0016:30. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Verify compliance with open meetings law. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented? I have a first. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Jennifer, roll call, please. Here [Music] All right. Please rise for pledge of allegiance for the flag to the flag of the United States of America. To the republic for it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. if we have any public comments. All right. So, we'll move into item three. We'd like to welcome and recognize the Ridge Community Church. Uh Dr. Ranky, I'll pass it to you. Well, um each each month we we do a recognition of donations. U but you know in talking with with
002Cassie sometimes we have donations that exceed um just what we we normally or typically get and so we just wanted to we want to start calling some of those out uh you know publicly and inviting people. Little story, we were in a strategic planning meeting. Actually, Charlie and I were both in a strategic planning meeting um before spring break and somebody came down and said, "Uh, hey, you need to you guys need to come to the office." And you know, I mean, when the principal and the and then the superintendent, they they drag him along, too. It's kind of like one of those things where it's like, uhoh, what are we getting ourselves into? Well, we we got um we got to the office and we found out that um the Ridge Church had had
003just finished an initiative that they have called Live Big where they raise a whole bunch of money uh from their church and uh then it goes out to the community all over and I'll let them talk a little bit about it if they want, but um they they came and they gave us a check for $5,000. uh that was really awesome and we're able to put that into our our students in need of assistance account that you know when we have families that that need just extra help or kids that need extra help, we're able to to help fund different things for them. So, we're really excited uh to do that. I just want to read uh really quickly uh the letter that I I sent to Rich. It said uh Dear Ridge Community Church,
004on behalf of the Whitnol School District, I want to extend our deepest gratitude to your of your generous $5,000 donation as part of your live big initiative. Your commitment to serving and uplifting our community is truly inspiring and this contribution will have meaningful impact on our students and schools. Support like yours helps us enhance educational experiences, provide essential resources, and foster positive learning environment for all of our students. Your generosity is not only an investment in our schools, but also in the future of our community. We appreciate your partnership and your dedication to making a difference. Thank you for your kindness, generosity, and continued support of our students and staff. We look forward to continue our work together uh to build a strong supportive community for all. So, um Tyler and and Eric are here,
005the represent representatives from the Ridge Community Church. So, I just we made them a a certificate. We'll get their picture uh for any board members that want to be a part of it or I will um right afterwards, but I'm just going to give this to them and thank them um on on your behalf for their donation. Yes. Thank you both. Thank you. Sure. Hey, I just wanted to just uh thank you guys first of all for being in the community. We love being partners of the community. I'm personally part of the Whitel community and just love uh what you're doing here. And then as we've gotten to know several of the school social workers, first of all, the school social workers here are phenomenal. And I just really want to specifically call out Jackie
006um as we've gotten to work on a couple different projects and she's just shared with me just some of the needs as far as hey we have some students that you know could help with snacks or food replenishment um or things that are school supplies and um is uh Dr. Ranki said uh live big really for us we just want to give serve and love our community and so that just allows us to to give and serve and um and love you guys and we just look forward to an ongoing uh partnership with Whitnull and just want to take care of the families here. So, thank you guys for letting us be a part of this. Thank you. Thank you. We'll take a picture over here. Anybody want to join for the picture or is
007it just Do you want us all? Yeah, let's just say Thank you. the like stand in front of me. Thank you both. Thanks, Ridge Community Church. All right, moving to consent agenda agenda. Does anyone have anything they need to pull? Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? I have a first. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I opposed. All right. Passes. Moving to item five, board member recognition. We'd like to proudly recognize Jason Craig for his years of commitment and dedication to students, staff, and community during his tenure as a member of the Whitnill School Board on the 7th day of April, 2025. Um, we also have a little gift that we're giving to you. It is in um uh what's the word? It's in process.
008Process. Yeah, it's being um processed and created as we speak. So Jason, we'd like to recognize you over there. [Music] Okay. just ask. And so big thanks to Jason for his time and his commitment and his service to the Whitell School Board community. He has served in many leadership roles including president and clerk and has been um a great mentor and even um knowledge resource for me this year as president. So I thank you for your service and also for all your support and um resource on especially Robert's rules. So thank you so much Jason. Um, I'll open it up if anyone else has any comments or words for Jason. Go ahead. I'll just say Jason, thank you for your service and I know that this is often times anyone sitting up here today. It
009can be difficult work. So, I appreciate your dedication and all the time that you put in for so um as a parent wonderful kid and just an active memory honor. I appreciate your friendship and I just wanted to add to thank you Jason from the moment I was on the board for your kindness, your guidance, always ready when I had a question when I was clerk first and constantly asking and you were always right there and I appreciate um your sense of humor um and your like unwavering belief in supporting teachers because you know that's a passion of mine and you have always stood by me with that. So I appreciate you. Thank you. Thanks. Just thanks for your service. Yeah, it's been a pleasure getting to know you. Um I remember when you weren't
010on the board and you were bringing in sweets and all kinds of little different things. No one died from it. Good thing. So we appreciate your time and effort. Yeah. All right. Thank you for your contributions and the food was always very good. So, thanks Jason for all you've done for Whitell. Thank you. All right. Moving to um and actually do you have do you have any words you want me to? No. Uh well actually yeah. Um it has been an absolute honor uh to serve the community. Um, it has been such a growth process on the what and the how to get there. Um, it is I think it's it means so much for the progress that is being made. uh to Rachel's point about how we're able to take care of our teachers,
011how we're able to um as Dr. shared uh last week the the the dip in terms of staff departures and how that's been so phenomenal that um where you know as as my two kids have come through the system and where you see you're able to see teachers on back to school nights and how they were great for your your eldest and how they're still there for your youngest and how that just that continuity and you know to some some principles who have dealt with both Craig children that you know that they are able to wear that badge with great honor um you know and that it means so much that we're able to hire a uh you know a a fantastic superintendent that I see nothing but great things in the future and I
012see nothing but you know blue skies ahead for this district. So I thank you all for your time and support and I hope that um that that will that this path that we're on right now will continue. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Dr. Rank, we'll move to you for superintendent report. Yeah. So, as is custom, I want to give you a quick uh referendum update. We have we had the uh geotechnical drilling happened uh over the break. Uh we're waiting to get results on that. Uh but that was a a really big deal that we were able to do it over break because we didn't have any kids getting distracted by big equipment drilling uh in down. We met with the pool consultants last week along with Bray and CG Schmidt. Uh the the
013plans are coming together really really well. We're going to have them come and and present to you some of their 3D renderings very soon. Uh I think you'll be really really impressed in the community. We'll also be uh I think very very excited about that. And then um today today we actually had our kitchen consultant in doing some observation of just traffic flow down in the cafeteria and the serving area and things like that. So, uh, we're excited to just continuously be planning and and and getting closer to that to that project or finished product. Uh, tomorrow we're, uh, meeting, we have CG Schmidt, uh, is going to present some preliminary budget stuff. So, we're excited about that. Uh, so we'll be sharing that with you guys really soon as well. Um, then as far
014as what's been going on in the school, obviously we we had spring break, so I hope you all had a a great spring break. I I know I did. I was able to get away as well. But before spring break, we had some really exciting things going on. We had the high school had their Whitnell gives back week. Uh during that week, all the different clubs did things where they could give back uh to to the community. So our student council ran a food drive. Our red gen hosted a bake sale. Our science club led a school forest cleanup. National Honor National Honor Society created crafts with residents at the woods. Skills USA helped prep the courtyard apple tree for spring. The Leo Club made toys for the Wisconsin Humane Society and the Red Cross
015Club spent time playing with kids at both El Ed Edertton and Hills Corners Elementary School. Speaking of that Red Cross club, they surpassed their goal uh their their volunteer hours goal. Um they they've reached 959.5 hours by December. So, they were far exceeding their 650 hour target, which is just awesome that they they do such great work uh for for our kids and our community. They also won first place in the 2025 Impact Starts Here video challenge. So, I'll be sharing that video with you guys very soon. Um so, they were awarded $750 to support uh to, you know, to support their their their their work. Uh also before break we had the high school band, choirs and orchestra concert uh which were always always fantastic. And then um the middle school had their good
016read and great sip challenge um where they they were challenged to read at least 360 minutes in in six weeks. Um and 186 students logged at least 360 minutes of reading. Uh, and then they wrote reviews for each entry, adding up to an incredible 178,266 minutes read, which is pretty great. So, congratulations to those kids. The last day before spring break is always tons of fun. Uh, every one of our district schools did something. Uh, HC celebrated their their 116th feather. Uh, and so they had two days of cosmic bowling. Edertton held their staff versus fifth grade student games. The games in the past there were basketball. It was basketball, but they switched it to sweep the potato, which was an interesting one. They broke several broom several brooms. It was a it was a
017race back and forth. They broke several brooms, but um I think you were planning that night. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. And then the the middle school, I was able to check out their VIP March Madness watch party. That was pretty cool. their their gym. They had all the all the March Madness games going in their gym. Uh you know, in those first couple days where there's a tons of games. So So that was that was pretty neat. And then the high school had a threeon-ree basketball tournament. So really great stuff. When we got back from break, we recognized our Skills USA kids. Uh they they we had a Walk of Champions uh right away on that Monday morning and they headed to their state tournament. We had three first place medals, one second place medal,
018and one third place medal. So, some really great um things going on there. We'll have them in soon to recognize. And then I also got a a fantastic email today that uh that Charlie Charlie Tolson was awarded the um a Kohl's a Kohl's fellowship award. Uh so, congratulations to Charlie on that. We'll we'll have more information about that, but I just wanted to point that out uh to to you guys today. So, that that's what I have for you. I I do want to thank Jason again for his service and and um you know it's it's never never easy to be a board member and I appreciate all the work that you guys all do and Jason so thank you for your work. All right, that's what I got. Thank you. Congratulations. Oh, one more
019thing. One more thing. I'm sorry. Uh I I do I I put this in my update to you guys. Um something we we can perhaps talk about next time. I know there was uh um WASB their region 11 representative is is leaving and so if we want to nominate someone from within us we certainly can uh we'll put it on the agenda next week to or next time to discuss a little bit more about Sure. Congrats Charlie. Thank you. All right. Item six, discussion with future action 2526 student Chromebook and high school STEM lab desktop purchase with John and Tony. Hi Tony, welcome back. Good to be back. All right. Uh good evening everybody. Uh again here we are for uh the same presentation almost as last year uh for the Chromebook replacement for students.
020Um and again almost the same uh not a lot of uh model changes happened with the Chromebooks uh this last year across like all brands. Um, so we're just recommending the same Chromebook we purchased last year for grades 269 for next year's 269. Um, we've been pretty happy with them. Um, noting we moved last year to the 269 replacement to just kind of make it even every time you switch buildings, you get a new Chromebook. Um, again, student input. We we've had we've now run a fleet of these uh about 500 of them for almost a year now. Uh we've been pretty happy with them. The breakage rates have been pretty low. Um and again, we've already run them in the same grades we're purchasing for. Uh again, 8 gigs of RAM, uh 32 gigs
021of storage, um in the device, but they're all connected to Google. Um anyways, non-touch display. uh the grade breakdown of uh number of students in the current enrollment, the open enrollment seats available, and then a couple of extras uh per grade brings us to a total of 544 devices. Uh with the not just the device, we're al also purchasing uh the Google management console so we can uh keep them managed and updated uh remotely. uh the chromeare warranty which uh allows us four years of added extended warranty protection. Um and then the white glove enrollment which includes asset tagging. Um and then they they green ship them to us which they they take care of most of the trash and they just ship them to us in large boxes. I don't know if I should
022pause here for the Chromebooks if there's any just for questions on the questions. Do you are you fine taking questions? Yeah, I guess I for the Chromebook. Any questions about the Chromebook, Quinn? So, that price only went up like maybe $20. Was it like two and a quarter last year? Uh, yes, I I believe so. Yeah. And have you tracked the amount uh of the you know, have we gotten our money's worth in the insurance? Uh I would say so so I uh I looked I looked this year um we've had about a sixth of our devices in the fleet uh use our our extended warranty and if over four years that's about twothirds of our devices will use the extended warranty in some way um over the four years. Uh, so not only does
023it include us being able to ship the devices out if there's something beyond our capabilities or one of our fabulous IT students to fix, um, but they also supply us with the parts locker. So, hey, they give us a, you know, we have a a set of 20 screens on hand and we can as we repair them, they continue to supply us with the parts and that's included in that price. Correct. And so, you think it's well worth it? Yes. Thank you. The other part note on that too is we are bringing this to you but this is for next year. Um but I think and I don't want to step on your toes. I don't think you're mention this but some of the vendors did say that there's going to be a price increase.
024We got this locked in so we do want to move forward but we'll just prepay it but it'll be for next year's budget but that's one of the reasons why we kind of bring it now but but also with the tariffs and things. Other questions about Chromebooks. Jesse, I know these are not very stack devices. They're pretty basic, but in terms of technology wise, have we been seeing that three years is still okay for having what they have, not being behind or needing updates that they no longer receive. Yeah. Um, so the the devices themselves are usually supported for about 10 years through Google. Granted, again, you said that they're not very robust. So, will the hardware actually last that long? probably not. Um, but we have uh switched to buying eight gig uh 8
025gigs of RAM for the devices as opposed to uh four gigs. I believe we switched three years ago to eight just to again keep up with uh the amount of tabs students may have or the apps that they may be running because um everything is just kind of getting more uh power hungry I guess. Sounds good. Thank you. Okay. So when you say that we're approving the cost now, it's going to be paid prepaid in next year's out of next year's funds funding. Okay, correct. And then I guess my question is on delivery. So we are going to prepay and pay delivery. There's not going to be any problems with availability of the Well, we won't pay until until we get them, but then we prepay them on onto next year's fiscal year. Nope. Yep.
026Anything else about the Chromebook part? All right. Carry on. Uh the high school STEM lab uh if you know it's room 110 uh has uh some some aging equipment. Uh these computers are probably the most uh uh robust in the district. Uh running things for AutoCAD and Fusion and Revit. And I you know those the kids down there are designing things I wish I could have done in high school. Um but uh the devices are getting a bit long in the tooth. They're about five years old. Um and with a replacement cycle, here's the uh kind of next the next inline device uh for those things. Uh 30 devices for the lab um and extended next day uh support uh for four years. Um bringing us uh the total questions about the STEM lab. All
027right. Um, here's just a little uh I guess tidbit or informational um on uh -ate. Uh I know in the the last couple of times I've come to speak to you guys, we've had last year we did a wireless upgrade uh project and we've replaced switches and you know cabling and it all sounds very expensive. Um it it is um but federal funding uh is available for network uh related things uh for public schools and libraries uh in the form of -ate. Um it's based on your population and then your free and reduced population and then if you're urban or rural um so Whitol does receive a 50% reimbursement on all uh networking related projects. Uh they break it down into two categories. Category one, uh, the easiest way to to break it down, uh,
028category one is getting internet to the school. So, paying Whisknet, which is our internet provider, or you have Spectrum at home, the same thing. Um, and category two, which is getting internet around your schools, so your wireless access points, uh, cabling and switches. Um the difference between the two buckets if you will is category two you have five years and they allocate you a certain amount of monies. Um and you have those five years to spend up to that amount and it will be reimbursed and then after that five years it will be uh either replenished or we'll we'll see what happens uh next year because we're in the last year of this kind of fiveyear goaround. Um I imagine it will be the same but I don't have a crystal ball unfortunately. So this
029was brought up I think at a finance and facilities meeting and and I think I gave a ballpark number but um I thought well it's a good time to share it with everybody um and know that we are doing it we do spend it uh put it in for a reimbursement which then and it gets bid out but then um we do get 50% of that back. Um so uh which leads me to maybe now now you have a little bit of background uh for a little bit of tech tech plan updates. So again last year we did a wireless upgrade project um across the district we replaced 242 access points. 50% of that project was reimbured. Uh five network switches were replaced um and staff devices were replaced. Um looking forward uh for next
030year uh after doing the wireless upgrade project uh a couple uh uh standout places were like hey we would like Wi-Fi here like uh I think the Hails Corners do loading dock. Um so we're going to add a couple more access points. um an inbuilding fiber run uh between not between the two buildings but within the building itself at Edertton and the middle school to ne connect their two network closets. Um so they're uh kind of on par with the rest of the district. They're the the last holdouts. Uh those projects are allable. Um and then the fire wall replacement which would also be -ate. um replacing the stem lab uh upgrading remaining Windows 10 machines to Windows 11 and then uh deploying AppStream for a to be determined 3D modeling class I think um
031here at the high school. Any questions about or the technology plan? Good. Do we contract this work out or do we do it the - stuff? Um, it has to all go to bid. Um, and we have to allow for 28 days uh for fair and open uh bidding. So, it all gets contracted out. Oh, it does. Correct. Thank you. Questions? I guess I sure that's just in terms of when you're talking about that. Um, I guess as far as uh what I have planned for this year, um, I don't believe anything is going to be moved or changed with what I'm going to be connecting. Um, but obviously if building new new classrooms and new spaces and and that will just have to be part I think of the the initial build of you
032know, hey, we we're going to need wireless and 10 new classrooms or you know, whatever it is. Y and Tony and I do meet weekly and we have talked about referendum and things and built parts of the building and have that on our um I don't say weekly but it's it's we talk about it often about here's what's going to happen and when we get into that and some of the projects that we are or won't do because of the referendum or during that time and looking into that. So, yep. And I just want to be smart about how Absolutely. Yep. Yep. take advantage of what we can when while we've got things down or apart or ceilings down or any of those things. So, Yep. Any other questions? Can I can I just throw
033one thing in? I know I remember I think at a possibly a policy meeting uh Jesse asked about uh um cyber security and and those kinds of things. So, I just wanted to let the board know that Tony, John, myself on Friday are going to be attending uh a cyber security uh webinar so we can continue to develop we have a we have a good plan in place, but we're going to to continue to develop our plan because I think as as Jesse pointed out, staying ahead of that is is very difficult and Tony's done a nice job, but we're going to keep working on that. again continued well maybe not every week but often we talk about those things in different things about cyber security and have the utmost utmost confidence and Tony and
034his definitely well we had a you know a couple things where we had an ostmost and it turns out so we we I'm not saying we fully tested it but I think we've done a lot of good things that again he sends out or he's working you know you send out spam and you see if you can catch it and that's still being done I don't know guess we haven't talked about the stats of who's you know how who who's all in for him or not, but again, continue to do those things. So, he does a good job with that. Jennifer caught one. I think it was someone spoofing me, right? Oh, wow. What happened? Good, good, good, good. All right. Well, this will then come back next week for um action, but thank you
035both. Awesome. Thank you. Have a good night. Thanks. All right. Moving to item seven, 2526 compensation increases which includes teacher universal allowance increase, support staff increase, and then um as you see here some background and then Rachel, I'll pass it to you to give it or remind us of the recommendation. Uh $2,000 base salary for educators. Actually, you know what? I'll just give it to you from personnel if you want to summarize for us before we um just remind everyone of where we stand. Sure. So, um um we did receive this recommendation in personnel committee and everybody in committee was on board at the time with moving forward um for this increase. One thing to point out is there's some additional dollars to move some current teachers um into the previously approved compensation model. I
036think there was 13 I want to say that'll shift in. So um we appreciated that that we're still moving toward that. Um we we talked about the increase for our hourly support staff and then the increase on the base salary for educators. Okay, thanks for that summary. Do I have a motion to approve the recommended teacher and staff compensation increases for 2526? So moved. Second. Uh so Jason's the first, Jesse's the second. um discussion or questions. Good. So you say that you base this on uh conservative projections for the 2526 budget. What what is that? What what is the number that you use? Well, basically just just saying yep, the 325 and saying okay, can we feel like we can cover this? And and I do. So if if we don't get the 325 per
037person in the first year and they may move it to the second year, what would happen? Yeah, we'd have to um probably dip into into fund balance depending on where we're sitting with expense revenue and expenses and other things that we could possibly look at. But yeah, we would have to dip into fund balance. So we would okay or or or use 41 or 46 for some other things that we normally would have spent out of fund 10 for a year. Okay. I just want everybody to realize that I I don't think these raises are automat. I think they're in line. However, when you spend money that you don't have, we need to know of the consequences that may follow. That's all comments, questions on this. Thank you. Happy that Anything else? Okay. All in
038favor? I opposed. Okay. Motion passes. Thanks, John. Any announcements? Go ahead. At your 10 PTO meeting this Thursday, 7 p.m. in the library. All right. I have one. I'm not sure if our principles and administration know, but they are asking for uh participation if you want to do a proposal for being a breakout group or school fair or our our band and our choir for the uh next uh WSAB convention. Uh I know we have a band going down to New Orleans and um some choir people. Maybe uh maybe we can get a proposal together. I don't know how I don't know how it all works, but uh we have to have the propos proposals in by June 20th. So maybe uh showcase our school a little bit on the on the Wisconsin level. I
039just want to give a shout out to the Whitnold Park Rotary for their massive huge craft fair that they had this past Saturday which was really nice hosted at Whitnell High School. And then I believe there's a pancake breakfast coming up hosted by the um Gail Corners Lions Club over at Whitnull Middle School that is always such a lot of fun for the little kids out in the woods and back and then they have a a pancake breakfast and the Easter bunny is there and there's lots of nice raffle prizes. So um please consider coming for that. All right, thank you. All right. So, we're going to move to item nine. Um, adjourn to close session pursuant to Wisconsin statute 19.851F considering financial, medical, social, or personal histories or disciplinary data of specific persons. preliminary
040consideration of specific personnel problems or the investigation of charges against specific persons except where paragraph B applies which if discussed in public would be likely to have a substantial adverse effect upon the reputation of any person referred to in such histories or data or involved in such problems or investigations specifically to discuss alleged misconduct by a school board member. Do I have a motion to adjourn to closed? So moved. I have a first. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? Yeah. Um, I have no idea what this is about. Didn't receive a phone call to give me any update on what this may be. I have no clue. No idea what I'm going into. So, we're going into this. I am a no. Okay. Uh, Jennifer, will you do roll call vote, please? I
041I no I I no motion carries. We will adjourn to closed. Um does anyone need a break? any. So let's come back at 7:12 5 minute recess and