001All right. I'd like to uh convene our regular meeting of the uh school board of the Rome area school district. Start with a roll call to establish quorum. Joe >> here. >> Corby here. I'm here. >> Meredith. >> I'm here. >> Good. This is good. I'm remembering everybody's names. This is good. Chris >> here. >> Juan Carlos >> here. >> All right. We have a quorum. Has the meeting been properly noticed? >> Yes, it has. >> That is fantastic. All right. And Juan Carlos, do you mind reading our VA equity statement acknowledgement? >> Yes. Uh in 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 rural society, and lead a healthy, self-fulfilling life. To meet this mission,
002Verona Area School District will ensure that every individual has access to 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 as 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 Verona Area School District is committed to disrupting these systems of connecting. And now on to the Ho Chunk land acknowledgement. There are currently 12 tribal nations who call Wisconsin home with the Ho Chunk Nation being the primary group living around Madison. No matter where you are in the state, you're on the ancestral land of the tribal nation. As we begin our meeting, we honor the lands upon which we
003stand. >> All right. Thank you. I will accept a motion to approve the agenda as written. So be the first. Do I have a second? >> Second for one Corless. All those in favor with an I. >> Any opposed? All right, the agenda has been adopted. All right, let's kick things off, right, and recognize some staff. >> All right, thank you again. Welcome to the uh regular meeting for Ron School District. And as always when we have an opportunity we are extremely excited to be able to celebrate the amazing staff that comprise the Broner School District. And today I can't think of a better way to begin our meeting than u giving congratulations to Mr. Eric Anderson and his colleague Jeff Krueger. Uh both have been selected for the 2025 Wisconsin Music Educator Association Community
004Service Award. uh they received this award in recognition for their outstanding work with the Broner uh concert band, a program that has brought music and community together in extraordinary ways. We all know Eric Anderson and his outstanding work with the Broner High School Music Department. His colleague Jeff Krueger is not only a software designer at Epic, but also a phenomenal musician who has dedicated countless hours to VHS music for for many years. Jeff serves as our concertist coach for young musicians, pianists, and ma mainstage programmer for the school musical, generously sharing his time and talents with our students. The community service awards given to those who have consistently share their time, talents, or resources to strengthen music education. This year's award winners will be recognized as part of the 2025 Wisconsin State Music Conference at
005the president's welcome reception. My goodness, President. Okay. on on Wednesday, October 29th, 2025 from 7 to 9:30 at the Winona Terrace Convention Center in Madison, Wisconsin. Please join us in congratulating Eric and Jeff for this well-deserved recognition of their incredible impact on our music, in our schools, and beyond. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Speech. Speech. Speech. >> Speech. Excuse. >> That is excellent. Thank you guys so much. We're so proud of you guys. That's really really awesome. >> Thank you. And we we could not do what we do with the community part of the group without the support of the school district and and all of you. So, thank you for for your part in making that happen as well. Much appreciated. I will say I say this all
006the time when music comes up as someone who's not musically inclined. I come and I watch the concerts here and I'm just completely blown away every time. It's like the greatest thing I've ever seen. It's really really the level of quality is awesome. So, >> thank you so much. We have we have amazing students. >> Yeah. >> Very very grateful to be here. I'm lucky lucky to have such a great great place to teach. >> All right. All right. Moving on to some more recognitions. >> All right. Next, because they love to be put front and center on a big screen, but it's kind of funny, so we're gonna do it. First, we have Joe Haynes. Uh Joe Haynes is the congratulations for your dedication to professional development and service as a school board member
007and has earned recognition of WASBY member recognition program. Each year, the Wisconsin Associate School Boards honored his board members who demonstrate a strong commitment to growth by participating in WASBY events and activities. Joe, your efforts have earned you a level one award for attending Wisconsin Associate School Boards training opportunities focused on improvement improving student achievement and public education. Joe will be publicly recognized for his achievement at the upcoming Wasp Fall Regional meeting. Congratulations to Joe. [Applause] Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> All right. And the honors keep coming for the Bron Air School District board. Uh next we are congratulations to Mr. Corby White for being honored with the Urban League President's Award for Rising Stars for his community activism at the local, national, and global levels. This award is an honor presented by the Urban
008League of Greater Madison president and CEO to recognize individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the Urban League's mission to be excuse me and to the broader Madison community. This award celebrates those who demonstrate outstanding leadership, commitment to equity, and impact on service that uplifts underserved populations and advances civil rights and equal opportunity. Congratulations to Mr. Corby White. [Applause] All right. Well, thank you guys for making me feel so small. It's great. >> Excellent. All right. Why don't we um move on to the superintendent report? All right. Is that a little turn it back over to the business department? >> All right. Not quite as long this time. We had an interesting uh conversation today that if I believe state law says if you didn't pass the vote at the annual meeting, uh we would
009have had to ice this presentation to come up with a different plan. So, we're thankful for those votes. Uh we're here tonight to get the board's permission to do some short-term borrowing. Uh, I'm going to walk us through a real brief history and then I'm actually going to turn things over to Pete to get into some more of the technical portion of what's going on with our ask for 2526 and then we're going to ask for a vote from as a reminder to the board and the community. Uh, this is not new to the Veron Area School District and for that matter is not new to many uh, school districts in the state of Wisconsin. Uh, again, we are carrying a very healthy fund balance. Uh but when you have $800 million of expenditures uh
010on an annual basis and 80% of that is payroll uh we have pretty much a steady churn of the money that Pete and his team need to essentially pay the bills and make payroll uh on a monthly basis and our cash does not come in as steadily as it goes out during the year. Uh so we have borrowed money in the past on a short-term basis. Uh we did a 5-year history and a snapshot here. We made it in 2324 uh and did not need to borrow any money. Uh but then we came forward and asked the board for permission to buy another asset that is still on the books for our school district uh in the form of a couple of land purchases uh that took place over the last couple of years. Uh
011one being the property off road, the other one uh that's on King James Way. the King James Way property turned into a blessing uh because we were able to get an on-site clinic on district property uh and we're able to just kind of shuffle some of those deck chairs uh to do that. So, I'm actually going to turn things over to uh to Pete now and have him kind of walk you through some of the the more technical aspects as far as his estimates what we have going on with cash forward so thank you. Um yeah, as uh Chavis saying just reiterate a point on here, it's it's all about the timing of this. Uh we do have a balanced budget. We do have a healthy fund balance as he said. It all just depends
012on the timing. Like the first bullet point we're talking about, we get our uh most of our money is coming from our tax levy. And we don't get our first tax levy payment until six months or seven months into the fiscal year. and we finally get our last one 14 months after the fiscal year had started. So, we it's it's just a a timing issue that we end up having every year. And like as Chad had said, all not all school districts, but several school districts have this have this issue too. Um the chart that you see I'm sorry the table that you see up on the right uh it kind of evidences our point here when you look at the expenditure column and for the most part the expenses feel pretty steady. Yeah, there
013are some months where it's a couple million dollars more but if you look at the revenue column you see we get a big chunk of it in, you know, January and February and then the following August we we get some. And that's where our issue comes in is that expenses column is adding up faster than our revenues account. So that's why we end up having to having to borrow. In fact, our last bullet point here says our shortfall on here would be just under $7 million. It doesn't show it on this slide, but the next slide you'll be able to see. And we do break this down actually all the way down to every day of where we think our cash flow um our cash flow will be. So slide. Okay. Um, yeah. And here's
014like a weekby- week breakdown that I just took where some of the low levels were and where we could see where the money would be in and out. So our low point will be sometime right before our pay roll on January 16th. Um, right now this shows that we get our our tax levy money on January 15th. Um, but that's not going to be quite enough money to or at the time that it won't it may or may not work out necessarily for us to to get that money in time to cover all of it. So, our shortfall will be just about $7 million is what our what our guesstimate is going to be for um the cash flow shortage this year. So, as I said before, the projected low point is going to be
015the middle of January where it's going to be about $6.95 million. Now, there's a couple of options for short-term borrowing. We can use a short-term note or we could use a letter of credit or we can use a combination of both of them. And uh the difference between a short-term note is we get all the money upfront. Um and we are able to take that money and invest it. So, uh yes, we're paying interest on it, but we're also earning interest on it, too. So, it's kind of a cash in, cash out, all all at the same time. Whereas a letter of credit, uh, you take that out from, uh, like in this case, it' be Lacorage Bank here in town, and you take that out as you need that. So, um, the letter of
016credit interest rate is higher. is going to be quite a bit higher than the the short-term note which our rates on there are actually they're estimating our rates are going to be pretty close to what our borrowing or sorry our investing rate is so it's hopefully it should work out to be um cash flow control >> um issue out there um we are also going to be entering into a line of credit with Lorage Bank just in case that $7 million shortfall ends up being a little bit more on that and Chad and I will come back up here again in another month or two to get permission to get the line of credit going out there. Um the third bullet point on here too is we are going to be asking for authorization to
017borrow $7.5 million on a short-term note for 2526. That is all we have now. It's up for discussion and then the vote question from the board at all. I think we've been through this before, but wanted to make sure in particular the public knew why we had to borrow some money on a short-term basis. >> As per the previous slide, I'll recall that this is something that we've historically done every year. No, no questions for them right now. Well, so to get back to a point where we're not doing short-term borrowing, we'd need to make another, you know, $78 million deposit fun somewhere around there. Maybe maybe not quite that much, but >> about there. And as our um Pete reminds me of this often as our uh expenditures go up with the rate of
018inflation, the kind of the need with what we had in fund balance, it also creep up as well. Uh but we've uh we've been doing a very nice job of having one two 3% money left at the end of a fiscal year. Again, we would not want to be the other way. We'd be breaking some schoolboard policy if Pete and I turned in a budget every year that was overspent and that's not the case. Uh so we fully expect this budget again that we're in right now uh Pete tracks this closely almost on a daily basis uh that we could see two or three million in the fund balance deposit at the end of this year. Any other questions? We'll vote on this after public comment, but thank you very much. And speaking of public
019comment, do we have any public comments? No. Perfect. All right. So then moving into board action. Our first board action is to vote on the resolution authorizing temporary borrowing. Um so this is a resolution authorize temporal barring amount not to exceed 7.5 million the between the issuance of tax revenue anticipation promisory notes and participation in the PMA levy and aid anticipation notes program have a motion from one cause a second >> second from Corby any further discussion at None. All in favor signify with an I. >> I. >> And any opposed. So the resolution carries. Now we'll have a second reading of our policy GC6, which is our annual work plan. we should all have access to this. But the the gist of the language was to switch um so that it just says we
020have an annual work plan, not that we do it every October as that sometimes is unpractical. Does anybody have any questions about this second reading? >> Okay. So, we'll um entertain a motion to vote on board policy GC6, the annual work plan. I'll entertain a motion. So, a motion from Joe, a second. >> Second. Second from Chris. No further discussion then. Uh all in favor signify with an I. I. >> Any opposed? All right. The policy language carries. All right. Moving from there into OE2. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Annual work plan. Try to skip everything tonight. No, you're good. >> Okay. So, now we're looking to vote on our annual work plan. You should all have this in the digital files as well. I'll hold it up here. This is just a working plan that
021we've created in consultation with the admin team about when best to review particular operational expectations as well as results policies. Um and then there are other areas for board work in there as well. GC policies for review and then the superintendent review. Any discussion on this questions? been over it a little bit and this is a living document so it'll change from time to time but this should chart the course for us the next year or so. So um I'll accept a motion on accepting this annual work plan >> 2C6. All right, I have a motion from Chris. A second >> Second from Meredith. I feel a bit like an auctioneer. All those in favor signify with an I. >> I. >> All right. Any opposed? No. We have an annual work plan. Let's do
022that. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Um as we get into item D, especially some um sub there going to ask if a board member would be willing to make a finger amendment to the way it's voted. It shouldn't say approval. It should be vote on OB2 emergency monitoring plan. Not approval. Okay. >> Do that first right now. >> Yeah. So, if we have a a motion to amend the meeting minutes to read that this uh number seven subd subi reads a vote on operational expectation 2 rather than approval of operational expectation two. Do I have a motion for that change? >> I'll do it. >> I have a motion from Joe. Second. >> Second from Juan Carlos. All those in favor signified. I >> Any opposed. >> All right. The minutes have been amended.
023All right. Do you want to go ahead? Yeah. Thank you. All right. Um, so our first OE uh of the the calendar season is OE2, which is the emergency superintendent succession. Uh the purpose of this uh OE short is uh important as it establishes a chain of command for emergency procedures uh to make sure that the safety and security of the Bron School District and everyone who comprises such is um carried out from a a leadership perspective in the event uh the superintendent is unable to fulfill those duties for whatever reason. and then a plan of uh successors who would take on that that lead in emergency situation. Um very rarely uh has this happened. You can think of a but to give an example of one thing I I you know did have medical
024procedure in July which in which space like that that deep of a medical procedure there needs to be someone who was responsible for the safety and security of of the district and in that situation our deputy superintendent rose to the occasion and uh and led and and from all accounts did a better board meeting than I had. So I I don't know what to say about that, but I guess I guess it happened. Um, but again, first thank you to Chad for for stepping in on those days. But those one of the examples of why we have OE2 as part of the pres as part of the information though and as I tried to put in the executive summary, there are aspects of OE2 while they're not directly tied to secession plan. I thought it
025was good for our board and thus our community to know and understand and that's some of the modifications that anyone in the secession plan would need to know and understand in terms of uh our safety and security uh pro processes. I'm not going to go too deep in there because on at the very next meeting on October 6, our safety and security update is an agenda item for the board. So, it'll be far more detailed. Uh but I also want to explain why this was placed in the emergency succession plan because it's not just about naming people to be successors in this space. It's about the proper training and and they understanding the systems that need to happen to ensure uh in the event of a succession of of people out of the district or
026not able to fulfill those duties that the safety and security of our students and staff are still rises to the to the forefront. Um so so any questions there about the the new especially navigate 360 and our and our processes for our our safety. Again the full presentation for that is on October 6. So I'm being very high level right right now. Um also as part of the presentation I did um want to uh present simultaneously with the report the opportunity to adjust one of the indicators. Uh that being uh because it was one of the indicators was written very specifically to naming the Verona central office and explicitly two staff members within the Verona central office uh as having access to the success section plan. Uh as we've talked about with property purchase we
027we have in essence two central offices. central office Verona central office Fitchburg and that information was not uh part of the current indicator. So I did put a recommendation for adjustment for that indicator within the uh talking points it itself and like to simultaneously as we look at uh the potential approval of the OE also u potential approval of the indicator language adjustment to allow for both central offices to be recognized. uh and knowing that we have set up the same security uh systems in in both places for uh for any type of emergency that that that that may happen in terms of the so any questions about the indicator right in terms of the uh monitoring report itself um beginning with indicator one all criteria uh has been met from the perspective of the
028superintendent I know there's a board board board vote on this. Uh in terms of uh secession documents mailed to the exclusive principles u the organizational chart u linked to all of our websites per protocol as well as the service teams each of the executive administrative assistants has a document posted in our office. So it's not just the digital version of it. We have hard copies vote uh in those places as well. in indicator 2. Uh that is where I did ask for an adjustment to the uh indicator. Uh but if we're looking at the the evidence from last year, all the protocol was in place of of the VSSD organizational chart being linked in service departments and addressed at the weekly cabinet meetings as well as the superintendent leadership team uh does personnel updates and
029we go through any planned absences to make sure that the session plan stays uh in in in full compliance. And under indicator three, we did receive an email confirmation through President Murphy that there were no lapses in the protocol where um were no lapses or were reported in the protocol for uh reporting when we would go into OE2 uh per per policy. So with that, uh let me turn this back over to the uh board of ed. I uh after working through the first this first new version of the OE2 monitoring board and maybe some push and pull and and maybe personal banks, I actually like this one better. Uh so thank you for working getting us through this space as well. >> Let's open it up if anybody has any questions, comments, thoughts on
030OE2. I think I'll just uh reiterate again that this isn't, you know, as simple and straightforward as it looks because, you know, not just for security and safety, there's planning that goes on year round. Um, so yeah, and I have done a great job of making sure that we'll all be eager to get Jen back next time. If I mispronouncing every word possible, skipping motions here and there and everywhere, so much for my grand ambitions of taking over. >> All right. So, without further discussion, I'll accept um well, I'll say this sentence first and then I'll accept a motion. Members of the board have received and discussed the superintendent's monor report for OE2 and I will now accept a motion to accept and approve the report as presented. So >> I have a motion from
031Meredith second. A second from Chris. Any further questions or discussion? >> Can I just ask uh we still do accepting the motion being accepting the report as presented even though we changed away from it being presented with a conclusion. We want to change the motion to be accept the report as you know meeting expectations or something like that just to match how we're doing the monitoring now. >> I think that's a smart note. I agree. >> Shall we redo? Can we make sure we capture this? So we'll read >> the report as >> met expectations. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So >> that makes sense. >> I'll try this again. >> All right. We have received and discussed the superintendence for monitoring report for OE2. I will now accept a new motion to accept the report
032as having met expectations as presented so that we can begin this discussion group. We've already had a discussion. So I'll accept a motion to accept the report as having met expectations for OE2. >> I have a motion from Meredith. Second. >> Second from Corby this time. Any further questions or discussion? Going once, going twice. All those in favor signify with I. >> I. Any opposed? All right. The OE report is accepted having met expectations. Just for clarification, did I simultaneously approve the indicator adjustment? No, we can do that separately. Do we have specific language to look at? Yeah, I put it in yellow. Well, it's not showing. My question about the indicator when it's it's not changing it like substantively, it's just you know tweaking it. >> I think if I remember correctly, I thought
033we kind of gave that authority to you without having to >> come to the board for, >> you know, jumping because it's it's this the substance of it is the same. >> Same. Correct. Yeah. Just the locations are different. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I don't think that that's something that would require board approval as opposed to just bringing it to our attention and if we had any objection we didn't. >> Okay, >> I like that. But >> I think that's an excellent point. Um I think we should have a discussion on this if we want to but really otherwise we're just signifying if it's reasonable or not. I think as we move forward though if there's anything where it has to be tweaked it just for a language but it's not changing really the substance
034of the indicator >> it'll be a simple mess. No, the sub I mean the substance of the indicator isn't actually changed. If you if it's a new indicator or an indicator that is, you know, asking for different information, then we would approve it. But I think for this situation, it would just be at the superintendent's discretion. >> Would make sure that I mark it as such in the report though, right? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. All right. So, that being said, I don't think we need to have a vote on this, but if everybody wants to take a second to read through the proposed language that's linked um in the OE2 report, it's highlighted in yellow L reports. Um my only question would be if you need to even mention the separate offices and
035just saying the district office reception areas is enough. I I purposely be I did that because of the I want to make sure that we continue to elevate Fitchburg as a okay as a great municipality. >> Great. Yeah, >> seems reasonable to me. Does anybody else have any questions on this? >> My only just clarification. So even though there isn't a substantive change, it still will be highlighted throughout the meeting. just that we don't have to formally approve. But I think it's still important for it to be brought to the meeting so that we can all generally agree that it's not substantive. >> Yeah, I think that's >> and theoretically if we thought it wasn't, we could say no, this is something we need to >> Yeah. >> vote about discuss >> because I'm just
036thinking back to when we approved these indicators, we were so nitpicky of every single word that I wish now we had applied the this doesn't change the substantive meaning of the indicator standard. So, I think the thing here is we've got some suggested changes. Um, does this look substantive to anybody? >> No. >> All right, moving on. >> Perfect. All right, so now I've got to figure out how to move on without skipping the next thing. Okay, so I'm going to move on to board updates then. Uh, board update, OB planning and updates. Dr. clarity and update for fall WASA. >> Yes, thank you. Uh so uh just finished the WASA conference uh that which was Wednesday and Thursday in the morning of Friday last week um which include also the state of the state
037of education from Dr. Dr. as well as a uh grounding presentation and partnership with UW from Dean Hadtie from the department department of education of WS. I think some of the bigger things that especially from my my seat on the legislative committee that um I don't want us to get caught off guard on but it seemed to be catching traction at the legislative level. There's a second component of act 20 in the form of act 20 math uh which is at the it potentially could come to vote as early as in the next couple of couple couple of weeks. Um it's not that we are don't want to continue to focus on high quality instruction and math. My concern was following what we saw from act 20 from language arts funding lack lack of funding
038and the unfunded mandates that would went along with that what this could mean as far as budget ramifications as well as impact on staff who are already doing really really dynamic work. So uh hate to put into a space something I don't have the resource but we just kind of getting a deeper understanding of this proposal being on the table. Um um and I don't know yet what the momentum of it or how quickly it'll come to a legislative vote, but wanted to make our board and thus our community aware of that was one of my biggest takeaways from the legislative component of of the of the work there. uh in terms of personal learning and learn learning brand provided by their team and we might as well be on the AI AI conference because
039that's the focus of each educational leader in in our space is how uh not just understanding the tools of AI but how are we what is our philosophy and beliefs how are we aligning it to uh the mission and vision of of our district but all but most importantly we have to keep in partnership side by side with our staff because ultimately that's that's where it's implemented because that's where the magic of education happens. So really thinking about what strategies of how to make sure that we are not handing our staff um thoughts and ideas but partnering with our staff and and bringing AI to life moving forward. So most of the strategies revolved around there. I don't think there was I catch you new but just the philosophical approach to the work is is
040what was brought to life. So your understanding so far is that this would be like another similar like unfunded mandate. >> Nothing is articulated initially as a fundamentic but it was coming I I think u I might be professionally scarred from what we experienced with language arts and my confidence level maybe is Wayne knowing how that perceived it. Yeah, just to be clear, I think this has been mentioned several times that, you know, the district is already doing act 20 things before it was cool in the legislature. >> Um the the the stress comes in when you require things without sending any funding along. >> Yeah. >> And then threaten the potential for failure with a loss of funding, >> which is just absurd. So, okay. >> Thank you, D. Thank you for the opportunity
041to to attend. Excellent. All right, couple other general board updates I'll highlight here. Um, none of this I remembered on my own, so thanks to Jen for remembering all of this. On October 3rd, we have a ribbon cutting to open the health clinic at the central office here in Verona. Um, hopefully we can all make it there. Sounds like uh pretty neat endeavor. I'm excited about that. Um October 9th we have the Greater Day County uh consortium meeting. This is in >> Madison. >> It's in it's in Madison this time. Awesome. All right. Um we've been fairly well represented there in the past. So hopefully we can attend that. And then coming up in the beginning of December is the Slate Educational Conference um in the Dells also focused on AI this year. And I
042don't know how many people are attending. I'm attending. Should be awesome. >> We have three I think we have three board members. Nice. >> And team Jason. Jason Jason. Five. We have five. >> We have five five. >> That'll be great. It's always great as a board member to be able to go to like these purely educational things so that we don't ask nonsensical questions, which I'm good at. All right. Does anybody else have anything else for board updates? Spectacular. Moving on. Uh, superent superintendent consent agenda. Uh, if you haven't yet, please look over the superintendent consent agenda. And if you have any questions, now is the time. All right. Hearing none, the superintendent's consent agenda is approved as presented. Uh, the board consent agenda. Similarly, please look over the board consent agenda. Are there
043any questions there? pretty lean this month hearing none. The board's consent agenda is approved. Future dates um October 6th is our regular board meeting here. October 20th is board meeting. November 3rd and November 17th are our next board meetings. With that being said, I'll accept a motion to adjurnn. A >> motion second. Second Cory. All those in favor? Second. I >> Any opposed? Hold your feet. Smile. Last bit of the camera.