001Okay, it's 6:30. We're going to go ahead and get started. Uh, first of all, welcome. Thank you for showing up. Um, because I see some new faces, I got to use this. For the next three hours, I'll be talking Just kidding. All right. I just like looking at the reaction. So, I always get the same from Quinn. So, uh, so again, welcome. Uh, we'll be, uh, starting the budget hearing and then we'll go right into the annual meeting. uh a couple procedures that I want to make sure that we that we're following just uh well, we do this every year and making sure uh that we're doing this so everybody can hear. So, uh voting members can ask questions uh make comments about the budget. Uh I I have three sections. Uh then I'll pause
002at the end of each of the sections for you to come up so you don't have to wait till the end and go, "Oh, on slide two." So, we'll do that. I'll stop at those. There are specific spots in there. Uh if you have a question or comment, please come up uh and and use a microphone so both everybody here can hear but also people uh watching online and the recording uh people that we have so can can listen to that. So uh at the end of the budget hearing, we'll move right into the annual meeting. So we'll we'll just it'll just be a smooth transition. Uh there are handouts which I hope you all got. If not, they're out. They're right outside on the table uh for the minutes from last year and uh
003the budget hearing packet. Um there is a couple other some additional things that I won't be going over uh on my presentation, but that are in the packet. Just um information about funds and some other uh more in-depth things uh just for your reference uh to have. Um, and then those uh handouts uh will be part of uh put on the annual uh annual meeting and budget hearing web page later this week. We'll get those PDFed and put out there. So, all of these uh 202526 numbers that I'm going to present are projected projections are based on what we knew in August. Uh you're you're going to get sick of me hearing that me say that multiple times that these are projection. They're what we knew back in August when we had to get uh
004that budget presentation or budget uh approved and then uh published to be able to use for tonight. So, some things have already changed, but I'm required to use that budget uh in tonight's presentation. Uh we'll get final numbers uh those basically those five things, student counts, uh open enrollment, state aid, uh assess value, and private school vouchers. We'll get those from DPI uh and the Department of Revenue in in October. Uh at that point, um then we'll have more updated uh numbers. Uh while you will approve a a levy tonight, the final one will get uh presented to the school board uh and approved at the end of October when we have final numbers. Just to go through some t a timeline for you to understand where we are in the process. Um there is
005I guess a little um sarcasm in my in in this part of it because as we go through uh in July I present a budget that that is a projection just of what we're going to do for this coming year in July when the fiscal year starts in July. Then in August um because our fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30th. So in July we present that. In August, the board pres approves this preliminary budget that I'm using tonight and then uh you're going to vote on it tonight knowing it's going to change. Then in October, four months into the fiscal year, we'll get a final budget. So again, not sure this is the best way to do it, but this is the way the state of Wisconsin does it uh for school
006districts. So uh that's what we do. Um so at tonight's meeting, uh I'll I'll have it up here at the end. We'll talk about that. But you will be approving uh a final tax levy for the 20 for this school year 2526 school year. Uh the budget I'm presenting tonight is a balanced budget. Uh that could change a little bit based on uh uh any decisions that we've made uh before October. Um because we're still looking at what to do with potential fund balances, which I'll talk about. Um, but right now I'm projecting a a balanced budget. Um, and if it's not a balanced budget, it will be on purpose for something we'll be talking about um in in in a few more slides. So, um, we have a part of the reason it's balanced
007is because we continue to have uh significant open enrollment surplus. Uh, we have no increases for the second year in a row, which is really unheard of, of self-funded insurance. That's phenomenal. uh some districts I saw today at that Adam showed me that another district had quotes up to 35%. So again tremendous uh you know position that we've been in for two years in a row and that's helped us uh do that uh self-sustaining food service um program. So we haven't had to put any money into fund 50 for several years now and that's been that's great. Obviously we have to if there's a deficit but we haven't had to do that for for since I've been here. So quite a few uh year several years uh we have an we did get at 325
008which we'll talk about in the state budget uh as in part of the revenue limit. So that was obviously helped um that increase help and then continued financially responsible uh decisions that we continue to monitor and make. So I'm going to talk a little bit about the uh the state financial uh information just so you have an understanding of where the revenue limit is and where we're at with the revenue limit. Not going to get into politics. I'm just going to state some facts. This is the first time ever that the state did not include any general state aid or pre pu per pupil increases to help offset the increase in the in the revenue limit. So the revenue limit is basically state aid and and property taxes. That's what we get most of our
009funding from. So if one goes up, the other goes down and vice versa. Um, in this case, we didn't get any additional state aid, and I'm going to talk even more uh in depth about that in a second. Um, so basically, we did get 325, which is a good thing. Um, while while we got 325, it wasn't what inflation should have been about 340 if it wanted to keep up with inflation. But this is about the 16th year in a row where our revenue limit didn't didn't keep up with inflation. So while we are continuing to have to pay inflationary costs and and things that are going up by uh CPI, we are not getting that and haven't for 16 years and and again happy with 325, but no, it didn't even keep up with
010inflation. Uh the other part of that is um that that while there was an increase in the uh the revenue limit at 325, uh nearly twothirds of school districts are what we call negatively aided. And so while there's about a third of school districts that are positively aided, meaning the more money they spend, the more state aid they get. So, while the pot didn't grow, some of those larger uh uh positively aided or property poor districts passed referendums, millions of dollars in referendums. So, they uh were able to spend millions of dollars more. The more money they spend, the more of that pot they get. And the pot didn't grow this year. So as those large districts got more of the pot, twothirds of us of the districts like us that are negatively aided lost
011even more of that pot. So we didn't we actually lost um revenue or um more state aid than what we normally would have which we what more than than we didn't get because they didn't add any more to the pot. So instead of just saying well you get the same as last year, we didn't even get that. And again, I'll talk more about that. Uh the other one good thing about the uh the revenue limit is and or the bianium budget sorry not the revenue limit benium budget they did increase um uh oop sorry this is not a good thing this was the private school vouchers uh so they we do we did continue to budget for higher or for an increase in private school vouchers but the two two good things that did come
012out of the bianium budget is the uh special education increase so we went from 33% to 42% we don't expect to get 42% but we we we're we're hoping on 39 to 40% which is still still an increase. So we're happy about that. And then uh we also got uh as part of the bienium budget they also increase per pupil uh for open um dollars amount for open enrollment since we are an open enrollment in surplus that will benefit us uh as part of the bianium budget. So there was some good things that came out of it. Could it have been better? always can always be better. So, any questions about that information that I've that I've talked about or comments about that. Okay. Tell us what weed uh I I want to say it's
013about 14 cents for every dollar, but don't quote me on that. It was a couple years ago I looked at that because we haven't. It depends. But I think it's about 14. And the question was how about how much because we're negatively aided. How much do we lose for every dollar? I want to say it's about 14 cents on every dollar we lose. Okay. So, this is just a Oh, sorry. Yeah. Yeah. If Yeah. First year where we didn't get an increase from the state and I think I understand this but I wanted to verify this. So in on this chart where you show the revenue limit, tax levy and state aid, there were some years where Whitnell got a decrease in state aid. Is that just because some years the overall pool increased from
014the state, but sometimes Whitnell got a smaller share? Uh yeah. So I'm going to cover that in in this next slide. Okay. That next part of it. So I'll answer that if that's okay. Yep. So again, want to go back and just clarify. We got an increase in the revenue limit. That's we've we've been doing that. Although a couple years ago with ESSER, there was no increase, but we got Esser dollars to help offset some of that. So, we did get an increase in the revenue limit, which is the dollar amount that we have to run and operate our district. That revenue limit is made up of state aid and property taxes. for the first time in well since I think historically they didn't put any new dollars to help offset that increase in revenue
015limit. So while the revenue limit went up and it's gone up previously there was just no new state funding to help offset that increase. That's the first time that's happened that they haven't done any of that. So that I want to clarify. We we have gotten increases in the revenue limit, but those off those increases in the revenue limit have always been offset by increases in state aid of some sort to help offset the property taxes. This was the first time that they've ever done that where they've continued to increase it revenue limit but didn't help offset that increase. They didn't provide any new funding. So, as you can see in this next slide as we move into this, the revenue limit has increased over the years. Uh there was one one year again that
016was the esser year where we didn't get any new revenue limit but we got esser funding but over the last few years you can see that it's gone up a little bit. Um so we've gotten increases again not as much as inflation but we've gotten increases. The blue line is the tax levy. So that's a portion that the taxpayers pay of the revenue limit. And as you can see uh and then the green line is the state aid. So, as you can see, they were starting to come together. And back um I guess I want to say back in the 90s when this when the revenue limit really started, the state had promised to cover twothirds funding. That was the the the rule. They were said, "Well, we're going to cover twothirds funding." Well, they
017they haven't done that. So, um but as you can see, it has gotten closer between what the state pays and what the taxpayer paid, that share of it. Um I do have a a chart coming up later too that shows a little bit more in a pie chart, but you can see and actually last year in 2425 the green line the state aid was higher than the blue line the amount of taxpayers had to pay. So again the first time for us that the state paid more of that revenue limit than the taxpayers were supposed to. But now you notice this year, look at the gap. It's now spreading back apart. And obviously it will continue to do that next year because there's no money next year uh as as part of this bianium two-year
018budget that the states put out. They've said we're not putting any money in this by in in state aid for the next two years for the bianium budget. So it will continue to stay get get wider apart. So again, we were do starting to do good and and now this kind of happened with they put the onus back on the taxpayers and increase what the taxpayers are going to pay and decrease what they're continuing to pay. And while again they didn't really decrease, they just said we're not adding any new for us it was a decrease. So does that answer your question or not really? Yeah. So we for the 16th year in a row it's been less than inflation but but we've continued to see I guess if I said we've we didn't get
019revenue limit increases that's wrong and I apologize but we've continued to see revenue limit increases most years but but for the 16th year in a row it was it was less than inflation I did mention that so be yeah so again the question is about uh about because we're negative ly aided, how much money do we lose? Um, so again, about twothirds, give or take, of school districts in Wisconsin are negatively aided and it has to do with your property value. Are you property wealthy or are you property poor were considered property wealthy based on what our our value is. Um, and so those pe those districts that are property wealthy, the more they spend, they're negatively aided. So the more they spend, the less state aid they get. Uh, and so again, this was
020a couple years ago. I did it and I think it was about 14 cents on every dollar we lost because of that. Some districts are more than that. Some districts are less than that. Some districts who are positively aided make a$114 for every dollar they spend. So it does make sense for them to spend more money. The more they spend, the more dollars they get in state aid the next year. So and they know that. though. Uh so just talking about a majority of what our fund expenses are. Uh salary and benefits make up about twothirds of that 63%. And so that pie chart is just to show uh that our fund salaries are what our fund benefits are and then um the uh the non-sary and benefit expenditures for that. So uh again about
021twothirds 63% um nearly 21 million of our $33 million fund 10 budget uh is made up of salary and benefits. We are um you know our largest expense is district but but we need to take care of our staff. That's our most important asset. So and that's just we're in the people business. So uh and there's also another larger chunk that covers uh that that's not in part of that that's part of the non that that talks about or is covering our uh sub subc costs that we have to pay as well. So, I'm not going to go over all these numbers, but as you can see up there, these are our largest expenses and our largest revenue are we do um we do have to keep fund 10. We have to balance out I'm
022sorry, we have to keep fund 27, our special education fund balance. So, anything they spend over state and federal aid has to come from fund 10. So our biggest our largest expense is covering that that difference between state and federal aid into fund 27 expenditures and what they actually expend. So the revenue that we get from state and federal doesn't cover all of our uh special education costs and I'm going to talk a little bit more in detail about that. Uh and then open enrollment out. We do have several hundred and so students uh that open enroll. So there's a costing associated with that just like one of our largest revenues is open enrollment in. So we do have a surplus but no that's a significant cost um for pay paying for those open enrollment
023out students. So uh vouchers again I I budgeted 750,000. I think we were about 680 or 700,000 last year. I just again to be safe I I budgeted $750,000 because the voucher payments did go up. So again, I won't go over all those, but as you can see, those are our largest revenue and expenditures. Uh so I'll jump right into special education. So again, just to clarify uh and and and repeat, fund 10 has to take dollars out of its fund 10 budget and cover any budget shortfall for fund 27, special education. So every year that's happened. Uh in this case, we bud uh we budgeted 3.8 8 million last year addition uh in addition of of what the state and federal revenue had come in. So this is 3.8 million out of fund 10
024to cover that additional expenditure. Um and then we it ended up being about four million. This year I'm projecting I'm budgeting 3.7 just because remember I talked a little bit about the the budget increase in the bianium in the bianium budget that we got a few more percentage about uh bump bumped up to about 42%. So so that hopefully will reduce what we have to take out of our fund 10 to cover those. Also looking at increase we did increase um because again I want to make sure just because our fund 10 transfer went down doesn't mean our expenses did. Uh I'm projecting our expenses to go from 6.7 million in fund 27 to 6.85 million. It's just that I'm hoping or planning that with the increase in the bianium budget, we'll get more state
025aid that will help offset some of that and thereby decrease a little bit of what we have to use fund $10 to to help balance that. So again, just to reiterate, uh the bianium budget says 42% this year and 45% next year. Um, we're planning on getting about 39 to 40%. I budgeted 40% but it's a some certain amount in the in the bianium budget which means once those dollars are used up they're gone. So that means if you have more expenditures they they cap it as here's what we have for dollar amount. So there's a there nobody is projecting to get the full 42%. We haven't gotten the full 33% the last couple years. So, uh, we're budgeting about 40% for the NE for next year just to again make sure we're we're being
026a little conservative there. Total student enrollment. So, again, this is total enrollment, which means these are actually students in seats uh in yeah, in our seats. So, we talked about that um about about well mentioned that that's part of the revenue limit uh how they help calculate part of our revenue limit is based on our enrollment. So really in looking at that uh these we don't have final third Friday counts but um these were pretty close to to where we where our initial numbers are um and and have been I guess uploaded now but but there there's going to be some a little bit of changes but uh this is about where we're at. Uh we remember we did if you remember if you were here last year maybe you don't remember but our core
027four was way down last year way down lower than it has ever been. um well in in a long time uh we've rebounded very well about with that this year although not up to what it has been in the past um it's been very it's been it's very good so um and then so that that smaller class size uh that was in core for last year is now a smaller K5 or kindergarten class again those have what what what has really rebounded some but just not what it's also been in the previous year so we're getting there um overall our K5 numbers are up about 19 students students. Our middle school is down 24 students and our high school is down seven students. So, um that's really where our numbers. The other part of that
028is is when we talk about total student enrollment and FTE that's used on the revenue limit. They don't give us full credit for uh core four kids, our our K4 kids, we get about 6% reimbursement for that. So, those numbers don't always you can say these are our number of kids in seats, but that doesn't always mean those are the numbers we get to use on the revenue limits. And then open enrollment surplus. Uh talked about this that right now we're sitting we're projecting to be sitting at about 314 uh student surplus between open enrolled out kids and open enrolled in kids. So that equates to about $2.6 million uh in additional income. There's obviously costs associated with with um educating those stu those additional students, but there's also financial benefit. Uh going to talk
029a little next about debt and debt financing. So our current debt uh is our fund 38 state trust fund loan. That's the uh the what we did back in 2018 when we did the cafeteria improvement. Uh that's sitting at $388,696. That's projected to be paid off in three years. Uh our fund 39 is our new referendum debt that was passed last November. um that right now that's sitting at 23,250. So then obviously we have to make those debt payments for both of those. So we we pay 137419 a year on the fund 38 debt which again we'll have this one and then three more payments for that. And then uh right now we're projected on the revenue limit that this is part of our fund 39 levy is 5,254,371 for referendum debt uh principal and
030interest. We will be issuing uh the plan is to issue the remaining uh $50,650 or $650,000 uh sometime in 2026 when the uh when the con referendum construction projects really um get into full swing. Next, we're going to talk a little bit about our fund balance. So, we've been I'll say somewhat consistent in our in our fund balance. We do have uh board policy on on on this about where we need to stay in the ranges. Uh and we've been doing that. Um just one thing to really point out as you're looking at this and looking in your packet. Um the fund balance is based on fund fund fund balance. The amount we have in fund balance is based on those fund 10 expenditures. So you could have literally the same dollar amount but your
031expenditures from one year or the other go up or go down and could change the percentage. So your percentage changes but the dollar didn't or your dollars did but because of expenses your percentages maybe went down. So a good example of this is looking at 2122 and 22 23. We went from 10.7 million to 11 million but our percentage our fund balance percentage actually went down. So the dollars went up but the percentage went down. So again basically just letting you know take that with a grain of salt when you see that or make sure you understand that's about that same thing uh we are right now because we haven't finalized what we're doing with that addition uh in fund in the fund balance. So in 2425 and 2526 you'll see the dollars didn't change
032right now but our percentages went down you know one and one and a half percent. So again just make sure you understand both of those things. The other part of that too is just a real quick additional information. We have what's called the restrictive fund balance and a non-restricted fund balance. So restricted means you put it in this certain category and it has to it can only be spent for that that that restrictive um um I get those restrictive items. In our case, we have an amount in in self-funded insurance and we talk with our insurance auditors every year because they do many school districts and they say, "Hey, we're seeing this or be careful about this or make sure you have enough to cover bad years." Um, we've been very very fortunate about uh
033not having bad years. Um, but we know that that could happen very easily, especially with prescription drugs and and other other medications and or other um procedures. So anyway, so this year they said, "Hey, we would we would recommend putting a little bit more into that restrictive amount." So as it's part of fun 10 fund balance, but realistically we can't spend that on anything but self-funded insurance. So while that went up and it's part of that, we're not really at 37 or 39 or 37% this coming year um in unrestricted fund balance. That's down to about 35 34 35%. But again, just want you to know it's still part of that, but we are very we're restricted on what we can spend that on. So the other thing I guess I really want to talk
034about and this is in uh in the treasures report. Again, we always keep that in there just to help everybody understand the the importance of having a strong fund balance, but I want to just touch on a couple of those things. Uh one of those uh it keeps us from having to short-term uh borrow just to meet payroll. Um it's um I know maybe I did put Did I put it maybe I did put it that that chart that shows when we Yeah. Yeah. down at the bottom. Yep. Of when we get our funding. We don't get all of our funding at the beginning of this school year. A lot of school districts a lot have to short-term borrow in October and November because they can't meet payroll or their or their monthly expenses because
035they don't have the fund balance. So, we have a a solid fund balance and that's one very strong reason, especially at 7%, you don't want to be borrowing money and having to pay back at 7%. So, we've never had to do that since I've been here. Uh, and part of that is is having a strong fund balance to ensure that we can meet day-to-day operations until we get our our tax levy uh or state aid payments that are spread out. Um, the other part of that is we're self-insured. Um, so we obviously want to make sure we can meet any any of those expenses that we that we may have. Um, and then the other one that really really is important, and I can't stress this enough because we're currently in that situation, we have
036to get rated every time we do a bond issue. Well, we've already done two bond issues because of the referendum and we're going to do it do at least one more and we have to meet with Moody's and Moody's goes through all of our stuff and then the biggest thing that they have is ask about our our fund balance and that gets us the lower rating because we have a higher Moody's rating because we have a strong fund balance and that has saved us hund literally hundreds of thousands of dollars on interest costs because of our strong fund bond rating that we have. So, and that's it. And again, very very big part of that is fund balance. Um, that was it. And again, I think I mentioned this, but we do have we do
037have board policy that keeps us within limits of our fund balance. So, we'll continue to do that and work with the school board on that to make sure we we're doing that. All right. Oops. Did I I think I skipped questions on any of the budget stuff? I know that was a lot. Yes, sir. Uh it is because it has to be an available fund balance and 20. Uh so the question was uh is fund 10 the only fund balance that Moody's looks at. Uh fund 27 can't have a fund balance. Uh fund 50 has a fund balance but that's not part of what we could be using is food service. Um fund Yeah, the other funds really don't have one that are that would part of that. Y Okay, we're going to jump uh
038into uh uh into the levy part of this uh the the yeah the levy that that will be part of the annual meeting. So, want to just follow up with fund 80. This was something that we established the board reestablished last year. We had it again just real quick several years ago. Then I think about five or seven ten years ago it went away. We just didn't have it anymore. So, the auditor said, "If you're going to use it, make sure you reestablish." So, we did that last year and we and we levied for it last year. We levied $150,000 into that. Um, and and I'll talk about what we're what we use that for. But, a fund 80 uh is used to collect funds outside of the normal fund bal or the fund levy
039or the tax levy, sorry, the tax levy. And it has to be used. It's very strict about what you can do you can use it for. Um, but it has to be able to be beneficial to both the community and the school district. You can't just say I'm going to levy a bunch of money into fund 80 and then use it to um pay Brady's salary. Um so again it's very restrictive. The auditors look at it, DPI looks at it. In fact they there were school districts several you know 15 20 years ago that were doing things like that and so there was a lot of um intentional intentionality about looking at and ensuring how it's being used. So, there are strict guidelines, but again, it does help schools levy u additional funds to help
040pay for some of those items. And again, we're going to talk about what some of those items are that we're using it for. So, in 2425, again, we levied as part of our our revenue limit uh and and our t total tax levy, we we we levied $150,000 into that. We uh pay our school community, our school resource officer as as she is part of the the community and does community relations um with that as part of her middle school co-curriculars. Again, in middle school, anybody in the community can can be part of uh middle school athletics um and clubs. Um so there's no limit on that. We can't do this at high school because WIAA restricts that. But at the middle school, anybody in the community can join uh middle school athletics whether you
041go to school at Whitnell or not. Um, and then the tennis courts, we had we needed new nets last year. Um, and then as you can see, we had a problem. I think it was over spring break. Thankfully, uh, the wind took down what we found out were some, um, bad lighting um, what's the word? I'm foundations. So, one of the light poles fell during the windstorm and luckily there was no cars out there or we would have had a insurance claim. Uh so we really we we brought somebody in and looked at that and found out that they're that most of them were not not doing good uh starting to rot and rust and uh and how they were put in there. So so uh you may not have seen it over the summer.
042We started doing that because it had to be done. Um regardless of what happens with fund 80 and the tax levy, we had to do it. But part of that is is we also I'm sure you all know as you leave here at night on Monday nights if for those of you that are here or see that or drive by any night, the community is out there. I I would say by far the community uses tennis courts more than the school district does. So again, which is great. Uh so we but we do have expenditures and there looks like there's maybe some resurfacing and things like that that has to be done too in the next few years. So that's really the big part of that for us is saying helping to offset things that
043communities also um benefit from. So um that's where I'm at tonight when I when I did budget that um I know this won't cover everything. We did have a fund balance. So you can have a fund balance in fund 80 because it has to be spent only for certain things. So we knew we were going to have some more expenditures. So we said let's we're just going to leave that there which we had to do and carry that over and help pay for that. But um what I'm what I'm proposing tonight for a fund levy won't cover all of that. So we know we're going to have to pull a little bit out of that. We're also hoping to get getting some energy rebates um for for the lighting because it's all LED which is
044what we want to do anyway which helps save money. Uh so anyway, uh that that was my proposal tonight is to is to levy that the $200,000 into um Fund 80. Now again, this is just because this happened this year moving forward. While we do want to keep Fund 80 um out there, um we're hoping that there's no other large expenses like that that we'll need to levy for. So looking at our levy rate, we're going to really dive into this about why. We've talked a little bit about it already, but um we you can see what our levy rate has been since 201718 in the $10 range and it's continued to drop. It obviously went up three cents last year as we passed a $79.1 million referend capital referendum. Thank you very much for
045that. Uh and then this year uh the the really the sole reason for the most part is that the state provided no uh additional tax uh relief for um or state aid to help offset taxes. So it all got really put on the shoulders of of of the property tax as part of the revenue limit. So just going through the numbers going across the top of this chart. I presented this this is the third time but I think it's important I think it's important for everybody to know this. The revenue limit from 2425 went up $384,000. That's the 325 per pupil. So, we got an increase. That's great. State aid, however, didn't while while the pot stayed the same, as I mentioned, we lost $ 1.56 million in state aid from last year to this
046year in in the state aid part of our revenue limit. Therefore, the offsetting part of that is taxes. The taxes went from 12 million to 14 million, a $1.8 8 million increase to fund the revenue limit because tax because state aid decreased that much. Uh when you as part of the total tax levy, there's a fund 39 which is a referendum debt and fund 80 which we just talked about. Those actually decreased from last year. So that reduced the total tax levy down to $1.4 million more this year than last year. So that's I I I that that pretty much spells it out. So, we went from 718. So, I'm projecting a 742 mill rate this year, which will be that $ 1.4 million additional tax increase um simply because state aid went down 1.5
047almost $1.6 million. So, this is just kind of that comparison to that one uh uh line chart that I had. Last year, the state was at 50.7% and our fund 10 tax levy was at 49%. this year. You can see how how that switched. State aid dropped to 44 less than 45%. But that means property taxes had to pick up the pick up the difference. So while we didn't add any additional funding to state aid pot, again we talked about this, we got less than that. Had had we got the exact same as last year, had those other districts not gone to referendum, had not spent more, everybody just stayed status quo, spent what they spent last year, and we got the same dollar amount even though they didn't add anything to the pot, our
048our our uh tax levy, overall tax levy would have dropped $122,000 and our mill rate would have dropped uh to 683. So, uh, that I think that would have been a a 35 cent drop instead of a 24 cent 24 cent increase if we just would have stayed the same. No more tax state aid than we got last year, but instead we dropped 1.5 million to almost 1.6 million. So, again, just to reiterate, this is because of no no state aid, but no additional state aid, but actually a reduction in state aid. Um, so there's just that's what that's what the revenue limit is made up of. Taxes and state aid. Taxes or state aid went down, taxes have to go up to cover that. And in those years where state aid goes up, taxes
049go down. So at the annual meeting, they'll be talking about this. This is the revenue or this is the total tax levy that I'm proposing based on the things that I just talked about. For all of the levies, it's 19,726,487 for a mill rate of 742. that could change a few cents depending on the octo uh sorry yeah the October 15th final state aid um calculations that they'll get and then they're working on and putting that together that could change I'm not expecting it to change a whole lot but it could change a few cents um and a few dollars obviously so it could change a couple a little bit uh the breakdown of that tax levy uh 14 million just over 14 million goes to the fund 10 general fund 137 we talked about
050paying the the fund 38 debt that cafet criteria debt. Uh the 5 million was our referendum debt from last year, the two issues we've done. Um and then the capital expansion fund we we try to budget in there. While we have a um while we have passed a referendum and that's taking care of or will be taking care of a lot of our SEAT capital improvements plan, it's not taking care of everything. And while we're also budgeting for this coming year, we're also budgeting for the next five or ten years because nobody knows. Nobody talked about, hey, state no more state, no new state aid this year. Nobody. We were talking about, are you going to get 60% special a special ed aid? Are we going to get 325? Are we going to get 350?
051Are we going to We were everybody, business managers and people, superintendents were talking about all these different scenarios. Nobody said, "Well, what happens if we get no new state aid?" Because that was just never been on the table. And that just goes to show you nobody knows what's going to happen. We don't know what's going to happen in two years, five years, 10 years down the road. We may be here, we may not be here, but the point is the school Whitel School District will be here. So we have to make sure we're we're we're budgeting for the long term, not just for next year. And to be quite honest with you, that's why we're sitting in the position we're sitting in because we've been doing that. We've been looking longterm. We've been um being
052fiscally responsible with those dollars. We've been able to again, thank you, passed the referendum that needed a lot of that capital referendum stuff that needed to get done. We would have been in a world of hurt if that had not happened. What do we have to make all those capital improvements without a referendum? So, again, we don't know. We don't know what's down the road. And so, part of that is we continue to put a little bit of money in fund 41 and try to put money in 46 at the end of the year when we can. Um, but that's not always going to be the case. Uh, and then there's a $200,000 fund 80 uh for the community service fund. So that will be you will be voting on that um on that total
053tax levy. Um and that's the breakdown of of my my um recommendations. Okay. End of the third section. Any questions? That was a lot. Sure. You got to come up here. Quinn brunette 12255 West Black Drive Greenfield. I This is my 15th annual meeting that I've been in as a resident and as a schoolboard member. And I want to thank all the all of our employees, our current administration, our past administration, our current board members, our past board members. When John gets up, stands up here and says we have a balanced budget, that's a big thing. There are so many districts out there and just go on DPI's web page that do a um uh not a facility operational referendum. We have never done it. We have never done that. Fiscally responsible and and then
054you talk about all the ch you listen to them and talk all the challenges about the lesser money that we get because we're po richer and poorer and all that stuff. It's incredible. and and it takes a whole team effort and it takes a lot of past administration people caring about it and the current administration people and board members and students and and our staff to really understand what all goes into this. So, I'm I'm very proud. I'm very proud of it and we all should be and when they say a balanced budget, you think uh it's a big deal. That's all. Jason Craig 11710 West Shields Drive Franklin. So when we talk about what the fund 10 looks like and how that impacts credit rating does and they only look at fund 10, would
055it be better for the district as a whole to not have fund 46 and putting money into that because anything would still be funded via fund 10 and being able to hold that much more cash in reserve without having to move the money into into 46. Wouldn't that be better overall or would that be just shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic? Yeah, I think a little bit of both. Uh I I in the end they look at our fund 10 fund balance. Um but they also look at overall equity as well and that's part of it. The other part of it is in the grand scheme of things. Um there are there are benefits to having money in fund 46 as far as how you advertise those expenditures over multiple years. So that helps us
056um as part of our aid formula because we get dinged uh being being um uh negatively aided that helps spread out some of that uh that cost over multiple years. So there is some benefit in that. Um but to your point we could do that. Um I I don't know that that's going to be in fact I know it's not because there are other factors. Um when we when we did the two bond issues, they said you have a strong fund balance, but there are other factors involved in that that having another couple million or a million dollars in in fund 10 fund balance. It wasn't going to offset to really bring us up to we're at AA2. The only thing higher is AA1 and AAA. I think we're going to have a hard time
057getting to AA1. Okay. I don't think that would but good question though. Yep. Carla Dupant, 5364 South Allenwood Lane, Hills Corners. And this is a comment more than a question. Um, I've attended almost all schoolboard meetings since September of 2023, and I can say with certainty that the one consistent comment that John makes um before presenting any financial information is I've taken a conservative approach consistently and I see that in his presentations that revenue and expenses are realistic. They're based on formulas and on history and expenses support the district's strategic goals. This conservative approach is why Whitnell's budget is balanced and Whitnell has never had to enter operational referendum territory. As a homeowner, I appreciate the fiscal responsibility of the district and the district's attention to the property tax levy and the cost to residents.
058Do I like the projected increase in the tax levy over what was projected? No, I don't. But having listened to John's presentation for probably the third time, I am uh very convinced that this is due to the legislaturator's failure to invest in public education. The state of Wisconsin recorded a $4.5 billion positive balance or surplus in the state's general fund at the end of 23 and 24. This legislature has made the decisions not to adjust school funding for inflation nor invest some of this surplus in public education. They have said by their actions that the burden is on property owners. I will vote to approve tonight's proposed budget because I believe it is conservative and realistic and it's good for students and the community. And I would recommend that residents do likewise. I also suggest
059that for next year's November election, every resident take a hard look at candidates for the state legislature and their support or lack of it for public education. Thank you. Okay, if there are no other questions, uh I want to thank you all for coming out. It's kind of a business manager joke. You never know if there's going to be three people or 30 people uh when you do this. Um so we I do appreciate um that that uh we've all spent a lot of hard work uh putting information into this together and um and and helping with the budget. It's not just me. Um by far it's not just me. Um and so we all appreciate that and that you that there's enough caring in that. Um Adam had asked earlier if if I would
060be autographing the board packets and I'm willing to do that, but I'm also I think you probably want Carla and Quinn's autograph too. So, whatever works for you. Uh, so thank you very much. I'm going to we're going to turn right over I'm going to turn it over to Jesse for the uh annual meeting. Thank you. Good evening everyone. My name is Jesse Stoviaak. I'm the Whitell School Board President and I'd like to call the annual meeting to order. This annual meeting provides the electors of the Whitnell School District the opportunity to vote on key matters including proposed tax levy for the 2025 2026 school year, salaries of board members, and the date and time of the next annual meeting. Under Wisconsin law, an elector is defined as a United States citizen who is a
061resident of the district. Every qualified elector is eligible to vote at this, excuse me, at this meeting. We will move on to the election of the chairperson for the annual meeting. Each year chairperson for the annual meeting must be select must be elected by the qualified electors of the Whitell school district. At this time I will open the floor for nominations for joining. Okay. Are there any other nominations? I'll ask two more times. Are there any other nominations? One more time. Are there any other nominations? Hearing no further nominations. Nominations are closed. May I have a motion to elect Marty Ordinance as chairperson of the annual meeting? Uh, please state your name, first and last name along with your address, please. Thank you. Is there a second? Uh, please state name first and last name
062along with your address. It has been moved and seconded to elect Marty as the chairperson of the annual meeting. All those in favor, please say I. All those opposed say no. Motion carries. Marty is elected as the chairperson of the annual meeting. I now turn the meeting over to the chairperson. Good evening. Um, welcome. And I have a script here, so I'm going to follow that script tonight. I have to say real quickly, um, uh, my wife and I have lived in the district for 37 years. like that. Both of our kids have gone to the W school district and uh I'm very honored to be here tonight. I must say also that on my bucket list, this was never on the top of the bucket list. Um okay, so there are some things that
063I have to say. Uh the next order of business is the appointment of the person to record the minutes of the annual meeting. Are there any nominations for recording secretary? Okay. Um, I need your name and Okay. Okay. Jennifer Rogers has been nominated to record the minutes of the annual meeting. May I have a motion to appoint Jennifer Rogers as recording secretary for the annual meeting. Please state your first and last name along with your address for the record. I have anonymity. Thank you. Is there a second? Again, please state your first name and last name along with your address for the record. Thank you. It has been moved and seconded to appoint Jennifer Rogers as recording secretary for the annual meeting. All those in favor, please say I. Those opposed, please say no. The
064motion carries. Jennifer Rogers is appointed to record the minutes of the annual meeting. Thank you. I appoint Laura Lauren Band, an attorney for the district's legal council, Yulo Veter, as the parliamentarian for the annual meeting. That's all taken care of. Uh the minutes of the 2024 annual meeting are available at the check-in table at the back. I think John mentioned that before. May I have a motion to approve the minutes of the 2024 annual meeting? Please state your first name and last name along with your address for the record. Thank you, Cassie. Is there a second? Again, please state your first name and last name along with your address for the record. Thank you, Alicia. It has been moved and seconded to approve the minutes of the 24 2024 annual meeting. Is there any discussion?
065If there is no further discussion, we will proceed to the vote. All in favor of approving the minutes, please say I. Those opposed say no. The motion carries. The minutes are approved. The treasurer's report. Kathy Rener will provide the treasur report. I'm going to get out of your way. I just press space. Okay. All right. Tonight, I have the privilege to share the treasurer's report, not just to fulfill a statutory obligation, but to celebrate Whitnell School District's tradition of strength and stability in fiscal and financial matters. In a time when many districts face financial uncertainty, Whitnell stands out as a model of fiscal responsibility, community trust, and continuous improvement. Good evening. For those of you who don't know me, I am Cassie Rener, your current Whitnell School Board Treasurer and chair of the Finance and
066Facilities Committee. I've proudly served on the board since 2023 and was selected by my peers on the board to serve as treasurer as our at our most recent reorganization in April. Before we dive in, I want to echo some of what I've heard tonight, thanking the community for the commitment and engagement and your presence tonight. It is the strength of the community that makes the school district strong. While the school board has supported and overseen Whitel's strong financial position in a formal manner, I must recognize Mr. John Durr and the team and the wide administration and staff of the district for the skillful stewardship of our resources. As my colleague Quinn brunette mentioned, this is a long tradition and many many hands share this responsibility and I am grateful to all of them. Over the
067past year, Whitnell embarked on a collaborative journey to develop our strategic plan that will span the next five years. This plan, which was shaped by input from staff, administrators, and community members, serves as our operational and fiscal compass. It guides how we must prioritize spending and allocate resources to support student success. You may have heard that recently as a commitment to transparency and collaboration, the district has launched a strategic plan dashboard, which is a tool that allows all community members to be a part of the strategic plan journey and to track progress and celebrate successes alongside the district. I encourage you to explore it. When you do, you will see that one of its key pillars is operational excellence, which includes two financial subpillars. Safe, adequately equipped, and well-maintained facilities and financial sustainability through strategic
068budgeting, staffing, community partnerships, and pursuit of external funding. These priorities reflect the district's commitment to using taxpayer dollars wisely and efficiently to maximize student outcomes and ensure a strong return on investment for our taxpayers. To dig in a little more specifically and to highlight and reiterate some of what John shared on this slide, you will see some of those highlights and that will be available in the full treasures report which is published and available in board docs which can be accessed directly through board docs or through the district website. I'm proud to highlight a few of the ones that John touched on. As he mentioned, Whit's food service program remains fully self-sufficient, which is a somewhat rare achievement. We are not having to transfer money out of general fund to pay for that. As he
069also mentioned, we've increased our capital improvement fund balances, which allows us to invest in long-term facility upgrades without resorting to short-term borrowing and incurring interest to do so. Most notably, our community overwhelmingly passed a capital referendum that will bring vital mechanical, safety, and comfort updates to our buildings. These improvements will enhance the learning environment for students and the work environment for staff and serve as a visible symbol of Whitner's growing brand and commitment to excellence. We are also strategic about our B referendum bond borrowing so that we can earn the maximum interest allowed which helps offset interests that we acrew. As John mentioned, we are also in a strong position with our fund balance. This is not a savings account, but these are liquid funds that allow us to cover day-to-day and unexpected expenses. A
070strong fund balance enables us to pay our bills on time and secure favorable interest rates. School finance, as many of you know, and especially the funding formula is complex. Like our household budgets, the district has which have fixed monthly costs, so does the district. Things like payroll, utilities, and more. But unlike a household, our funding doesn't arrive monthly and can vary significantly. Some months, as John showed in the chart, and it's also in your packet, the district gets a large portion of the yearly funding, and some months the district gets none. A healthy fund balance allows us to still be able to pay our bills on time. Thanks to conservative budgeting, careful expense monitoring, and a commitment to supporting the health and well-being of our staff, which resulted in a strong year for staff insurance
071claims, Whitnell ended the 2324 fiscal year, 2425 fiscal year with a 1.1 million surplus. We are exploring ways to earmark these funds for future staff compensation, which reinforces the district's commitment to student outcomes and staff satisfaction to other pillars of our strategic plan, which are enabled by our strong financial position. The bottom line, and yes, I couldn't resist a financial pun, is this. Whitnull remains in a strong financial position, and this success is no accident. It's the result of a deliberate strategy, thoughtful planning, and a deep respect for every tax daypayer dollar we bring in. I've been honored to share these highlights from this 2025 annual meeting and treasurer's report. The full report, as I mentioned, is available for you to peruse, and I encourage you to take a closer look. As I close tonight,
072I want to thank you for your time, your trust, and your comm continued support of Whitnell School District. It is my privilege to serve as your treasurer and it's been my privilege to address you all tonight. And now I have the pleasure of passing the mic to our board president, Jesse Stoak, for the president's report. Thank you, Cassie. I just want to reiterate what's already been said. Thank you to everyone who is here this evening. uh this important part of our annual meeting that uh you actually get to be a part of and actually make your votes heard outside of a regular election. So we appreciate that very much. Um as I reflect on the past year, it really stands out to me as one of progress, change, and pride. To start, I want to
073recognize the successful completion of our superintendent's first year of leadership. Transitions of this magnitude are not always easy, but our superintendent has approached the role with vision, collaboration, and um and a strong commitment to success. One large milestone we achieved together was the passage of the $79.1 million facilities referendum. As is indicated earlier, this is not a small accomplishment in a world where many school districts are going to operational referendum to stay afloat. The referendum passed with the support of 64 and a.5% of the community which points to the trust and investment put into our schools. These projects will provide academic and athletic improvements that will benefit generations of Whitel students to come. Financially, as you heard earlier as well, we've managed to keep a balance balanced budget and we have established a capital improvement
074plan which aids in our efforts to reduce the need for future referendums. All of this has been achieved in spite of, as we mentioned before, reduced state aid overall. Academically, we were able to celebrate uh several achievements across multiple schools. Whitnell High School boasted two National Merit Scholarship finalists, was recognized as a 2025 USA Medallion School by the Department of State, and for the second year in a row attained silver level within the AP uh school honor role. At Hails Corners Elementary, they're recognized as a national blue ribbon school. This is a very rare and prestigious distinction that highlights exceptional achievement and growth at that school. At the district level, students in grades three through eight combined to produce prof profic proficiency levels meeting or exceeding expectations in both English language arts and math on
075the Ford exam. Whitnell as a whole earned the rating of exceeds expectations on the Wisconsin state report cards. These accomplishments highlight not only the tireless work of our students and staff, but also strong partnerships with families. Speaking of our staff, this year's employee satisfaction survey generated a record high 92.2% response rate. This really shows our employees are invested in making Whitnell the best place it can possibly be. I'm incredibly proud of the diligence and their hard work that they have put in to make this year what it was. Finally, the Whitnill community came together as a whole to plan for the future. Community members and district staff came together to shape and build our strategic plan. This plan, which can now be found on our website, is the product of listening, learning, and hard work,
076provides us with a comprehensive road map, and will guide Whitnull through the next five years. I am incredibly proud of what has been accomplished here at Whitnull, and even more excited about what lies ahead for us. My goal and hope is that we consider we continue to foster trust, collaborate, and inspire excellence as we move forward towards the future. Thank you, Jesse. Okay, before we begin action items for this annual meeting, I will outline the ground rules for our proceedings. Each elector may speak once on each resolution for up to three minutes. to speak, please raise your hand. When recognized, come to the microphone and state your name and address for the record. All votes will be taken by voice vote. If the result is unclear, we will proceed to a show of hands. At
077that time, every registered elector must clearly show a hand for a nay or abstain. These rules are intended to ensure fairness, order, and efficiency and are consistent consistent with parliamentary procedure as outlined in Robert's rules of order. All right. Resolution number one, tax levy. Due to state law, the electors of the Whit School District are required to vote on the annual tax levy. This year, there is one resolution to consider. The resolution reads as follows. Be it resolved by the electors of the Whit School District pursuant to section 120.1 sub8 and sub9 of the Wisconsin statutes that the tax levy for the 2025 26 school year shall be set at 19726,487. Breakdown of the tax levy. 14,84,697 for fund 10, the general fund. 137,419 for fund 38, nonreferendum debt service. 5,254,371 for fund 39, referendum
078debt service. 50,000 for fund 41 capital expansion and 200,000 for fund 80 community service fund. At this time, may I have a motion to approve resolution A as presented. Please state your first name and last name along with your address for the record. Thank you, Cassie. Is there a second? Again, please state your first and last name along with your address for the record. Thank you, Carlo. It has been moved and seconded to approve resolution number one setting the tax levy for the 2025 26 school year. Is there any discussion? If there is no further discussion, we will proceed to the vote. All in favor of approving resolution one, please say I. Those opposed, please say no. The motion carries. Resolution A is approved. Resolution two, legal. The next item of business is resolution B.
079This resolution authorizes the school board to provide for the prosecution or defense of any legal action in which the district may be involved during the 202526 school year. This is a standard resolution passed each year to ensure the district is able to act on legal matters if necessary. And this is how the resolution reads. Be it resolved by the electors of the Whitnill School District pursuant to section 12010 sub14 of the Wisconsin statutes that the school board be and hereby is authorized to provide for the prosecution or defense of any legal action or proceeding in which the district is or may be interested during the 2025 26 school year. Is there a motion to approve resolution number two as presented? If so, please state your first name and last name along with your address for
080the record. Thank you, Jesse. Is there a second? Again, please state your first name and last name. Thank you, Alicia. It has been moved and seconded to approve resolution number two. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, if there is no further discussion, we will proceed to the vote. All those in favor of approving resolution number two, please say I. Those opposed say no. The motion carries. Resolution two is approved. Resolution number three. The next item of business is resolution number three regarding school board members salaries. Each year at the annual meeting, the electors determine the salaries for the school board members for the upcoming school year. For reference, the salaries during the 202425 school year were $4,500 for the board president and 4,000 for all the other board members. With that background, I will now
081read the proposed resolution. Be it resolved by the electors of the Whitill School District pursuant to section 12010 sub3 of the Wisconsin statutes that the salaries of school board members for the 202526 school year be set as follows. Board President 4500 all other members 4,000. Is there a motion to approve resolution number three is presented? Please state your first and last name along with your address for the record. Thank you, Paul. Uh, is there a second? Again, please state your first name and last name for the record. Thank you, Jason. Uh, it has been moved and seconded to approve resolution number three. Is there any discussion? Yes, sir. Jason Graham, 9611 West Meadow Park Drive. Uh I think it was about four years ago that we did uh a study on board member salaries and
082they did a study of all the districts in the neighboring areas and showed um what the president, vice president uh and members were making and I think it was at that time that we raised the salary for the last time. Um, I was just going to make a comment that perhaps for next year someone could take it upon themselves to do that study again. I suspect that uh other neighboring districts um maybe have raised the salaries during that time and we might we might be behind, but uh before are proposing that we raise the salaries again. I think it would be good to to have that information again. So, I don't know who did that study four years ago, uh, if it was someone in the district or if it was a community member, but
083I think we should maybe do that next year and just see what the results of that are and possibly propose u a change to the salary at that time. Thank you. Thank you. There any further discussion? If not, we will proceed to the vote. All those in favor of approving resolution three, please say I. I. Those opposed, please say no. Those abstaining, please say abstain. All right, the motion carries. Resolution number three is approved. All right, resolution number four. The next item of business is resolution number four regarding school board member expenses. This resolution authorizes the payment of actual expenses incurred by school board members when traveling in the performance of their official duties. The resolution reads, "Be it resolved by the electors of the Whit School District to authorize payment of actual expenses of
084school board members when traveling in the performance of duties. Is there a motion to approve resolution number four as presented? If so, please state your name and address. Jason, thank you. Is there a second? Again, please state your name and address. Thank you, Susan. Is there It has been moved and seconded to approve resolution number four. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, if there's no further discussion, we will proceed to the vote. All those in favor of approving resolution number four, please say I. Those opposed, please say no. Motion carries. Resolution number four is approved. All right. Resolution number five. This is in regards to the date and time of the annual meeting. The next item of business is resolution number five, which sets the date and time for the annual meeting for the 2026
08527 school year. The resolution reads as follows. Be it resolved by the electors of the Whitnill School District that the date and time of the annual meeting for the 2026 27 school year be established as September 26th, 2026 or as otherwise determined by the school board. Is there a motion to approve resolution number five as presented? Please state your first name and last name for the record. Thank you, Paul. Is there a second? Again, please state your name and first. Okay. Thank you, Carla. It has been moved and seconded to approve resolution number five. Is there any discussion? September 26th, 2026. Saturday. Okay. Sounds good to me. All right. Any further discussion? Is it you need a new motion for that? Okay. So, all those in favor of approving resolution five, please say I. All
086those opposed say no. So, now we need a new motion. I'd like to make a motion that our annual meeting is 28, 2026. Just for clarification, a minute ago you said the 21st That'll be the fourth Monday. Okay. 28th. Okay. Oh, I need a mo. Was that a motion? Okay. Then I need a second, please. Thank you, Ann. Okay. Uh, all those in favor of approving the resolution as now stated, please say I. I. All those opposed, please say no. Great. Thank you. Last page. The business of the annual meeting having been completed, is there a motion to adjurnn? Please state your first and last name and your address for the record. Thank you, Susan. It has been moved and seconded to adjourn the annual meeting. All those in favor, please say I. Those opposed,
087please say no. The motion carries. The annual meeting is adjourned. Thank you all. [Applause] I'd like to verify compliance open meetings law and call this meeting to order. Uh do I have an adoption or do I have a motion to adopt the agenda as presented? So move. We'll go with second. Okay, we'll go with Quinn and Alicia. All in favor? I opposed. Um, terms of attendance, everyone is here except for Karen, but uh she had mentioned that she would not be here this evening. She is ill. So, if you are able, please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag. Pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, we'll move on
088to two. Do we have any public comments? Okay, we'll move on to consent agenda three. A. September vouchers vouchers payable. B. August 25, 2025 school board business meeting minutes. C. September 8th school board workshop meeting minutes. D. Record of school safety drills. E. Seclusion and restraint annual report. Would anyone like to pull an item? Not hearing any. I will ask for a motion to approve 3 A through E. So moved. I'll second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I opposed. 3 A through E carried. Moving on to four reports. 4A superintendence report with Dr. Ranki. All right. Uh a few few quick things to report to the board and the community on. First of all, um we found out that Isaac Feedler uh has been named a semi- finalist in the 71st annual National
089Merit Scholarship Program. So congratulations to Isaac. We're we're excited. We had two students uh that were that that moved to the next round uh last year. So, we're excited to see how he did. He was really excited when Mr. Tullson uh shared with him last week that he had made it. Uh so, it's really great. Last week was National Arts and Education Week. Uh we want to celebrate and shout out to our amazing art, music, and theater teachers and adviserss for their incredible work um to help support and encourage our talented students. Last last week, we were also named the Hails Corners September Hales Corners Chamber of Commerce uh September Business of the Month, which was great. Um we we get to host we got to host their board their chamber board meeting right here
090in in the board room and we treated all of those uh board members to a school lunch. Uh so I think they all kind of enjoyed got a kick out of going down to the cafeteria and and having some school lunch. Uh, by the way, school lunch is not probably what it was when when we were all in school. Um, there's there's actually a lot of great choices down there. So, um, and then we we computer we completed our our first communication study session over over that we're going to be doing over the course of 2526 school year. Um, Brenda and and Dana did a great job with with the first group. uh they've they've got an I think an eight-part rubric that they're working through uh with different uh community members, board members, staff
091members to just figure out what it is we need to do better uh with our communications. So, uh as I think I've I've let the board know, you you may be getting uh emails every once in a while to participate in various parts of that study. Jesse uh was our board represented in SE section one. So, he he provided great feedback. Uh just wanted to share that the Whitell High School class of 1975 had their 50th class reunion uh this past weekend. So uh we were excited to welcome them back. Mr. Tullson uh gave them a building tour and I got an email today from one of the the people that said it was just an outstanding experience. I think he took them down to Charlie Bees, which is the um the school store where
092they can buy Whitel uh gear. So So that was really great. Um, just a couple just sports updates. Our football team is 4- one. They've got a byee this week and then the following week they're heading over to Greenfield. Please, please do note uh you probably seen it on Facebook. I also forwarded you a link. Uh, our our quarterback Tanner is up for some uh player of the week this week for I'm not sure which organization. So, please do click on that and and give him a vote. Uh, our girls volleyball team is seven and five and they're heading to Brown Deer tomorrow. Boys volleyball uh was is hosting PWA tonight, so they might be still going when we get done if you want to stop down and check that out. Boys soccer is against
093uh Milwaukee Lutheran tonight. Cross country is doing a great job. Uh I was able to get out to the cross my my first ever cross country meet um last or two weeks ago when they hosted at Hail's Corners Park. It was a great time to watch and they're in Jainsville this weekend. And then girls swim and dive is heading to New Burl and Eisen Howard tomorrow and tennis heads to St. Francis today. So just putting on your radar, homecoming is coming up on October the 10th. So that'll be a fun experience for all of our kids. So that's what I've got for you tonight. So thank you and it's back to Jesse. All right. Thank you very much. Uh we'll move on to 4B school board liaison reports. I'll just go in the order that
094it's in the packet. So I'll start off. Um middle school PTO met for the first time. There's a lot of discussion around uh potential fundraisers and um different ways to do things. uh they are looking for volunteers obviously when the school dance rolls around that's right around the corner people help out with that you can either monitor the hallways supervise the kids that are uh selling the concessions uh it's a pretty fun time I have not heard any parent complaints from it and it's more from the the student side of great my mom's here and it's like well we appreciate their help uh the Other the other piece of it um is they have a spiritware sale going on. I believe it's still going on um if you want to check that out if you
095need some new apparel for the fall or winter. All right, and that's all I have for that. So, we'll move on to Edertton PTO. Sarah, we also had our first um meeting. It went really well. A large portion of the meeting was spent on our financial budget reports for the summer. Um, our treasurer is very thorough, so it's very good. And we currently have, um, a large surplus because we're making a big purchase of the Lou playground system. Um, another school district beat us to being the first one in the state of Wisconsin to install that, but they are looking to purchase it this year and it will be installed with the new gym and hopefully we'll be the second in the state. Um, it's a very cool interactive um, system and you can read
096more about that in the ed newsletter. Um, don't forget to sign up for PTO. It doesn't roll over from year to year. You have to sign up every year. It is free. Um, and it is a pick your own adventure. You can do as much or as little as you want as terms of volunteering. Um, our next meeting is October 2nd at 6 PM. I won't be there. That happens to be our board regional meeting at the same time. So, um, but in October we have the book fair and spaghetti dinner coming up. So, I'll make sure to have updates for that even though I won't be at that meeting. Sounds good. We'll move over to Hills Corners with Cassie. All right. We had our first meeting for the HCPTO last Tuesday. Uh, first one
097of the year obviously. Couple important dates coming up. We will have uh movie night this Friday. So, for HCE families, you can bring your kids and watch a movie outside. Uh note that it's not a drop off event, so parents are expected to attend with their child, but it's really fun. Uh October 3rd is field day. Um so that will also be a fun event for the kids. Uh the book fair will be October 23rd and 24th, which is also coinciding with uh conferences. And then the next meeting is uh November 18th. That's all. Okay, we'll move on to music boosters. All right, music boosters was also last Tuesday. Um and uh I want to welcome the new middle school and high school orchestra teacher. She's also going to be teaching at um orchestra HCE
098and Edertton. Um Miss Danaly Shank. Um, there's going to be a fundraiser for the music boosters on Saturday, October 18th. It's an e-waste collection fundraiser and it will be at House of Harley on Leighton. So, um, any e-waste or scrap metal. Um, it says nearly any metal will be accepted. No tube TVs or appliances containing freon, but um, there should be some more information on their site. it looks like in the future. Um there's going to be a social event following the Thursday, December 11th high school choir and orchestra concert. Um and sorry, I was just trying to look through some of their notes. Oh, their super fan shirts are still available and the price has been reduced to $5. So you can get your music booster um super fan shirt for $5. and Music
099Boosters would love more volunteers and to have more music parents involved. So, they meet on the third Tuesday every month. And so, their next meeting is going to be on Tuesday, October 21st at 6 PM. Sounds good. Move over to Greenfield Park and Recreck. Our meeting is scheduled for this Thursday. However, our director had a conflict in schedule, so he moved it up to this past Thursday. I was not able to attend, but I did submit a written report. Sounds good. Uh, Gail's Corners Park and Wreck. I have nothing to report. Okay. Uh, Karen is out for SWSA. Do we have anything for that? Yeah, I attended the Karen and I attended the S SWSA meeting. Uh, really there there were two big parts. one just kind of talking about communicating tax levy stuff, which
100John did tonight, so we did a nice job. And then we got an update on what what it's looking like for the legis, you know, the upcoming state legislative session. Um really the the the overall consensus is it's gonna not even though both both of the parties kind of have come out with their talking points or or whatever. Um the the overall consensus is it's going to be a pretty quiet legislative session here. uh th this time before the you know the turn of the year um they encouraged all of us to if if legislators come to us and ask for our opinion on stuff say well I'd like to I'd like to see can you pay hand me a a written copy of your proposal or your bill rather than just putting a bunch
101of stuff out there into the universe. So, just an FYI, if you would get a contact, uh, that's a great way to say, "Yeah, share the bill with me and I'll read it and I'll give you feedback on that rather than, you know, put stuff out there that who knows what's going to happen." So, that was what they encouraged us to do there. Um, other than that, there there wasn't a ton uh that was reported. All right. Thank you. We'll move on to five announcements. Does anybody have any announcements? Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to six, meeting debrief. Does anyone have anything for a meeting debrief? Yes. Just thank you everybody for tonight. It was really wellrun and really appreciate all the extra work that everybody put into it. Sounds good. Okay, we move
102on to seven. Do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? So move. I'll second it. All in favor? I oppose.