mainly coming off that we rolled over the first of the year. So, we have an update on CPI. Uh
054we have some new estimates related to open enrollment after the board recently voted on that. So, we're going to do that. And then to Jen's point, we're going to spend a little more time on tax bills and see if the board has questions regarding our update on interpreting your tax bill and kind of all the moving pieces in and out to get to a spot that we um all of us who are property owners are paying property tax bills this time of year. >> So, we've got a 2627 budget update and that should be very brief. Uh and then a tax bill summary. We'll get into the details. We actually brought forward a couple of of actual tax bills. took names off uh this evening to go through details on why they differ so much
055even in our school district and certainly stop me along the way if you've got questions. Pete is here for some technical we end up with some technical questions related to all the things we're sharing tonight and we're excited to have this discussion. Uh so the first thing we wanted to do the board should be familiar with this uh we updated our base assumptions for the 2627 uh budget year. Uh the main thing that the main two things that changed on this sheet uh and again these are our biggest drivers for getting to a balanced budget in the fall uh we added a line for additional open enrollment seats. I know the board approved 399. We uh continue to work on conservative assumptions so we don't overpromise and end up actually in a spot tonight. We're
056going to have you hopefully approve OE5. Uh if Pete Chad and Dr. C did the opposite and had aggressive assumptions and all of a sudden tanked a couple budgets, we would be out of compliance on OE5 because we would have more expenditures than revenues. Uh and that is not the case and we hope to keep it the case. Uh so we added a line for additional open enrollment seats and then ticked down the assumption of 3% on the annual cost of living to 2.7. Uh and the board should be very familiar with our five-year model. We use this almost as you know our go-to document uh to set our annual budget but then also forecast where we see ourselves in in the following years. Uh and did update uh with those new numbers in there
057and uh those new numbers primarily the the the dip in CPI and the added revenue that would come along with an additional 100 students on open enrollment. We we essentially took that budget gap down by a million dollars which is which is good news. Um but still a place that we need to have ongoing discussions around where we're headed in the fall. Um but we're still protect projecting at this point uh with conservative assumptions that we'd end up in the ballpark of about a $2 million budget gap. Um and the board can certainly stop me along the way if they have questions related to that. Um but we did update the numbers on that that fiveyear forecast. We can go back to this if the board has questions. Uh uh yeah clarifying question it's not
058about next year so probably just can be put off but in subsequent years it seems like the equalization rate is dramatically decreasing. >> I don't know if you want to speak to that or if that's just a we're going to have to wait and see cuz state >> a lot of that will have to do with the assumption when I'm calculating out how are going to be receiving equalization aid. Um, in our case here, we're putting in a looks like it's a 5% property value increase >> and um, statewide it's not going up as fast as we are for property value. So, we start getting a smaller share of the a pot in future years. At least that's the way we're seeing it for right now. And John, we actually brought a state aid history
059to you tonight in property tax 101. And you'll find that our aid has been we've had ups and downs, but over the last 10 years has actually been ticking down because we are a more propertyrich school district than other districts compared. Good question. So, this was a little our margin and shortfall summary. This was just a little snapshot. Those are credits and debits related to where we think the budget's going uh to get the thing balanced in the fall. Uh as a reminder, we ended up with about $1.6 million in new revenue permission. That is from the $325 per student uh that came out came out of the last bianial budget and we didn't get anything else really of of consequence. Uh and uh then we did add the piece around open enrolled students where
060uh if students do decide to open enroll into our school district uh that comes with about $11,000 essentially in revenue uh permission for those students that would come to us. We tweaked the 2.7 uh from three, but there are some just some big numbers in there. The board just needs to continue uh to kind of get our our arms around. uh a CPI increase to staff uh would be a $2 million expenditure in next year's budget and right now we have only $1.6 million of added revenue permission from the state taking out the open enrollment piece stop or credit for a year of service is another 1.2 almost $1.3 million. Um I said this morning to Dr. C and cabinet [clears throat] healthcare is another $700,000. Um, and I can't imagine school districts that haven't,
061you know, we've had the luxury of a past operating referendum to continue to manage that ongoing expense and look [clears throat] at RFP to bring rain things back in. Uh, but 7% of our existing healthcare contract is another $700,000. [clears throat] Um, and that none of that's going into the classroom. I guess immediately going into the classroom and then the rest of the related expenses. So, that's really how we ended up with that $ 1.9 million budget gap. And we'll continue to um update the board as we get a little later into the spring regarding what's going on with all these budget assumptions. Last slide was this. We just refreshed uh this slide around things that we are potentially in play as conversations get more serious heading into the spring. that these would be at
062this point the big levers we would have uh to discuss and we wouldn't have to do all of these on any of them. Uh but we have the and and we're going to do some of this depending on retirement but a retiring staff member that we wouldn't re or resigning staff member that we wouldn't rehire comes along on average with about $87,000 of expense. Uh, and I mentioned before step increase is $1.3 million. CPI's uh,2 million. Uh, we continue to levy and I do believe this is the right thing to do, but would be a tool the board could tell us. Uh, explore. We continue to levy $1 million a year to maintain our facilities. That can be a little bit of a of a negative feedback loop. If you start to pull that money
063away from our team to maintain schools, all of a sudden you're looking at a larger capital referendum for things we've been taking off windows and roofs and boiler replacements uh because we've levied for it. Um and we're doing it at the right time, not waiting till a roof leaks to the point that it's making everything else inside the building wet. Um and [clears throat] healthcare continues to be in play. So just having discussion with Michelle on that today. We will begin uh discussions with them in the coming months regarding what that renewal rate is. Right now it's essentially capped at 7%. We believe with the on-site clinic uh we have some leverage to renegotiate and get that at a a more palatable number once we head into the fall. >> Any other questions on a
064quick 2627 budget update? add a quick application on the open enrollment and additional seats and adjustments. The 1.2 million, what's that based on? >> Uh, that's based on $11,900 per time. How many students is that just what we expect to come in through open? >> It was the what Chad was saying. It's a per student rate and we increasing for an extra 100 students. a little over $11,000 per student, but there was also another little um roughly $100,000 adjustment I had to make to start the budgeting cycle on here, too. So, I just categorized that with the open enrollment because it was an open enrollment adjustment. I make sure my open enrollment numbers were correct. >> That makes sense. So, then that number can fluctuate based on the actual numbers of students that do open
065enroll. >> Correct. Could be higher or lower. >> Exactly. Right. Okay. Yep. And you want to know that from the end of June, >> right? So, we're choosing 100 as a baseline. 100ish what we would call a conservative assumption. >> Got it. Thank you for that. Good question. >> All right. Ready to dive at property tax bills a little bit? [clears throat] >> All right. And we're not going to do a check for understanding with the board at the end, but we will take volunteers. I did this with principles. Uh we we modeled a grocery store interaction where a principal runs into uh a property taxpayer uh over at Millers. Uh they bump carts in the produce section uh and uh they have an off-the-cuff conversation around what's going on with my property taxes. Uh,
066and I had principles attempt to use the terms equalized property value, state aid, mill rate, and taxes in a few sentences that they put together to make sense. But um, so um, if anyone wants to try at the end, we'll take you any want to kind of take one for the team. I'm all in to give feedback related to those interchangeable parts. So, we're going to see if we can try to tie that story together tonight with some examples related to property tax bills because they are on top of mind to many people that are paying property taxes this month in the coming months. Uh, so I did uh stuff into AI, a um um a um kind of an op ed uh that I would consider factual posted by Dan Ross Miller that WIS
067politics uh pumped out that the title was literally what is going on with property taxes in Wisconsin. I shared it with the board. Uh and this did really end up in six main themes. I'm not going to read these to you verbatim, but essentially these six big ideas are exactly what's going on with property taxes around the state. We are not alone in the fact that [clears throat] taxes uh were higher in our school district uh this last uh taxing cycle and we were actually on the lower end uh relative to the state average. Uh so one state level decisions are driving local t property tax bills and we're going to get into this in a little more detail. Um and it's actually I think on the next slide. Uh we really are funded from
068two main sources in our school district. We get very low federal funding. Uh so we get money from the state in the form of aid and then we get money to run our schools from local property taxes. It's about 2/3 to oneird. Uh so on an annual basis we get permission per pupil to operate our school district from the state of Wisconsin. We don't get to adjust that. The only way to adjust it is through a referendum. this last year [clears throat] $325 per pupil. That equated to $1.6 million uh in new monies that we could spend. But no new money went into the state a pot. So there's only one other source in our school district that comes from local property taxpayers. uh the board made the decision to dial down how much money
069we levied to fund 39 so we could put more in the fund 10 pot uh because the state did not give us any additional aid. That is bullet one. Uh so no new money in the state aid pot means everything gets shoved to local property taxpayers. You can have your opinions around why our state lawmakers are doing that. Uh but I I I do think there um it can be advantageous at election time to have people mad about their property taxes. Um and that has happened this year uh statewide with decisions made at the state level. Two, we've got revenue limits and related to inflation. So we've had two years of this idea of the state litigating or passing laws relative to how much we can spend per pupil. Two decades of this has gone
070on. There hasn't been a year where our per pupil revenue limit went up with inflation. It's not every other year. It's not once every five years. It's not once every 10 years we get a big jump to catch up. 20 years in a row, it hasn't kept up with inflation. So, and and budgets would still be difficult to balance if we just got an inflationary increase because there are expenses like healthcare outside of our control that are higher than the rate of inflation and we're not even getting that from the state of Wisconsin. As a result, we've had record high referendum. We've talked about that. Uh state aid has continued to decline related to school funding. Uh we actually just spoke with the board about a month ago um on the moving pieces related to
071voucher schools and essentially taking away state aid and then us backfilling the property taxes. Uh that's a whole another matter. Um and number six, a big thing in the area school district is related to property value assessments. And we're going to get into a little more detail on that this evening. I [clears throat] do encourage the board if they haven't had a chance read that article. I think it's very well done. It's two and a half pages tops. And I think it it kind of puts it in good perspective. Again, this is how our school district is funded. About 2/3 and a third, state and local property taxpayers. And now and now we're going to get into a few moving pieces related to um equalized property value. That's going to be the big our big
072focus tonight. We're going to do in detail a nameless property tax bill from the city of Verona. And we could have done this for the city of Pitchburg or others and the town of Verona. Those are the two places uh that we've kind of seen the biggest separation in terms of what's happening with property tax bills. And we're going to try to get to the bottom of the why tonight. Uh so on an annual basis, the department of revenue during taxing seasons in applies something called an equalized property value or fair market assessment on on an existing property. Um and the entire reason they do that uh is to equalize the taxing burden in the state of Wisconsin to support public schools. And the main reason that's important is because municipalities are given local discretion
073to assess their properties as they wish. [clears throat] So you could see there would be a way to incentivize local municipalities to underassess the value of their properties to try to save the local taxpayers from from kind of paying their fair share to support public schools. So the department of revenue steps in and they apply an equalized property value. So you're going to actually see on your property tax bills, you have two values for the property you own. One is just the flat assessed value and that's done from the municipality. That's the value they apply to pay for following streets, supporting the parks and other municipal services. And then you'll see a fair market value or equalized property value. That's the one the department of revenue applies uh to make sure you're paying your fair
074share for public schools um and that everything is kind of balanced out. That's the idea of equalized uh property values. So in a nutshell and I'll flip through these slides. Uh the way this works is if you live in a municipality that had 50 homes sell 50 homes and businesses or pieces of land uh that sold the year before uh and they sold for an average of $700,000. The Department of Revenue says, "All right, you sold these 50 properties. What were their values in terms of assessed value?" and come back and the and the department of revenue is like, huh, $500,000 average assessed value on these properties by your local municipality. Meaning in their eyes, you have undervalued that property by $200,000. In turn, they apply a ratio to everyone in that municipality that owns
075a property, even if you didn't sell it. uh it is their way to have the best guess for what things actually be worth uh in the event you sold it, not what it's assessed for. And it's supposed to equalize the taxing burden for municipalities. [clears throat] and stop me if you guys have questions, but you can see uh if you have a property that is fairly assessed, which is kind of where the city of Rona is sitting right now, versus a property in the township, which is way underassessed. The department of revenue comes pecking on an annual basis to say, "You've underassessed your properties. We need to step in and raise your equalized property value." And that's what we're going to get into tonight. That's gone on. We have, you know, we have multiple municipalities
076in our school district and that has not been an equal number the last four or five years. Um, and some people are really feeling it. I wish we could control it, but we can't. So, a few key terms. I'm not going to read all these to you. I did want to make sure we concentrated on equalized property, equalized value, and fair market value tonight. Um, improvements come into play if you put in an addition or other things. Um, and I think for the most part our board members are aware of levy and mill rate. We wanted to get into a little more detail. This is actually a version of this is in our annual budget book. Uh, so here's our equalized property value history uh, in our school district. Pete went in and colorcoded this.
077Um, and everything that's green is above the average increase on on that annual basis. Everything that's red means it's a little bit lower than it was than the year before. So if you follow me, if we just take a look at 2526 and we go down, we take a look at the city [clears throat] of Fitsburg all the way to Verona, the average equalized property value increase that year was 9.23%. Meaning the Department of Revenue thought on average our properties were undervalued by 9.23%. 23% when they applied it to all of our municipalities. But you can see there were some municipalities, Montros, Montros or the city of Verona that were well below that 9.23. Uh and um our friends in the town of Verona uh um really really got hit by the department of revenues
078here. They applied a 21% ratio uh saying that that's how much that the town was underassessed. I also want us to look at what has happened in the township the last three years. The department of revenue has applied 16 17 and 21% to the property values in the township three consecutive years. So what that means is slowly but surely the taxing burden uh in terms of where people live and how much they pay of our levy has been shifting to the town of Aurora. And the main reason that has happened is that the department of revenue believes properties are underassessed and they're worth more than they they are assessed for. Um and they're applying that ratio so folks in the town have to pay more property taxes for public schools. And we're going to get
079into details on what that means to the tax bills next. So, we pulled a couple of tax bills. We pul pulled names off them. Uh but uh you may know a neighborh like this. Uh and uh what we what we did is we actually teased apart three consecutive years of tax bills and pulled the most crucial information um off each of those tax bills um as kind of a showand tell in terms of what happened uh with equalized property value. So here we have a resident in the city of Verona. Uh and you can see kind of from top to bottom the value of the land, the improvement which is typically uh the home, the total value, the average uh the average assessment ratio and that that gets into uh that that fair market value.
080And then we bolded the fifth line down uh the estimated fair market value of that home. That is the value our mill rate is applied to. Uh when you figure out how much you're paying in property taxes, then then down the way you've got uh county taxes, local taxes, the school tax uh taxes, and Madison College, you can deduct lottery credits, first dollar credit, and so forth. Um, and in the end, uh, on that kind of second to last line, your total tax bill, uh, when it comes to what we're what we're end we're end up paying, this resident over a three-year period of time had a 7.2424% increase in prop in their overall property tax bill. Uh, which, um, this is just my editorial comment. in uh in a very high inflationary market. Uh
081I I actually consider this to be very reasonable that property taxes were not coming anywhere close to keeping up with inflation. Uh meaning at least for this resident something was working 7% over three years. Um and we layered in an 8% inflation there uh three years ago. Questions on details in that property tax that that bill. So the assessment ratio for 2025. So the fourth line down the 0.9509. So when that gets applied to give the estimated fair market value that equal that fair market value that the do is coming in to adjust that only impacts the school levy or does that impact any other aspect of the bill? That is only to to remedy the fact that they're not covering the school portion. >> Right. So it does look like VASD has taken a
082huge chunk because that is directly the equalization is to match that specific component of the bill, >> right? Uh because uh stay with me here one step further. Municipalities can do this. If they under underassess a property in all of their properties, uh, but they still know what their annual expenses are, they can just apply a higher mill rate to that underassessed property, uh, to make up for what that costs. [snorts] So, their assessed values mean less than it does to us because we're backing into that number from a levy that is restricted by revenue limits. So a town of Verona that has been undervaluing properties for years, >> the hammer comes down directly to schools. It does basically. So yeah, I that helps with the perception piece. Not that perception isn't reality, but the
083way that the where the source of the issue comes and then where it lands that does feel really icky. >> It does >> that it it does kind of land on our mat. >> Super complicated stuff. So, it's hard for most people when they're only dealing with this once a year to really get your mind around. >> And to your point, we've tried to navigate our mill rate and trying to anticipate some of this for our taxpayers knowing that this is a reality that assessed values don't always match up. But, I mean, when you talk about something like you're about to talk about, I think with that big, we can't that's really hard to anticipate on our end with a mill rate. >> Lots of anomalies try to control for and educate. Yes. Let's go
084to the and and we're going to tie this all together, I think, with some of the work we've done over the last couple of years. Property tax payer two lives in the town. Uh this person's uh estimated fair market value over the last three years has gone up 31.34%. That is that equalized property value. Uh and that is a big driver of what happens with overall taxes. Uh so as you can see this person's Dane County taxes uh went up 9%. Uh local taxes uh actually shrunk a little bit. Uh but that VASP tax went up 14.75%. Double what the the other person in the city of Verona's property taxes were um living in the same house um and I don't think had a bunch of improvements done to it. Um this is very common
085for people folks who live in the township. Um and ended up in the end having a total tax bill that went up 24% uh over three years versus seven. Uh so um I I think I've seen lots of head knobs with the fact that the main driver of this big discrepancy uh is assessment related to fair market value and us having to apply our levy backing into a mill rate uh to the number we use as equalized property. It's not assessed value and that is not a number we can control household by household. um we control the overall levy and apply essentially the $7 billion of property tax the property uh value into what we have for a levy. So I'm hoping that all makes sense in terms of why those are heading apart. Uh
086we had this is a new one for us. I had Pete pull this uh just for comparison sake. So, um, we decided to go in, uh, and I think I knew we'd look good because of the fact that we've been dialing back, uh, what we're doing with prepayment on debt to manage taxes, uh, in our school district. But, uh, uh, over the last three years, the statewide average in terms of their levy, what they're asking taxpayers to pay to support schools, uh, is about 14%. In Day County, uh there are only two school districts that are below the statewide average. One of Key uh actually one of Keys that gets a tick above it. We're the only school district that is below the state average over the last three years in terms of increasing our
087tax levy. Uh so our tax levy has increased by under 11%. Um and you can see from other area school districts who have had to manage some of the same challenges we have. uh some a few of those have brought on operating referendum uh uh as well. So, we I I hope this shows the board that our work around landing on a levy that makes sense relative to net new construction and using fund 39 uh to make sure we can keep that levy in check uh does matter because we have teased that uh kind of brought that back uh to [clears throat] really the lowest average in the county over the last three years. But that doesn't mean that individual people are not feeling big old property tax increases. But it's due to, you know,
088anomalies and abnormalities related to equalized property value. I think Juan John had a question around where we're at with state aid. Uh so John, we we this is good timing. You can see uh as recently as 10 years ago uh we were um above 40% in terms of our total annual reimbursement rate from the state when it came to aid. Um and now we're steadily ticking down as we become a more property rich school district. Uh and you can you can see uh the state's support of public schools and we're feeling this the last couple of years. Uh let's say that number is was 57 or 58 in the 22 budget. I think that has ticked down a few percentage points over the last couple of years because there hasn't been a significant increase in
089what's in the state a lot. Want to include the budget calendar. We got lots of work ahead [clears throat] of us to do the rest of the spring and we will get there. We always do and leave time for questions if you have. >> I have a just question out of curiosity. How much are we impacted by school vouchers in addition? Is that a big number? Small number. >> Was it $700,000? >> Yeah. Um about $750,000 is what our bill get every year on that. But part of our less also for for us Juan Carlos and we're continue to be uniquely positioned [clears throat] the fact that we overlevy in fund 39 to prepay capital debt uh that the the pain relative to vouchers is really felt by us uh by us lessening the fund
09039 levy uh and then increasing the local tax levy. on the fund 10 side. Uh so we we are not directly passing it on to our local property taxpayers because we have that little bit of give with fund 39. Many school districts who were not overlapping fund 39 are forced to pass that on to local property taxpayers and we do a little exchange there. [clears throat] >> So if I live in the town of Verona and I really would like this situation to stop happening, where do I channel my energy? Because I I mean because honestly, right, I think the default is I'm mad at the school district because the tag the that line item looks like >> Yeah. >> to be mad at the school district. Not that we're again not we're a part
091of the puzzle, but like where do I put my energy to have this stop being a problem? >> It's it's complicated. I I don't >> where who I get mad at. >> Yeah. Um I'm going to name some factors. I don't think that there's one uh kind of one person or department for you to be mad at. I think a few things are going on. I think the town being underassessed is a factor. Uh but that uh if you're underassessed one year uh and that equalized property value is applied, you shouldn't keep getting hit with a hammer. Uh but that's happening in the town. Um, I think there is a large company uh that is buying empty properties on the west side of our district uh and potentially overpaying for those because they want them.
092I think that's a layer. Uh I also think I also know and I've talked to several property taxpayers that would agree with this uh that uh many of the single family homes in the town of Verona are sitting on two to five acre lots. They are close to Epic. They're close to Middleton in the west side of Madison and they aren't making any more of those uh in our school district. Uh so they are um they I think they are kind of a more priced real estate proposition uh than a standard quarter acre lot in the city of [clears throat] Verona even though that is still desirable. Uh but the 5 acre lot in the town of Verona that's sitting with 50-year-old oak trees and a seven minute commute to Epic uh or a 15-minute
093commute into downtown Madison uh is highly desirable, meaning people will pay way over assessed value for those properties. I I think the last two I mentioned are the two biggest pieces that you know I talked to one guy who had questions around his property tax bill and he's like my my neighbor who's lived in a house for 30 years uh and has done very little as far as improvements uh had uh and he just popped the house on the market for $350,000 over the assessed value that the township gave it and it sold in a day um because they're highly desirable. and they're and the township will admit that they're currently under assessment. >> Wow. >> Go back to the slide that had these nice color coding. >> Um because I I think this is
094an important point. You can go back and listen to any of the board meetings where we've talked about setting the mill rate. We think very carefully and try really hard actually to set the mill rate to understand that property values are going up and to try and get a neutral impact on taxpayers by looking at what the average property value increase across our district is and trying to reduce our mill rate in an amount commensurate to that average increase to try and keep the average impact like neutral. But what that means is if your if your property goes up by more than the average, your taxes are going to go up. But there's also going to be people whose property goes up lower than what the average is and theirs is going to go down.
095And and the hard part is we don't get to set different mill rates for different municipalities. So even though you see this hugely disperate um in terms of what's happening with the equalized property value, number one, we don't control that and number two, we don't get to set different rates for different taxpayers. So the best we can do is try and look at that average impact and that is something that we pay a lot of attention to and try to do with our millite. You can see our mill right ticking down [clears throat] every year to try and account for the fact that property values are going the other way. >> Exactly right. Well said. >> Yeah. So we've had conversations like this before. I live in a town I hate taxes. This is kind
096of right up my alley. Um and it makes me mad as hell. Um, you know, it it's it's it's really one of those things you get your tax bill. It looks like such a simple thing, but the number of political hands that has to go through before it gets to you is so profound and involves so many arguments that have happened over some years that disentangling like why is it this way and who do I get mad at >> is really quite a trick. And um and it goes I think this presentation has been great because um you know as Jen was asking that I laugh because I'm like yeah I'm mad as hell. Who do I get angry at? And it is like yeah I mean people are paying a lot of money for
097big lots of land in the town. I get that. Um you know the department of revenue is jacking us three years in a row. I don't like that. Mad about that. [clears throat] Um state legislature sitting on $1.3 billion. They've overt taxed the entire state of Wisconsin. I'm mad about that. Like there's a lot of places to be mad. By the [clears throat] time you get to the schools, your anger is so misdirected when you look at like how we're trying to keep it down. But when I, you know, get that bill and it's gone up some 30% in the last three years and we're looking at a budget where we've got to make cuts. >> It is kind of a what the hell is going on situation here. And you do have to do
098some digging. Like every don't listen to me. Everybody should do their own digging. Do some digging because this ain't right. Like, and it's not right across the whole straight. All these districts are going to have to go to referendum and explain to their communities why they're asking for more money. And at some point, you're like, the state's got a lot of money. We're all asking for more money. People are getting taxed more. Something in the system ain't working right. >> Yeah. >> So, this has been a great presentation >> and you bring up a good point. The irony, John, is and you're right. And uh if and when we end up in a position we have to explain this to all of our taxpayers again, [clears throat] how is it possible that taxes are through
099the roof and you guys are running out of money? Uh that's that's going to be the conversation we're gonna have to have. And it it sits just down the road at the capital and you are correct that $1.3 billion dollars of you know even half of that put into the state aid pot would have provided an immense amount of property tax relief. uh and uh we'll continue to reiterate and how important it is that we need an annual increase inflation to run our schools. And then we got a 1.7% increase in terms of our per pupil revenue limit this year. Inflation is almost 3%. Uh so do the math on that. It's rinse and repeat. It's why school districts are back to the referendum box every four or five years because you're you're running out
100of per people rather than permission because it's not keeping pace. >> I think one of the things that I've seen before when we've done these budget presentations is when you look at the district something like you can correct me but like 85% of our expenses are to do with salary and benefits whether it's health benefits or other. So when we talk about the state not inflation adjusting aid and when we have conversations about like we're just trying to give CPI inflationbased pay raises so that our staff can make the same amount of money year-over-year. Like there's not another there's like 15% that's like our maintaining our buildings and that there's not another lever in our budget. It's not like, you know, I've run businesses where like 30 to 40% of my business or my budget
101is staff and the rest, you know, I can I could mess around with my supply chain a little bit, right? >> That's not how schools work. Like this is people. [clears throat] >> And so when the state is like no inflation adjustments for the past, you know, I think since 2010 for sure, >> like the bill's coming due and it's coming due on my house and I'm pissed. >> Yep. >> Um and that's fine. like I'll deal with it. But yeah, >> thanks for that, Mr. >> Good work. Thank you. >> Yeah, thanks for that. >> I think another slide just to, you know, re-emphasize that was really important in this was that yes, our tax levy is increasing, but it's increasing in an amount well under state average. Like everyone else in the state,
102their levies are going up by a whole lot more than ours is going up, both in this county and statewide. Um, so I I I think that's a good slide that shows again that we're trying really hard to keep to keep the burden on taxpayers in mind when we're setting our mill rates and setting our levy. >> Agreed. >> Right. This is a privilege that we have right now that a lot of districts don't. And you know, I just think that somehow we have to find them. I'm just going to say something on my soap box. Somehow we have to find a way to get people to really convince the state to release more money and give it back to the schools and start playing catchup a little bit because I'm glad that we're showing
103great numbers is not increasing taxes but that would solve the problem for for us or anybody else going through this and just so everyone's aware the revenue limit used to be indexed to inflation right >> where it automatically increased commensurate with inflation they made an explicit decision not to do that anymore >> it isn't budget surplus in the state almost the same or it would be if they isn't it the same or close to being the same the school the money that they've held back from giving schools >> yeah be close >> like two years ago when they had like seven billion dollars it was pretty much >> to this so we basically just shifted that away and created a lot of chaos for school budgets for something that's so number one for our future
104Sorry. Thank you for listening to my little soap box. >> The voucher expense last year was $720,000. This year it's $879,000. So about $130,000 just to answer your question. Yeah. >> Maybe that will be one of our next topics is explaining how that whole process works. This is really helpful and um thank you board and team for just letting this be a part of what we're elevating at the board table because it's so real for people and it's so complex and it's an ongoing problem thanks to all the things we elevated here and what I think we have at least two board members in the town. Thank you for continuing to stay with us [laughter and clears throat] at least having been one of my poison pen letters uh in terms of what's going on.
105Thank you. Yes, the box is always open. Thank you team. >> Thanks guys. >> All right, moving on to our agenda. Public comment. We do have a public comment this evening um from Kilby Willenburg. If I'm saying that correctly, you're welcome to speak from there. You're welcome to come to the table wherever you're more comfortable. Yeah, wherever you're more comfortable. >> So, this is in regards to the letter, the email that you guys received on Friday from my lawyer about the hockey suspension. Just being mindful with public comment about Yeah. Okay. >> I'm just making sure that if this is not a form for this, that this is a sensitive area. >> I want to be privy to that. All of us do. >> Right. I mean, we can't share private information about staff, any
106individuals. So, if there's a comment that they can can be shared with generalities, we're we're happy to hear it. >> Um, but being really mindful about the sensitivity of the situation, >> no doubt. And so in that letter um that was perhaps you know bringing a lawyer into that subject with the hockey suspension um just one know that's kind of a timesensitive thing and I hope that this is taken serious um because we don't want to go down that path but we're definitely prepared to do so you know just because of but the sensitivity of the kids that were involved and how this all came about. Um just a little bit background on that program, the hockey program. Um the uh the items that stay there has been something that's involved in that program for
107probably through a couple coaching staffs been told to us and it's something that that program or that tradition I guess that's been known from the coaches and they participated in and to throw the book at five kids. my kid being one of them. Um, and the reason that he was suspended, what they told us is because his name came up. And so I don't recall that ever being something that's disciplined to that nature for a kid who's never been in trouble day in his life to have 50% of the season taken away from them because his name was involved when every kid in that varsity program participated. Right? And so what I brought up to the administration, the people who were the detective, the judge, the jury, and part of the appeals process, which seems
108highly unfair, is that there hasn't been one adult that's in charge of those kids or even above that at that level that took any responsibility even though they knew about this and participated in. And so that's why the nature of that letter was sent. And so since my kid has already been suspended for the remaining of the season [clears throat] 50% of the season for something that we were told because his name came up. We're taking that very serious. And this is not really about him being back on the ice because we have to decide that as a group that that's a safe environment for them to be back in there. I'm not playing my kids being the victim, but whenever he's being threatened by those people who are directly in charge of him, that's
109doesn't sit well with us. Okay? And so, I'm trying to do my best to be general here and I'm happy to take this offline off record um if we have to, but I just want you guys know that the letter that was sent out, we're taking it very serious. We don't want to go down that road, but we absolutely will just because this is going to follow our kids around. And there have been one thing we were told what they did specifically, but we have we asked and we asked and we asked. And this doesn't fit with the consistency of the punishment that's been around the other programs. For instance, in football, which you all probably realize what happened there, the smoking marijuana on a bus and got one game. There's another hockey suspension that
110happened this year for threats to a person about what happened to that person that sexual nature and they got suspended. And then there's some other basketball stuff that happened and nothing happened. So this doesn't fit at all. And I can tell you as a group here and as a community there's a lot of outrage and so that's all but I'm happy to have another conversation if we need to. But I highly encourage you from my kids standpoint, my standpoint, and from the community aspect, as this has already been brought up in the public, which we've all seen on our phones in various news outlets, that people are watching, that's not a threat. I'm just saying. So, I appreciate you guys. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> Believe that's our only public comment this evening.
111So then we'll move on to >> say that. >> Oh no. Thank you. Just making sure. I only had the one public comment. I just wanted to make sure that you were the only one speaking. Yeah. Thank you. >> Moving on to board action OE5. So I believe that may be Chad again joining us for OE5 financial planning. [laughter] I got this invail, >> right? I know. I know. Normally, you just get to kind of stay. >> I think this can be relatively brief. >> Well, I think we talk about this every year because even just what we did just talk about that we live OE5 so frequently. >> It'll be evidence for you guys next year. >> Yeah. Which is super Yeah. Appreciative. Love the evidence. So, yeah. Turn it over. >> I'll give
112you my 30 seconds on what OE5 is. make sure the board is aware of budget assumptions, not just on an annual basis, but on a five-year kind of rolling forecast that we I think are very good at in this school district. Make sure that we do not budget for having more expenditures than revenues on an annual basis to make sure we have enough fund balance to be in line with your board policy. Uh those are the biggest pieces of OE5. Um, so it's not uh kind of the day-to-day ins and outs that we do related to OE6. OE5 is more around uh long range fiscal management of our annual budget funs. Um, and making sure that I think we're essentially budgeting on a responsible basis to put the school district in a sound financial position.
113So, we've provided evidence in line with that policy and I'm here to answer your questions if you have any. Thank you. And I forgot to say thank you to Corby for being our noteaker tonight on what may be again a fairly straightforward monitoring discussion. [clears throat] >> Despite being a town of resident person, I am grateful for all the planning that you do and I appreciate um seems like the opportunity to say thank you despite the pain of paycheck. [laughter] >> I also appreciate it. I uh not as a a non-numberss person and especially tonight a good example of really explaining very clearly this is all the definitions and and the metrics all the levers of the process and doesn't mean I still know it. I appreciate it. Absolutely. >> The transparency is so helpful.
114I mean, as we have these conversations about trying to line item and go to the cent to the dollar that anyone in the community can click on these links and really get a sense of our long-range planning financially as a district, I think is really impactful that it's beyond meaningful for us as board members, but truly for anyone that wants to continue to stay apprised at how transparent you all are. um just helps us do our role and I think helps the community really understand that we're not hiding anything that everything is transparent doing the best that we can. >> Absolutely. >> And and having Evan Pete on our team is a such a valuable asset. Uh to continue to be able to share with you guys how those budget assumptions actually lay out over
115the next five years in an understandable way uh is is invaluable. So it's it's it's big time to have a skilled person like Pete to be able to put it all together. >> When we go to state convention that gets elevated as a solid reminder that this team is exceptional >> at this work and it helps us do our work which is amazing. >> Yes. Having this operational expectation reminded me of like the board's rightful place in making sure that there's transparency of the community about how our resources are being spent. Um, you know, if we're going to pay taxes, like I want to know how and where and why it's going there. And having these repeated conversations like the one you just did, explaining this is how it all works. And then when we
116do have the budget discussion explaining like where things go and how we're not only balancing it but um budgeting long term so that we're not playing catch-up on interest rates or anything like that. We're actually ahead of the curve um is actually a pretty rare thing the more and more I talk to other districts and that's surprising to me because it seems to be an absolutely crucial function. Um, so we to to Pete's credit, we've been talking about if any if most of these assumptions held close to true after we pass the 2022 referendum, we told the board and the community if state finances stay the same. We've got four or five years uh before we're doing this again. And our five-year models have essentially stayed true to that. And here we are. So, I
117hope it it certainly has not been a surprise to our current school board members that we're having difficult budget conversations for 26 27 and I hope you know the evidence with the fact that we we we were back to you three or four times a year, many times more discussing this, it's also not a surprise for folks who follow the district a little more closely. I will add that one of the reasons that the state used to inflation adjust its state aid is so that you didn't have to go to referendum as often. And it turns out that it's really expensive to do that >> just in terms of taking up people's time that could be focused on providing education um in terms of making sure that we're communicating adequately to the community and that's
118across every school district that has to do it. So the amount of expense that's lost just because we're not inflation adjusting things doesn't change inflation at all. Inflation happens no matter what. >> Like but the amount of extra cost that has to go into it because the state doesn't do that is mindboggling >> to me. Anyway, that was an aside, but >> important >> as things come into my head, I'm going to say no. >> Any other comments or questions? That'll be fine. >> I'm going to accept a motion to come up with a conclusion about the report as to meeting expectations or not meeting expectations. >> Move to meet expectations. Motion by Christopher to approve the report as meeting expectations. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, John. Any further discussion?
119All those in favor of approving OE5 monitoring report as meeting expectations signify with I. >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? All right. 085 is approved. Thank you again, Pete as well, for all of your time just ongoing. >> Thank you. super appreciative. >> Sorry, the word is not that it's expensive for referendums. It's taxing. >> That's the word. >> It's both. Yeah, >> it does. >> It's both. It does have a cost attached to it, right? The cost of human >> energy. >> Yeah. >> Uh OE8. Any general planning updates? You know, we all got to celebrate a bit at WASBY last week. appreciative to all of you that were able to make some time to the WASDA lunchon to give the recognition again to Dr. Clarity for superintendent of the year and other attendance
120delegate. Thank you Corby for serving as our delegate. Was there anything you wanted to just share from that experience this year? >> Yes. Um, this year I always go into that space prepared to fight [laughter] >> and this year it was very different and it was very evident that [clears throat] what's going on at Capitol Hill has drastically affected school districts statewide >> because most of the stuff that was voted on as far as resolutions were things that school districts shared together as a problem. And it it was so powerful and moving >> to hear and and you were there to hear the things that were presented >> where districts were saying from I don't care from uh Oaklair to Milwaukee >> that they were having the same issues and talking with some of the
121the uh school board representatives during before and during the uh the uh event was very moving. just to hear some of the things that that they're dealing with. Uh such as like state funding for school lunches that came up and that that was passed as a resolution. Uh surplus for for various things. I'll keep that under wraps until uh that that comes out. But um yeah, it was different. It was different this year. You can tell that that those executive orders have have impacted the state as a whole and uh funding is an issue >> and every school district. Referendums were talked about uh from district to district to district and uh the boards and and different districts being upset that they're going back to referendum after only a few years. It's a particular focus
122in looking at upcoming legislation and then particular interest of title N and um limitations towards our transgender community and youth and the sessions. But me on the opposite end, I was furious um of you know we our overall our population of trans kids uh is very small and yet we're putting so much focus and energy on continuing to limit um access for those kids. Uh in particular around sports, not a lot of focus on trans boys, but a lot of focus on trans girls. uh misogynistic in nature and and that's the that's the center of that focus. Um and then continue to look uh on the legislative agenda for right now and looking at the pronoun and name requests from our youth um and trying to limit that. I don't think those will pass, but
123just this onslaught of a community in need that is being targeted that you know we need to continue to focus and support and uplift in our community to say that you are valued and needed. You know, like I said at our last meeting, now with the EW health taking away gender affirming care, we're seeing it all levels of of of um legislation and other focus on this community that is very uh in critical need of our support. So, um, yeah, I so on the opposite end of feeling very positive and I think I I'm hoping that that that trend will reverse and we'll see uh changes for those for our our trans community. I I just was so angry and I think part of my anger was not only the direct effect of my own
124family um because we had trans folks in our family. kind of twospirit myself but that the overall kind of audience of our leadership that was attend in attendance just said okay well there was no push back as leaders it is our responsibility to step up and say this may be the case but this is not right but that was not the case was like this thanks for the information now we'll go and put into play and keep our overall district safe from litigation and so that just made me a little bit. I'll just leave that there, but that was my my focus and and I was very disappointed in that part. >> There were several resolutions that were shot down that weren't brought to a call to question. But what I was very optimistic about
125was that those resolutions even existed. seem like the DEI resolution even there to be shot down >> to me was a huge step forward because a year ago it wasn't even there to be shot down >> and so I there there's a shift happening definitely with the thought process because pen to paper it's there and what I'm what I'm thinking is going to happen what I'm praying and hoping is going to happen it was shot down but it was there next time we'll it and we call the question and maybe it does get shot down next time, but at least we get to vote for it and then the time after that, you know, we want it now, but at least we're seeing it there. And that to me is a huge shift. >> And
126I I I truly believe it's because of the the environment that we're in and these districts, all of us being affected by it. On a side note, uh, Mama Clarity gives the best hugs and so I needed that and, uh, that that was a true blessing and it was nice to celebrate you. I >> was wondering where you're going with the mom. [laughter] >> Yeah, that was a lovely lovely added bonus to >> spend time with your family. >> A recording of that speech because that was great. Wazda has a recording. I can ask the team for that. >> Is that something you feel comfortable sharing? Because >> as I said, there's no >> no secret a [clears throat] great way to really get to know the person behind superintendent of the year, you know,
127because that helps tell the human story that that's making all this happen and tied into the staff administration, everybody who's chipped in to make this to your point because you give like to give everyone credit. >> Yeah. and and are reluctant to accept uh a welldeserved award, but you did such a great job sharing the collective story. I mean, everybody's got here. >> Thank you. >> Sorry. >> And I do think it's a powerful reminder of like the power of education >> that needs to be restarted a little bit. Um I was going to um talk briefly because I didn't talk to you after my like last session that I was there. So, I walked away also with a sense of hope a little bit. Um, so I went to a session about um how
128a district kind of from Northern Wisconsin has been able to close a lot of gaps. So, it's much smaller district than our own. Um, so they have certain um advantages, one school district, so every K12 is a one one school. But uh what was surprising and interesting to me uh because it's kind of a center of the road political area was that they talked about all the practices they had to kind of close these gaps. If it made sense these are not new or radical practices. They've been around for a long time. Teachers have used them forever. I would not like say, "Oh, we should do this. We should do that or this is great." What? But what was amazing to me is that everything they did from the youngest kids on up started with
129empathy. teaching and developing empathy. Um, and you know, there's kind of been a little bit of a war on empathy along with DEI and along with and to see that emerge as like, hey, not only like is this an this is an argu about whether or not it should exist. This is like actual proof of like this closes gaps because all these kids are learning to understand one another and they're not at at middle and high school ages getting to the point where they're arguing and fighting and devaluing each other so much because they've got that grounding and empathy. And that means you have more mental emotional faculties available to learn which was really really interesting to me. And to be able to put that presentation then in conversation with what you're saying where you
130know they got us all arguing about all this stuff and then they took our money and now people are starting to notice like we're arguing about all this stuff over here about people's rights to exist and they took all the money and now you're all upset about the money but we've got to start with that empathy too and start closing that gap. It was just I ended up on a really high note >> um at the end of it. So yeah, but then it got bitterly cold. The man that cold is not for me. Did >> you come out of a session, right? Because you met me right after my my session where I was eating and then you were a ball of empathy. >> No, that was before this session. I'm normally a ball
131of empathy, right? >> Yes. [laughter] >> Yeah. No, that was before that. So I was looking for you afterwards and I was like, >> but I saw you and I needed your presence and that was very helpful. Thank you. >> Anytime. Well, and all of these experiences and all of the emotions that attach to it, just gratitude in general for the ability of our board to be able to attend and take the time and our leaders to be at this conference. It's really impactful um for all the ways we get to interact with districts from all over to be able to talk with one another. Um it's just a really helpful time. So, I was appreciative for all of the investment you all made and added. >> Yeah, please. >> Uh I also first I
132want to thank the our full board just see a team of seven there together. you just don't see that in at a state conference. So, thank you all for taking time out of your schedules to uh to be there. And I the lady I mean there was a couple people that were talking to me at the head table. I was trying to but I was listening kind of and but can you tell me who's in the room? So I said, "Well, this this my family and then Cam and I are board our full board there. Is there like all seven members in there?" Like, "Yeah." She's like, "And they all speak to each other." Like, "Yeah, isn't that supposed to be the way that it works?" She's like, "No, never." I'm like, "Well, you run
133a school district." Yes. They all speak and have, you know, it's not about always agreeing with everybody. Yes. Everyone is is there for public education. And so if that was an anomaly, I hope that's not the case across our state, but thank you for, you know, I guess what stuck out uh Norman, but also um I want to give a shout out to the uh me the people that helped with the presentation for the for the advisories. Uh we had two students, Faith Rush and Aaron Yarro. Uh Melissa Brimmer from uh GE and Janine Castellanos from Vafy as well as two parents, one from the high school uh Raj Rajny and then um elementary parent Andrea Andrea Andre and you know g gave them time from work school or in their classroom to be there
134but just a powerful uh part of the presentation when they talk about the impact of advisory. So, just wanted to publicly thank them for giving me that gift of that gift of time and co-presenting on there and just being found. They were all great and the students just just rocked it. >> Yes, they did. >> Yeah. And I will add to that, I went to another session after that and a a superintendent in that session actually pulled me aside and asked me more questions >> that I mean just spoke to how well they all presented their parts and that >> he was very interested and very motivated. >> Excellent. >> So it was really good to see the followup on that. >> They did a phenomenal job. >> Yeah, we were great. Always great to
135bring Verona Area School District loud into the voice in the space of the WASBY Wazda Wazbo Wazda convention. >> Yeah, I did. >> We are there. We are present. >> I did tell the team at Cammy I was like next year let's >> bring it in. >> Yeah, bring it bring it in a little bit and just maybe go into someone else's session because for the last two years we've >> more learning less leading. >> Yeah. I think we're seven presentations in in two years. We did three four last year. Yeah, that big three and a half hour one. Check that one out. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Yeah, that was fun. >> This is what winning looks like. [laughter] >> We can always learn. Can always learn. Anything else anyone wants to add? Any
136general updates? >> I will be speaking on Saturday um for the Beyond the Ballot building power through ongoing civic engagements. Uh this is at the literary network literacy network 71 Main Street Madison Wisconsin at 6:00 pm and I'll be one with uh speaking alongside Donald Dler all the person from Pittsburgh and Franches. >> Wonderful time. Great to see you. >> Thanks for the invite. >> All right then moving on to superintendent consent agenda. Making sure you flip that over. Are there any questions? No questions. It was a hard retirement. >> Yeah, I know. I know. Are we uh >> We'll get to celebrate him in time. I'm sure >> talk about that. >> Think we can talk about >> I know. I know. >> I try to. >> Yeah. >> I get a lump in
137my throat. >> Yeah. >> So, we will highly highly celebrate that when it comes up. But unfortunately, it's >> tears in the confetti. It's going to be >> Yeah. A lot. He's just sort of remarkable human, remarkable leader and part of our community. And >> when you give 30 years of service, we got to celebrate >> that decision to to do something else. >> Yeah. >> Well, Mr. Ber is certainly somebody who um has impacted so many lives in such a positive way [clears throat] every minute that he's been in this district. >> Absolutely. I can't imagine them not here now. >> Yes. >> Gonna be weird. >> I did want to say that between last meeting and this meeting, we had a wellness advisory committee meeting >> and of course he presented it and
138he just crushed it. It blew my mind how much he's done with the local Sugar Creek Health and Wellness Advisory Committee and how he brought in parents and students and implemented so many beautiful changes that impacted people in such positive ways. And I was like, "Yes, I can't wait to sit down with you and collaborate." And then literally the next day [laughter] I'm like, "No." >> So you're the work. >> I know. This is my fault. I emailed Dr. How long do we have him? June 30th. >> June 30th. That's it, guys. So, get it in. >> Yeah. >> June 30th. >> Yeah. >> So, I was blown away. I didn't have a lot of experience with him, right? Because my kids didn't go to Sugar Creek, but that that one meeting just blew me
139away how much he's done for the district and how much integrity he meets with his legacies that basically left behind. big shoes to fill. Who's gonna be the next in line? >> Too early. Too early. >> We posted We posted it. >> Okay, >> that's politically correct. >> Wait, what? >> We posted it. >> You didn't? >> Yes, we posted it last week. >> I was going to say Corby out. [laughter] >> Well, cheers to more celebrations and accolades and time to recognize Mr. Bruner. Look forward to that. Um, so then I'll assume otherwise had to approve it though, >> right? That the superintendent's consent agenda is approved as presented. >> Oh, >> okay. Uh, looking over the board's consent agenda. Are there any questions? Thank you to Juan Carlos for taking our notes on
140the mathematics monitoring report. Appreciate that. Hearing no questions. Board's consent agenda is also approved. Um, future dates, all the regular board meetings, and just note again, we'll have a close session on Monday night, February 2nd. standalone close session starting at 6 PM and it looks like we'll be in the quiet space up here in the library. So some reminder so that stays on your calendar as well. >> Question. Is it a hard stop at 8 or is it 8 in? >> Uh we can decide. >> Okay. >> So maybe send me a note if you have thoughts about that. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Thank you for that. >> Um with that there no other future agendas or any other announcements. will journ to close session under Wisconsin statute 19.85 sub1 subg to confer with legal
141council concerning strategy to be adopted by the board with respect to litigation specifically an alleged due process violation. Um we'll move into close session with a roll call vote. We'll start with you one Carlos. Yay yes or no. Okay, Christopher said it again. [laughter] >> John, >> hi. >> Corby, >> yes. >> Joe, >> yes. >> I am a yes. Yay. As well, they are to close session.