2025.08.25 School Board Meeting

001Open meetings law. Do I have a motion to adopt the agenda? It's a move. Second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I opposed. Agenda is adopted. Uh C, attendance. Looks like everyone is here today, so we're good on that. And we'll move on to D. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. Please stand at your pledge algiance 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. Do we have any public comments? Correct. Carl, are you commenting tonight? No problem. All right, we'll move on to three consent agenda. Does anyone want to pull an item? C. Okay. And I'm going to pull D. Okay. Any others? Um, I guess should I pull E since I wasn't here?

002Is that meeting right? Yeah, I will pull you. Okay, so C, D, and E are being pulled. Do I have a motion to approve 3 A, B, 3 A and B? F and F and F. Sorry. So moved. I'll second. All in favor? Opposed? Seeing none, A, B, and F are approved. We'll go on. We'll start with uh C. Um I just wanted to thank Beth um at the high school. It was really disheartening, almost heartbreaking to see her name on the resignation list. I believe she's had 25 years. Sorry, I ran to my car to get my glasses, so I'm out of breath. I didn't expect to talk this fast, which is terrible for me to admit that I'm out of breath running to my car. I'm seeing that now. Um, but uh it's

003just really heartbreaking to see a veteran teacher. So, I wanted to thank her. Uh she taught my as a parent, she taught my older two girls who have very different learning styles very different learning needs and she had success with both of them which can be really difficult still um scaffolding support for them and maintaining a high level of rigor. So much so that my second daughter just passed her AP Lang exam and both of us really thank Miss Fogle for that. So it's heartbreaking to see it go. Um as many of you know I've been very outspoken champion of teacher retention here um in the district. It's something that I um feel very strong about. One of the reasons why I ran. So, the last few consent agendas to see veterans coming in and

004resigning, to me, it feels like there's something we have to um get to the bottom of. Um I heard something today at work that I thought was interesting. Somebody said, "If we don't get to the root cause of a problem, it's like a boat with a leak and we take a pail and we keep trying to shovel out water." And it may take a while, but eventually that boat is going to sink. And I'm I I worry that that's where we're headed here with staff retention, especially when I'm looking at veterans because the research tells us over and over and over veteran teachers make a difference in the system, not only in the classroom, but they build continuity within the system. They help relationships. They hate I I don't want to cut you off, but

005um we're just discussing personnel recommendations, not hiring decisions or strategy. So, if you could keep it towards Okay. Thank you. that topic, please. Thank you. I appreciate that. Um so, I just want to say again, she's on the consent agenda, so I'm addressing that directly and I'll follow up definitely with um an information request. and we have exit interviews and that data is going to give us some great patterns and trends to look at. Thank you, Jesse. I'd just like to echo the thanks for uh Beth's service, her many, many years of service to Whitell High School in the English department. Um like Rachel, my two older sons benefit from having her as a teacher and we certainly appreciate um all of her work to help all of the hundreds of students that have come

006up through Whitnol and were in her classes. Um I'm sad that my youngest son who is going to take AP doesn't have her this year. I'm sure he'll be in good hands. Um, but I do want to echo um the legacy um here at Whitnull of our long-term teachers and that dedication of decades of service to our students. So many thanks to Beth and best wishes. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve 3C? Some move. I'll second. Oh, yep. You take it. All in favor? Opposed? Seeing none, 3C has approved. Okay, moving on to 3D. Uh, just pulling it because I wasn't here, so I will abstain. Although I reviewed the meeting and reviewed the minutes and they look like they match, but that's our practice. So, I'm abstaining from D. Okay. Do I

007have a motion to approve 3D? So move. I'll second. All in favor? I opposed. Seeing none, uh that is six in favor, one abstension. Okay, moving on to 3E. Same situation. I was not here uh for last meeting. I also reviewed the minutes and um I'm in agreement with everything, but I'm abstaining from voting on that. Sounds good. Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve 3E? So moved. I'll second. All in favor? I I oppose. Seeing none, uh that is six in favor and one abstension. And that is all for consent agenda. We will move on to four reports and presentations. 4A 2025 summer school report with the building assistant principles. Yeah, thanks for our assistant principal for coming in tonight. um they do a lot of our work with summer school. So

008um I'm going to share summer school. They're also going to share um 4B the behavior report uh with you all afterwards because that's uh really in their wheelhouse as well. Uh you might notice our principles aren't here tonight. We since our assistant principles came tonight to do the presentations, we gave the principles a night off. They were quite appreciative. Obviously with the school year starting everybody's running around pretty pretty tired. So thank you these guys for coming and uh turn it over to to you. Thank you. All right. Um so getting rolling into the course categories uh kept similar format to last year but I'll just review them just for your further understanding of when we reference uh these types of courses. So we have our exploration courses where students these are the fun courses

009students uh can take. They're week long uh just to kind of um engage them and spark interest in their learning of various topics. uh followed by our enrichment courses uh which are offered to our students that often undergo tier two and tier three interventions throughout the school year. So an extension in those areas of reading and math that they need. So an extra 3 weeks and they're required th that those do not change week to week. That is the expectation of once they're in them they're in them for the entirety of the three weeks. um extension courses uh which reference our credit recovery for those students that didn't quite pass a course to get that recover that semester's worth of credit along with our extension of taking um additional coursework to uh make ground on

010credit so they can I believe this year was PE and uh team sports or was it P9 and team sports yeah was the were the only options uh that were available this year um as well as our entrance courses um transition to middle school um as well as kindergarten uh to get those kids a jump start and get them more comfortable in the buildings. We also ran a program too uh with our music at the middle school for orchestra and band um just to get you know additional practice and touch point with those instructors. And then moving on to the next slide, the the exploration courses. As I stated earlier, these were oneweek courses. Um we increased that this year our format was a little different. Instead of only offering two courses uh per day,

011we offered three feedback from uh teachers and parents that that was a little long for the littles uh to break up that you know 3hour time frame into uh so we decided to break it up into 70-minute courses. And uh so in essence, we had to come up with uh nine new courses in addition to the ones that previously ran. Those were all staff generated. Uh we threw communication out to our staff to propose courses. We read through those proposals. And then obviously if we were all in agreement, those were the ones that were printed in the course guide. And then obviously student enrollment dictates whether or not those courses run. And uh 21 total exploration courses ran and catered to specific grade bands. So you could have the same course but it was offered

012you know from kindergarten to second third to fifth and then the middle school range. Um our KA enrichment courses ran for um the entire three weeks. So families of students identified as needing additional support in the areas of math andor reading were contacted and encouraged to sign up for all three weeks. Um those courses had titles such as math boost and reading boost. And the idea was to um support our students um that most need that help throughout the summer. Um help close some gaps in learning um and prevent summer learning loss. Um we also had enrichment courses that ran uh these courses I should say ran during the same time frame as the exploration courses. So students had the opportunity to take additional exploration courses if they were only in I I believe this

013would have said in one enrichment course. To piggyback on what Ryan shared, another advantage of having three courses each day is that even if a student needed math boost and reading boost, they still had a third time slot in which they could take um an extension course or an exploration course, something that they found to be fun um and look forward to going to summer school every day. Uh and then we also at every level ran a form of an entrance course. These happened throughout the summer. Um so at Edertgerton and Hail's Corners, we ran intro to kindergarten which was a week-long course um that was very very successful. You could see um the stress and anxiety of the students and maybe more so the parents kind of go down um each day as the

014week went on. Um a lot of students were bummed on Friday to hear they would not be coming back on Monday, but would instead have a few more weeks off before they would resume the school year. Um, middle school also ran two different two-day sessions of transition to middle school um, to help our fifth graders going up into sixth grade get ready. And then the high school ran algebra boosters for students entering 9th grade as well as freshman readiness and uh, hosted a tailgate before the football game on August 22nd. So, attendance was really strong at that and it seemed like the students had a good time. Um, we also had AP readiness for ninth graders taking AP, help me out there, Human geography. Uh, and we had several different camps such as band, orchestra,

015and trades. Um, so lots of different learning opportunities for students of all levels throughout the summer. At the high school, we um had a credit recovery. We had 51 students who were involved in credit recovery for this summer. 78% of those students passed at least one quarter, I'm sorry, one course in credit recovery earning um a half a credit and then 20% went on to earn another class and so they worked really hard for those weeks and they just kind of kept plugging along at home and got two classes done. Uh we had 53 students enrolled in PE. So they could either take PE9 or individual team sports one. And 96%age of those students pass PE. If they didn't pass, it was an attendance thing. Overall, our um summer school enrollment was 657 students, which

016was down a little bit from 739 in 2024. Um, our K8 increased enrollment by 10% and our 912 went down 40%. And that is because we had a few less people in credit recovery, but also we didn't do the large peer mentor course that they had done in the past. This was my first summer. So last summer, I guess they had 90ome students in a peer mentors course and we did not do that this year. We instead for our freshman uh transition course had volunteers. because we had the NHS kids and the student council kids do it. So, they didn't quite get put into that count. So, that's why it's down to 40%. Um, and the enrollment in 2023 for KA was 377 and 124 was 410. Just information. And then we do send out

017a survey to the parents to try to get some feedback on what the experience was like at the summer school. Um, we did have over 400 students that were enrolled, but unfortunately we only had 78 parents respond, but it's 78 parents that responded. So we need to be able to get that feedback and listen to that um and then use that as we guide our conversations for for future planning. So 99% of the st parents who completed the survey said they had a good or okay summer school experience with us. Um they indicated their child were they were courses that interested them. Um and that we did have 95% of the parents say that they uh did have clear communication uh from the district about summer school. some of the more specific feedback um top

018courses and some of these were actually some of our newer ones like Genius Hour was new this year, coding was new this year and both of those were based on feedback we had heard from previous years. So, as Ryan mentioned when we were recruiting teachers to teach, we were asking them, hey, we've heard from kids and from parents that were they're really interested in these kinds of courses. Think about these types to create for our students for the summer. Um high praise for the theater camp. If you were able to come and watch the performance, that's what they worked on in the last day. even a lot of our summer school courses went over to enjoy and they had a good audience there for their production of Lion King. Um, we did hear that the

019start time was a little bit earlier uh than they had hoped. Our elementary usually starts about 8:30ish, so that 8 a.m. was a little bit of an earlier wake up call for some of our our younger students, but they made it there. Um, the booster course recommendations, we did a tiered in invites this year. So, we did that tier three first and then once we saw how many students could um enroll from there, then we opened it up to tier two. So, that's one of the things we're looking at next year. Do we do um staggered invites or do we just do it all at one time to help with that communication? Um hoping for some more communication from teachers, just intros and updates. Um again, looking at how we'll structure courses. Um when it's

020one week every week and you're switching, um how much that communication can happen. Um so, there were some confusions and difficulties during scheduling. Again, that's feedback we take as we plan for future years. And then pickup process. Uh carine is always one of those things on the list, but um we're looking at how we can make that as efficient as possible. We'll continue to look at that. Um and they were happy with Friday of courses that we were able to offer students this year. And then transportation, we do offer the bus. Um most of the students do not take it. We did have an average of 59 readers riders a week for the bus. Um but there's just common stops. So parents still have to get their kids to those stops and then they get

021picked up from the bus to there to come here. So, most parents said that the reason they don't use the bus is because it's just easier schedule-wise to drop off kids or they would use the bus if it was neighborhood pickups like during the school year. Um, but otherwise, they got there. That's all our school questions. What is genius hour? Um, so genius hour is they are given a specific um challenge and in this case this year it was kids creating an arcade. So, they share a story about a 10, 11 year old students who actually created his own arcade, entire arcade out of cardboard and had the neighborhood show up and they all came and and participated in this arcade. So then she then asked the students to have that same challenge of could

022you create an arcade game and all you have is cardboard, duct tape, spoons, um you have limited materials, but what can you create? And what they can create is amazing. I mean, they have whether it's ski ball or ways to put things in cups and flip things over and um they have prizes that you can win or tickets that you can earn, but it's all 100% creativity and creation of here's what you have. So, make something happen. And it's amazing the different numbers of things that can be created just from those same materials. Project based. Yep. 100%. Yep. Cool. Thank you. Yeah. And then on the last day of that week, uh they invited everybody to come play the games. So, first of all, thank you for organizing this. This is one of my favorite

023presentations that we get every year for summer school. And I want to thank all of the teachers who took the time to commit to teaching summer school classes. Um because summer is a precious time, but this time for kids to be connected to school and have these enrichment opportunities and academic opportunities is so meaningful. Um just a couple of comments. One, I wanted to ask about marketing. Um, I'm a little bit competitive and so when I see other districts come out with their summer school cataloges, I'm like, where's Whitell's catalog and what are we doing this summer? So, I'm always curious to know when that catalog comes out and is made available to families so that kids can, um, register for classes. And then, um, yeah, just great job. I love to see the measurements,

024too. I've asked in the past about can we track kids from what they're learning in summer school, kids who are identified for help in summer school, can we track them into the fall to see the meaning of having that extra summer school time. We're going to hope that it made a difference for them and again thanks to all the teachers who took time to do it. Thanks for organizing this program. Absolutely. Um, so we took care um took part in summer school this year. It's our first year. Um, and I wanted to just say it was really wellrun. Um, everybody was out there lending hand. Jennifer was out there every single day. She was running her bed off doing extra things. Um, I saw you guys there. Um, and it really was a lot of

025fun offerings as well. We did board games and I liked that there were options not just for academics but for like for especially my son for social opportunities because that's something that is really important for kids to learn as well and especially in the summer. So um we did board games and summer fun and nothing else. Um but it was just a really good um well-run wide variety of options and a good selection and the catalog did get emailed to us relatively early so that was that was nice too. Is that a question? I can't remember. Um is one of the transportation stops from the HCE um that program. Okay, good. I was just thinking because I know a lot of kids participate in the HC um summer summer wreck program. I was thinking that

026would be an opportunity. So that's great. Yeah, that's one of our busier stops. And then the wreck program at Edertton has um more of a a walking school bus, if you will. their staff comes over and then they walk back together to Edertton. So, those are two of our bigger groups of kids. Great. I was curious if were you? Thank you. I was curious if there's a what was the difference between when you say camps and then like the courses cuz I was curious about the band and the orchestra and the trades. Is it a different length or time that they get or I can speak to the trades camp. So, the trades camp is um a this past time I think it was a one day or a two-day thing and they just go

027on basically field trip. I think it went to the carpenter trade center and a couple places like that. Okay. Um so it's called camp. Yes. Because it's not for that it wasn't in the building and it wasn't like um 8 to noon like the rest of the day was. Okay. Is that all ages or Well, um they had to be a junior at least to go to. So, it kind of limited the number of kids that qualified, but um I think they still had a a decent crowd. Okay. Thank you. And to clarify with the music, it ran outside the what we call traditional summer school. So, it was after that second week in August and that was specifically geared. It wasn't the full range of 8 to um 11:30. It it ran for a

028shorter condensed time like I I believe it was like 90 minutes. depending upon the instrument you were in, they tried to group the instruments together. Oh, okay. Okay. Uh the only other question I have is um with that 40% decrease from uh 9 through 12, um which area mainly affected that that drop? So the year before last year, I wasn't here, but they had a peer mentors course that had 90ome students in it and they used those students to help facilitate the freshman orientation tailgate. We didn't have to tell you that day. This year what I did instead is I had volunteers from NHS and student council and Dela and we didn't train them per se the same way that peer mentors took like a one day summer school course. on the activities the freshmen

029were going to do. So that's the big difference. That was like 90 some kids and then we did have about nine or 11. Dana just showed me few less kids in cardry. Okay. So was there so there really was no decrease in like the um PE9. No. No. We had two full sections of PE9 and one of individual team sports. That's awesome. Yeah, it was. And they worked very hard. Every time I went down there, they kids were huffing and puffing and sweating. Granted, only one of the gyms has air conditioning at the moment, but um they those um PE teachers did an amazing job. One was in district and two were out of district and they worked those kids really hard and did some writing and they did a great job. Great. Thank you.

030Yeah, I was just curious about the um the switch from the peer mentors and um I guess your thoughts on how it went this year with I mean I guess it hasn't school hasn't started yet so you'll learn more as you go I guess but so last year I wasn't a part of it obviously I wasn't hired yet. Um, so this year I was a part of the freshman orientation. That was my first day of work. So I saw how it went and um, this year we just pivoted a little bit because the pure mentor program was um, a previous employees thing. I think it was Russ's thing. And so there wasn't any communication to me what that even looked like. So um, it wasn't something that was like developed throughout the year. So instead

031we just did um the student council NHS and DECA kids and um I trained them throughout the summer by sending them stuff and they sent me things back and um you know they came a half hour early and we went through what the building tour was going to be like. We also had uh four varsity football players come and do a little Q&A at the beginning of the freshman orientation and it was like Tanner and um I have Morehouse like starters. So that was really really neat for the freshman to see. So I just kind of switched it up with I guess how it was you know structured but it's still leaders in the building of kids. Feels good. There are no other questions. We will move on to 4B 2024 2025 student behavior report.

032Still us. So, uh, we've come the last couple of years and have shared some behavior data. So, we're back again, um, to see and share the the information we have from the last three years and any trends, um, that you see across our our buildings. And then, um, this is data that we also use as we determine goals in our strategic plan to see what um, our students might need and related to student engagement and action steps that we might need to take. So, first we wanted to start by highlighting what we're doing in our buildings to build that positive school culture. Um at Edertton we have the restorative conversations and actions that we have students partake in uh when things should happen. Uh we use PBIS so that we can have that consistent vocabulary

033and expectations throughout the building. Um Falcon Way award is something that students can earn from any adult in the building. It can be because uh they did something kind and nobody asked them to. It could be they've been working on this reading goal for the last three weeks and they they finally achieved what they've been working towards. Um so uh we can have helping out the cafeteria, anything. and any adult in that building can can give that award away. Um we are using our data driven um conversations. Um every month grade level teams go through their grade level data um and set goals for what they want to work on with their classes and students for the following month. Um and then we come back to that to see how those goals were achieved. Uh

034we do have social emotional learning lessons that we have time for during the day. Also morning meetings and community circles which helps build that relationship across the building um and within their classrooms. We do have student council and they have taken um more and more. You got to see them come and present at the end of the year last year to share all the leadership opportunities that they have. Um something new we're trying this year as an action step in our strategic plan is uh providing calming zones out on the playground. So a lot of our students know how to use calming tools and calming corners when they're in the classrooms, but outside it's unstructured and it's a lot happening and a lot of competitive play. Um, and uh, we just want to be able

035to remind students that no matter where you are, calming techniques can be used and the problem solving process can be utilized um, outside by themselves. So, uh, we've created banners that actually lead them through the process. So, we're going to be trying that this year to see how that works out. And then we have the SFAP program that our district offers our families and students. Um, we collaborate and borrow and learn a lot from one another. So, I'm excited to hear how the calming zones go and we may borrow that in the future. Um but highlighting just a few different things at Hail's Corners Elementary. Um we have uh virtual assemblies to celebrate student of the month. So each month we highlight a different character trait and teachers nominate students who are um great examples

036of that character trait and then Miss Comus and I do a virtual assembly and all the classes tune in from their home room. We start start the day like that once a month. Um we also do daily student shoutouts over the announcements. So when we do the pledge and announce other things, we will shout out students who were nominated by staff um for being great examples of our Falcon 4 um being respectful, responsible, safe, and kind. Um we have a student leadership committee um that is uh led by our team of specialists um and they um somewhat similar to student council. they they give a voice to the student body and help plan um events and different activities throughout the school. Um and we also uh make sure to take time for community circles on

037a daily basis and uh social emotional learning lessons um on at least a weekly basis at Hails Corners Elementary. um at the middle school and a lot of these are going to be repeats but uh the restorative conversations and actions especially in the wake of verbal you know arguments that often occur cafeteria hallway and playground as you can imagine at the middle school are the hot beds for that. Um so working with our staff on continued active supervision being out in the hall recognizing those situations and then bringing the kiddos down to the office if further conversation is warranted. Um no you cannot text your guys each other the resolution. we are actually going to sit down and talk about and go through and have those uncomfortable conversations. Um, PBIS, uh, we really focused last

038year at the middle school on having more schoolwide celebrations because there is a lot to celebrate. Uh, but also having the students reflect on the their the behavior data. So, every quarter we would go through by grade level. I would virtually chime in to all the student flights, which is kind of similar to home room, and discuss how each grade level was doing, kind of share the sentiments of what the teachers are observing, and then what the data is showing us and where we need to tighten up a little bit. And that would often then dictate then our refreshers that we would have to do with the kid kids because obviously throughout the year, multiple times, those expectations always need to be revisited for consistency purposes. Um, in addition to that, we have our student

039council that plans all of our dances and often acts as a student voice. So, we often lean on them to kind of gauge what we want to focus these celebrations on or the messaging behind those. And as well as our SFAP program that we have with the partnership through Aurora for those students that might be struggling with other issues. And at the high school, similar restorative conversations and actions. Um, when we see students for discipline, uh, we always focus on that part. Um, Falcon time lessons are lessons. Uh, every Monday all of our students go to their home room Falcon time and there is an ACP orCAL lesson for them there. Uh, the past year we had a behavior management team which is now going to morph into our BLC this coming year just to

040sort of align everything. But our behavior management team met once a month and we came up with just a lot of really good ideas. One of them being the Whitnell WOW award. The Whitwa award is like our version of student of the month, but it's for students who might not normally get an award. They're not necessarily an academic award. It's for responsibility, perseverance, integrity, respect or kindness. And teachers can nominate any student for any of those categories. And that became uh quite a big hit pictures and um kids are really excited. Teachers wrote a little blurb. Um so that worked out to be really well or really good. Um we had a teacher hall duty duty pilot program. So um one of the duties instead of a study hall, teachers would spend walking the halls

041and checking in on other teachers and also checking in on our students who might be mislocated. Um and so as a cultural thing, it it was just good more adults and eyes on the building when things can get really busy and teachers are teaching in classrooms. Um, we had a really fun Falcon time inter mural basketball tournament. So, uh, that was merit-based. You could not be involved in the the tournament if you had failing grades or been in trouble and things like that. So, it was a really positive thing. And, um, it was during Falcon time and there was crowned a champion and our tech guy classes made trophies and we had t-shirts and that was really fun. Of course, we have SFP as well. So in talking about one way we build the positive

042school culture. We are really talking about three key areas. We have common expectations in the district. So we make sure that everybody staff, students and families have a shared understanding of what behavior looks like at Whitnell. Um and that creates consistency consistency around the district. Um if there's a challenge that arises, we focus on repairing the relationships, repairing the relationships with each other, students and with teachers on occasion as well. Um and then at the same time, consequences are going to be fair. They are important and um consistent and aligned with those notions. And that is sort of building the school culture in those two ways. Couple of points to keep in mind. Um, kids and adults make mistakes while we are learning. Um, our students brains are still growing and developing. So, it's important

043that our responses include consequences. Um, but also compassion and reteing as well. Our students are still learning how to self-regulate, communicate their needs, and grow um as individuals um and become the type of young adults that we want in our community someday. Um, and another reminder that behavior is a communication tool. As educators, we work to find the function of behaviors and then create plans that provide instruction and support to best meet students unique individual needs. So as we look at the data from year to year, um our groups of students change, um trends in behaviors change, but um just a reminder to all of us that that these are children and they are learning and growing and we're supporting them through that. And in addition to, you know, consistently teaching those behaviors with those

044students, it's important to have frequent conversations with our staff about the accuracy and coding those behaviors and what those behaviors specifically look like because we do have a lot of definitions, you know, between disruption, disrespectful, defiance, what what what do all those look like and how do we appropriately code them so we can, you know, attack it in a manner and communicate it more importantly to the parents in a manner when we're seeing these behaviors. And one initiative we're really working hard as APs this year is our student contact log on getting teachers to pick up the phone or send that email on those precursing behaviors and log it so that they ident you know they verify that they have reached home that this is a you know a concern or something that may need

045to be worked on just so we we as educators and administrators can better see those trends and you know more proactively intervene if that is needed. Um just to note when looking at the data um one student could have multiple incidents uh coded you know based on one infraction uh based on the behaviors noted. So sometimes one student can account for multiple behavior referrals given you know any given incident and also the difference between majors and minors. U minors are more teacher managed or supervisor managed behaviors. If something happens on the playground, there's a talking to maybe some like consequences or sitting out a little bit at recess. That's managed by the adult. Uh majors, you know, often constitute a removal or a timeout in the office more so a conversation with an administrator due

046to the severity of the incident or you know just the fact that they need a little cooling down period mostly due to unsafe behaviors. So we are going to go through the individual school data. So we did um provide the last three years. Um so looking at Edertton we have our total enrollment. Um core 4 is not in there. So this is K5 and above. Um so you can see the data from year to year. We continue to work with teachers on documenting the behaviors um and making sure that we are consistent with that across the building whether it's a teacher, a PAR um or any staff member that's in the building. And on side you can see um we are still one of the ways we continue to keep working on our positive school

047climate is our our number one area the last three years has been that physical aggression. Um and it's kids don't always have the words of what they're going to say. They're going to show us before they can tell us. Um either that they're upset or frustrated or or have another need that needs to be met. Um so within our strategic plan, we continue to look at action steps and how we can help kids find the words for the actions to let us know what they may need. And we've got the um HC incident percentages from the last three school years. Um you can see the the total enrollment uh remaining relatively steadfast. What's um noteworthy though is last year um 88.4% of our students had zero or one incidents. So that includes majors and minors.

048So the vast majority of our students are doing a really really great job following expectations. Um there's another 7.85 about 8% in there um with two to five incidents. Those are students that are um making um mistakes not always the same mistake but making a handful of mistakes and learning as we go. Um and then we do have a group of students 3.75% um with six or more incidents. So those are students that um I end up spending a lot of time with. We end up putting in a lot of work to support those um students and the hope is that throughout the year and over the course of multiple years um that they learn and grow um and become better able to follow our schoolwide expectations. And then at the middle school obviously uh

049the three-year trend as well and echo what Ben says. um at the middle school nearly 74% of our kiddos with only 0ero to one and that one was probably most likely you know a tech violation of some kind of inappropriate Chromebook use or being on their cell phone that that is a a high ticket item in terms of a minor at the middle school. Um and then going down uh roughly 1% in each of those next two categories um you know something to be celebrated as well. Um, moving to the specific incidences that that required suspensions and often my philosophy and I'm sure my peers here would agree. Um, we don't take that lightly. Removing a kiddo from the educational environment. Um, it it is often times due to, you know, they're being a danger

050to themselves or others and need that time out of the educational environment. So, um, the violations have been pretty set throughout the past 3 years. uh the the physical fighting, physical aggression, and or just overall major inappropriate behavior in that learning setting that gets students removed from the classroom. And at the high school, we're also very proud that almost 84% of our students have zero to one instances. So again, the vast majority of our students are not involved, not even with the technic violation, which is difficult to do when you're a teenager and have a cell phone in your pocket. So we're really proud of that. um our two to five incences down to 13.18 and our six plus incendences is all the way down to three which we're really proud of with our restorative

051conversations and things we're hoping um as work well. When you look at the specific incidences um abuse of language popped up as number one and we took it very seriously we started one of our building goals is building a respect leadership group. So we will take that piece of data along with our um student survey and our staff satisfaction survey and we're building a whole we built a whole goal around it. It's our goal number three I believe and um we will be working really hard on that this year. So, as far as next steps, um Cindy touched on this a little bit, but um we had our staff back today and we had a chance to share our strategic goals and action plans. And all four buildings, each of us, uh has at least

052one annual strategic goal related to behavior. Um they're a little bit different in their specifics, but we have plans based on things like problem solving, uh student sense of belonging, community circles, and more. So, we'll be building on all of these things throughout this school year. U, we'll continue to utilize data and collect what we have in our EP campus. Um, talking with students, talking with families, talking with teachers to see what our building continues to need so that we can best meet the needs of our kids and and put those supports into place and individual plans as needed. Um, and provide that instruction, other supports that will help them be successful and be able to communicate what they need and resolve those conflicts when they come up um, in a respectful and safe manner.

053and also to continue to collaborate with our building leadership team uh to utilize those student surveys. Um students really feel validated when they know the staff has taken the time to read it. We can speak to their concerns and pose potential solutions often making them potentially a part of that solution, taking their input in that. And like Ryan mentioned before, um making sure that the incidences are being documented properly. Um we will continue to work on training our teachers, especially our new teachers, on um the expectations and what that documentation looks like. And last but not least, um we will continue to provide resources to families. Um just as we collaborate with families around academic needs, um we also collaborate and partner with our families around um behavior. And so, uh, in addition to our

054administrative team, we have an outstanding, uh, student services staff, um, team of counselors and social workers and school psyches, um, a lot of outstanding individuals that work with our families to help make sure our students needs are met so they can, uh, do a great job of following our schoolwide expectations. Thank you. All right, questions? Sarah? Um, first I'll just say that, um, I really love that our trends are going down and I love that we are doing restorative conversations. Um, I've always been really impressed on how our kids behave and how you guys address those. Um, I do have a question about PBIS. Um, two parts to it. One, do we use an actual PBS program or is it more homegrown? Um, and then also like as we move through time, we learn more

055and grow. And I know there's been more and more criticism about PPIs methods um at war behavior. And so I'm just wondering if that's if how it's being done is um evolving. Like I for people who don't know it used to be more like sticker chart or like color charts and um there's rewards based things and there's just a lot more research about how rewards affect behavior and maybe aren't the best um which is why I love that we have to restore it as well but I'm just curious about those pieces. Yeah, I can I can speak for our building. Um we do um follow a PBIS program. We do have an external coach and an internal coach. Um, and we do our best to stay upto-date on um, practices and guidance from PBIS. Um,

056we throw around acronyms a lot. So, it's positive behavior interventions and supports. Um, we um use uh many many of the of the tools. It's one of the tools in our tool belt. So, um, we have tier 2 supports, things like check-in, checkout, um, and mentoring, um, things to help students who are struggling to follow our schoolwide expectations. Um, we also, uh, do at Hills Corners Elementary, we have falcon feathers, um, that we hand out to individuals, but then we also have class falcon feathers, um, that a a home room can earn. Um, and so, um, classrooms have the opportunity to earn celebrations in that way. Um but then one of our our biggest focuses is earning schoolwide celebrations. And so um there may uh for some students receiving that falcon feather, you know, Sarah,

057here's your falcon feather may be a great motivator, but for others um they have realized that like the way we earn the really good thing is by me helping Cindy do the right thing and by me helping Kim do the right thing. And eventually we end up with a form of of positive peer pressure in a way. um and modeling the way that we should do things within our schools. Um so we have a large emphasis on our schoolwide celebrations. Um and I think that helps not become over reliant on the the exttrinsic motivators of the here's here's a feather here's a feather here's a feather um earning the collective good for the whole building. Well, and I worry too about the kids who really struggle and maybe don't ever or very rarely get a

058feather and how that affects then their mental health and self-esteem just because some kids can't always control that. And that was part of our effort. Each of the buildings touched in one way or another, but part of our effort with um targeting different expectations or different character traits each month is you may not be a stellar student um but maybe you're really good at being safe on the playground. And so you may get nominated as student of the month for being safe and following those expectations. And so um we do at least in our building we track who has been student of the month for different character traits. Um, and we do our best to highlight students that that maybe need a pat on the back, that haven't earned recognition, um, and need some encouragement

059and affirmation. Thank you, Karen. So, first of all, thank you for being the grown-ups. Um, I think those positive grown-up models are so important and thank you for doing the hard work of helping with behavior because I know it's not easy um to hold kids to those high standards. I know that having high standards is part of the theme for this year, which I'm really very excited about. Um, thank you for backing up the teachers when they need help in their classrooms because we know that teachers need administration to back them up um when they're struggling. So, thank you for doing that. Um, I had a question about communicating to families. So, um, as I was, as you're going through this, I was thinking, one, my kid better be doing the right thing, and two,

060if my kid's not doing the right thing, I want to hear about it. So, I wanted to ask about your communication with families. Um, how does that happen every time that there is an incident, a major or a minor? Yes, that's fantastic. And because that partnership um is is so very important. So, thank you for putting all the time and effort into doing that. I feel like I had one more thing but um but that was the m have a great 25 26 school year. You're like I don't mind if we're seeing that we're doing discipline because the kids need it to learn. Um discipline is love. So um you need to do what you need to do to make your school one right. So thank you. So I heard you say a lot about

061devices you know the zero to one and king. So and and a lot of districts are getting very restrictive with devices. So my question to you is is our devices policy does it support you? Does it need to be changed? Um you're on the ground level. We we we learn from you. Right. So for at the high school um we have it's mostly a classroom managed behavior. So for example our freshman academy no devices. Kids walk in they put it in a pocket and it's just not an option for them to even go to it. But an upper level, let's say AP chemistry class, maybe there's a little bit more leniency at their juniors and seniors that might need their device to time a reaction or do something with it. So for us at the

062high school, we don't mandate one way or another, but we support. So teachers, if students are using it inappropriately, like during instruction, um there there's a a tiered level to a tier one is they would take it to the end of the hour, call home. always contact home anytime we have any um discipline situation with kids. Tier two is that the the teacher would keep it for the end of the day. Call home, let parent know I have their child's help, your phone, so their phone so you can't get a hold of them. And then the third tier is uh we keep it in the office for 10 days. So the students Yep. The student walks in, checks it in with me, I lock it up in a pocket. at the end of the day

063they can get it and day they get it back. At the end of the day they get it back. A lot of some parents do though when we call home and they say that's okay I'll just keep it myself for the 10 days and then they lose privileges alto together. Um that one is actually one of the the best tools we have in our toolbox because students use their phones at lunch and they those those kids don't have their phone and their friends have their phone. So um that tends to work really well. But we work on based on a tiered system and supporting our teachers and I I think it works great personally. What about younger? Uh the middle school I can speak to that. Yeah, we have a like a three strike program.

064Students in general, they're not they're allowed to have it before the school day begins at lunch recess and then they can't have it on again till after. So not even during passing time. So it needs to be silenced and out of sight. If a teacher sees it out, even if it's not in use, it a lot of those violations were that or a notification went off in the kids's pocket. Teacher takes the phone. Uh but generally by the third uh strike, it is a week-l long check-in checkout in the office and or uh to Cindy's point, a lot of the parents just opt to keep it at home, but some given their situations on parent pickup or school households, they really need the child to have that phone for the day. So, it just stays

065with us in the office. At the elementary, I we haven't had as as many issues. Yeah. Not going to work at all. Um I would say what we're watching a little bit more is the smartwatches because we see those more often on the younger kids than we see the cell phones. Uh but most of the time I just remind students that if I see it's a distraction for you, then we'll just put it in our locker room because that's not what we're here for today. But u usually after that first warning, most of the time it's it's gone. if we have to have put in the locker ourselves in a contact home and just say this has been more of a distraction toy than it has really been a tool that your child needs in

066order to learn today. So our policy is working. And then the other thing is um I love hearing the consistency throughout our expectations because that's what's going to help us. You know if they're hearing different things at different levels that's not going to work. So I heard consistency quite a bit and I appreciate that. Thank you. And that's really what the main thing of PBIS is. I know there's the incentives and the awards and feel like a lot of times that's what people think of when they think of PBIS but but really really that PBIS is having common language with common expectations across your system. So that's where a lot of our time is spent is the teaching of the expectations the expected behaviors and then what reteing we need to do if those don't

067happen and then we need to celebrate when good things are happening but the main focus is not giving things out. It's really helping me have those that common language across so that when I'm in the library or the classroom or the bus or now I go to the middle school. It's a different building, but it shouldn't be right on all new to learn. Thank you. Yes, sir. Um, I'll build on what Karen and Quinn said and just echo and reassure each of you that, um, I personally do not, you know, react to discipline data because we know kids aren't perfect and that that that intervention helps them do better the next time. So, I just want to start there. So, thank you for for that for that consistency. And it looked in many cases like

068it maybe peaked and then now it's coming down. So there was a calibration year maybe with the kids last year around you know this is the expectation we're going to be consistent across the board and the kids learn and they improve and that's really great. Um, so then my question is, and this is more just my curiosity around um, and a little bit of what Quinn was saying was a great segue, is around calibration across schools and within schools around expectations like a kids going to go into one room and I'm thinking at the high school level. Some teachers are hawks about the phones and some teachers aren't and then across buildings too. just curious about how our system is thinking through that calibration so that kids know from room to room and from building

069to building as they grow into the system how expectations will be handled and that sort of thing. I'd love to hear if there's been any work there any thought there if we already do any of that. Yeah, I think um within well first I'll say across buildings um we did do some work this year um of just looking at one another's student handbooks um and obviously there are certain things that are age appropriate um in one building versus the other but we did our best to um look at the different student handbooks across the board and and just try to have as much consistency as we could um within a building at Hills Corners Elementary um of course we have our student handbook and then um within that we We have our schoolwide expectations, be

070respectful, responsible, safe, and kind. Um, part of setting those clear expectations through PBIS um is having a schoolwide matrix of uh think of like a big anchor chart of um what does it mean to be respectful in a classroom, be responsible in a classroom, um so on and so forth. So there are a lot of a lot more in common within each classroom than there are different. Um now within each classroom one teacher to the next you might um have you know slightly different expectations of what does it sound like to be respectful? Do I expect silence during reading or do I expect level one quiet conversations during reading? Those kind of things. So there's wiggle room within each classroom. Um but overall the the expectations from one room to the next are are quite

071common. Say across the system um we meet every two weeks um to be able to have a touch point like already on our calendar whether it's about assessment or behavior or talk through situations and we call each other whenever we need to have a sounding board. Um but we make sure that we purposely have that time scheduled in to make sure that we can have that consistency. Um we've also done the behavior code review together. um we have a spreadsheet that actually has definitions so that when I'm looking at I'm going to code it this certain way or I'm not quite sure then the first place I'll go to is the spreadsheet where we went through how are we going to define what these behaviors look like what is a physical altercation versus physical aggression

072to make sure that what I'm coding it at um at the elementary level is not going to be different than what it would look like at the middle school so that even those behavior codes are are similar across and if we're still not sure then that's where we call each other and try to make sure we're on the same page and I would say to the middle school level and I'm I don't know going in the secondary. It's just having those calibration conversations with your staff. Yes. And just having when they're in their grade level team meetings, um really hopefully that they're comfortable enough with their colleagues to say, "Hey, when I noticed that you weren't on the hallway, when you're not there and something happens that really, you know, everyone else is in the

073hallway that kind of leaves us hanging out to dry or makes us look like the bad guy when kids are allowed to do this in your room." And you know that's always a work in progress to have those kind of crucial conversations with peers. But certainly um you know if if it's the need for the administration to step in then certainly private conversations are held and it's just related to this is what was agreed upon these are the expectations and just referring them back to you know what we all need to be doing in terms of moving in the same direction. Yeah. At the high school I would just say I mean for me being new last year those by monthly meetings were really helpful for calibrating myself to a new building. Um, but also

074to Ryan's point, yeah, every almost every staff meeting was some kind of calibration on some thing, whether it's cell phones reminding them or hallways or passes, um, those kinds of things. So, we try to make it a point to to not retach, but remind our staff of the expectation. Great. Thank you. I was going to say this ask the same exact question the calibration piece especially among the elementary school like HCE this is what physical aggression looks like and here's um a write up and we review it together and then does it look like this and AC especially across that so I think you answered that with a lot of meetings yeah we all look at the same spreadsheet of definitions um and then have each other on speed dial I'm curious too about examining

075some patterns or trends among like teacher practice data. Just looking for um things like inconsistencies or anomalies that say this happens so much and and maybe we need to follow up with a conversation or some professional development around something like that. Awesome. Definitely like more informally than formally. I'm on a daily basis there are certain teachers that right would need more support in certain areas and u myself and the dean you know take that load on and we'll have a conversation and it's not always even a difficult conversation it's more of like how can I support you I've noticed that you've had multiple cell phone violations like we and we've had to do this what are we going to do to recalibrate your class and kind of going from there so for us the dean

076and I work really closely with teachers when we see patterns like that. Are is there support in place like a professional development that a teacher could take if they're they're struggling with some of those behaviors in the classroom and managing that? Yeah, so the new teachers will have a new teacher mentor. So it's kind of like it's a great battle buddy to go to like I'm seeing this behavior, I need help. Um so that's level one. Um, level two would be I'm observing and noticing something and having a conversation and um, we haven't necessarily gotten to the point where we've had to like go outside of the building for that kind of a thing. U, but at the high school it's a very tightnit group of people. Typically, they go find somebody and be like,

077"This happened. What would you have done?" And we also we do scenarios and calibrate them at staff meetings and and kind of go through scenarios with them and with our new teachers. Awesome. And what about educating staff on like neurodeiverse behaviors that feel may feel threat threatening but are not or that may feel um unmanageable but there's strategies to manage those behaviors. Are they're learning or we haven't done that in the year that I've been here. Um but certainly I'm not totally I don't know everything they did in SEAL lessons for talking times and things like that with kids. Um but as part of our building goal, we are building a comprehensive like respect plan and that is included in there. You know what respect could look like or what might not look like. So

078um that's a great idea. You know like this this is um seems like a offensive behavior but it's really overwhelm ADHD or a child with ADHD that constantly forgets their pencil or taps their pencil. It's not a disruptive behavior. Is there a way like that kind keeping up with with those kinds of trends in Yeah. in responsiveness and restoriveness and Yeah. I think too with our having our parent contact log um we're as APS we're asking all of our teachers to put in the infinite campus contact log every time they contact home and then we can see so if we see that the parent has already been contacted three times for for getting materials or whatever that's a conversation that we can target in the room. So that is another tool that we've added to

079our our repage this year. Awesome. And then we have parameters that could be set up from um infinite campus bringing the information over to educ. And then again when those contacts are made um our student services team reviews that every single week to see who's had those contacts and then let's find out what's happening. And again our communication is a tool. So I'm I'm tapping this or I'm throwing the book for a reason and I can show you before I can tell you what I need right now. but looking for those patterns and then sitting down with the teacher um and the team to figure out what is this child trying to communicate to us and what can we be putting into place to not only support the behavior at the time but to retach

080some other behaviors to show us a different way and a safer way to communicate that need. Wonderful. Thank you. I did have just oh two more things. Uh I just wanted to shout out through this um presentation that you presented data specific data and then immediately you said we're reflecting on this and this is a goal for next year. And so I just really appreciate like that immediate immediiacy viewing the data as a as a tool to help inform next steps and even saying oh we wrote this as a goal immediately. So, I just really appreciate that. And um the calm center, too. I love that idea. I need to adapt one myself. So, we can use it for that back corner. Yes. Yes. I just wanted to say it's not a question, but it's

081just a statement. Um, uh, I was really impressed at the high school with, um, well, just overall listening to what everybody had to say, but personally experiencing how it really felt like a focus on connecting with the student, what the student needed. Um, and so I appreciate the team and so perhaps a student might not be where they're supposed to be and instead instead of just jumping to this is a this is a problem, you're going to get a ride up blah blah, it's maybe trying to understand like why are you not where you need to be, what's going on, how can we help you? And um I just think like having that attitude first um I just want to say thank you for really recognizing that that is like the first step. Um because

082it might just be that the kid needs needs something in that moment. Um and you know maybe it's something where the kid needs something overall and then it's a thing that the support staff can assist with coming up with like a plan. So, um, again with kind of what other people have said about how like there's going to they're kids, they're learning, there's going to be missteps, there's going to be, um, there and there are going to be things that actually need to maybe have like a higher consequence. Um, but I just love the focus um on the positive first of really trying to have that connection, trying to figure out what the issue is, looking at like restorative, how can we um or even just supporting the teachers too, like how can we help

083the teachers that are um maybe managing some of these situations too. So, I just want to say I personally experienced it and um I was really impressed. So, thank you for all that you guys are doing with us. You don't have anything else? Thank you very much for both presentations. Thank you. Have a good night. All right, we will move on to 4C superintendent report. Yeah, I'll go quick here. Uh really um exciting. We've got you can see the boards we put we put in the boardroom here so you guys can see it. Um we have three three different ones. One just highlighting those the one in the the far left over here will be in all of our buildings. Um just kind of what the project is with a few pictures. Then in the

084in the high school we'll have both of those. So we'll get some more of the high school pictures and then at Edertton we'll have that one and that one just so that everybody can see and kind of get excited uh about the the upcoming projects. over here uh behind Quinn and Karen is Bray put this together for it's it's kind of all of the we're still these are still a work in progress but it's all of the finishes uh that we you know that are going up and selected. So those are open to the public if people want to come in and take a look if the board's interested in in looking at some of those things. Uh I know there are questions about colors and things like that uh before. So th those are

085the actual colors that line up with the Whitley yellow or or what whatever we call it. Uh uh the Michigan blue. Uh John's very thrilled with that, but um so is my husband. So unfortunately he loves the colors. It's just the way it goes. But um so those will be up there. So if people want to look at them or see them, we'll we'll we're working Braay's finishing up. They're kind of putting some maps into telling you where all those things exactly are going to be in the buildings. You can see on the the far left one and on the right one there's some arrows so you can see but uh they're working on that for the two mill ones but we just wanted to get those here for tonight's meeting so you can kind

086of get a a visual representation of of what we've been you know working on with them. um Friday the Friday this summer Whitel window uh hit mailed or it got mailed. So it should be hitting mailboxes of all in um of our um residents and not just our school ones but everybody as well as our open enrollment families. Uh we we worked on that this year um where we found out about mid year that our open enrollment folks weren't getting it because they're not residents. Uh so we started uh added them to our to our mailing list. So they're they're getting those as well. So we're excited about that. Um our my esteemed colleagues, the assistant principles um stole my thunder, but we had a August 22nd we had our uh freshman readiness uh kickoff.

087Uh they went to to the tailgate before the football game. Uh so that was a lot of fun. Couple couple updates on projects. The tennis court lighting will be finished by the end of the day on Friday. So, we're excited about that. Uh it's it's actually really bright. U so we're excited about that. There's actually three levels that they can set it to. They're not going to set it to the brightest level. We had it on during the day the other day and it was like, oh my gosh. So, so yeah, the neighbors might be a little bit angry with us about that. Neighbors. So, uh we're see like a national handing. Yeah. Yeah. No. Uh but we're excited about th those because they're uh LED lights as well. So, um they're going to save

088us on, you know, electricity. And we're also exploring putting a a timer on them so we don't just turn them on for 5 hours if there's nobody out there. There's no sense in having them on. Uh and because they're LED and they're new, we can they're off and on pretty quick. um football team kicked off their season against Milwaukee Academy of Science on Friday night with a big win. So that was uh exciting and they're gearing up for a trip over to New Berlin Eisenhower on on Friday. Our boys soccer team tied Elhorn on Friday night and is heading to Greenale this coming Friday. Girls volleyball takes on St. Thomas Moore tomorrow. And then uh our cross country, our girls tennis, our boys volleyball, and our girls swimming. They're all going to be in action

089quite soon. Uh today we hosted the um our August launch, our first day of August launch. We had all of our staff back in our buildings. Uh it was exciting to to see them all. This morning we started with a breakfast and then they they listened they got they got the pleasure or they had to I'm not sure which of listening to me uh for a presentation. And we we started off with you know the the The overall theme of my presentation was this is the year. Uh there's a lot of really cool things and we watch a video called this is the year and then we talk about all the things that we're going to do or planning on doing this year. Uh tomorrow we we have some learning in the morning and in

090the afternoon we have a keynote speaker coming in Dr. Steven Peters. Uh Dr. Peters wrote the book is the book he he he's most known for is called You Know Enough About Me to Teach Me. Uh it's a it's a very it's a great book, but uh he's also done a lot of leadership consulting and so we're excited to have him come in because Dr. Peters when you when you think about like setting up schools where no expect like having high expectations is the expectation. That's what he does. He's gone into these schools where, you know, the the data would tell you and the demographics and everything would tell you, hey, this maybe is going to be a really hard place to see really great results, but he did it. He he's got the figured

091out. So, we're excited to hear his story. Um he he was also recently well recently it's probably like eight or nine years ago featured on um Amazon Prime um show called American High School. So if anybody is bored would like to you know Google that by all means it's a great it's a great watch. Um then of course Wednesday is back to school night from 4:30 to 6:30. Um just real quick final thing I I got two letters in the mail. one uh informing us that Quinn achieved his level four uh status with the Wisconsin Association of School Board. So, congratulations to Quinn. Thank you for your dedication to learning. And then Karen uh received her level three status in the Wisconsin Association of School Board. So, congratulations to Karen. Thank you for um your

092continued growth in that. Uh just as a reminder to the board, I think the WASB region meeting is October 2nd. So that's coming up. So if you're interested in going to that, please please register yourself with your WASB account and then click on their um pay u you know the what what is it? Bill me or Bill me or invoice me and then get the invoice to Jennifer and we'll we'll pay uh for that for you all. Um, so thank you for your your commitment to that. We really do appreciate um the learning that you guys do. That's what I have for you. Thank you. I have a comment. I got the Whit window in the mail today and I got to say I think it was probably the best one we've ever had. I

093was really impressed with the uh student achievement pictures of the student achievement pre Act 10. People were not act 10 APC ACT. Um and the whole thing was really really well done. I I I really appreciate it. One thing was missing though where we talked about the um increase in special education funding. We input some sufficient in there. Okay. And I think you know for a budget hawk Yeah. Um it's and we all we all should talk that way too because it's not 42%. It could be it won't be right. In years past it hasn't been 33 or whatever it be. So it is it is important thing that when we speak or we print something that those words follow that. Yeah. On that note, thank you Quinn. Uh we will you know John's going

094to do his budget presentation and we're going to work on a a talking points bulletin for for you all. It'll be in an update coming up. So you guys have some bullet points. So when you get cornered in the grocery store or wherever we'll have So thank you for the All right. Okay. Thank you. Uh we're moving on to action items 5A policy updates. Do I have any motion to approve 5A? Second. Okay. Just cuz I know the question is coming. No, nothing has changed since uh it was presented last night. Any other questions or discussion? Seeing none. All in favor? Opposed? 5A carries. Moving on. 5B 2025 2026 published budget actually the presentation. Yeah, there. Thank you. Good evening everybody. Um, so we uh presented the uh you can go to the next slide

095please. Uh we we presented the um the preliminary budget or the just went through the July 1 preliminary budget. Uh tonight we're doing the August budget uh which we call the published budget because we're going to once you approve uh this budget or budget tonight um that's what we're going to use for the annual meeting and budget hearing. So we have to do that. We have to get it published in the newspaper prior to the budget hearing and annual meeting. So that's why we do it uh today. I still don't have any of the numbers of the things I didn't have a month ago but I have some better projections. as we went through our audit, which I'll talk about in just a second, but um there's still projections. So, but we do have a

096little bit better numbers. Get the next one. So, the audit did go did go very well. Again, Shelley Wav, our finance manager, does a fabulous job. She's she's a little um picky about what she has done and and making sure that the auditors don't have to do any do as much work which is it does save us money uh for our audit but she's she's really fable. She's a CPA does a great job with that has everything ready to go. So, uh, we're also finalizing a few numbers, but overall, um, the audit went well and we have a pretty good picture of, uh, well, we have a great picture of where we ended last year. Um, that we do use those numbers then to project for forward, but obviously don't have all of the final

097budget yet and we won't until October. Okay, next. I'm looking at the actual budget sheet which she had up there a second ago and it's in your uh it's in the public part of it. What that does is that first column is last year 23 24. It's audited number final just to look at uh to compare. The middle column is this past year 2425 numbers that have not been audited but they are pretty much the final numbers um baring any any major changes from the state or auditors find anything. Uh, and then the far right column is the budget for 2526 that that I have right now projected for that. So, and I do have a mark. I did remember this time to mark them over on the left so you can see which funds

098go in which ones because some of them aren't are overly uh clear. So, uh, yep. Next one. Thank you. Uh, the largest variable or revenue variables are open enrollment. That's one of the largest expense variables, too. We just don't have final numbers. people can still accept or change but we'll know that finalized at after the third Friday uh will be pretty much the final numbers there. Uh along with our membership count uh then our wages and benefits which is a big chunk of our budget. We have a pretty good picture now but we don't have everything final as you know you're still hiring and we're still having people some people resign. So we don't have final numbers uh for all of that and still getting in final um benefits as well for that as uh

099on here. So that's that'll fluctuate a little bit uh when I bring back the budget in October. Uh the final equalized value uh I used 4% originally. We got a better estimate or a better projection of 4.44 and did make that change. Um in there it's not final yet, but it's pretty good. They're pretty close to the projections that they use. So I did change it from back in July. This time there's a 4.44, 44, but then we won't get final state aid um until October 15th. So, uh the budget assumption. So, I am a pro still proposing a balanced budget where fund 10 revenues equal fund 10 expenses. That didn't change. Um I am projecting a 655,000 increase from salaries and benefits from 2425 to to this. That will change a little bit based

100on final numbers that when we finalize those. Uh but for now, that's where I've got it. uh a $310,000 decrease in fund 27. It did increase this past year, but with the 42%, but I'm projecting 40% just like Quinn had mentioned uh because it's uh it's a set pot of money. So, we're we're not going to get 42%, but but I did project 40% which is an increase of the 30.6 I think we got last year. So, I'm I'm projecting that the more state aid or the more special ed aid we get, the less we'll have to transfer over from fund 10 to fund 27. So, I did decrease that about $310,000. Uh once again, uh projecting a significant increase in private school vouchers. Um probably a little overconervative on this one, bumping it up

101to 750, but again, that's kind of my MO is being more conservative and then having good news to share than the other way around. Um, you can see the budget and and so I apologize that's not the greatest the biggest to see but um c can you enlarge that by chance the graph? Thank you. There you go. And then down to the bottom right. Perfect. Thank you. As you can see again the the vouchers continue to go up significantly every year. Um, and and that's the amount of of of per per pupil uh reimbursement that private schools are getting versus way over on the right how much we've gotten in the last two years and how much we're projected to get next year, $325. As you can see, voucher private school voucher numbers are going

102up significantly higher than that. And and that comes out of our revenue limit. So, while we don't pay that, we collect that and then pay it to the state who then disperses it. So those numbers I'm projecting again to continue to go up. Uh the next slide is what I did present in in uh in July, but again makes a couple changes here based on a couple of things. So just where we were sitting uh the other the tax levy talked to PMA and got an updated tax payment amount. So that went up a little bit, but as you can see, uh the projection is with with no state aid is that our total tax levy is going to increase significantly. Um uh and uh as our state aid dropped over $1.5 million from last

103year. So while our revenue limit did go up, we got almost $400,000 in additional revenue limit, we lost state aid. Even though the state aid pot didn't get any bigger, um we actually lost state aid. So So that means we got to ask our local residents. Correct. The revenue is made up of state aid and property taxes. And the revenue limit went up and the one pod uh contribution of state aid actually went down. The only other thing to do for that is in order to get to the revenue limit is increases tax increase the tax. So that increased our projected mill rate by uh by about 24 cents. And again, as you can see on the next slide, um if if all else staying the same, that had we gotten just what we had

104gotten last year, not a penny more of state aid last year, um our revenue limit or I'm sorry, our uh our levy would have decreased by over $100,000 and our mill rate would have dropped to 683. Instead, it's going up to 742. So again, this had nothing to do with the referendum had we just kept balanced on our on our state aid. Um we would have been in in very good shape and not have to ask much for uh taxes. But um because that didn't happen um our both our mill rate and our total overall taxes went up and again had nothing to do with the referendum. Uh so again, yeah. And then so while the sorry my fault um the state didn't add any additional uh any any funding, we we did end up

105getting less. So then um just real quick some information on our fund 39, our debt. So we do have debt payments uh of about 5.25 million. um that'll be pretty much set uh depending on what we decide what you decide to do when we recommend for that last bond issue it or the last two bond issuing. Again, depending on what we decide, we'll have more information about that. Um but but that should stay fairly level there on at the 5.252 million um with with the uh with the principal and payments on the on the two debts that we had already issued, the 14 million and the 14.5 million. So it did go down from last year. here. We paid a little bit more last year, but we had dropped it and that's about where we

106should stay from now on. Uh the fund community service, I am keeping that in there for now. Um we do have uh we this those are what we spent it on this year specifically. Uh the SRO was 50,000. The co-curriculars for the middle school was 67. Uh the tennis courts uh was 15,000. That was for screens and some other maintenance. Um, and then that left the $17,000 fund balance, which I did on purpose because of the tennis lights, which are going to cost us about $120,000. Uh, so next year we'll keep the SR planning on keeping the SRO and middle schools in there and levying enough to cover the middle the lighting corps. I have talked to Todd and he said, just so you know, John, there's more work to be done on the tennis

107courts. They get a lot of use. I don't know how often you drive by, but every time I leave at night, they're they're used. Uh, so he said, there's some cracks and some other things that we need to do. And I said, not this year. So, we're hoping to do that next year if we continue being able to levy for that. So, that's that's the synopsis on that. And then just put in the historical mill rate limit, which would show 2025 is still somewhat of a projection, but I would think we're going to be pretty close to that um versus where we were in the past. As you can see, the 742 is not even not anywhere close to where we uh have been in the past. I mean, it's significantly lower now. There's mill

108rate and there's total tax levy. Um we we've traditionally been since I've gotten here. We've been a focus on the mill raider. Put that out there as part of that and and that's shows a pretty good story of where we've been. So, I think that's it. Sorry, talked a little fast there, but open for some questions. Thanks, John. So, I know you mentioned it on the slide um probably four from the bottom. One more. So, just sort of to put it out there if you can just explain a little bit more around obviously our funding is not we don't set the formula. No district sets their own formula and it's based on an ecosystem of other districts and dominoes and all of that. So, if you could just explain maybe in as layman terms as

109possible um why or how when a pot hasn't changed why we would get more based on things that are happening outside of Whitnol, right? Very good question. And again, um really the big part of that is is we are considered property wealthy. And there's about uh about 40% of the 421 school districts that are considered property wealthy or or more property wealthy, less property poor, depending on how you want to put it. Um and then the other 60% are property poor or not as property rich districts. So it really has to do with the value of your of your property in your community in your school districts. So because we are considered property wealthy um higher um property values, we lose um part of every dollar that we spend, we get penalized by the state

110um in their funding formula. Property poor districts like we'll just say Milwaukee MPS are property poor. They actually the more money they spend the more of the state aid pot they get. So you say, "Okay, well they probably spent about the same as they did last year." Well, I I just looked and there was and I counted up two, four, five, uh, six six districts just just real quickly looking um that passed um either close to 100 million or well over a hundred million dollar operating or capital referendums. Well, that money that they get in operational referendums or capital referendums are money they are spending. So, the more they spend and the more money now they have to spend because they just got an operational referendum or they just passed the capital referendum than last

111year, they're now going to start spending more of that money or that money in those referendum. So, the more they spend, the more they get and they take away from that pot of money. So the more we spend or even if we stay exactly the same, there's a lot now less money in that pot because Marine Park or I'm sorry Milwaukee MPS or Ashkosh or Oakclair or Green Bay pass referendum and are taking more and more out of that pot and significantly more out of that pot. So that's why we're down 1.5 million I think is what it came up to. Phil, but good question. So, thanks for that explanation. And then just um we'll add thanks for your ongoing diligence to you and the team and for keeping us balanced and for explaining and

112um I'll just say I'll appreciate that we'll get some consistent kind of talking points just so we can explain to people. We don't want anyone to feel like the world is pulled over their eyes in any way. And this is a super complicated formula. The district has no control over it. And so we try to be as balanced as we can within the ecosystem, I guess I'll say. Um, so to that same point, when you're talking about private school vouchers, um, the private school voucher money that comes that affects our mill rate as well, correct? Or does that not affect our mill rate? Um, well, it No, it really doesn't because it's an in and an out for the same dollar amount and it's part of the of the state aid. So, that they say

113how much you you get, how much of your community members are using vouchers, the state is going to give you that as part of their their allocation. So, because they take it right back. They Yeah, I mean, we get we do get it. We do have to collect it, but in the end, they're taking that right away. So that but it is a good reminder that what's going out. Correct. Yep. It is. I mean again it does it does it does affect it because again it's part of our revenue limit formula. So again if if that goes up then our revenue limit goes up in which case then the state is only giving us so much. So the taxpayers have to cover the rest of it. So in essence it does but it shouldn't if

114if equalization aid was provided to help cover some of that. But yes, it it it really does because it's part of our revenue limit. Yeah. Because without that 750,000 going to private schools, would that like No, it wouldn't come to us at all. No, it wouldn't be. They wouldn't put it. And they've talked about pulling it out of the revenue limit altogether. But they haven't done that. So, we collect it and then they just take it and distribute it to the private school parents. But it is part of the overall revenue limit which is made up of taxes and state aid. So, but if if we didn't have it, then that would just lower our revenue limit. Okay. There's a resolution around that once the convention comes around. Feel free to stop in and listen

115to them argue about it for hours. Well, this the the guess is that it's going to come up in this session again because it keeps coming up a separated amount. But yeah, that's that's the decoupling conversation. Yep. Perhaps now we can do a work session with the board to understand that if people are interested. I would love to understand that better because it's very confusing. Yeah. So, in Brady's weekly report, he stated that we're we had uh excess funds from last year's budget and some of it's going to go towards self-pay insurance and and we think that's a good idea to put in a very restrictive fund. Yep. That's again something you brought it up. Yeah, that that uh so our auditor said you know again there's a lot of you I'm sure you all

116are very aware of the the cost of health insurance and with u all the different especially pharm pharmaceuticals and um and again we last year I think you remember we brought to that we did a very in-depth look at our prescription but point being is is that cost is going up and auditors felt like listen it's never a bad idea if you run into a couple bad years of being self-insured um you're going to have to cover those costs and so They felt very comfortable and said they recommended this one more time. I think I brought that to you last year. I know I did last year to do some of it too and then this year they said it again and I think it'll be done because I think this covers us if we

117had a year or two bad that we have two years of backup. Well, it really depends on how hopefully we have multiple years of added but No, no, no, no. We put into it we put into the restrictive fund for two years. This is correct. This is the second year in a row. Yep. And there was some in there a little bit before. So they feel like where we're at now will be helped cover that. Again, it could be one terrible year. You'd hope that never happens, but but that that that's where we're at. The other part of that, too, is when we talk about the 18% to 40% fund balance. I probably should have or we should talk about that, too. Right now, it's just whatever the fund balance is. But there's this a

118part of it that's called restricted fund balance that we can't spend. Whether that's accounts receivables of money we'll get in the future or things we've prepaid uh in the future or again the self- insurance thing is a part of that that that really does if you separate that out and calculate fund balance we'd be much lower I think uh we'd be down well I we calculated this year I think it was like a 6% drop if we took off the restricted part we don't have to we're still under 40% no matter what but in looking at that that maybe is something that we want to delineate in the board policy is to say unrestricted fund balance between this or we don't have to. So, but yep, that's that's what we we we The other thing

119is um you dropped the for your budget purposes, you dropped the 42% for uh special education to 40%. Right. Correct. Correct. So, historically, has it been 2% that the number or has it been more that we didn't uh achieve? Yeah, I think we were at 30.6 two years ago and it's supposed to be 33 this past year. I think we we we I think we almost got to 32 or 32 point something. Um, but I did talk to uh Bay and he said most people with just the way the spending is and what it looks like, you're probably better off talking somewhere between 39 and 40. I went with 40, but he said don't plan on any more than that. And there are some people that are doing it uh less. In fact, I think

120Brady sent maybe he sent I think he said he sent it all to you, but very good school perceptions podcast and and and Anne Chapman on there from from WHBO has said some people are doing 37% I think that 39 or 40. I really am sure I just had a question. Um so you're talking about how the we have we get less of that pot this year and explaining that I appreciate that. Um and that the pot didn't change from last year. that state funding money. Um, and I'm just curious, has that been the trend? And is there anything that we can do um to advocate for I mean, my understanding is is that that the state funding pot hasn't kept up with like inflation um uh among other things. So, for example, is there

121anything that we can do um or when we're having these conversations with community members, stakeholders, um that we can recommend or suggest that they can do? Yeah. Trendwise, no. And I I I'm not sure if it's 15 or 18. It's one of the two. This hasn't happened in 15 or 18 years where where where they've raised the revenue limit and haven't provided uh additional equalization. It it just I was talking to Brad. Nobody thought about this. Everybody was going, "Okay, are you going to use 325? What are you going to use, John? What are you going to use? You know, are you going to use 325? You use 40%. You can use 60% for special ed." And we talked about, you know, dozens of different things to do. Nobody said, "Well, what are you going

122to do if they don't increase equalization aid or state aid because that's never happened. I mean, in mo most of our careers." So, it just it just hasn't. So, um, that was part of it. So, it's not a trend. It's and hopefully it doesn't become a trend that that happens. The other part really the only thing you can do is talk to your legislation because we're not alone. The one thing that it's a state pot, right? Everybody in the state's dealing with it. Every Exactly. And think about that. While we were very we've been very fiscally responsible um and frugal about a lot of the things that we do. Um we balance the budget. There are a lot of school districts out there that can't do that. A lot of districts are going into are

123planning on budget deficits next year and hopefully they have a fund balance that can at least help them weather the storm until they pass a an operational referendum. But now think about that. You just increased you're projecting an increase in taxes and now you're going to go into your your constituents and or your community members and say, "Oh, by the way, we need an operational referendum which will increase your taxes." I I just it's or think about you just did that, right? And that's what I'm wondering like is there anything we can recommend or we can like help put out there when we're having these conversations cuz people are going to ask like we just approved this referendum to um you know do all the things we're doing to improve the schools itself and thankfully

124we don't have an operational referendum but I mean if I could see the community having concerns um with the state of just how things are going for school budgets. Yeah. And I think that that's a big part of it is this this has nothing it really doesn't I'm not not just up here. It has nothing to do with the referendum had had the same. So I think it is it's about the way the state passed the the bianium budget and there's not much we can do and again as Cassie mentioned we're all in the same boat and it's the same pot of money and and and so I think it's really about saying reach out to your legislators I guess to say this is hurting taxpayers. Yeah. And I remember hearing that right before the

125the ban any budget was passed that the commercials all the time. Reach out to your legislators and tell them to help taxpayers without killing property owners. So I you know I get that and so this is this is not going to be easy. I mean again right I think it's a good question and I think one of the important things and John and I were in a meeting last week talking with some people and one of the things we have to do is figure you know I mean how do you how do you eat an elephant right? one bite at a time, right? This is a this is a big this is a monster thing, right? Like people have been talking about fixing the revenue limit formula and everything like that for years since what

1261990 when it came into place and and so one of the things that that John and I talked about last week with a few other uh district uh people was okay, what what's the first step, right? Like we we're not going to we probably aren't going to go and completely change the revenue limit formula, right? in one bianium or one uh legislative session, but is it talking about um you know private private school vouchers like Sarah brought up or is it is it talking about um the you know the the referendum perceived unfairness like what what is it like th those are where we're we're trying to work right now and figure out okay what what is it where we get you know the most bang for the buck so to speak in moving something

127forward to start making changes, right? Cuz I I don't know that you can do it over like in a small amount of time. That would love to happen. And we've saw that happen with special ed funding. That's been something people have been fighting for for years and years and years and this was a really big increase. And so I mean it wasn't what people wanted, but it was still a big increase. So, like it just to move the needle, it takes time and consistent advocacy and consistently talking to your legislators about what you care about and voting for people who are going to support our schools. But that's a trade-off. You read it between the lines. They gave us more for this and they took this away. I mean, it talks about having to negotiate,

128right? So, they feel good that they gave us this and they didn't give us that. It's really simple. The other part of this I think is we were talking to another superintendent and another group from MPN that that like oh we got 325 and and well that's not bad but again it's still not even close to what inflation is like you and you mentioned that like this whole thing is you know we're trying to defend and trying to defend and go well we got 325 but 325 again all of our bills went up more than more than you know inflation CPI and and yet we're getting less than that for it again, however, how long it's been for that as well for Well, it makes it seem competitive, too, like, oh, well, we got less,

129so other people got more. And it's it's really just the pot's not expanding at the rate to support the schools in our state. And that's what the problem is. So, and we're all very we're also very fortunate to have a large open enrollment, right? that that it was increased by $2,000 over both years about about 1,100 and 900. So about Yep. And I I it some people may not like that, but without that we're going operational. There's no doubt. But that's part of it too is again we're all different and some people got some it helped some help got helped by open enrollment. Some people got helped by special well everybody got helped by special ed at least a little bit because there's more money going out when you have more people going out of

130your district and coming in. simple. Yeah. And I think open enrollment. Yeah. I mean, I would say in the end goal of that is getting that to the per student average, right? I think I if I were to project that's in the next bianium that's they're going to get it even closer to that. So yeah, you're I mean Quinn, you're right. There's there's some strategy with that. And by the way, we we will we did promise you that we were going to be working on that in October. Uh Dr. Ryan is going to do a presentation on open enrollment and some of the things that we've learned and we've seen. So, just have one question. Uh I just have one then you um on the middle school co-curriculars for the fund 80. What is the

131breakdown of those expenses? Like what does that cover? Does that cover all expenses for co-curriculars? Yep. transportation, coaching were the are the are the biggest is uh cost referees, things like that. Yep. Okay. So, that's fine. What do I say to a parent who says, "Well, if you're taxing me in fund 80, why should I be paying an athletic fee?" Yeah. Again, part of this is just this what what we had moved forward with, not knowing what was going to happen last year when we did this. We didn't have a clue about this. Part of this was it was just about to help us offset some of those costs that the community benefits from like the SRO, like the tennis courts. Um those are part of the allowable costs that um because because the entire

132community is is the opportunity to participate in that. It's an allowable cost and that's where we put it that in there. I I guess what I'm saying is if somebody comes up to me and says, "Why am I still paying an athletic fee if you're already charging me through taxes for middle school co-curriculars?" Well, but I guess that would that we could probably say that about about all of them then if that's the argument because even at high school that's supported by taxpayer funding because our school is supported by that. This is uh separated out. So now we don't pull that out of our fund 10 general fund to pay for those. So that's why I mean I I see your point, but bottom line is we're supported by taxpayers and state aid. So go

133ahead, Jesse. Um this is kind of going back to Quinn's question about the surplus. What are the rules of like with the arbitrage rules we know we have for interest on the bond the polls what are the rules about like if we're putting the surplus in these restricted funds can we earn any can we and do we earn the maximum amount of interest on those? So the more we put in there potentially we're earning a it's not a lot probably but a little bit of dividends 100%. Oh yeah, we we do that even with our with our fund 41, fun 46, all of those. We invest those making sure that we're getting the the most of our Yeah, 100%. We look at that all the time to make sure. Thank you. Again, but but to

134be to be clear though because I know you brought up possibly the bond things that's different. I mean, it's it's all invested. This the referendum dollar. We're earning interest on that, but that has to go back into the referendum. So, run into overages or we find something oh we needed to do that and that wasn't part we can use other ones don't have the other ones are no so the interest earned could go into the general into fun 10 yeah or if it's funds are restricted too yeah I was just thinking about interest that we're earning that can go fund 41 if we have we have fund 41 and so that's capital improvement the interest we earn that goes back into fund 41 so we can't earn a bunch of interest on on capital improvement

135funds and put that in fund to to pay for salaries and benefits. It back into fund 41 or 46. Okay. Thank you. I was curious about with the bond for the referendum too is um so you said it goes back into the referendum and so if all of our numbers equal out really well and we have an excess then that just goes into paying it back correct earlier. Okay. And again, this was very one of the few times that we've really been fortunate to be able to take advantage of those two small small issue issuance that and be able to do that without IRS taxation. So, great. Thanks. Right. If there aren't any other questions for John, do I have a motion to approve the 202526 published budget? So, move second. Any other discussion? Seeing

136none. All in favor? I opposed. 5B passes. Thank you. Moving on to six. Announcements. Any announcements? But just want to wish everybody a very happy, successful 2025 2026 school year. Just so excited for our entire community um for a year of learning and growth. Right. Thank you. We'll move on to seven. Meeting debrief. Does anyone have anything for meeting debrief? All right, seeing nothing for that, we'll move on to eight. Uh, do I have a motion to uh adjourn to close session for the board of educ or to uh discuss pursuant to Wisconsin state statute 198 19.851c 851c consideration of employment promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data. Any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction exercises responsibility specifically to discuss the superintendent evaluation. So move a second. Ask for a roll call vote,

137please. Um Rachel, yes. Karen, yes. Quinn, here. Sarah, yes. Jesse, yes. Cassie Hi, Alicia. Yes. All right. Thank you everyone. Anybody need to use the restroom, get started? Yeah. Yeah. I'm not planning on keeping you here real long. So, So much.