001Heat. Heat. [Music] I will call the meeting to order. This is a meeting of the Winn County uh community school board. It is April 7th, 2025, 6:30 p.m. We are in the high school high school large group lecture. Meeting notices were sent to members of the press, members of the school board, and were posted on the front doors and/or in the vestibules of district school buildings. This is a meeting of the board in public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business and is not to be considered a public hearing. There may be a time for public comment as indicated in the agenda. The meeting will also be available to watch live at www.youtube.com/winni. Please stand and join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
002and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call, please. Stellner here. Reich here. Keller here. Peterson. Hman here. Kundy here. Hansen here. Recognizing our administrative team, we have Dr. Larson, Mr. Maner, Mrs. Knap, Mr. Katy, Mrs. Dodd, Mr. Jerbeck. That's it. Okay. And visitors, we do have a sign up in the back. if you uh could sign in there, please. And um now is the time for open forum uh for the public to speak. I do want to remind um some of the rules of the open forum since we haven't talked about those for a little bit. Um but you uh are limited to three minutes. Um the uh you are not allowed to use uh proper names or positions of school district
003staff and you are to address the board and not the staff. With that I would like to congratulate Miss Callowarts and Mr. Kundi um for their um successful election for the next three years. So welcome to the school board. And uh first to sign up is Mr. Mark Failey. [Music] Facts are stubborn things. John Adams, second president of the United States, 1797 to 1801. preparing for tonight's uh remarks, I was looking at to several things and what they became completely obvious. The board's lack of courage given their recent decisions. Now courage is a mental or moral strength to venture pres persevere and withstand danger fear or difficulty. I haven't seen this during it. It became during the uh fight for Title N. This became painfully obvious. You're willing to follow the crowd. Now, what do
004you think I know about leadership? You think you stand here? I'm a total idiot. Sorry. Hate to disappoint you. Sometimes you have to take a stand for what is moral or what is right. I had to take a stand once. Vice president of the Washurn Tech student government. there were Washburn the main the main uh funer of Washurn Tech decided hey let's have a student who was convicted and charged and convicted with sexual assault now the whole everybody voted in favor of this except for me I had to take a stand I stepped down and resigned my position position as vice president. I remember you were hiding behind a convenient truth that you were afraid to lose a few federal pennies. What it asks is you didn't have the guts to stand up for fear
005of being sued by a any student who would come here presenting and be a girl wanting to participate girls sports. You know, you have become so concerned and worried about being offended you forget we have the right to free speech. Melissa Trader. Treader, sorry. Treader. Treader. Good evening. My name is Melissa Tredder. I live in the town of Ashkosh County School District. Um, I'm just here today to say April is Autism Acceptance Month. Um, April 2nd was World Autism Day. I'm not an autism expert. Only those with autism truly know. I'm just here to emphasize the importance of acceptance of autism in a school setting. There's au sorry there is a popular saying if you know one person with autism you know one person with autism. But every autistic individual is different personalities abilities challenges.
006It is important for all to know and recognize that to create a deeper understanding. I encourage the board to invite autistic individuals as key speakers and motivational speakers. I also encourage students and staff to embrace their uniqueness and to really get to know the individual. It's going to take a lot of time and patience, but I assure assure you your lives will become richer because of it. We need to start prioritizing staff training and education for all staff. You're never too old to learn something new. We need to make sure that staff are following IEPs and BIPS. and we have to make sure that everyone's being honest with parents. I want to thank the current special ed staff that work with my son who do this and are truly wonderful. We need to crack down
007on the bullying and harassment of autistic individuals. There needs to be bigger consequences for people who do these awful things. Lastly, acceptance is key. Don't try to change them as a whole. to fit in. My son could care less who's the most popular kid in school. He could care less about sports or who scores most points, who's most anything like that. You know, I think that's pretty cool. And I just wanted to end it end my speech with this. Um when I was in my early 20s, I I worked with a 15-year-old boy who had um severe autism. He was extremely funny, smart, and sweet, but he had so much aggression and self harm every day. It was so hard. But then there were beautiful moments like him calling me furry blue mummy. Instead of
008scolding him, I went home and did some research. I found out that Blue Fury Mummy was a character on Sesame Street. I learned about the character. This was a great moment of connection between the student and I. I entered his world and it was powerful. And here I am today with a beautiful son who is 15 and has autism. And how lucky am I to have the furry blue mummy mo moments. Our bond is unbreakable and I will always be his biggest advocate. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Katie Kells always going to be too short for this thing. Um good evening. Um Katie Callowarts in the village of Winn County. Um tonight I would like to talk about policy 8120. um volunteers that is being voted on. Um I just highlighted a couple things. Um
009in the second paragraph it says the district administrator shall be responsible for recruiting community volunteers, reviewing their capabilities, and making appropriate placements. The district administrator shall not be obligated to make use of volunteers whose abilities are not in accord with district needs. Um, I just want to say I I feel that having volunteers in our schools is wonderful. Um, I've I've had recent conversations with actually, ironically, a few people that have said they wish they could do it more because they love it so much. Like, you know, and I I feel it's a good way to build trust, give people a sense of purpose. Um, what kindergarten teacher wouldn't want an extra pair of eyes or pair of hands? Um, and you know, I always jump at any opportunity that arises, but they've seem to
010be few and far between. Um, I would would love to see more opportunities. You know, even grandma's like, they're sitting at home with nothing to do. You know, a lunch monitor, recess monitor, story time. Um, I feel it's it's a good way to build relationships with the community members. Um, and obviously I don't know the whole ins and outs on how it works to as far as getting volunteers. Um, but you know, shouldn't some of that be delicated to individual classrooms, individual teachers, um, administrative staff for specific schools um, rather than just district administration. Thank you. Adam Erenss. First, I'd like to ask Oh, Adam Erands Butmore. Yeah, Adam Eron. I'd like to ask if Miriam didn't get to sign up. I know she just told me she want she was talking. She couldn't sign
011up. Can she be added or take my time? No, you're not going to allow that. Okay. So, um I just was at the policy meeting before this and I just a freedom of speech issue to me coming up now changing the policy and I guess right now is a good example. Um why suppress what people want to say at a school board meeting that are parents in the district. Um and I know you're going to change some make some change. I wasn't quite clear on that, Peggy, but making some sort of change. But I also want to remind the community that there's only two people that can get something on an agenda. I personally have had a lot of things denied. So essentially what you're saying is you get to decide what I as a
012parent county school district get to talk about at a school board meeting. I just it's not right. And as far as uh policy 8120 that you guys are going to vote it on tonight and apparently I don't know if there's going to be any discussion but I recently was watching the Oshkosh schoolboard meeting and I saw Barbers herzog actually talk about volunteers and I thought that was she she she was happy about volunteers being in the school and was encouraging more volunteerism in the community. I guess I don't know how it goes at Winnie and I was just curious if anybody can talk about that. uh seems to me from what I'm hearing there is not much volunteerism going on in the school or allowed to be going on in the school from community members.
013All right, that's all. Thank you. Thank you. All right, I will close the open forum. We will move into the open session and I would entertain a motion for the consent agenda. I'll make the motion for cons consent agenda items A through H. Second motion by Kundi, second by Hansen to approve consent agenda items A through H. Any questions or discussion from the board? Roll call, please. Stellner, I. Veric, I. Keller, I. Awin, I. Kundy, I Hansen, I. Approve minutes from March 17th, 2025 regular schoolboard meeting. So moved. Second. Motion by Veric, second by Keller to approve March 17th, 2025 regular school board meeting. Uh, minutes um, questions. Roll call, please. Veric. I. Keller. Hi. Hecman. Hi. Kundy. I Stellner. Hi. Hansen. Hi. and uh extended summer contracts for specific staff. Um you can see
014what's proposed in your packet. Um it looks like we have a little bit of a savings there from last year. Um any questions, comments from the board. Okay. I would entertain a motion to approve. So move. Second motion by Kundi, second by Verich to approve the uh summer contracts extended, excuse me, extended summer contracts. Roll call, please. Keller, Iman, I. Kundy, I Stellner, I. Faric, I. Hansen, I. Um, creation of a high school dance team. I will turn this over to Mrs. Veric. Uh this was presented to the uh uh human resources and finance committee uh last week and we agreed to move it forward. Um there there's some discussion on the cost uh involved and you have in your packet kind of a breakdown of what we're looking at. Um there will be a
015cost of we're we're estimating approximately $10,000 to the school district. Uh that would be comprised of the coach, the head coach and an assistant and then the busing. Um there's been some concerns brought forth by the administration which are being addressed uh with the athletic director and the administration on our clubs and who's transporting uh the students to and from activities. Um and so we're going to kind of be restructuring that in the future. Uh but we definitely want to be paying for busing just be for liability reasons. Um this is not an inexpensive activity. The uniforms for this uh type of um activity are pretty expensive, but um as we've mentioned, the finance committee has been meeting monthly uh just to our our business manager has been giving us updates on what she's seeing
016um at the state level for funding uh just kind of to keep us surprised. So, um the $10,000 already I think is a stretch uh for our district, but this sounds like a fantastic opportunity for our kids. There's a lot of interest in it and um it'll hit on some students that aren't in your traditional sports that we would like to to get them participating in. And Peggy, I don't know if you have anything to add to that. Um no, I excuse me. Um, I know the person who would uh like to be our coach has been actively involved in dance basically her entire walking life. Um, so she it knows a great deal about it. Um, we'll have to find an assistant coach, but um, I just want to reiterate to what Mrs. Verrett
017said about transportation. I'm very thankful that the finance committee is recommending we pay for that as I just think as we go through and learn more about our clubs and activities and who's paying for what and what not, we just really need to get a grasp on our transportation of our students. So, I'm glad the finance committee is bringing that forward to you. So, I should add likely you noticed in her proposal there's fundraising opportunities that she would like to pursue. That's how they will pay for their uniforms and some of the other um I feel like it was like uniforms, palms, um what duffel bags and things like that. So, they'll be fundraising um to earn those items. And I should add um one of the big costs on that breakdown was the choreography.
018We're hoping um you may not be aware for our uh the spring or I guess it was late winter musical, we had a student who actually choreographed that. So, we're hoping that maybe they can get creative with that and not have to use a lot of their fundraising for choreography. That kind of leads me into my question for you. For the choreography, are you talking uh coaching fees or is there some kind of videos they have to purchase or that? I do not know. My I guess my assumption reading into it and the little bit I know about dance is that it would be probably an an individual they hire to put together the routines and then teach the kids, the students the routines. And then one more little question. Um are the parents absorbing
019any of the costs that we might not be seeing on this chart? I think that's where the fundraising comes in. Um, of course, students who have been doing dance, they usually start very young. It is very expensive. It's a huge commitment. So, a lot of parents have already kind of committed to that in the past. Um, so I guess, you know, our thoughts on this was, you know, maybe through fundraising one uniform is purchased and then if they want more, they they need to a consensus with parents and whatnot. Um, but a lot of that too would need to be left up to the coach, I think. And I'd say too, even with with other sports, parents are participating cleats for football, you know, certain parts of requirements. So, um, parents would definitely have some
020cost in it. There's also the activity fee. Yep. That the student or parent is responsible for. Looking at the numbers that they're they're telling us, that's a quite a few, you know, a lot of interest, good numbers for that. Um, just a quick question. Are we going to continue to then have the cheer team as well that's traveling or are these both two different things or what was the proposal there? Yeah. So, um the the individual who brought this forward that was posed to her and she indicated they are two very uniquely different sports. So, as of right now, yes. Um the finance committee did discuss, you know, is there an opportunity to perhaps combine them somehow some way? Um, I think that's something that really we aren't in a position as a board to
021to force that, but perhaps there can be some collaboration uh between the two. I think um obviously I wasn't in the the committee meeting but um have many years of dance experience both while I was in high school and now that my child dances um competitively and um I would say parents are very very used to cost especially if their child has been attending any kind of a studio um prior to this. Um another thing to think about they would not potentially need new costumes every single year. Um, so that would be not an reoccurring cost annually probably. Um, and third, I would say that I was on the spirit squad. Um, and combined cheerleading and dance team is a disaster. I would not recommend it if I were you all. Just words of wisdom
022for the future for you guys. Well, and there may be a lot of um those that are interested in the dance team that are already in dance, but I think if there's an opportunity to bring other kids in that that aren't aren't involved in it right now, I think that's uh wonderful. Anytime we can get our students involved in extracurriculars, I think that's that's a positive all the way around. So, um um so I would need a motion to approve of the dance team. I'll make a motion to approve of the creation of a dance. I second. Okay. Motion by Keller, second by Aman to approve the creation of a high school dance team. Roll call, please. Aman here. Hi. Kundi Stelsner. I rar I Keller I Hansen I and policies I'll turn over to
023Mr. Kundi. The policies that we have here tonight for approval have went through our committee. Um the policies that are presented are recommended for approval. The first policy, third grade promotion and retention at risk students. In 2023, Wisconsin enacted Act 20 to strengthen early literacy effects and efforts. As part of this law, school districts must implement a policy for promoting students from third to fourth grade following the model provided by the Department of Public Instruction. Niola with legal guidance has developed this policy in compliance with act 20 and the DPI model. While districts are required to adopt this policy by July 1st, 2025, enforcement can be delayed until September 1st, 2027. The first policy, policy 5411, third grade promotion retention at risk students 9-3. In the very first paragraph where it states effective on the
024date that we would be putting in there, we're looking at September 1st of 2026. And that's in your your notes and minutes as well. As we go down further into the definitions, personal reading plan means a reading plan provided for 5-year-old kindergarten to third grade students that are identified at risk based on a universal screening assessment or a diagnostic assessment in accordance with statute 118-0165. As we go through the policy down towards the very end where you're looking to see in reaching the decision to promote or retain the student, the district will carefully consider all relevant factors including but not limited to. You'll see that there's a place that we have the check marks in for the first one whether a team of interested individuals including the parents of the student and school representatives who
025have knowledge of the reading instruction supports and interventions provided to the students believe promotion is in the best interest of the student as well. We have a check mark in letter B. All relevant and available data demonstrating the students response or progress to reading instruction and intervention and data demonstrating the student progress towards meeting personal reading plan goals. Any further questions on 9-3 9-4 as you see as we go down through all of those check marked areas. Any questions on any of them from C through H down in the very bottom part under the exceptions to postpromotion requirements. As we go through these policies, I like to point out timelines and dates and so on. the student has an IEP or section 504 plan under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that indicates that a student
026has received intensive intervention in reading for more than two years if the student continues to demonstrate a deficiency in reading and was previously retained in 5K grades one, two, or three. The student has received intensive reading interventions for two or more school years, continues to demonstrate a deficiency in reading, and was previously retained in 5K, grades one, two, or three for a total of two years. Any further questions on that page 9-5. Any questions? mid-year enrollment transfers. Next policy, policy 7440-02, smart sensor and monitoring technology 9-6. Any questions on the first page? 9-7. 9-7. As we get not quite halfway down through the policy, you'll see where the new language board members and other individuals who volunteer to work in schools must submit a criminal history records and background check before being allowed to participate
027in any activity or program. We do have a check mark in there and as well we had heard some comment on the fact of volunteers within our school district. In my belief as well I would believe most of the members on the board here would definitely promote the volunteerism and and as well looking through um the volunteering part of uh an advocate for the community for school districts. The one thing is of course we go through the background checks and the raptor system and so on that we do have in our school district as they do come and enter and so on. So there is a process once they are um gone through there and as always we would recommend um coming in and and volunteering for as many areas that we can see within
028our school district. Dr. Dr. Larson, can you expound on some of the concerns brought up in open session about um in particular that you are the person responsible for recruiting? Can you just elaborate on how volunteers are I guess solicited? Yes. Um I think they're basically through classroom teachers, but it's my responsibility or my office's responsibility to make sure they're screened appropriately. But I know teachers like for field trips, they have volunteers. We have people who come in and read with our kids um at the elementary school. I will say we love volunteers, but it's also really hard to get volunteers, I'm going to say, to supervise lunch because oftentimes as a volunteer, you might be leaving for vacation for two weeks and that doesn't necessarily always help us. So, we always have to have
029our own staffing, too. But, we are very open to volunteers. So, if anybody is interested in volunteering, they can feel free to reach out to me. I think my contact information is just about all over every place. Um, so we certainly be interested in the help. Okay. Next policy, policy 8125, consultants. As you read the first paragraph on policy 8125 on consultants, you'll see the check mark, the district administrator shall report to the board the contract of any consultants no later than at the next board meeting. Any questions on that at all? And that is um that is a new policy. Okay. Policy 8531 free and reduced price meals. This policy is a revision is provided to allow circumstances where a district may have one or more of its schools qualify for C program but
030other that do not. But incorporating a C option as a part of the general policy language. The policy will not need to be updated in the event of a district school or schools becoming eligible. Free and reduced price meals policy 8531-99. If you notice as I had mentioned C is community eligibility provision. Anything further on 99 at all? 910. Next policy on 911 8600 copy of transportation. You see the new language within the policy. Any questions on 911 and 912? Those are the policies that were brought forward from the policy committee meeting and the recommendation is for approval. And if we could have the approval all in one motion, that would be what I would recommend. I move to approve policy number 5411, policy number 70 7440.02, O2 policy 8120 policy 8125 policy 8531 policy
0318600 second the motion motion by kundi second by I'm sorry motion by varic second by kundi to approve the policies um as presented roll call please I ki hi I veric I Keller. Hi, Hansen. I um administrative reports. Any questions or comments from the board or additions from administration? Um just want to make sure the boards aware Shrek starts this week. It's our middle school musical. So, we're looking forward to that. It's um starts opening night's Thursday. Um Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. So, hopefully you can make it. Thank you. Anything else? All right. And board reports. Any communications? Uh, yes. I have one from Heather Ktos. And Heather is a high school math and business teacher. Dear Winnie County Community School District Board of Education and Administration. Thank
032you for the card and donation remembrance of my mom. I will be using it for the donation for the American Lung Association. I certainly appreciate your thoughtfulness, Heather Ktos. Thank you. and committee reports, human resources and finance. So, we did meet last Friday uh as we we discussed the whole dance team uh proposal. And then I also mentioned that we're just meeting periodically to keep a breast of the the state budget and what our budget's going to be looking like moving forward. And we are meeting again in early May. Okay. Marketing and public relations. Nothing at this time. Okay. And policy. Uh yes, we had met prior till tonight's meeting with a packet of uh policies that we will be bringing forth for the April 21st. And at this point, once those uh policies are
033approved that we reviewed tonight, we are up to speed about to where uh Niola is is brought up to us with the revisions andor any new policies. Okay. Thank you. And with that, I would entertain a motion to move into executive session. So moved. Second. Motion by Vic, second by Keller to move into executive session under state statute 19.85 to approve executive session minutes from March 17th, 2025 and Wisconsin statute 19.85 85 sub1 subc to discuss employee retention including confidential data related to employment matters performance and strategies for improving retention within the district and DPI correspondence. The board will move into open session and may take action on items discussed in close session. Roll call, please. Kundi I Stellner. Hi. Veric. Hi. Keller. Hi. Aman. Hi. Hansen.